we ask why? because an education makes the world more just a make up your own mind. d. w, made for mines. ah ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin. the death toll from north america is blizzard of the century, climes. and as americans dig their way out after a snow smothered holiday weekend, we look back at a year of extreme weather events that experts say are a sign of worsening climate change. a war of words between serbia neighboring

kosovo, intensifies ethnic. tensions are threatening to break out into open conflicts. we'll have the details. and another pandemic surprise from china. international travel restrictions are lifted to the relief of many, but with heard immunity still, far off, dangers remain from the virus ah unexpired. welcome to the show. it's been called the blizzard of the century. the snow storm battering the u. s. in canada. an emergency has been declared for new york state which is bearing the brunt of the storm. at least 50 people have died across the united states. snow has buried parts of buffalo, new york, and emergency crews are struggling to reach trapped residence. some of the dead have been found frozen in vehicles in snow by severe weather. events are becoming

increasingly common. floods, fires and extreme temperatures wreak havoc across the world in 2020 to one of the warmest years on record. places where cold is the norm are experiencing abnormally high temperatures with devastating consequences. this is no rowdy ski holiday. it's a research station near the south pole and minus 11.8 degrees celsius was 40 degrees hotter than usual on march 18th. it's probably the largest temperature anomaly ever recorded. incredibly, at the same time at the north pole. some places were 30 degrees warmer than usual mountain glaciers such as this one in the himalayas that feeds the mighty river ganges continue to shrink as india was hit by heat waves that came earlier and were longer and or hotter than usual. pakistan also swelter hd. a few weeks later, both countries were hit by massive monsoon rains. one 3rd of pakistan was flooded,

creating a huge humanitarian emergency. the floods destroyed farmland killed more than 1700 people and displaced more than 33000000. if my child died in the damp, cold nights, we don't have anything to eat. my husband is unemployed and poor. my 2 children have died in the camps. you think gentlemen? west africa also suffered an unusually heavy rainy season with months of flooding in nigeria. displacing up to 2000000 people in east africa, the rains failed again worsening the most severe drought in recent history. the un says 36000000 people are affected in somalia and parts of ethiopia and kenya with more than 5000000 children malnourished. the sickly, most of the time, they go to bed on an empty stomach about me. i just feel terrible.

in madagascar, the seasonal rains also failed. i. after 4 years of drought, the south of the island is facing a food crisis. in some places, residents of had to dig into the dry river bed to find water. 2022 also saw china's suffer. it's longest and harshest heat wave on record. with the yangtze and other rivers reduced to mere trickles and many lakes turned into dust bowls. and earlier i asked us based meteorologist matthew caputo if the extreme weather we've seen around this year, including this current historic storm, is a new normal for the planet. so any question was asking is whether or not this particular event is tied to human use, climate change when it comes to buffalo. so there are certain things we can link to climate change, certain things we can't link to change because weather course is sort of what you get in climate is what you expect. in the case, what happened? buffalo, i think that, you know, if we were seeing more water temperatures in the great lakes and we will be saying

yes, lightly, more snow fall and sort of more light effects knows what happened in buffalo though, doesn't really bear that the your bread because the water temperatures were normal and ice cover over the lake was normal. so buffalo, probably not. that said, there are some things that will be made more stream things. the climate change a winter storm systems more drought times are due to something called classic relationship, basically war air and hold more water, stronger hurricane. and perhaps like we said, bigger flood events ultimately. and we were just looking earlier at a report about, you know, a warm weather in antarctica and in the arctic and the global events of climate change in 2022 is, is there much that humans can do to limit the damage to the climate that, that we've already caused do you think so this will sound like a rather pessimistic answer, but unfortunately the time is kind of like a freight train that there are couple stable states. once you push her out of it,

the earth will start accelerating towards a different stable state. so we're going to have a coffee place for a while we started nudging or towards a hot house scenario. whether or not that and to realize or means the see what humans should be doing is adapting in mitigate, changing their infrastructure to be ready. what's coming tomorrow rather than building or infrastructure based on what was normal for today. ok, thank you. meter ologist, an atmospheric scientist, matthew capuchin, washington, d. c. let's get a round up now of some other headlines around the world. hundreds of ukrainian civilians are fleeing the recently liberated city of her son as attacks by russia intensify. ukraine's military said to russian forces far, $33.00 rockets at civilian targets in just the 24 hours to early wednesday. russian forces abandoned harrison last month and one of ukraine's most significant gains in the war. north korean leader kim jong has presented new goals to further bolster

his military. he made the remarks at a meeting of top party officials where key policies are being set for the coming year. north korea conducted a record breaking number of weapons test this year, ratcheting up the regional friction. tensions are growing between the balkan states of serbia and cost of it with concerns about the possibility of armed conflict. breaking out, serbia has put its military on high alert and erected roadblocks along the border. kosovo, says serbia is preparing a pretext for a military operation. negotiations with the e. u and u. s. are ongoing in hopes of avoiding renewed fighting in the region. vehicles blocked a route from kosovo to serbia. at the clubs living and not possible accused the government of discriminating against them and have barricaded the roads in protest . v as president faith, he is ever ready to defend them was only to be affordable for the city jones. 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 north, of course of austin. i will take all measures necessary to protect our national town on monday. so be our put military on high alert, the interior minister with the troops and order that they stand ready for combat. this, in spite of nato force of 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 pre war 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 other points. and

now the situation has worsened due to rumors that kosovo was planning an attack against it. so community casa, was leaders say otherwise that or what was the situation in the not, of course, of all is becoming more and more serious and complicated with either the war mongering platform or fortunate. and his men installed in the north is crossing the red lines. that the right he must urgently withdraw his one from the north and ordered the removal of the barricades and had gone to the negotiating table. so he can not challenge kosovo which is set for peace to relieve for our customer when phobia fought a war from 1998 to 1999, after which constable unilaterally declared its independence. sylvia does not recognize that status until today. neither do sober living in closer

and earlier i spoke with t w's balkans expert than young rich and asked how dangerous the situation really is. and it really is about license plates. no, it's not about license plates at all. that was the 1st thing that called serves to move out of course cost to ship. so there are now basically no 3rd being police officers because of no sir, be on judge, you know, serbian mayers and afterwards as possible has arrested a couple of serbs claiming that they are planning terrorist attacks or conducted terrorist effects in the north of kosovo. serbs made these road blocks about dozens of them and this everything happens in the north of culture, which is almost exclusively populated by serbs. it's really small, part of land with about 50 to 60000 people is basically playing with fire next to a pub. there can we had multiple gunshot the other day, and nobody knows who fired and why exactly. now the constable threatened to remove

road blocks by force if necessary to regain control over its territory. and serbia is putting the troops on high alert and claiming that they are ready to take action if possible takes action against threats. and today, it seems that there will know there will be no agreement anytime soon. i can't help but thinking the last thing we need now is another war in europe to tell me the war in ukraine is that having some kind of impact somehow in, in the balkans it has a huge impact because serbian serbia is considered traditional russian l. i and it's really like that most of the serbs love russia, and the russia is also supporting serbia in its politics over the course of the also not recognizing causal as the security council member and beto power power. so

what happened after russia started aggression over to train is that the best during power, including germany, were afraid that maybe there could be another conflict in the balkans on the health of moscow made by serbs. but what we see, we saw similar things in the last couple of years like making a road blocks in the north of course, a little and having this type of instagram bore. so everybody making photo shooting of their units and at the end nothing happens. this time, it might really be different because served in the north, of course, of all are keen to, to be on these barricades until a cost of or reaches some kind of agreement with belgrade and cultural. feels that there is a space to regain control over its whole territory by presenting serbia and russian l i. and, you know, take, take advantage of the situation that was the w,

balkans expert them yanna image. china's pandemic restrictions are said to ease further, even though the country is far from heard. immunity and cases appear to be soaring . aging, as announced, is ending almost 3 years of border controls on january the 8th, when code 19 is downgraded to a less dangerous class of infectious disease. but 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 surge 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 bunker. we'll go into funky at the moment. the pandemic response measures have entered a new phase in our country. were faced by

a new situation and new challenges. oh jim, come with pivoting from preventing infection to protecting health and preventing severe illness. so who are kimball field? obey the policy changed? has been welcomed by some people. at least. that's why you rather me, of course i, some people prefer control measures in which boy ulcerative cases are isolated in a centralized way. i've only got 4 out of those, so we know any one 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 you're looking at, i, 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, then 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 highball if i'm head. but corona virus infections have skyrocketed since the you to and by china's need is at the start of december. older people up being hot, 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. and that's it for dow, before we go, for many of us, winter is an excuse to stay home and keep warm out. so for these pandas, however, their giant pan is there for, provides a natural protection against the cold. and here a, china's kindling giant pan that research center. they're rolling with it. ah, we've got to understand that globalization work, but he does not reach more than 30 percent of the world population in the mediterranean as become a kind of great sarcophagus. if anything he was proud of it was to.