not our great deal of subtlety, we're talking about the fall break in it is unfolding as they were somehow unique. it's not unique covering the way the news is covered on al jazeera. ah. the un secretary general antonia gutierrez, travels to ukraine, while russia expands. it's offensive in the east plus i'm a broker in the bowl, dove and capital kitchen. oh, well after a string of a talk, so the country's breakaway region of trunks, these tra, for a few years, a new front is opening up in the war, new cray. ah, i know i mainly anglin, this is al jazeera alive from tow. house are coming up. china imposes mall club.

the 9 team restrictions in bay ging millions remain under lockdown in shanghai and hundreds of flights canceled in guam jones. the world's largest producer of palm oil. indonesia imposes and ban on exports because of shortages and the largest exodus of cubans this century is taking place. i'm lucy newman in havana, cuba and coming up, i'll explain why and how it's been more than 2 months since russia's invasion of ukraine. the conflict has tested the limits of you and diplomacy and has been the biggest challenge yet for the secretary general. and tony, good terrorist is now in cave to see the devastation 1st hand is expected to meet president for letting me zalinski soon. gutierrez has repeatedly called for a sci fi am. on tuesday he met rushes,

president vladimir putin in moscow to push for humanitarian corridors. on the battlefield, ukrainian forces are facing the might of russian military in the east. in the past 24 hours, there has been feast fighting in the dumbass region. russian forces have taken these 2 towns in the east. they are pushing towards the cities of lime. amen. no papa sna on the front line defended by ukrainian troops. russian forces had continuing their bon man went meanwhile of the last pocket of ukrainian soldiers in the besieged city of mary palm. thousands of troops and civilians are trapped in the as of steel. steel plant on tuesday, president vladimir putin said there is no russian military operations them, but ukrainian officials say a humanitarian cast catastrophe is unfolding in the plant. 50 in the put any. there are 600 wounded men in our group with different levels of

they really need medical attention and health care. there is no medical personnel, all medication. there are also wounded civilian, hundreds of people and dozens of children. many people have limited mobility. the situation is very difficult. there are huge problems with water and food completely extraction procedure. today is not 19 forties. 2022 people will simply die here. european union for russia is using natural gas as an instrument of blackmail as part of its war in ukraine. why should stayed on the energy company? gas problem has hold to supplies to ukraine's allies, bulgaria and poland. moscow says it's because they refused to pay for shipments in russia. roubles with a baba explained. it had been predicted by some fear by many more. but european leaders see russia's move to hold gas supplies to poland and bulgaria because they weren't paying roubles. as aggressive comes as no surprise that the

kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to black. my last, this is something that your pin commission has been preparing for. in close coordination and solidarity with member states and international partners. our response will be immediate. united and coordinated moscow says countries can still pay for gas imports in euro's or dollars, but only if they open russian bank accounts, which then convert the currency and make the final payments. is thought some countries have already done so that bulk area which gets the vast majority of its gas supplies from gas problem is not one of them. yeah, i want to put them in dublin and we will not succumb to such a racket. but a great gary. i was reviewing all agreements with gas problem, including the agreement on gas transit, 3 bulk area. because one sided blackmail is not acceptable in the polish president just promised to take legal action. but the prime minister is insisting there's no

immediate threat saying storage facilities a 3 quarters full higher than most of europe. in patricia, as i've emphasized many times, poland had previously prepared to post you find supplies and obtain gas from various sources. even before the bolted gas pipeline is launched, will be able to protect our economy. to protect publish households from such a dramatic step by russia. some was so residents, if not all seem reassured, the 2nd thing to go to this man says, shutting down gas supplies might end up humming russia. he says his country has reserves 11. she was at the watch. while this woman one does how much pose like her will have to pay for developments linked to the ukraine war, saying things are already incredibly expensive. the use biggest economy germany has been the most reluctant to end gas import some russia, but a wednesday. it said it was speeding up efforts to find alternatives, including liquefied natural gas or to come and see. i can say this are russian gas

dependency, which was 55 percent before the war and dropped to 40 percent a few weeks ago. because now it's 35 percent and retreat. so for now, the common message is there's no need to panic, but it's hard to say how rushes move will play into the existing energy price crisis across europe. nadine barbara al jazeera, the white house says it's been in contact with you or pain countries to discuss the energy requirements. this is the type of step, the type of almost weaponized energy supplies that we had predicted that russia could take in this conflict. that is why we of course, have been in touch with europe, including over the with these countries, including over the last 24 hours with leaders in poland and guerria. and we have been working for some time now for months with partners around the world to diversify natural gas supply to europe, to in anticipation of and to also address near term needs and replace volumes that would otherwise come from russia. and ukraine president has also accused russia of

using its gas, applies as a weapon against europe. russia considers not only gas, but any trade as a weapon. it's just waiting for the moment where one or another trade area can be used to blackmail europeans politically or to strengthen russia's military machine, which sees a united europe as a target. hence the sooner everyone in europe admits this is inadmissible. to depend on russia and trade, the sooner it will be possible to guarantee stability in european markets. as western nations rally behind ukraine. and let me, person has warned of consequences for any country that interferes with russia's military campaign. vietnam, if anyone would want to interfere with what's happening in ukraine now from the outside, they have to know russia's response will be sweet and fast. we have all sorts of tools that the west cannot obtain and we will not post of our weapons, but we will use them if need be. and i want everyone to know that memo tensions

arising in the pro russian breakaway region of moldova, after a series of attacks in recent days, the interior ministry of trans mystery is says shots were fired on wednesday from ukraine towards a village, housing and ammunition dep home on tuesday it said 2 explosions damaged a radio antenna in another village. me backer is live for us in moldova capital key . she now hello their name. tell us more about these attacks and the significance of them while they are gardening significance in that it as an area of frozen tensions for many, many years now. but in the space of a few days, as you mentioned that have been this string of attacks is raised in a tremendous amount of alarm here, moldova proper, in ukraine. and also we've heard from the russian government as well as you mentioned there, the security building in trans nice. there was apparently targeted thought to have been by an r p g on on monday,

on to say to soviet irradiate mos in the north of trans nisa. were destroyed, is believe these must provide russian radio to the region. and on wednesday, these cross border attacks, according to the translation media shots fired into a village, where there is a sizable russian that have munition data reports also of ukrainian drones flying into the region as well. again, according to trans, nice to media, we cannot independently verify that at the moment the raw of course, given that there is no admission of responsibility, different interpretations of what has been going on in trends. these 2 are, according to ukraine. this amounts to a false flag operation started by pro russian separatist, backed by russia, possibly at to try and justify the bolstering of russians presence with entranced, nice jap, possibly in anticipation of season control of the region. again, we cannot stand that up at the moment. the moldova no authorities believe that they could well be some internal tensions within the transfer eastern all thirties. so

this could well be the results of a, an argument, divisions between the security services and the military. again, we cannot fully interpret what's going on there. the russians, as i mentioned, the ominously said, that they are watching what's happening in trans nice to have very, very closely indeed, because they don't even want to have you and 2 out of them. why? because from 11 to some lie and to what happens like right from keith ways to antonia gutierrez. oh ne cave. rather with antonia. good terrace. let's have a little look you don't actually have any audio of that vision that's coming through, but he's visiting some effective areas near cave. so as we get more information about what's happening there, way, where as we get more information, wait, we'll bring it to. but he will be meeting zalinski a little later in the day. okay,

let's head back to at nave now. who is standing by for us. sorry about that name. we just have to type those live pictures. tell us a little bit more about what the reaction has been of both russia and ukraine. given this area such a source of tension. us over saying ukraine's interpretation of what's happened in trans neesha is that this is very much a false flag operation, orchestrated by russia to justify possibly bolstering russia's troop presence within the trends. nice, joe, there is a sizable russian speaking population in the region. and of course, we know historically that russia has used the defense of russian speakers as a reason for moving a military into the regions of course, as happened in the done yes, because happened with ham scan in 2008 warwick georgia. that happened in south of santia as well as the moldova, and believe that they may well be some internal dispute going on in trends. these

dad, what we're seeing are acts of sabotage from within. the russians have said that they watching what's going on and trust these, they're very, very closely indeed saying that they don't want to see the area being drawn into a wide a conflict. the question is really logistically whether russia could actually, if it wanted to send troops into the area, it's failed to a stager, some phoebe, as landing in odessa, there are very few options as to how troops could actually access of the region at the time being though a security services are moldova, and ukraine are watching very, very closely. what's happening there, of course of this continues on a regular basis. they may well have to re evaluate their own security situation here. moldova, papa, and the east, of course, and ukraine, that is very, very. 1 worried about that suddenly being a new front opening in the west of the country as well. right? we appreciate that update. thank you very much. need backer, live for us in moldova as capital i can,

let's go back to our live pictures now of you crank. we will continue our coverage of the invasion is alive, pitches of un secretary general, and who has traveled to moscow before heading in cave or at were you more of that as it comes to hands, stay with us. ah, how i the weather is set to remain dry across a good part of northern europe. high pressure very much in charge. we could do with the rain. i'm afraid there's not too much of that in the forecast. is our area of high pressure on a flabby one now, but it's, i mean, the effect of just killing off these weather systems that we do have here. little weather frontline, perhaps a little bit of sharon but nothing much to speak of. the wet weather remains further south. we have got some big down poles coming in across spain and portugal,

southern areas of france, not a little system just making its way across austria sliding across the hungarian plain, pushing towards romania southern parts of ukraine. seeing some wet weather as we go through thursday, there's that dry weather. there's that settle. weather was warm as it has been recently announced by 14 celsius bestow plains. he warm enough at the time of the assembly temperature, therefore glasgow, england, scotland wells will not in darlin, generally dry and fine, little cloudy, the cloud trapped on to the high, but it will stay dry. over the coming days shall was continued and across a good part of us spain. thursday, given monday to friday, the wet weather just ease is out of the way. but northern parts of spain still seeing some wet weather. having said that, some of that cloud and ray will affect the far north west of africa, and of course a shout was gathering for the golden guinea. ah frank assessments, what are the political risks of banning russian oil? a gas for western leaders,

pull sanctions on russian energy exports was informed opinions. he's not abandoning to fight against jedi, still resume media going to be marketing from missouri and from chad. critical debate. could china actually help in russia's invasion of ukraine in depth analysis of the days global headlines inside story on al jazeera? ah ah ah, hello, you're watching out his ear. i'm emily ang, when he's reminder of our top stories. his alum, the un secretary general, is in ukraine way. he's to, to mate president for letting me zelinski gutierrez,

visited russia earlier this week as he tries to increase humanitarian aid and get more civilians out of besieged cities. and zelinski says russia is using gas exports as a weapon against europe. that's after russia's state owned, the energy company, cut off gas to both poland and the bulk area turkeys president is traveling to saudi arabia for today's visit aimed at repairing ties. ridge, a typo to one is expected to made. crown prince mohammed been selman during his 1st visit to the kingdom in years. relations between the 2 was strained after the 2018 killing of journalist to marcus shogi at the saudi consulate in istanbul. i've had to china now and officials in shanghai concentrating on vaccinating the elderly as they battle china's biggest corona virus outbreak. yet the city has been in locked down for 4 weeks. more than 9000 new cases were detected on wednesday,

and 47 people have been killed. most of them were aged above 80 years old. badging mail, meanwhile, is writing to contain its corona virus outbreak. clothing, some schools, as well as entertainment and suicides, officials found 50 new cases on wednesday. as i tried to test, most of the 22000000 people are live in the city. they have been locked downs in some offices, homes and a university after infections were found. let's go live now to katrina. you who live for us in beijing. hello. they katrina, you're working from harm because of the situation in the capital. we can see there in your landrum, what more can you tell us about the current restrictions in beijing and shanghai? i am late. well, the situation you're engaging is quite tense. people are expecting that a lock down could be announcing any day now, because we are seeing numbers continue to rise. authorities have conducted so far,

2 rounds of mass testing of final one is due on friday 2 more and after that from those results we'll see if there will be further restrictions. authorities have said so far they have found at least $138.00 cases in beijing, which doesn't sound like a lot, but this is the country that is still maintaining its 0 tolerance approach towards carbon 19. so as a result, we saw on thursday morning, a number of schools shut their doors in the classes on line. many people, including our team, had been advised to work from harm and attainment then years and tourist sites have also been closed. i think authorities here are doing all they can to avoid a city wide locked down. so we have seen a few dozen neighborhoods for example, barricaded in close off where they have found cases. but in other areas it's still business. as usual, though the streets are very quiet. meanwhile, in shanghai, they are still saying this city wide lockdown, worst of the cities 25000000 residents remain confined to their harms authority,

say they're thinking about whether some neighborhoods can have the restrictions loosens, and that will depend on another round of mass testing. but frustration is continuing that, i mean this locked down in shanghai was only supposed to last for 4 days. and now we've seen it go into its 4th week and katrina, their fame at fly cancellations in one of china's largest cities. gang jo, how wide spread ave that's right. so airport authorities and long jose by you and each national anake will announce to wednesday evening that $1111.00 flights would be cancelled. and that's because some airport stove tested positive off to some routine checks. now, by an airport itself is a major transit hub, not only for china, but it's one of the busiest airport in the world by passenger numbers. so these flight cancellations are going to mean that thousands of people traveling in china

. i going to be stranded and others are domestic flights. and right now the operations of many domestic travel agencies in airports are being disrupted. and this is not the 1st time buying an app, what has had to cancel some flights. it did the same earlier this month. it canceled all incoming flights because of the announcement of the shanghai locked down. so next week, as the beginning in china of the may labor day holiday, it's for us to last for about $3.00 to $4.00 days. and it's typically a time when many families travel throughout the country, especially now that international borders remain closed. but it seems that many people will be staying put in their cities no matter where they live, because domestic travel right now is extremely difficult. duties. current outbreaks or are we appreciate that update as always, katrina, you live for us in the capitol biking he was congress has passed to bill to help taiwan regain its observe a status of the world health organization president joe botton is expected to sign

the measure into low taiwan boys stripped off a status in 2017 because of objections from china. by ging considers the island a breakaway province. the world health organization says outbreaks of measles arising sharply. the number of cases reported in the 1st 2 months of this year is 79 percent higher than 2021. the agency is blaming coven 19 for interrupting childhood vaccination programs. most of the cases are being found in the eastern mediterranean region, parts of africa and in war zones. pakistan's prime minister chavez sharif has appointed a new foreign minister bill a well bhutto czar diary is 33 years old, making one of the well the youngest foreign ministers. he's also the son of assassinated, former prime minister venezia bhutto leader of the pakistan at people's party, a member of sheriff's national unity government bhutto is a diary and sharif had to saudi arabia on thursday,

on their 1st official trip cooking oil prices have saud to a record high, partly because of the war in ukraine, and they're expected to increase even more as india, the world's lading producer of palm oil stops. it's export ban. jessica, washington reports on how cooks are coping in the kitchen. and she counters south, some of the country's most popular dishes can be found in this small kitchen, fried chicken, fried fish and fried tofu. almost everything on the menu has one ingredient in common, palm oil and dung. city owning c opened this restaurant 30 years ago. but now she's worried, she could lose customers. i saw it on buffalo vieza, the unstable price of cooking oil affects my business long when it was cars, it was difficult, but now it's available, but expensive. had it so challenging for small businesses. turmoil is the world's

most widely used edible oil for months, concerns about price and availability have been growing in indonesia despite the country being the top producer. now the government is banning palm oil exports, including crude and refined palm oil by mouth that bowl that got up. i understand the state needs taxes along with foreign exchange and the country needs a trade bound surplus. but meeting the people's primary needs is more important up . it's a priority, illegal to one. the move has shocked global markets. the price of cooking oil has been rising around the world for a number of reasons. disruptions in production, increasing demand for biofuels, and the war in ukraine. the world's largest exporter of sunflower oil experts say the latest moved by the engine asian government is likely to push prices even higher. from oil is also used in processed foods, cosmetics,

cleaning products, and more economists say the government strategies to normalize prices have been misguided focusing on supply rather than problems within the industry. it may not solve the problem because again, the problem with the, with the cooking oil in the, in the, in the indonesian market right now is actually the, in the distribution channel. there is a bought on and you know, because of this complex and long, you know, distribution channel, the indonesian farm as association says, its members will also suffer. what does that mean? this time period should give momentum to the government to reform the palm oil industry and it's production model. right now, it's run by big companies and they set the distribution of palm oil material according to the market. and now the government intends the van to remain until prices reach around $0.97 per liter at traditional markets in indonesia. but it's

unclear whether this policy will achieve that. jessica washington out to 0 to carter key berries experiencing the largest exodus of people the century, driven mainly by worsening economy. the government blames the u. s. economic embargo. a latin american editor, lucy newman, has this special report from cuba capitol, havana, bud. old mary, maureen. 76 year old cool young on chalice has been making shoes by hand since he was 12 nor go from bible. hm. but i made this paper as a gift to my son's friend. that friend will be giving him temporary woman board in argentina to where he is about to migrate. he tells me it will be hard to leave behind his home, even though it is literally falling apart. his children and his wife migrated long ago. but he never wanted to leave cuba until now, and he will under the same daniel for the last 60 years, our leadership has told us that things will improve but will overcome all obstacles

. but we see the contrary. every day things get worse. we have less food, more social problems, going 0 girl by senior gonzales's. lucky he has a visa to enter his country of destination. vast majority of cubans don't. so they try to fly 1st to nicaragua, the only country where cubans can enter freely. but to get there, they need to transit through panama, which is now demanding a transit visa. cubans from all over the country. wait near the panamanian embassy to apply the majority in vain. honor and liberal camico has been out here for 23 days. we'll give you more than what we said are you, i'm a human being and i look around and can't understand that any human being can be treated like this. i feel humiliated, messy, and only o at the airport. another equally desperate group has become the latest victim of

a scan, an alleged travel agency that sold in tickets for a non existent charter flight to nicaragua, all about hello everyone. you see here the whole family was leaving today. and what were you going to do when you arrived in the garage? why ask on? i love it. many of us have nowhere to go because we've sold the house everything. cubans economic crisis has unleashed the largest exit is since 1980 when former president, fidel castro, allowed 820000 cubans to sail to florida. se tubes, government blamed the trump and bind administrations for the latest crisis. thought i heard both the recipe is to taught me economic embargo and keyboard to provide more hardships on cuban families. reduce salaries, provide hunger and desperation, and the overthrow of our government off. mm hm. since cuba government repressed an unprecedented social uprising by disgruntled cubans, last july. exodus has increased this despite the new obstacles placed by panama,

which appears to be cooperating with us efforts to reduce the influx of undocumented cubans. whatever the reason cubans are telling us that they feel trapped, and as a result, many are resorting to a far more dangerous method that hadn't been seen since the 19 ninety's. and that is to attempt to cross the shark infested, florida straits that you see behind me in a raft or in a boat in an attempt to make it to the united states. in 1994, during the so called rafters crisis, nearly 40000 cubans attempted to sail to florida. many drowning in the process to day history is beginning to be repeated back at the airport. the lucky few who had managed to get a transit visa prepared to leave cuba, final destination still unknown, but the pain of leaving their loved ones behind is agonizing. a scene that is being repeated all over the scarab be an island. she and human al jazeera havana

as return to our top story now. and you in secretary general and tony the terrace, was me keep where he was visiting some of the neighborhoods that came under attack by russian forces. he'll like to meet with president vladimir lensky. the you in chief had earlier visited russia before traveling to ukraine, following his developments. hold a bell. how may joins us live now from borrowed. young can ne keith, what are you within that media contingent? what was happening and what did the un chief have to say? he actually just left board danica or route to pin and then he will head to boucher for a mass burial. now these are all towns north have keep about an hour drive from keep actually bird young to that, that were badly here. you can see just behind me these residential building completely charged and reduced to

a car. now the secretary general was here briefly. he did speak, he did say that war and the 21st century was an absurdity. and he went on saying that he could imagine his grandchildren may be living in one of these apartment blocks and then running for their lives on the to bomb. so from now, from here, as i said, he's going to go to europe in which is, which has this very symbolic image of the war. that bridge that was destroyed. and you had all these people fleeing from, under the bridge as the russians were trying to approach keith. now, this is all happening. i had of his high level meetings 1st with the foreign minister dmitri labor and then was president zelinski himself. and i think it was very important for the secretary general to do this visit here and go and see for himself before meeting the president. what has actually happened simply because president a few days ago had expressed his.