ah, ah ah, ah, ah, this is al jazeera ah, hello, the whole roman you watching the out. is there a news our live from our headquarters here in doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes. the u. s. president is talking to ukraine's leader this out about the build up of russian military at the border. also get jobs all pay the price, austria plans to impose large fines on people who ignore its cobit $19.00 vaccine mandate. the call for more urgency as well power resume talks with the wrong to

salvage the nuclear deal. plus we have more on how cats are, is partnering with countries across africa to provide education, to thousands of children left out of school. and i'm devin. us with sports, australia continues to dominate england in the 1st test, and foreman officials of warned against unsportsmanlike, driving on sundays championship decide between macklin and louis hamilton. ah, welcome to the news. well, joe biden is currently talking to ukraine's president vladimir zalinski about the build up of russian troops of the border. on tuesday, the u. s. president held virtual summits with russia's vladimir putin. he said that he has no plans to invade ukraine, but the u. s. as moscow has the mass, tens of thousands of troops in the area. pardon has threatened written with severe

economic sanctions. if an attack happens now, whitehouse corresponding anyhow kit is standing by for washington dc. the 1st, let's talk to charles strap it, who's in cash on in southern ukraine. and of course, we are expecting that conversation to be happening right now. what would ukraine's president like to hear? do you think, charles i think it's fair to say that the lord mayor's uminski is going to want a hair more pledges of support. he's going to want to see the one of a better expression, more meat on the bone. we can imagine he's going to want a hair bite and telling him about a continuation of what the us called a supply of defensive capabilities. we understand at the us this year is as given around $450000000.00 worth of security assistance to ukraine. and the finals tranche of a package of around $60000000.00 worth of light arms and ammunition is expected in

the next few days. we're also probably expecting him to tell zalinski more details about these kind of sanctions or straight of economic sanctions that the u. s. a nato ally said i put together to try and it's her russia from any kind of further escalation. but alice, you talked to also mention things that biden may be forced to tell zalinski the things that he may not want to hear. a means of trying to possibly get some sort of concessions out of zalinski because of the situation on the ground as you say, those tens of thousands of troops that are reportedly amassed on the russian side of the border. and those things could include, for example, asking zalinski to finally start speaking to the separatist. something that the ukranian government as so far was refused to do because in their mind it would give legitimacy to what they describe as a terrorist organization. i'm also possibly biden trying to fulfill in ski to

were to implement ukraine side of the minks to agreement. now both the russians and the ukrainians repeatedly accusing each other of not implementing that agreement. and other analysts will say that biden may well tell zalinski to pull back if you like, being and as a as bellicose as he has been in demanding, eventual and now. so membership, possibly biden, having a false false, forced to tell him that that may not be realistic in the near future if, as i say. and we're going to try and avoid any kind of further escalation from what nato and ukraine says, russian intimidation, and, and threats. of course, the here and now charles, it is all about the security or where you are. you've been reporting in that area for the past few weeks. just give us an update on what it's like for you for what you've seen and for the public at large in that area

will up and down the more than 400 kilometer a front line or it's known as the contact zone. there are daily violations of the ceasefire, according to the o. s. c, the organization for security and cooperation in europe. just to give you an example, december the 7th. 2 days ago they reported around about $200.00 cease farb isolation, cease fire violations in that day. around 60 explosions, as i say, both sides accusing each other of exchanges of fall starting exchanges of far. the situation when you pull back from that front line in and around the areas where civilians live is, is relatively calm. and certainly, we have seen no obvious sign of any kind of major ukrainian military build out nice despite the kind of figures that the russians have put out in recent days, saying that they believe

a 125000 troops anal ukrainian troops are now amassing on this side of the contact zone. and one thing we also can imagine zalinski is going to want to hear from biden is a continuation of promises that nato countries will come to ukraine and train ukrainian forces. however, there is one ukrainian unit, a regiment that has been very successful in recent years, and certainly in 2014, during the worst fighting in keeping the pro russian separatists at bay and nato all refusing to train this unit. we visited their training camp and this is what we found that these soldiers are members of what used to be a pro ukrainian government. a paramilitary group called the as of battalion. critics said, as of was a neo nazi group unit, started in 2014 as

a volunteer organization and quickly developed a fierce reputation for fighting pro russia separatists. defending the port city of mary awful. in december that year as off was incorporated into the ukrainian national guard. it now has over a 1000 soldiers. you recruit must pass a 5 week basic training course that instructors say is so grueling. only around half get through walkers offered fairly though crimes. i am proud to be a member, we are an elite regiment. we have proven ourselves as number one and all the armed services. we are very motivated, even the enemy knows who we are and is afraid of us. the government supplies weapons, ammunition tanks and armored personnel. carriers like this one would around 80 percent of the men's kit and material for this training camp is bought with donated

money. it's been 7 years since the as of brigade were incorporated into ukraine's national guard under the ministry of interior, but commanded here say that the unit is still struggling to shade a reputation of having far right or even fascist leanings. these allegations, the commanders staunchly deny, but they acknowledge that it's the main reason why nato forces refused to train them alongside the ukrainian army critic say the underlying philosophy of the regiment has not changed. they say it's part of a far right movement led by this man, andre b litski, who was its 1st commander and who now leads the national cor fall right political party accused of having links to white supremacist groups. i think it's completely absurd to claim that there is no relationship between the regiment and the broader

as our movements. ukraine's primary western allies are all the western allies are very especially now attuned to the issue of members. alright, extremists, in, in the military and any military. and they are very much not keen to be too associated with the, as a badge resembles the wolf's angle, which is worn by nazi infantry divisions in world war 2. there's been pressure in the us congress to declare as of a terrorist organization. but the regiments leader says it has distance itself from politics and serves the crane in government and people. more couple of the honda you, me, russia propaganda try to discredit us because it knows we combat cable and willing to fight to the end. russia tries to portray us to our western partners is incompetent right wing radicals. we've had visit several times from representatives of nato countries. we want to share our battle experience with them. we could learn

from each other slowly. oh, but nato says it will not strain these men until the regiment proves it has no links to neo nazis. and that is proving hard to do for all stafford al, jazeera, ors of young, eastern ukraine, a white house corresponding kimberly how it is also standing by for us in washington d. c. when we have these meetings, kimberly we love that phrase that we, we'd love to be a fly on the wall in that room right now. do you have any indication of the murmurings coming out from that direction? well, what we know is that the phone call, the u. s. president will have with the president of ukraine. zelinski is only one of a number of conversations he's having over the issue of ukraine that is taking place on thursday. he is also going to be speaking with the leaders from countries known as the bucharest 9. that is the countries that make up the eastern flag of the nato

alliance. and what the message is that is going to be delivered by joe biden, is that the united states is committed to transatlantic security. now, having said that, what the united states will also be conveying is that the united states is prepared to support militarily the efforts to defend itself with respect to ukraine and to that region. but what the u. s. president was also very clear about is that the united states has no intention or the words of the president is not at the table to send us military support in the form of soldiers. he said that that is not an option. the united states is considering. we also know that the national security advisor james sullivan, earlier in the week, really reiterated what the president is going to send in terms of a message to president zalinski. but also that he talked to the russian liter, vladimir putin about let is that in terms of resolving these differences, the united states is committed to working and seeing this go through the minsk up

process. they want to see progress towards a ceasefire. and also they want to see really a trend towards confidence building measures that the united states is calling it, in order to try and bring about some sort of resolution. other words with the united states wants to see is really diplomacy. not any sort of escalation that would lead to any type of military action. the president himself had a very busy day. he's been paying his respects, obviously to the late bob dole of the capital. but also he's been holding this virtual summit with world leaders all about democracy was thought about well, this is a campaign promise by the u. s. president that he's made good on. and that is that he believes that given his long years of public service as both a senator and later as vice president our president, he has an intimate understanding of how he believes democracy should work. and what's right, he believes about american democracy that he can share with the world. so the u. s

. president is a, you spoke as he opened up his remarks in the summit with a number of dozens of countries around the world and their leaders at what he's essentially saying is that, look at, you might not always agree with your opponent politically. but when those opponents can sit down and work out consensus, this is really the underpinning of democracy. and this is the recipe for success. but many people are questioning the moral authority of the united states even make those claims, given their deep divisions politically in the united states right now. and that there has been for some time and also some of the divisions when it comes to socio economic racial status. and even in the widening wealth gap, but still the u. s. president believes there's an urgency that there's an authoritarian tendency that is occurring around the globe. and as a result, he brought these leaders together in the hope that even if the u. s. fell of democracy isn't perfect. he believes that the united states can still lead by

example, to encourage other nations to embrace the democratic principles that the united states hold. so dear for the moment. thanks so much for the up that. kimberly, how can our white house correspondent? well, china has accused the u. s. of political manipulation for going ahead with the democracy some it's even going as far as calling it a joke. katrina, you passmore beijing has been saying according to beijing, this summit is about promoting us self interest and making sure that the u. s. stays on top of the world stage. now china has many reasons to be angry. one of the foremost is that it was not one of the more than 100 countries or regions invited to attend this summit. and they took issue with that. and they were further infuriated by the invitation, extended to taiwan, which china considers a rogue chinese break away province. another participant, they are not happy with is the speaker nathan law. and now he was a former hong kong legislator, a well known activist,

and he fled hong kong before the position of the national security law. last year now he's been invited to speak about his experiences. he will talk on human rights and standing up to authoritarianism on friday. now in recent days, over the past week they doing and it's propaganda. state media has been on or of a dr. talking about all the flaws of us style democracy and saying that china has its own style of democracy, which is more representative of the interest of the people. but of course us many other per democratic groups and countries would take issue without saying that china routinely denies it. citizens, human rights or basic rights, there is no individual voting and trying to has been routinely criticize or it's a treatment of for example, muslim wiggers as well as people working in the media with more or less. let's talk . tasha lynch don't. she's a us full policy specialist at the university of essex, joseph cultures to in the you could help you with this on the program. is the us

really in a position to tell other countries what democracy is all about when its own house really hasn't been in order for the past few years? well, that's one of the biggest criticisms of the summit is whether or not the us can really read on democracy. you know, it's true that there's been an absence of leadership promoting democracy and being a model for democracy for some time now. and when there's an absence of the great power promoting democracy, you going to see a democratic slow. and so we have a more authoritarian regimes in the world than democracy today. and i think biden as was already mentioned in the report, wants to come in and change that and be again be basically distinct from the company ministration that without really supporting autocratic regimes and admiring autocrats. but there's just been so many issues with the u. s . democracy and the democratic indices have been continuously labeling us.

democracy is very flawed. there's all kinds of issues with an uneven application of the rule of law and human rights violations. and so it might be better that by focus domestically on improving democracy in particular because there are huge infringement on voting rights and daughter suppression issues then on the big global summit. but as it was a campaign promise, he feels like he has to at least take this 1st step in saying america is back in promoting democracy global. indeed, you talk about the controversy of him actually holding this virtual summit itself, but the us to support some countries with questionable human rights. you touched upon it just a few moments ago. i mean, big questions about saudi arabia in recent years, but also israel to the treatment of the palestinians. some people have been invited to this conference. others haven't i think that's been one of the biggest issues as

well as the guess this is just, that just doesn't make sense. in some cases you have philippines, which has been attacking a journal, is incredibly inhospitable environment for journalists. and they're invited, but you don't have singapore which has its own issues as well. but we can at least say that it has very low levels of corruption. so there isn't really a rhyme or reason to who is invited in who is not. and i think actually when we're talking about democracy promotion, because this isn't some meeting where countries are gearing up to try to figure out how to deal with russia or how to deal with china. and therefore those countries will be excluded. this is a meeting that's supposed to be about consultation, about sharing good practices, about sharing ideas and about learning. and therefore it would be better really, to have it to hadn't been much more inclusive. and not this random guess list. and then that makes it more difficult for the u. s. who as you already mentioned,

has had a long history of support and dictatorships, not just in the last decade or so. but it really for many, many decades. that's been one of the issues that, that hypocritical nature of supporting summary teams that are aligned to the u. s. well, then a naming and shaming other regimes that are not alight. so one of the biggest problems pumps right now is the, the terminology of what democracy is. because regardless of where you are in the world, it has been on the strain during the cove, it pandemic. and we've seen democratic or democracies under authoritarian regimes and governments all making in the pastry, a unilateral decisions without debate, negotiation or folks in parliament about what the populace has to do for the better . and that's raised real red flags about what democracy is and how far you can go before you become an authoritarian regime. right. and ultimately,

when we try to make the distinction between a democratic regime and an autocratic regime, usually about turnover and power of the executive. and hopefully that there are also civil liberties and other types of freedom, but every country seems to want to appear democratically every country in the world save for very few exceptions, does hold election. so they must believe that holding election offers them from sort of legitimacy. and you have countries like china report already mentioned, declaring that they are a democracy. so this is almost become this catch all label to provide countries with some sort of legitimacy. when definitions of what democracy is, what legitimacy is very so much bye by country that we might want to look at other things like human human rights protection and even application of the rule of law ensuring their level of corruption, ensuring there's adequate levels of participation. so there are other things that i

think we can focus on rather than this label. this catch all label that then becomes very divisive. whether your democracy or your not. and everybody's trying to claim that they're part of this class. see what the final outcome is, all this stuff for the diamond latasha linda starts, thanks for joining us and culture, the in the u. k. thanks for having me. the flexible head. all the news are including we speak with the families of children killed by the focus on the taliban, who don't want the government to bring the group to negotiating table. ah, the 900 variances casting a shadow over the coming holiday period with countries across the world stuffing up measures to contain it spread south africa has approve the use of the pfizer vaccine booster shot. it has just reported more than 22000 infections in the past 24 hours. while in the u. k. health secretary that has warned that it could see

a 1000000 become infections by the end of this month alone. cases of the new variant have been doubling every 2 to 3 days. and austria has outlined its plan to make cro virus vaccines. compulsory officials previously hinted at the maximum fine of about $4000.00 for those who refused the job. dominic canes, in berlin. he has more on austria's latest measures. there is no question that the austrian government felt when it's an answer. some weeks ago that a mandatory vaccine requirement was coming and that a lockdown was necessary. there was no doubt that the wave of covey that was washing across the country was so bad. they felt they have no option. well, today they have presented their proposals, and it says that everyone over the age of 14, in austria, who has not been vaccinated by a point in february, will suddenly find themselves potentially liable for a fine of more than $4000.00. everyone under the age of 14 will not need to to

suffer that penalty. the point is the numbers here, something around about 70 percent of the austrian population has already been vaccinated. at least has had 2 doses of the vaccines that require 2 doses, or one if it's the johnson and johnson vaccine that still is around 30 percent of a 14 year olds. and under make up around 14 percent of society to cut to the chase . what it means is, around 1200000 adults have had the opportunity always, you're almost always here to have the vaccine and have chosen not to for whatever reason. well, come february, that 1200000 people. if they haven't been vaccinated, we'll start having to pay for it. and it could be up to $4000.00. now for me to mila. he's selling the situation from south africa. it has been sort of up and down in the last few days. and when we've spoken to experts have said that, you know, shortly after weekends we may have a lag just because of data. we had 6000 new cases on monday,

but that shot up 290-0000. in the last 24 hours and 56 people died from covert 19. the numbers are concerning because they is a $26.00 bit st positivity rate. and that means that for the people who are going to get tested for covert 19, about one in 4, receiving a positive result. but the government is also saying that hospital facilities are well prepared. and in terms of, i see you that intensive care, that just 6 percent of beds occupied at this moment about 3 and a half 1000 general bits occupied by people over 19 when they're 113000 available. and they also saying that doctor will at least initial data is showing that potentially, while this particular variant does spread easily and they're worried about that it may possibly be milder than expected. but this is very early stages of the 4th wave in south africa. and also looking broadly at the region and what is happening with

the variance around the world. there are about a 1000 paces that have been linked directly to all because added to peers at 46 percent of those cases are from africa, specifically in southern africa with 5 countries, including south africa, us are leading to a spike in numbers. well, persons died broke out to the headquarters of tennessee as large as political party, at least a dozen more have been injured. people trying to escape and be, and other parties building through windows. now it's unclear what caused the place . the group holds the most seats in parliament. it's been locked in a dispute with trinity as president of july when he suspended the legislature and assumed nearly all executive powers around stop negotiator says to ron, is serious about reaching a nuclear agreement with world powers. and the chair of the negotiations resumed in vienna says that all sides have shown

a renewed sense of purpose to reviving the 2015 deal that limited iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. us and european participants and talks last week accuse the radians of not being serious about solving the deal. what guys both this morning was for the whole delegation of only the rainy and one call litigation is very new sense of purpose on the need to water can to reach an agreement from being in the just to be back to life. this is, this is my, my information from, from this morning. it's difficult, it's a very difficult and devil is that are still different positions that we have to marie. this is the gist of the negotiation. and we will see how we can, how we can present. that's how we kind of funds dosage. jabari has more from vienna . they sent him and several shared by the reigning deputy foreign minister ali baba re, connie who was leading the arabian delegation was the same as that of the

e. u. a foreign policy chief that we just heard from. connie said that her, the rainy's are very serious and they're here for results. and that is exactly what they hoped to achieve in the coming days. the joint commission met earlier on thursday and then they ran off to smaller working groups to discuss the details of what iran has proposed to the world powers. the rainy's put forth 2 proposals last week where they said one deals with how the united states will lift those sanctions that they impose, since they left a nuclear deal in 2018. and the 2nd proposal deals with the arena nuclear program and how iran will go back into compliance. see when you have said that will only happen when he can verify that all the sanctions that the u. s. as opposed or lifted in terms of what the international atomic energy agency has to do with all this. they are the watchdog that polices the j. c. p. away the nuclear deal of 2015 . and the head of that organization has said that there has been serious issues with iran's compliance over the past few months. and that they are very concerned

that they no longer have the access that they want to have when it comes to policing iran's nuclear program. for now, the groups here that are discussing how to move forward, and hopefully they can come to some kind of an agreement in the next few days and on how to move forward with these negotiations. israel's defense minister benny gunn says in washington, d. c. to meet his counterpart, lloyd austin, now they are expected to discuss the ongoing wrong nuclear talks in vienna, as well as other regional issues. israel has been against the revival of the 2015 nuclear agreement with the wrong tel aviv accuses to role of trying to develop weapons well still had here on the nissan, we speak to an analyst about the potential political ramifications of the ball to stumble between russia and ukraine, and we look at how children across east africa bearing the brunt of climate change to stay with us. because it's school to support century robust radius of his head helps the home side. take the commanding lead over england. those stories to the

brain. ah, some fog and miss to start the day around the golf. hello, everyone. good to see you. so that's gonna be the situation in q 8 and also doha on friday. and then for saudi arabia we're going to see more clouds float in. so for example, ria, we look at the next 3 days, i think it's going to be fairly overcast on friday. it temperature pretty well where it should be during the day, but look at night time, you should be 11 degrees. we got your pencil then for about 6 to 7 earth will chill in the air there. same goes for pakistan that cooler air filtering in toward the hor, $22.00 degrees and i've gone, it's don cobble coming in at 11 off to turkey. we've got some storms happen over the aegean into western turkey pretty much stretching from its stumble right into

on talia. and it was just a few days ago. got some soaking rains in antalya. so more to come all about the heat for central africa, ju, but $39.00 bungie $36.00. but if you go bit further towards his south, i've got to point this out. lusaka 36 degrees. that's a new record. and you're going to lock your temperature in there for the next few days. the record is $34.00 and you should be at $28.00 degrees. and we do have a lot of active whether you've got to talk about, especially for eastern portions of south africa. so sundry downpours in the cards for the next few days, that sure weather update soon. ah, the, from the al jazeera london, gro casenita to people in thoughtful conversation with no haste and no limitation.