biggest snowfall in decades some welcomed the arctic conditions as they made the most of the rare winter style. that's it for now up next reporter a look at the belle of wish in the opposition leaders in exile in lithuania don't forget you can always visit our web site d w dot com and of course we are on twitter and instagram gives a michael oke of thanks for watching. why are people forced to hide in trucks. resurface. when there are many answers.

and there are many stories. make up your. the book. made for minds. but at the. bloggers students activists and their children for example fled balun reuss and the old farmer tarion regime in power that it surprises and persecutes dissidents over the past months ever more people have been fleeing the country they had to neighboring lithuania and e.u. member and southern most of the 3 baltic republics than

a tiny. teen do what they can to help. just 25 kilometers from here and bellow loose. but the people are fighting for their freedom the power of freedom of expression for the right just to take to the streets. natalee or call the arc of our lives in lithuania as capital will need us we spent a few days with her that. natalee was born in belarus but she's lived in lithuania for 20 years now enjoying success as a real estate agent since the summer of 2020 she's taken on the town of helping her compound troops to cross the border and escape the dictator's regime and bella rose and the people who come to us have to get out really fast like running from a fire and they don't have anything to eat and no roof over their heads because

they're on the run so far we've taken in 210 people that's quite a lot i never would have thought we could do it. suddenly a core from bella rose from an activist in need her name is lona and she asks natalia for news of her children antónio lets her know that lithuanian immigration has approved that entry visas it's a huge relief i alone or what she thanks natalia for of support yet natalia has to hurry to pick up the activists children at the border a friend will be driving them as far as lithuania while their mother has to go underground simply because she aided the victims of police violence she faces criminal charges and loss of the custody of her children it is barely 30 kilometers from vilnius different worlds or thora terry in belarus and either you member lithuania which opened its borders to regime opponents of my bit of not hello i

have to pick up refugees from bellows may i comment on that it may. not tell you kolya give always carries how white and red flag a symbol of the better route soon protest movement beyond this border she could be fined or even arrested for having it. natalee or looks for the new arrivals she recognizes alyona the activists friend by her red hat. give me a hug. daniela 6 years old his sister because sr is that teen i mean if you want something to drink there's water and juice in the back down there. it just looks quite relieved but both are children who are wondering when they'll see their mother again. and i mean we're waiting for the right moment by mary and set waiting until the way

changes it's only a few minutes drive on the highway until they reach vilnius all decked out in its christmas finery. alyona and the 2 children can stay here for the time being and wait for ilona. that was the sheet the presence of a. here are the keys you can use them to lock the gate and the apartment. she will go to the spoken english. now it's up to natalia to direct ilona into lithuania. ilana's going to try to slip across on her own she wants from natalia is a map if she doesn't make it she says she'll follow the route to natalia shout out . to your children will give you strength just pick up the trail like a tigress you can make it. there. it'll be

all right ilona will look after your children in the meantime i sell you a hug. that's how we love you know. you don't know what the other day will bring you but children away others are traumas they'll bring with them. when you thought it must be very tiring yes you get tired but when i get home i work for another 4 hours or so but i have to check all the names that have been added to make sure we've entered them and all the right lists and that we've answered everyone and haven't forgotten anyone but on. the next day natalia collier gave us a visit spell a russian exiles and a hotel in the old town the ongoing pandemic unable to how to negotiate special

conditions without tell ionas the refugees only have to buy about $400.00 euros a month for a room. their expenses will be covered by donations until they get on their feet i'm like you know. that fellow and i know that. until 2 days before this nikita was imprisoned serving 20 days for taking part in the student strike a soon as he was released his parents contacted natalee and followed her advice to bring him to the border before he gets thrown in jail once more the fact that you're even here is a success if they come i asked and it was very hard edible 6 people were not allowed out of the row so that's how it goes that is if you make all the preparations direct the person as far as the border and you suddenly find out you can't help anymore you feel sorry for these people and what will happen to them is a known thought of that. anyone who protests against the lucas shanker regime is

taking a big risk after students or workers suddenly they find themselves here without a home. and with what's happening in belarus a sick thousands are being tortured and oppressed they're getting raped. my people have been killed in the brutality is taking on even more terrifying forms yet i never thought anything like this could happen. with this but the fact is. they obviously fraudulent election and august sent tens of thousands of people into the streets of belarus to demand the resignation of alexander lukashenko widely known as europe's last dictator he's held on to power for 26 years now his security forces responded to the protests with violence mass arrests and torture.

over 30000 people afford to have been arrested since august all the opposition candidates are now either in prison or in exile. back at the lithuanian border a blogger from another critic of the regime is trying to enter the way mia. by deely off has actively opposed lucas franco for years he stood up to the pressure from the state security agencies for months until he was beaten by masked attackers then he flat. givers team consists of about 20 helpers one of them makita upon a show also from belarus has come to pick up a blog after $300.00 days visibly relieved to be out of harm's way nikita knows all too well how he feels and dr will have to adjust to not having to watch his back constantly for fear of being abducted while beaten watched or stalked and checked

he's been under almost constant surveillance for weeks andre connected signatures for opposition candidate street lana hung off sky and live stream to the protests for that he sat in jail for 9 days. and yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. saif at last ilona the activist has made it out of balance and contacted her children they missed each other. i don't know yet i had no other choice but to cross the belorussian border illegally on foot. i was terribly afraid that they'd start shooting at me. now that i'm safe what i wish for most of all in my life is to hug my children. oh my. dear i know it will be easier for us here in the 3 mania here i won't be harassed here but nobody will make fun of my children and bully them because their

mother has different views. with me where you can have. daniel and his sister will have to be patient so they can see their mother in person. as waiting for her temporary protection visa and the results of corona test . meanwhile and andre by the off the blogger from lucky off has arrived at the hotel and vilnius he's on the phone with his new mentor to help him get settled in lithuania. says much to be taken care of andrei leads a yearlong visa and a work in part will have to learn lithuanian and find a job in short build a whole new life abroad but 1st he's got to see the doctor i have to run my

ribs on the left near my heart where the check me that's the main thing for now. it's likely to be some time before he's really settled in lithuania. well i wasn't afraid to leave the rose rather i only feel pain because i love my home would want to because i want to live there it was a pain deep inside because they're not just chasing away lucien's love our home. visit. although plagued by a guilty conscience for those he has left behind andre intends to join other dissidents and continue to fight for a free ballot from exile and eventually to return to a country without chickasha. that. the vigil for the victims of police brutality is held in front of the bella rusian

embassy in vulnerable here natalia meets up with many of the better ruffians she helped to escape the dictator's clutches and reach freedom but i simply can't do it any differently i can't go on vacation and close the door on this helping these people here has become my life when you are you understand that everything you've accomplished the for your business and all your skills are only there so you can fulfill this task. natalia hopes to continue helping people fleeing their home country as long as they need her support are not that many here say the end of lucas shankar's regime is only a question of time and of how. ilona has escaped and did well at last she can take her children and her arms and do it in freedom and safety but not yet in belarus. yet.

water is the source of life but too much water can be deadly unlike berlingo in kenya that's exactly what's happening i grew up here my father. thank you. my 3. water levels are continuously rising to deforestation and climate change. and environmental catastrophe to still be stopped. 77 percent. carted off under terrible conditions. in cattle. transfer trucks for days at a time without food and water. to a team of reporters for almost 2 trucks to russia central asia or africa they want to find out who's responsible for this animal cruelty. free minutes

on d w. in the. country. for. what's in store. for the future. we're going to go. inside. hello and welcome to the 77 percent my name is edith kimani and this week we have such a special edition on last show where we're talking about how we the youth are being affected by the changes in our environment coming to you from this scenic lake bulgaria national reserve right here in kenya. coming up on the show. we hear from but next on the cafe are young activists from uganda has joined the global climate movement to find out how almost like community

in kenya is adapting to climate change and he may go we need young people on the beach and what they're up to might surprise you. we're here as i mentioned at least will gori which is a salt water lake in ken. as part of the east african rift valley scientists are however warning that an ecological catastrophe is imminent if the water levels here continue to rise as we speak the lakes in this area at the highest level since kenya's independence in 1006 to 3 the water levels have been rising here for years but extreme weather patterns and usually heavy rains and human activities have made the situation even more dire for the people living here so i spent some time in the area and spoke to residents who explained how their lives have been affected by climate anomalies like bulgaria so swollen from rising water levels at the shoreline changes every day. we see this early on in our trip

when the access road unexpectedly becomes part of the league. has just arrived to the restaurant but he's been dramatic. water this water just came in with an one day i so it came slowly and slowly until it got to this level so without any notice you have to demolish within just a few seconds. china gets has already been forced to move her business once it's inevitable that she will have to move again and she's not the only one the structure we're looking at is an entry point that was erected by the kenya wildlife service after their original gates were submerged by water 800 took 3 months before the lake eventually caught up with this one and we can clearly see that this water is unrelenting what we can't see but we can certainly smell is the sewerage that's also being brought to be this because obviously people here use people trees and all their contents are now under water and the water is clearly unrelenting because

all around us the ground is soggy and these little grooms all over the place. the extent of the flooding can be seen clearly from neighboring lake baringo the freshwater lake has expanded by 60 percent in the last 70 years this year has been by far the worst. folks to a gite grew up on the shores of this league work has been scarce as most of the hotels are now on the water. could be just one of many flooded schools in the area leaving a nearly 16 year old decaying building. but. significant for folks. my 1st 20 years of life. don't know what i'm going to tell my kids. we're here on

top of going to investigate what scientists have called ecological catastrophe waiting the lakes around the great rift valley region have been rising dramatically and what you can see behind me is actually one of the effects. homes hotels hospitals and schools all drowned by these disasters some say that it could be tectonic shifts under us which are causing this most people argue that this is actually an effect of climate change. scientists are warning that fresh water and salt. could manage the cross contamination would destroy the balance in the ecosystem. to understand what is happening to the lakes we head to the forest. to the rivers that feed the lakes in the rift valley forest is recovering from his of different stations. david west has been a conservationist for more than 50 years he says the destruction of the catchment

area is just one in a series of linked problems the pastoral people are settling down and staying in one place so what that means. you have heavy grazing is really prominent around the basin up in the hills on the side so all of a roof has been washed off. so in 2018 we had rainfall which was the equivalent. then followed last year by these extraordinary rains which have continued for a whole year so that means that. huge amount of runoff and still to cherish and it's the combination of those 2 that have made these rift valley lakes and even other areas like amber sally just lift 10 sometimes 15 meters. strong bring thanks. revolutionists. is visibly worried and soon how worst fears are realized the water level has gone up

again this could be her last day. it's the following day and construction has started on higher ground this is where china gets new home and business will be. it's a fresh and easy start no one can be sure the what to which right this high because no one believes the water would ever get as far as it already has. all right so we've heard from people here how the rising water levels have affected them and with me is mr henry real he's actually a farmer it's his farm used to be at least just a couple of meters from where we are and i wanted to find out from you mr. how has your life changed since the water started coming into your life actually. we have been having a problem floods but long time since the beginning of this year alone this what i

started from. how far was the lake originally. and from where we're sitting where we are standing in. school the. school we just we just so fully supports. for the. number location. location. so we have internally displaced persons within. this supplication because of these water levels but also your harvest you told me that you very quickly had to go into the water and get your maize when the water was up to here what are you doing about your livelihood i mean that was your harvest we just try to. very small number because of the we have. which is being a bit a bit too threatening to pull not even to. those the small misses we tried to get

people are just we have this what the destroying a lot of a lot of. so your homes your means of life but i can see that there is a gentleman here who's fishing is now what you're doing because you started off as pastoralist then the weather was bad there was drought he's decided you want to become a farmer and now you're becoming fisherman you see. community we used to be possible just but because no we are like we see the fish is there is a little fishy here and what's in there is also well and more. crocodiles but because of drought people off a lot of. problems are now down to our food production but they're willing to you can get no business since this is a fish so people are sort of fishing but not all of them some very different ones

who will do the like doing fishing but because of poverty you're forced to change your way of life ok and finally you talked about hippos and crocodiles is this something that you're having to deal with human wildlife conflict how close to the hippos gets and the crocodiles. so in this water as we speak these people as it is a lot of people say there's a lot of grace all along here. very much threatened people leaving or in fact 2 or 3. people not to come close that close to the this was a last resort. because those are the most. of the very much they're not normally come out of. the time like this one so there's a big problem there so while your monthly life conflict well mr henry left ariel we really thank you for your time and i'm really sorry for what is happening here thank you. now while people here are trying to come to terms with the changes

happening here many of us are adapting our lifestyles to the changing world around us in small ways further south from here in iraq we met sally not in color who told us about how she and particularly the women in how my community are adapting to climate change. lives in. a small settlement 140 kilometers west of kenya's capital nairobi. she wants to raise awareness about climate change and homicide community. long droughts and unpredictable weather conditions related to climate change i want to the biggest challenges the messiah now face claim eaton's has seen has experienced long that growth in the race to the well but now it had to predict 3 predictive in there with the grazing lands becoming more cus it's forcing the most is to keep. the amount of cattle so limited that really made the most

a be forced to move from being no mighty buster at least to looking for other sources of income. and they went in and i don't know when you have. the option of moving to greener pastures has always been the basis of the most high's way of life but now sustainable agriculture can be a solution to address nutrition security in the messiah community selena now spends her time showing my side women how to grow spinach and other vegetables. but it takes a lot of effort to convince traditionally you know my. they get settled and financially and yet. i have begun to think that as must a community we really need and i'll tentative source of livelihood and nutrition security for the nutrition security and i thought why not start kropf i mean he said of just having to do you know my request to release them so now it's important

to train a recipe for a our system so we wouldn't need to show insecurity and even sources of income because the secrets you can you can from them at any time. selina hopes to convince specifically younger women in the messiah community because they'll be the ones bringing change to the family. yes. for me it's my generation that with innovation my eggs that are the 1st ones to good to see and to get a formal education so it's up to us to educate the community and bring back the knowledge we have to share with them so that we can grow to give them the whole population would be left behind it's only the defeated people who have been early and the expertise and the only ones who can do things so we really have to share this knowledge and that is what we are doing now. well climate change is such all to my science lifestyle dramatically adapting to the changes could keep the communities

going. now i want to take you out of kenya and broaden the view a little see climate change has really become a rallying cry for young people globally in 2018 a swedish teenager gretta 20 bug spearheaded the fridays for future movements which saw students around the world demanding climate action from world leaders while we haven't seen huge climate protests on the african continent compared for example to some other parts of the world there are people who are working hard and dedicated their time to raising awareness and calling for climate justice the only problem is that it's sometimes harder to make your voice heard here in africa and here's why. vanessa narcotic she has become the symbol of the ugandan climate movement the 24 year old got involved in climate activism in 2018 after her country was hit by

unusually high temperatures joining the world wide climate protests the next account with other activists in the freezing cold switzerland at the world economic forum's unfortunately she didn't get the same attention that other activists got she was cropped out of a published group photo and the incident went viral in an online press statement in a cocky hits back at racism in the media other activists joined in solidarity including dawn in june all from south africa and gratitude from sweden you're focusing on trying get up to visit him from different corners of you know the western countries but what you're doing wrong is try as much as possible to says out and it is the voices from the global south it makes us feel like they are up to the disasters in us to what end the sending care for you but the incident didn't deter vanessa from continuing her fight and drawing attention to climate change

issues in africa. what's happened to be a positive thing because of how we responded to aids i was up to this from africa and it was all work and most choose to stand up and rise up and demand for action as well as our within the media and the public about the dangers of climate change just before the pandemic she also took her activism into the classroom at this school in central uganda she wanted to inspire the next generation to get passionate about the environment it's a message she says the children need to hear the practical issues. i believe that every kid deserves an opportunity to be in such a close to clearly understand the importance of the things that they see in their environment these kids understand they clearly knew they were going to see this

tree but if you come into that trust and teach them and remind them that gets them our lot and our way out of the destruction that causes that that goes on in the environment and pushes them to go south. since the start of the pandemic the knesset has kept up her activism online and she's used her social platforms to draw attention to issues such as climate education climate catastrophes and clean energy vanessa has also found her voice on an international stage. leaders must acknowledge that we are in a crisis i'm stuck treating it as a crisis. the people on the planet must come 1st before anything else if you do not treat climate change as a crisis then you will not do what is necessary for us to get out of this mess. vanessa believes that climate change is intrinsically tied to poverty hunger and

conflict and she hopes that the leaders both at home in uganda and abroad will act quickly enough to change things. the world produces more plastic than we need and we see it everywhere actually even all around me in 2017 can introduce one of the world's toughest laws against single use plastic bags in fact you can even get fined for carrying one rhonda has gone a step further and they've also banned plastic bottles straws and even coffee cups and the reason for these measures is that most of the world's plastic ends up in landfills or oceans or places like these it's estimated that by the year 2050 there will be more plastic wheat in water than fish so we asked our correspondents from across the continent how their countries have been dealing with plastic waste and management littering is illegal and city authorities right target the culprits there's currently no law that prevents people from using plastics or littering

wonder is successfully implemented and to littering laws but zimbabwe soon needs to do more. like many emerging markets around the world nigeria is generating more weight than ever this is because the population is growing and people are consuming more than they used to research shows that nigeria is among the top 20 countries in the world with the largest share of plastic waste that ends up in the ocean and estimates at 200000 metric tons of plastic waste is this chart from nigeria into the atlantic ocean. every year. capito campolo a clean city that's a great stopping of discussion where. some parts of the city are really clean well maintained. can reflect the exact opposite

it's common to see a classic good to be thrown out of a speeding car or dumping garbage in a drainage center but a city looks a bit much more organized than it was. literary of any nature is a big challenge for zimbabwe though until literary laws exist then and is very weak if you go on the streets these are hardly enough rubbish bins and people end up throwing litter anyhow the end result is there a cadence of what a bone disease is like typhoid and quality. well there you have it there not enough laws preventing people from littering and in many cases there are no proper waste collection or management facilities provided by governments of cities who really should be picking them up luckily there are always a few people who are willing to either volunteer or do something for their communities so let's have

a look. well that's impressive skyline on expensive yachts. of luxury but only. reviews that science is a cesspool of plastic waste. mental activists called eco pros fighting against living collecting trash since 29 teams to protect the environment and the people. if you the water that we need to be on the ground we are looking at how well we are looking pretty good. at the end of our street with flooding we need to come. that. the activists go out once a week to clean up the lab it's estimated that $12000.00 metric tons of waste out drop here every day they enjoy your work has paid to wrench the boot with their own money but the owners give them no marguerite's to help. those who receives

help from a friend between disposal company which clears waste from the locker room for free plastic easy recyclable material much of it still ends up in landfill recycling that's existing but it's rudimentary. it's really just a dump like what we have pickers who go to the dump site and they then individually take out the things which have they have a lot of value i mean we are literally throwing away money they have lot of value so they pick them out take them they sell them off to the different people who are doing the recycling. up to $800.00 workers help with the clean ups on a regular basis the activist want to foster more public awareness about the environment to help change people's behavior. if only people can imbibe of culture whereby you drink you play on your back that way you can find the trust that. eagle pro has also started to collect garbage on beaches sometimes they manage to

recruit x. travel in tears spontaneously. and about just about. anywhere . my factory spall around me goes much money it's just like that takes off. while the volunteers continue the work they would like to see a reduction in waste and the like to see the government in lagos step in then and also doing its bit. ok i've got a question for you what's your country doing about plastic waste you know we love hearing from you and you can always send us your comments via social media but we already actually had some from a facebook page and martin chipman from nigeria wrote climate change scares me and banning plastic will help us i think i have to agree with you martin and was owned

or from ghana wrote deforestation damaging of what a body is due to illegal mining activity is a lack of sufficient training for sudden floods or just a few of the issues we face with our environment and changing climate in my area well as usual thank you so much for those comments this show is really about all of us and our next reports actually comes from ghana where our team met another person protecting the environment that's the up and coming musician miriam giallo you may know how by has stage name e.j. so let's take a look. marian. has just started making a name for herself on ghana's music cd. the young musician who has spent her life both in sierra leone and ghana is passionate about music but you also have strong opinions about how we're treating our environment. our environment is just full of positive but when you cut it down it's leads to pollution of air that enters

directly to the soil water we drink we use the air we breathe just air pollution everywhere so i believe if we keep our environment green i mean. we're safe the greenery is the backdrop for music videos and it's something she believes everybody should appreciate more. of my videos that i've been using green in my. video beautiful expression of. chore you know. armstrong. yes gone. well that's all we have for you today we do hope you enjoyed our special show right here from luke to go rhea to get in touch with us and send us an e-mail at 7 to 7 a d w dot com and connect with us on social media as usual we leave you with big to thank

you for watching. good. morning don. let's. click. click. click don't know you don't be i don't. know. you know it's.

never. good.

they're carted off under terrible conditions german cattle into animal transport costs and for days at a time without food and water. a team of reporters follows the trucks to russia central asia africa they want to find out who's responsible for

this animal cruelty. in 15 minutes on d w. it's about billions. it's a dollar an hour. it's about the foundation of a new food order from the new silk road. china wants to expand its influence with this trade network also in your own home china is promising its partners rich profits but in europe there's a sharp morning whoever accept money from the new superpower will become dependent on it china's game lead to europe. starts feb 19th on d w. the story of prejudice and propaganda. they

were called the rhineland bastards born after the 1st world war. he was an illegitimate child and there were many of them even from. their mothers or germans living in the occupied growing land their father's soldiers from the french colonies. up close and these afro german children had a hard time and because they were reminder of the german defeat. they grew up in a climate of national pride and racism the thought of the european population felt that it was important to be white and to stay right by supply. exclusion and contempt culminated in forced sterilization under the nazis. this documentary examines the few traces that remain of their existence they call

them the children of storage january 11th on d w. this is deja vu news a live from berlin authorities in indonesia say they suspect a passenger plane has crashed flight data shows the aircraft plunged into the sea just minutes after taking off from jakarta with dozens of people on board also coming up no more tromping on twitter the social media platform permanently suspends the u.s. presidential can't due to the risk of further violence depriving him of his

favorite megaphone in the waning days of history.