his subscriber for morning is like, ah ah, ah, this is dw news wife from berlin. germany is chancellor lands in washington for crisis talks on you crate. all actually has been criticized for not fully supporting allied efforts to counter russia's troop builds up on ukraine's borders . now he's looking to reassure president biden of germany's resolved that as dw news visits, a frontline town in ukraine or residents who've seen armed conflicts before are trying to keep hope alive. also on the show in northern ethiopia,

locals trying to repair physical and mental scars after fierce fighting in a to bryan region and chinese tennis t r punch. why gives an interview at the beijing olympics? denying? she accused a communist party boss of sexual assaults. but then she speak under duress. ah hello, i'm claire richardson, a very warm welcome to the show. a week of urgent diplomacy kicks off to day as european leaders try to diffuse the crisis over ukraine. french president emanuel macro will hold talks in moscow with vladimir putin. i made fears. russia is planning to invade its southern neighbor. i mean, while german chancellor all off schwartz is in washington seeking to reassure president joe biden, the germany is a reliable ally schwartz has reiterated that military aggression against ukraine would have a high cost for russia. and germany's nieto allies, including the us,

are unhappy with berlin's refusal to provide ukraine with weapons short stress. that decision is in line with longstanding german policy on arm sales. the bonus gift cut that for years the german government has followed a clear course of not delivering to crisis owns on not delivering lethal weaponry to ukraine on monday for get got was my predecessors policy, it was right then and remains right. by the way, this is really important to me that the majority of german see it exactly as i do as the government does. and as my predecessor did it, but not everyone sees it that way and their voices are very loud at the moment of mine. but my duty is to do what's in the interest of the german people. and what in this case is also the view, the citizens of this country along those lines. let's get straight across to date of your political correspondent, nina hossa. nina, where at the start of an intense week of diplomacy over ukraine, russia tensions the white house saying russia could attack ukraine any day now or

what is the german government? a threat assessment. the german government is careful in its wording or law shows the chancellor says that the situation is very serious. and demi's foreign minister and elena babylon has recently called the russian troops and the ukrainian border a threat. but the message that we're getting from the german government is still war, can still be avoided and should still be avoided. so germany is now throwing all its weight behind. this adds in crisis diplomacy. so these next couple of days are full with bilateral and multilateral meetings. including with russia at the negotiating table. despite that germany has drawn a lot of criticism from its allies for not taking a tougher line against russia. what are the chances for bite and, and a shorts, and they will find a joint solution for approaching this crisis. many people have criticised, ola starts the german chancellor to take too long to actually travel to washington because this is his inaugural visits. and it shows responded by saying that this

meeting has been diligently prepared. so he probably does have something in the suitcase with him. what it is we'll find out later today, but choice will of course, underline that germany plays in t nato, so to speak. and president biden, andrew left shows will jointly reiterate that the response would be tough, a 1st of what it did to invade rec crane. and that will options would be on the table as far as sanctions would go, but germany will not deliver lethal weapons to ukraine. all our shows. reiterated that just before departure. but what biden and shots could perhaps, and that, and seeing concrete terms is that nato could continue increasing its true presence in the baltic states. germany at least, seems ready to double its true presence. in lithuania, we will, of course, be following that meeting for him here on d. w. now, meanwhile, german foreign minister and lena bear bock is joined by her check slovak and austrian counterparts in key of to day. what can they offer ukraine?

and alina babble is in care of to day, and in easton ukraine. m on the front line to morrow. now she said before departure that ukraine sovereignty must absolutely not be violated, and that the response would be tough, much like love shots. and she is going to stress again, that germany will continue its support of ukraine. now, what many people don't realize is that germany has been one of ukraine's biggest economic support is over recent years. if not, the biggest one is given almost 2000000000 euros to ukraine. since 2014, to help the country develop economically. and in terms of democratic structures, that is something that the german government hasn't really put in the windows and very much. and they're trying to change that, that adopting a different strategy and boast a bit more if you will. and of course, by going together with her counterparts from other european countries. and alina babel also wants to signal to ukrainian lead lead is the message, the west, a standing united? because of course, well, i saw it also said before the passing to washington,

that all of germany's efforts a very closely coordinated with the allies to make sure that the so called west does not give pu 10. even the remotest idea that the west can be divided and that is of course, also true for the meeting between french president man re my conte, letting me putin that a, something that he close, he coordinate it with all of shots are political correspondent, nina has. i thank you so much for that update. and d, w corresponding to much as ballinger is covering the story for us from the region he travels to eastern ukraine, near areas controlled by russian at back separatists. he sent us this report from the village of iran. aetna, the village school of for amusement. the last village here on ukrainian control territory is close to the frontline. it has come on to fire before. now the classrooms i m t not because of the war, but because of new coven restrictions, the war is something. people have been living with for 8 years. they will not on board all pushed on faculty. they,

we go to work. most of the time the children go to school the, to the speech, but we don't know what will happen in 5 or 10 minutes. she or to morrow, nice law. so we're always worried. the always scared saperstein listed are just a few 100 meters down this road is the last ukrainian position with who is in the line of fi of the opposite side. there is a heavy military presence immigrant. a ceasefire is in place, but shelling can sometimes be heard at night. let him could her career for saturday. we already know her sheets and when so we just sit at home, said will of course it was worse a few years ago. we always had in the cellar when there was fighting it. sure. but that was then the shelley shifted with the key to lovely. but with the

latest russian build up, a bigger escalation is on the table again with confident on. so when things come down, we bought a house here. oh chest. but now we don't know what will happen with our ship. ukrainian control territory ends with the last houses of the village. behind a small river lies the demilitarized strip. the pedestrian bridge is the only link to the next village in the so called grey zone, was short. the next village is not small. people come here every day to work. and kids go to school. one of the people who crosses the border every day is teach ludmilla car truck. she is from across the river and does not want to give her you name because her life depends on good relations with both sides. shelling is even

more frequent in her villain. guerrero bought a gal was on that. my work is here. i come here every day. yes, it's hard. yes, it's dangerous, very dangerous. well, i cannot just quit work and leave. i just can't wait. i don't know whom. she says she has not yet lost hope that somehow this conflict might come to an end peaceful. so let's check in now with some other world news headlines at this hour, the death toll has risen it to at least 20 people after a cyclone, hit se madagascar, nearly 50000 others have been forced to leave their homes. the storm has brought widespread flooding to the indian ocean island. it is the 2nd storm to hit madagascar in recent weeks. mexican security forces half evicted, nearly 400 people from a makeshift camp in the border city of tijuana. it had been occupied for more than

a year by migrants trying to reach the u. s. a camp was formed under the biden administration after it limited border crossings. due to the pandemic, australia has announced it is re opening to all fully vaccinated international visitors starting february 21st. the country shot is borders when the pandemic began nearly 2 years ago. and entry rules were only relaxed for skilled workers and students in november. o canada's capital city has declared a state of emergency. the mayor of ottawa says a blockade by truck drivers is threatening the safety and security of residence. their protest began after they were told they needed to get vaccinated to be able to cross the us border. but it has gathered wider support in a country where many are weary of corona virus restrictions. why making themselves heard in canada's capital? these protesters have paralyzed central ottawa and the cities man has declared

a state of emergency. the so called freedom convoy started as a protest by truck is at a new coven. 19 vaccine mandate for crossing the border from the u. s. but it's growing into a rallying point against pandemic restrictions. and the government people should be able to make their own choice to take the needle or not take the needle and not lose the job, not lose her house, not lose her income. just for the vaccination. oh, she was mad, said the situation on the straits was out of control. as demonstrate as outnumbered police. there are reports of protest as displaying confederate and nazi symbols. we have a serious emergency where we have to put all options on the table. and that may include some violence, we want to minimize that. but at the end of the day, the people are not going to leave. we're going to have to be forced to leave plain and simple. this cannot go on for months and months is. this is causing such havoc

and such grief, but the movement has gained international support and millions of dollars in donations through its gofundme page. the crowd funding site has now removed the page and said it will refund old donations. many auto residents have said, members of the freedom convoy have harassed them and complained of non stop horn blaring. some have staged counter protests. i just have to stand up. i was born just after the 2nd world war. i heard what it is like not to be friends with their thing. freedom. they're afraid. i don't know what it is, not to be frank. about 90 percent of cross border truck is and almost 80 percent of canada's population a fully vaccinated. but these loud minority say this,

staying put into coven 19 restrictions lifted. and let's go now to ethiopia, where the suffering continues more than a year after the government launched the attack in the northern t cry, region rights groups. se atrocities have been committed by both parties. including the mass, rape of women and girls, the government is still restricting media and humanitarian access to t ry. meanwhile, regions bordering t ry are on a war footing. t right fighters have withdrawn back into their whole region bought their neighbors, are still full of mistrust. d, w. east africa correspondent, marian without reports from the i'm hora town of la bella, where some people are taking up arms. ah labelle as rock hewn churches look peaceful in the morning. light may seem untouched by the events of the past months. labella has twice been captured by fighters loyal to the te gray people's liberation front, or tpl. ethanol is all the town has now been liberated by government forces.

he had better go against the morning prayers just ended. this church is one of 11 medieval churches, cut into rock, his grade symbolic value with europeans. this is also why a t p l f was clean to conquer this town. at this time of year, one of the holiest will orthodox christians. labella is normally full of international visitors and diaspora europeans. but most of them have stayed away. worry that fight as good school been again from the neighboring te gray region, even though the t p a left promised in december to withdraw all of their fighters back into t grey. his own so many people have fled. those who stayed here and we suffered a lot of stress that and i know that into my, my sad i let us at the point of their guns at us. the 2nd time they came,

they raped women and beat and killed people. deferral. so david, don't so good at the mazda they looted in a town and raped and beat women, but diluted their hotels. we had no power and water, the girl had. lemme run away from the church as we meet bayonne area that he used to work as the security guard at this now destroyed hotel . he tells us some of that he grain fighters used it as their headquarters. they left messages on the wall before they left. welcome to state of t grey and no more at european, i'm to grain the writing says and nestor. this is the way you categorize fighters were having a conference here preparing for the war with them. but then they got hit and the hotel was destroyed in the if we were here together, we would have died. as even in or out in with what they would tell was probably hit vine on drawn. experts from the dutch and gel packs have identified these

missile fragments as part of a bomb fitted to a turkish drone. turkey has been criticized for possibly selling the drones to with your peers government. the drones are also thought to be responsible for numerous civilian deaths in ethiopia, civil war. in fact, all parties involved in the conflict have been accused of committing atrocities. according to the united nations and rights organizations. this kindergarten is now a temporary camp for volunteer fighters called funnel. yeah, yeah. oh wow. yeah. no group has signed up many new recruits since the t grey rebels 1st attack labella, including women. hymen are today, sir, is one of them endlessly numer calling, looking at him, it's been double with her. my uncle and my aunt husband who reads me like my own

father are dead. my friend who was like a sister to me was raped, had he and he so young that would be and if i get a chance to find them, i will fight them to my last breath. and he bugging network. he would escalated it up. no, but any michigan, again, the funny fighters, as celebrating 50 of them, i modeled among them a traveling to the border between m hora and t grey. the volunteer fighter say, they want to defend the border region and case the t p l f attacks again. while chinese tennis star punish why seems to have retracted her sexual assault allegations in her 1st appearance in western media. since she made the accusations in an interview published to day in french newspaper, their keep, she said sexual assaults. i never said any one had a sexually assaulted me in any way. the former doubles world number one had

previously alleged in a social media post. as she had been forced into sacks by china's former vice premier, the post was quickly deleted, and pung then disappeared from public view for 3 weeks, marking concerns about her safety. on that with the chief of the international olympic committee on saturday in beijing. so plenty of questions around this case to get some answers. let's bring in journalist fabi and crash more in beijing up punch. why now? saying she never made any allegations, but we know such allegations it did appear on her social media accountable for being deleted. so what is going on here? it's quite strange and a kind of surreal plot twists happening here. am, in my opinion, the interview she gave to the french sport magazine doesn't really at much value, because 1st of all, she was accompanied by an official, the chief of staff of the national olympic committee. he also interpreted for her, even though, if you look on youtube in the archive um, she seems to speak quite um,

good english. so i mean, that gives us some idea. it's a little bit of a strange situation. but yet her message has basically nothing to see her, everything is normal and m a please don't or give me any attention. but am her social media post is say it's out there. she wrote it and she doesn't even doubt herself that am it's from her. so am yeah, i think we have to wait and pretty get an independent investigation in it. in the past, people under duress, in a china has been coerced into making false public statements. i think what everyone is wondering is, could this also be the case when i punch, why possibly yes, but i think it's really important to am. stick to the fact. see, i think both cases are both scenarios will be possible on the one hand. yeah, we have to acknowledge those false confessions and they exist, they're actually quite white spread and sometimes they're also and broadcast. and in the state tv, we know those cases are well documented. and, and of course she's under a lot of pressure. i mean,

this is all really effects. on the other hand, we know that she's quite a proud a petri. she am is proud of her government, that's what she posted in the past on her way, boy, account, et cetera. so there would be the per scenario also that maybe she realized that she, i'm hum to the reputation of her home country and now she wants to retract from it . we simply don't know, and i think it's not good to speculate too much. we really need an investigation upon just met with the chief of the international olympic committee, thomas bar. what role is the i o c playing and getting to the bottom of this yet really not a very helpful role. i would argue, i mean, thomas spot was the 1st one who had a video called with punch. why? and then basically said everything is fine. and i mean, there was a big mistake. he was basically facilitating the propaganda apparatus. and i'm, i mean, he never really very critical to woodstock, chinese government. i mean, he's not really a credible voice when it comes to neutrality and also independence em. so my advice

would be that he should not make any interpretations regarding her case. i mean, i think that there someone else needed another institution would who would be a better judge. thank you very much. a javion, crouch, mark, journalist, and vision. and let's go more from the beijing winter olympics. now where day force our athletes break records beat. the odds and make history on the snow and on the ice. here's a quick look at some of the stand out performances in snowboarding, canadian max perot sort to canada's 1st gold of the games, capturing the top prize in the men slopes style parole who was diagnosed with cancer after winning the silver metal in 2018. kept off his emotional olympic come back by winning his 1st winter games. gold in alpine skiing, one of the biggest winter olympic events, switzerland, spi at voice flew to gold in a dramatic race which was delayed from sunday due to high winds. foyce narrowly

edged out frenchman johan clary, by just 110th of a 2nd to win his 1st olympic gold. 15 year old russian camilla, val ye, yvonne made history by becoming the 1st female figure skater to land of cr drupal jump at the games. she landed 2 and stumbled a 3rd, but the russians still won a team. gold and in football, cynical have one of the africa cup of nations for the 1st time ever after they beat 7 time champions, egypt in sundays final and yo and day results that had a fans in their home country celebrating throughout the night. elation in decor off to senate goals 1st, ever africa cup of nations when but the party atmosphere was also mixed with a sense of relief after a tricky stop to the final against egypt in the 7th minute star play assario manet, mister penalty, but recovered from the setback with the help of his teammates. oh,

it was on his account, hila, can you know what made the difference when i miss the 1st penalty within all my teammates came to me and told me mc was audio and if you miss, but who cares? we are a team, we went together and we lived together this only keep on going else on, on pet, on someone going off on after a go las 120 minutes money became the hero with a winning penalty in the shootout. and despite winning the champions league and premier league with liverpool, this title rank higher. phillip, this is just the bose with the list the best day of my life philadelphia, i think it's the most important trophy of my life. to day i continue to live a dream. i can't even believe it is and not even of a wait was long. but finally we did it on the left and we're all happy and proud to witness trophy via the gunners. littleton the reaction to the victory. so fans celebrate wildly and dare to dream of winning even more titles. i got good luck with very happy about the scope. we knew that synagogue would win

the trophy is elected. i got, we've been waiting a long time to get his title. well, it's about time now we're going to win the world co hope that i know to reach that upcoming world cup and could so cynical will have to again beat egypt over 2 legs in march, his final qualification round a task that now may feel more than achievable to these delighted supporters of an update in germany's bonus leda where sundays, early match saw a blow out when for by our labour cruise and as home team. marcia document 5 to the final score and that deals a heavy blow to dock lens title, hopes spirits were high endorsement ahead of the game, but in just 90 minutes time fans would waive their title hopes. good bye. it only took 10 minutes for lever, who was in to take the lead following chaos, indictments defense, manuel icons. he poked the ball beyond his own keeper. a nightmare stuart for the swiss dot one did get one back quite quickly. thanks to yet another on goal. this

time by jeremy frank pung, but just 4 minutes later of and i can't flew on votes, found the back of the net after great combination play to retake, leave ac was and lead the goals just kept coming. a fantastic re kicked by whole, but under the mate, the score $3.00 to $1.00 heading into half time. an injured darling holland was too stunned to speech. leave a cruise and showed no mercy instead. great finishing with you're not santa smashing home the 4 to one. and it was the frenchman mussa the abbey, who scored leave a cruises 5th of the night. dot one did score one more themselves, but that was purely damage. limitation cited to the final result, an embarrassment for dot month in front of their home crowd. they now trail by and by 9 points leave. i was not the other hand, had themselves a night to remember and celebrate. we're going to take a look now at

a curious twinkle in the night sky that has social media buzzing. take a look at best, bright lights shooting across the sky above. cabo san lucas and mexico's aha, california mit dodo and people have shared videos and their theories about what the lights could be. some believe they saw a falling meteorite or even space debris. but so far it's true, origin remains unknown. and before we go, let's get a reminder of the top stories we are following for you. german chancellor, all off schultz has arrived in washington for talks with us president joe biden. i'll discuss the threat of a new russian invasion of ukraine, but schultz has repeated his refusal to provide ukraine with weapons. and chinese tennis star pung, shy, gives an interview at the beijing olympics. denying, she accused a communist party boss of sexual assaults, of for some questions remain as to whether she was speaking under juris

coming up next our science program tomorrow today explore the question, entreating many of us where did at the corona virus originates. there is, of course, plenty more on our website to that to d, w dot com or you check us out on social media at indeed of the news. i'm clear, richardson in berlin for me in the team here. thank you so much for watching. ah, with

who we know, it's here to stay has become part of our lives, the kinds of 19 viruses they know where it really came from and how it spreads. while they have taken a giant step towards getting to the bushes of young kind of it tomorrow to day next on

d w ah, with one of the main kinds, oldest ambitions could be within reach. oh, what is it really is possible to reverse aging researchers and scientists all over the world are in a race against time. the dna molecules though, has 28000000 different power boxes. they are peers and rivals with one daring goal to help smart nature. for a longer,

healthier and fuller life. one of the most insightful discoveries in the history of mankind down the hatch. more life starts february 16th on d, w. ah woo hahn in china is considered ground 0 of the global corona virus pandemic. but a german geneticist may have debunked this theory. he traced the lineage of the corona virus and made a surprising discovery. plus, we'll delve into long cove. it. what causes the known symptoms remains uncertain still, but the secret could lie in the viruses impact on our blood cells. welcome to to

morrow to day. the science program.