ah, ah, the u. s. a. nato say there are no steins that russian troops are pulling back from ukraine's borders despite moscow's claims. oh, oh, a day of national unity. ukraine in defiance of a looming threats of a russian attack. ah, hello, i'm not matheson, this is audra. 0 live from doha. also coming up. devastating floods and months slides ripped through brazil's imperial city, patropolis, killing more than 90 people. and hospitals and hong kong are pushed to breaking

point. is coven 19 infections? continue to climb? ah, the u. s. a. nato say rushes, adding more troops around ukraine, and there's no evidence of a pullback despite moscow's claims. nato secretary general jen stoughton berg says the alliance will now look at boosting its forces in central and eastern europe from brussels. ne parker begins are coverage. fis bump diplomacy is defense chief some nato countries, including the u. s. in germany, arrive the lines headquarters to strengthen their stance on russia, and pool over the latest intelligence. and this is what they've been looking at. a russian defense ministry video claiming to show a partial pull back of forces from near ukraine. the kremlin says combat equipment and treats were leaving the crimea insular seas from key f in 2014 and returning to

base. but nato secretary general was quick to dismiss any talk of a d escalation of tensions. we do not see any sign of de escalation on the ground, nor withdrawals of troops or equipment. this may of course change. however, what we see to day is that russia maintains a massive invasion force ready to attacked with high end capabilities from crimea to but are us strong words to from european union chiefs in strasburg, urging moscow to come to the negotiating table. lou schwab was ordered the choice to days between war and tragic sacrifices that would go along with it or the courage of a political engagement, the courage of a diplomatic negotiation. very clearly european union chooses diplomacy and chooses negotiation. we will demonstrate discourage york. there was little sign of any

russian troop withdrawals in belarus on wednesday. this another show of military muscle for the cameras joint exercises would bella, russian troops, only deepening fears, a neighboring ukraine that had invasions imminent, on the land. and in the air, nato says russia has reached full combat readiness. but there is a shred of hope. in recent days, russia has signal that it will be willing to join talks about door remains open, do too much. and nato runs the risk of being drawn into a long, protracted stand off with russia due to little. and it runs the risk of a possible invasion in ukraine. something that could destabilize the whole of europe. russia is creating a new normal said stolen burg, by using force to contest the principle of serenity in europe. the alliance, he said, must respond possibly with a new nato battle group in romania. the hope of an easy end to the stand off. as fast fading near barker al jazeera brussels was been isabella,

zach and ukraine's defense ministry. and it's the worst the country's ever seen. the government suspects russia may have been behind it acclaimed the kremlin denies, and a show of defiance against a potential invasion. ukraine held a national day of unity. a 200 metre long flag was carried through the olympic stadium. and kiev elsewhere, president vladimir zalinski, attended military drills. wednesday was the day western intelligence services, and suggested that russia was likely to attack marshmallow hooligan, a completely. we're seeing a large concentration of troops. it hasn't changed over the last week. we're seeing some small rotations, but i wouldn't call these rotations of pullback of russian troops. costa lot there . we will confirm the pullback of russian troops once it happens and once a short period of time passes after the number of groups of military forces and hardwood decreases it those parts of the border. he shall stafford reports now from khaki eve on how a small but patriotic gathering marked unity day. ah,

upon us, young brother's fate shall yet smile our enemies will perish, liked you. in the morning, some words of the ukrainian national anthem o acoya was national dress of the ceremony in a park in the eastern city called give the gathering was held to mark what the ukrainian president followed me. zalinski called a day of unity. the flag was raised from half mast soldiers stood to attention after the national anthem, a singer tried to rouse the crowd with a popular song about morale and peace. ah, but only a few people came to watch. after posing for photographs to quiet, began to leave. joe, for the unity of our country, they want to be united. we want to be very united, nearby, outside the tent,

where for years people have signed up for the army and donated money. opposed to of the russian president and his belly, russian ally, and fellow neighbor of ukraine. but the city is calm. so when the it's quiet as usual is just the normal routine day. people whacking children at school. i don't know what will be will be. i am not worried. there is no point in worrying on a day when you as excel is in services, predicts a possible rush. an evasion of ukraine show of unity here in eastern city of car cave wants a small group of people. and their message is that ukraine remains unified against what they in the government and their western back. a say is russian aggression. char stratford al jazeera, called kiff rushes for the ministries marked western media for labeling wednesday invasion day dos. as your body has more from moscow,

we've been hearing statements coming out from the foreign ministry spokeswoman, who said that it really this is not something this country take seriously because of course they have no intention of invading ukraine. this was that a weekly briefing of the foreign ministry where as this spokeswoman said, that's a really, it's a rhetoric and it's hysteria that is created by the western media. let's listen to some more of what she had to say, or yucca before acre crises kicks me if there is a space on the u. s. state departments website that used to publish stories about the so called russian fake use our please publish stories about your own faith williamson graded by your american media. if you need examples, i shall send you some desk of and may be for the 1st time in human history, the so called aggressor, which the west appointed russia to be on the so called victim, which ukraine is being described as are both denying everything that is being reported marie, certainly vladimir point has made it very clear that he is not going to invade

ukraine, but he does want to have a conversation with his u. s. counterpart president joe biden, about the security concerns that he has about nato's further expansion with hospitals and testing facilities in hong kong, are buckling under the pressure of a major covert 19 outbreak. the worst since the pandemic began with beds filled to capacity, there are reports that patients are being treated in makeshift open air spaces from the mainland president. she's been paying said hong kong government has the overriding mission to control the 5th wave. but canada has been outside one of hong kong, busiest hospitals. here's what you saw. dozens of people are outside right behind me, lying on hospital beds, sitting in wheelchairs waiting for a hospital bed inside. many of these people are elderly. they're sitting in the cold. it is rainy, it is windy, and these are hong kong,

most vulnerable residents. this is the situation indicating that capacity is still a huge problem. now the hospital authority, they apologized for this very situation saying they feel bad, that this is the circumstance, but we are seeing it again today, indicating that indeed there is an issue of a hospital beds inside these facilities. now under hong kong, dynamic cove id 0 policy, they are calling it. this is the situation. this is the result that is happened. any one who tests positive for cove it even if you are a symptomatic. even if you have mild symptoms, you are required to come to hospital or go to a quarantine facility. and south korea infections have exceeded 90000 for 2nd street day, driven by the highly contagious on the con variant has also been a sharp rise and critically ill patients and intensive care units. people are being

urged to get a 4th vaccine shot or to deal fischer is chairman of the world health organizations outbreak alert and response network is also professor in the infectious diseases division at the national university of singapore. these joining us from singapore good to have you with a ser on al jazeera and obviously these are disturbing pictures that were seen from hong kong. but how surprising is it that it's got to that stage? hi robin, thanks for having me. again. what you're saying is actually nature take, it's course, if you do nothing, then most obviously widespread and transmission so. so to actually say cases people might be asking why there's a large number of cases. i would say that's the natural state and well done for keeping it 0 for so long. but you're always sort of, i guess, pushing against the todd this this outbreak. or this, this, this recent surge, i know, hamsters were, were accredited with some of the, the,

the arrival of coven, possibly tourists or travelers to other people that could have brought it in. and applying quarantine and only other measures to try and keep it out. we've seen this file eventually, and in most of asia, which was going over 0, australia, new zealand in china, many times were saying outbreaks seated possibly by fresh and pros and food so. so we know it's hard to keep it out and the natural state is for it to get in and stop to, to grow. china at the moment appears to be determined to retain its covered 0 policy. how easy do you think it might be for the authorities in hong kong to be more flexible in the way that they approach it? because from what if i understand what you're saying correctly, that having a 0 covert policy isn't that great in the long run and the has to be adopted. and

this is what you're saying in, in all the countries which is large part. so even malaysia, thailand, if you, if you go back to per year or 2 lau, vietnam and more recently, australia and new zealand, all these countries of have eventually had to accept it as getting in. there's a lot of pain and keeping it out. and when it gets in eradicating it again, is also a lot of pain and social pain. i mean economic pain. so. so yeah, the rest of the world is had to accept the that living with the virus is the, is the only long term strategy. and i think hong kong will soon have to come to terms with this because eradicating with their current numbers will take some extreme. and as i said, painful measures are corresponding but kinda was telling us earlier on that one of the paps, but surprising things was the low level of the vaccine take up. that had been in

hong kong and, and other parts of asia as well, particularly amongst elderly people, is not a surprise. i was a surprise to us when it happened in singapore. so i don't think it should be a surprise now. there's a lot of, i guess, a cultural mentality if you like that i'll have it later. we don't have a lot of code in the country. i don't know about this new vaccine business. so all white and we saw that in singapore and a lot of elderly unvaccinated people unfortunately died. so so yeah, it's not, it shouldn't be a surprise. now. are there any parallels to be drawn between what's happening in hong kong and what's happening in south korea? we were talking before cases in south korea exceeded 90000 for a 2nd straight day. that is a significant rise so any country has to have a strategy in its, in its head very clear and, and at the moment to still go,

if it covered 0, i don't think is unrealistic. i don't think it's realistic. and probably the concept of flattening the curve needs to come back. you can't just let it rip because there's, there's still too many people on baxon either than an even a small percentage of vaccinated. people can really put that still quite a large number. and that can put a lot of stress on hospital side. so i think it's good to control transmission, but you need to have reality in mind and that's the 0 who has gone. but you don't have to let it go out of control. you keep with the social distance thing, the mosque wearing the, the oscillation of positive cases, things like this. still important so that, so that you at least keep the numbers down and that protect your health system. really appreciate you joining us now to 0, giving us the benefit of your expertise. dr. dale fisher. thank you so much. my pleasure. sorta had an odyssey that we're going to tell you what's unique about the

local government in one us city and a 1000000 lantern light up the night for a special buddhist festival. ah, what can see your world's weather update for the middle east and africa? nice to see you beginning in the middle east, things in the la vance. a bit more. cloud covers starting to drift in here. but for the gulf states, things are looking good. we go on for a closer look that we're picking up just a little bit. nothing major though has got a high of 24 degrees off the bucket stand, things are settled here. they see a few showers sneaking around the hor, with the height of 19 degrees. and same goes for western areas of iran over the higher ground. for turkey, it's the com pitcher sons out, and it's the ball with the hiv 12 degrees. but again,

we could see more clouds filter and here the central portions of africa, we've got a belt of heat stretching from june about 40 degrees rate to buddha in nigeria. come in at $38.00, but our concentrated rain really falling further towards south. here's our remnants are leftovers of what was the tropical cyclone in the moves and b channel that's eventually going to move in to move and you can bring some flooding brains and more what, what, what weather for flood stricken areas of eastern south africa. but we've got to focus on madagascar 3 storms in 3 weeks. and look at this, we've got one to that potentially could steer into madagascar in the days to come. we'll keep you posted on that season. take care. ah. a unique yet endangered bio diversity lies in the heart of one of ecuador, tropical jungles. there was a lot of misinformation about the animals that we have here and now they're

probably allergens, become them by others of conservation in their communities. out there a journey deep into the rain forest to follow a scientist and had teams efforts to save the flora and fauna, so precious in the region. women make science. ecuador is hidden treasure on al jazeera lou. ah, your general does it remind about top stories? this are the head of nato, says the alliance will look at boosting its forces in eastern europe, western powers, believe russian troops are still building up our runs ukraine, and a show of defiance against a potential invasion. ukraine is held a national day of unity widen the state was,

the de russia was reportedly likely to attack on kong. hospitals have become overwhelmed with coven 19 patients. some could be seen in beds outside because it's too crowded in doors on comes leader. carry. lum says hospitals and clinics are struggling to cope. burskey roads have saved at least 21 people in brazil after flooding a mudslide swamp to historic mountain town. at least 66 people have been killed after the deluge destroyed eighty's structures in patropolis. mary received $25.00 centimeters of rain in 3 hours. that's almost as much as all the rain in the past month. gotcha, lovers for the young as for the forest in magnitude of this rainfall was unexpected. within hours streets across the brazilian city of the properties were submerged. nearby families are stunned as floods and mudslides get closer to their homes.

the current so strong it pushed vehicles along streets like toys. even a birth is aimlessly drowned away, nearly covered in water. families are now dealing with a devastating aftermath, including hearing about neighbors who didn't survive this good don't. j. it's very sad to see people asking for help and not being able to do anything. it's a feeling of desperation, a loss. our city is gone, our neighbourhood is gone. this group desperately tries to hold on. the mobile fire department says more than $250.00 millimeters of rain fell within 6 hours. that's more than the monthly average for the entire month of february. the region is still recovering from the damage of last year's heavy rains were more

than 500 people were killed. g can on this year again, authorities fear the death toll will likely rise. recovery efforts are underway, president hired boy. so nato who's visiting russia has called on the local gover when to deliver immediate support to what will likely be a long term operation. katia locus again al jazeera. the us says it's in the final stages of indirect talks with a rung to save the 2015 nuclear deal. france is also taking part in discussions and it's foreign minister says an agreement could be just days way in direct negotiations between the us and iran resumed last week after a 10 day haters. we are in the midst of the very final stages of, as i said before, a complex negotiation with the key stakeholders here. this is really the decisive period during which will be able to determine whether

a mutual return to compliance with j. c. p. away is in the offing, or if it's not, again, we are sincere and steadfast in our efforts to test the proposition as to whether a return can be achieved. in a landmark decision, the european union top court has cleared the way for the block to withhold funds from member states that violated democratic rights and freedoms. the ruling dismissed a case by poland and hungary, challenging the new funding law that you've been in a feud with poland and hungary as populous governments and protecting human rights city and government airstrikes have killed at least 4 people, and injured 3 others in the northwest of the country they targeted a fuel market in the last remaining province, held by rebels. volunteers from the white helmets tried for hours to put out the fire city is decade. old conflict has killed nearly half a 1000000 people. rebels from ethiopia to guy region are being accused of killing

civilians and raping dozens of women in the m harder region last year. and amnesty international reports as to guy and fighters, committed atrocities in the towns of china and cobble only half the victims of sexual violence. there say there were gang rate, some of them, as young as 14 years old. more than a 100 sudanese detainees including high profile politicians on hunger strike because of what the lawyers call unjustified an illegal detention there. part of the protest movement against the military takeover last october, at least 81 people have been killed and more than 2000 been injured in clashes with security forces. but can a facile crew leader has been sworn in as president, 3 weeks after toppling the democratically elected head of state follow when you send ogo de amoeba took the oath of office in a televised ceremony, which had no fallen representatives and attendance eletta melodies on her that

overthrew rosh mark christian cowboy, a last year former president of 100 coin ollander. fernando, as appeared at his 1st extradition hearing. united states swanson handed over for allegedly engaging in drug trafficking and adam was arrested at his home on tuesday . he left offers less than 3 weeks ago after 8 years as president a canadian officials as truckers protesting against mandatory covered 19 vaccinations of dismantling their last blockade on the u. s. border by demonstrators in the capital ottawa esteem put, police have ordered the protesters to leave threatening to arrest drivers and cancel their licenses. if they don't, they've paralyzed the center for more than 2 weeks, demanding the vaccine mandate and other restrictions should be scrapped. contract and the u. s. state of michigan has long been diverse city in recent years is

welcomed. growing numbers of immigrants in the middle east and south asia. now it's become the country's 1st city to elect an all muslim council. as john henry reports, the, the city of ham trimming put a new face on representative government in america for a century. it was a polish american enclave in michigan, surrounded by the city of detroit. now a wave of new immigrants from yemen, bangladesh, pakistan as eroded, the dominance of warsaw in 2013. the city became majority muslim. yeah, a call to prayer echoes, passed the goth expires. of catholic churches in the aromas of poland. mingle with the sense of the east. so this year for the 1st time, the mayor and all 6 members of its city council or muslim. the only entirely muslim city government in the united states may or armor gallops as him traffic's tale is the latest evolution of the story of america. the american dream is

a life and the doors of opportunities are open for everyone. and i came as an immigrant in high school, i was after miss 11 grade in the men and i did all my schooling here. and now i am the mayor of the city. the mayor echoes as similar sentiment to that of another barrier. breaking politician who came under fire for his religion before becoming president in 1960 because i am a catholic and no catholic has ever been elected president. the real issue in this campaign have been excused, and i believe in an america where religious intolerance will some day and are all man and old church is treated as equal down john ham traffic bridges. it's past with its present with a polish american congress. right next to a bangladesh you business, what's changed is it's now just 7 percent polish and majority muslim. the changing

face of the city hasn't come without controversy. there's the people who want to be like, oh, they're going to bring serial law and all the women are going to be forced to cover and women aren't going to be able to drive anymore. all of those things, right? so amanda, you cowski spans the cultural gap here. a polish american who converted to islam said bob sher because it's gramma and polish. this is when she lived in ham traffic . she says the issues here are neither religious nor cultural. the kind of problems of many cities like a high poverty rate in the united states, we have a separation of church and state. we have those principles of making sure that we're representing everyone. and we're not bringing religion into that sphere in terms of the way that decisions get made. both processes happen. there's not that much of a difference. city leaders are hoping the new found attention might bring tourism in commerce to the home of america's newest wave of immigrants. john henderson, al jazeera, him traffic, michigan in indian administered kashmir. i sent you his old mosque remains out of

bonds for friday. prayers. the mosque was closed in 2019, when the government revoked the regions autonomy authorities of long seen it as a place of anti government activities badly metal reports. this imposing structure holds especially place in the hearts of many cush metes. for centuries, the grand mask has been a venue for prayers and an arena for political activism, but has largely remain closed for nearly 2 and a half years. he was, as you almost reported, you my, you, i come every friday for prayers, but all in vain. the mosque remains closed. i feel sad and distressed. we believe operators will be answered if you break the jam, your must chip on fridays. i know it used to give me solace. push meters claimed in full by india and pakistan, but governed by the 2 nations and bots. indian administered kashmir has seen protests and violent uprisings against new jellies rule for decades. the grand mosque has played

a role in driving these in august 2019. the government revoke kush me special status and imposed a communications blackout. it also shut mosques in this muslim dominated region. while others have reopened, the gran most leader has been detained in his home, and the grounds have remained out of bound. so friday, pres, in the past, tens of thousands of muslims attended these, which not to wear through 3rd, which are some elements. so want to disturb places like these and creed in impression. internationally, i think of muslims are being suppressed in india. i think security agencies took these precautions to prevent that. in the heart of the main city, sheena go. the mosque is a major meeting point for people who live here. sermons would address, cush me is political struggles, while authorities have closed it for extended periods in the past. it's closure now has raised concerns about religious freedom rudo holiday through in these times we are seeing unprecedented suppression pressure and tyranny across india,

particularly in kashmir, where even religious gatherings are not allowed to lose. our gram mosque plays a central role. it's closure and the case in these claims of secularism and democracy. the government has also blamed the pandemic and says it will last local authorities for a security review to reopen the mosque. but cushman is a skeptical and say new delhi has made similar excuses in the past to crack down on their freedoms. park, new metal, al jazeera, new delhi. one of the most important festivals for buddhists has been celebrated in spectacular fashion in thailand. 1000000 lanterns have been letters, part of combinations from michael pusher day has been staged by talons de marquee or buddhist sect was as mocking, 52 years since it was founded. the movement is considered somewhat controversial due to its unorthodox interpretation of buddhism. its wealth and its links to a former prime minister mclaughlin neglected rom, fenmont. seen many people coming here and lighting the lantus together,

really shows the power of, as buddhists is like, we are all helping to spread the teachings of buddhism, even though their religion is already 2600 years old. that obama, this event is to uphold that is and pay gratitude to the sacrifices lord buddha has done this day is important to everybody, no matter if their buddhists are not. ah, this is audra 0. these are the top stories. the head of nato says the airlines will look at boosting its forces in eastern europe. western pros, believe russian troops are still building up around ukraine, much more hooligan, a capitulation. we're seeing a large concentration of troops. it hasn't changed over the last week. we're seeing some small rotations, but i wouldn't call these rotations of.