the thief, a bureau which is actually made up of the 6th confederation president on the world of football, and on that would have included the way to prison. alexander saffron was already taken the champions league final off russia that was due to be stayed in saint petersburg. so it does look like one of those fluid situations, but certainly this decision has not gone down well with it. look in why actually faith is not taken the strong action that was being demanded. ah, this is al jazeera, these are the top stories. european allies are boosting the support for ukraine as the russian assault enters a 5th day. in an unprecedented step, the e. u, as agreed to fund and supply weapons were country at war, talks between russia and ukraine are due to be held at the border with bella. luce was a little gushing because a lot of the man is shook. alexander lucas shanker contacted me so that russian and ukrainian delegations could meet, i underline without any conditions. i'll say,

frankly, i don't believe in the result of this meeting, but let's try so that no citizen of ukraine would doubt that i as president, did try to stop the war when there was even just a small chance for despite that announcement to russia's put its nuclear deterrence units on high alert. maloof lead used to alicia western countries and not only taking unfriendly actions against our country's economy, but some top officials from nato countries of had aggressive remarks towards russia . that's why i command the minister of defense in chief of staff to put nucular deterrence forces on high alert of thousands of people arrived in neighboring slovakia as the russian attack and ukraine intensifies. there were matter the border by volunteers who distributed food, clothes and toys. slovakia is says it'll provide accommodation and other aid. the un refugee agency says more than 360000 people have left you train since russian forces invaded on thursday. some protesters in russia have been arrested,

as they demonstrated to call on moscow to stop its attack on ukraine. people rallied in st. petersburg where police tried to break up the crowd. demonstrations were also held in moscow and anti war protests have been taking place around the world. thousands of people gathered in the italian capital, rome to denote russia's invasion, some called for global solidarity to end the conflict. and in spain, tens of thousands turned out in the capital madrid. many we'll ukrainian, they say they're desperately worried about their family and their friends. and fever is the latest sporting organization to take action against russia, banning the country's flag and, and from, from international matches. and so on the team to compete under the title, football, union of russia, no international matchers will be played in the country. those are the headlines that he's continues here on our 0 after upfront. good bye joe biden will deliver his stated the union address in march. first,

the traditional speech will outline his achievement for days and we will respond and we have but with the cobra policy under pressure and award sitting situation in ukraine county, president, recent congress. he's on the right track, special coverage from washington. russia has launched a full scale invasion of ukraine prowling weeks of threats. troop build up along the 2 country, shared border, and failed attempts at diplomacy. with reports that russian troops have entered here, we speak with ukrainian member of parliament, leslie of russell ankle, who was currently in the capital. and we asked how we got to this point and what's next for her country. ah, let's see about the link or thank you so much for joining us on up front as we speak. you are in ukraine on the ground there in the capital of kia. what is the situation there right now? it's one of the most tense, the 36 hours that ukrainians have had at least ukrainians of my age

grade as us ward bleach war which is firing up all throughout the country. russia is targeting both military and civilian targets. we are being hit all from all over the place on the ground and in there and also from the side. and i guess. 6 ukrainians of shock. 5 of what we are seeing, what we are experiencing, and what we're living through, it's less than any kind of my math. you could have ever dream though. you say ukrainians are still in shock until very recently. ukrainian president vladimir valencia was downplaying, the risk of an invasion to avoid panic. and a poll from earlier this month found that only 20.4 percent of ukrainians thought that a full scale invasion would happen soon. did you see this coming?

i was hoping this would never come. i have lunch and these a t as to her as for the best and the back with the was of the many of the ukrainians. but to be honest, nothing can prepare you for a full long war with the biggest military power in europe, the biggest military power, the walls and the nuclear power. there's nothing that can provide you with stand that on your right. so really when the president of ukraine was saying that, ok look, we're actually a t, as we know we're going down, we had the stress of escalation and so on throughout the years, all of that was actually true. and i mean to have the population in panic in fear would have caused problems in the streets and would have played very well into brookins big master plan to eradicate independence ukraine on the face of the

earth. but instead, the population state bird was there was the ceiling of unity which was growing. and that's the feeling of unity is what is helping us right now with this child in poor speech to announce this attack on ukraine. he talked about how quote ukraine is not just a neighboring country. he said that it was, quote, an inalienable part of russia's history, culture and spiritual space. and that modern ukraine was entirely created by russia . given this mindset, was there any chance that ukraine would have a chance to function as an autonomous, a truly autonomous state? yes. on this is what you bring as are fighting or this is why myself or my mentary colleagues. the government, the present been, are asking about less than allies politically. what future has declared in his the

crazy my speech is the, is a pack of life carefully drafted for him by some kremlin, most of my it was an equally provides his mind on lack of knowledge about history whatsoever. so you print as an independent country, your credit is not russia. you bring in people love their freedom. we fight for our freedom. we bring our children up with the law of freedom. and this is what we're doing, since we know we are fighting on the defensive, against an offensive from russia to have the right to exist and to live. and i think that while any nation in the world, and he would be doing the saying that would be fighting for the country of the right of that country to exist in that same speech. vladimir putin also made the point that nato exercises have been taking place in ukraine over the past few years

. and he said that military contingency of nato countries have been almost constantly present on ukrainian territory under the pretext of exercises. given that nato has always been used as an excuse by moscow. do you think that needles, involvement in ukraine, carrying out exercises, but falling short of giving ukraine actual needle membership? has it ultimately hurt the country? look, ukraine needs nato. nato need ukraine in order to stabilize relations with russia. that is, as soon as queen becomes a member of nato, that's it. region has nothing to fight for the spheres of influence, as she likes to call, it would have been decided and, and over and game. but what respectively, the, the approach that's been taken so far, that is to say, the nato exercises,

the lack of full nato membership, did give, put in the pretext necessary to engage in the actions we've seen over the last 36 hours. if it wasn't for an acre, which i would have found another pretext, because brouge and one ukraine inside of russia does not admit an independent ukraine. fujen is crazy on this has been proven time and time again, starting from his speech starting from the show shows a trial style way. he made his decisions to invade ukraine and have recognition, so to speak from his people to invade ukraine. look, we are dealing with a psychopathic leader of a very, very big country of the very big army and other nuclear states. and i think that the world should really be mindful of that and not give into his lives on his manipulations. and be aware that if we are all to code this,

normally we should follow the rules set up for us after world war 2, which works pretty well. i guess i'm one of the countries followed them. but when one country starts pulling out from those rules, it's the responsibility of the international community to stand up to it. it says so and the un charter which all these countries that are now nato allies, they have signed together with the great. so it's now been around ability of the international community to stand up for ukraine, because ukraine has done nothing wrong. we haven't made a free choice as the sovereign state. we have not threatened russia in one way or the other. we have made a decision about how we act with our own directly, with our own military, and who are all partners. russia didn't like it. so russia uses its force and it's might to invade ukraine. i think you can sort of fans here. ah,

what the who is in the role and who is in the right a, how can ukraine much, much smaller country was much, much smaller and less developed army be a threat to, i'm sorry, i repeat myself, but the sad, biggest army in the world and the biggest, i mean your how we can, we can agree here that russia is part of the aggressive last week. president zalinski appealed to the international community as well as you have just done thing. we don't need your sanctions after them. bartman will happen. and after our country will be fired at or after, we will have no borders or after we will have no economy. why would we need those sanctions then? multiple countries, multiple countries of now announced that they will impose unprecedented sanctions on russia. do you feel that this is ultimately too little too late? what are these unprecedented taxes? where are they?

i don't see them on the see them president sanction would be the swift white crane wants to switch russia from swift. swift operations are used with russia to buy oil and gas, while a gas or the main commodities resources which feeds the russian. the condoms. if they're switched off from the swift, means that they don't get the payments for the oil and gas. so immediately we sort of took 2 birds with one stone. there's also to know isolation of russian markets and of rushes be the smartest. and clearly this would be the sanction which, which had the most just switching them off from the swift and finding them out the way to pay for the oil and gas. well, of course they won't care about switching off from the swift in that regard. so it's, it has to come together today. i think that the, the early right and correct most morally and legally thing to do. do you not the of the international community is a,

provide you great with enough defense to abilities and actually just contingent here. and you can see that we can, we stand for the blitzkrieg that back from russia and to is to import such sanctions that will actually isolate that country, or rather that's crazy leader from the rest of the world because the world does not need to be poisoned was the success, city of taylor, terry, and regime in an address to the nation on the 1st day of the invasion, president zalinski said we have been left alone to defend our state. but who is ready to fight alongside us. i don't see any one. you've talked about the kind of thanks if you'd like to see the type of moves you'd like to see the international community engage in. is there anything else you need the international community to do to recognise, to engage in order to see the current crisis in quickly? but the international community can choose either to act or to continue to was just political statements. political statements are very nice. we are very grateful for

them. they, they show who side to who people are on. but look, when you do treat the hash tag, stand with ukraine or support ukraine. it's not the mouth. you know, it's not the most stop. the russian may 1000, the russian lanes hovering over the cave and the russian thanks. moving into our roads and destroying them completely along the villages and along with innocent civilians. what needs to be done is really show us. if you are prepared to stand with us because you are standing with us, not, not just the state of ukrainians and a pretty big country in europe as well. you'll standing with your own safety and security. what we need now is actually un p speed be skipping contingency ukraine. since we are not the nato members of a fine, fair enough. but un was the general assembly can adopter solution all sending peacekeeping a contention since ukraine. they don't need the security council that we can go the

same way that the van in korea and mentioned 50. we've seen pictures of bombed out residential buildings. embassy international says that it's confirmed that civilians were killed in a ballistic missile strike outside of a hospital. in val had our and eastern ukraine, ultimately what would be the human cost of all of this for the ukranian people? it will be huge because it's not just the media casualties of war that we are still counting. but it is also the future of our children. the mindset was which they are often i'm of those 3. my oldest is 8 years old. he's a boy. and already i can see the damage. this is doing to him hearing older as dry . the sirens is seeing old, the playing, having to constantly go down and speak the shelter. ah, you know, this is what of the future. ukrainian generations are going to grow up out with

lots of psychological issues because of the war. and that has to also be known and understood, but so far as about civilian targets, $33.00 civilian targets have been hit. in the last 36 hours. this is absolutely and humane and unacceptable. 3 of those targets work in the gardens, children. they don't stop at nothing, those people and they're crazy liter. will you stay in? yes. i'm staying because i'm a member of parliament. i have responsibility to my people and i have responsibility to, to my country as the national citizen. and then the credit was born and raised, and i also, i have responsibility to my family today. ukraine is mobilized, meaning that everyone who can hold a gun is fighting and is holding that gone against the russian aggressive

does no way i can lead or a whole bunch of reasons that she has the link go. thank you so much for joining us in our front. okay. ah. in the past year the ice cream company been, and jerry's was accused of terrorism. actress emma watson was called an anti semite actor. mark ruffle faced, virulent attacks on social media. and a full page ad in the new york times portrayed musician do a lipper and models bella and ged deed superimposed over an image of a hm as rocket. what do they all have in common? speaking out and support a palestinian rights, but the backlash isn't limited to high profile companies or even celebrities. in recent years, there have been hundreds of cases involving censorship. and silencing of those in the west who advocate for palestinians is the label of anti semite being used to suppress voices calling for human rights. joining me now to discuss this are the

morality. she is founder and director of palestine legal and barry trachtenberg. he's a professor and historian of jewish history at wake forest university. thank you both for joining us on up front. but let me start with you. how is it that standing up for the human rights of one group of people, palestinians as come to be equated with anti semitism? well, i think we have to understand that this has been something that decades in the making . we're talking about a state israel that has done everything in its power to prevent a people that it occupies that it has dispossessed, that it oppresses that it practices apartheid against it. it's done everything in its power to prevent palestinians from gaining self determination from gaining their human rights. and so one of the main tactics that again has been decades in the making is an effort to sneer. anyone and everyone

questions. israel foundation on the dispossession of palestinians as anti semitic. the other pillars that, as you noted is too near them as terrorists if they resist, if they, you know, question israel's practices. and so we have to see it in this broader and much longer historical context of the ways that israel has been trying to repress it. growing solidarity movements with the palestinian people and this effort to typically redefine anti semitism in a way that encompasses basically any criticism of israel is, is, has, has really gained ground in the last several years. in particular, to the extent that this definition has been codified in laws around the world,

including in the us and europe, especially very backlash against celebrities and companies. makes the headlines of course, but there's also widespread retaliation against those who are less high profile, including really especially college students. academics. how has this issue affect the campuses in scholars it what this does is it forces students and professors to really self censor in profound ways. we've had a number of high profile cases in the academy, professors who have lost their jobs been denied job offers who have faced regular assault on account of their scholarship, which is peer reviewed. it's accepted by the profession itself. but very often it's outsiders, you know, potential donors to, to university supporters of israel, who mouth large media campaigns to try to get those professors defunded to get them

stripped of their titles and get them kicked out. the university's student groups also face this fordham university. there's a group of students who've been advocating for justice and palestine for years, who cannot get their organization formerly recognized by the university. because that message is cut out that they are anti semitic when there's no hint of that whatsoever. and as many jews who want to participate in the movement who are also banned from doing that work deemed to barry's point, one of the things that is remarkable about the backlash is that it has affected even jewish people. even jewish people have been accused of anti semitism, sen, bernie sanders, who is jewish, and lost family in the holocaust. a he's been accused of anti semitism based on his view that the u. s. should not be an apologist for these really government as well as for his support a palestinian rights. a lecount minister accused natalie portman, who is israeli and american of engaging in borderline anti semitism. when she declined to go to israel to accept an award out of protest against former prime

minister benjamin netanyahu policies. what do you make of the fact that even jewish people are being censored and accused of anti semitism? well, and barry alluded to, you know, this really is about policing 1st and foremost, palestinian expressions of their own history, their own experiences, their a reality under israeli oppression. and it also functions to make pariahs of anyone who stands in solidarity with them, who expresses support for palestinian freedom, who criticizes israel's own practices. and so i think it's part of the current developments over the last 10 or so years where you've seen increasing questioning within that jewish community of israel's practices. and that's in large part due to a strong grassroots palestine solidarity movement that has really integrated

palestine into the progressive move. very, there's also a generational piece to this as well. we're seeing divisions grow between younger and older generations of jewish americans as well over israeli politics. one jewish writer for rolling stone put it. she said she was raised to quote, unequivocally support israel. but she also explains that because the conflict is defined by quote, either you support israel or you support its destruction, it's difficult to quote, even consider the other side. do you see a move toward younger people, younger jewish american to particular supporting a critiques of israel and if so, why it's happening. i think because of the gap between sort of a promise of israel and the reality of israel has just grown so great. and as, as younger generations are paying more attention to questions of racism,

america, systematic oppression of people of color engaging in issues of, of queer rights. people recognize that there can't be this exception for the, for israel. and you know, my students, when they come into my class that i, that i teach on history and zionism, many of them has gone to israel on the free trips that are provided to college students for jewish college students called birthright. they've been raised going to jewish summer camps. they've been raised having a full on sort of zionist education, but they come to my class, really troubled by what they see on the news. right. so many students in the class this fall who are really worried because when the time when they're signing up for classes last spring, there were there was the takeover. shake your on communities and check your are just out of jerusalem. and students signed up for my class because they wanted to know more about this history. so i think larger and larger numbers of students are starting to engage in this question critically and they're looking to professors to

teach that work. but very often teachers are sort of held back there with strained for, from teaching this kind of history because the penalties for doing so can, it can be so high. dimmer anti semitism is on the rise with sharp increases in anti semitic incidents and acts of violence in recent years at the same time. so as the suppression of palestinian advocacy in 2020 alone, your organization documented at least $213.00 incidence of suppression, including a severe and harassment campaigns for those supporting palestinian writes. what are the consequences of restricting the range of opinions allow about israel and completing antisemitism? with criticism of his really policies, the consequences are quite stark. you know, this is about people's reputations about people's jobs, about the way that we can operate and talk and in

a civil society. you know that what we see at palestine legal, we're hearing from hundreds of people every year. is that there are, there is what we have termed a palestine exception when it comes to free speech in this country. and it's, it's just the tip of the iceberg, right? when we look at the ways that israel and israel advocacy groups here in the u. s. haven't tacked palestine advocacy through harassment campaigns or legislation that is curtailing our right to boycott for palestinian rights. these are templates for how the far right in this country is attacking other movements as well. the same kind of legislation is now being used to attack the environmental justice movement to attack the efforts to curtail gun rights. you know,

the proliferation of guns in the us, we already see legislation being used against other movements. so we know that palestine might be easier because it's a less popular opinion to support palestinian rights in general. it might be easier to suppress speech for palestinian rights, but it, it's, it's, it really is the kind of ice breaker for the curtailing of, and the undermining of all of our 1st amendment rights. so it starts with palestine, but it doesn't and there. and that's why we all have to care about us. dmo barry, thank you so much for joining me on up front. that's our show up front. we'll be back next week. ah

ah. we know what's happening in our region. we know how to get to play through that others and not a far as i said, i'm going the way that you tell the story is what can make a difference. my name is margaret. my manager is my material. my job, my france. abuse is brown, stood out for me. he doesn't really watch news with my nigeria on al jazeera

in a notorious waterside community. what kim's and thugs room one theater director ventures to stage a play there, call me mrs. add to empower the women that that whole man sitting right did value a and redefine their status in society. missus m nigeria. as women walk on water, witness on al jazeera, revisit drying out grazing land is shrinking in some roots long used by wildlife or migration. have been blocked by human settlements to deal with all this, kenya needs more money for conservation. and with the koran of ours, pandemic keeping many visitors awake revenue from tours. it isn't enough here at the hour selling national park, an annual ceremony has been launched the hall parisha than individuals pay 5000

years dollars. denise alison, the aim is to raise $1000000.00. much of it for conservation initiatives. ah, a fierce fight for ukraine's 2nd city as russian strikes pound the country. now both sides are preparing for talks ah, about this and this is all just here alive from doha. also coming up anti war protests.