dotcom ah, on the last day of 2022 vladimir putin addressed russia pledging victory and the war against ukraine. just 2 days later, his offense ministry has admitted to the biggest loss of life since the launch of the brutal invasion by russian count 63 soldiers are said to have dined in the don . it's gretchen that ukraine says that hundreds were killed in the strikes on mackie. fca 2023 was off to a bloody start on both sides. over the weekend, relentless russian attacks across ukraine killed at least 5 and wound a dozens. to night we ask what the rest of the year will bring in the conflict and how it could be brought to an end. i'm nicole foolish in berlin and this is the day . ah,

so since really may the ukrainians have had momentum on their side. they've been sessing the pace of the war. they're afraid, their right to be afraid. as a result of a stripe by 4 missiles, with a high explosive war head on a temporary deployment point, 163 russian service men were killed. and as we've seen that been 3 major russian allows various as they previously held, then not take a single year from ukraine, they'll not take our independence will give them nothing. now it's very clear that was going to go on well in 2023 also coming up tens of thousands head to the vatican to paid their last respects to former po benedict and 2013. he became the 1st pontiff to resign in hundreds of years. i or too old fashion with not the right direction for the

catholic church. but it said he was the leader. so, but i would say that it was this is he was not afraid to face the questions of today. he was very open in that regard. welcome to the show. russia has admitted suffering, the deadliest strike on his troops since fulton launched his full scale invasion of ukraine 10 months ago. the kremlin has confirmed that 63 of its soldiers were killed in a series of strikes on a temporary barracks in the eastern. donna's korean, the ukrainian defense forces have claimed responsibility for the new year's eve attack and say the true death toll is much higher. this footage shows the aftermath of the strike. russian media have sharply criticized the senior officers involved. here is part of the kremlin rare admission. 2 days after the attack,

distributors will leave the key of regime targeted, a temporary deployment point of one of the units of the russian armed forces near the settlement of my kiva and the de netscape peoples republic, 6 rockets. if you estimate hyman's multiple rocket launchers, russian at defense systems shocked down to high mas rural kits as a result of the strike, a full massage with a high explosive whoo, had a 10 pre deployment point. 63 russian service men were killed. all necessary assistance and support will be provided to the relatives and friends of the killed serviceman report samyele romani joins me now for more. he teaches politics and international relations at the university of oxford. he is also the author of the forthcoming book, hooton's war on ukraine, russia, campaign for global counter revolution, mr. romani. good to see you again. welcome to the day out remarkable revere that russia would acknowledge a loss of this magnitude. well is very, very remarkable,

because russia usually focuses casualty figures under numbers like heavy losses, which is something that edgy prescott is often used as an expression a very infrequently updates the number of guests. and if you take an example of this, there was an attack on water goober series in cam dash syria for 4 years ago. and the russians played only 5 people, died actually a 100 done. the knology, this love of casualties, is quite unprecedented. criticism has been mounting in russia against the military leadership. how has this attack in particular been received? why looking to this attack has provoked the kind of ferocity of criticism against the military leadership that we saw after the withdrawals from car key workers on or the yatchuck, even though we go and angles, airbus. but there have been some of critical voices than any others that were wrong . lee and ulysses and fred from africa b colonel, was one of the leading critics of the defense ministry as talking about hundreds of

casualties. so a lot more closely aligned with the ukranian estimates and others have drawn attention to some of the operational ms acts that made this happen. why did russia concentrate so many forces in, in one place, even though the area underneath is so depopulated as somebody abandoned buildings, they could have scattered them. why did they build underground bunkers around around fortifications? why did they allow their cellular signal to be concentrated in one place? so they can, their identities can be given a white mazar. so there's, there are criticisms of what's happened here, but it's not as fierce as i've seen them over the course of the past year. your, of course, the following, every, every movement on a battle feeling very closely where do you see the war headed? so right now, i think we're a bit of a pos or a bit of a g escalation in terms of actual acquisitions of new territory from the side. it doesn't mean the intensity of the conflict is going to deteriorate. in fact, what we've seen from the 1st couple of days and the new year and density ever been,

but it is very hard for either side to be able to achieve. a major breakthrough you crave long term goal is to probably recapture is up, patricia, which via bella topple, which is the key supply chain for the russians. and also try to push for advancing crimean out of the landscape. but i like the thousands of kilometers of advances that we've been seeing a over the course in september and october incremental events and only 2 kilometers a day, even according to ukrainian estimates. similarly, the russians are made offensively stuck and back moot are focusing more on death, taking advantage of the difficult terrain by pretty fortifications and even google shopping and mining areas they home. so right now the russians are focusing on holding what they can and maybe winning back vote ukrainians. album for incremental gains is parisha. and the hans, but it's a much slower pace and much more traditional conflict. we probably ever seen it. now the big question we're trying to answer today is, will this war and in 2023? do you think there is a chance that this year we'll see an end to this bloody conflict?

well, there's certainly a chance, but it's impossible to really say i think that if you any ends are to be capture all of the territory that they yeah took over the last i present, deborah 24th. they will want to try to capture the rest of it. on bass and crime in the united states has said that they will 100 percent commit to supporting ukraine's efforts the week after dry up and that was last us is 24th grade. we have to make his own judgment called afterward. so much depends on now at the level of western support in the continuity of western support. if your brain wants to go and take additional nuclear risk by attacking crimea. and deb and also much depends on russia's desire to ammunition, negotiate an escape out of this right now. it's easy. negotiating position is a d cranium after you recognize operation occurs on yes and crimea, as all part of russia, and aside from crime in russia, does need to control any of those regions in their entirety. so, rushes with unrealistic and a very,

very dangerous to go. the ukrainians believe that this is their story, chance of victory, and that's why i could easily see this war spilling on 324. and some analysts are actually saying that all of what you just described is putting rush on course to become a failed state. when you say they're right, so it's hard to say whether fail state is what it is. i think even in terms of economic decline, we're noticing that maybe 2.9 percent decline in g d p. and in a traditional erosion of the countries, long term development prospects, especially outside of the natural resources here. but we're not witnessing the kind of greater than great depression type class in the russian economy that we saw during the 1990s. the russian rubel is showing some weakness now for months of strength, but it's nowhere near the $98.00 rouble crisis. there's been taught, obviously talk about russia actively defaulting, but nothing at the level of the debt prices that we saw in 1998 or nor is there at the kind of organized crime. or the separatist who was in chechnya, are confined to limited protest. i not you a civil war. so if russia was not quite,

if it was david during on a field day during the night, he ninety's, it certainly isn't jazz there yet. but there is obviously the risk of a greater rab, mental internal unrest. don't personally travel dash ism, if the work needs to go badly, and we have to watch those respirators. really. the dynamics between the russian defense ministry, people actually go grandma and their most hawkish, critics like had your of any, any progression to the longer. yeah, interesting stuff, samuel romani, of the university of oxford. thank you so much. thank you. oh, now will we see an end to the pandemic in 2023. the world health organization is certainly hoping so as are billions around the globe. but officials warn, there is still a danger of deadly new variance emerging. let's look at where we stand after 3 years of the pandemic. since the 1st outbreak in china are nearly 6700000 people

have died. the corona virus claims more than 1500 lives every day, but numbers are much lower compared to last year. the w h o recommends vaccination and says access to effective vaccines is still unequal. globally, restrictions have been eased in many parts of the world as people learn to live with a virus and eric fy golding as a washington based epidemiologist. 3 years ago, he was one of the 1st to alert the public about the pandemic risk of co at 19 welcome back to the program doctor fy golding. now, just before the new year, one of germany's ta fire ologist told a newspaper that he considers the pandemic to be over. we've heard similar remarks from the u. s. president, for example. do you agree? thanks for having. i absolutely do not agree because we're right now already not just talking about hypothetical. we're already staring at one of the worst variants to emerge and spreading worldwide to new york, originator very called x

d s d b 15. and it's, we should or this very, it deserves its own greek letter on it. because it's a cross between several strains and wherever it becomes dominant hospitalizations of surge including new york and much of new england state and already have the united states all have already this x p, v $15.00. and it's, it's more your basis and it has better effectively potential, many ways, worst of both worlds. and to say that the pen to make it over when we're already basing this highly basic, highly effective strain that's already taking over us as well as one in 20, in the u. k. and surging rapidly. i think it's very way to reach early to say, and the over let came talking about what you call a new super very. and if it is very invasive, and we're seeing

a rise in hospitalizations, what measure is should be taken to keep infections at bay? well, i was remind everyone that you know, we always neither vaccine plus i was the by the on boosters are good, but they're only good against the last existing version which it was designed for. and i always tell people that mass their agnostic about various ventilation, air disinfection, their diagnostic about bearing. so you should do multiple layers. so of course about the vaccinate, but also do the masking in crowded public places as well as ventilation in air disinfection by hepa filter bias: fan bentley, your air, your window or build of course the box. if you can't open your window and you don't have to have a filter, there's many things you can do by filtering out the air of these virus to protect

you, your yourself, your family, your workplace, and being faced from this buyer. remember, these measures are agnostic are very so he should rely on these things that are bearing proof. now this is a very and that is already circulating, but there is of course, concern about the millions of infections that we are probably seeing because we don't have official numbers in china. how much of a role does the countries abrupt reopening play when it comes to the risk of new variance emerging? yeah, china, you know, potentially they're, they're having a burn through session effectively. they're just allowing the virus to burn through as many people that are affecting. and i think remind people that china's holiday on the lunar year comes at the end of january. and the chinese academia chiva daniel says the worst is yet to come. so when you infect or half of china, 2 quarters of china, a 100000000 people, you're bound to get new variance. in many ways this x, b, b, 15 is also so fast,

it's already been detected in potentially in shanghai. so i think in many ways it's, it's only a matter of time whether it's a new, very from china or this new york. marriott x be the $15.00 that takes over the world. and we're just asking for more, you know, a virus that doesn't kill you, you tates and tries, tries again. and we're only just giving the virus more opportunities to try again. so stopping the infection, not just stopping hospitalization, should be our priority. now we're seeing countries like spain and france for example, that are imposing travel restrictions on people coming from china. morocco i think has even blocked people coming from china from entering the country. do you think these kinds of measures make sense? we're faced with this kind of scenario. no doesn't make sense because the virus, sorry, world wide, you know, x d, v 15, which by the way, it's a, it's

a new york origin aided variance. it's already in multiple continents and to just only test china in many ways, it's very close minded and discriminatory. i think you should sure. you should sequence people who test positive for this new x p, be 15. if i have anything worldwide from any destination, especially united states, where it's the epicenter. so i think just testing china, per se, is not the solution concern. just how much virus is just circulating right now. wintertime, especially worldwide. we don't have too much time, but i do want to get your outlook for 2023. when it comes to the pandemic. here my outlook is there, i think by spring and the waves will die down again. but i think the question is, what do we do with this opportunity with a law once this winter search passes? i think, you know, there is no fee for what we make, so there is no exact future. but if our job is to simply stop hospitalizations,

we're going to have more of these waves. but if our job is to stop transmission and protect a people from getting the buyers in the 1st place and getting long, coven and being immunocompromised by coded, then i think our goal is to really, really think about all these ways of ventilation and disinfection that you know is independent or masking that can actually stock the buyer's not just thought because position, epidemiologist eric final day, always a pleasure speaking to you. thank you so much for your time. ah. after his death on december 31st, the former pope benedict is lying in states at the vatican. thousands of morris have already made their way to saint peter's basilica to pay their final respects before benedict burial. later this week, 1st 3 days. mourners will have the chance to say good bye to port benedict,

italian prime minister, georgia maloney among the 1st to do so. the somber mood insights saint peter's basilica, disrupted only by the need to document as crowd sneaked around the vatican, waiting to enter the faithful. coming out. try to sum up the experience there and amber lame would soon it's a beautiful emotion to see the body. and even a little transformed by suffering. bah, but even, and this is the pope gave us an example of faith when i'm with zoning this, it's an indescribable emotion i was in front of the pope's body. i didn't realize that he was right there. yeah. that it was really heavy. i think i mean there on sunday, poke francis praised benedict during his new year's day prayer. junior mountain is here,

me gone. let us all joined together with one hot and one soul in thanking god for the gift of this faithful servant of the gospel and of the church. and he is then addict made history in 2013, when he resigned. siting ill health. the 1st point of to do so since the middle ages. he led the church at the height of the clerical child abuse scandal, offering an apology to victims during a visit to australia in 2008. indeed, i am deeply sorry for some pain and suffering. so victims haven't you? in his bavarian birthplace, a message to from beyond the grave. a local priest rate from benedict spiritual testimony, released posthumously with this unwavering message state faced him to stand firm and your face. lot do not be confused.

pope benedict will be lead to rest on thursday in a funeral, savish that is expected to draw thousands, an historic occasion that will mark the end of an extraordinary era which sought to pope's living in the vatican. for more on the late pope martin got jones me, the city is our religious affairs correspondent mountain. we just heard it there. and this is the end of the 2 pope's era. how much influence did benedict have? after stepping down the he had a lot of influence you had a lot of formal influence and informal influence. formerly influence had a lot to do with the fact that he said, if not a trend, most certainly a precedent. so a lot of the conversations were hearing now coming out of the vatican about the potential resignation of pope frances would be simply unthinkable had been at the not resign. so i mean, he quite clearly changed the shape of the discussion as to what is the role of

a pope. whereas we used to think of the pope or somebody that essentially was had certain spiritual attributes and those were actually sort of exercise for lifetime . i think that the shift that came with the resignation showed that the pope has much more of an administrative role that require certain, essentially not just want to see this, but it also requires certain amount of fitness. the moment in which benedick realize he was no longer cable, he abandoned it, dependent about the see on the informal side, it's very clear that it was extremely important for this po, for the sitting po, for friends, is to show himself mere benedict and so as to show actually, unity within church which was very much split up. and i think that in doing that, he tried to point out to the fact even if he'd never said it but or it, well, in some cases there were inklings of it that this was maybe no longer an official authority. the 2nd, but he still held moral and religious or spiritual authority. so in that sense he

change really everything. yeah. francis his successor is much more liberal. a bit of a reformer. i went stead benedict san in the way of his attempts of modernizing the catholic church. it's, it's difficult to say, i mean to a large degree friends benedict was seen as sort of the conservative figure head. and if you actually look at the way in which many political sort of political landscapes are actually split and probably the best example of this is the u. s. a . where you really had around that from era. very, very severe ideological for, for larry station between the left and the right. you could almost say that the left cut, it's pope and the right headed spoke. and this is something that you can also see in latin america. you can see in africa and you can see in asia in europe list so, but i think that it shows that as a matter of fact, there was still a very strong sense that this belong to very different political worlds. i

nonetheless, believe that it was very clear that the church needed reform and that when he stepped down, he understood that was, was gold for it was somebody that would be capable of pushing forth the reforms that actually counting what at that point was more or less a civil war within about you can. so i think that it goes both ways in a way you're somebody that certainly was a conservative and held on to conservative values. on the other hand, i think that he was also somebody that had enough foresight to understand that reform was important to know. the catholic church was rocked by several scandals during his policy. many of them involving benedict directly. where did he and what state did he leave? the catholic church, when he sat down, i think that the stayed at which the church finds itself the moment that by they steps down is essentially catastrophic. i mean, not only from a political institutional point of view and from a believe from a, from a public relations point of view. not only there were sort of plenty of scandals

among them, just among them was the sex abuse scandal to which i'm sure we will return in this conversation. but you also had sort of a massive hemorrhage of believers. people that no longer in the church, not only like of religious health, already, no moral authority whatsoever. obviously, you know, if you have an organization that has for better or worse, i mean, been in cape of solving what is a global crime wave of sexual abuse against children. it's impossible to actually take it seriously when the, when the church starts talking about morality. i think that, you know, benedict was a cable, a very competent scholar and a very competent thinker. not necessarily a very competent administrator. and a central has been pointed out, not somebody who relished a fight, which clearly was a central piece of church reform at that stage. i do want to talk about the systematic sexual abuse in the catholic church, which has of course tarnished image. great me. how did he do and tackling that

search in that mega issue about well, i mean, if you asked about and if you ask his base, i think that his, his supporters will basically say that he did as much as he could possibly do. but certainly was not enough my view, i mean, and this is really a matter of opinion is that he essentially failed that some sort of things that were really quite important. one has to keep in mind that in 2001 benedict convinced then pope john ball to move the handling of sex abuse cases from the different day offices around the world to the back. he can directly under his own watch, read singer. it's watch at that point. but by the time that he left sort of, you know, decade a decade later on the situation really has not been addressed. and it's not only that crimes had not been, you know, had not been essentially adjudicated. the fact is that many of the structures that had guaranteed the permanence of sexual abuse, we're still in place and we're not. and we're not touch, including, for instance,

ecclesiastical secrecy, which actually guarantees that you know, priests will be protected within the space of the church, at least that there will not be authorities word in that was actually changed only 2 years ago or 3 years ago, right before the pandemic by by francis as martin got our religious affairs correspondent. thank you so much. oh, you're very welcome. paul. people around the world were celebrating the arrival of the new year with fireworks on saturday night. it was a different story in the english seaside town of scarborough, and that's because of the sky. a walrus nicknamed for the local council cancelled the midnight spectacle. so as not to frighten this rare visitors of this very visitor to you. k shores away from as much needed rest a little prematurely as a turn out. he added back to see about 7 hours before the new year as

our time, but make sure to stay in touch with our team and to what are the w news and myself . nicole underscore 1st. thank you so much for spending part of your day with a, with a joy, right, fascinating world. into uncharted deb, our guides know their way around a strictly scientific trip to some pretty wacky

places. curiosity is required to borrow today. on d, w. 321 a, their job making austria float say their task controlled explosions. that triggers fly before they become a danger their name, the avalanche, laughter. 60 minutes on the w with is increased every year, many im gonna working on lengthy and we work very holiday destinations and drowning

in plastic white. we rewind and that we could look at the closet with every year. europe exposure 1000000 tons of plastic with use there. another way. after all the environment isn't to recyclable. make up your own mind. d. w. made for minds. or we need to talk about climate change. does that make you want to switch off? why and how can we change it? how exactly is global warming affecting agriculture around the world? the results of one study are in arming.