witness rings. site on al jazeera ah, revealing eco friendly solutions to combat threats to our planet. on al jazeera ah all eyes on bay jing as the 2022 winter olympics officially opens, is all sized questioning of china's corona virus response. and it's human rights record. ah, allow i, mariam, noisy and london. you're watching al jazeera, also coming up on the program, presenting a united front, the chinese and russian leaders commit to a stronger strategic relationship. response to, sorry, relations with the west. rescues, walking around the clock to find

a 5 year old boy who has fallen into a deep well in all the morocco. also, 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. hello and welcome to the program old china's present. gigi ng has opened the winter olympics and a spectacular ceremony in beijing. nearly 3000, the athletes are in a strict bubble because of covert 19. no foreigners are able to watch and compete. and as a diplomatic boy course in protesting human rights abuses, despite all that, the athletes are ready to go for gold. as david stokes narrow ports, thumbs ye all in you who are you in the way?

try more. oh, after a trouble build up the 24th winter olympics have officially begun in beijing. the venue for friday's opening ceremony was the birds mess stadium originally built for the summer olympics, back in 2008. it's the 1st city ever so spoke the winter and summer games. dear fellow olympians, your olympic stage is set you are for i fear. after overcoming so many challenges, but now you are more with this come the moment you have been longing for like the tokyo olympics last year. coping 19 has given these games a different complexion that taking place inside a closed loop system, keeping competitors and staff away from the general public athletes must get tested for carbon 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 traveled to beijing for the games, but other nations including the u. s. britain and canada have declared a diplomatic boycott. i've a china human rights record, specifically it's 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 janet sought over the next 2 weeks as an urgent moral duty to shine a bright light on the many human rights violations being perpetrated by the host nation. beijing 2022 organized as 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 slow, full, more than 200000000 liters of water have been used to generate fake powder for the alpine locations. let's not be name. you know, artificial snow is used in a consistent way for decades. you oh, in a winter competitive sport. what is really important, like for any other activities that there we, we practice is to try to do it in the most efficient way. with the lead up to the olympics dominated by politics uncovered 19, most of the athletes will have the focus now shifted to the action as nearly 3000 competitors from 91 nations for it to take home a gold medal. david stokes al jazeera. although russian president vladimir putin was one of the few wild leaders to attend the opening ceremony earlier he held talks with his chinese counterpart that 1st face to face meeting since the beginning of the pandemic. and they presented

a united front on foreign policy issues. katrina, your reports from beijing, who called you to that a new person and she didn't pay a will and don't shoulder to shoulder even don't charge you what we describe as an funnel shakafur planted with the leaders of russia and china met ahead of the opening of the winter olympics in bade, ching, she didn't think it's the 1st time president she has met all foreign count. and like in person who was singular, beginning of the pandemic, took a certain the true story or a spirit, or friendship and the strategic partnership. her re, to the unprecedented level, the banjo army ad there. so she went to olympics 80 years ago, we promised to meet again. we have kept that promise led me to the leaders, signed a joint statement, presenting a united front on a range of foreign policy issues. that they called for nato to end its expansion unity and for the military alliance to abandon. it is so called cold war approach. with you. they also denounced the orca security alliance between the united states,

britain and australia on the team, and the formation of further blocks in the asia pacific. but also the statement comes as both russia and china experience souring ties with the u. s. 2 and it's western european allies, but the door is ally. what also at all it's from what they see that the west is not speaking with one voice, and i'm has some ah division. so this benefit spoke russia and china. the visit comes as tensions escalate over the presence of more than $100000.00 russian soldiers on its border with ukraine. washington, his threatening to impose tough sanctions on moscow. should its forces invade. they ding, says russia, security concerns are legitimate. the intentionally here here is to send a very clear message to the west that russia has options that russia china relationship is a possible alternative for moscow that it is not going to be backed into a corner. to lead us are expected to find 15 agreements on issues ranging from

trade to technology during putting visit 20 will. russia will increase gas applies to china, and has announced a 30 year contract for a new pipeline between the 2 nations. china already received gas through what's name to the power of siberia pipeline that began pumping supplies and 2019 economic support from china could undermine any western effort to punish any possible russian incursion into brain. that analysts say an even bigger concern. is it possible deepening a military corporation between moscow and they do? she didn't being has often spoken of his deep friendship with vladimir putin who was the 1st major leader to confirm his attendance at the dating winter olympics. the u. s. u. k, canada and australia have not said officials to the vet in protest against china as human rights record. katrina, you al jazeera, they ging staying with concerns about conflict and ukraine. germany's chancellor is

expected to fly to both russia and ukraine next week for talks. as dominic cane explains from berlin, it's all our shots, his 1st appearance on the wall stage, and he has a tight road to walk there. all those in the media here in germany, but also in the international news media you've been saying, where is all our shots? what c p an up to? why are we not hearing more from him in so far as ukraine is concerned and, and other world crises? well, he is planning lots of different involvement. so we know that on monday of next week he will be in washington. d. c, meeting president joe biden. the german government has slight difficulty in that it wants to emphasize diplomacy and the threat of sanctions against russia. if there is an act of aggression and yet it doesn't want to arm the ukrainians. it doesn't want to give weapons to defensive weapons to key if, even though they know there are increasingly loud voices coming from key f,

asking for precisely that. so it's quite difficult. half that mister schultz and his colleagues are having to, to go down by trying to talk tough to the russian government while stressing the need for diplomacy. and yet also trying to appear like an ally to those in kiev who are asking for weapons which the germans don't want to give them out. in smaller news that the european union has blacklisted molly's transitional prime minister and members of military gin to which took over and last year's qu, 5 individuals were hit with travel bands and asset freezers, but not cool leader. as senior goiter, multiple sanctions were imposed last month by west africa regional organization. eco us, on the military gentle delayed elections that would you to take place this month until 2025. ah,

now rescue as our inching closer to reaching a young boy trapped in a well in northern morocco. the 5 year old fell into the 30 to meet a deep hole outside his home on tuesday search cruiser using 5 bulldozers to dig vertically. but the operation has been hampered by concerns about ground stability . hundreds of people have gathered at the scene, hoping to see the boy safely recovered. victoria gate and b has more now. a camera is lowered down this well and shows 5 year old ray, an alive but unable to move. he's been trapped since tuesday rescue teams or giving him food and water, 3 pipes, bottom up. what landlord on the on our bottle? i managed to communicate with the child and asked if he could hear me. there was a response. i waited for a minute and saw that he began using the oxygen oxy. him. the accident happened in the north american village of a grand rescue team say they can't widen the well to reach him as it's too

dangerous. so they using diggers to strip away the earth to the side of it. it's an agonizing wait for his family. nobody earlier better not. when he disappeared, i prayed to god and i begged him to get him out of that well alive and safe. i pray to god to ease my pain and he is in that hole of dost to our b of the rescue has gripped the nation and beyond. hash tag, save ran, has been trending on social media across north africa when with it's the 4th day. that rate has been under ground. we're asking the authorities to bring him out. he's been down there too long rescue team say they're close to rescuing ran. a police helicopter is on standby to take him to hospital victoria gate and be al jazeera schools. colleges and sports complexes will reopen on monday in india's capital. as despite the announcement that $500000.00 people are now known to have died from cove at 19, it's one of the highest total tolls in the world,

but it might actually be and not be underestimated. how many mental reports from you delhi g. then this is shante can barely speak about what he's experienced. the social worker has been organizing ambulances for corbett 19 patients, and helping families cremate loved ones who they have lost. he was recently awarded in desperate highest civilian on off over the diva social media with the girl who i lived. the tragedy people witnessed on tv and social media. it was horrendous. one day i committed 156 bodies, rediscovered unclean bodies every day. people was that destitute. i saw children bringing the bodies of their parents. india has recorded the death of more than 500000 people from covey 19. but some help experts say the actual toil is in the millions. at least half of these occurred last summer during

a surge. if infections fueled by the dead are 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 with their predation be hard. hundreds of bodies were found floating in the river ganges, and buried by its banks. the government denies claimed the debt all is being under reported india and has used an excessively stringent definition of whitehall and empties. and this leaves no room for things like a blessing who died without deposited s because in guns to be conquered as uncle lynette. several states have recently devised their tallies. caroline, sudden india has increased, its debt, told the most by 20000 over 3 months. and part of the collection is in, ah, being in recognizing that up to a month after the debt. ah, after

a month after over the admission if the death is linked in and his ways this would be eligible to be counted as a covered 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, on the crime very have broken records in many states, hospital admissions and deaths have remained relatively new. experts credit that to mind a symptoms and patients with the variant more than 75 percent of the entire adult population being fully vaccinated. and most children above 15 ring partially innoculated exports and asking the government to expand vaccinations and boosters to protect people against future variance. park newman's will algebra. you jelly with algebra ly, from london, much more still to tell you about on the program are also going to be life from the

remote region of columbia, where a bloody tougher between rival groups and rebels is damaging election. campaigning . stay with us. ah well snow swept across the british isles on this cold front didn't settle for the most part. and because it's quite cold enough now, you know it's february. now the real code is still in eastern europe, where he said that falls tends to settle. but london's at 10 edinburgh at 7. so this windy weather really leaves the snow more or less just in norway. it's pretty fine for most rest of your been quite warm in spain and push, i think attempted to come down a little bit in analisia. but this is where the when to proper continues scotland yet north, not least, the mountains of norway maybe occasionally in denmark and southern sweden attempts . and copenhagen, for example, just about lona for to settle briefly. settle this,

as i said, generally fine, but in fact, if you're in france and increasingly in switzerland it will become a cloudy and then a snowy day up on the mountains, still sunny for most of spain and indeed italy and now greece as well, even in turkey, things improving that light on shore braid brings a few showers of lebanon and maybe syria. big picture in africa. north africa hamilton still blows, not as strongly as before, but it's a dry one other than that dry, but dusty in madagascar saturday afternoon. we'll see the i all about said are a major psycho hit ready, sparsely populated madagascar, but it's damaging stool ah, international politics to the global pam gimmick and everything in between. join me if i take on the live, dismantled misconceptions and the meet the contradictions are mark lamond hill and

it's hard to get up front on al jazeera americans are increasingly saying authoritarianism might not be so bad. there were several steps along the way where the chain of command it's you like tried to cover what's your take on why they've gotten so raw? that to me is political mouth. the bottom line on us politics and policies and the impact on the world on al jazeera, ah, ah, look at the main stories. now. a spectacular ceremony is opened the aging winter olympic games. nearly 3000 athletes are in a strict bubble load because of the ongoing pandemic, and no foreign is able to watch them compete with our gym of fusion has become the 1st foreign leader to meet china's cheating, hanging person. since the start of the pandemic past that they shed an unshakable

bond with western military concerns of the top of the agenda. and rescue work as a trying to save a young boy who fell into a study to me to deep well in northern morocco. 5 roles fell into the hole on tuesday. evening. machines are being used in an attempt to try and take fighting between rival rabble clips and columbia, affecting campaigning for next month, congressional elections. the 1st time voting include so called special electoral to tricks for piece, which were created under the 2016 piece deal with the armed fox group. but as alexandra m p as your port a renew, tough or for control of cocaine trafficking and on the lucrative crimes is now overshadowing the political campaign. farmer and congressional candidate to join us live the horror of columbia conflict. first hands a local victim leader. he's running for office for

a special electoral district for peace created to give a voice to under represented people like him. but the return of violent confrontation between arm groups and that has made campaigning impossible vicinity . i meant there were some we are just sitting still trying to work in the village, talking to friends, knocking on doors when possible. more than 60 people have been killed since the beginning of the year in a conflict between 11 rebels and dissident groups of 4 or 5 gravels. we had planned to follow giovanni, handing out flyers and visiting a perspective voter. but as we were leaving, he had a change of heart. but he said, yeah, when i was, i don't think we should, it would be a nice thing for me to take you around town and be on the news telling people what my plan is. what i want to do if i win, but right now will put us at written this little campaigning that is happening is limited to the main urban center. that's because all candidates are saying it's

just too dangerous to travel to rural areas, even on main roads like this one. because the groups are known to set up checkpoints at any time. the situation is also affecting regular candidates. older cassidy's was running for a traditional seat in the house of representatives has campaigned in at alca for years. and this is momentous that we are putting our lives in the crossfire to campaign. and we accept silencing ourselves and confinement to try to sustain democracy. but unlike a man, he says, the situation is as bad as at the height of the conflict. he's running most of his campaign on social media go. yeah, it was organizing a meeting in for tool is impossible going to the town of life where i was a teacher and getting 4050 people together, also impossible. the local human rights official says political and social leaders have become the main targets of the arm groups and pop in on paper.

everything is great. the government is full filling its obligation to the victims who can vote and these elections. but the reality on the ground is the opposite. when people can't exercise their rights, when running a political campaign in the conflict written region like alco was never easy, but this time was supposed to be different. instead, threats in attacks or once again silencing dis, already marginalized voices. alison that pity and jesse, you know, as energizes lie now from columbia, has more about how the violence is affecting local communities and campaigning. what people have been telling you? yes, sir. the situation has been wor, sending since the beginning of the year, as the conflict between these 2 arm groups has in 10 to 5. and the worst is that the at the, this in groups of the far can. now,

you'll remember to far to sign the piece deal with the colombian government back in 2016. most of the 5 gravels gave up their weapons. but small groups of this events have continued fighting. and what has happened here is that they've been recruiting more people. they've been drawing and starting this confrontation with the land, the national liberation army, the last standing rebel, who and what it seems like is happening is that these, this in groups have the far car targeting directly people civilians that they see as either sympathizers of the land or that they see as obstacles towards their goals. what those goals are, it's on clear right now, but talking to people here, they'll tell you that for example, they're trying to force people to grow coca play. and again, the main ingredient for cocaine, there is no growing of coca plants in this region right now. however, the region is still unimportant route for drugs moving from columbia to

venezuela. so this s created a lot of pension in a number of rural community. these community leave their social leaders that stand up to the 5 are being killed and just minutes before we got an air with you. with this covered that, that another person has been killed adjusted i half an hour from here in a small, rural village by on the man that walked into the farm and just killed him in cold blood. this has been happening practically every day since the beginning of the year. we're looking now at least 70 people that have been killed this. there are then also 2 car bombs that have exploded and the city of savannah. so in many ways we see that the discipline groups have the fark or operating more like drug trafficking, mass vs, or like right wing paramilitaries used to operate in the columbia in a conflict to obviously this is a very,

a worry some change in the way the conflict is, is happening in this remote areas of columbia and it is affecting greatly the people, especially in the small community, is that essentially cannot leave the house right now. they're on the curfew by the arm, the group, and just living in an atmosphere of terror. thank you very much from colombia there . sandra, p, as you reporting to us now here and other n p from bars. johnson's party has sent a letter of no confidence in the british prime minister. our bell says allegations of parties during lockdown, and the prime minister handling of the fall out is made his position on cannibal, a total of 13 and pieces now publicly called for the prime minister to go more may have done so privately, boris johnson's grip on powers also have been rocked by string of resignation from his team of aids as public outrage across the care of the several parties that were held in government offices during covert locked downs. france has often military

support to the united arab emirates, falling dried attacks by food. the rebels. french armed forces will deploy jets to help reinforce the emerald t defense system. operations will be conducted from the da for air base to detect and intercept any drone on my solid tax. the u. s. has also offered to send fight jets. the u a. e has been hit by several attacks over the past few weeks. in an escalation, the conflict in yemen, age groups of setting up emergency shelters in madagascar as a tropical site can approach as less than 2 weeks after another storm killed at least 58 people cycling. but sir, i expect you to force around 150000 people from their homes. coastal areas of already been evacuated and schools are closed on friday. during the last storm, dozens of people were killed by landslides and buildings collapsed, washed away for cost to say the site from could be stronger, tend to find to category for before making land full on the fact today. now

portugal is set to decide whether to give the go ahead for europe's largest lithium mine. it's seen as a promising mineral in the fight against climate change because it's used to make batteries, electric vehicles, but local residents fear the mines could cause lasting environmental damage. adam radio reports from northern 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, commodity of streams. most of the fields we rely on the perimeter of the proposed mind. and there's 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 biodiversity. 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 by 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 the carbon as the economy we need let 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 minds perimeter would be, and you've been the worry about the destruction. it could cause and had ruining our lives. we are here in 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 a regent, 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 like to the quality of life in the cities of europe. government officials point out the environmental and strategic

benefit of mining lithium in europe. and if our objective is to be sustainable as we can, then i would wait to start in those materials which are not source properly outside of europe. and that, you know, has the opportunity to do it in a sustainable way. my dear lord, isn't convinced she and fernanda show us where mining samples were excavated, laredo says, shall lose some of her land to the mine 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, the race to get emergency supplies to sonoma victims in conger continues last month for conic interruption blanket to the pacific island nation in ash. it's made its way into the drinking water as well. aid workers are flying in clean water hygiene kits and baby blankets. to complicate matters even more investigators are saying

they are struggling to locate the main fiber optic cable. which nat during this. you know me. this is, this is what caused most communications to tongue to go off line 3 people were killed in the disaster. ah, just a quick look at the main stories were following the sound. a spectacular ceremony is open the page in winter olympic games. 3000 athletes aren't strict bubble because the ongoing pandemic, no foreigners are able to watch them compete. in addition to tight cove, it controls the games of fraud with political tensions, of allegations of human rights abuses and boycotts by within the 2008 ordering. 3rd morning here 30 and a half years ago, it was 30 to 33 degrees, sweltering hot packs.