ah, ah ah, this is the w news live at from berlin to night, europe's new line of defense. finland takes a step towards joining nato. brandon's leader say, after decades of military 9 alignment, the country should join without delay. moscow warning that it will view nato expansion as definitely a threat. also coming up tonight, the un watching and investigation into alleged rights abuses by russia in ukraine. and it's claiming that moscow is responsible for the vast majority of civilian casualties. also on the showed the u. s president kicked off

a global coven 19 summit, with a warning against complacence. 5000 still dying every day. now is the time for us to act. all of us together. by almost 2 more. as the u. s. marks 1000000 coded 19 debts. we look at how countries around the world are coping with the pandemic. and astronomers casting light on the dark part of our galaxy. they have revealed the 1st image, see them, they are the super massive black hole at the center of the milky way. ah, i'm brink off to our viewers watching on p b. s. in the united states and to all of you around the world, it's good to have you with this tonight. in historic turning point for european security, finland's president and prime minister calling for their country to apply for nato

membership as soon as possible. to date a joint statement, the leader said, nater membership would strengthen finland, security as a member of nato. finland would strengthen the entire defense alliance. finland must apply for native membership without delay. the announcement is expected to put pressure on neighboring sweden, which is also considering applying to joint when a show you a map of the current nato members on the european continent. and that long border that finland shares with russia in measure some 1300 kilometers. now the national new did has changed dramatically in finland since moscow's invasion of ukraine. we have more in this report. finland is looking to ditch decades of military non alignment. while has inky, has moved closer to nato in recent years. it just to stay out of the alliance to avoid antagonizing russia under now. but the invasion of ukraine has acted much of

the finished public. who now what he that be could be next. give us security nato force. yeah, that's the right island at lee. i nature and i think that we should have at the nato reading a new 1990 s money. when it was possible, we stood alone in 1939. we don't want to stand alone again with every veteran who fought and survived the winter walls had never at a standalone again, thin lynch as a 1300 kilometer long bordeaux with russia. it's a session to the military alliance would more than doubled the russia, anita land, botto top finished diplomats believe nieto would benefit treaty if they joined. you are convinced that single bring any value to nato over time. strength of the defense forces is 20. 280000 troops and the trend reserve is 900000 men and

women. finland has many high income abilities, including a 5 digit fleet of f 8 this gradually to be replaced by recently ordered. $64.00 if $35.00 jet fighters the criminal 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 body, league, european, eurasian continent more stable and secure. this is unambiguous. finland could make its formal bit do need to membership in the coming weeks after the move has been approved by parliament, i spoke to our nato, corresponded terry schultz earlier, and i asked her about finland's potential nato membership and what it could mean for neighboring suite. well that's the point. brent is not only significant for finland and sweden. it truly will have an impact on all of nato,

because when you think about northern europe, you've got norway as a member iceland, as a member, and then finland and sweden out before you know, you go down to the baltic states, which again are members of the alliance this will close that gap around northern europe, and these 2 countries are extremely wealthy. they're extremely well equipped and they have very strong national defense is, you know, they plan on going it alone is that report showed. so they will bring very, very strong capabilities to nato in some ways. like with the navies, there's the swedish navy, i'm capabilities that nato actually needs to reinforce itself. we heard of the report that we just saw that finland's policy has been before this war had been to remain on the line, not to join nato, because he didn't want to antagonize russia. but isn't that exactly what it's going to do to joins the alliance? well, i would say that it was only in part, not to antagonize russia because at that point, russia wasn't invading its neighbors. i'm like,

it has now done in ukraine. so filane felt that said that, you know, it's very strong, national defense would be enough to deter a russian attack. but clearly, after this war started a on ukraine, now all bets are off. and that was certainly what changed the public opinion. now russia has reacted antagonistic li, saying that today that is going to cut off finland's gas supply for this. and they've even threatened to move nuclear weapons closer to the finish border. so certainly this is something that, that finland, sweden, and all of nato expected. and they're not actually that worried about it. the resilience is high, the mindset is stable and they were expecting this kind of response from the kremlin in which the word worried because the worry is real in helsinki. of that finland could become the next ukraine one day using yet, after after this war started. yes, because remember,

all of us thought that russian president vladimir putin couldn't go that far to wage a conventional war on, on a peaceful neighbour. but that is, in fact what finland decided that you couldn't rule anything out any more. and this is after decades of, of basically cultivating a relationship with russia that i wouldn't say was friendly. but it was at least under the east side, understood each other. and i think that finland trusted moscow not to be aggressive against it and it just no longer has that trust is completely ruptured. that relationship in the military of finland is, is already compatible with natives. military, we've heard that the membership could be put on the fast track, isn't finland tonight? if you consider what we've seen happening since february, finland is the country that ukraine wishes. it could be right now. yeah, there's been a lot of talk about that before the war before ukraine has suffered so much destruction. ukraine perhaps did see finland as a model and it's certainly now would like to see itself following finland into the

alliance. but of course, the comparisons are not apt in most ways the income level, the g. d. p of finland is so high. the the military capabilities are so high. finland is not using old soviet equipment like they are in ukraine and finland hasn't needed anyone's help. up until now is not depending on other countries to train the finish military. so i don't think the comparisons are completely compatible at this moment, but certainly fill and prided itself on being able to handle its own defense as ukraine did. and yeah, now finland does not want to see itself. suffer the same thing, which i think most of the world can understand. terry shall brussels tonight. terry, as always, thank you. the with human rights council has launched an investigation into alleged rights abuses committed by russia in ukraine. the council voted overwhelmingly to approve the pro, which will look into abuses in the regions of heave, turn to heave hockey and to you. and human rights chief says that russian forces

are responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths in great dw correspondent, but he is earlier is in here and he has more now on the fighting and other cities in the east of u grey. so yeah, we have different situations at different parts of the front line around hard keep, the ukrainian forces have been able to push the russians back almost to the russian borders in some areas. and in other areas quite far away from the city. which means that the city is out of artillery range and that's why people are returning to the city because it's now less it's being less shelled, less than before. and that's, but basically this due to this offensive, which seems to be quite successful in don boss, which is further east. the situation looks a bit different. fighting is fears there, and we have in the past few days, seen some gains by the russians, not breakthroughs, but the russians are still on the offensive,

although things might not go as planned for them either. the ukraine is, are resisting, but nothing is decided there yet. it's still a very intense battle. and what about the gremlins warning against further weapons deliveries? to you create a bit, what's been the reaction to that? the criminal has been warning against the arms deliveries since since the beginning of the war. but the cramp, the criminal, has also attacked you. crane. so you crane prioritize is being able to defend itself, rather than discussing these warnings in what is the latest tonight from the as of style steel plant, we know that more than a 1000 ukrainian soldiers remain trapped there. that's what we're hearing, right? yes, there are. there's a proposal basically, and we hear that there are talks about evacuating a small number of these soldiers, those who are severely wounded. that should be a number. i think 39 or around 40 people,

the discussions on going we don't know whether there's any chance to to, to get to, to, to conclude a deal here. the prisoners walk, for example, is what ukraine has proposed ukraine handing over prisoners to russia and russia, allowing these wounded soldiers to get out of the steel plant. but russia is very keen on, on capturing the soldiers. they are the as of battalion russia. it describes this battalion as a nazi of fascist battalion. it has roots in euclid, ukrainian nationalism and very, very nationalist groups. although it has been integrated into the army a few years ago and has also been purged of what most of the hard core nationalists but still it's a symbol and they want to get hold of them t w's. but he is bringing her in here tonight. but he is thinking they are talking

points are many each as urgent as the next foreign ministers from a group of southern wealthy countries are meeting for 3 days in northern germany. on the agenda worldwide thing shortages energy prices skyrocketing and of course, the war in ukraine. the meeting on the baltic sea will likely also focus on relations with china, as well as finding climate change, the foreign ministers of ukraine, and will, dover will take part in the meeting on saturday. the foreign minister of indonesia, the country, the chairs, the wider g. 20 group of economy is expected to join via video link. germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the g. to ms. warring minister on the lena bear bach and says that the world's wealthiest nations have a responsibility to aid countries suffering the economic consequences of russia's invasion. yeah, it stacks in a c not feel as the strongest industrialized nations among the democracies. we have a special responsibility and we don't just assume this responsibility. we want to

work together to ensure that the 141 states that have condemned this brutal war of aggression in the strongest possible terms within the framework of the u. n. a not now left in the lurch. so none does the us, but rather we stand by their side and in solidarity with all countries in the world suffering. the brutal consequences of this war of aggression light is in. we see you, we hear you and we support you. you don't asked. it's neu. there was a german foreign minister speaking there. the united nations and several aid organizations say that women are bearing the brunt of rushes. invasion of ukraine, many have experienced sexual violence by russian soldiers in areas retaken from russian troops. civilians have given horrified accounts of sexual violence. ukraine's human rights ombudsman has received hundreds of reports, but the true numbers they are impossible to calculate. the international criminal court has already opened investigation into more than 400 cases,

and the un is working with local authorities to get aid to survivors and other women at risk be question what is being done to help women targeted with sexual violence? i asked alexandra mike vitric, she's a human rights lawyer and she's head of the non profit organization. the center for civil liberties. seems a new way for russian large scale in region or in february this year we still are going to give them i done a top several 100 volunteers who speak with teams or for crimes and weakness for crimes as well. and they can maintain their testimony. and among those who are crimes, the results. so cases of section $13.00, which is committed by russian closures we have several such cases and all of them, one of them women were raped russian soldiers and one it was man. and because we

work with them, well, when the people who are not prepared for for such trying to fix the dns and not to, to provide a proper question year and no conversation survivors of sexual violence, we close the corporate in this regard. we saw other initiatives and organization specialized on this, the sounds to survivors sexual violence. and we understand that these are, these are all horrifying cases be, understand some been women who have been raped and it's happened right in front of their, their families and their children. it's hard to imagine, can you describe to us the, the, the long term, the laughter effects just being an eye witness to this can have for the people there who become victims of this as i told we coordinate to other and 1st

visits, organization and our colleagues from partner organization to that now as a worker to provide a political assistance to home and when weakness or sexual violence. she was a witness co, russian soldiers regularly rate child. and she wouldn't coke this child and couldn't stop it. and in school wide like a huge damage also for your house. and you know, especially to work with not only with the child and family, but also with people who were obliged to see this, the act of sexual violence. and now women a huge deal here that they couldn't talk it and it is difficult to talk about crimes like this in any circumstance. but how difficult is it for me to talk about this when this is happened?

in a war zone, when a soldier maybe have done this, has committed the crow. it's very difficult to steve crowns. it's why section one and see so most he didn't crimes and your survivors of sexual violence. nobody will for not apply no to police to human rights defenders because they consider this crime as a shame. and this, this is also very important to understand the nature of the crime because it's provide us a litigation. what do i mean? susan concrete, we teams or race russian soldiers targeted ukrainian society. it took like one of the people feeling a shame because it was happened with them. some people in the u t because they couldn't protect and stop it. and now there are people feeling a fear to be treated in the same way. so in some, in result, it's provide

a frozen aspect to resistance, and that's why we consider that russians use rapes as a part of terror against the union. in order to we can obtain control over the region. alexandra, my future cuz human rights lawyer had of the non profit organization, the center for civil liberties. we appreciate your time and your insights and the work that you're doing. thank you. thank is like now with some of the other stories that are making headlines this hour around the world. a memorial service for the al jazeera journalist sharina actually has been held in the palestinian city of remodel. she was killed just one day earlier before pop curie covering rather and is really rate in the west bank, tells me leaders say that israel was fully responsible for the journalist. israel says that it is still unclear. kilter. south korea says that north korea has test launched 3 short range ballistic missiles into the ocean and

a military parade which you see here from april north korea's leader kim jong and said that he would speed up the development of nuclear weapons despite a un resolution banning the north from launching ballistic missiles capable of carry nuclear warheads. u. s. senate democrats have failed to pass a bill that would have made the right to an abortion a federal law. the legislation was meant to counter the supreme court expected move to overturn the landmark roe vs wade decision, which legalized abortion across the united states. in 1973. staying in the u. s. president biden has called for a renewed fight against coven 19. i'll addressing a virtual gathering on the pandemic in a recorded video message by warned against complacency, especially when it comes to battling the virus. the statement came as the us approaches 1000000 deaths that are related to covert 19 flags across the country.

i've been lowered to half staff to mark this tragic milestone. this online summit co hosted by the us is the latest attempt to speed up the global effort to end this pandemic. and while the numbers of cobra cases continued to grow, countries around the world are now choosing their own ways to deal with the buyers . shanghai as city and i looked down. st. fly deserted as supermarket work as a protective gear get food deliveries ready for residence, confined to their hands. in europe, it's a completely different picture in paris with actually old cove. it restrictions have now been dropped. tourists sanctioning the city with fairly a mosque insight across the world. countries have dealt with a pandemic in very different ways, but it has touched all our lives to date. 519000000 cove at 19

infections have been officially reported globally. 6.26000000 people have died from the virus. although the w h o estimates that the true number of cove at death is closer to 15000000. nearly 2 and a half years after the virus emerged, many people want to return to life as it used to be. but the pandemic is far from over. how well different countries will cope with a virus going forward, largely depend on the success of their vaccination programs. 66 percent of the wells population of now received at least one dose of a cove at 19 vaccine. but there are huge disparities while in high income countries, about 80 percent of people have been vaccinated in low income countries, only 16 percent have received their 1st job. so the struggle to get the world vaccinated continues. after all, in a pandemic that has affected the entire globe, we are only safe once everybody is safe. indeed,

will astronomers have now and build the 1st image of a super massive black hole located white at the center of our very own milky way galaxy. this groundbreaking image is the product of an international team of science is known as the event horizon telescope collaboration. the cosmic body is named sagittarius, a star. the black hole was estimated to have 4000000 times the mass of our sun is located about 26000 light years from earth. so i to say the discovery will help improve our understanding of what happens at the center of argos. dr. sarah, i so is the nasa einstein fellow with the harvard and smithsonian center for astrophysics. she's part of the team that captured the image of this black hole. and i asked her to explain more about what exactly we are seeing here. right. so

the black hole itself, we don't see, but what we see is the shadow, it casts on it on all the swirling gas that goes around it to the black will itself, have all these gas swirling around it that it eats up or decked out and disgust because it's rotating very rapidly around the black hole. it's very, very hot and it radiates and it radiates radio waves that we observe, but the e, it's t. and so these radio waves create this glow about we see around the black hole. and this black hole is actually inside this dark patch, which we call the shadow that it casts on to this. a swirling high goth is fastened 80 is especially just to think that radio waves we're taking those to make an an image of do we know what is inside the black hole? what will ever be able to actually look inside with, you know, the technology that we have right now we don't know what is inside

a black hole and actually going to see what is beyond the event horizon is impossible of the, the description of the event horizon is really the point of no return. so even if you go in there and see what it is, you wouldn't be able to come back out and tell anyone what we'll do. what would happen to us? i mean, this is for you all of the fellow space nerds out there be what would happen if we were to actually try to peer inside and go when. right. and so that depends on which black hole you choose to go in through. i. if you go to us solar math class, so very small, black holes are the ones that are about the math of our son there. if you get too close to the black hole, you get a get a fight you get stretched out into then spaghetti before falling into the black hole. but for super massive black holes like sanitary thar are famous for cement of a battle that blackland them. 87, they're so big,

so large and so massive that you would just kind of float right in and nothing would happen to you. you'd just enjoy the view. i. yeah, i guess so if you, if you could make it the 26, what is it? 26000 light years away that you would have to travel. right? yes, a fascinating. yes, it's a pretty long way. it's a long way. and what does this mean though for research now? i mean, i know it's an exciting time to actually be able to, to put an image to somebody that you know, we, we hear about what would this be the for moving further for research so, so the black hole at the center of our galaxy has had indirect evidence that it was there for a while. and in 2020 the nobel prize in physics was partly awarded to studies of orbits of stars in our galactic center. that had very peculiar orbits around this very dark and hidden compact mass. and we have thought a lot about what the specs could be and the best scenario is that it's a black hole. but that's always been in direct evidence that it is

a black hole. and today we're actually seeing it for the 1st time. so today is really the 1st time we have direct evidence the at the center of our galaxy, there is a black hole, which is i think it's pretty amazing. i'm not only that you have now 2 black holes that we can see. and these 2 black holes are fairly different in size, and that their environment, they are in very different galaxies, both medi 7 inside a terrace, if our behaved very differently. and i, we have 2 black holes, we can study, and i think it's really opening up a new laboratory for black will astrophysics. and it's really exciting. it's fascinating and dr. sarah, as that we appreciate you sharing your enthusiasm in helping us lame and also to understand the what's inside of michael. thank you. thank you. and his reminder now the talk stories that we are following for you this, our moscow has accused vinland attorney. its border with raja into a line of military confrontation after finished leaders announced that their

country would apply to join made up the dilatory alliance. as promised vinland, a swift assertion process. and the you and human rights council has watched an investigation into alleged rights abuses committed by russia in you. great. the prob will focus on incident near the capital key, but other regions previously occupied by russian troops. moscow has denied the allegations after a short break. i'll be back to take you through the day. stick around. we'll be right back with

oh, i mean to national legion in ukraine. 1000 some fun teams from enrolled me, san eyes fighting against contains will we accompany catherine from south america and sandra from new ways in allotted ami down on dimly to a return of his own euro in 60 minutes on dw,

ah, making the stand behind them dw, news africa, the show that was the issues shape in the continent. life is slowly getting back to normally where on the streets to give you enough reports on the inside. our correspondence with on the ground reporting from across the continent and all the trend stuff, the mazda u. d. w, who's africa every friday, only w, a rear naturally spectacle in an improved world. ah, the meeting of the loom whale sharks, the remote island of saint hulu is

a testament to the quality of the waters. one of the many success stories from a bastion of biodiversity stores may 20th on d, w. mm . sin lind is on its way to becoming a member of nato. a step that just several months ago would have been a nonstarter now has majority support. russian has already warned finland. there will be consequences. but putin's war in ukraine also once considered, unlikely. it's a reality and finland doesn't want to become the next ukraine to night. nato enlargement, fast track, unexpected and all thanks to vladimir putin. i'm for gulf and berlin. this is the day oh.