ah ah ah, the winter olympics gets under way in beijing i made diplomatic boycotts and pandemic restrictions. ah, i'm about this and this is all to see alive from doe hob. also coming up, presenting a united front, russia and china. i said they opposed further expansion of nato, as president vladimir putin visits beijing, prussia grows on the u. k. prime minister as 5 of his top aides resign all within 24 hours. and i'm adam rainy in northern portugal home to europe's largest lithium

deposits. locals here whose families date back generation say a proposed lithium mine threatens their way of life. ah. the beijing winter olympics are underway. nearly $3000.00 rates are in a strict bubble because of cobra 19 and no foreigners are able to watch them compete. despite that, the athletes are ready to go for gold. david stokes reports ladies and you're the only think when the game after a troubled build up the 24th winter olympics have officially begun in beijing. the venue for friday typing ceremony was the birds nest stadium. originally built for the summer olympics, back in 2008. it's the 1st city ever to host both the winter and summer games. like the tokyo olympics last year cupboard 19 has given these games

a different complexion that taking place inside a closed loop system, keeping competitors and stuff away from the general public athletes must get tested for cupboard 19 daily. and there were no foreign fans with only a small handpick domestic audience allowed to attend. some of the world's best winter athletes are unable to compete after testing positive. this is not tougher than injury because you aren't putting yourself out. let's take the risk. it's just the risk is everywhere around us, and i really feel for those athletes, i can't, i can't even imagine how it must be to day 4 years of work and then at the last minute. so had that taken away by something that's out of your control. several world leaders have travel to beijing for the games, but other nations including the u. s. britain and canada had declared a diplomatic boycotts over china's human rights record. specifically, its treatment of muslim wages, china to noise human rights abuses, the people's republic of china is perpetrating a campaign of gross human rights violations,

including genocide. over the next 2 weeks is an urgent moral duty to shine a bright light on the many human rights violations being perpetrated by the host nation. beijing 2022 organizes say the games will be carbon neutral. oh, venues will be powered by renewable energy, and 5 of them have been repurposed from 2008, but with very little snow full more than 200000000 liters of water have been used to generate fake powder for the alpine locations. next not been in the activision snow is used in the consistent way for decades, you know, in winter competitive sports. what is really important, like for any other activities that are we practice is to try to do it in the most efficient way. with the lead up to the olympics dominated by politics and covet 19, most of the athletes will hope the focus now shifts to the action as nearly 3000

competitors from 91 nations white to take home a gold medal. they'd stokes. how does error associated press sports correspondence to even weighed has more from the opening ceremony. i was in the 2008 the opening ceremony here. 13 and a half years ago. it was 30 to 33 degrees, sweltering hot pac stadium, 91000 people right now back and we have maybe 20 or 30000 fans. we're not sure. maybe 40 percent full and it's below 0 is one or 2 degrees below 0 here. so it's a very different different atmosphere. and what games of course are much smaller than the summer game. so they're really not not comparable, but paging is the most unlikely. can i have one or lympics but in 2015, 6 european countries who should have had or could have been dropped out too expensive or political problems? yeah. to see what had was left with. not because exxon and beijing, they chose beijing, beijing. i think was more surprised than anybody. so the games are here. the run up to the games have been filled with contention. the weaker the genocides is going on

in northwestern. john, the region here has occupied the press, the chinese have tried to avoid it. they see has tried to avoid the sponsor. they're tried to pretend like they don't see it. i think everybody will be glad like yours or when the games get started, the focus goes on. the athletes and the politics probably will be put aside. however, it's very possible with natalie to may speak out, or we have a lot of contention for these 2 and a half weeks. while we're paging along those at the ceremony, rushes president vladimir putin, his country's deteriorating relations for the west to center stage. as he held talks to the chinese counterpart she g thing and a joint statement, they said they oppose the expansion of nato, and called on the lines to ditch for they called cold war approaches. took us as soon as you said, when you get machine, you're doing you through our bilateral relations. they are developing with the spirit of friendship and strategic partnership and reach an unprecedented level

there. an example of upstanding relations, which are both sides, is developed and support each other at the same time. when that comes as tensions between, haven't moscow show no signs of falling. russia has much more than a 100000 soldiers near the border with ukraine. both countries could be holding military drills. russia has also offered to increase his gas supplies to china. the us in europe is threatening moscow with unprecedented sanctions. if ukraine is attacked, she would say she are all producers prepared, a very good solution. hydrocarbons applies to china for today's meeting, and we made another step forward in the gas sector or, i mean the new deal to supply china with 10000000000 cubic meters of natural gas from the far fertility use in beijing. with more on today's talks, what we were really looking for was any specific signal from china that it would support ukraine now from the joint statement, we haven't heard from day june yet, but what we're hearing from the kremlin is that china really still on paper wants

to maintain its neutral storms, but there are some statements within this state very, which implies strong support of russia when it comes to its policy and ukraine or its actions on the ukraine border. the join stem and said that each country supports each other's foreign policy. that no country should improve its security at the expense of others. and also the both countries of per unilateral actions towards specific countries. i think really this relationship it's, it's have to main dimensions. one is political. do use countries definitely a lot in common in terms of the ideology and i think specifically what they're both very tired of and what they both oppose is a world order under which the u. s. is the dominant power. so i think during this meeting, what they're doing is showing how strong their partnership is and also showing the world, perhaps,

of potential counterweight to the u. s. and other european powers. and of course, the other dimension of this relationship is very practical. it's based on the economic and economics and trade. china is russia's biggest trading partner. they did about $12840000000000.00 and trade in 2021. that's an unprecedented volume of trade between the 2 countries, and that's only set to increase russia back separatists and eastern ukraine. have set up training camps for young people. instructor say students have talked about patrick ism and self defense. charles type of reports, the type of mackie of these teenagers a, some of the 5000 members of a youth movement in the pro, russia, separatist controlled region of eastern ukraine. they all still in school. you know, me roughly translates to army of the use in structures. many of them form a separatist fighters say they teach patriotism and how to defend the self declared

republic of dimansky jobs. 8 years of conflict with ukraine remains unrecognized by any country in the world. even its main becca, russia, the students, the tools, a range of skills, including martial arts, 1st aid and assembling, and disassembling weapons, which we are not allowed to film. 14 year old christina joined 2 years ago after her cousin was killed during fighting between the russian bank separatists ukrainian army. just think of it. ok. it's very painful for me when i remember she was like my brother. i joined because of his death because i wanted to remember those last in the war, especially the. we don't want to make the same mistakes that we did when the soviet union was attacked in world war 2. murals in the school. cordele celebrate russian history and cultural figures like the novelist and poet alexander,

pushkin. a map shows crimea painted in the colors, the russian flag. so i thought, joe, come on doing. today's class is about the victory of soviet forces over the nazis and the bustle of stalingrad considered one of the bloodiest battles in history, claiming around $2000000.00 lives. the manager of the crew that i don't unami feels like my 2nd family, my 2nd home. when you go through so much together, you become very close to our bit of the 3 white nash, but the developed patriotism, we remember, and a proud of our predecessors. and i want to eventually serve in the army outside students prepare for a mock battle. we split into 2 opposing sides and fired each other using laser guns and stacks of tires as cover. but this isn't just again, this might look like fun, but of course it has serious implications. and it's important to recognize that

there are similar use groups on ukrainian government control side also being trained like this. there they, it's whole, the danger is what the crane is described as russian expansionism with its roots in the soviet past. here it starts to tell the children that the danger is an ideology that has huge residents with both the young and the old then they are working. ok, he know they work for susan. ukraine is not our enemy fascism. is that the enemy in 2014, when the conflict started, we were standing up against fascists. like our grandparents did. we can say we have enemies. our only enemy is fascism. we don't want to adjust to make fascism. our friend, christina friends are too young to fully understand how history can be manipulated to serve military or political ends in any conflicts. if you could almost as away

on the abandoned ruins of homes in places where children once played destroyed in 8 years of war with no peaceful solution in sight. a conflict into which the young on both sides of being drawn. cha stafford al jazeera finance. still had an al jazeera india struggles with coven 19 as death's reach, a worrying number. i'm going to tell you what people in california doing at home to fight global warming. ah. we seem to enter the or another wet phase of the rainy season, throughout se asia from the cellar. true philippine south was to so away. see cross borneo, sumatra, and job the orange top shout of the big one. so,

flooding is likely in southern sumatra and java, the rains are reaching up into the southern part of tara, once again. there's also more right on the coast of vietnam. you'll notice in on this ne monsoon, beyond that was still in winter and significant went to the snow is not being brought in by blizzard conditions. but his continuous frequent sto shout all way up and down the west coast of homes through the mountains. and in okada west that the sun's out is cold, but the sun is act modest. 3 and so some snow in the middle of china but not very much to be asked in the sun's back out in hong kong as it is and remain. so in beijing, at least the next couple of days in india, but quite at the moment, ne monsoon almost disappeared. so the rains coming by different method and it's the ne, we'll see a few showers in snow up in the mountains, which means things of settled down the northern plain alerts, slightly wall. it was. air quality is pretty pole. and for about 24 hours, a shipment will stop blowing again down the gulf,

bringing dusty conditions with it ah, from international politics to the global pandemic. and everything in between. it did out work for people and you are, are plenty promised to ensure the safety of women. what happened just the 15th, i pulled back that people actually have more feel, why is the u. k. so hostile to play in the mid 3 to all of us join me if i take on the live, dismantled misconceptions and meet the contradiction. timing. get up front on al jazeera. ah ah,

you're watching old, is it a reminder of our top stories? this of the 24th winter olympics has facially begun. beijing is the 1st city to host both the summer and the winter olympics. the build up has been dominated by corporate 19 restrictions and diplomatic because the games are happening as tensions of ukraine are high between russia and the west. russian president vladimir putin is in china, moscow and beijing say they oppose nato expansion. their cues, it of cold war approaches. u. k prime minister, ballast johnson's facing pressure to shore up his premier ship is the so called party gate scandal deepens. 5 aids have now resigned. include johnson's chief of staff is private secretary and is director of communications. the prime minister's head of policy manito mertsa said she quit because of a false accusation. johnson made against the leader of the opposition to in the hall, has more from london the initial responses after those resignations on thursday

were pretty unkind towards the prime minister. one former foreign secretary said he'd become toxic within the party. another unnamed cabinet minister was reported to saying it feels like the end. it's all falling apart well, those abuse and that's a particular view that we have heard in recent weeks. another view, the opposite view comes from another unnamed cabinet minister, also reported on friday morning is saying he promised action on mondays. you mentioned that to clean up the downing street operation. the action has begun and maurice planned over the next 48 hours. the problem with that view is that while 3 of the 4. busy in fact, now 5 resignations, there's been a 5th on friday, i'll talk more about that in a moment. while the 3 of those resignations were connected in a variety of ways with the party gate scandal, including one of them, the private secretary mach reynolds, who wrote the infamous, bring your own booze, email,

the 4th the resignation you mentioned them when they are is quite different she is a person more loyal to the prime minister than most he's been at his side for 14 years. the head of the policy department downing street hers. and indeed, the other person from her department this morning, the resignations of principal following that false accusation in the commons against kiss tom of the labor party leader johnson said as director of public prosecutions he had failed to prosecute the peter file. jimmy's hovel. well, ammonia mercer wrote that was unacceptable. a partisan attack scurrilous. she said, not part of the normal cut and thrust of politics. he tossed him to apologize. he didn't. so she decided enough was him enough and she has gone. burton's exit from the european union continues to cause ripples in northern ireland. the high court in belfast says post brags at checks and food coming from the rest of you. k should remain in place, overturning an order for government minister installment. european union says that order breached the northern island protocol. it's an agreement between westminster

and brussels. it's aimed at avoiding a hard border with the republic of ireland, which is part of the youth in bothers in london. he explains why the northern line protocol as parliament in disarray. the latest term, the court in northern island, has put a hold. it's suspended checks on food and farm products coming from the mainland. great britain into northern island. until there is a full judicial review, which is expected next month, but on the ground. those checks haven't stopped in practice because officials are waiting for legal clarity. now the agriculture minister for northern ireland, edwin boots, whose from the democratic unionist party, ordered a whole to the checks on wednesday off the monks of his party, protesting about the northern ireland protocol. and then on thursday, we saw the 1st minister of northern island pull give and actually resign, you know. and he said, but the protocol had undermined

a key part of the good friday agreement, which created the conditions for both peace and for power sharing. in northern ireland, the part that he was worried about is that they have to govern with the consent of both the nationalists and the unionists. the resignation of pul, give it also means that the deputy 1st minister michelle of niel from the main nationalist party, shouldn't fain she's also gone as well. so it leaves northern islands with no executive. and if there's no executive ministers can, carrying a can carry on doing the jobs, but key decisions can get made there is paralysis. portugal is to decide whether to give the go ahead for europe's largest lithium. mine is seen as a vital minerals in the fight against climate change because it's used to make batteries for electric vehicles. local people fear the mine could cause lossing environmental damage. item writing reports from ne portugal. ida

fernandez and her family have been stewards of this corner of northern portugal for 5 generations. a cattle farmer, she's convinced a proposed lithium mine, if approved would destroy her livelihood and quicker marian streams. most of the fields we rely on our end perimeter of the proposed mine. it is not green and is not sustainable. and it's not going to benefit us. and it is going to destroy one more region, rich and water, and pure air and nature and bio diversity. the us food and agricultural organization has declared this area are also a globally important agricultural heritage site for the blend of grazing and sustainable farming. the wider area is also home to europe's largest lithium reserves, a metal key for producing electric car batteries. electric cars are crucial to phasing out fossil fuels and can help europe reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral but 2050. it's estimated the mind footprint would be $270.00 hector's.

besides about $375.00 football fields every year, the mine would produce enough lithium for up to $600000.00 cars. and over 12 years that would result in a reduction of a 100000000 tons of c o. 2 from the atmosphere. climate change is a huge challenge and to do carbon as economy, we need to get him for our electric vehicles. but that has a cost and we want to minimize it by excluding the areas where social and environmental impact is considerable. if they need a little bit, pete is doesn't feel she's on the cusp of the environmental revolution. she points to where the mines perimeter would be, and you've been the worry about the destruction. it could cause and ruining our lives, where he and a little corner of the world that they're going to damage opposition to the mine, run strong signs against it. like this one are found across the community, that's despite the promise of jobs and region people continue to leave behind in

search of opportunities. we spoke to the company waiting for approval from the environmental agency. our plans will have 0 impact on the last styles or practices of farmers in the region. i think you know, millions of european town and city dwellers are really trying to appreciate the, you know, the transformation. but electric mobility will make to the quality of life in the cities of europe. government officials point out environmental and strategic benefit of mining lithium in europe. and if our objective is to be f, the spinal my, as we can then i good way to start using those materials which are not source properly outside of europe. and then you have has the opportunity to do it in a sustainable way. mighty, a low data isn't convinced she and fernandez show us where mining samples were excavated. laredo says, shall lose some of her land to the mind and that what remains will be contaminated

in some not, we're not the ones polluting the environment lead, the ones polluting, pay the bill, not us. a sentiment shared by many who fear they'll pay the price for europe's green energy. adarine al jazeera and northern portugal. russia has again, registered a record breaking number of corona virus infections. as the alma, chrome variance spreads on friday, more than a 168000 new cases were recorded in the preceding 24 hours. 682 deaths were reported. the country's not considering lockdown despite the surge, india is the 3rd country to report half a 1000000 deaths related to the covert 19 after the us and brazil. as part of the midtown reports from new delhi government leaders are rejecting claims by some health experts that the actual death toll could be much higher.

body has reopened to all foreign travellers. the indonesian island depends heavily on tourism and its opening up the border despite a rising coven 19 cases. the 1st direct flight in nearly 2 years landed on thursday from tokyo visitors we'll have to quarantine for between 5 and 7 days depending on the vaccination status. i go, but 19 locked on in tongue has been extended by another 48 hours. the pacific islands have 5 confirmed infections after having only one until last month. synonymy disaster much needed aid, also brought the virus and let's go back to evacuation. orders are being issued in my gasket as a large cycle and approaches from the indian ocean cycle. and but said, i is forecast back to the east coast on saturday. affecting 600000 islanders storms

also hit the nearby french island available and killed at least one person in russia's. okay, let's go back to that earlier story about india being the 3rd country to report half a 1000000 deaths related to colbert 19 after the us in brazil as poverty miss l reports from new delhi, the government leaders are rejecting the claims by some health experts that the best tool is much higher. justine, this is shante, can barely speak about what he's experienced. the social worker has been organizing ambulances for coven 19 patients, and helping families cremate loved ones who they have lost. he was recently awarded in just bought high a civilian off the water, the diva social media, biblical food, i lived, the tragedy people witnessed on tv and social media. it was horrendous. one, b. i committed $156.00 bodies extra. we discovered unclean bodies. every day people was that destitute. i saw children bringing the bodies of the parent. india has

recorded the deaths of more than 500000 people from covey 19. but some help experts say the actual toys is in the millions. at least half of these occurred last summer during a surge of infections filled by the delta variant. overwhelmed hospitals ran out of oxygen and many people died as they were waiting to be admitted. funeral pyres burned across the nation for days, and some families lined up for hours to cremate their dead in the northern states of their predation. be hard. hundreds of bodies were found floating in the river ganges and buried bytes banks. the government denies claimed the debt all is being under reported india and has used an excessively stringent definition of white hogan dances. and this leaves not room for things. lake. a person who died the now deposited s because some guns to be conquered as uncle manette. several states have recently revised their tallies, caroline, southern india has increased, its debt,

told the most by 20000 over 3 months. and part of the correction isn't being in recognizing that up to a month after the debt. ah, after month of took over the, an admission if the debt is linkedin and his with this would be eligible to be counted as a corporate debt. so all of this has actually resulted in a whole range of reconciliation of debts and therefore we see the numbers are going up in the recent times which seems a little artificial. while the numbers of people infected by the omicron very, to have broken records in many states, hospital admissions and deaths have remained relatively new exports credit that to my the symptoms and patients with the variant more than 75 percent of the entire adult population being fully vaccinated and most children above 15 being partially innoculated experts and asking the government to expand vaccinations and boosters

to protect people against future variance. poverty midville al jazeera, you jelly, feeling california no required by law to separate their food waste from other rubbish. for composter, as part of a plan to reduce organic waste center landfill sites by 75 percent. rob ronald supports from los angeles just taken the arms of composting food waste is a simple daily chore kristen delaney and her daughters kitty and dakota. los angeles mom put scraps into a been where worms break them down into rich soil, which she then uses in her garden like as diverted, maybe almost a 1000 pounds of food, just like our family of 4. like that's a lot, a lot of snack starting this year. most of california's $40000000.00 residents will be required to separate food ways for composting in an effort to reduce greenhouse

gases that cause global warming when dumped in landfills and left to rot. food waste emits methane, but methane loose, and when it comes from, the breakdown of our food waste of our organic waste is $84.00 times more potent than carbon dioxide on the front lines of the compost battle. teresa english works for a community composting company called composed double l. a. she is part of a team collecting organic waste from $800.00 households. when people find out that the food waste angle info is actually creating more greenhouse gas, and i think that that it can be upsetting 20 percent of california has methane emissions comes from our landfill. when composted this garbage doesn't emit methane, and it's like black gold for farmers and home gardeners. monique figure eto is composed of all ellie's founder. what we do is we take their scraps,

we bring it to one of 11 partner farms, they turn it into soil and then either the partner farm gets to keep it. it's distributed throughout the community by volunteers, or it goes back to our members to use in their garden beds. if every one in california gets on board with composting, it will take a bite out of global warming. california authorities say once they've reached their goal of composting, 75 percent of the state's food waste, it will be the equivalent of taking $1000000.00 cars off the road for an entire year. last year we diverted almost $200000.00 pounds of fin scratch, and that's just individual households coming together to make a difference. so it's really impressive what collective action can do when everybody does a little bit, it really does add up for the delaney girls. it adds up to an important lesson they, i want them to know where things come from and where things go. g.