rose sherry, download it now i ah ah, this is dw news why from berlin? ukraine launch as a long anticipated offensive to retake the southern region of her son keeps as its forces have already broken the 1st line of russian defense. moscow says it is working advances and inflicting heavy casualties. also coming up on the show with deadly clashes in baghdad, fortified green zone,

supporters of iraq's powerful shiite cleric, mach tata, all solder, the one, the government palace after he says he's putting politics for good. and the international monetary fund approved more than a $1000000000.00 of extra aid for pakistan as the country grapples with devastating floods. rescuers are still struggling to reach people whose homes are submerged. ah hello, i'm claire richardson. thank you so much for joining us. ukraine says it has broken through enemy lines at several points near the southern city of her son as it mounts a campaign to retake occupied territory. the push comes after weeks of preparation . ukraine has been attacking russia's supply routes in an attempt to isolate troops . there. russia captured harrison early on in the war,

facing little resistance. now ukrainian president volunteers. lensky is vowing to push russian forces out of all occupied territories. gray le ukraine is returning its own and it will return hockey. lew hands to don yet sc separation. the house on regions, crimea, and definitely the waters of the black and the seas. so is this the start of the counter offensive that the lensky has been signaling for months earlier, dw put that question to military analyst, justin crump. he ceo of the strategic advisory firm, civil line in the u. k. you know, the situation is still confused as battlefields tend to be. but it certainly looked like a much more significant defensive operation. so then we can say, it does seem to fall in line with what the president wanted. and of course there was a that we discussed before in the program, a timeline view. grain of wanting to achieve something in carson before any

referendum could be held by russia. which is plan september, so ukraine's have this this deadline of doing something in, in the region by september. so it does seem to all fall in line with that. and certainly the scale of what we're seeing is much larger than we've. ukraine, i think, is all the see, make great use of the western weapon donations, substitute the high mars, and the m r. s. rocket systems to disrupt the russians we've, we've seen that going on intense fight in the region over the last few days. they've also been husbanding a certain amount of the equipment they've been donated. and the limited amount of pictures we've seen in today show some of the western supplied on personnel car is being used and what appears to be quite a decent combined arms attacked by ukraine. so using tanks, infantry across the helicopters tillery altogether to have achieved lisa limited breakthrough in the rushing front. as far as you understand it now, obviously driven, i'm sued like everything and warfare. ultimately,

it's an extension of this glens, but the pity sense that there's a need for an operation and the possibility of succeeding in something in her senate. this time there was military analyst and just in crump. while the united states government is urging a complete shut down of the operation nuclear plant and has renewed calls for a demilitarized zone around the site, fighting in the area has escalated, raising concerns about a nuclear disaster. it team of experts from the international atomic energy agency are now headed for the plans and are expected to carry out inspections in the coming days. rushing back to officials say radiation levels are still normal, but people living in the area have been preparing for the worst. the situation at the depth region nuclear power plot has set alarm bells ringing across europe and around the world. now the un nuclear watchdog has dispatched a team of experts to the site lead by agency chief retail grosse. that's it to

assess any damage to the plant and inspected security and safety systems. when they arrived later this week. in keep some residence welcomed the visit at the mercy. i think this is very good news. we certainly don't need another disaster at a nuclear power plant and it wouldn't just be a disaster for ukraine. it would affect all of europe. i still remember to a novel but others were more gloomy about what it could achieve. so was he on, if i'm not sure if the russian authorities will reveal to full reality on the ground, and if they will really allow the team to improve the situation. sir, i do not believe that that will be any real results in cities and towns near the power plant. people are already preparing for the worst, and heading to sites like this one, where local authorities are handing out iodine tablets to be taken in the event of a radiation league that haven't been renewed on that particular. it's

a preventive and prophylactic measure. you mustn't take the pill when you receive it. it must only be taken after an official notification from the authorities. or we cannot, we started the distribution last week, around 8 and a half 1000 people receive tablets including 2 and a half 1000 children. while hopefully these tablets won't have to be taken. the stand off over years, biggest nuclear facility remains tense, and moscow continues to reject international calls for a demilitarized zone to avert potential disaster to iraq now where deadly clash as in the capital. baghdad have left at least 15 people dead. the violence follows an announcement by powerful shiite cleric looked harder. al sada, that he would quit politics, which prompted his supporters to stormy government. palace. attentions are soaring, am at a political crisis that has left a rock without a government since elections last october. ah, supporters of finance,

shia cleric mcdonough and sunday reach, but gods heavily fortified green zone. in india, whom do ministries and embassies the soon over and the government palace and i thought that out of a our revolution is selena rocky was it? it's not southwest. no, this isn't a rocky revolution with any of the iraq. it should be returned to its people, it and yadda, yadda up y at yamaha. i let what's your plan? oh my, our demands are to dissolve parliament and to hold the corrupt to account and we say to saddler, we will sacrifice for you victory's aus one my son, alina. while you inside many was seen lounging in meeting rooms used by iraqi heads of state and cooling off in a swimming pool in the garden. they were soon driven out by security forces

using deer, gas, and gunshots. the un mission to iraq, as well as the united states, called on all sides for restraint. the plan up of violence follows months of political deadlock in iraq looked at others movement as of this block was the biggest winner in october's election. but he failed to form a government that excluded his. she arrivals close to iran law, moral marsh. i have, he would do his lawmakers from parliament in june. what was that? who are you on my anthony? his followers have since been staging a, sitting outside the parliament calling for fresh elections. well, this isn't the 1st time the influential garrick has withdrawn from politics. you thought to know for the cotton deadlock in iraq appears harder to resolve than in the past. while the international monetary fund has approved a request from pakistan for an extra $1100000000.00 in bailout funding,

as it struggles with 2 months are devastating monsoon flooding. the high waters have killed at least a 1000 people and efforts to rescue tens of thousands more continue. international aid has begun to arrive, but many have already lost everything. joan image has revealed the extent of the devastation near park his dance indus river. the floods have destroyed bridges and washed, have a many roads, forcing authorities to use boats, military plains, and helicopters to carry out difficult rescue operations. often without a dry spot to land on. the government says one and 7 pakistan is are affected by the floods. but in 33000000 people, many were 1st to leave their homes returning only to see what still salvageable yet by a dig on the honey belly up when i saw the water coming, i saved the women and children. huh. when i returned here, there was

a lot of water, then i saved the castle, which i ordered after that. okay. there was no chance to return here yet. there was just too much water. we're janitta finding boys yet are you? the government expects the recent destruction to be worse than the white spread flooding of 2010 people have actually lost their complete livelihood, live orchard, their garden, the leakage of freedoms and crops, have been destroyed, or we have lost more than 45 per cent of horton grove and bug hassan relief efforts are underway across the country, cargo plains, from abroad, bringing urgently needed food, water, intense to pakistan. yet many flood victims still feel abandoned by the government . flannigan, while the law by a lot of water entered our village, our homes are submerged law. some of our relatives have died and we're not

receiving any relief from the government. there are also concerns about what still to come monsoon season isn't over yet. more rain and flooding is expected and could leave a 3rd of the country under water. let's take a look now at one of the world's most ambitious space programs. nath as multi $1000000000.00 artemus mission aimed at one day, getting humans back on the moon and eventually mars. but it has gotten off to a disappointing start. the u. s. face agency was forced to scrub the launch of its largest ever rocket after a number of technical problems. the next attempt could happen as soon as friday. the 98 meter rocket on his unmanned capsule, a ryan were left sitting on the launch pad. as the minutes ticked by us, vice president carmella harris had flown in to cape canaveral to witness the lift off of the most powerful rocket ever built by nasa. to reset,

flocked to nearby locations all keen to get a glimpse of the action. but a whole series of technical problems meant the launch had to be called off. it's yet another disappointment for the ottoman no program after a series of postpone launches. but nasa said spotting problems is part of the exercise. that is the whole reason for this tough flight to stress it and to test it. to make sure it's his in the spacecraft. oh rab r dialed with mold and hold a century ago. landing on the moon captured the imagination of an entire generation . now the human race is looking once again to return to the moon. if all goes well with this test mission accrued flight could be launched as early as 2020 full. one of the stated ambitions of the artemus mission is to put the 1st woman on 1st

person of color on the moon. it's expected to be astronaut, jessica watkins. i certainly would, would be a jess absolutely thrilled to be able to be a part of the effort to, to go to another planetary surface, whether it be the moon or mars. it's the red planet. that's the ultimate goal. but the are to miss mission hopes to 1st build a permanent presence on the moon. it would then use the moon as a proving ground from mission to mars. but 1st, it has to get its maiden test flight successfully off the launching pad. well, astro biologist and former nasa employee keith cowan told us more about what went wrong i had of the launch. well, it seems that out there is about the goes to one of the engines. and when they started to pop, the very, very cold would hydrogen through. it didn't get cold enough for the system to say,

go ahead. you don't want these engines to be warm when you're starting to fire and you want to be very cold. free the edges were fly but one was not. and unfortunately they just, you know, took some time off it thought, you know, do we have enough time today to fix this? and the answer is no. so they scrub when i worked for nasa, i probably tried to see more shuttle launches that i actually saw. and so this isn't unusual. and i actually was giving people 5050 odds today that they would actually watched in that something like this would not happen. unfortunately, what happened today, they admitted that, yeah, you know, we could have tested this last time. we did a test, but the last time they did a test, something went wrong as well. we're good enough with that. so you know, this is not unexpected. it's disappointing. but you know, again, as they say, it's better to be safe than, sorry. and just before we go, let's get a reminder of the top story we're following for you. ukraine says it has a launch. it's long anticipated attempt to retake the southern region of her son.

moscow says it is warning offensive and inflicting heavy casualties that were stay tuned for the business headlines coming up next with my colleague stephen beardsley. of course there's always more on our website, d, w dot com or on social media. that's the news i'm kind of interested in for lynn. thank you so much for watching people in trucks injured one trying to see the city center more and more refugees are being turned away. families.