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tv   Focus on Europe  LINKTV  March 2, 2023 7:30am-8:01am PST

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>> this is focus on europe. i'm lara babalola, welcome to the show. life in a war zone people in parts of ukraine are adjusting to daily life in cities and towns scarred by war. near the front lines, access to clean water is an arduous task. pipes in homes have been destroyed. a mirror and chair become a makeshift hair salon ... and a bunker becomes a laundromat residents are improvising to get by.
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access to basics like water, electricity and heating are the top priorities. well another precious commodity in ukraine is love. you might be surprised to learn that since russia's invasion, weddings in ukraine are on the rise. in the face of life and death, ukrainian couples are saying i do. for some, getting married gives them hope for a brighter future in spite of the ongoing attacks by russia. fierce battles are taking place in ukraine's east, where a powerful offensive has been launched by the kremlin. in the town of lie-man, we met a couple that found love on the front line. this is what's left of lyman in ukraine's donbas region. the ukrainian military liberated the town in the fall of 2022. now it's making a fresh start. war can serve as a giant 're-set' not only for a place, but also for love. yevhenia and sasha are both paramedics.
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they met during a mission on the front. >> we've known each other for three months, and we've been inseparable the whole time, except for a few days. >> sasha proposed marriage within five days of meeting yevhenia. >> i used to turn down marriage proposals. i didn't want to get married until i met my prince during the war. >> sascha was determined. and he won yevhenia's heart. she used to be a beauty queen and a lawyer in kyiv. war turned her into a paramedic. the couple got married at the frontline in december. a military commander officiated the ceremony. the newlyweds are spending their honeymoon here. >> war reveals people's true colors. the soul of the person you're communicating with.
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you see their good side and their bad side. during wartime, you see the most intimate corners of their soul. it's either love or it isn't. >> y see everything in war. it's really ite simple. there's life on one side, death on the other. and we all know that there may not be a tomorrow. >> we hear more love stories like this. the first year of war in ukraine saw 21 percent more couples tie the knot. this bride and groom are getting married in kyiv. they don't have time for long interviews but don't need many words. >> war brings people closer together. >> and closer to love. >> life goes on, and love grows. and it's the next couple's turn. scientists have begun to look into the relationship between
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war and love. >> it's hard to explain: you live in safety; you have time to contemplate. but for us, every living moment counts. this is why people make quick, independent decisions that suit the current situation. >> but war can also achieve the opposite destroying love and marriage. katya fled ukraine to germany with her two children. her husband had to stay in kyiv. >> as a mother, my first instinct was to get the children out safely. my husband supported that decision. >> in germany, katya began a new life. as she looked for housing and a kindergarten, the couple became more and more estranged. >> every man needs a woman's love and affection, and home-cooked food. after some time passed, he found a woman who could give him the practical and emotional
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support he needed. she was there, he was there. and i was here. our phone calls just weren't enough for him. >> katya has heard many similar stories and it's not just the adults who suffer. >> i don't know how to explain to the children why their father can't find half an hour to play with them. >> the real consequences of the war including its emotional impact will likely only be revealed once there's peace. >> in april 2019, people across the world held their breath as they saw notre dame engulfed in flames and almost burn to the ground. for centuries the cathedral stood as a central landmark in paris. the damage the gothic masterpiece sustained is extensive and millions of people have donated money to its reconstruction.
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hundreds of art historians and craftspeople are working day and night to meet the re-opening deadline. master glassmaker flavie vincent-petit is one of them. she is tasked with restoring the shine back to notre dame. but locals and visitors alike will have to wait until late next year to see the cathedral restored to its former glory. >> flavie vincent-petit is preparing for her day's work with care. a master glassmaker, she's one of the artisans tasked with restoring the stained-glass windows damaged in the notre dame fire, and cleaning the soot off them. it's a painstaking operation, but she's working at full speed so that the cathedral can reopen as soon as possible. it's also why they work in two shifts here, from 6 in the morning to 10 at night. >> our work to help repair this trauma is something really
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special. we usually have more time for our work, on projects that are planned for the long term, but this is an emergency of sorts. notre dame has a very special, symbolic quality, which we need to restore. >> as if by a miracle, most of the cathedral's stained glass withstood the heat and flames of the fire on the 15th of april 2019. but the iconic spire collapsed. the roof and parts of the vaulted ceiling were destroyed. the entire cathedral came close to collapse. after the fire, the french government announced an ambitious reconstruction plan: notre-dame was to be repaired and re-opened in within five years, looking even more splendid than before. >> only the best should work on such an important construction site. in our hiring process, we
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selected the most highly-skilled craftspeople in every trade. more than one-hundred companies and over one-thousand craftspeople are involved in the reconstruction. not all of them are on-site. artisans from across france were commissioned to repair the cathedral's windows. including flavie vincent-petit, who works in troyes, south of paris. she's mainly working on stained-glass windows from the 19th century, although some also date from the middle ages. wiout its windows, the cathedral cannot reopen. >> without these windows, the sacred atmosphere is lost and becomes rather profane. the windows are filters that transform natural light into divine light.
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>> the cathedral's spire will also be rebuilt exactly as it was before. >> at one-hundred meters tall, the wooden spire will rise into the parisian sky once again. we haven't done anything like this for a long time. we'll employ techniques used by the 19th-century-architect viollet-le-duc. >> reconstruction is taking a little longer than originally planned. notre-dame is now schedud to re-open at the end of next year. even though they can't go inside, visitors are thrilled to see the construction work. a building like this is something you just have to see. it's magnificent. >> i'm happy to see they're rebuilding the cathedral. we'll have to see if the building will look like the original, or even better. it's amazing work! i'll come to see the cathedral once it's completed, that's for sure.
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>> money isn't an issue for the cathedral's parish donations from around the world will cover the cost of the repair work. for many of the craftspeople though, this is more than a job it's a labor of love. >> we're part of a long line of glassmakers, who began in the middle ages. each of us works to preserve the building for the next generation. >> once the soot and the dust of centuries have been removed, the stained-glass windows will shine like new. and notre-dame might even be a little more beautiful than it was before. >> a home just a stone's throw from the sea it's a dream for many nature lovers. and for one family in britain, it became a reality without breaking the bank.
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they farm a piece of land on the welsh coast in the community of newport in the middle of a national park. it's a scheme supported by the welsh government. but there is a catch matthew watkinson and his wife carris have agreed to a life with a minimal ecological footprint. a simple life that requires a lot of imagination. yeah. oh, is there? we'll get that as well, shall we? >> elsa and billy are collecting eggs. their father, matthew watkinson, has made his dream come true. he and his family made a fresh start. matthew gave up his job as a veterinarian. so did his wife, charis. now they farm a small piece of land in newport, wales, where their property overlooks the water. matthew watkinson
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theres a wealth of opportunities and possibilities for those with a bit of imagination to say: i want to try something different. and this was that outlet. we just wanted to let creativity and imagination go and turn what is just bare sheep fields into something full of life. >> the watkinsons live from what nature provides. their property is completely off the grid. instead of a washing machine, they have a make-shift, hand-powered device. a small windmill and solar panels provide electricity, but when it's still or cloudy, power can be in short supply. everything is improvised and everything gets recycled, even
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old cars. this one we plant all our seeds, and we start all our seeds growing in there. and then this one we've got a spare bedroom in, so thats if friends or family visit. matthew watkinson we started with a horse lorry, that seemed to be the quickest way to create a habitable space. we needed a bit more space and decided, well get some old agricultural trailers slot them in behind, link it all together somehow, cover it in wood... this is the result. a complete hodge podge of things that we could find at the time! >> vegetables are growing in old truck tires. it's winter, but rhubarb is sprouting from the soil. they grow fruit and vegetables without pesticides and take care to increase biodiversity on their property. the welsh government supports sustainable projects like this one under a program called one planet development. in return, the watkinsons must demonstrate they provide at least 65 percent of their food and energy themselves. to earn money, they give courses for people who want to live a low-impact lifestyle. they'd hoped to raise
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honeybees, but that turned out to be more difficult than they thought. matthew watkinson the bees were a big part of what we were doing up here. were just not getting as much honey as we thought. whether thats to do with climate change warm, wet winters that we seem to be getting more often are pretty bad for bees i don't know, but we're just happy they're alive, and very happy now we have got one by the kitchen window. >> a lot of paperwork goes into achieving and maintaining their status of eco-pioneers. every year the authorities check to make sure that the family is as self-sufficient as the rules require. their building permit in the national park depends on it. >> to show what your ecological footprint is, you have to
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literally record everything youve spent money on. all the food, any stationery, secondhand clothes, new clothes, shoes, just absolutely everything. >> the watkinsons were allowed to build on the coast in the national park. the received the permit because they met strict environmental criteria. they're on the mountain known as carningli. among the locals, it's said to be a magical place. and some object to the watkinsons living there. >> when the application was made for the one planet development, it was an emotive issue. because carnignli is held in high regard and revered locally. and many people thought it was inappropriate to have any form of development on the slopes of carningli. >> the watkinsons have been living here for six years. but now their neighbors are trying to block the property's access lane a move they didn't expect. >> the hardest part by far is dealing with the resistance to
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what you believe in. i believe in making this patch of land more habitable for people, for wildlife. >> the watkinsons are doing without comforts many take for granted. life in their converted trailers is rustic, especially on damp winter evenings. but they love it here and want to be an example for their children. >> we're having much less of an impact on the environment doing this. and it kind of shows them how they might be able to do that in the future as well. and that we can do this without getting rid of all electricity, and television and internet. weve still got all of that, but we can do this. >> even if some of their neighbors haven't been won over, the watkinsons hope that they're inspiring as many people as possible to liven harmony with nature. >> diapers, baby food, clothes
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and toys fill these care packages. this is the founder of an aid organization helping babies and mothers in need. it's located in bosnia and herzegovina one of the poorest countries in europe. unemployment is high and the pandemic has made things worse, especially in rural areas, where mothers with infants are struggling to meet even the most basic necessities. for families living in poverty there, the donations are a lifeline. >> little maida's hungry. she's merisa ahmetovic's third child. she and her husband nermin live in bosnia and are unemployed. often, they have no idea how they'll scrape by. a fellow bosniac lets them stay in his apartment. but they still don't have enough to live on. >> we get the equivalent of about 150 euros a month in
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benefits for the children. that's much less than they need. everything costs more these days. >> the family needs about four times that amount to make ends meet. aida sadikovic is going to pay the family a visit. it takes her about three hours to drive over the mountains even longer in winter when the roads are bad. but the aid her organization provides is badly needed in the country's poverty-stricken east. >> there aren't many of us, but we still try to cover all of bosnia and herzegovina. we have various projects going, and also keep all parts of the country supplied by express mail. but we deliver a lot of it ourselves. we're on the road almost every day. the organization aida sadikovic founded is called obraduj
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nekoga make someone happy. and that's just what she does. >> the ahmetovic family is a classic case: a family in the countryside. they want to work, but there are no jobs, not in the private or in the public sector. so, they're have no choice but to do seasonal work in the summer: picking raspberries or working in the fields. winter is the worst time for them. they don't earn anything and use up all their savings from the summer just to survive the winter. relief supplies li baby food, clothing and diapers make a big difference. >> mama, look! we've got disposable diapers, size 3. look! great! size 3! >> wonderful. fantastic. go check on the baby!
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>> back home in sarajevo, aida explains why she drives across bosnia every day. originally, she studied literature and trained to be a nurse. but, when she had her son zejd seven years ago, she realized just what it takes to care for a baby. she saw how much the mothers in her own circle were struggling and decided to take action. >> when we founded our first facebook group, we were helping one baby a month. in our free time, we collected everything just for this one baby. then, a couple of tv channels reported on it, and suddenly, we were getting calls from mothers who were in dire straits as well as people who wanted to help the babies. >> today the aid organization has five full-time staff members. much of the collection work is done by others like this day-care center in sarajevo.
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the children here have brought in items for donation. helping othersan be fun. >> i donated toys, so the children would have sothing that they wouldn't have otherwise so they can have fun and be happy. >> i wanted to donate a few things because these children don't have anything, and i don't want them to be sad because their clothes are torn or things like that. >> we know there are many aid organizations in bosnia, but this one focuses on babies they're the most helpless of all and on other children, of course. so, last year, we got in touch with them. >> today obraduj nekoga
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regularly assists over 250 families. aida sadikovic says the state is simply not able to provide the aid so urgently needed. if not for private initiatives like hers, the situation of bosnia's children would be even more desperate. since the break-up of yugoslavia and the bosnian war nearly 30 years ago, the country's economy has been in crisis. back to the ahmetovic family. the joy on the faces of merisa's children make the all the effort worthwhile. the panda brings more than a ray of sunshine into a gloomy winter's day. and, says aida, that's what counts. >> german band rammstein are known for making a splash with their cinematic videos. special effects and stunts are choreographed to create a visual feast for the viewer. so h do they film rough seas without going overboard?
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the answer can be found in vell-voorde belgium, not far from the capital brussels. it's home to europe's largest and most modern underwater film studio. with the touch of a button, a tiny ripple or a tsunami is created and the adrenaline gets flowing. >> it may look elegantly effortless but aquatic filming is demanding physically and in terms of expertise. it's something of a specialty here in velvoorde, belgium and they even have the most modern underwater film studio in the world. it's ten meters deep, has a submersible floor and equipment for special effects. it wasreated by cinemagrapher and diver who s tired of waitingor the right weather. >> i was literally waiting for days sometimes, in the water, waiting for an effect to happen. and i saw around me fifty people, crew, standing and waiting. and i thought, this is something that is not ok. there we have to do it better. >> and that was how lites studios came into existence.
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the exterior may be unassuming, but the inside is action-ready for the silver screen. right now they're demonstrating what the pool can do. it can raise a storm with meter-high waves and pouring rain. and it draws stunt performers who are among the best of the best. >> being there in the waves, it's not easy. because you think you can go up for a breath of air and then a wave hits your face. and you go pthhhhhh! and you're trying to inhale, but there is only water around. and then you need to stay quiet and calm. cause it's very windy and loud. and the waves are pretty high, not only the small waves, the water is not very quiet but also the tip tanks, the big ones, yeah, and it's impossible to swim against. >> so you can imagine how intimidating the choppy waters can be for actors. of course all the special effects are carefully controlled and there are plenty
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of staff to ensure safety, but there's no getting around the fact that there are six million liters of water in an olympic sized pool. it's heated with solar panels and heat pumps, and the water is a balmy 32 degrees celsius. that's good for long days of filming but it's still not easy. >> we do prepare the actors. in the best case scenario, we get the actors before the production starts. we learn them the techniques to hold their breath longer, to be calm on the water and then also, the basics of scuba diving, to breathe underwater from a regulator. you gain a lot of time if you prepare your actors well because it's very overwhelming for most actors to come here in this water environment. it's difficult. >> many international productions have already found their way to vilvoorde. later the viewers won't have any idea that the actors aren't actually in the ocean.
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all part of the magic of movie maki. that's all from us this week at focus on europe. bye for now.
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03/02/23 03/02/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> russia attacked ukraine and russia is the country which must take a stepped up and do something so peace comes possible. what is necessary is the withdrawal of troops. amy: as russian and ukrainian forces battle for control of the city of bakhmut, calls are growing for the war to end but deep divisio

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