ah ah ah, this is the w news live from berlin. sabotage is suspected as gas leaks from pipelines connecting russia to germany, denmark's navy has released this footage of gas bubbles formed in the baltic sea. the leagues again turned the spotlight on europe's vulnerable energy security. also on the program,

moscow claims so called referendums and occupies ukraine. show people overwhelmingly in favor of joining russia. keith and his allies denounced the votes as a sham and scientists celebrate their 1st planetary defense test. and now saw spacecraft hurdles into a rock millions of kilometers away in a model mission that could one day save the world. ah, i'm glad else as well come to the program. sabotage is thought to be behind 3 leaks in the north street, natural gas pipelines connecting russia to europe. gas bubbles have formed in the baltic sea of denmark and sweden. the danish military has released these images of the gas bubbles. the leaks were 1st spotted on rate of a passing shift, denmark

a sins ban shipping from the arab and imposed a no fly zone. the north stream $1.00 and $2.00 pipelines run from russia to germany. neither is in operation, although both contained pressurized gas. the kremlin says it's extremely concerned about the leaks. poland. prime minister has called it an act of saba, sabotage, without providing any evidence, denmark's prime minister metaphysics and says sabotage is at least a possibility. if we have legally we cannot rule it out. it is too early to draw conclusions yet, but this is an extraordinary situation, an unusual situation. and there are 3 m a even with some distance between them. and that is why it's hard to imagine that what's happening is a coincidence. did a phone call me if it's ready to go to the airport? our political correspondent thomas bow joins me now. thomas, what are you hearing from the german government officially and maybe unofficially about these leagues?

the same line of caution that we heard from other european officials that is essentially too early to conclude what exactly is behind those leaks. but what we are hearing as well, not only here in germany, but also from other european countries, is that the extent of the damage seems too large for it to be accidental or coincidental. and that's why you're hearing from official saying that there's a possibility that this could have been an act of sabotage. but again, it is still too early to really conclude what was behind those leaks. there are crisis teams meeting in different parts of europe to try and understand what exactly happened and also what could be the impact, the political, but also the economic impact of these leaks on the north stream pipelines and notes from one under nordstrom to pipelines. now, how difficult would it be to attack these pipeline or understand the increased and

concrete? well, you would essentially need to know 1st gearhart, if it was indeed an attack. again, we're only speculating here, but they have been already analysis pointing to the fact that the extent of the damage would point if it is an attack to a state actor. but again, this is only speculation and those crisis teams are trying to identify not only the extent of the damage, some of the latest reports also point to possible explosions along the north stream one and not stream to clap lines. but also again, what could be the impact of these damages in particular for europe's infrastructure when it comes to gas, that is also a particularly important topic in europe nowadays. now, does this leave these, do these leaks have any measurable effect of the current energy supplies to europe? we've heard already from german officials from the german economy minister that

energy supply is guaranteed. and that has to do with the fact that both pipelines were not in operation nor string to pipeline was never in operation actually. and gas was flowing less and less from north stream one. so from that perspective, in the german case, germany has in fact increase its gas reserves around 9091 percent. so from that perspective, energy supply seems to be guaranteed. but there are obviously questions as to what all this means for europe's vulnerability when it comes to these gas supplies in general. what it also means economically, what it means for the markets. so there are certainly got a lot of questions here as to what the potential impact of this might be. even though as we're hearing from german officials, that energy supply is for now guaranteed. and that the impact on this is certainly not as big as many would have feared, maybe a few weeks or a few months ago. are political correspondent, thomas sparrow there. thank you. tom's russian officials say that early results

from so called referendums in ukraine show overwhelming majorities in support of joining russia. residents for occupied regions were asked whether the areas should become part of russia. the process has been condemned by the international community with keith. and it's our saying the results are a foregone conclusion. moscow's expected to formerly annex the regions following the vote, rising fears among residents about the future. on that, let's bring in the w. christina mathias billing, or joining us from the ukrainian capital. keith martinez. take us for the latest, what's going to happen now? so these referendums are probably the starting gun for the annexation process. that would mean that the chambers of parliament, the aperture band, the lower chamber will half, will have a vote on the annexation. and president putin would probably address then,

and then this process will be started. there's no doubt that that will be started as there is no doubt that the turn out or the results are for the referendum will be what they have. what they are meant to be, what the russians want them to be. and just by, within the next few days, we probably see the formal annexation of these territories, the form of incorporation into the russian territory that the russian point of view, of course, these res, referendums are neither recognized by ukraine nor by any most of the countries in the world, there might be one or 2 in the end who will recognize this incorporation as has to be in the case with crimea. but most countries in the world will not recognize these territories as territories of russia and germ for war. for right now, for, for the international situation, for the international legal situation, nothing will change, but russia will use this and,

and there were claim that the fighting is now taking place on russian territory. now, what will happen to the residence of those regions held by russia at the moment? do they have a chance to leave? we have seen people fleeing these territories throughout the past few months to have been very few options to have has lately just been one check point where people could cross over. men would mostly not be allowed to leave, but women, children, elderly people could and her this checkpoint seems to have been closed in the past few days. people have been leaving increasingly since the end of summer in the beginning of the war, of course. but then at the end of august, when a new curricular russian curriculum were to be introduced, we saw many people are fleeing with children from these territories. now, they seem to be close. there will is probably a way out from russia. but again,

if russia close, it is for the, for men that would be very difficult for them to leave. and of course, the fear is that russia will draft the men in these territories to serve in the russian army. although by international law, they are not even russian citizens. now is this likely to lead to an escalation of tension between russia? it certainly meant as such, and that certainly an escalation in words and in symbolic meaning by russia and, and it's probably also a reaction to the counter offensive that ukraine has been successfully leading in the heart of region in the north of the country northeast. but also they are putting a lot of pressure on their house on region, which is one of the regions where we just had this a sham referendum. and, and russia is creating the pretext for escalation, whether it, whether and in what way they will escalate. what will happen next is of course,

something that we don't know yet. there has been the nuclear threat. the nuclear threat has been there before as well. for example, the have been stand, russia might use it, might escalate, might nuclear use, nuclear weapons if crimea was attacked, premier was attacked and it did not happen. so it doesn't mean that automatically this will happen. but russia is, of course, raising the stakes by this. and is putting itself into the position to use all possible means as they say it. and we will have to see where it goes from. now, d, w 1st one of my ideas billing of their reporting from keith. thank you much years and now we come to a story that seems to come straight from a science fiction thriller. ma sauce 1st planetary defense operation as struck a space rock that's orbiting an asteroid. millions of kilometers from earth. the goal was to nuts the little moon into

a new orbit. scientists were testing whether it's possible to deflect an asteroid on collision course with our planet. 3. 0, one. 0 my gosh. wow. i didn't give you a confirmation at direct hit millions of kilometers from the world's 1st ever planetary defense mission, a success that is far from my coincidence. oh fantastic. that we are so excited to be done. i, you know, we've worked on this mission 47 years now and i it's been a work of over 1000 people. yeah, definitely. as we were getting close to the asteroid, there was a lot of ed said joy, i say both tear and joy at the same time because we, we saw that we were going to impact the idea behind dot. the double asteroid redirection test was to launch a small spacecraft to war to space rock,

smash into it at high speed and al, to its course. this inaugural planetary defense test mission marks a major moment in human history. for the 1st time ever, we will measurably change the orbit of a celestial body in the universe. doing so has clear benefits in ensuring humanities ability to deflect a potential threatening asteroid in the future. nasa approved it could hit a small object in space. a follow up mission will check up on the target broke in full years to see how much it's all the tests changed. but 1st, it is time for celebration. now let's go straight to dr. thomas. the booking head of a science at nasa in washington dc. first of all, congratulations your spacecraft as struck its target, but that had actually managed to throw the royal coff cause well thanks so much. i

were extremely proud of the team that got a stare and i and i went, italia, what we've, i've been looking at all day here is data from spacecraft both ha leisha. you buy a small spacecraft that we actually released from darby, 40 and back than and when, and flu by eyes 3 minutes later, but also from ground based observatory. so we know the impact was speak and violent . it was observable from the ground. and it's a matter of physics that it, well have far, you know, moved, drop, but we need to measure right then that won't take a few weeks to really measured the orbit. that's at 12 i were orbit dot that data in oda, that small moon i alf disaster. it asked that we had and that will allow hopefully i have moved by 2 to 3 minutes or a guessing from modem are observing. perhaps even more. now you call this a test of the planetary defense system. what does that entail?

well, so the fact that we get head to buy a rocks from space or a history outside the earth as a bell, you know, understood that look at the moon and scarred with impact. the earth also is scarred with impact. and of course i had as an ad major major, i can offer consequences for life on earth that dinosaurs are no longer with us, for example, as a result of one of those impact. and so what we're really trying to do is in the arch know of kind of our role tools that we have to protect lives on earth. we want to add a tool that could help us in case i threatening astride like they won't show up. i want to tell you at this moment in time, we don't have one that we're aware of that could i hate, within the next 100 years. so we're really trying to get a tool that we could use in case we found one. now what about the costs of his mission and all that work involved? you think it's justified? oh, absolutely. it's justified. i think when it comes to protecting life on earth,

it kind of the cost that we're putting into the space assets a is very mot, shaw justified. i want to tell you right now we have, i hurricane in south florida out at as over q bond getting in there. most of the forecasts come from space assets that that'd be dead. are you know right now i have made in the past kind of spacecraft that i felt launch. i have at least i build i here at nasa and i and in the same way atlanta area that fans, it's really kind of in a more long term scale. really helping, protecting life on earth, so it's absolutely justified. now the dot mission is just the latest of several nasa projects dealing with asteroids. why are you focusing on these celestial bodies? asteroids are really interesting for us because they're kind of messengers from that time past. or if you want dock. i know freely about

a chapter in our own history. the history of the solar system asteroids form early on kind of fast planets form and kind of looking at these primordial materials these asteroids and bringing the samples back, which is what we're doing with or cyrus racks next year. we're going to drop it into a you test range. the sample that we picked up in 2020. i also exploring the families of asteroids. we've never seen such as what lucy is doing. is really learning about our own past learning about that history of the solar system and then id saturate. sometimes our threats, which is why we did that dark over exciting dr. thomas, the book in their head of science at nasa in washington d. c. thanks for joining us on the w. news. thank you so much. i'll time to have a look at all the other stories making headlines around the world. rescuers in guatemala, are searching for survivors. after

a massive sink hole appeared in the middle of a highway, a mother and daughter remain missing. after that car was swallowed, at least 3 others were injured. to say, heavy rain caused the undergrowth drainage system to collapse. the front runner in brazil's presidential election, the former lead up louis enough, you let a silva has held his final campaign event, both with the left wing candidate comfortably ahead of his right wing rival. the current president, valuables and peru has declared an environmental emergency in the amazon rain forest because of a leaking pipeline. more than 2 and a half 1000 barrels of oil have flowed into a river that is being fished by indigenous people. the states petroleum company said vandals attacked the pipe. hurricane ian has made landfall in cuba. this storm is expected to strengthen as it hits towards florida. residents of

the tampa bay area, our stockpiling goods mission control us have counseled a nasa rocket launch. iran is stepping up, its nation is response to nationwide anti government. protests officials say they've arrested more than 2. busy 100 demonstrators, human rights monitors say at least 76 people have died and riley's spock by the death of a young woman in police custody. we don't want the islamic republic . that's the protest. cry of people in iran's capital tyrann. only a few videos from. 1 the protests are getting through to the outside world, due to repeated internet shut downs. but people are taking to the streets around the country like here in the southern city of bush, a hair pro government rallies of also been held like here and here on, on sunday, supporters of the regime have blamed the wave of protests on the west. hard line

clerics have threatened what they call the troublemakers taking part in the protests. if you do not stop these shameless crimes, you should expect a severe response from us. o t. ron's judiciary is set up special courts to try. protestors who official said will be treated as dangerous criminals. state media say the number of arrests has now surpassed 1200. video footage that has emerged in recent days, shows the brutality of the security services. observers say the authorities, heavy handed tactics are a sign that the protests are making. a mark, lindsey mind is a signal is, this is the find that social resistance is not really a deed on, in people, on not just resigned to the situation. and so the protests will continue, even if they are violently depressed. and it seems, there is no sign of the protests going away any time soon. my mom, mary, madame,

is the director of the n g o iran human rights. i asked him how big the protests on how severe the crack down. yes, so we have seen protests all over the country from north to south, east to west, and it's not restricted to either larger or smaller cities, basically everywhere. and from the very beginning, the authorities started the crackdown is especially in the kurdish areas, shooting at people. and as our report indicates, at least 76 people have been killed as a result of life ammunition. and we should keep in mind that these are an armed request, as many young kid boys and girls and lost the piece for the protesting

so, so these are huge protest. and now after 8 days of hard to track down mass arrests and killing, we see that that brought this continue and there is no sign of ending in the port. this is from the protesters side. now, 3 years ago, protests similar protest ended in bloody repression. largely hidden from the world . how these protests, any different? well, i would say the main difference is the attitude that we see from the people, the authorities. they do what they know to do that track down as hard as possible shooting. but the protest stairs are much more angry. that's our observation. and they are, determination is more than 3 years ago. it running after the start of the pro,

this one day later, the running authorities shut down the internet and started shooting. and within 5 days they were nope, and now they have tried to put restrictions on the internet in a larger period of time. it has been shut down but, and they had me shooting, but we still see that brought this so i think that's the main difference that the iranians are more debt to mind to go and progress. and basically it is very clear what they want. they don't want the slimy group up and so, so both sides mean seriously and, and i think that's what makes us concerned as a human rights organization, because we know what the iranian authorities are capable of doing. they would do whatever it takes to keep the power and people are not backing off. so,

so that when you're opting this determination that you're, that you mentioned that you're describing that could that give this movement the power the, the input as to actually overturned the regime in iran. and if this protest continue with, that's basically the goal after protest there's and we should keep in mind that and if you look back in the history dictatorships are totally tarianna regimes, once they lose control, then there is no way back. and i would say that these protests have absolutely the potential of doing so. my mother merimark bought adam, the director of the enjo, iran, the human rights. thank you very much for joining us. wanted of you. japan as hell the state funeral for form of prime minister sions. obey him. he was

assassinated in july, lead us and dignitary from around the world attended. but this also unease over the cost of the funeral and division over our base legacy ah cremated. shortly after his death, sheen's obeys, ashes were carried into his state funeral by his widow. a key ave such services, anomaly, reserved for japan's imperial family. but an exception was granted for the country's longest serving prime minister ah, minister among the international dignitaries where indian prime minister ninja mo de leon, died it onboarding like a and former british prime minister of teresa may take up your okay,

japanese prime minister cause she to fu mio led the tributes. any point though, she sheen saba was the one who worked harder than anyone else in the world to build and maintain peace with japan. the region and across the globe will c i o. and to maintain and promote an international order that values freedom. she democracy, think our human rights and the rules law. you stella of a single so much thought disha. ah, ever a polarizing figure in japan. hundreds protested against our bay state funeral. and its $11000000.00 price tag. ah, it is perhaps on the world stage where abe's influence is most admired. us vice president kamala horace, spoke of his importance. ah,

ah, if he played the term free and an open kingdom pacific and as a member of the in the pacific. as american lead chairs with the service emphasized abe's global legacy as a country under family said they final good by to sheen's, obey you watching t w. c. as a reminder of the top story, we have following. sabotage is thought to be behind gas leaks from pipelines connecting russia to germany, denmark's navy has released this footage of gas bubbles forming in the baltic. sea leaks again, turned the spotlights on europe's valuables. energy security coming up next, then dw news asia, while the state funeral for assassinated,

japanese prime minister sins. the obvious says about his legacy and how makes shift classrooms ensure pakistan's floods. mean children do not miss out on that. it all that and more up next with various biology after a short on gabelle has from me and the news team here in a bell. and thanks for watching with with

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how did she become adult hitler's favorite director. and how did he become a forgotten film? pioneer leading roofing style and on load fund. in 932, they set out into the icy wilderness of greenland to create a life threatening film project that became a major milestone in their life. ice cold pension starts right on d. w with this is did up in years asia coming up today. japan needed to rest of home of prime minister, but not the divisions he left behind. just a funeral for assassinating former leadership of 8th is marked by morning and test . why was sions obeyed such a polarizing figure in japan? and how do countries in the re.