this me to a foreign planet. in the 16th century, it meant being a captain and setting sail to discover a route, a race linked to military interests, a race linked to political and military prestige, but also to main financial and adventure full of hardships, dangers and death. but jillions journey around the world starts january 19th on a with hello and welcome to focus on europe. thanks for joining me here today. as we entered the new year, russia's war against ukraine continues and with unrelenting ferocity. ah,

one area that's been hit especially hard, is that of box moot in eastern ukraine. they are the almost nonstop artillery has left the city completely destroyed. russian troops have been trying to capture the strategically important regent for months. while ukrainian forces have captured many other towns, this situation is not how russian president putin envisioned the course of his campaign in ukraine. his war has destroyed countless towns and villages killed thousands of civilians and has wounded or killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers, both on the ukrainian and the russian sides. with the advance of his troops stagnating, and the russian economy badly battered, the question remains, what has putin gained from all of this? and that the russian population, many in the country are still behind their president and the war. but there is also resistance. oh, oh,

they champ freedom quite at 1st, then loud. since the war began, sites like this have become read, demonstrations approaches are legal, hold hearings, give your position one of the few chances to meet. oh yeah, for to stay on them. and if i stand here with a sign for even a minute, i can be arrested and find that money would finance the war. begin. i come here to at least see a few people who think like i do for so that's over you're right. it's here, though, my thugs o'clock, then can you get used to just bishop from everywhere reporting about russia's negative fantasy rushes, putin aggression and war. but there are many russians who are against that issue. it's just not many people showed up after all, but around a 100, a waiting to be admitted to the courtroom. in the end, the sentence to be announced here is about the war. ilia gushing was sentenced to 8 and a half years and a penal colony on charges of discrediting the military. he had discussed boucher on

his live stream and shown what is being reported on the war outside of russia. don't worry machine cold from the glass box if someone thinks potent will rule for 8 more years. they're very big optimist. but there's little to be optimistic about . the opposition has mostly been locked away, or driven into russian media only loves to pick the war being a success. the country seems shrouded in a fog of lies and uncertainty. even one of prison hooton's former speechwriters, now lives an exile a basque al yum of switch sides. years ago, he says the war has been putting the biggest mistake. it's changed everything for russian or john, good luck with a year ago. put him was still a great leader will cover. everybody saw him as one of the strongest rule is in the world need it. but as it turns out, he's brutal and not strong at all. like him. his image has faded, especially in comparison to zalinski enough. one is lilian to walk on your file.

now pollutant public. yet person still appears firmly in control, even as very cautious criticisms are heard from within his own camp. criticism of the retreat from cas on that only weeks before russia had annexed against international law and criticism of the partial mobilization, tobacco in the kremlin potent hangs middleton soldiers who excelled during his so called special military operation. but cracks are appearing in the self confident facade, pushing as increasingly had to explain his conduct of the war, even as he sipped, sparkling wine with the newly minted heroes. just lucas room. up up over. now we're getting lots of criticism for bombarding and navy energy infrastructure for yes, that's what we're doing. but who started that'd mcdonough, who attacks the crimean bridge. the group the was doing person very little goods

and russia lis, as even his supporters can see luxury items on the only goods missing from the shelves and central moscow sanctions have been felt across the country. almost all the foreign carmakers are gone. this fall marino factory has returned to production of the domestic mos creech moaning. it's advertised as a kind of supercar made in russia. in reality, it's an exact copy of a chinese model. generally, chinese and russian cars are the only new models available even so, russia's economy is doing better than expected, says alexandra pack up, inca. she was once an adviser to rush the central bank. now she's an exile with o n e y b. i. michelle national assistant, but it's middle when i was expecting the sanctions to tear rushes economy apart. in

fact, could have worked on the will. effects deal by the government responded professionally, operating stalkers of russia's condiments have served it better than its generals. use nicolette emitter 14. they fade and post embark on oil and gas last spring. it might have looked different will. but now there's enough money when you russia can carry on with it's risky, military adventure war the what i see the bulging iranian their rent jewelry. and that seems to be precisely the plan, an exhibition of historical military hardware in moscow. the current war isn't direct to the onion ukraine. the enemy is the whist in every respect. it says if person were out to prove the superiority of russian culture once and for all you even saw, his ex speech writer says he won't go down in history as a positive figure. oh, i wonder who he would have had to depart earlier and leave a strong regime behind it, but the regime, wait, it won't survive to get him to be

a hero for the history books shouldn't have come back after mid vieja turn, often had himself reelected over and over the quiet things, the old red army song about the sacred warfare. now, susan has no way back. nobody knows whether he regret suspicion, military operation or not. but his own faith bound to it, ends to a final victory in neighboring lot, the people are extremely worried about the ongoing conflict. the e member state used to be a soviet republic. so it's shares a common past with russia. a reporter traveled there to meet a weaver named janice rosen towels, who, along with the family lives in the small town of bob. jim's for the rosen tolls rushes attack on ukraine has already changed their lives. things have become more expensive. but unlike in much of europe, latvians have another concern as well, their proximity to their big neighbor janice rosen towels from latvia. we've

7 meters of linen by hand a day on average. he uses it to make around 8 scarves in the winter. yeah, nathan's, his wife layla filled up their stocks in the summer. they sell their goods on market across europe. they've been in business for 20 years and it's been going okay. but the cobit crisis hit them hard as the war and ukraine has made things even tighter as booking bands a bunk ones. i never know what to expect at the gas station these days. and when i turn on the lights, i see money disappearing, bookkeeping ga, ga. but those are just practical concern us once much worse is how we're losing our humanity long. now busy himself is what thought. luckily, janice rosen towels has friends and family helping him to build his house. the price is for construction materials have skyrocketed by over 20 percent and the completion date just keeps getting pushed back further and further.

the rose and health live in western la in the tiny village of above. cm's janice, enjoys the picturesque scenery twice a day when he brings his children to school and picks them up again. but things aren't as delicate. they may seem lakia with it's 2000000 inhabitants. is among the 5 poorest countries in the u. it had close economic ties with russia for decades. and even yanis rosenthal's had a customer for his business there. but the war put a stop to that was done, and one reason the payment via liked what we created. so i count his so my, this old on now it's just said alco saddened dummy goes school school. you know me and many others feel just like yanis since more people have become increasingly

uneasy about their eastern neighbor. over 30 years ago, the luckiest declared their independence from the soviet union. but the trauma of soviet occupation is still rooted very deeply around a quarter of the population speaks russian mostly in the capital, riga, and many in latvia sympathized with russia and the kremlin policies, at least before the war. now we see that this changes tremendous is a number of people who are not talking about russia as a neighbor, which, who is who's whom we can, ah, negotiate or trade. it's decreasing your enormously so all the rest who understand what happens. they see that russia is invader and that we have to be very careful not to have ukrainian situation ukraine and kind of war at our borders on our, to the router top think the warren ukraine is horrible. but they say,

even though ukraine is not far away, they still don't feel their own country faces any great danger. they believe nato will protect them. and that a russian attack on latvia would inevitably lead to world war 3. bernini already good is local. the other bio apocalypse, that it feels kind of a body lifting it isn't unless you wake up in the morning and you just a candidate for it, you read the news and think like what the hell is going on in this world on this? but i'm still hope haven't good things as to like, i think you have to make the best of it is great law. hold on to humanity and will not lose faith. nice. ellen may sound childish. ah, i believe in miracles. ah, the rosy house is deep in western last year. just a few hours drive from the russian border to the east. the latvians and russians

share a common history that stretches back centuries, but they face an uncertain future no matter where you go on corsica, there is a chance that you will run into a cow on the street and even on the beach. since there are hardly any fences to restrain them, cows, bulls and calves lead a life of absolute freedom on the french island. some of the owners of the animals though, have been a bit too long, a fair when it comes to itemizing exactly how many heads of cattle they own. and that's because for each cow, they declare there's some money that's provided by the european union. but now, every course the can cow has to be registered and in a way that's not making farmers happy. the course again, cows have a relatively good life. often they're not even fenced in their free to roam

wherever they like. so hardly anyone can be exactly sure who owns which cow and many farmers are perfectly fine with this love a fair approach. the confusion of cattle allows them to report more livestock to the you than actually exist, says lia busty. and emily she has set out to bring order to the chaos will tell you. the numbers of cattle in corsica have exploded on paper because the farmers get subsidies for every cow. so maria and her team are trying to find the true number of cows in corsica. to do that, they plant a micro chip known as a bolus in the cattle. i thought mcdonald's, we use a tube to introduce a bulus right into the cows rooming, our stomach. gravity will keep the policy there for the animals entire lifetime. i

like to move on own, in just a moment of discomfort and the cow has swallowed the bolus. oh, because integral it's quick and richly painless, open the round shape allows it to pass easily. when you would your body from now on subsidies will only be granted for cows with the boldest chip. the owners of these cattle in the terra valley have accepted this solution consisted of untruth. i think it's a good thing or. ready it had come to the point where it had to be done. i can adjust to make things difficult like some people going for so. but other course akins are afraid of losing the generous e u. subsidies estimated at a total of some one and a half 1000000 euros per year for fictional cows. only about half the $50000.00 cattle declared a thought to actually exist. in the village of marin yana,

the mer thinks this cheating is only to be expected. he says the a you would do better to subsidize sheep and goats more. la la, money up all the way. certain you subsidies are allocated, mean foot, some farmers keep cattle even when they don't have the right space. the day that he fell, but it but he up here. some farmers were failing a cattle ranching and saw inventing fictional animals on paper as a way out. really disclaimer in all of us have taken on more than we can handle now and then. and people end up regarding all cattle ranches as fraudsters, when they're not for they're bound to be a few years. we've seen them off off more people than kicker to cook. with example . not only are the figures for cattle, unclear the pigs in corsica run free as well. but nobody has suggested micro shipping them so far. many cossack and farmers fundamentally distrust the

authorities in paris and brussels with their borders, rules and regulations. they say these bureaucrats can't understand the realities of cattle ranching anyway. they just patronized the farmers. innocent all if you've only been, the cows are born outdoors. they live in freedom. and now they have to swallow some weird foreign object that they don't understand. i don't like the smithy donkey that's dictatorship. we are living in a dictatorship of the free market. and i get the impression that i'm being spied on more and more a lot. should i push on it to think it is on british? now the 1st polish chips are in place. they can be read electronically, but they clearly identify each and every cow and lay a busty. nelly is optimistic. when i kill the who didn't cover your job, you can see that many farmers work hard and really need these subsidies. being able to identify the cattle better,

makes the allocation of fat it possible to distribute it better to those who need it most. it was investigation of the mash in the end, the real winners are the cause, the can cows. still nobody is demanding that they be fenced in like elsewhere, and denied their freedom. oh, what you see here is a very, very special bank in the italian capital of rome. it's special because it doesn't manage money. it manages time. time that's worth at least as much to its customers as actual money. to be clear here at the currency is work hours and by exchanging those hours patrons end up hopefully with a deal that not only feels fair, but lets them reconnect with people in their community all with the help of their local kime bank thunder. alessandra, from the time bank gate alessandro has brought 2 hours with him.

who are what, therefore, he doesn't know yet. then, do it. where do i go with you soon? this is my studio. nice with of your mommy. morrow hasn't finished setting up his new apartment. he's the guitarist, but when it comes to d i y, he's all thumbs. he wants to put up shouting, but he's worried about drilling into a power cable. but at least he's a member of the time. thank you. so young i was going on to since the room, but because of course, the full little things, it's ideal. if you need some or small done that you can do yourself on it. you contact the bank and they send someone directly on a people wanna work with her. that she say mother alessandro, who is also a musician, is confident that he can install the shelf impossible

all of what are the one key i used to work in construction. so i've done a little bit of everything. electrics will masonry, can little dog green, and now i can put that to good use if, when you was there wasn't, i don't know where in pinado, a multicultural neighborhood in rome, many people here don't have much money and inflation is consuming the rest. so they exchange, oh, good evening, senior rivera. may i come in? how things go? oh fine. it will vera's 8 years old and spent a lot of time alone. am beholding your do i need to have friendly company around? a dear friend of mine, passed away. oh, he was also a kind of confessor for me. i've always had a confessor, friend,

let me pull this story. now, to fanny, as there was an hour of her precious time for conversation and playing cards to fanny and vera are also members of the time bank, one of them with a comma. okay. i like to offer my time company and conversation to those who need it. persona. yeah, mm hm. one you know, can't get out behind this inconspicuous door is the time banks office. the idea is that all activities are worth the same and can be exchanged. if alessandra works for morrow, he can redeem that time from another member, vera, for instance. there are many time banks in italy and pianos is one of the oldest elario records. all the hours spent there were over 600 last year and the crisis is making the number grow a comment on more legible data types of requests have changed more than anything nobody. we have

more requests for practical health. lucky but we have an important institution for the neighborhood, her sub, if it was dating, he'd be done, it's vital for me, vitamin b, w, you michelle barrow has only recently moved to rome and knows very few people here as well as socializing was to fanta, managing to feed her cards would be a nice addition, but that's a wish to fanny isn't prepared to grant her. oh, you mean though? that was it because you did it than the one i see she made on. you can get locked out of keeping some one company and i saw a little crystals come you and i'm the exchange is enriching. dana company, yahoo, the jetty t shit until i get ass. 8 year old farrah says she's unable to pay off her time debts, but she doesn't have to do with, unlike ordinary banks, the time bank is not that strict about repayment. oh all day re good very

good news alessandro its finished too. if he had drilled into a cable, he would have been insured by the time bank. he's not sure what he'll do with his 2 hours of time credit. but more importantly, he's gotten to know a fellow musician in the neighbourhood. and mighty was, would be nice to play together sometimes. yes. when i yes. let's organize something . morrow. pace back his time at the very same day by teaching guitar in the evening. at the time bank and to fanny redeems her credit with morrow. she works as a child care worker and playing cards with vera helped her for it. this guitar lesson. i'm very excited. i can't wait to get started. to my 1st communion, i got linens and my cousin go take a tong. honestly, i've been waiting 40 years for this moment. at the time bank,

you only have to give a little to get a lot back. i skiing or snowboarding, down the alps is getting more and more difficult each year. that's because human induced climate change is causing temperatures to rise in europe's mountains. shortening the winter season, in the best case, and making it nearly impossible in the worst, even in switzerland, having enough snow is something you can no longer take for granted. and for the people who earn their living from winter sports, the situation is not easy. first, there was no money now there's no snow. patrick again manages the chair, lived at the whole fung ski resort in covington, and he's worried donations of being collected to keep it running at all. and your husband on his way to coast. we have fixed costs, unlike big sky results, we only have a limited number of customers to cover them. and that's

a big challenge that are reaching critical medical situation. it is almost impossible to manage both climate change and the exploding costs in the valley. the lift operator explains that all the smallest ski resorts are on the brink of collapse. according to a study, a total of 40 percent of all suite ski resorts have already closed and the trend is rising sharply. photographer and ortho daniel anchor is following the trail of dead chair lives with his camera. a structural change is taking place and he's capturing what remains. so i'm biskin dank bar. the old towers and lift stations are quite pretty, really like memorials. without cable car stations to stay there become the band. i spaces from their little mysterious toronto lamby think a hamlet fold them on. dorothy 9 good. in san bernardino de ski business shut down 10 years ago, the control center is deserted and the gondolas are dusty. after the initial shock,

the village managed to recover with to bug and run cross country skiing and hiking trails. it's less lucrative, says hotel owner hands. peter velli, but it works. harmon goose. we then decided to concentrate mostly on ski tools and that's actually proved successful. so we've had a good season. the last few years. readers are, i'm good us is also who was over. they plan to us for their guests with mountain guides, depending on the weather, but are still fighting to reopen the ski areas. if winter's continued to get warmer, they'll have to adapt, says, florian merle, felicity mister nature is always stronger and it's good that it's stronger with will always happen. fortunately, we can't change that either. and so it's very clear that we are the ones who have to be flexible side. switzerland is changing, and where lifts have come to a standstill. ski tours and other sports have taken over the slopes

still plenty of ways to enjoy the mountains. that was our look at europe this week . if you missed anything or want to share this episode online, you can find it at d, w dot com on behalf of the whole team here. thank you for watching. stay safe and until next time, goodbye. ah with

conflict zone with sarah kelly? my gosh, this week on complex zone is a renowned foreign policy expert who has spent most of her career analyzing vladimir putin, russia. fiona hill joins me from washington where she has advised for us. presidents and co author to book on. where does she think the war is heading?

was this plan all along or have decades empower? change 10 conflict zone for 30 minutes. john d. w. with sometimes to think she's just right. you tv highlights for she read a book every week. not the mob will you become a criminal? mm. oh, ready knows. come to take. told them about hackers, paralyzing the tire societies. computers that out some of you and governments that go crazy for your data. we explain how these technologies work,

how they can make our rules and for, and that's how they can also go terribly. watch it now on youtube. a what people have to say matters to us a little that's why we listen to their stories. sh reporter. every weekend on d w. ah hm.

ah ah ah ah, this is d w muse lie from burn the battle for a key town and east in ukraine rages fierce fighting is reported in salida, ukrainian forces continue to put up resistance as russia pushes for away also on the program. poland to office to supply ukraine.