platform for reliable information. ah, ah ah, ah, this is data we news going from berlin line of defense kremlin takes the 1st step towards joining nato in a move that would end decades of military non alignment. the finished president and prime minister said their country should join without delay. moscow says the move is definitely a threat also coming up. stand off in madigan, ball keep offer is a prisoner swamp, to get wounded fighters out of the embattled us off star steel plas,

offering to hand over a russian prisoners of war and return. and an activist from the ante kremlin punk group pussy riot makes a daring escape from house arrest. now, he's in berlin. we'll hear how he got away. ah. hello everyone r layla rock. thank you very much for your company. we opened his rightcast with what could be a historic turning point for european security fillings. presidents and prime minister have called for that country to apply for nato membership as soon as possible in a joint statement. finisher leadership said nato membership. what strength and finland's security as a member of nato, finland would strengthen the entire defense alliance. finland must apply for nato membership without delay. while the announcement is expected to put pressure on

sweden, which is also considering applying to joint philip shares a 1300 kilometer long border with russia, a national mood has changed dramatically since moscow's invasion of ukraine. finland is looking to ditch decades of military non alignment. while helsinki has moved closer to nato in recent years, it just to stay out of the alliance to avoid antagonizing russia until now. but the invasion of ukraine has battled much of the finished public, who now worry that they could be next. give us a security nature for here. that's why i went that way. i nature and i. i think that we should have an been a door reading a new 1990 s money. when it was possible, we stood alone in 1939. we don't want to stand alone again. every veteran who fought and survived the winter was had never,

ever to stand alone again. finland chairs, a 1300 kilometer long border with russia. it's a session to the military alliance with more than doubled the russia. anita land border top finish diplomats believe nieto would benefit greatly if they joined. he are convinced that sin uncle, bring any value to nato. a war time strength of the defense forces is 2280000 troops and the trend reserve is 900000 men and women. fealand has many high income abilities, including a 5 digit fleet of if eighty's gradually to be replaced by recently ordered. $64.00, if $35.00 jet fighters the government has said its response would depend on the extent of needles, military infrastructure. we have repeatedly said that the expansion of nato and the abroad of the military infrastructure of the alliance to our borders does not make

the world and most a bodily european, eurasian continent more stable and secure. this is unambiguous. finland could make its formula but do need to membership in the coming weeks after the move has been approved by parliament, another unintended consequence or from russia's war in ukraine. let's get you more data correspond. terry schultz is in brussels for you, terry. good to see you again. talk us through this dramatic shift in public opinion . just how significant is this lately, this would have been unimaginable just a few months ago. public opinion in nato last time that it was, was measured, this consistently was in the 20th 20th percentile. and now it's above 70 percent. i mean, this would have been unfathomable, unfathomable, without rushes war on ukraine. and you know, it's not just that finland stayed out of quite secure with it's very strong

national defense. it has one of the largest standing armies in europe if it's reserve us. we're called in to duty. and so it felt like with the low level of threat coming from the kremlin at that time, it's certainly could, could take care of itself. of course, now that russia has attacked a peaceful neighbor just on another border. villain is thinking again and very moscow has already, reacted is warding, it will be forced to take retaliatory steps good. this potentially us. coit. certainly moscow would like finland and sweden to, to think that it could escalate. and it tried to warn these 2 countries to not to make this decision. and you can see in finished president sally mean as to how annoying that was to him. and he said yesterday in a press conference that moscow should look in the mirror if it wants to know why finland is joining nato. is moscow that cause this? he said, so yes, russia may take some steps. it's not going to be conventional warfare like we're

seeing in ukraine, but it is likely to be cyber attacks, other kinds of hybrid warfare, disinformation campaigns. those are done against finland because sort of all the time at a low level. so i think that the fins are expecting perhaps to see an uptick in this, but they're ready for it. there are some of the most resilient among europe when it comes to dealing with these kind of hybrid attacks. so the basic question, what if anything, stands now in the way of finland joining nato? absolutely nothing. now that the finish public opinion has determined that they want to join neck nato. now that the highest level of government has come out and said, today, the president and the prime minister that they want to join nato on sunday, the full government will meet and pronounce that it is ready to join nato. so what finland needs to do now is submit a formal request to the alliance that it wants to join and then the 30 allies will

need to confirm this. and that is something that will take some time, but no one is going to stand in the way of finland. joining finland is seen as an asset to nato. having said that, terry, of the new to was session process could take some time. could that leave finland and possibly also sweden exposed and vulnerable? that's right. even with nato secretary general. yeah. and still to burg saying he's going to make sure that it will be as smooth and swift accession should finland decide to join as we now believe it will. this could take up to a year even to go through 30 countries. some of them need their parliaments to approve it. there are different procedures in each of the allies. and during that time nato's article 5 mutual security guarantees will not apply to finland or to sweden. and so individual allies have, have come forward to helsinki and to stockholm and said we will not leave you alone . nato may not be able to apply its guarantees as a whole, but we will be there for you. and so i think that both finland is sweden,

with their own very strong national defenses and with the other partner and out like countries saying that they will back them up. i don't think they're so worried about this period of which is often called the grazing period. they're sure reporting. they're from brussels. so terry, thank you so much. ukraine is proposing a prisoner swat to resolve the stand off at the us off steel as of stall rather steel plant. anybody who bolt the plan would allow wounded ukrainian soldiers to move to safety in exchange for ukraine releasing russian prisoners of war. meanwhile, the when human rights chief says the bodies of more than 1000 civilians have been recovered in areas north of keith that were previously occupied by russian troops. this comes as ukrainian forces pushed back russian troops around ukraine's 2nd largest city, harkey. some residents who fled the fighting there have now begun returning to their villages. go home. at last. tatiana has

returned to her village for the 1st time in 2 months. but there's not much left of her house. her garden is littered with the aftermath of russia's invasion, touch on his goats, at least, survived the onslaught. took him there with them. he had russians are brothers, as though couldn't. i couldn't never imagined anything like this. this aggression which the drink and destruction pedro. and when i came home, i kissed the ground. now i have nothing more. where am i supposed to live? and what should i do? was your neighbors in the village weren't spared either. and also came back to find a piles of rubble where their homes one stood but perhaps nowhere are the ruins greater than mar you, paul. after weeks of relentless bombardment,

russian forces in their separate just allies are now in control of almost all of the strategic port city. before rebuilding can begin, cruise must 1st clear massive amounts of rubble. i used to have 3 rooms now only half of one. when i came up from the shelter, i opened the door and there was no apartment any more. that was scary. residents who have remained behind are now trying to get on with their lives. and in many cases, that means improvising the loan hold out of resistance remains the as of style steel plant where fighters trapped under ground have been withstanding russian pounding the ukrainian government has proposed swapping them in exchange for russian soldiers captured during their invasion of ukraine. and early

i asked it of your correspondent, i'm an assistant this for the latest on the prisoner exchange. moscow still now responded layla to this. so most recent request, but previously they've said that they will not go for a anything but a prisoner of war to a prisoner of war swap. in other words, this is an unusual request that a moscow, russia would swap the prisoners of war, ukrainian prisoners of war in exchange for combatants who have not yet surrendered to russia's military. now those would be combatants who are wounded. i would sha ukraine, counts as civilians. that's why there have been reports that there is civilians left in the as of south steel plant. but russia seems intent on them of forcing the defenders of that plans to surrender because that would mean a total victory and mar you pull. and it seems that they will accept nothing less. in other words, a prison of war swapped for combatants of would not file with moscow, but moscow has caved to ukrainian demands for prisoners of war swabs previously. so

we'll have to see how this plays out later. so still still made in matthew paula and maria steel plant. but in the meanwhile, we understand russia has suffered setbacks. that's right, layla in har keith, as we've seen that the russians have been pushed out of the villages surrounding the city, which means that their tanks and their, their assault on that city is far out of range so that shells cannot reach the city . this is very important because without ground support without shelling, russia has not been able to take any city. so a lot of the attacks that we're seeing elsewhere in ukraine, like here in the vive, or, and chair near of, in the north, just recently a shell, a caused destruction there of civilian buildings. these are more of a terroristic style attack. meant to scare the population, but in no way could actually claim the city for russian control now. and don bass though, we're seeing the opposite, where russia is securing its hold on areas that it already had been involved in and

also surrounding cities like us of it. are done yet, which is the last city in the east that is still under ukrainian control, but is now completely surrounded by russian military. and most analysts believe that it will fall soon to russian forces. and there's been a, a warning from the kremlin about the west supplying weapons to ukraine. that's right. and dmitri med vietnam was one of the closest advisors to the russian president. vladimir putin said that the west needs to be careful of its actions. he complained about the amount of weapons coming over the border into ukraine to supply ukrainian forces. he said that there is a limit to how much russia would take and said that this could escalate into a nuclear war. he didn't said he would say russia would start the nuclear war, but that's what it's implying. so this comes just a few days after russia said that they do not want to have a nuclear war. what's happening here is that russia is keeping this as an option to scare the west, and i think that there are examples of leaders in the west that are taking this

very seriously. olaf schoultz is one of them. this is why he's been very hesitant to send a more heavy weapons into ukraine at a fears of escalating the conflict beyond. i'm controlled because layla most people who have studied nuclear war know that it doesn't come down to a board meeting where people say we're going to launch nuclear weapons. these things are on hair trigger alert and it could be out of the control of anybody. so i think both sides are being careful here in their words, as well as in their actions. i mean, i see for reporting from that live ukraine. thank you very much. i'm in and these are the other stories that we're tracking for you right now. the formats from these group of 7 wealthy nations are meeting in germany to discuss the war in ukraine energy and for security. yet, relations with china and climate change are also on the agenda. ukraine's foreign minister is among those invited to the 3 day g. 7 summit as a guest south korea has says,

north korea has test launched 3 short range ballistic missiles to work with c at a military parade scene. here in april, north korea's leader kim jong on said he would speed up the development of nuclear weapons. despite a un resolution banning the north from launching ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads in the united states, as it has now seen more than a 1000000 cove in 1000 deaths prison, joe biden described it as a tragic milestone. his comments come ahead of a virtual summit on the pandemic at which he will appeal for a renewed international commitment on tackling virus russia throne. tomorrow. a member of the russian punk rock band pussy riot as escaped house arrest in moscow . the roof 1st came to promise in 2012 for its open criticism of vladimir putin regime. they stormed to moscow cathedral to perform a punk prayer to protest the close relationship between the kremlin and the russian

orthodox church. maria yohina and 2 of her band mates were sentenced to 2 years in prison on now l. yohina has made it to by to find out how she did it turn house dot is here from our culture desk. it sounds like something out of a cold war spy movie or book. tell us more. yeah, well, it was a certainly a very dramatic escape. layla melody. yeah. yahoo not as you mentioned was already under house arrest in moscow. that's part of the increasingly brutal crack down on descent that they're saying they're back in april already the authorities had announced that they would convert her house arrest to 21 days in a penal colony. so yeah, exactly not very inviting. and she decided that although she's committed to staying in russia, she had to get out. so what she did was she disguised herself as a career to be able to get by the police that were stationed,

always permanently around her apartment. she left her mobile phone. there to avoid being tracked and friends were able to help her get lithuanian visa, so she was able to make it to bella luce and then needed another week to get across . bella rose and eventually after several tries over the border into lithuanian from vill, yes, she was able to get to iceland on the invitation of, of a friend there and she's now travelling with an icelandic passport. so she had lots of friends along the way that were helping her with this that she says that a little magic was also in the hot. yeah. i mean it's, it's, it really interesting story. i would like to know more about it. how does she describe the situation in russia? right? yeah. i did really gram, i mean, putting in, as we know, has been cracking down really hard on any kind of criticism of his regime, but also the war effort. in fact, maria yohina was arrested 6 times since last summer, each time for 15 days. and she's actually the 2nd member of pussy riot to actually escape this way. so just at the end of march, her band meet and current girlfriend,

you see shine actually got exactly the same ways with one of these green suits with the backpack. a career suit that she ordered online. you know, they have a very long history of run ins. with the authorities, they've had to get quite creative. and our yohina says that at the moment all activists and all of their friends are on a so called list. and that there's absolutely no possibility to, to act or speak out. if you do anything, it's getting progressively worse, and this is what she told us about the atmosphere in russia. at the moment. i think russian propaganda should be somehow translated to the west because you guys should know what they're talking about you. it's not just like g europe anymore. it's not just like they have different values anymore. it's pure hatred. it's bureau called for keeley. so we should certainly be taking notice of what's

being said over there. she says that during her sit still in jail, she was allowed only a radio, but that radio is few and nothing but propaganda at the moment. and she urges us not to believe that, you know, numbers like the fact that 80 percent of russians actually support the war because they simply can't say anything. so i understand what we just that quote that we just saw, that was from an interview, conducted conductor idly w culture. yeah, it's also that why she, yes, she is. and she's been joined by several other of her band mates of, of the put the right art collective, who've also fled from russia. by the way, they're planning a concert tour to raise funds for ukrainian refugees. they'll be kicking off to night in berlin and heading to places like amsterdam and barcelona. for instance. i also with a new song about the ukraine wars. i will try to keep tabs on not and possibly have more information for you. i think i should add that it's simply crazy that what they did 10 years ago they're in that cathedral. i was considered by many at the time to be something of a vulgar stunt if you will. but i think it,

it's in the end, it looks like we really should have been paying more attention to policy. right. because it hasn't, in fact, become very prophetic, the relationship between the kremlin and the church and everything that we're seeing unfolding. so more on that story at some point. thank you so much carol. how started from r d w culture desk riveting? thank you. treating. thank you. astronomers have unveiled the 1st image of a super massive black hole located right at the center of our own milky way galaxy. the ground breaking image is the product of an international team of scientists known as the event horizon telescope. collaboration will to cause body is named sacha terry is a start of the black hole is estimated to have a 4000000 times the mass of our son and is located about 26000 light years from earth. scientists say the discovery will help improve our understanding of what happens at the center of our galaxy from the hot yeah. swirling around the

block. all right, i'm delighted to introduce now. dr. sarah is soon a nasa einstein fellow at the harvard and smithsonian center for astrophysics. and she joins me now from munich. i'm so excited to meet your doctor. i'll talk to was about the significance of this discovery. i need to talk to you. and so it's a big day for us. it's the 2nd image of a black hole after we're built the 1st image back in 2019, which was the black hole at the center of the m 87 galaxy. that is 55000000 light years away from us. but today we're seeing the black hole in our own backyard, basically at the center of our milky way galaxy. and this black will image is kind of amazing because we've been studying the cycle for a long time. and the story of building the e t was to chase this image, this image a fatty terrace, a star, and it feels like the culmination of efforts of so many people. it's such an

exciting day. i imagine how difficult was it to produce this image. it was very difficult that if i gave us a lot of headaches for the past 2 years, compared to m 87, it's a much smaller black hole. it's over a 1000 times smaller than m $87.00. and so the gas around it takes less time to go around. so gas that would take days or weeks to go around and maybe 7 take just minutes to go round. sad to terrace, a star because it's smaller. and so the gas in the image decided to restart changes during our 8 hours of observation. whereas m $87.00, they still so taking a photo of it is like taking a photo of a running toddler running around the room at night. it was just very, very challenging. we're dealing with motion blur, we're dealing with things going around all the time. so that gave us a lot of work to do it,

trying to understand how this motion can be captured in the image. and we finally did it amazing, amazing stuff of how will this break through have an impact on us here, right on earth. yeah, i think it's exciting because we're seeing the super math of blackwell at the center of our galaxy. and we think there are super massive black holes at the centers of most galaxies. and they have a central role in how galaxies evolve. how we grow, how you know galaxies are formed and are part of the universe. and so seeing the one at the center of our galaxy kind of make this part of something bigger than the earth is in the milky way. and this is our black hole that is lurking there. and, you know, having an impact on how our galaxy evolves and growth. now i understand that an image of a black hole was released back in 2019. what have we learned from this latest image that you did not know before?

right, so exciting thing. so the 1st image of the black hole was the black hole in the empty 7 galaxy, that black hole, we didn't know how massive it was. there were 2 conflicting measurements of the math. and so we could only measure the math once we had an image and so we could get kind of a sense of how well einstein's theory of general relativity did for predicting that black hole mass, but not as well as had to terrace a star because back in 2020, that nobel prize in physics was awarded to these amazing studies, a feller, orbits in our galactic center that go around really fast. this darkness that is supposed to be extremely massive and compact. that was supposed that was measured to be about $4000000.00 map times more massive than our son. and the darkness that wasn't seen that was causing the stars to orbit the way they are is actually the black hole. and this is the 1st time we have direct evidence that this object that

is creating the star is moving in this way. is a black hole, and we're seeing it for the 1st time. and in fact, the size of the black hole that we measure exactly matches what einstein's prediction is. and that's super exciting because we're testing einstein theory and it's still a whole strong for sided therapy star, which is a much tighter test that for many 7, amazing, amazing stuff. we've learned so much in such little time just by speaking to you asked for system dr. sarah, you soon thank you so much. she's a nasa einstein fellow at the harvard smithsonian center for astro physics exciting times. thank you for coming on. thank you. all right, when the german astronaut mathias mauer started his 6 month commission to the international space station, there was no question about continuing cooperation with russian cosmonaut. but the invasion of ukraine has thrown this into doubt. but back from his mission, as mauer says that up in space, there's no sign of conflict. the view of

a roster not mathias mara. this was a personal highlight of his time in orbit. if all of the pastor was active, the noise. when i'm talking to clinton and then you look at our planet and you recognize things that you've only heard about statistics. and suddenly you take what's happening down there to heart as you see where people live, where people impact on nature. and when nature is changing, vendor mauer spends just the 6 months on the international space station. but the assist under an incredibly good job up in space. so a lot of experiments are, have been conducted there. but also an e v. a which of course is always a highlight. russia invaded ukraine during bowers time and space. but the relationship with the russian cosmonaut on board state positive i did come to mind the ambience land in the space community. we've built up so much

trust in the past 20 or more than 20 years old. we have met, we mention that we like that and we want to carry on with that into the even a lot of what our level things are excellence. and we want to act as a bridge to find a way back to that once this crisis is over, in the eclipse within. russia has questioned the long term future of the i assess. but for now, the program continues. ah, ah, with

the international leech in ukraine, 1000 some phone teams from abroad risk, their lives fighting against pontoons. we a company come from south america and saundra from new when a lot of bombing down on them, we to defraud, return on. so focus on europe. next, on d, w. o,

$12016.00 . the 2nd batch of the queen casa, wanted to see if germany was for me. the last few years had been quite a ride early in touch with the permanent averted on the home when it comes to jem a bit on of course i always look in the eye for a chip, but perhaps the biggest on the new hobby of blood hunger longer approved, i love to be in the newspapers, americans, but when you're feeling multiple, giving your realize that culture, another way of living, are you ready to meet the driver and then join me right to do it on b. w. ah. natural spectacle in an improved ah, meeting of the little whale sharks. so remote island of saint louis

a testament to the waters. one of them many success stories, bastion of biodiversity, may 20th on d, w. ah, this is focus on europe. nice to have you with us today. it's been more than 10 weeks since russia invaded ukraine, though poor and may have expected a blitzkrieg. his army is advancing slower than many anticipated meeting a fierce resistance from ukrainian forces.