traces the economy disparities and institutional racism that is seen united kingdom fail it. citizens, britons, true colors, part one on al jazeera. ah . ready conflicts is not in there with the pentagon says there's still room for diplomacy despite the russian troop build up on ukraine's border. ah, hello on darn jordan. this is al jazeera ally from dough are also coming up. west africa is main. regional block suspends the membership of the king of fossils after this week's military coup, but stopped short of imposing sanctions. after a year of talks, argentina and the international monetary fund reach

a landmark deal on restructuring around $44000000000.00, a debt and a bridge collapses in pittsburgh hours before a visit by the u. s. president to highlight his efforts to strengthen infrastructure. ah, yes, president joe biden says he'll be moving a small number of troops to eastern europe and other nato countries. and what he's calling the near term, the pentagon, as based around 8 and a half 1000 military personnel on standby for possible deployment. after russia place more than a 100000 troops on this border with ukraine, the u. s. military is talked to officials say a full scale invasion of ukraine would be her reflect, that there's still time to avoid war through diplomacy. conflict is not inevitable . there is still time and space for diplomacy. given the type of forces that are

arrayed, the ground maneuver forces, the artillery, the ballistic missiles, the air forces, all of it packaged together. if that was unleashed on ukraine, it would be significant, very significant. and it would result in a significant amount of casualties. and you can imagine what that might look like in dense urban areas, along roads and so on and so forth. it would be horrified, it would be terrible. and it's not necessary. and we think a diplomatic outcome is the way to go here, or practical haine joins live now from washington dc parties. our president biden says he'll be deploying a small number of us troops to eastern europe and nato countries. and what he's called a near term. what more do we know? well, not unexpected. it seems that the vital ministration every day is taking another slight step just to sort of show how serious they think this is. we believe this is probably coming with the traveling press. president joe biden traveled to

pennsylvania today, and so we're starting to see alerts from the truck. the reporters, who we believe are traveling with him. that he had said that in the near term, he will be moving those troops. now we don't know if it's going to be that 8500 that you mentioned that have been put on basically fast, ready alert. that means pack your safe, be ready to go at a moment's notice. those unit units mostly in europe, have been notified. so what they would do is they would send them to eastern europe to nato countries. the president said pretty clearly that he has no intention of sending us troops into ukraine. we do know that there are about 200 members of the florida national guard that go in and have for years rotating in and out, trying to train up your ukranian forces. but of course, the pentagon would have a plan to get them out, and also embassy officials, if it does, in fact come to an invasion. one of the interesting things has been in the last couple of weeks when you hear from pentagon officials and they're looking at the satellite evidence on the ground. the general consensus was that the russians

didn't have enough troops to actually take over the entire country of ukraine. they said maybe they could take over sections of it, but not necessarily all of it, but we heard very clearly from not only the secretary of defense, but the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff as you just heard, that they believe now with the artillery, with the air power with the soldiers, the troops that you've transported to have on the border, and several different borders of ukraine, that they do have enough forces. now that they could take the country. now, american officials will tell you, the ukrainian military is much better than it was when russia to crimea, but not at anything like a match for the russian military and its hardware. so again, you're seeing the bite administration now really trying to put the focus unifying allies in europe, in nato, around the world. they're going, they've called for you and security council meeting on monday. because the president seems to be sending the message that he doesn't think

u. s. military needs to be involved. that is going to be something that would change prudence calculus. but the threat of a severe economic hit to his economy, their banking, that, that might in fact be enough. alright, to about to go, hey, live president of washington, d. c. thank you. well, the current president has warned against panic over a possible russian invasion. lot of me, as the lensky says, anxiety and the west is weighing heavily on the ukraine economy and sees no major change on the ground compared to last year was just not the waste. and as we're grateful to the united states for their ongoing support for our sovereignty, but i am the president of ukraine and i'm based here and i think i know the details more than any other. we do understand what the risks are. it's important that the president should know the situation from me, not the intermediaries. we do not see a bigger escalation. yes, the truth numbers have gone up, but i was talking about the same thing in 2021. when there were drills in the russian federation, there was a big build up. we were supported by the us,

europeans called on russia to pull back. i don't think the situation is more intense than that time and early 2021. there was no such coverage of ukraine at that time. or cha, stratford has moved from dynette can eastern ukraine, ukraine's president vladimir zalinski has been speaking to the media, both international and local journalists in kia. it seems very much that the ukrainian prisoner is trying to stamp his all 30 on this crisis mentioning that sir, ukraine would not accept any kind of agreement made solely between the us and russia. he blamed the media for blowing up the situation for inflaming the situation. seemingly he said that the crisis was no worse than what had happened in 2014 and obviously a time where he was not president. but bear in mind that that was a time when ukraine lost crimea to russian control,

indeed lost control of these areas in don barza in eastern ukraine. and it seems as if certainly, as i say, the ukranian president, very much try to stamp his authority on this crisis. and bear in mind that vladimir zalinski at the moment is suffering some of the worst popularity ratings since he became president more than 2 years ago. he is a man that promised in his election campaign to return control of crimea, and this area of don bass to the ukraine, something that he has thus far failed to do. but despite international affairs, russia's foreign minister says his country does not want war said a labranz expected to meet his u. s counterpart anthony blinking again in the coming weeks yesterday with alicia with risky, there won't be a war as far as it depends on the russian federation. we don't want to war, but we won't let our interest be rudely traveled on and ignored. she thought you were a girl, is that she knew was slid, knew the us has rejected all the russian security proposals for the last 2 or 3

years. now they're putting the same things on the table. in other words, they're borrowing from recent russian initiatives. this is something at least so let's bring in david derossi's, professor at the near east south asia center for strategic studies. he joins us live now from washington, dc. david. so at us defense secretary lloyd austin says look, there still room for diplomacy to prevent a russian invasion, but the threat of war is still there. so do you think diplomacy is working well, you know, it works until it doesn't. so i suppose, you know, every day that we don't have, you know, russians moving across the border is, it is a day that diplomacy has worked. this has been going on about 3 weeks. the russians have been massing troops there since november. and you know, it looks as though they have a window until about march. when you start to get mud, you know that they could take action across abroad land frontier. so, you know,

can't prove it, but i'd say it's, it's work and more than it isn't. yeah. david, as you say, with putin amassing thousands of troops and military hardware along the border. though, do you think the west is finally taking putin security concerns seriously regarding nato's east wood expansion? well, good question, but it's kind of the wrong question. i mean, the issue is not nato's eastward expansion. ukraine was nowhere near ready for nato membership and ukraine's been billed us about joined us. what this is really about is students fear of a color revolution like you had in ukraine. you know, he had of a friendly play pro russia guy there who was overthrown by people who are fed up with the corruption and the efficiency and all that. it's going to be a rough winter in, in russia. the economy is tanking. inflation is 18 percent 40 percent of russians don't have any savings. but one thing russians can do is when they go to a war footing, they can suffer for the sake of the country. so it looks like what he's trying to

do is basically call for a reem position of the former soviet union security sphere of influence, distract his own population, solidify his rule and live to fight another winter. and then what about ukraine itself? i mean, this is a boxing match above the head of ukraine's president who called on the west not to create panic. but kid doesn't really have any influence in this crisis. does it though they do have influence? i mean, i know people are still talking about the historic parallels of the media conference in 1938. and you know, the united states is allies in nato. and they, natal, takes decision by consensus. and if the ukraine is sold down the river, without their interests, so, you know, taking part then countries like lithuania, latvia, sonia, who were also former members of the soviet union. and who, who have significant russian ethnic groups and who putin, you know, has messed with in the past. they will hold up everything in nato. so, you know,

these reinforcements you're hearing. that's to strike out in countries like that, are worried about that. and just the final quick thoughts you, how much do you think this conflict has revitalized and unified nato? because for the 1st time in a long time, the alliance now appears ready to demonstrate his resolve against the russians and its traditional european theater of operations. gosh, yeah, you nailed it. i mean, look, if, if puts concerned about nato, the best thing he could have done was just to be quiet. you take the 3 baltic republics. there was no nato presence there except for an air policing mission that, quite frankly, was there because russian planes kept over flying their air space on their way to the collision grad colony. now, there's a battle groups moving there to resist this. he's basically creating the condition here, a sweden and finland are talking about protocols to join nato. if it's act, you know, he is creating what he wants or if he had just focused on economic development and

things like that. chances are pretty good that nato would just slide back into, you know, what donald trump often claimed it was just a talking shop where allies don't take their security commitment, sir, like david doris, always been to talk to you. thank you very much. indeed, i've been honor. thanks now. the west african block eco ass has suspended bettina fast as membership falling a cou on monday, but it stopped short of imposing new sanctions. nicholas hawk reports from wanting to go. abdur rahman, not his real name, is getting ready to fight burkina faso is icily affiliate in the countries north. he's not a soldier, but a civilian is returned to the capital to gather weapons and equipment for the hundreds of volunteer fighters. he commands, he says muslims in the north are being butchered, burkina, faso, security forces are too scared to deal with a threat, leaving it to volunteers, to fight and die on the front line. we are very frustrated with, but can this uneasily the armed groups are better equipped than us to even attack

us with rockets. but the amine never comes up to help us me while the military is busy by dicking of a capital instead of protecting us along the bodice lamp gentle leader. but all he da amoeba is expanding on a strategy devised by the president. he toppled on monday and that's equipping civilians to fight arm groups after 2 weeks of training provided by the army, villagers are supplied with basic weapons and ammunitions. that's because al qaeda in isola affiliate groups have shifted their focus from attacks on security forces to villagers. and that's forcing millions to flee their homes, leaving large swath of land in the hands of armed groups on the outskirts of the capital neighborhoods. already crushed by poverty or taking those displaced by the fighting. children have no access to schools or medical facilities. they receive no help from the government or aid agencies. both those this placed and there was hosting them share this only well, but to access this water,

they have to pay almost a dollar for a couple of these jerrick ins. there's a sense for many here that the state has abandoned them and hope that perhaps their circumstances will change with this new leadership in charge of the country. oh, in his 1st address to the nation, gentle leader beat the drum of war, appearing more like a commander in chief than head of state promising security and a break from the past. he is also called on the support of the international community. but during an emergency meeting of the west african body equis heads of state suspended, burkina faso as a member state, the region is marked by military takeovers and facing growing insecurity. this a hell for say to my guy, member of parliament, for the countries to hell. region piece will come out with more weapons of but through dialogue. we know those that are taking us often. it's her sons or family members. there are local people influenced by outsiders. we have to engage into

dialogue and alleviating poverty. is a key factor here. for abdur rahman, the people of this i how have been forgotten left to fight the shout over war. they cannot win alone. nicholas hall, gallenger's iraq. walker do not want to come here and al jazeera, including south africa braces some more extreme weather off of tropical storm. anna leaves dozens dead and y references to lockdown gatherings in downing street could be withheld from a report on the so called pa to gates. got more in that statement. ah hello there, let's have a look at the weather in north america. and the weather story this weekend is certainly about that north easter that is developing across the eastern coast of the u. s. is expected to move rather quickly up north,

towards eastern areas of canada. by the time we get into sunday. now ahead of that, we've had a cold front that's blown through the se, states knocking temperatures down. but by the time we get to sunday, that wound will be coming back into places like atlanta. but it does remain bitterly cold for the north west. we've got a winter storm that's moved into western parts of canada, ringing snow and rain to british columbia, edging down into northern areas of washington state. but as i said, the significant winter weather is going to be affecting the east coast of the us. we got heavy snow on course for new york as well as the boston we could see up to 30 centimeters the snow possibly more as well as the really damaging winds we are expecting disruption here. we can also see some coastal flooding as that system works. its way further north bringing heavy snow to main and parts of new england. and by the time we get in to sunday, it will be eastern areas of canada that sees those conditions. so some very wet and wintry weather to come. that sure weather update.

ah. in a series of original documentaries or 0 correspondence, explore the stories which have marked their lives and careers. gabriella is on the cover. the tragic story of 2 reinforced activists brutally killed fighting. the devastation brought up by loggers and ranchers. returning to the amazon, gabriel learns how their campaign for sustainable development brought them on a collision course with those who sought to profit from the forest destruction. or does your correspondence lou ah,

welcome back. a quick reminder about top stories here. this our u. s. president joe biden says he'll be moving a small number of troops to eastern europe and what he's calling the near term. the pentagon has put around 8 and a half 1000 military personnel on standby after russia deployed more than a 100000 troops and his buddha, with ukraine and ukraine's president as warned against panica about possible russian invasions lovigno. zalinski says anxiety in the west is weighing heavily on the ukraine economy and sees no major change on the ground compared to last year. and west africa main regional block has suspended between a fast as membership after the military takeover on monday. echo us has stopped short of imposing further sanctions on what to do group before discussions held later on the saturday. now after a year of talks, argentina has reached a deal with the international monetary fund to restructure up more than $40000000000.00 of debt. it's a contentious issue with thousands of protest. i was calling on the governor to

suspend repayments saying the country can't afford it. well, monica inaccurate. his life rests in. but as i was monica, what more can you tell us about this new debt deal between argentine and the i m f . well, for the government it's basically a relief. it's it, give it, it gives it some space to breathe because president alberto fernandez, this whole dead issue has been something that has been looming over him ever since he took office. this was a debt that was a, it was a loan that his predecessor took from the i, m f. it was the greatest loan in the i m, f's, history. and argentina, frankly, had no way of paying this back. and especially, it was not only was it facing recession, but is months after present fit. and then this took off, if the coven 19 pandemic started. so there was no way that he could negotiate a deal with the i m f or make any sort of plan. now having said that,

will this deal change much? um, not really because the i m f is not asking for major changes on like a privatizing state own companies or, or making major spending cuts as it might have in other times. now argentine on the other hand is still facing the same problems that it had. it, it, it has very high inflation. and also it has, the debt will continue. i mean, all he did is delay the payment. all right, i'm going to say you're not gonna lie for that. and but as i was monica, thank you. no rush are recorded almost a 1000000 excess death between the start of the pond. demick on the end of 2021. the country's official number of coke 900 deaths policy 700000 mile on friday. according to the moscow times, russia has had 995000 excess deaths since march 2020 scientists

and health experts are concerned about a new sub variant of code. 19 on a cron. b a point 2, which is being dub stove on the kron has now been detected in 40 countries cases of the sub there and are rising in the u. k. sweden, india, and the u. s. expert, se studies are ongoing, but the new some there appears to be even more transmissible than the original on the chrome strain. for dr. richard cells is an infectious disease specialist that cause due to natal research. he says, the sub baron is not a major cause for concern. the fundamentals haven't changed. so we have some good preliminary data from the u. k. this week that the protection from the vaccines is very similar against b, a dot one and b a dot to. and so the fundamentals of what we need to do have not changed. there may be some subtle differences and there may be

something about this that, that makes it slightly better. it didn't factoring people and passing from person to person. but ultimately, we know what we need to do to protect people and to protect populations. where is police have asked for critical details to be withheld when an investigation into locked down parties of the prime minister official home is released to the public. it means some of the most serious accusations that barbara johnson faces could be held back from the public. the bunker report from london rarely have events at number 10 face this much scrutiny. the countries watching, waiting, speculating on the consequences of a ledge rule breaking by those in power. yes, and piece of being clamoring for a full publication of the internal inquiry into potential breaches of the rules compile by senior civil servant su gray. that this government can be trusted to deliver the results of which, if harmful enough could lead to the collapse of boys johnston's leadership. but

with anticipation at its peak now london's metropolitan police who stepped him to carry out their own criminal investigation of put the brakes on calling for the report to make minimal reference to the events they are examining. to avoid prejudicing the case. the demand means the much awaited su gray report will be limited, excluding details of the most serious breaches, including possible errors by the police guarding downing street. i think the met please have got something to answer for hear. this leading lawyer who previously defended wikileaks founded julian a sound. she believes the met police isn't capable of a fair investigation. i think that real question marks around the credibility of the met please investigating their own offices. he didn't prevent crimes and did not report crimes. and i think they have a duty now to bring in an independent place bowls out to look and review what it

was that the mat didn't do. so what did happen at number 10? during the pandemic. it's believed that 17 gatherings ranging from cheese and wine events to posey leaving deuce happened between may 2020 and april 2021 across white hole with 2 gray looking into many of them. meanwhile, london's metropolitan police have launched a separate criminal investigation into 8 of the most serious breaches of cove had lockdown rolls. behind the door of the country's most famous address, boris johnson's planning, his next move. all of this means that lie the hands of the newly renovated but not yet working, famous clogged politics and westminster is at a standstill. forrest johnson in a perpetual state of high noon. his opponents in a continuous midnight still in the dark about exactly what went on behind the doors of number 10. it also means that any momentum opponents of bars johnson may have gained in recent weeks subsides. giving johnson room to maneuver is unclear when the police will conclude their criminal investigation. the results of that could be

serious for johnson, but might be months away. in the meantime, speculation over parties at number 10 continues, but there is of course, one downing street, ny towel, and potential stall witness the, the su gray nor the police can question. the fall couches here at westminster. a bridge has collapsed in the u. s. city of pittsburgh just hours before president biden was scheduled to deliver a speech there on the nation's aging infrastructure. governors. under reports, a snow covered bridge buckles and collapses on friday morning in pittsburgh. several cars and buses were on the bridge at the time. 10 people suffered minor injuries in an ironic twist, just hours later president joe biden comes to see it 1st hand. he's on his way to deliver a speech nearby. remarkably about america's crumbling infrastructure. eye witnesses say that bridge collapse could have been

a lot worse if this had happened 15 to 20 minutes later, you would have had classes with school kicks or that buses of workers. so the timing of this in terms of happening, what if it was very fortuitous. the bridge was built nearly a half century ago, like dozens across the city of pittsburgh. the federal government rated it in poor condition back in 2011. and more than 3 years ago, this twitter user highlighted its corroded steel beams. it's unclear if it had ever been fixed, but it's not just in pittsburgh all over america. infrastructure is in disrepair and that's why last year congress passed and president joe biden signed in the war, a $1.00 trillion dollar infrastructure plan to rebuild everything, including railroad lines, airports, tunnels, roads, and yes, bridges by and is using the bridge claps to champion the urgency of his hard

thought infrastructure efforts across the country. there are 45000 bridges in poor condition. it's just simply unacceptable. you have to do something about this. i've talked about it every time i've come to pittsburgh and we finally got it done. according to the american society of civil engineers, in the u. s, there are 617000 bridges. 42 percent are over 50 years old, and 46000 bridges in the us are structurally efficient. on friday, the problems with bridges abundantly clear for everyone to see gabriel sandow al jazeera new york. the number of people killed by a storm that struck 3 southern african countries has risen to at least 88 storm animate, land fall in madagascar, and moved through moses beacon milan. are you bringing torrential rain? emergency teams are racing to repair damage infrastructure and help thousands of

dispensed people as another storm lose. stephanie decor, gaze of heavy rains, have drowned out these villages. the power of mother nature more clear from the air on the ground. tens of thousands of people here in malawi have been affected many now homeless that i can, i cannot say i am a waiter home, we've had floss previously, but they never reached here. yes, monta river could overflow, but the people living near it were the only once effected but not asked, living in hilly places. it is only this year that waters have displaced us. oh, some aid is getting through, but the flood waters mean it's still hard to reach remote areas. this floods ah, unprecedented. that's what we're hearing from those that i've been in to wire for all. ah, no money, flat areas where the no money take place. but this time with anna,

almost her face of this to the district has how been hate? heavy rains of had southern africa for around a week now. it's not just malawi, mozambique has been hit hard to caught on camera by one of the rescue workers. this man had climbed up a tree to escape the fast rising waters and did madagascar flooding his course, electricity cuts across wide areas. thousands displaced here too, and on it. so it's only a house is flooded with water. it was flooded twice. we were already flat at the other time, but we stayed there. but this time we had to leave because all the mattresses awake and our baby got sick. authorities are now rushing to repair broken infrastructure and help the 10s of thousands of displaced across these 3 countries. with, while weather reports predict, there could be more heavy rains to come. stephanie decker al jazeera. now astronomers in australia have discovered

a celestial object. they describe as spooky, and unlike anything they've ever seen before, the mysterious phenomenon releases a huge burst of energy, like clockwork, every 18 minutes and 18 seconds research. i say they have been similar discoveries made in the past, but nothing of this frequency. and then cosmic terms, i say it's quite close, just 400000 light years away. ah, to have a quick check of the top stories here on al jazeera us. president joe biden says he'll be moving a small number of troops to eastern europe and what he's calling the near term. the pentagon, as put around 8 and a half 1000 military personnel on standby after russia deployed more than a 100000 troops on its border with ukraine. conflict is not inevitable. there is still time and space for diplomacy given that type of force.