ah, the color of her favorite alexis traditions prevent her from going to games and play an insurmountable obstacle blue girl. so call on the peak that starts february 4th on d. w with this is either we news line from berlin, new fears over russia's military build up at ukraine's borders. nato warrens that $30000.00 additional russian troops are headed to bel roost. moscow says the west

is stoking tensions. german chancellor olive shots planning talks with vladimir putin in moscow, also coming up a major blow to the so called islamic states. the united states has says, the leader of the i s was taken off the battlefield during arrayed by us forces in northwest syria. several other people are reported killed during the operation near the turkish border, plus a taste of life. after the pandemic, the u. k and denmark lifting corona virus restrictions, in spite of high case numbers ah unlocked, thank you very much for joining us. we'll have a lot more on those stories in just a moment, but we 1st want to share with you some breaking news coming in. russia has

announced it is banning this network deutsche vela as a retaliatory move. the foreign ministry said it was closing deutsch velez moscow. bureau and revoking accreditation for our staff there. this is in response to germany's decision to ban german language programming from russia, state media broadcaster r t. we've just heard about this will bring you more as more details emerge. but let's turn our attention now to our top story, the crisis in ukraine, turkish present rich attire. ardon is the latest world leader to travel to key f. in a diplomatic effort to ease tensions, mister irwin offer to mediate between russia and ukraine and has already met his ukrainian counterpart vladimir zalinski. a turkish president has been attempting a tight balancing act by showing diplomatic support to ukraine while avoiding damaging relations with russia. the 2 leaders are expected to sign an agreement to manufacture turkish drones in ukraine. while meanwhile, here in germany,

chancellor, olaf shall says he plans to meet with russian president vladimir putin. chancellor schultz has been facing pressure to take a tougher stance on russia with critics accusing germany of being out of step with its allies and tackling the crisis. olaf shots had been tight lipped on ukraine in recent weeks, at least in public. but on wednesday evening, the new gemini chancellor, broke his silence in an interview with public broadcasters at the f, announcing a trip to moscow or to dish, but which ultimately most of the spoken to the russian president. and we're diligently preparing everything that's necessary. use our farm, i'm about to travel to the u. s. i'll also go to moscow very soon to continue talking about the relevant questions. and it's all about acting in accord donated manner. as far as the un nato are concerned, the german government says its goal is to avoid war in ukraine by driving 4

different diplomatic formats that also bring russia to the negotiating table. really, germany is refusing to follow the example of its allies like the u. s. and is not sending weapons to ukraine. that decision has been criticized by ukraine and by germany's western partners. but the government's response, in the case of a russian invasion would be clear, said charles, the legacy, most of the situation is very serious. and that's why it's so important that we're being very clear on what we say. and what we prepare tended to threatening the territorial sovereignty and integrity of ukraine and attacking it militarily, would have a very high price guy from. and that price would include a potential stop to the controversial gas pipeline not stream to 4 months. the german government called it a purely economic not a political project, but now all options are on the table says charles, and that implicitly includes not stream to the biggest opposition party in

germany's parliament. meanwhile, considered chances, trip to moscow long overdue. the c d u welcomes the decision by american president joe biden, to send further trips to europe, saying the escalation was not driven by nature. after all, no, we should ask russia why they deploy more than 100000 troops and by the end of february, more than 150000 troops, about 60 percent of their ample lent forces. this is as color, tory, and it's quite clear that we repeats are really nervous and we see those as an escalation without any need. the russian embassy in germany's capital as tensions on berlin's doorstep. bryce, the pressure on the german government to take on a more active role is growing and we can take you now to the ukrainian capital ticky of the w correspondence. conley is standing by. nick,

we heard that german chancellor. all of short, sir. it will visits moscow in person and meet with president putin. he hasn't been to key of yet. will that worse and what's already a strange bilateral relationship? well, there definitely has been a precedent in recent years for german leaders, german ministers to stop by and care of us on the way back or way to moscow. the fact that care is all in his identity is obviously something that won't be welcomed . hearing kids, there's fears here that discussions are being held about ukraine in its future without ukraine at the table. that's become something of a mantra of ukrainian diplomats. so that's definitely something that they will be displeased about, but it's not a surprise. they have been very open in the criticism of this new german administration, particularly em all of shorts as system craddick party seeing as them as to willing to accommodate russia to soft as the cranes would sit on that no stream to pipeline which they see as part of russia's hybrid warfare against them rather than a m economic project with, with no political implications. so that fits,

but we said that next week we are expecting a visit from germany's for mr. la bell, beer box. it's not as if diplomacy is fully at an end or between germany and ukraine. now let's talk about the turkish or present who is in now as we speak in ukraine. how serious is this turkish offer to mediate between ukraine and russia being taken in kiev? i think you'll be somebody we welcomed by the ukrainians. any efforts by a serious regional power to deescalate is something that is being welcomed. i'm not sure they're making any big hopes that this is going to fly so far. the signals coming from moscow have been pretty negative. after all took it is a native member, even though it has a close scuse cooperation with russia than most of the nation members. so it's not really clear where this is going to lead if it will happen, but it's certainly a diplomatic show of force, part of the splits of diplomatic visits to care of that have really shown in the

last few days that this is something is very much on the radar of regional powers of the west and is not something that is gonna be allowed to happen without involvement from the outside. it's really an interesting balancing act that turkey is trying to pull off their up. it has been supplying drones to ukraine, which of course russia regards as highly provocative. can they act as a broker in this crisis? what i think the issue is that turkey does have very it in a varied and very profound linked to russia. they do a lot of traders of tourism going on. and as i mentioned, they have already bought russian weapons from a moscow against objections from washington. they have shown that willingness to disagree with nato's largest member united states. and having said that, i think right now you get the sense from oscar that the only people they're really willing to take seriously all the united states. this is a kind of cold war format where vladimir putin wants to meet joe biden. and even if

he is meeting olaf shots and moscow soon all will be meeting at dawn in turkey in the next few days for the russians. the basic line is that this is about some kind of grand deal grand bargain between russia and us about spheres of influence. now the u. s. don't give them any indication that they're willing to give that to the russians, but certainly you don't get a sense of moscow is very to talking to anyone, but your button right now. a nika, my final question to you. there's been a string of world leaders, a paying out there, a pain visits to ukraine to key effort in a show of solidarity. what has come out of these visits and especially today's visit, you know, in terms of optics, is it just a show of support or did something more concrete come out of this? what present adon does have some things up his sleeve. he has a free trade deal that's being signed, but also our plans to build a factory so that ukraine will be able to build those a barrack tar drones for itself. there's gonna be cooperation with ukrainian arms

may have extra to provide a motors general for those drones and engine so that it would become a kind of ukrainian turkish joint project. those have really shocked the russians in their effectiveness. they were used 1st time by the ukrainian forces last autumn when ukrainian said they came under fire by russian back separatists moscow. very wary about ukraine being able to strength its army with the help of those drones. and so there's definitely a lot on the ukraine wishlist when they come into contact with prison, add on. but the big picture remains that ukraine has no potential membership of nato or the you on the horizon anytime soon. so ukraine is painfully aware of the fact that if russia were to launch an evasion of its country, ukraine would largely be on its own with only supplies of weapons and maybe money and sanctions from the west and from turkey as support nicoli reporting from key of ukraine, thank you. and we have more breaking news that we want to tell you

about this one out of washington. u. s. president joe biden says the leader of the so called islamic state has died during a target at raid by us forces in syria. senior us officials say arbor ibrahim and ashley alquon, he blew himself up, as the operation got under way in the north west of the country. president vine is expected to make a statement within the next hour. and we will be carrying that live out for you as soon as it gets underway. in the meantime, here with me is my colleague, william blue cross who has been following a development that way. what more if you liked? well, i think 1st of all, you know, the, as they say, truth is always the 1st casualty of war and we should be careful what we're hearing when it comes. these highly secretive, highly cove. it up covert operations. but we are hearing from president biden and from other us officials is that the current leader of i asked was killed in this

rate in the early overnight hours, syria time, local time. the rate took about 3 hours about 2 dozen special forces troops are on the ground, backed up by helicopters, and jets and drone. so by special forces operation standards of fairly extensive operation. and the fact that they're putting american troops on the ground of harm's way suggest that it was a high value target. although you, as officials at 1st were not saying who that target was. now multiple sources of human rights observers on the ground, they were saying 13 people, including women and children, may have been killed in that rate. but again, us officials are saying that was due to, i'll hushing me karachi s o detonation of a bomb that he was carrying. now it's a bit of deja vu is some of your viewers, our viewers might know the previous i s leader abaca baghdad. he was killed in 2019, in almost the exact same place in almost the exact same way. you have special forces raid that ends with him blowing himself up and people around him. that's kind of where we're at right now. and so we're expecting to hear from president

biden momentarily. exactly he's, he says he put out a statement earlier today discussing, you know, successful counter terrorism operation. here's his statement right now. be saying to protect the american people, the ally and allies making the world a safer place. thanking you. s troops. there's a very brief statement and he says that he's gonna come out soon with a statement, a public statement, or an address to the american people. ok, what will be carrying his remarks live here at the w news. william, thank you for now. we'll to catch up later. thanks. as we have to speak with the other stories making world news today, benny guns has become the 1st is really defense minister to visit. butting is the latest high profile diplomatic trip since the countries normalized ties. israel's reconciliation with several arab nations breaks with decades of arab lea consensus against recognizing israel until it signs a peace agreement establishing a palestinian state. m, announcing new zealand will begin re opening its borders in phases starting at the

end of february, fully vaccinated citizens and visa holders from australia will be allowed in 1st, under the new rules vaccinated citizens entering the country will be allowed to quarantine at home instead of at a managed isolation facility the united kingdom and denmark are among the 1st european countries to lift most of their corona virus restrictions. despite relatively high case numbers, their governments have decided the virus now poses less of a risk to citizens and public health systems. but while many are hoping this could be a step towards life beyond the pandemic, some businesses are choosing to keep taking precautions and experts are warning the virus is still unpredictable. packed pub in london as people meet for a drink after work, just like they did before the pandemic. a cherished tradition revived. even as the

corona virus is still wafting through the air. we're being ease into that now and it's, and it's working. i think it's, i think it's okay and i think it's happy. it's lovely coming out with well, i've had my coven, i haven't really. i. i've been almost all restrictions in the u. k. have been lifted. the vaccination rate is high, especially among older people. new infections are decreasing and hospitals are admitting fewer patients, but some still urge caution. it has always demonstrated its ability to surprise us . now, there are some that have this idea that in some way, viruses tend to evolve to become less dangerous. that's actually not based on any good historical evidence, and it's perfectly possible that another one will come along. that is more severe.

businesses are now free to write their own rules at the hair salon. employees are supposed to still wear a math way, doing so to make you feel more comfortable if you'd rather not. that's absolutely fine as a client sit down, don't wear him off again, whatever makes you happy. the government is already planning its final faith from mid march. those with cove at 19 will no longer have to self isolate. meanwhile in denmark restored freedoms are being welcome to designers. certainly schmidt and his team are making final preparations before fashion week starts in copenhagen math, free and test free. i am so happy that we can come together again and celebrate fashion with families. a fire mold. many danes are relaxed about restrictions having been lifted a 2nd time. more than 80 percent of the population is double vaccinated. more than 60 percent has had

a booster. there are far fewer patients in hospital i see use. but the number of new infections remains high. a problem for schools in daycare centers, which are struggling to stay open due to severe staff shortages. the government is a warning people not to underestimate the virus in spite of the freedom. that's why here to many businesses are voluntarily maintaining them for cautions. and today we reached a milestone in the pandemic and my colleague, i mean, we'll walk you through the story take away. i mean, that's right, layla, it's a number that seemed like a long shot. when the vaccine campaign started, but here we are. 10000000000 doses have been administered globally in just over one year. that includes 1st, 2nd and booster doses. and it translates roughly $127.00 doses per $100.00 people on the planet. but distribution has been unequal on average countries in asia,

europe, north and south america have distributed about 150 shots for 100. people with the exceptions of war torn countries like yemen in afghanistan and in asia and bulgaria and europe, which are far below the average for their regions. now in africa, the picture looks completely different. this is where the global vaccine gap is. felt the most, taking the continent at a whole on a, as a whole. it's only distributed about $28.00 vaccines per $100.00 people who live there. now zooming in central africa is the least vaccinated region in the world. many countries have vaccinated, less than 10 people per $100.00 people tend to nea has given not only 4 shots per $100.00 people. and you can see the d. r. congo in eritrea. less than one shot per $100.00 people. so virtually no one. now it's important to note that these 10000000000 doses include 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th shots for the same people. that's important because the world health

organization says it's partly why there's such a global vaccine gap there. warning healthy countries against giving more and more booster shots to help the younger adults. while so much of the world is struggling to even distribute a 1st shot. so it's a big milestone layla, but still a long way to go until everyone in the world has had one shot, the cobra, 1900 vaccine, remarkable. we're not 3rd year and still so much equity. thank you so much appreciate it. i mean, let's take a look at some of the other developments in the pandemic. germany vaccine commission has recommended a 2nd cove at 19 booster. that's a 4th shot to be given to at risk groups. so that includes the over seventy's, those with compromised immune systems. and health care workers. sweden announced that will lift pandemic restrictions next. wednesday. the prime minister's at the hospital system was coping well despite a high number of infections and a ball li, indonesia is welcoming back. it's 1st international flights in nearly 2 years. a

dozen passengers are said to arrive from tokyo on thursday. baxley editors must still quarantined for 5 to 7 days. upon entry, tonga has gone into lockdown after confirming a number of coven 19 cases. the pacific island nation is still recovering from a devastating volcanic eruption and massive tsunami. last month or before the disaster, tonga was cove. it free ships bringing 8 are likely to have carried the virus to the islands. bowl is quiet on the streets of the tongan capital newco alova images reminiscent for many around the world of the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 but for residents here in tonga, the measures to deal with cove 19 are now necessary. there is a lot and i think it's a good thing. we need to be tracking and doing tracing. all of those were in

contact with the read. the 1st 2 cases, tonga entered a lockdown after several covered $900.00 cases were discovered. it's thought that ships bringing aid may be, have the corona virus reached the country's shores. the south pacific nation was previously corona free. it's another blow to ton guns who are still struggling to deal with the aftermath of a catastrophic volcanic eruption in january. but there is some hope over 80 percent of people over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated. the lockdown, which only permits essential services to remain open, will be reassessed by the tongue and government. every 48 hours. emergency crews in ecuador are continuing to search for people still missing after deadly flooding and much slides in the capital quito. the country is observing an official period of

morning after at least 24 people were killed in what's being described as the heaviest rainfall in 2 decades. and we're supposed to have a piece for you there, but we'll, we having some technical issues. so we'll, we'll error it a little later on in our next bulletin. meanwhile, want to pivot now to facebook because the shares in facebook are and the owner make meta plunged by around 20 percent and after hours trading on wednesday, knocking get this a massive $200000000000.00 off. the company's value chief executive mark zuckerberg, had warned investors in a call earlier that meta expected, the 1st quarter revenues to declined due to competition for why will like tick tock . if the stock doesn't rebound before trading resumes on thursday, it will rank as the worst day in the company's 10 year stock market tenure. and one

of the biggest one day falls of any company on record. ok, lots to discuss sir steven gracie is here from t w. stephen, how do you lose 200000000000 with a b one? remember that valuations on the market are based on a company's their bet on a company's future. and there are 2 things going on here. one is that facebook had some very not good numbers as you just talked about. the other thing that's going on here is that investors are very jittery right now because the federal reserve, which controls the overall monetary conditions in the u. s. says that it's going to raise interest rates over the next year. they don't know how many times it's going to be raise. they don't know to what level it's going to be raised. and so that cuts into company profits. and so right now, investors are trying to figure out what's going on and they're shifting money around and tech tends to be a loser. they had recovered recently, but then they saw these new numbers. they got should reagan and they dumped facebook pretty hard at the court. facebook is saying that its daily average,

a daily active users actually felt something that doesn't happen with facebook that happened in the 4th quarter. that was a lot monthly active users are also tailing off in terms of growth and those revenue warnings for the 1st quarter. so very clear signals that things are not going necessarily in the right direction, short term for facebook. what was the impact of, of 2nd, excuse me, message the impact was that massive loss, and then it was a ripple throughout the market. and so right now we're seeing that other tech firms and social media firms are losing big. and that includes spotify than who's amazon tesla. snap is going to release its numbers later today, and then we're going to see if that continues that slider of maybe someone puts the brakes on. again, volatility is really high in the markets right now. as everyone tries to figure out which direction things are going, tech had really been hit hard over weeks. everyone is floating away from tech than google actually had some good results. everyone came back in a little bit. now they see what happened. facebook. they're all floating out,

but i'm just wondering though have social platforms just hit a wall in terms of facebook. i mean, so many people around the world use facebook at a certain point. there's nobody left to space with a level of saturation. not necessarily, they haven't had a wall, maybe with this growth model they have, there has been this expectation for a while that the in unending growth was going to stop right. that they're going to reach as many people as they could. and that they weren't able to monetize properly who they had to meet market expectations. and that's what we're seeing. perhaps now they have to find ways to monetize what people are going to if they're going to instagram reels and can't get as much money out of that as you can the news feed. then you're going to have to figure out how to either get them to the new speed or how to make more money off the reels that their challenge right now is to figure out where are the users and how do we improve the product enough to make enough money off of it. another thing, it's very hard advertising climate right now. apple has changed some of its data sharing rules which actually make it much, much harder for organizations like facebook to share information with their advertisers. and now they're betting on meta is, is that the way out for them?

but that's only in the mid to long term, right? they are actually spending more for meta, so their expenses are going up as they try and develop more with a product labs, virtual reality, things like that. so that is not a short term solution. they are betting big on it in the future. all right, stand variously from dw business. thanks for making it all down. thank you. go to a beijing belgian skeleton racer kim and male months has been taken to the olympic village in beijing after an i o. c, intervention after she made an emotional appeal on instagram after testing positive on her arrival in the chinese capital, mail months was initially taken directly into isolation, where she then returned 3 consecutive negative p. c. ours. in the video, she described what happened when she was picked up from the isolation unit. we thought this meant i was allowed to return to the olympic village and will be treated maximum as a close contact. i'm on the way to the village. we did not turn to the

village, but the ambulance went to another facility where i am now visibly distressed. a athlete there? well, after that video was published, the international olympic committee intervened to bring mail a months into the olympic village, where she none, the less remains isolated from her fellow competitors, dw, sports correspond. and jonathan crane is in beijing for us to report on the winter games. and earlier today, he sent us this message on the bizarre notice of life inside the olympic bubble. it's been a very serious experience, like nothing i've experienced before from the moments we landed in beijing on tuesday, we were greeted at the apple playground stuff and has not master through every step of the apple for pci test. 2 of them immigration and then we had to wait in

a hotel room for that all important negative test result. thankfully i got it, which means i can answer the bubble properly, but the bubble is effectively a 50 within the 50. we can already be in the hotel, all games venues. special transport takes us in between. and as you can see behind me, the olympic stadium is that this is as far as we can go within this media compound, what date it off. we're watching the people on the other side. they're watching us . it's a really bizarre situation. johnson crane, they're reporting from beijing and a let's go back to that story that i promised you from ecuador, where emergency crews are continuing to search for people still missing after deadly flooding and much slides in the capital quito the country is observing an official period of morning after at least 24 people were killed in what's being described as the heaviest rainfall in 2 decades. it's a major operation to clear the debris from destroyed buildings and blocked roads in

kito. and if possible, find any people trapped in homes and streets. it comes after intense rain which began on monday and pounded the capital for more than 24 hours. it weakened a hillside and sent a waves of mud flowing through the city. this man from venezuela was in a small room, he shared with other migrants when disaster struck. but a more suddenly the water hit us, the building broken too, and we ended up at the back. we fell down to florida and then we were swept away. you know, a death announcement as residents faced the reality of this sudden disaster. and the threat might not yet be over. officials and not ruling out further, landslides, dizzy must go to them about this already anything could still happen at the top

part of the mountain was that the men stumbled on there could be more landslides going. we'll continue monitoring the area with drones. galleries on this is all for our safety on to bring comes along a little not blinky little but with the rain having subsided for now, rescue teams grabbing the opportunity to search for survivors. near data are released this week by danish researchers shows that gremlins massive ice sheet has lost enough ice in the past 20 years to cover the entire united states with half a meter of water. the arctic is warming faster than any other place else on earth. and ice melting away from greenland is now the main contributing factor in rising sea water levels. on the front line of climate change, current studies show green lands rapid melt is helping push up global sea levels. they've risen by an average of 1.2 centimeters. a.