it kingdom fail, it citizens, britons, true colors, part 2 on al jazeera, on counting the cost breadth of factions again, and the quaint standoff thought, well, they really bite europe's energy supplies of the cross. his would fill the gap at the world. trade organization supports china against the west. if beijing winning count on the cost on al jazeera ah diplomatic blitz, b u. s. and germany meat in washington and say that ready of ukraine is invaded on moscow. russia president welcomes proposals presented by his friends called about to deescalate the crisis. ah, i then came vanelle. this is al jazeera alive from dough ha. also coming up on kong

0 cove advantage strategies in question. as the numbers of grown of ours cases hit an all time record and the mountain clay c as don't contain as much ice as we thought. that's bad news for communities who depend on them for fresh water. ah, well lead is, is stepping up efforts to diffuse the stand off over ukraine in washington. president joe biden hosted german chancellor, ola sholtes bite and warned russia of strict economic measures including blocking a gas pipeline project to germany, germany, the united states. together their allies and partners are working closely together to pursue diplomatic resolutions of the situation. and diplomacy is the very best way forward for all sides. we both agree including best. so for russia,

in our view, and we have made it very clear, we're ready to continue talks in good faith with russia. germany has also been a leader and pushing de escalation of tensions and encouraging dialogue with through the normandy format. but if russia makes the choice to further invade ukraine, we are jointly ready, and all of nato is ready, lover in moscow, france as president magnum a con. how talks with vladimir putin before heading to ukraine on tuesday? pushing describe the talks as constructive. oh i, i have a little bit more from moscow in a moment. but 1st it's bring in mike hannah, who is in washington d. c. mike. so the u. s. president of the german chancellor appeared to be singing from the same song sheet. well, they made every attempt to make clear that that was the case. in fact, the german chancellor went out of his way to at one stage speak english during

a formal news conference virtually unheard of for a german chancellor to do so. both he and president biden absolutely insistent that the u. s. and germany were on exactly the same page when it came to deal with the ukrainian crisis. however, behind the scenes that might not have been quite so easy, and germany has come and attacked, not only from the u. s, but from its nato partners to about a reluctance to get further involved, it would appear. they'd been accused, for example of not bolstering nato's forces on its eastern flank as u. s. and other nato allies have done. in addition, has made a point of sending only non lethal aid to ukrainian fighters. so there are divisions in the nato alliance with regard to ukraine, but these divisions are absolutely essential for president biden. and the german chancellor to pretend are simply not happening. they want to make very clear that germany and the u. s. are incomplete accordance when it comes to dealing with the

crisis. and that was one of the major functions of this event today. my can you explain to our view is what the non strain to is a m y is so important to germany, entity us nordstrom too, as a multi 1000000000 dollar project that is a pipeline running from russia to germany in the baltic ocean. it bypasses ukraine, which is in itself a political issue, a key of arguing very strongly that rushes intentionally denying at revenues that would have got should gaslight pipelines pass across its territory. now the project has been completed, but it has not yet been approved by german regulators. now the issue of this pipeline is we heard there from president biden, absolutely adamant that should russia invade ukraine, and then that pipeline is going to be switched off. not only switched off the whole project is going to be brought to an end. now germany may not be on the same page

on that particular issue. the german chancellor is asked directly whether he would agree with this. he wouldn't make any comment, just repeating that he agrees with the united states, not necessarily on the pipeline project. so this is a critical issue because the us in pursuing diplomacy on one track once to pursue that, the toronto sanctions on the other. and absolutely critical part of a sanctions package would be action against our president putin's absolutely glorious project. and that is that particular pipeline, but at least germany comes on board. it's going to be difficult to get sanctions agreement or to include the pipeline within a sanctions package imposed on russia. any inclusion of the pipeline in such a sanctions packed package would have a massive economic impact on russia and would be a real threat to the russian president. that it would also have an impact on germany. and therein lies the problem. and i can are there in washington,

d. c. thank you. well, let's get more. the meeting between the french president, emanuel conn and russia's leader, that of our putin in moscow, earthly descent talks were constructive. those very reports meeting as if old friends, after 2 and a half years apart, reunited in moscow. russian president vladimir putin clearly happy to see his french counterpart, emanuel micron finally face to face. the 2 leaders spoke briefly in the kremlin before meeting behind closed doors were emerging after several hours. but that i do feel briefly duleigh our talks with macro. according to tradition, we're businesslike, useful, and substantive. we have good understanding that macro visited russia to speak about global and european security questions for which supporting our country's as permanent members of the united nations security council, especially responsible for the french president firmly positioning himself as the

peacemaker in the middle of this crisis. the palm yet anymore said innocently, the 1st element is the necessity to work. pressed to avoid escalation, let growing tensions increase the risk of seeing a brutal deterioration of continents balance of power and stability. it would be no one's interest because disorder and instability would be in the interest of neither europeans nor de russian spoke. continental president, emanuel mac rob will be traveling to care from moscow, where he will haul talks with ukrainian officials. as international diplomacy continues, the russian military's preparing for war games with neighboring bella roost. the exercise is called allied resolved, and is the biggest russian military deployment to bel ruth. since the end of the cold war, the russian military built up includes nuclear capable bomber patrols, as well as s $400.00 arrow defense system. and across beller, uses western border in neighboring poland. there are now nearly 1700 us troops. as

part of the pentagons efforts to bolster nato forces, ukraine's army is also getting ready for any eventuality. they have been carrying out drills of their own. while the military preparations continue. a diplomatic road block remains. moscow still insisting on limiting nato's further expansion. a demand still being refused by the united states. dorsey jabari al jazeera moscow with hong kong strict 0. gov and 19 strategy is facing its biggest challenge yet is the territory deals with recorded factions? city has been falling, mainland china is approach of trying to eliminate outbreaks, as soon as they emerge were clinic has more thousands of hong kong residents queuing out that testing centers across the city on the day, the territory records its highest number of covey. 19 cases,

since the pandemic began a record 614 infections were reported on monday, nearly double the number announced the day before many of the cases are untraceable . thirties called the shop serge, an unprecedented challenge and urged people to stay at home. the people in hong kong who lived for months without any local transmission last year. this is uncharted territory. really worried, not only for myself, but mostly for my family. other people are only basically. yeah. it's been a crazy or once the year started, you know, no one expected this. go home or you for the the government should be more scientific. i'll have a strategy and roadmap to let the public understand the purpose of the anti epidemic masher. say the government does not have a new road map of strategy now, but only read them plants. hong kong authorities have given no sign they're willing to via, from the 0 cove in 19 strategy adopted by mainland china. especially when vaccination

rates among hong kong elderly remains sluggish. district pandemic controls are still in place, including flight bands and quarantine facilities for those who test positive. hong kong is bracing for social distancing restrictions to be extended even further. and officials war that cases he could rise in the coming days as the effects of last weeks learn a new year. gatherings take hold. brick clinic al jazeera hong kong. there are signs that parts of the united states, sir, are emerging from the west of the only con variance of coven, 19 olive cases continue to fall as do hospitalizations. as gabriel alexander reports, it's been hit harder than most other developed nations. almost 2 years into the pandemic and easing of coping restrictions in one of the states hardest hit. new jersey governor fil murphy announced he would lift the statewide mask mandate in schools. we're not going to manage coven to 0. we have to learn how to live with

covered as we move from a pandemic to the endemic phase of this virus in neighboring new york. these were the scenes just a month ago when it was an epicenter, adama cranberry, and spread people waiting hours for a test. today that is no longer the case. here in new york, exactly one month ago. 90000 people a day. we're testing positive for coven. today, that number has dropped to lesson 8000 a day. and the positivity rate a key coven indicator, was a sky high, 21 percent. now that has dropped to less than 5 percent. nationwide coven cases down over 60 percent hospitalizations down over 40 percent health experts say the decline of cases of the highly infectious army chron. barion have little to do with vaccines. a much greater proportion of the population

becomes attracted over shorter time period. and when that happens, it more quickly can run out of people to in fact, the death toll is going in the opposite direction. on average, 2500 people a day in the us are dying from cove. it much higher than most other developed countries compared to our european partners or even to canada in the u. k. we ever extraordinarily low vaccination rates and even lower rates of boosters. and that's a really important explanation for the increased death rates in the united states. in a country quickly recovering from the army, kron variant but not the lives. it is still taking a number that now stands at more than $900000.00. gabriel's hondo al jazeera new york, a canadian court has banned truck as from sounding their horns in central ottawa as

part of a crackdown on an 11 day long anti government protest rockets. oh, as i'll call that freedom convoy began as a protest against a cove at 19 vaccine mandate for cross border drivers. it since evolved into a wider protest against prime minister johnston. true, those pandemic measures ottawa's marriage and watson declared a state of emergency on sunday, saying the demonstrators are a threat to resident safety with reports of racially charged attacks. as hard as we have work, and as much as our people are on the breaking point. the community has worked as hard or harder and are closer to their breaking point. the stories coming to me a breaking my heart. i had my own officers who live in and around those areas and they and their children have not been able to sleep. they and their children have not been able to go to school. this is crushing for those residents and their businesses. it has to stop and we are doing everything we can possibly do to stop. it says, come on, al jazeera, missing attendance, full time classes,

were supposed to receive funds. and bob way, after 2 years of blended learning, may teachers didn't show up at the israeli spyware scandal deepens, or the role of police is now on the question. ah, ah, look forward to really, to scully's, the with sponsored my cattle at ways you are locked into your weather update for asia. hello everyone, great to see you for the northwest of india. temperatures are coming up so that should help improve the air quality. next we're going to southern sections of the bay of bengal. we've got a cluster of cells here. it's just going to swipe the eastern portion of sri lanka on tuesday next, stop se, asia. we've had thunder. downpours for west java jakarta, scooping up more than 60 millimeters of rain,

solid bands of rain over call them poor and singapore. now for indo china, plenty of sun for now. this is a forecast on tuesday bank hawk at 34, but we're gonna shake up that weather pattern next. 3 days. thunder downpours, high humidity here feeling about 37 and breezy conditions on thursday after central areas of china, mostly cloud cover here. but we've got some snow locked in between the gang, see, and the pearl river valley likely showers for boiling with a high of 6 degrees. but talking about that snow, a new record set for support o. 60 cent heater is picked up within 24 hours. so trains were canceled on monday, we'll see if we can get them go in on tuesday and still more snow showers on tuesday. so paro has a high minus one mix of sun in cloud though for tokyo. 11 degrees will be the high for you. that's it. that's all we'll soon take care blue weather sponsored by katara, always 2 boxes from the street to chicago on different with the

same ambition fighting their way to a better life than themselves and their families. 6 6 in the volatile world of chicago that side, he's no easy task. witness, room site on al jazeera lou ah ah, you're watching al jazeera, remind her about top stories. this l. u. s. president joe abided his bell to shut down a crucial russian gas pipeline to germany. if moscow invades ukraine. comments k

was german chancellor. all of sholtes visited washington. and in moscow, russian president vladimir putin met his french, counterbalanced manual comb, futon city hopes that war could be avoided. hong kong is seeing record karone of ours cases calling to question it strict. 0 covered strategy. measures remain in place including flight bands targeted lockdown send business restrictions. schools in many countries in southern africa went back to full time classes on monday, after nearly 2 years of a rotational learning system where students alternate days at school. but in zimbabwe, some teachers failed to show up for work her. mattel's reports from the capital had on it what was meant to be a full day of lessons for the students in zimbabwe. turned into a few hours of loitering because the teachers didn't show up off to be closed since december, because of the coven. 19 pandemic schools here have opened again. but some teachers

say it's not safe for all students. to return to class, we need more teachers. we need more space, we need more classrooms, and we need more abolition facilities if not been billed, show me a school, you know, we're in new classroom, broke or new toilet were, were built. your submissions with all this is politics. all this is just mere talk and nothing has happened on the account. then the is the issue of salaries and average work in the public sector in zimbabwe takes home less than $200.00 a month. there are 4 schools on the street. some teachers have turned up for class, others haven't, for years teachers here have complained that most public schools and equipped and wages are too low, ultimately is the children who are affected the most. charles, my dad, he got tries to explain to the students why he and some of his colleagues are not teaching. we need food right now. we need money for transferred to, we need to money for mitigation and to be our surgeons,

the schools this is needed now. so where are we going? is it and we love our country. we love our week. we love the children that we teach . we have your certified judgment with them, but the situation is just making it impossible for us to do anything. the government has so far, ignored demands for salaries to be paid in us dollars or this and bobby, and dollar equivalent saying the country can't afford it. to try and protect more citizens from the pandemic, the government is encouraging 16 and 17 year old to get vaccinated. but making all striking workers go back into the classroom to teach these children could prove more difficult. had a matessa algebra had any. israel's police chief has asked for an independent inquiry after report, so his offices use the controversial pegasus spyware to target citizens and softer and israeli newspaper reported police tracked several prominent figures using the hacking software pegasus program has been used to spy on human rights activists.

journalists and politicians around the world, gideon levy is economist at the hereto newspaper. he says the political earthquake caused by the revelations is only just starting. nobody should take you. there is a surprise when a country that is way sells those systems, those devices to the worst regimes in the world. when a country like is a whole 5000000 people in the west bank and gaza. either very, very strict and targeting, so it cannot stay there. we always say look, ever is that he's doing so there could be sure we'll get back into it and we slowly but surely damage this. so good is when democracy and this what we're witnessing now, they talk a former party senior officer from the secret services from the

shower. they nominated him is the chief of the police and law. everyone is surprised that he tried to import from his people and devices and methods, and we're thinking from the seeking services who are fighting terror into our domestic life. and this what's happened and day. busy yes, it is surprising by, by the identity of the people, you know, the prime minister, the son or the general manager of the, just this ministry. we are, i mean, those things you hear from them all the dark regimes not from the country. you claims to be a democracy, costa rica, said for presidential ran off in april hufton, no candidate secure with the 40 percent needed to win sundays election for my president. so they met her yet forget s came 1st spent the surprise. 7 round her up was the former. well, bank official, what we go?

charlie's on home and reports. oh, the winner of the 1st round of custody cause elections was expected. ex president jose maria forget is the runner up? was no good. rodrigo chavez, an internationally recognized economist, nevertheless, seen in costa rica is a political up star. after 6 months, his finance minister in which he classed with the outgoing president. now the 2 men who had to run off this april for chavez, who polled in full place. that's already in the achievement. bob was how enough they wound that wrong. we are going to a 2nd round. the new body who did youngest body of this campaign is going to the 2nd round. but we are leaving behind to conflict. the go from asia. some struggle to make peace with a man whom several women accused of sexual harassment during his more than 20 years with woe bank. he dismissed the claims his gossip and lies the man who now facing the run of dregs, the weight of his own scandal. behind him. those 3 committee accused jose maria

forget is of receiving bribes from a french telecommunication company back in 2000 and pool. he denies that the case never went to cool and presents himself the next president, running with one of the country's oldest parties, is a safe pair of hands. 10 points clearer, chavez, he's feeling confident or he got, oh, did a costa rica won it up on them? yet what was that not even the pandemic could stop the civic spirit of our people, then west a way of courage and love for our homeland, our responsibility to take our country forward. congratulations, costa rica to day we return to shine in the world the love. but that's painting a very rosy picture of an election which saw about 40 percent of the electorate declined to vote. that's the highest abstention for a 1st round in 70 years. only say that's not just you to the pandemic, but a general lack of enthusiasm for the political options, even as living costs rise,

and unemployment stands at 14 percent as well. now, seniority, forget is, and chavez. we'll see who gets the chance to tackle that as a run again in april. john holman, al jazeera, cuba is marking 60 years since the u. s. imposed its devastating sanctions on the island nation. but the world's longest running economic embargo has mostly affected ordinary cubans. un estimates the blockade is costly, allan, more than $130000000000.00, a latin america aricellus in human reports. the disintegrating buildings of tobac, once magnificent capital, a reflection of a crumbling economy in which was once regarding as the jewels of the caribbean. it's as though the country had been frozen in time back to 1962 to when the united states declared an economic, financial and diplomatic embargo against its tiny communist neighbor. it was at the height of the cold war. 75 year old roland ignacio reese was 15 then just 3 years

after the triumph of the cuban revolution. 60 years later he lament that the embargo is still in place of the robber. they should have removed it long time ago . if after all this time the united states has an achieved anything, it said tend to want no, it only has our people by the govern domains in place. he's not wrong. the world's longest economic embargo has certainly hurt ordinary cubans. limiting access to medicine, cheap us imports technology credit through a u. s. dollar dominated financial system. washington's purpose has always been to modify or force out cubans one party communist system. but clearly it's failed miserably. your global blood, on the contrary, in cuba case embargo has become a fundamental component for the survival, the cuban state. as current government a tougher the sanctions, the easier it is to accuse the united states of violating sovereignty destabilizing

countries and organizing rebellion. yet that is exactly what happened when economic hardships and restrictions on freedom of expression exploded into unprecedented mass demonstrations last year. good ankle, referring to 60 years of economic embargo, president miguel diaz canal alluded to sanctions against cuba as allies, venezuela, and nicaragua, w. the god galena are immortal. this criminal and immoral policy imposed systematically against us is a massive violation of the human rights of the cuban people and is the same one that is now threatening and attacking other nations of our region with unilateral course of measures. our sanctions against venezuela and milder once against nicaragua, daniel ortega have, in fact, encouraged alliances with china, russia and to run, making them less dependent on the u. s. no, or no. i don't know of any case and latin america we're sanctions of produced the desired results. even partially though the same might be said for unilateral

sanctions in other parts of the world. but while they may not be effective, they remain washington's preferred means of persuasion. you see in human al jazeera hundreds of mourners and morocco have attended the funeral of the boy at the center of a rescue operation. watched her on the wild. 5 year old ray on fell into a 32 meter well, last week. he was trapped 5 days while rescue teams worked around the clock to save him. his body was recovered on saturday. a new atlas developed by researches in france of the us as giving a clara but mixed picture of the world's mountain places. of his around $250000.00 of them around the globe. the findings by the institute of environmental geosciences and dartmouth college. so that overall they whole hold less ice and fresh water than expected. and it's good for the fight against rising sea levels. but the research has gloomy implications for drinking water, agriculture,

and power generation and places that depend on places as about a quarter less glacial ice and drinking water than previously born in south america's tropical. andy's mountains would run through parts of bolivia, columbus, columbia equity, peru, and that is why live, but it's the opposite in ages himalayan mountain data shows the region has about 30 percent more. i spend scientists anticipated to the war has the story. these mountain glaciers contain less fresh water than originally thought. and that doesn't just mean a loss of natural beauty. it puts the fresh water supply for millions of people at risk. it's easy to just focus on the impacts. oh, ice lot song torrison because those it was in the west and we'll visit glasgow systems as a later activity. but actually people who live around them and actually downstream from the more important it depend upon them as

a buffer the amounts all to the answers, the river systems from which they regain that crops and drink high resolution satellite images have allowed scientists to more accurately calculate how fast the glacier is moving, the foster and moves, the thinner it is and the less water it contains. that might mean the world, sea levels might not rise by quite as much as originally thought. what you have to keep in mind is that our student does not include the greenland and the antarctic ice sheet, who in the long term will be the major drivers of sea level rise. and just looking at the total volume of the eye, she compared to the glaciers. if all and dotted with males, it has the potential to increase the seat of a rise by more than 50 meters, which is way more than the 25 centimeters for from the glaciers. countries around the world are struggling with disappearing glaciers. peru is

investing in desalination to make up for the loss of fresh water and chile hopes to create artificial glaciers in the andes. but that won't be enough. we don't want all the classiest about. we want to last as long as possible. and the fact that there's 20 percent less i stole the mounting glasses. if nothing else changes means that they'll disappear 20 percent sooner. we don't want to be in a situation where there's no ice left on it. we want to preserve the ice on the earth and now overnight becomes a more difficult challenge, a challenge those most affected hope. the world will accept gillian wolf out as the ah, valves zera. and these are the top stories, u. s. president joe biden, his val to shot down a crucial russian gas pipeline to germany if moscow invades ukraine. his comments

came as german chancellor of schultz visited washington, germany, united states, together of our allies and partners, are working close.