we will show you how climate change and environmental conservation is taking shape around the world and how we can all make a difference. knowledge grows through sharing. download it now for free. ah ah ah, this is d w. news live from berlin authorities in the u. s. won the death toll in

north america's freezing blizzard is set to rise as recovery efforts to speed up. the area around buffalo in new york state is the boys to pick to bridge and with dozens of people reported did due to bad weather conditions. also on the program, a war of words between serbia and neighboring cos above intensifies ethnic tensions are threatening to break out into open conflict will have the details and china ended 0 kogan policy. the people breathed a sigh of relief, but with her to mean it is still far off dangerous from the virus remain. ah, i'm anthony. i would walk into the program. many parts of the united states, a grappling with rescue and recovery efforts after a snow storm left dozens of people did. over 50 people died because of the extreme where the conditions that is expected to rise according to officials in the us. new

york state has been hit hard. the area around buffalo and western new york has struggled with a weather phenomenon known as like effect snow. that's when cold, the apostles of a woman waters, of the great likes bringing the region huge amounts of snowfall. and that's what buffalo is experiencing right now. along with heavy winds, an arctic cold as city paralyzed by a mega storm. buffalo new york is at the epi center of the blizzard, battering north america. people are stranded in their vehicles and homes as snow pummels the region. the governor of new york gave a sobering assessment of the situation. we have then to a lot of wars together. and this blizzard is the one for the ages. certainly it is the blizzard of the century, and we are here to can talk about our, our collect or collaborative approach to dealing with this crisis that it is

a crisis. thousands of homes are without power, and a driving band has been issued. the governor warned that the worst is not yet over and as much as we can see, the skies right now, we know that the storm is coming back. so anyone to declare is victory and says it's over. it is way to really to say president joe biden approved an emergency declaration for new york, offering the full force of the federal government to support the state. thousands of flights have been canceled across the us, leaving many families scrambling to find a way to get home an hour. driving back to austin 17 hours so it was they will fundamental car. there was not many, but i was able to find one. so when a start back, hanniman, i guess back in buffalo, more heavy snowfall is forecast. emergency crews are racing to free. those trapped

while they still can. earlier we spoke to bruce and rich assistant managing editor of the buffalo news. the major newspaper in the buffalo niagara falls area, we asked him how the cities coping. things are still not good. the worst snowfall has passed our airport, which is about 8 miles from where i'm sitting. no, i received 50 inches of snow and you know, the region itself is, is buried. we have, we've never seen anything like this. i'm, i'm old enough to remember. a storm that hit buffalo 45 years ago. that's always been known as the blizzard of 77. those of us to are old enough to remember it never thought we would see anything. ready like it again, it also very the city. i was 12 years old at the time. co school for a week, which was on a heard of. i can tell you now that having lived through this past weekend,

this storm were experiencing now is worse. well, we had be the people in the equipment here, morrow before the 1st. the 1st snow fell. i believe it would have been friday morning. we were prepared. the precision of the forecast was such that we knew this was coming. we knew it was going to be a blizzard. we knew how bad it was going to be. or rather we knew that it would be bad. i think the by friday afternoon. as you said, even those of us who are winter veterans were stunned. just how ferocious the store was you're used to and i heard. ready porter say that we're used to lake effect storm here, which just last month dumped more than 7 feet us know 80 inches, which i guess would be almost double what we've seen at the airport. and that's not unheard of what is on a hurdle for buffalo. western new york is to have sustained snowfall and wins about

40 miles an hour for 48 hours or more in some areas. so even though we had the people, we had the equipment here, there was no way for us to move forward. just as one example. the governor said that let's say that you had a flower that was able to navigate the streets. you wouldn't be able to drive more in a little bit before the white house conditions were such. you couldn't see in front of you. and suddenly a car or another vehicle that had been stranded would be in front of you. and then that would have been out of action and had to wait for the storm to less than a little bit before they could attack. and that could be a deadly combination as we're seeing out of more. we also spoke earlier to our washington bureau correspondence stephan simons about the disruption. the storm has caused the travellers in the us. many passengers with southwest airlines became stranded to to cancellation of their flights. although get me started, that is a totally different a mass on a totally different level. a southwest airlines is responsible for canceling 90

percent of all flights today in numbers 2500 flights canceled by southwest airlines. the next one spirit airlines cancelled 83. so you can see this airline has a big problem all over by monday night around 5000 flights were cancelled. that is a massive amount. the problem here is not just for passengers want to go home. some are waiting for 5 days for the last 5 days to actually get where they actually wanted. then they turned around. just wanted to go home and they are still not home . never let alone have seen their relative, so it is an absolute nightmare all over. and it's not going to get any better, at least not for southware southwest, they said it's going to be like this a few more days. so that bad news for travelers and from stephane simon's in washington, let's get a round up of some of the other headlines now. and the co leader of the plot to

kidnap michigan. the governor gretchen whitman, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. prosecutors described adam fox as the mastermind of the plan to abduct whitman at gunpoint ahead of the 2020 presidential election tab. once president has announced an extension of mandatory military service from 4 months to one year. so in win said, ty, one needs to prepare in response to the growing threat from china edge in, consider taiwan a breakaway province, and has vowed to reunify it with the mainland with force if necessary. grands foreign minister has floated the idea of an international summit to end the war in his country. meteoric labor said ukraine wants to pay summit within 2 months with un secretary general, antonio quoterush, acting as a mediator. they've added, he doesn't think russia which invaded ukraine. 10 months ago would take part. russian president vladimir putin aside, a decree banning oil experts,

exports rather to countries that have imposed a price cap on russian oil than comes into effect from february 2023. and the last 45 months, western nations have set a price for russian petroleum products as they try to limit moscow's ability to finance. it's war in tensions. a growing between the balkan states of serbia and kosovo with concerns about the possibility of armed conflict. breaking out, serbia has put its military on high alert and erected road blocks along the border casa versus serbia, is preparing a pretext for a military operation. negotiations with you and usaa ongoing in hope of avoiding renewed fighting in the balkans vehicles blocked the road from kosovo to so beyond. ethnic clubs living and not kosovo accused the government of discriminating against them and have barricaded the roads in protest. the

visit so be, as president says he is ever ready to defend them, realty will be on yes sir, by so the city journals, i wish to inform you, that we are indeed in a difficult situation, but we will give our utmost to preserve peace and stability not only that, we will protect our people in the not, of course, of all i will take all measures necessary to protect our nationally out from you on monday. so be, i put a military on high alert the interior minister with the troops and ordered that the stand ready for combat. this in fight of nato forces being in kosovo, and calling to calm the situation. tensions are often high between the 2 countries, but this is the strange situation was triggered by crossville decision to scrap old license plates from serbia that come from prewar times.

local soaps saw that as an attack on their identity and autonomy, especially as the observer minority group making up only 6 percent of customers population. they protested enlarged numbers with another point to them. now the situation has worsened due to rumors that crossover was planning an attack against it. 3rd community casa was leaders say otherwise that or what was the situation in the north, of course, of all is becoming more and more serious and complicated with the war mongering platform of richard and his men installed in the north is crossing the red lines that are right, he must urgently withdraw his wrong from the naughty for an order the removal of the barricades and had gone to the negotiating table was long. he cannot challenge possible which is set for peace to religion for our customer when phobia fought a war from 1998 to 1999,

after which constable unilaterally declared its independence. sober does not recognize that status until today. neither do sober living impossible. members of germany's coalition government are debating when to declare an end to the pandemic and dropped the last of the restrictions. public health officials say heard immunity may be close thanks to widespread vaccination and natural immunity. the german justice minister is calling for an end to wall restrictions of the health minister has urged caution. meanwhile, china's pandemic restrictions are set to waves further, even though the country is far from her immunity and cases appear to be soaring. badging has announced its ending almost 3 years of border controls on january 8th, when kobe 19 is downgraded to an infectious disease that may put the countries old and sick populations in particular danger. the end of these are restrictions for chinese wanting to travel abroad has sparked

a search in flight bookings from china, people there has spent 3 years putting up with travel restrictions locked downs, mass testing, and other tough measures. the sudden lifting of these has caught people by surprise . the official reason the army con variance is not as dangerous as 1st thought. dante will go you to franklin at the moment the pandemic response measures have entered a new phase in our country. we're faced by a new situation and new challenges. oh, jane, come with pivoting from preventing infection to protecting health and preventing severe illness. so hooking will build, obey the policy changed, has been welcomed by some people. at least that's what you wrote to me. of course are some people prefer control measures like which boy ulcerative cases are isolated in a centralized way. not only got flat at all, so we know anyone outside is clear what, what we need now is heard immunity. so the government is quite right to do what is doing under the current circumstances. what i think mentality is very important.

there's no need to worry about it too much. if the government is allowing things to open up again, that means it can't be that bad, right? if the virus is highly infectious in everyone's life is in danger, the government wouldn't be easing up, or that i believe i'm headed. but corona virus infections have skyrocketed since the u turn by china's leaders at the start of december. older people have been hard hit as vaccination rates among them are low, many hospitals overstretched. and it's estimated that coven 19, who claim a 1000000 lives in the coming months. the exact scale of the outbreak. it's hard to judge. as china has not published, official covered 19 figures since sunday. now for many of us winter is an excuse to curl up, stay home and keep warm. not so for these giant panders a colder a gets, the more active they are. they fir provides a natural protection against the cold, so i don't feel the chill here at the king. ling

a giant panda research center in central china. i certainly appear to be rolling with before we go his reminder, the top story we're following for you this hell she went. a storm has lift, doesn't stayed. as it swept across large parts of the united states and canada, buffalo in upstate new york has borne the brunt of the blizzard, which people in the area calling the storm of the century. and that's all the news for now. don't forget there's more to be found on our breaking news and on social media, the handle you mm hm with.