to the brink of extinction, one or one he's discovered how they're fourteen's happy turned around a year on from russia's evasion of ukraine. al jazeera looks at the impact asks where events might need from here. rigorous debate, unflinching questions. up front muslim on tail cut through the headline to challenge conventional wisdom. nigerians vote in what's likely to be the most closely contested election in the country's history. from those that will they to those who confronted people. in paula investigate the youth and abusive power around the world, february on a jesse that, ah, leopards, from germany, abrams from america, ukraine's battlefield prospects get a military boost as it prepares for

a new russian offensive for ukraine's ability for your freshman aggression, to defend his sovereignty and territorial integrity is a world war 2. 0, hello there. i'm jim donald. this is al jazeera, alive from london, also coming up 9 years after the downing of flight mh 17. the european court of human rights and, and says it will here case against russia. the politically charged trial into the bay report blast lebanon's top prosecutor orders. all suspects are released and tired of being left in the dark, protested demand action after years rolling blackouts in south africa. ah very warm welcome to the program. ukraine has received a massive military boost from its western allies as it prepares for renewed

offensive by russian forces. 11 months since the invasion began. the u. s. has declared it's sending 31 back old tanks from the m one abrams class to ukraine just . i was after germany finally relented to pressure from its allies and announced a historic decision to send 14 leopard to tanks. berlin will also partner countries to deliver german made tanks from their own arsenals, spain, vinland and the netherlands have suggested that they are open to sending their tanks to ukraine as well. the u. k is also sending 14 of its challenger to tanks. well, russia government is furious, it's accused germany of abandoning its historical responsibility to russia, citing nazi crimes in the 2nd world war. it's also dismissed the tanks from the u. s. as a waste of money. but m a c u crane will need 300 times to push back a potential russian offensive in the east and south east and korean and says that it needs western fire power to break russian lines and recapture territory. well,

in the last, our us president joe biden says, sending the tanks will ensure, recreating in our, in the strongest possible position to defend their nation davis trying for the most capable tanks in the world. they're also extremely complex to operate and maintain . so we're also giving ukraine the parts and equipment necessary to effectively sustain these tanks on the battlefield. we began will began to train ukrainian troops on these issues of sustain logistic and maintenance, soon as possible. to live in the tanks of the field is going to take time. time that we'll see will use to make sure the ukrainians are fully prepared to integrate the abram tanks into their defense. white house correspondent, kimberly how could join us live now from washington? hi there. kimberly, what more can you tell us? yeah, well i can tell you that the u. s. president has made this decision after a lot of deliberation and hasn't taishan given the fact that this is an overriding

of advice by his generals at the pentagon, who cautioned the u. s. president against sending the abrams tanks as to simply because this is an older technology, have to remember that this was machinery designed back in the 1970s. it is operated on jack fuel. and so the logistics involved in getting these to the battlefield and maintaining them is quite extensive. so as a result, there were concerns about sending these, but in the end the u. s. president believes that this is the right decision and as a result he will be sending also the logistics support in order to ensure that this is successful. he believes this will be a successful. so strategic decision and we'll be definitive in helping the ukrainians in their fight against the russian invasion of ukraine. now to that end, we should also point out that the national security spokesperson, john kirby has been briefing reporters in the white house briefing room in the last

few moments saying that, well, this is something that the ukrainians have been anticipating and asking for. it may be a while before they receive these 30 when abram tanks. in fact, the word is that this will be many months before they are received. and that is something that will well be welcomed, may not be what they were looking for. and kimberly, russia sees this as an escalation, but what is the usa to that? yeah, we were hearing in advance of this announcement and we should point out this announcement was dining coordination with allies, with france, germany, italy, and the u. k. of what, what we've very clear in advance of this announcement was the word from russia that this would be seen as a blatant provocation. but the u. s. president countering that saying just the opposite. when he made this announcement, he says, this is not an offensive threat. to russia and said, what he said is,

this is simply about allowing the united states to support ukrainians and their defense of their land. and that this is really up to russia that the end of this war could happen today. and this is simply about russia deciding to withdraw its troops, if it decides to do so. this could all be over in a matter of days. but so far, the russian president has decided not to do that. and so you, a support for ukraine will continue indefinitely. kimberly how they're with the latest, from the way has. kimberly, thank you. well, berlin has faced weeks of mounting pressure from neighboring countries to allow it's left with 2 tanks to be sent to ukraine. dominant came reports nan from berlin . the leopard too, is one of the most widely used tanks in europe, manufactured in germany, but exported around the continent. it is the weapon system. the ukrainian government believes it needs to fight russia and for weeks ministers and key if have called on ministers in berlin to allow them to use the leopards in their

country. now that call has been answered. 14 german tax will be sent to crane and other european countries will also be allowed to send this from the seo. our goal is to quickly make 2 tank battalions available together with our allies. but there are a lot of countries which would also like to contribute in the deliveries and we will coordinate and ensure that it becomes possible step by step the i'm, it seemed the chancellor says he understands many germans are deeply concerned by his decision. but at least 4 other european countries are already said. they are prepared to use their leopard twos to help you crane you're ready to participate in one or another way. those. there are many ways to do it because we know that her, her, the slope of the issue or so need training for the drivers for the maintenance and so forth. it needs spare parts. it needs the whole ecosystem of the gilbert tanks and b, b, b. consider what is the best part for us?

here are the russian embassy in berlin. the reaction has been quick and condemning . the ambassador says that germany has abandoned its historical responsibility to russia, brought about by nazi crimes during world war 2, calling the decision extremely dangerous. he says it takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation. and yet some analysts believe that with russia reportedly building up its forces for a spring offensive, germany felt there was no alternative to allowing leopard two's to be sent to ukraine. every one, all the military extra, are expecting that russia is preparing for spring. and the europeans now want to back ukraine in the ukranian government and ukranian army to be ready to defend the country. in sending his country's tanks to ukraine, all of shots has done something. no other democratic chancellor here has done allow another country to use german tanks to fight russians in a war in europe. and so,

while shalt says, stated goal is to prevent an escalation between russia and nato. it may not be too long before the heavy weapons of both sides are in use against each other in ukraine. donna cain, al jazeera berlin, where your grains present been floated years. lensky has treated that americans decision to deliver a one time susan, important step on the path to victory. he also praised the decision by the german chancellor stressing once again, ukraine's gratitude for the release of leopard tags. natasha butler has more now from keith on ukraine's reaction to germany's decision is good news for ukraine. keith has been waiting for this decision from germany for many weeks now present. laudermill lensky, put out a tweet, saying that ukraine is very grateful indeed to germany. so this is something of course is being welcomed by keith, but a top presidential aid said in a reaction little bit earlier today, this is welcome, but it is a 1st step and

a 1st step that is because we're talking about a few dozen times perhaps being frontier somewhere around a 100, but keith has said time and again that it believes it needs at least $300.00 tanks in order to be able to defend itself against ongoing attacks by russian forces. and then there's also this question of time to every day is critical and crucial, and what needs to happen. now, from key point of view, if these tanks to rise for the soldiers to get trained on them foster also for them to be trained and how to maintain them all the kremlin has dismissed the plan. that's called absurd spokesman dmitri pe scope said keith's allies were over estimating the benefits to ukraine's armed forces. he showed no blue change, just touching books, statist. each time can get a good thing. to go to be sure to value as a diligence and not the h

b j piece. keep plenty committee concepts at me and before you have me green says it forces have withdrawn from the heavily contested type of solid on the eastern dinner. screech and military spokesman said it was done to preserve the lives of personnel. the salt mining time in the epicenter fears, fighting for months with russia prioritizing its capture. ukraine's announcement comes almost 2 weeks after russian troops said they had seized the time. european court of human rights has announced it. we'll hear a case against russia over the downing of flight m. h. 17. all 298 people on board . the malaysia airlines flight were killed when it was shot down by a russian made but messiah in 2014. now the massage was launched by ukrainian separatist backed by moscow, but russia, as all, was denied any involvement. maria could do, who is an assistant professor of international criminal law at the university of

amsterdam. and she says, the corporal now decide of russia violated the human rights of the victims and their families. because now the court has said, not only that, russia has a had jurisdiction in an area extra territorial jurisdictions over responsible in that area. but also that indeed, the victims of frances make 17, couldn't have expected to go to russian courts to get their justice. but because the system wasn't accessible, effective or adequate for them. and that there was patterns of violations. now this case can move to the merits phase, and so in the next ill probably take another year, a couple of years. the court were really assess, what are russia actually violated all those rights that are guaranteed under the european convention of human rights. ah, lebanon's talk prosecutor has ordered the release of old suspects detained in

connection with the beirut port blast back in 2020. more than 200 people were killed when chemicals stopped in a warehouse caught fire causing the explosion. the prosecutor has also filed charges against the judge overseeing the case, who resumed his investigation into the explosion. on monday high level political interference and legal complaints had paralyzed. the pool for more than a year. i at my job is the deputy director for the middle east, amnesty international, and she explains why the investigation into the blast is significant for lebanon. we see this as really a battle for 11 on the future. are we going to have a kind of country where those individuals who are responsible for blowing up the country are held accountable or one where they're allowed to escape accountability . as you know, the invest the domestic investigation into the group last has been suspended now for almost 13 months. on monday, the lead investigator issued an opinion,

legal opinion that he said would allow him to move forward with the investigation. and on that basis he charged 8 individuals, including the top public prosecutor, the son always act in relation to the blast. and he also ordered the release of 5 of the 17 detainees who currently remain in detention since august and september of 20. 20. obviously the political establishment and all rally around him, they said that he did not have the power to move the investigation forward. that the investigation was still stalled and just culminated with the public prosecutor who him help is charged in the case and who had refused himself from being involved in the last case due to his familiar relations to some of the defendants. previously, he issued a decision to remove, to reduce all of the detainees in the case. effectively bypassing judge, taught at the type you'd investigate the case, a very complicated legal situation. but we all this to say is that the political

establishment, the ruling establishment, are doing everything that they can to prevent judge time from moving forward with the investigation. they are doing everything that they can to prevent the truth from coming out. and for those high level officials, responsible for the last to be held to account still succumbed power, how africa can feed itself the world, the summit that's discussing how to improve the security in an entire continent. and the wearable tech that will change the way to play, work and live, and how it can transform humanity. awe thanks for tuning in. we've got some severe storms rolling across greece, that energy will hop into the g and, and eventually slam into western turkey

a on friday, it's going to be a soggy forecast in on talia. let's go back to the here and now on thursday, and we get some what weather to the south of italy on. so this batch of what weather just swirling around the adrian dixie. not too far off the coast of albania, which of course is a country where we've seen some flooding. let's talk about those low temperatures across both spain and portugal. we're approaching record lows for the month of january dark, the blue, the lower the temperature. it could be sub 0 in severe we can up on thursday morning. now in terms of that act of weather, weather pours into the north coast of spain. some snow as wall of cloudy day madrid, with a top temperature of 7 degrees. fortune are changing in england. finally, the temperature in london 8 degrees, which is exactly where you should be for this year. and with all that active weather in the mediterranean, it means still wind and rain for the coastline of morocco, algeria and tunisia. now in terms of our tropical storm, it's still wobbling around in the booth and b channel. it's going to drop more than

a months worth of rain on that west coast of madagascar and also heavy falls of bringing the forecasts for the soccer on thursday. okay, got it ash soon a bit. ah, to inculcate a culture of knowledge, openness and pluralism, world wide had to reward merit and excellence and encourage creativity, the shape, tomato, ward for translation and international understanding was founded to promote translation and honor translators, and acknowledged that road and strengthening the bonds of friendship. and co operation between arab islamic and wild coaches. ah, ah ah,

ah, there could come either on top stories here on al jazeera ukraine has received a massive military boost from its western allies. both germany and the u. s. have agreed to send tanks. berlin has also lied partner countries to san german made tanks from their sales to ukraine. russia has dismissed the plan as absurd saying keeps allies were overestimating the benefits to ukraine's on forces. a cremeans force person toll journalists that these tanks will quote, bern like the others on the european court of human rights has announced it. we'll hear a case against russia with the diving a flight. mh 17 o. 298 people on board. the militia airlines flight were killed, but it was shot done by a russian made book messiah. in 2014 south africans have been protesting against some of the worse power cuts in living memory,

which are expected to continue for 2 more years. earlier this month, many households didn't have power for 6 to 10 hours every day, and people say food is rotting in their fridges. it's caused massive destruction to business day re, pharmacy. they have to regularly dump a day's production of milk because they can't keep their fridge is on the fast food outlet. kfc says around 70 of its stores are closed as chicken supplies struggle with outages and from laundromats to groceries to was an even funeral services. many small businesses say they've had to cease trading because they can't afford generators, will ask em, has pleaded with consumers to save power, but keeping most appliances off after 4 pm, switching off their air conditioners and only boiling as much water as you need, without filling up the capitol all the way for me to miller reports. now from johannesburg. the power cuts began 16 years ago, aging and poorly maintained power. plants, state owned power utilities,

short of funding and corruption have made them worse. outages could last anywhere between 6 and 12 hours a day. some areas are often without electricity for days. economists say the blackouts are cost in the country, thousands of jobs and damaging its economy. the government and state utility companies call that load shitting and it's angering much of the country. yes, i'm very angry. i'm really good heads and rates. i'm very angry because i don't know how to act with up what you're good after you read it. and that means that the people of this country a gave the correct government that we had in fine for what we had right in this country. it's time for us to sense, given some businesses, assuming the government for their losses, the poultry industries had to call. tillman and tricks. as shortages of electricity have delayed production, and agricultural producers have asked for exemptions from the blackouts. with many concerns, food supplies will be reduced. the national energy regulator says the cost of

electricity will go up by almost 20 percent later this year. get the good all of your protests like this one, both in the rolling blackouts. the probably just going to see if they will continue for at least another 2 years. despite that, people who are hoping that frustration is because it's too late and the economy and country and with a mental health is there are people in bangladesh facing their own energy crisis with fuel costs and power cuts increasing the main opposition party called for nationwide rallies to demand action on the soaring cost of living it wants prime minister, shake has seen and to resign and the caretaker government to take over until elections are held. africa needs to learn to feed itself on the world by producing more food instead of relying on imports and a message from center goals. president marky saw who's hosting a summit on africa, food security. well,

the constant is facing is worse food crisis ever more than one in 5 africans record 270000000 people facing hunger, that's according to estimates by the un will export, say, foot in security has become worse because of global inflation. conflicts like the war and ukraine, climate change and debt burdens from the corona, virus pandemic, or presidents. all things. one solution is to farm more crops, saying 60 percent of arable land and africa isn't exploited. he's also called for african states to allocate 10 percent of their budgets to aqua cultural development . nicholas' hoc has more now from the time of d. m. a nia deal. in cynical. yes, this is bryce from northern senegal for africans. and this is the type of projects that people here at this conference want to support with a theme of trying to end world hunger. but here's the challenge. more people to day are suffering from malnutrition or hunger than ever before. 285000000 africans are

suffering from malnutrition. dozens of heads of states from africa gathered here to try to find a solution to this. and for president, mikey saw the head of the african union. this challenge offers opportunities, blah, blah blah. africa must learn to feed itself and contribute to feeding the will. we have the potential. we have 1400000000 inhabitants established on more than 30 kilometers, with more than 60 percent of the unused arable land on the planet. so much of this form is about trying to protect farmers who produce grains like millet or sorghum. they are often referred to as super food and they can help tackle hunger and malnutrition. but here's the issue there also suffering from the onset of climate change in the russia ukraine crisis, which means that diesel to power water pumps the price of diesel has gone up and

also the price of fertilizers. so some of these issues will be discussed during this event. sometimes challenges become opportunity. it is jordan this crisis that with a less oh, why come to look under some of this things like fabricating small equipment? we are doing it. we have agencies of sans and technology that are now producing power to less planters, which we used to rely on just importing from other countries. so challenges come to come an opportunity and that is what the russia ukraine crisis is as bringing out to the southeast world. leaders gathered here are trying to raise $3000000000.00, but that's a poll trim out compared to what the united nation says is needed to end world hunger. they say the world leads to raise $80000000000.00. now there is enough food produced on the globe to feed everybody on this planet. and yet here in africa, people continue to die of hunger. israelis and palestinians living in israel have

united in protests against the new far right government is really critic say its agenda is a threat to democracy and palestinians fear further injustice and discrimination. hockman my reports now from jaffa, near television, many protesting for palestinian rights in israel. say the are fast becoming further marginalized, major protests against the new far right government. and it's passed to change the judicial system or occupying the minds of men in the country. these demonstrators and jennifer argue that tens of thousands protesting into levies against the government are white to feel the worst and want to see if god, democracy. but the few injustices and discrimination against the palestinians are worsening. and that's being overlooked. this issue, it's the main cause of conflict and beat them is between both sides and it's

totally against my personal value. on order for, for my point of view against the jewelry, these in value there is, is that if you really jewish cities in agile and you'll see a lot of things outreach together, some of them are on his own is not part of the others are a liberal democrat who really look for women like mass equality, they are running themselves the camp of equality. they are calling for equal rights for both of these ladies and the medicines alike. and they believed that all. 7 successive governments in israel have not addressed the root cause of more problems, which is, as they say, occupation, not the protesters until the, the accused prime minister benjamin netanyahu, of plotting with his new partners to dismantle democratic checks and balances. but

for this is really peace activist. there's one big missing piece in the political. jake's whole meaningful college that the, the roots of, of the problem which are not only these government, but the whole dishonest regime. we're talking about decades of indoctrination and of concealing the historical facts of what has been going on here from 48 and even before ha, for these petitioners, discrimination against the palestinians is growing. and the state that will get worse in israel and the occupied territories, as long as it's people are treated differently. i'm mad under sierra geoff. more than 100 people have died in freezing temperatures in afghanistan. officials say most of those killed were those living in remote rural villages that have been cut off a because of heavy snowfall is thought to be the coldest winter of canister has experienced in a decade with temperatures as low as $34.00 degrees celsius. 8 efforts could be hampered

by ruling by the taliban bonding women from working in n g o z, which is whole to operations in recent weeks was billed as the world's leading expo in wearable tech has opened in tokyo. japan has always been seen as a pioneer in the latest high tech consumer gadgetry, but that reputation has been slipping in recent years. rob mcbride report snack from tokyo. they're the latest in wearable gadgets for the way we live and play. and the way we work. whole supported by advances in the virtual ways we interact with our world. oh my god. ok, there's a woman here. i feel rather embarrass. okay. that's rather disturbing. and then some devices that leave you wondering where the humanities, the winner or loser. so you can check 100 workers to make sure they're all concentrated. yes. if someone's not concentrating what happened to them then?

japan once plays the trail, is the world's pioneer in the personal catch it. oh, what? yes. but it now lags behind its rivals in finding innovative ways to use its high tech skills. i'm using this kind of glass it for more than 20 years. in the west, especially the united states, is more of a mood of innovation. japanese consumers are not as excited about this technology. it's hoped big events like this scaled back during the pandemic will now help japan restore what it sees is it's rightful position, as the leading provider of the latest and nifty as must have. i think we're getting a lot of people coming today and it seems like we're back to like, 2018 with mass, but with masses. just have a virtual mask on that. yes. hopefully devices now find a natural roll post pandemic as we become more contactless. but all of them it

seems more complex. one of the new areas of innovation is so called energy harvesting, whereby gadgets of the future will be powered by your own body heat. so even if you don't understand them, simply wearing them, we'll be doing some good. a dawning, ourselves with evermore gadgets, but still a little room for the part that human public bride al jazeera, tokyo, the u. s. cultural agency as designated the historic center of ukraine's port city of odessa as an endangered world heritage site address is often described as the pearl of the black sea and was one of ukraine's maine to his hubs. before russia's invasion. it's been attacked several times during the war while they were by unesco is intended to help protect its cultural heritage while allowing access and financial and technical aid. ah,

reminder of our top story.