ah ah ah ah dw leih from berlin, an explosion hit a key gas natural pipeline. in central lithuania, the operator says no one was injured and there is no immediate evidence of an attack that's promised to investigate all possible options. also coming up, russia, defense ministry, says it forces have taken control of soul. adar green denied the claim and says its

troops are still there. the eastern ukrainian town could be strategically important for russia in the don bath region, but no research finds oil giant exxon made a highly accurate predictions about global warming back in the 970. and then spent decades dismissing the science to protect its own business. and lisa marie presley the only child of rock'n'roll legit. elvis dies at the age of $54.00. she was rushed to hospital after a reported cardiac arrest. ah, i'm not really sure. good to have you with us. we start with some breaking news from lithuania, where an explosion has damage a key, natural gas pipeline, flames up to 50 meters high, were seen shooting from the amber grid. i applied in northern pon veggies con tony

. the pipelines operator says it's on no indications of sabotage, but that supplies to northern lithuania and neighboring lot via could be disrupted . no injuries have been reported, but a nearby village has been evacuated. and for the latest were now joined live by d. w. who responded constantine, a god, who is in vilnius constantine. describe what happened. well, the explosion happened round about 5 p. m. local time. flames were very high about 50 meters, i think, as he said. and frankly speaking, i've been living in the 20th now for more than 8 years, and i haven't seen a far like that in my life. it's here it's, it's, it's, it was quite gets grad, scary, scary, frankly, speaking of bots, there are no casualties indeed. and a, basically, the authorities were quite quick to react and to organize trust, but roundabouts end evacuation, which was actually not

a massive. the fire now is much lower. and it's interesting that the authorities are saying that the repairs may start up maybe already next day. and they hope that a gas, oh, which, which is contained within an 18 kilometer section of the pipeline by that time will completely burn out. that is and must fool for repairs. the operator is that so far there is no indication of 17. what else could have caused a blast of that magnitude? well, i think that the investigation will show it, but indeed, what the ah, what the operator said immediately is that no sub with our respect suspected because inlet ready, which is a frog lance, they bouldering putin friendly. bella ruse up. this kind of idea is the 1st thing that comes to mind. uh, but uh, what the or operator of the company called amber greet are described

is that the pipeline is quite old. it was built in 1978. and it's, it is a, it hidden on the ground so essentially sabotaging it will demand quite an effort you know, to dig up and, and mine it. so um, well they are saying is that they suspect some kind of for now more technical reason also would there saying is that the impact will not be felled because basically like a kilometer to nearby. there is another pipeline which kind of doubles up as a supplier. route, so basically northern lithuania and southern lot via will probably as the operators are says will not be affected. also, there is not far away. there is a guess storage tank which will probably prom guess ah, into the neighboring regions. while the main line is being repaired, i was constantine aga,

joining us from vilnius with the latest on that pipeline glass. thank you so much. take. well today russia claims its forces. have countered the town of sola dar in eastern ukraine. if true. this would mark a rare victory for moscow after months of setbacks for its troops, ukraine's military leaders have rejected the claim saying its soldiers are holding the line and the battle is ongoing. amid ukraine's freezing winter soldiers and solid um face oblique battle to fiend off rushes constant attacks. the fight here is proving bloody and brutal. russia is determined to take control of this small mining town. a rear pushed forward after numerous setbacks. its defense forces already claiming victory or stolen if a complete control. so it makes it possible to cut off the supply lines of the

ukrainian forces located in the southwest of back moot than to block and enclose the ukrainian units located there. in a pocket. furniture with those claims have been swiftly rejected by ukrainian forces who say the soldiers are holding the line. the loss of solid would be a major sit back for ukraine after months of ceases and re taking towns and territories. but the fighting comes at a high cost for its close gone, but we have gunshots. yeah, we have grenades, shrapnel, wounds and so on. so this kind of wounds increased russia claims to have killed hundreds of ukrainian soldiers in the battle for solid di but they have been no confirmed death tolls. there are reported to be more than

$550.00 civilians still in the town. living in heretic conditions with no running water or electricity. and marina miran joined me now from munich, show you the defense analyst with london kings college, good to see you again. and if it is confirmed that russia has in fact taken thought dar would, would that mean for ukraine? oh, 1st of all, thank you for having me. well, 1st of all, for russia, it was politically important to take full adar because that will increase the morale of the army after so many setbacks. and in military terms, the plan was to take solid are and then to take buck moved to basically cut off and ukrainians, logistics, and advanced words from the doors can slow vans. so some russian military analysts point out that there are tillery would be able to reach from

a tourist. it's where it remains to be seen. i don't think that it's within the range, however, it would give some a stronghold there. and at the same time, as has been pointed out, the defenses of the ukrainian forces might suffer a collapse in that region because that's right in the middle. so they will have to fall back to other position. and so, militarily, it would be a sad back and also it would affect the morale of the ukrainian forces, especially because the korean government said that's all it wasn't that important. and then the question is, why were those troops there? and why hasn't the illusion withdrawn the troops as he wanted to, but the landscape didn't let him do that. so there are a lot of questions in terms of how the ukrainians will handle it. and what is the impact it will have? russia has acknowledged that the wagner mercenary groups efforts were crucial in

this mission. how remarkable is that? well, i guess there is no other way, but to acknowledge the fact that warner was responsible for this because there was this ref between precaution and the general staff. and so precaution was claiming that only wagner fighters have taken solid power without any reinforcements from, from the regular troops. and he's been posting video. so at some point, if the ministry of defense keeps on lying and it has done it on, on repeated occasions, it might lose its credibility. so it has to sometimes tell the truth because all evidence points, interior and other directions. so that, that was an important staff for them to kind of, you know, at mid cept wagner is actually militarily, perhaps more effective than the russian forces. there's been a lot of talk this week about whether or not ukraine's western allies are going to

send battle hangs. poland has offered, but won't do it alone and needs german approval. and no one else has yet stepped forward. so why do you think we're seeing this hesitant still? well, that would be the 1st time that the western allies would be sending something to ukraine that is not designed for defense rather, for attack and britain has been talking about sending the challenger to to ukraine. however, we should interpret it as more of a political gesture as a way to kind of open the floodgates for these kinds of weapons and equipment tend to ukraine. because essentially, up to this point, ukraine has received the equipment to defend itself, but not to attack. and the reason why is that you case gesture is symbolic. 10 challengers will create more problems for ukraine than anything else because

they need an additional supply line for the special ammunition to the, to pisa munition, that these tanks are using and they will have to integrate them into their system. so you can just use the pang on its own. you will need to have a platoon of tanks, was to have 3 infantry platoons. so it is very difficult. but again, politically, it is important because that mike had a president and you know, it will help to task reaction. marina moran from london kings college. thank you so much for all this insight. thank you. now as the fighting and ukraine approach as the one year mark, russia is reportedly preparing to mobilize more troops and conscript more young men to fight on the front lines. the move is likely to provoke a fresh wave of russians fleeing to avoid the cala. but some russians are having difficulty getting recognized as refugees abroad. now he can breathe again

as danny's love, but she love has finally been formally recognized as a refugee from russia in law. it was a long process. at the end of it, stanislaus is relieved to have cut the ties with a country that started a will of aggression in the middle of europe. ah, the bitter spittle. i fled to the 1st best country. so i wouldn't have to go to jail or be sent to war. i don't wanna fight against the ukrainians. i have many friends there. the 1st best country, as stanislaus said, was latvia. and you, you member state with a 300 kilometer common border with russia. when the war started to more than 10 months ago, stun his love decided to protest, the former policeman found himself in the midst of a peace rally in st. petersburg, where hundreds of protesters were arrested. but when the 27 year old received

a draft notice from the army, he decided to flee over night. without losing any time he drove to rushes. the boda with lot we had to jump over the fence at an unwanted torrent location illegally because he had no visa them. yet the prem law orders for us to linkable bicycle. it was terrible. i was panicking, my heart was pounding. i was running through the forest and wondering what if the guards shoot me? the fence was huge with barbed wire. and on the other side there were border guards as well with whose language i don't understand. i had no idea how they would react to get them or can you tell us been the officials and latino were accommodating at 1st to let him file for asylum. but a few months later, his request was denied. stanislaus went to court and to fall to the decision in the and he was allowed to stay a rare ruling fall latiere in contrast to germany. the baltic states generally denies russians fleeing military service that the right to spain,

demobilization in russia, which began in september of last year, had little influence on that policy. due to security concerns is through supposed to store courtesy just read it. if you are against the war against mobilization, if you think that what is being done now is unacceptable, then you must come out against the russian government. and i am not convinced by arguments that things are so oppressive there, that no one can take to the streets. tens of thousands of russians are leaving now, according to our figures. and the question must be asked, why should we accept them all? this is also a matter of our own security of her chima mommy's. when you met the deductible processor ms across mr. studies love, but she'll of doesn't think that taken to the streets in today's russia can change anything. he says that there is no rule of law in russia and also no reason to believe the regime was about to collapse either anytime soon. for him,

protests are of the direct way to prison and may be after that to the front lines. all legitimate parts of resistance have been exhausted. people who protest end up behind bars and from there they cannot achieve anything, any moral. but zealous stanislaus says he would go back to russia one day when to put in his not in power any more. his parents live there, stanislaus, missus of them, he says, but he knows he will not see them any time soon for more or less bring in doctor james glen. she's a russia analyst based in oxford in the u. k. good to see you again. i want to extend the latvian foreign ministers question to you, why should you countries accept the people fleeing from being drafted to, to find in ukraine? well, quite a question to stop it. first of all, because under international law or you and hcr guidelines, they, they should the last place that they should if they offering mobilization or force

conscription that would require them to fight in a way that even the conditions were in humane or what they would be doing would violate international law, and they still have evidence to support both. what i would say is they would make sense, i think, for me to you countries to come together on this one, because i have a lot of sympathy for why latvia, or if you're in or countries, then you have history of being colonized by russia would not want to accept russian refugees and i can see the of course it's legitimate for them to have security concerns on that basis. new and on the basis that they do have a russian minority that is actually generally pretty well integrated. but if you say something estonia, but that could be used as pretext by russia, of the general sort of meddling. so i think there needs to be some sympathy towards

the history and the context from which the body states is speaking. but perhaps there could be some sort of agreement where they could move on to, to countries such as germany that would be more willing to accept russian refugees in this case. now ukrainian officials expect russia to start a new mobilization drive. what are the signs for that? one of the signs and it would be the recent shakeup that we saw in terms of the military command. so when sort of a gin was replaced by get a seem of because in general, this has been interpreted as a signal that the war is taken on and more all encompassing. getting to paraphrase the russian ministry of defense, there'll be a sort of broader, broader approach to the war. and it is that putin still remains convinced it's one of the important things remembers of heating is obviously not man, infamously. he likes to go around and sort of mingle with his people. he generally

learns about media society through, through reports, through sort of intelligence that, that's been on his table, his long, long tables in the continent. and he seems to believe that the war, the russian society is mobilized liberal around this war. i think that's having this dreadful mistake causing a lot of trouble. but there's no signs that he has has changed his mind about this, especially since ultimately there were a few pre tests, you know, quite strong ones after the september mobilization drive. but the movers and the wives of the soldiers were co opted. they seem to have died down and they haven't appeared to impact public support. the war i do wanna talk about the seidel impact all of this can have besides families being ripped apart, what is the impact on russian society of these mobilization drives? well 1st of all, of course this is, you know, the point of view and, and a demographic one i mention leasing is educated and it's very professionally

successful because a lot of them are at least attempting to on the other hand, of course, demographically, which is a you know, really crucial concern putin. it's demography. something that comes up an awful lot in his speeches on quite, quite clearly sending hundreds of thousands of men to and treating many of them like can filter is not is going to be helpful to paraphrase it mildly, in terms of is it having an impact on the support for the war it's actually a bit more complicated than i think a lot of people because if the policy mason west would like it to be, it's not necessarily turning people against the wall. it's time some people, maybe it's time people perhaps increasingly against the way the war is being fought . and clearly there's a lot of unhappiness we can see from micro managing of,

of different elements of the war, which we show in a new way helping. but it obviously is, and he's not confident in how everything's happening and nor should he be, it's quite a mass right. i came under a lot of pressure during the 1st mobilization drive because it's and ill prepared under motivated, poorly instructed men to the front men that they were as you agree, near cannon fodder, to buy time. are there any signs it would be different a 2nd time around? well, from the 1st mcglatian drive, they kept back a $150000.00 men. you have undergone some additional training and said they should be sent in with a bit more preparation. i mean, it's been more skilled and it's not though the russians are entirely not learning. of course, of course, they are learning from, from their mistakes. there are just some, some bigger structural issues in the way that russia is approaching the school. and of course, the analysis intelligence and the, the serial which is based is entirely flawed. i think that booted and, and others not ation. they are in this for the long run. they think that we in the

west will grow tired of supporting ukraine much quicker, much sooner than they are tired of attacking you crazy. dr. james mickland, always a pleasure, talking to you. thank you so much. and do you think he researcher say that one of the world's biggest oil companies made highly accurate predictions about global warming, while publicly dismissing any link between fossil fuels and climate change. the study and the journal science says exxon mobil. scientists knew about the risks of fossil fuels from the 1970s, but chose not to disclose them. the researcher say their findings amount to a smoking gun. exxon denies the accusations. an earlier we spoke to stefan at om stuff. he's a climate scientist at the puts them institute for climate impact research. at teamed up with harvard university to publish the study about exxon mobil. he told us what exxon knew about global warming, but failed to reveal. well,

we examine the some internal papers as well as technical journal publications by exxon scientists since the 1970s, which are the internal papers have come to lives in 2015 through journalistic investigations. and we analyzed the computer simulations of future warming in response as a result of fossil fuels. learning that the excellent scientists presented and we compared these climate projections to observations and the projections were that there would be a warming by 0.2 degrees celsius per decade. which is pretty well exactly what happened. and of course they predicted that before there was any clear observational evidence that there was even blown. let's have

a look now at some other stories making headlines around the world today. so it is climate active as great. a tumor has appeared at protests and germany against the demolition of a village being clear to allow open cast coal mining. to criticize the police operation to remove people from lit up in the west of the country. germany has extended its use of coal and power generation due to the energy crisis. occurred in greece has dropped espionage charges against rescue workers to help migrants across the mediterranean sea. the defendants faced up to 8 years in jail for spying and forgery. the case was widely criticized by human rights groups. the united nations said it set a dangerous precedent. after 33 years, international football has returned to iraq. 5th, a band, a rock from hosting international matches offer leader saddam hussein order the invasion of kuwait in 1990. the man was lifted last year and now iraq is hosting the much watched golf tournament this month. ah,

after decades of waiting, iraqi fans are celebrating the return of international football. iraq is hosting the gulf cup for the 1st time since 1979. the year it won. its 1st of 3 titles in the competition. lucas arbor, one who lives here in bus. it all was so excited about the gulf cup that when the tickets were posted online, they were sold out in just a few hours clean. and i sat pending. i didn't think her van iraq from hosting internationals after the invasion of kuwait. the band was only fully lifted last year and now locals in the host city, basra, are excited to show the world a brighter, lighter side of life in a country emerging from 3 decades of upheaval. owen had been known all alone. we want to show the world our life is more than just war. we have another part of our life that's beautiful apart that loves happiness, life and positivity. and that's the most important thing with the fall is the other

shoe and the iraqi government has cancelled standard $200.00 visa fees to try and further encourage foreign fans global lesson. i'm not a law got along. we used to hear a lot of things about iraq, hail of me, but when we came here, our view totally changed on there is security number for the our journey to get hair was safe. we feel as if we were in kuwait kilo putting them into the cups of equip iraqi fans are hoping to see their team succeed. ambassador is brand new stadium just as importantly, they want the world to feel at home as they resume their role as international hosts. earlier we spoke to rocky football federation ambassador nava. i'll dab i she said hosting the golf cup is an important step for the development of football in iraq. i then gosh, co iraq is actually looking into hosting, hopefully there asia. and that's also

a huge thank. obviously it will open up more more cities within iraq that would be hosting a tournament given the huge impact that this has had on the country and the positive impact on from the gulf, the nations. now we want all the arabs and even asia to be a part of this. and hopefully we look forward to hosting that asia and even open that up and what so ever in the coming years. lisa marie presley, the only child of rock'n'roll legend elvis presley has died at the age of $54.00. she reportedly suffered cardiac arrest. this presley owned her late father's graceland mansion in memphis, which is a huge tourist attraction. she made headlines in 1994 when she married michael jackson and the early 2 thousands. she released her own rock music albums. her last public appearance was at the golden globe awards this week.

it with us now coming up next is eco africa, including a report on how nigerians are using boats to escape traffic jams. don't forget you can always get more news and allows us on our website. that is d, w dot com will be back at the top of the hour with more upset i'm with, ah, with

he tell africa with they are hot commodities. phoebe chimpanzees are being illegally treated as a peps in kidney and rangers. the upper niger national parks are fed up. they want to raise awareness of the issue with a wide range of projects to protect to pansy with pico africa. next on d, w o

m b, a list of questions about life, the universe and everything. do you know the answer? well, them give it here. 40 to the answer to almost everything. our documentary series of with clever come rain and groundbreaking questions. i can eat lunch the afterlife. dennison is not just the dead. are we getting dumber we have an exponential growth in bullshit? how can we feed every one does mean we don't want to chase climate change with our food supply? questions for the present future heads filled with ideas. and when we learn

something, the hardware and software of our brain changes games. so get ready for the brain update. 40 to the answer to almost everything. starts january 15th on t w. i with the lifestyles of bo, then day people require a lot of energy to produce that energy. we've done incredible damage to nate.