oh, so get ready for the brain. 042. the answer to almost everything starts january 15th on d w with ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin. president volunteers a lens he tells ukrainians in a christmas eve address, that tears will give way to hope, even as a new russian attack takes more lives in the liberated city of her son. also coming up on the show 3 major aid groups, a say there suspending operations in afghanistan after the taliban order all and

jo's to stop employing women and extreme weather knox, our power to millions of homes and businesses across north america. disrupting holiday travel plans. ah, hello, i'm claire richardson, thank you so much for joining us. for orthodox russians and ukrainians, christmas is normally celebrated in january. but after russia's invasion, many in ukraine are now choosing to mark the occasion today and said, as ukraine continues to suffer from deadly russian attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure, president vladimir zalinski has delivered a christmas eve address, saying he believes the tears will give way to joy christmas on the front lines. these ukrainian soldiers in bah mote have faced relentless russian attacks.

for months. the city has seen some of the toughest fighting of the war since it began in february. but even here, soldiers are taking a moment to reflect on the occasion. it will not be near christmas during wall is still christmas. homeowners leverage the holiday should remain a holiday. no matter the circumstances we have now. excellent trouble. you can probably hear the incoming shelling, logical, and our guys are responding finance alive, but the holidays a holiday year. and it should remain so that you will not fall in love with them all across ukraine. christmas celebrations have been very different this year. russia has bombarded energy infrastructure for months without leaving millions, without power, water, or heat. yet the scanner good. on christmas eve, a russian missiles struck a market in the liberated city of her son. at least 10 people were killed and more

than 50 wounded. but despite the enormity of the challenge facing all ukrainians, president zalinski christmas address struck a tone of defiance and hope. with the loudon will glad came. we will see my heroes your cheerfully than ever before. which neesha to be louder than the sounds of the generator? won't put you in, melissa. we will hear voices and greetings of our loved ones and our souls, even if the connection and the internet go down was the kidney damage last night. and even in complete darkness, we will find each other to hug each other tightly. and if there is no heat more than we will hunt for a long time, shall to warm each other or dinner. russia says it has no plans for ceasefire over the holiday period, but that hasn't stopped ukraine from celebrating this christmas.

while the hare son governor says the death toll of the attack on the city has arisen to 16 people, survey fetterhoff is a former ukrainian deputy minister of justice. and he earlier gave us his assessment of russia's attacks on christmas eve. there's no big strategy behind that. except for to rise in the population. and they cannot win this war and a conventional sense. and they are lacking a missiles, long range me sales that they are using sparingly to target the electric greet of ukraine. but they have enough of the conventional artillery that they're using along the phone line wherever they can, to not only try to win this war, but unfortunately to target the civilian population. ah, before when they were stationed in her song, they were shooting all over michel life and on the big city that is less than 60 kilometers away. now that they've been pushed on the other side of ne pro, they are shooting her song repeatedly almost every day. so this is just

a terrorist tactics. trying to scare the craning population into submission. 3 major aid groups have suspended their operations in afghanistan, saying they can't work without their female staff. it follows an order by the taliban rulers telling all humanitarian organizations to stop employing women. he, when secretary general antonio go to hash, has called the band and deeply disturbing the taliban are trying to lead them from public life. but of god goodman, i fighting back not lifting the taliban crush, a tree in def ali lumen, protesting for the right to university education were dispersed with what again, you know, you need not getting any weapons that donavon forced us to come to the street. and

in the used quarter canons on us, we all got drenched and many goods fell down there scared of her voices. and don't have any other weapons. we want our rights to get it on the taliban. a thought on women's rights shows no sign of stopping women humana did in book of death pretty needed in both district afghanistan. now they're being told to stay home. the u. n. s one against him eating the minstrel in the humanitarian victory. effective you measuring assistance relies on this meaningful participation, as they stated. and we cannot overstate the importance of bacon passages in sight and ability to reach one of the girls across the country. despite wild bite condemnation, that their lip on are not going down to the pressure and at closing doors to any meaningful engagement. i'd like to speak now to deep mala mala the vice president

of humanitarian affairs at the international aid organization at care. thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us on this important issue. your organization is one of those pulling out of afghanistan after the tally vans decision to ban women. how did your organization come to this difficult decision? thank you for the question claire. and before i answer that, i just want us to remind ourselves of the context that we are talking about. we are talking about of learners fan, where at least half of the population does not have enough food to eat. 6000000 people are just one step away from famine. hundreds and thousands of children are facing severe. acute malnutrition, many of them had to flee their homes because of security drought multiple times. they're sleeping in the open in makeshift dense. so we're talking about hunger, we're talking about freezing, whether we're talking about economic losses, and when that dis, decision comes way humanitarians are not humanity, it is,

but they are male and female. so care and our peer organizations, we haven't pulled out in general, just to clarify. we have asked for a suspension while the seat clarity on board. does this ban of not having demand aid workers means because there's a very important fact which i want to highlight. it is not only about employment of females in the international and use it is bigger than that in other than his thought for any woman or girl to interact. she has to, she is only able to interact with people who are related to her. what does this mean? this means that a male humanity in aid worker cannot interact and provide humanity in services to women and girls. so while, if there is a condition that endures, can employ only mail humanitarians, which means we can reach only men or males through life saving humanity in assistance. humanity and assistance is for every one person who is in need,

it is not i via need. other assistance that dire need for assistance that you're describing there. what do you think that this suspension of operations is going to mean for those people in the wake of the tale? bonds decision? this is very, very concerned concerning the, a deeply disturbed because if we only have men working for a g o z, meaning the humanity in aid workers and men, this would mean that when they go into the communities to provide services, they are only able to interact with the males, which means to men staff, we cannot reach women and girls who need humanity in assistance. and several studies including care studies, have demonstrated bruin that the men are affected even more deeply. well, you and i bought nor glare when there is less wood in the community. we know who eats last. we know who eats least so for their bodies like angels who are providing play, saving services. it feeds straight to the gender of

a humanitarian. the humanity in assistance cannot be. we table cannot be the way we all have aspired to cannot be everything that we all have committed to. thank you so much for taking the time to bring us up to date there that state momma, the vice president of humanitarian affairs at care. really appreciate your time. thanks for having for a massive winter storm has triggered blizzards of freezing rain and flooding in many areas of the united states and canada. the extreme weather has led to power outages for nearly 2000000 homes and businesses disrupting travel plans for millions of americans. authority say at least 17 people have died as a result of the storm. it's a white christmas for much of north america. in fact, it's a complete white out blizzards like these a hammering many areas of the united states and canada. i order per vin for snow has been piling up from coast to coast,

with freezing wind seeming temperatures. plunging the massive storm, coming at one of the busiest travel times of the year leading to the cancellation or delay of thousands of flights. jose, what is it under the lead here because of the grid is thought, well, boiler hug i go saw that has been flooded. so it's not the right time for me to get to know we've not been on the visit. i thought about to pull up that on friday, the original condo for those who did make it to the destination. it wasn't always a smooth, right? so this is what i woke up to in, oh, i live in addition to the snow and ice flooding has had some regions. the storm has been caused by a so called bomb site clone with atmospheric pressure dropping very quickly. the very low temperatures affecting much of the country,

a forecast to remain in the coming days with much of the us staying well below freezing and they have been fatalities due to exposure. i see car crashes and other effects of the storm. again the flesh freezing the ice roads are not going anywhere soon. this is going to be an event. it's going to continue through the weekend and that windshields are going to be absolutely bone chilling. that's why this is a life threatening event. the big chill is said to stick around for a freezing feast of season across much of north america before a return to comma and more season, a wither next week. we can bring you up to speed now at some other world news headlines. heavy snowfall in japan has killed 14 people and injured 87 others. thousands of homes have been left without power and transport is heavily disrupted . residents have been asked to refrain from non essential trips until at least

monday morning. and po francis has called for an end to the senseless war in ukraine during his christmas day addressed to worshippers. speaking on the balcony of saint peter's basilica in rome, the pontiff also condemned food being used as a weapon and said the world is suffering from a famine of peace. while the nutcracker, ballet has long been part of the holiday season all around the world. but because russian composer at your church, i coughed skis behind this quinta, central christmas classic. some companies are choosing to pause performances of the ballet. we have this report from poland. it's a fairy tale ballet we're toys come to life on christmas eve. and it's one of the poems, beloved holiday traditions. but this year there won't be any performances of the nutcracker in the national opera, because the composer tchaikovsky is russian. something belly fence here agree with the vulgar. if you take into account all the russians are waging this war,

also killing people, then you need to make hard decisions hot from all the values. not total foreigners . appleton was like it through the. this is an act of the nutcracker, isn't on the bill. instead, they're performing don quixote polls minister of culture encourage polls, turned their backs on russians and a gesture of solidarity after russian lead ukraine. most of colin's national leaders are taking part in the boy content, but the move is controversial. yes them school and those gorgeous share. a pop said you boy called i can understand and i support a boycott of artists and actors that would earn profit for the russian state bird of bits normal price. what does is kimball saddleback joshua? but i support urbana literary and musical works that glorify russia log that out skewed that i'm not too good to know. jackie moses knew that m a will be glad if he coach with the nutcracker from chikavsky. many polls want to see despite russia's war, but not in the national feeder. instead, smaller companies are offering the belly with you quine performers taking over the

stage. just before we go, let's get a reminder of our top story at this hour. ukrainian president of already muranski has delivered a christmas eve address, saying he believes tears will give way to joy. as message comes, as ukraine continues to suffer from deadly russian attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure. that is your news update at this hour. i'm claire richardson in berlin for me in the whole team here working behind the scenes. thanks so much for watching. every journey is full of surprises. we've gone all out. to give you some tips, why the indian leave the footsteps? all who read me hold. i'm.