ah ah ah, this is dw news wife from berlin, a new line of defense. finland takes a 1st step towards joining nato in a mood that would in decades of military not alignment. today's leaders of finland, saying their country should join the alliance without delay moscow. same, that would definitely be a threat. also coming up tonight, the un launching an investigation into alleged whites of uses by russia in ukraine saying that moscow is responsible for the vast majority of civilian casualties. and

astronomers casting light on the dark part of our gaps there revealing the 1st images of the super massive black hold at the center of our very own milky way. ah, i break off is good to have you with us to night historic turning point 4 european security, finland, president and prime minister have called for their country to apply for nato membership as soon as possible in a joint statement released today. both leaders saying nato 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. that announcement expected to put pressure on sweden, which is also considering applying to join nato. now, when you look at a map of the current members of nato, here in europe,

and you see that long border which finland shears with russia, it measures 1300 kilometers. the national mood has changed dramatically in finland since moscow's invasion of ukraine will begin with this report. finland is looking to ditch decades of military non alignment. while helsinki has moved closer to nato in recent years, it just will stay out of the alliance to avoid antagonizing russia under now. but the invasion of ukraine has battled much of the finish public. who now worry that be could be next. give us security nature of course. yeah. that's why i went that way. i nature and i think that we should have an benita already in a near 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 was never

ever to stand alone again. finland chairs at 1300 kilometer long border with russia . it's a session to the military alliance with more than doubled the russia nieto land border top finish diplomats believe nieto would benefit greatly if they joined. the are convinced that a thing will bring added value to nato. a war time strength of the defense forces is 20. 280000 troops and the trend reserve is 900000 men and women. finland has many high end capabilities, including a 5 digit fleet of f 8 this gradually to be replaced by recently ordered $64.00 if $35.00 jet fighters the gremlin has said its response would depend on the extent of needles, military infrastructure. we have repeatedly said that the expansion of nato and the approach of the military infrastructure of the alliance to our borders does not make the world. and most importantly, european,

eurasian continent more stable and secure. this is unambiguous. finland could make its formal but do need to membership in the coming weeks after the move has been approved by parliament, i spoke to d. w, as nato corresponded to re schultz and i asked her about finland's potential needed membership and what it could mean for neighboring suite. well, that's the point brent. it's 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 planned 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 non aligned to not to join nato because he didn't want to in tag nice 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 on like, it has now done in ukraine. so fill in, felt that, you know, it's very strong, national defense would be enough to deter a russian attack. but clearly, after this war started on ukraine, now all bets are off. and that was certainly what changes the public opinion. now russia has reacted antagonistic. lee saying that today that is going to cut off finland 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 crumbling to result from brussels. the un human rights council has launched an investigation into alleged rights abuses committed by russia indian creek. the council voted overwhelmingly to approve the prob, which will look into abuses in are in and around. she even other regions where russian forces, once word has now withdrawn. the un human rights chief you see right there. she says that russian forces are responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths in ukraine with ukrainians. now returning to the city of harkey, 50 w, corresponded mathias earlier. he told me about the situation, the war situation in other cities in the east of the country. so yeah, we have different situations or different parts of the front line around hard keep,

the ukrainian forces have been able to push the rations 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 fierce 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 ukraine? what's been the reaction to that?

the criminal has been warning against the arms deliveries, but since since the beginning of the war, but the cramp, the criminal has also attacked ukraine. 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 ukraine, 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. he w, when he is bringing her in here tonight. but he is thinking in his life now, some of the other stories that are making headlines around the world. diplomats from the group of 7 wealthy countries are meeting here in germany to discuss the war in ukraine. energy prices and food security relations with china in finding climate change or also on the agenda. ukraine's foreign minister will also attend

a memorial service for al jazeera journalist sharing a wall outlet has been held in the palestinian city of ramallah. she was killed recovery and is really raid in the west bank palestinian leaders say that israel was fully responsible for her death. israel says that it's still unclear who killed her. the united states, as, as it has now seen more than a 1000000 coven 19 deaths, president biden, describing 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 the biases run crushes. astronomers have unveiled the 1st image of a super massive black hole located white at the center of our very own milky way galaxy. this image is the product of an international team of scientists known as the event horizon telescope collaboration. the black hole is named at sagittarius, a star,

and is estimated to have 4000000 times the mass of our very own sun. it's located in galactic terms just around the bend. 26000 light years from earth to sarah isaacson is the nasa einstein fellow at the harvard in smithsonian center for astor, physics. she was part of the team that captured the image of the black hole. and i asked her to explain more about exactly what we're seeing here. right. so the black hole itself, we don't see, but what we see if the shadow cast on it on all the swirling gas that goes around it. and the bottle itself had all the gas swirling around it that it eats up or decked out. and this gas, because it's rotating very rapidly around the black hole, it 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 the black hole is actually inside this dark patch, which we call the shadow that

a calf on to this swirling high gas is fascinating is especially just to think that radio waves, we're taking those to make an an image. 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? no, we don't know what is inside a black hole and actually going to see what is beyond the event horizon is impossible because 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 feller space nodes 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 into. i if you go to us, fuller, math, black, 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 the 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 or famous 1st them into a battle that blackland empty 7, 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 foot 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 that 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 texas star behave very differently. and now we have 2 black holes. we can study

and i think it's really opening up a new laboratory for black will aster for that is 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 the black hole. thank you. thank you. you're watching the w. w. business do is up. next i will see you tomorrow with people breaking go africa. joined them as they set out to save the environment, learn from one another and work together for a better future. many folks do you all for choosing it.