al jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you, count as 0 ah united against a common foe, the u. s. and germany promised as swift and severe response to russian aggression. as the u. s. president clarifies his red line over ukraine. any, any assembled russia units new cross and cream? were that is an invalid. ah, hello barbara, sarah, you're watching al 0 life london also coming up aid finally reaches the sin army

swept pacific nation of toner. were one commodity is in very short supply in syria, internally displaced, people tried plunging temperatures with a warning that many will not survive. and that former pope bennett, the 16th in the sexual abuse spotlight claims that he failed to act against the abuse of priests. when he was the archbishop of ah, you as president joe biden says, any movement of russian troops into ukraine will be considered an invasion by then stop. diplomat has been in germany showing up support from european allies who have pledged the swift and severe response to any russian aggression new satellite images show. moscow is increasing its troops build up near the ukrainian border, and it's announced the raft of naval drills across the globe. but the kremlin

denies its preparing for an attack and is accused the west of staging, a cover for its own publications. dominic cane reports from berlin, ukrainian soldiers practice. 3rd drills near crimea almost 8 years ago. the peninsula was annexed by russia. now many here and across europe. fear another act of aggression. and the u. s. president says he thinks it will happen. on thursday in berlin. joe biden, secretary of state, spelt out what the west's reaction would be. we had been very clear throughout our, if any russian military forces move across the ukrainian border and commit new acts of aggression against ukraine on that will be met with a swift, severe united response from united states and our eyes and partners. and yet pictures like these from roster sho,

russia increasing not decreasing its military readiness. some media reports suggest horses like these and many others on now poised that several strategic locations around the borders with ukraine. in moscow, the view is very different. the chevy ma zappa lay eagle grange at the moment. the western and ukrainian media, as well as officials, had become even more active in replicating speculation about the imminent russian invasion of ukraine as they put it. we are convinced that the goal of this campaign is to create an information cover for staging landscape publications of their own, including those a military character which may have extremely tragic consequences for regional and global security. i am a product wiley, key of president volley, mia zalinski says his country's aim is to prevent war with its neighbour, horrible, marcia global edition. we do our best to find a diplomatic solution. we do our best for peace in ukraine. yeah. what should you do? only one thing don't do. hannah could keep your head cool. be self confident,

be confident in our army and our ukraine level, where least was, will ye seal? here in the german capital ministers are clear. they say they want the russians to deescalate the situation. even a tiny step backwards would be a welcome step, but that any active aggression would have dire economic consequences for russia. even if that would also cost germany dearly. dominant cane al jazeera berlin. the 1st shipments of international aid have arrived in tongue of 5 days after a devastating volcanic eruption and synonymy. the pacific island nation had been cut off from the rest of the world since saturday, but phone lines are being restored and the runway has been cleared of ash, allowing military plains from australia, new zealand to land with crucial supplies. when hey, reports now from oakland tongue was cut off from the rest of the world when the

disaster struck a submarine fiber optic cable was severed. and we'll take at least 4 weeks to repair. in the meantime, some satellite phone and internet connections have been set up, allowing more footage to emerge of the devastation caused by the volcano and su nami, for some family in new zealand. the slight improvement and communication has come as a relief, even though everything. part of houses be washed away the crops, but we're here in france, a well at the moment income. others anxiously wait for news while they prepared their own aid packages to send home. amid so much uncertainty, the pacific island community museum and is coming together to help the people of tongue and with ash on the ground and contaminating the water supply,

this has become a precious commodity and will soon be on its way to tongue out. the 1st government aid has finally arrived in oakland and new zealand. a force plane was loaded with supplies before departing for the international airport, just outside the capitol nuclear load up, where it stayed on the ground for just 90 minutes. you'll straightly and military also deployed following confirmation that the runway had been cleared of ash and was safe to land on the parties from the tollen government. what we're really working through primarily in the 1st is the provision of clean water. that's the key priority that the government has asked for the run around $80000.00 tons and new zealand, most of whom would have strong family ties to their homelands, but have probably never felt so far away. wayne, hey, al jazeera auckland's kiss for you more now on our top story, the ongoing tensions between ukraine and russia, will the u. s. president and joe biden was forced to clarify where he stood on the

issue. let's bring in our white house correspondent, kimberly how can and kimberly, this follows comments that he made on wednesday during that news conference about his 1st year in office. some of those comments didn't go down very well. what was that about the u. s. president doing a little bit of cleanup as well as his press secretary and his secretary of state. that's because the u. s. president on wednesday evening here at the white house of this press conference seem to suggest that not only was he expecting that there would be an invasion of ukraine by russian president vladimir putin. but that there would be perhaps a lesser response by the united states and its allies, if there was perhaps a lesser sort of incursion. will that seem to outrage not just the president of ukraine president lensky, who said,

there are no minor incursions there are. so are no lesser casualties, but it also seemed to cast doubt and even expose divisions among western nations and european allies about the response and also about the commitment of the united states. and as a result in the u. s. president was forced to from the a white house today is in fact sit down and from prepared remarks. very carefully choose his words and make very clear that there would be a strong and swift and severe response by the united states and its allies. should russia choose to invade ukraine? take a listen. i've been absolutely clear with president. he has no misunderstanding any, any assemble, rushing units, blue cross and cranium, where that is an invasion. but we met with severe and coordinated

economic response that i discussed in detail with our allies as well as laid out very clearly for president. but there is no doubt, let me know down at all that makes this choice russian a heavy price. now there is more work to be done. there has been a hastily arranged trip by the secretary of state and to the blank. and as he has been travelling throughout europe, he met 1st with president zalinski to shore up and show support for the ukrainian people that has already occurred. there was also the coordination that took place in berlin. now, all eyes on geneva, on friday, as the secretary of state meets with his counterpart circ, a lab rav the russian foreign minister. we know that there is an expectation on the

part of russia for some sort of response by the united states in those negotiations . they are looking for a response to a draft that was put forward by russia. they want to have some assurances that there will be no expansion eastward of nato. they do not want to seni membership, added by moldova, or even ukraine. the united states not expected to provide those assurances. instead, what we know is that antony blanket will deliver the message that the only way to resolve the security differences is through diplomacy. and should the russian decide to invade ukraine? there will be a strong and swift response and there will also be financial sanctions that will be punishing and the effects will be lasting. both in the near term and long term can really help with the latest on that from the white house. kimberly thank you. a huge explosion has destroyed at least 500 buildings in ghana with fears of many

casualties. pictures from the scene show the extent of the destruction. a local official says he saw at least 10 dead bodies. please say a truck carrying explosives to a gold mine. in the west of the country collided with a motorcycle. people are being advised to evacuate the area with nearby towns, opening up rescue centers in churches and the schools. the civil war in syria has dr. gone for more than 10 years with now only the northwestern italy bridge and not under government control. president basher alyssa is in his 4th 7 year term, his leader winning maze election with 95 percent of the vote on election. that western powers, the smiths. there's neither free nor fair. the syrian refugee crisis is still the world's worst. that's according to unicef, nearly 5700000 syrian refugees live in egypt, iraq, jordan, lebanon,

and turkey. and there are a further, as 6200000 people displaced within siri itself. many of them for the 2nd or 3rd time rights groups fear families could freeze the death in some syrian camps. as temperatures dropped to their lowest level in decades. heavy snow storms as i have also left many struggling to stay warm. i said, beg reports, these tents have collapsed under the weight of snow. people are scrambling to cleared before their homes here in san camp. also cavan will be the thing in the beginning. we were able to control the situation since we're used to living in the tents. but in the end, the tense couldn't handle the snow anymore. the snowfall increased and increased. got so much some tense, caved in, and it was a tragedy for the people living under them. the storm called hipaa began on tuesday night and had countries across the middle east. but its displaced syrians was

feeding the brent of it. so listen, giving us another live hands or we've been here for 2 and a half years and last night was the most difficult night. the tents fell down on us and we suffered a lot. we helped each other and we woke up to clear the tents from snow. 8 agencies have said families could freeze to death as temperatures i expected to truck to the lowest in 40 years. and wind speeds are predicted to reach 80 kilometers per hour. agencies are trying to clear the snow but families will struggle to stay warm. and here in the syrian countryside, they're trying to do what they can just to survive this late to storm. i said, beg, i'll jazeera serbia, has abandoned plans to build the controversial at lucille. the mine, the prime minister's announcement follows weeks of environmental protests mining company. rio pinto had planned to launch

a $2400000000.00 operation in serbia. but activists pushed back saying, lithium mining would damage rivers and farmland. still ahead here on al jazeera, india's war, sinning covert count record the high numbers as one in 3 test. positive plus i will see a newman by the magellan, straight on the very tip of south america, where a new climate observatory is being launched. and it will help to resolve mysteries, which is why these whales have been reaching more and more along the coast. ah. has been more normal winter snowfield out from switzerland to austria, but the head of the driving storm is rather more nasty. i should say. it's that low

sitting of the sudden baltic balsamic get to friday. the wind to be eating a little bit. the snow pushed through the baltic states into ballard was ukraine, and the wind behind eating. it's still cold and burns and about 2 degrees. and even down in border about 6, madrid badges 10. but look down to the central med, this is potentially stormy sky with thunder storms and snow falling, even in the heights of sudden italy grease and once more turkey this petition on friday on saturday, everything moves on a little bit more. the wind st. and a bit more time just come up just a little bit one or 2 places, but it really is proper midwinter, the sunday in the sky for most i think that's probably rather welcome true for most in north africa. and the codes come down through here as well. and jimmy does tempt his bit below the average the how much, how much is a seasonal wind is blowing strongly. so these indicates this indicates dust or the dust in the air. the same is true off shore. in western sahara martina and also pass virginia. as for rain, well is the southern half the come to the madagascar has been facing it and i think

we're faced rather a lot more this weekend with a deep low heading towards the capital. ah, a journey of personal discovery. my great grandfather, he was a slave of the li property al jazeera is james gannon explorers whose families legacy of slave ownership. you know, like my families, you know, status and wealth has benefited from their choice to in slave people. and america's debt to the black people today, some over. so stall, we even ask you to speak. drought does a surprise out there a correspondence, a moral debt. lou

ah, a reminder now of the top stories on al jazeera, the ukranian army has been holding military drills as fears rise that russia is planning to invade the country. you a secretary of state anthony, blinking us warned of a swift and severe response from america and its allies. if russia sends any military forces into ukraine. the 1st shipments of international aid have arrived in tongue of 5 days after a devastating volcanic eruption and salami ash has blanketed the country's islands and spoiled much of its drinking water. and a huge explosion has destroyed at least $500.00 buildings and gone thou, with fears of many casualties. a local official says he saw at least 10 dead bodies . corona virus, vaccines will soon be compulsory for anyone over 18 in austria,

february 1st finds will apply to those who refuse parliament, approved and moved on thursday. well, the government is also introducing a national lottery is further incentive to get vaccinated. and just the day after england announced the relaxation of its cobit 19 restrictions, france has outlined its time table for unwinding its measure as it expects to begin loosening rules from february 1st. but scientists say the current wave of infections will not his hospitals until mid march. india, meanwhile, has recorded its highest number of new current virus infections in 8 months. infection rates of fall and in urban areas, but several cities have also reintroduced restrictions. and in contrast, the schools in the state of my harass, was reopened next week. work is also under way to bring more vaccines online happening. midtown has more now from new delhi it's been a yes, the same. just thought it it's vaccination drive, despite the slow start,

more than one and a half $1000000000.00 have been administered in the country. no authorities are recommending full market authorization for the 2 vaccines available here. that is the engine meet astrazeneca called covey shield. and the home grown vaccine called co vaccine, was basically means, is that the to vaccines could become even more widely available across all hospitals and clinics across the country. now based comes as corporate 900 cases, feel old by the on the front very, and continue to rise across the country. and restrictions continue to be in place in the north eastern state of some cases have broken all previous vehicles to stay recorded. it's high, a single bike. since the pandemic began, the government that has now imposed a vaccine mandate for those wanting to enter public places. in southern india, in carola, every sub bus and testing for the virus is positive and demand for oxygen and hope

for the best has also gone up. on the other hand, in the city of mon, by cases have dropped significantly. so the government that is reopening school starting monday, at least $29.00 people have been killed and several others injured during a stampede at a religious gathering in liberia, 11 children and a pregnant woman are amongst the dead. the incident took place at a football field in the capitol monrovia, alarms gang is believed to have attacked worshippers during a long night. christian event triggering this time pete president, george wade has declared 3 days of national morning. a cyber attack on the red cross says compromised data on half the 1000000, what they refer to as highly vulnerable people. the international medical organization says the hack as exposed confidential information victims of war, people in detention and missing persons, as well as their families. the red cross says it is

a sophisticated attack and is pleading with whoever is responsible not to share the data. chiller has just launched a climate change, observe a tree that will gather an unprecedented amount of data from the most under monitored part of the southern hemisphere and make it available line for free. it is part of a new effort to speed up vital information for scientists. to predict and mitigate the effects of extreme climate change. while the climate change observatory is a network of sensors that stretch from these very, which is the north, most populated area of chile, along the length of the country to unions, lay searing, antarctica. a distance of about 8000 kilometers. it is part of a new effort to speed up vital information for scientists said to predict and mitigate the effects of climate change, who seen human reports now from point that innocent chillers sound the southern miguel honest region. this is the magellan street that separates the south american

continent from pierre, rather frugal. it's often referred to as the end of the world, but also as a gateway to antartica less than a 1000 kilometers south of here. we are on an expedition with chile science minister to inspect one of a $180.00 climate change stations. on the way we find the remains of a beached whale. this is just a fraction of what is covered by the southern hemispheres. longest climate change observatory just launched by chile, so we have sensors all the way from the public peninsula, all the way to the other. come a dessert and we'll use a single platform to provide access to the data in a open access format. until now data from the southern cone has been scarce. climate scientists say the new observatory will provide badly needed data to track changes in temperatures. radiation,

precipitation the direction and strength of winds and sea levels in real time. that includes antartica, which is a key modulator of the earth climate. when i'm sitting in my laboratory in my office, in windsor in australia, i can still be seeing what's happening in antarctica because there are all sorts of climates effects that happen when we not bear with dr. marcello lip is an expert in dinosaurs. fossils and climate change in antartica and patagonia were chillies. antarctic institute is based, i am actually touching is 74000000 year old fema of a dinosaur that lived here in patagonia and most likely in antartica. because at that time both land masses were one, it was one solid, semi tropical jurassic park. scientists believe that learning more about how and why dinosaurs like this, when died, could be vital to the survival of our own speak. it was just that the climate

change experts insist that we are at the stage where we must predict and prepare for what is coming. and you're saying the key words is mediator of a patient, but we still have time to produce a behavior more treatable with this new vision that we have to update them. mitigate the changes in there in the, in the next 2 years, we're screw chilly. we'll launch an international antarctic center later this year and put that in us. dr. leopard says that it's a proximity to antartica, makes it an ideal location for global scientist to put their heads and data together to anticipate everything from floods in china, to heat waves and northern europe to drought in australia or chile. fortunately, unlike the dinosaurs mankind has the ability to access data and use science to help mitigate what is coming. well, lucy, a new and joins us live now from the spread of magellan. the in,

at sheila is far south associate. why is this part of the world so important when it comes to climate change monitoring? hi there, let me, let me put it to this way. we are only at a stone's throw away from antartica, from where i'm standing. that is, of course, in relative terms, that's a 1000 kilometers to the south. directly behind me is the out of a vehicle which in itself is as a laboratory of the nature that can be studied to determine just how quickly or not our climate is changing. and how much global warming is impacting our bio diversity . but antartica is extremely important because for example, i mentioned being able to monitor or predict floods, droughts, and heat waves that is determined by the dis, c currents that emetic come from antartica. even though it seems to be so far away

from, from new york or from china, it is key to seeing what is going to happen here in order to predict what will happen in other parts of the world. as well as that where i'm standing is very, very near the south pole, which means that this is the ideal place to measure the ozone layer, which is extremely thin, close to the poles. this is in fact one of the places where the 1st ozone hole was found. so all of these and more reasons make this house, the southern cone of south america vital. and until now we've had very, very little information. i've spoken to, to many scientists who say that there was much less data that they have had access to from here than they've had from example, from the northern hemisphere. that now hopefully will change hope. so to lucy, a newman that with the latest there from the state of magellan, amazing backdrop. it has to be said, lucio. thank you. now a german inquest has found that former pope benedict,

the 16th knew about several abusive priests when he was the archbishop of munich. but he failed to act. but i think the 16th who was known at the time as cardinal joseph roxanne, or has repeatedly denied claims that he covered up abuse within his archdiocese. letting baba reports former pope benedict, the 16th, failed to take action against clerics in 4 cases of alleged sexual abuse in his native germany. that's the conclusion of a report by a munich law firm, the archdiocese of munich and prizing, asked it to investigate allegations of sexual abuse between 194520. 19 pope ameritas benedict formerly joseph rat, singer archbishop of munich has previously denied wrong doing over the cases and marked him reasonably confirmed with a fall. essentially, he claims a lack of knowledge of the facts and a lack of relevance on the canon law. in doing so, he continues to claim ignorance, even when in our opinion, it is difficult to reconcile this with the facts of the case. the report says there

were at least $497.00 victims of abuse, mainly young males. it accuses cardinal line hot marks. the current archbishop of munich of misconduct in 2 suspected abuse cases. last year, pope frances rejected an offer by him to resign. but the new claims have brought fresh pain for survivors of abuse in southern germany at early so little it isn't to help him up to not clearly it affects me very much on an emotional level. and it's the same area where the abuse also happened in my childhood, about 2 hours by train, from munich, and a small town. and of course that revived some things from me. from that time. that's i. the archdiocese is set to give a full response to the report next week while the vatican's put out a statement that doesn't mention. polk benedict saying it will evaluate the full report. benedict whose 94 has lived a secluded life in the vatican since stepping down as leader of the world's roman catholics in 2013 the 1st person to do so. in 600 years. the catholic church has

been damaged by a series of abuse scandals in countries including australia, chile, france, island, in the united states. in germany, a study commissioned by the german bishops conference in 2018 concluded more than 1600 clergymen had committed some form of sexual abuse against nearly 4000 minus. the real number of victims is thought to be much higher. nadine baba al jazeera now this sky is no longer the limit for a teenager who has just become the youngest woman to fly around the world. sold up 19 year old zara. rather, ford touched down in belgium after an aerial journey of 50000 kilometer is lasting 5 months. she's 11 years younger than the previous record holder. rather fed who has joined british and belgian nationality. now is to get her feet back on the ground because she starts university this year. it's is really crazy. i haven't quite processed. i think,

i think coming here is basically playing with us. and even this doesn't easy. what an impressive young woman you can find that more on that story and everything else that we have been covering on our website. there it is. and the address, of course, al jazeera dot com. ah, a reminder now of the top stories on al jazeera, you a secretary of state anthony, blinking has warned of a swift and severe response from america and its allies. if russia sends any military forces and to ukraine, the ukrainian army has been holding military drills while around the hunt.