claims that russian forces have taken control. ah, hello, i'm money inside the snobs, 0 live joe hall. so coming up, i so claims responsibility for suicide attack and afghanistan near the foreign ministry that killed at least 21 people lives in the u. s. resume optis. thousands were grounded for hours due to a technical problem. and to grow and rebels in ethiopia begin handing over their heavy weapons as part of the deals and 2 years of conflict in the north. ah, hello and welcome russian forces led by mess and reese from the vac. no group say they unit saw in control of the eastern ukrainian town solid are the keys denies that the salt mining town has fallen. the fighting there and in the moods has led to some of the bloody battles of the war. so fall. and sasha butler has the latest from keith, the in solid. all the battle is relentless. the one thriving full mining town and east in ukraine is now a wasteland of the months of fighting between ukrainian or russian forces supported by mercenaries from the russian wagner group. its head, yes, kenny precaution places a photo of himself and his troops online saying that taken control of solar dark. but there is didn't huge. you look at rocking at a vitamin unit to take control of the entire territory. so laid out. a cauldron has been formed in central city, in which urban fighting is going on at sky, probably any of the spokesperson for rushes, defense ministry didn't comment on the claims, but said the russian airborne unit surrounded the town. securing it would help russian forces. net push to capture the entire bus region, bought ukrainian military officials and from soldiers on the ground. faithful adult has not fallen and that ukrainian forces a holding on here. but as all our positions are still holding from time to time, this close combat and artillery fire on bobo, then ukraine's president. all those dismiss, rocking claim. additional models that develop at least they know the terrorist state. and it's trip again to, to try to pretend that some part of our city of solid are almost completely destroyed by the occupiers, is some kind of achievement of russia. they were present and are already presenting this to their society in order to support mobilization and to give hope to those who are for aggression. but the fighting continuous done. its front is holding 30 as lengthy was in the western city of louise pay his respects to soldiers. his died in the conflict. he also met the lithuanian president and polish crescent. andre duda. we said poland with saint leopard. thanks to keep as part of an international coalition to help you crazy. he was wrong, said that among the heavy weapons that it needs tanks are essential. but western powers have been reluctant to send offensive weapons that could be regarded by moscow as a sign of escalating the conflict. but the tide is turning comparable. frances pledged, heavy armoured vehicles and the u. k. is considering sent against the challenger to tanks. some european countries are increasing pressure on germany to do the same. tanks alone, clearly can't change the wars direction, but they'll certainly help bolster ukrainian forces in the face of moscow's ongoing firepower. natasha butler, i'm to sarah jojo. georgia is the director of frontier europe initiative in the middle east institute and a former military adviser to nato. she says russia is pushing for a change in strategy. looking just at back moved and saw a dar in and around by mood. the fighting has been going on intensely the most intense battle fields from, from all in ukraine for 5 months now. and over the last 6 months, the russians have not managed to make any territorial gains. on the contrary, they've lost big portions of what they initially gained around hart. keep around here san. now, if we're again zooming into bahamas and saw the dar, we see indeed a changing off the russian attacks lead by pre go. she's the head of the wagner group, and the wagner group, the private mercenary group itself, in focusing on solid art that is the, the home off important salt mines, where mister bri goes, you might have some, some economic interest and some solid r is connected to bottom which by underground corridors due to the salt mines, and so the after not managing to take by moot in 5 months, despite heavy, heavy fighting. they're now shifting, the russians are now shifting to solid, dar, in the hope that they will in this way, disconnects the distance of the buttons. i, sol has claimed responsibility for suicide. explosion that killed at least 21 people with the afghan capital. kabul doesn't more windy in the blast, which happened near the foreign ministry office. chinese delegation was reportedly in the building meeting with the taliban when the blast occurred. of a de la ba here is a lecture at the american university off chemist on in couple. he says the ongoing security issues in the capital or cause of concern. there are 2 major concerning aspects of what happened today. one was that this is at a very high security area. there are multiple checkpoints, you have to have specific documents to access that street. and the fact that it happens at such a bad moment is concerning. the profile fits i ski and i s k has been making advances and has been conducting such sophisticated attacks. we saw an attack on chinese within up on a sun in kabul a few weeks ago. and then this, while at a high level meeting is taking place is concerning because it drives foreign engagement away. the thought of bon policies have been helped and then having the one thing that looked like a win for the funds, which was the security situation improving. that is, fost dispelling flies have resumed in the united states after technical glitch saw thousands of planes grounded for hours. the problem is being blamed on computer outage of the federal aviation administration, the governments transport agency, audi. jake house. so reports from ronald reagan airport in arlington, virginia. it was a sight not seen since $911.00, thousands of plains grounded at all us airports due to a nationwide stoppage called by the federal aviation administration. no, nothing like this has been in 11 obviously. you know, everything just happened because of the system. i think that she just punch control alt, delete the f a a says a computer failure was to blame. specifically the notice to air mission system or not m suffered a temporary outage. without it, like crews could not access the latest safety alerts about fly conditions and runways. we still consider this to be a vital safety system because this is the one that moves messages that a pilots need on anything from a taxi way or a runway being out to an issue with the navigation beacon to maybe an upcoming military or space operation of in a certain sector, the outage did not impact white's already in the air. the ground stopped lasted about an hour and a half until the f. a said the computer problem was fixed. the cause of the outage remains unclear. there is no direct indication of any kind of external or nefarious activity, but we're not yet prepared to rule that out. president joe biden has ordered an investigation. the white house says there is no indication of a cyber attack. the epa is working aggressively to get to the bottom of the root causes for the system outage, so that it does not happen again. meanwhile, thousands of delayed are canceled flights, have colored flight status boards at airports read. this is the domino effect of the ground. stop and it's impacting travelers already battered by a k. i attic holiday travel season. charlie, wilford smith hopes his flight from washington to fort lauderdale, florida will take off on time. his wife is waiting there, he says, and he hasn't seen her in a long time. oh, lover's dog was freaking out or flight. oh, i haven't seen her inquired mont, and now it may be a day or 2 more. that in a parody, technical glitch can hold the u. s. air travel industry impacting millions has drawn renewed scrutiny to the systems vulnerabilities. a full investigation has been promised. heidi jo, castro, al jazeera washington u. s. secretary of state and city blinkin, and that u. s. defense secretary lloyd austin are hosting their japanese counterparts in washington. d. c of sine new agreements, expanding their military ties and discussing the growing threat from china's ambitions in the region. lincoln has commended japan's decision to double its defense spending by 2027. japan has been a key american allies since the end of world war 2, productive in japan. strategies align closely with our own national security strategy. both of the key challenges that we identify as well isn't how to effectively address them. we're committed to upholding shared values of democracy in human rights, defending the international rule of law. continuing to lead the world and tackling global challenges that no one country can solve alone, like the climate crisis and the reverse. article haine has more from washington, dc on the new agreements that have been signed. one of the things that the japanese officials say they're going to be doing is they're going to go to an, an inhabited island and they're going to build a training center. they're complete with to run runways from the defense side. what the news they made there is that they're going to sort of change the way you us marines are grouped on the island. they're not going to increase any more in japan because obviously that very controversial with the japanese public. but they're going to be doing these things where they create a basically 2000 man a grouping there. the focus will be on surveillance and being able to launch missiles at ships, we believe that the u. s. has agreed to send more missile more missiles and ammunition that can target ships. we don't yet know if that's going to be us based equipment that is based there or if the japanese are going to buy that. one of the big asks, has been, japan wants to buy tomahawk missiles, a tomahawk missiles are a very sophisticated weapon to cruise missile. it can go up to 1600 kilometers. it's precision. ah, and it's an important thing to realize the view as only actually sells tomahawk missiles to one other country because they're potency and that's at the united kingdom. so we'll be looking for that to see if that develops on friday. they also said that there were to sign agreements involving japan in the u. s. space force. so it is a sign that japan feels that it needs to shore up it's allegiances. and another sign that the u. s. c's, china, as their biggest, is what they call in the pentagon, pacing threats. let's get more in this. we can speak to 9 o'clock. he's a senior advisor for the national bureau of asian research and a for my us deputy assistant secretary of defense or east asia. he joins us now from washington, dc. thank you for your time sir. let the us has been urging japan for years to step up its defenses because of china, but it's only now that we're seeing such a major shift in japan's position on the need to bowl state security wise that well, thank you for the opportunity. i would say that there's been an evolution in japanese strategic thought over the last 3 to 5 years. and the announcements that we will hear over the course of the next 3 days is a combination of that. the japanese last month published their national security strategy, as well as the national trends program guidelines, and midterm defense programs. all of which highlight an increase in investments and defense that are predicated, quite frankly, and addressing the very dangerous challenges that the people's republic of china, the north koreans, as well as the russians pose for japanese security. what will this deepening relationship really look like? i mean, is it about the u. s. providing japan with more weapons? that is certainly a subtle component of it. but i think fundamentally what's historically unprecedented here is the fact that the japanese are publicly acknowledging the challenges that they're facing. i would actually use the word threat, the threat that they are facing and that they are taking again, unprecedented steps in terms of doubling, in essence, their defense budget, which is again historic and unprecedented. now the united states will provide additional sales of military capabilities. my understanding is tom off is one of them, which is a cruise missile that for the 1st time in, in post war to history provide that japanese with what most observers would, would call an offensive capability. but that the japanese referred to as a counter strike capability. this is again, very significant. how do you think china is going to be viewing this close ties? well, the us japanese alliance is deep and long standing. so it's not just a question of the alliance being strengthened even further. i think it's, you know, the fact that the japanese are taking unilateral steps, it investing more in their own self defense. this will complicate chinese calculus . the fact that some american forces, particularly the marines that are station okinawa, will reorganize again, as you mentioned the stationing of a marine look toral regiment back will increase some american capabilities in the region as well. i think what is most significant is the the increase in japanese sovereign capabilities. really interesting to get your perspective on this heiner clink form a u. s. deputy assistant secretary of defense for east asia and see the advice of the national bureau of asian research. thank you. still ahead on al jazeera tre decision celebrates in hong kong, but opposed by the u. s. l e y. and we find out why scientists founding the alarm to wells ation. ah, with their weather in china remains an anomaly has been for about 18 months now. it's now warmer and wester they should be full than most part of this matter. plat generating significant writing. the size that reading, extending across the wolves of who hung should be 8 degrees is 16 up towards beijing. bird not snowing. it has been snowing in china, japan ticket hung sheet, but that's gone. now that means the avalanche risk will start to increase, particularly after replaces that quite possibly by rain extends. so the cream prints, but then you find it's still in china and it's still not got colder. beijing might see bit of wet snow. that code is still got to penetrate and it's not been a frequent visitor this winter. anyway. the bottom end of what should be a dry ne monsoon is now persistent wet for the central philippines. flood risk. landslide riskier this rain really is out of season. this should be dry. genuine. phoebe a dry months for the whole of the china, but not at the moment. so it's nice to see this thing. what it should do in india and pakistan of bangladesh should be fine, was tommy persistent, fog pour at occult his frequent visitor deleon, particular that's been going out of the way, but increasing breeze, but the real telling cold it's the northwest that look cobbles start on friday. and near reco minus 20 full ah. but in 2021, the turkish security services arrested 15, suspected allegedly recruited by israeli intelligence the most sought to report on arab palestinian and islamic figures. the enter key it sometimes i regret you, and you don't even realize you've been recruited. allergies your world explores a doc surveillance underworld beneath the diplomatic surface. more fatty ne, stumbled on al jazeera. ah ah, you're watching al jazeera mind if our top stories this our russian forces led by mass and raised from the wagner group, say they've gained control of the eastern ukrainian town solider. cave is denied. the claim, fighting in the area has intensified in the past days. as while she tries to gain ground, i ssl is claim responsibility for suicide. explosion that killed at least 21 people in the afghan capital last happened near the foreign ministry office and couple where chinese delegation was meeting with the telephone. and flights have resumes in the us after technical glitch saw thousands of planes grounded ours and problem is being blamed on a computer outage at the federal aviation administration. resident show biden has ordered investigation now to gray and rebels have begun handing in heavy weapons to the european army. it's part of a peace deal signed in south africa 2 months ago. and the conflict in the north web reports more than 2 years since the conflict began to gray and rebels have started handing over weapons to ethiopia, the federal government. it's part of a peace agreement signed 2 months ago. bone had been on the esper, the agreement to sum. i meant to be carried out. we have disengaged it from our frontline for life. t d f has also done the same thing. we have done this by agreement. the leaders of the to grey and rebels, dominated ethiopia as politics and military. for nearly 30 years of the prime minister abbey ahmed took office in 2018. they defected with a substantial fraction of the army and its weapons. african union inspectors were there to see them being handed back to the government. we have seen the hand in and taken over of military hardware by above, due to ground defense forces and the national defense force. the peace still stated that foreign forces should leave to gray. i retry his army, fought there on the government side. access to the gray is restricted, that humanitarian workers say, era trained soldiers a still there have been accused of executing and raping civilians. activists say that to graham rebels have been pushed into a corner a what i'm what has been offered to them now is that trickling both a exchange, the total disarmament horses the only force that with but again the bomb i buy there was some forces i'm based on posters, the un estimates half a 1000000 people have died from violence and starvation during the conflict. hundreds of thousands of others have been forced from their homes. people are still waiting to see if they'll be lasting, peace, or justice. malcolm web al jazeera, thousands of venezuelans have marched through the streets of the council caracas surmounting better wages. the group included public health work as teachers and pensioners employed by the government and between 30 and a $100.00 a month. inflation is making it hard to make ends means it rose to a 155 percent loss. october results capital is bracing for more demonstrations from the supporters of the former president variable. scenario security forces are setting up barricades and shutting down main avenues to traffic on sunday, protest as invaded the supreme court, the presidential palace and congress in an effort to overturn the general election since then, messages have been circulating on social media, urging crowds to rally against president luis enough to lead to service election. while the president says, every gesture against the countries democracy will be punished are latin. american ed is salisia. newman spoke with the communication minister, palo the mentor in rosalia. he says that the government already knows who financed the attack against the presidential palace, the supreme court and the congress building on sunday. and who finance the thousands and thousands of people who were bust here to the capital. he says they are members of the powerful farming lobby and also the gun lobby. but the idea logically behind all this are people radicals. he called them that are, that are part of the evangelical church. he would not name specific names. he also says that there are still people out there who are going to continue to try to undermine and sabotage democracy in this country. a kind of undercover maybe even the real groups, since they're what he called, attempt included on sunday, didn't work out. but his harshest words were, performer president, dr. bull's will not, or who is currently in the united states and who left this country just shortly before the swearing in of let the field, the current president wilson. i will be taking olga both and arrow has to return to brazil because he created the image of a liter. and the interpretation now amongst his days is that he escaped and the moment they needed him the most like a general abandoning his troops in the face of the enemy, he escaped, he fled and abandoned his own troops. my minister payment says that the president included the silver is extremely moved and surprised to although please, by the incredible reaction that has come from the international community phone calls from head some state from all over the world, including us president joe biden. he says that let's see about we'll be going to the united states invited by president biden in the 1st half of february, not only to thank him for his support, but also to put forward his agenda for putting brazil back on the global map. at least 17 people have been killed in storms that continue to bass. her the u. s. stays of california majesty workers as struggling to clean up the wide spread damage. thousands of residence is still under evacuation orders in some parts of the state. officials expect another powerful weather front to hit the state on friday. as scientists have been sounding the alarm off to our oceans surged to their hottest air. the temperatures for another year in a row were such as in china, the u. s. italy and use even say that 2022 eclipse records from 3 previous years motions absorb about 90 percent of the excess heat caused by greenhouse gas emissions. and it's causing long lasting marine heat waves that are already having devastating effects on under water life. or the will me waters also have a major influence on the global weather, leading to more intense rain events and floods as well as hurricanes and typhoons. lauren gifford is a fellow at the university of arizona school of geography development and environment. she says, scientists have been warning of these extreme environmental changes for decades. there's always been fluctuations, but it's the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels and the, the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that comes from that, that it's really precipitated these rapid changes. and this is the new reality that we're living in. so scientists have been warning for decades that increased carbon dioxide pollution was going to lead to these extreme weather events and to these abrupt ecosystem check. and this is what we're seeing now. this is what we saw in bangladesh a few months ago and 7000000 people were displaced because of extreme flooding. there's technologies that are being developed right now to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, literally remove it from the atmosphere. and we're seeing a lot of interest in a lot of investment in technical carbon removal. so there's ways to be hopeful. we're also seeing a lot more ambition coming from governments coming from private companies who are using science to base targets to change the way they manage carbon dioxide pollution and other pollutions. and so there are reasons to be helpful, but we really need support for that. now, hong kong is celebrating after the world trade organization rejected an order by the united states for the cities exposed to be labeled made in china. but the u. s . has dismissed that ruling crating uncertainty for hong kong manufacturers as they began a pace pandemic recovery, which akimbo bought a glimpse of business as usual in hong kong, an international product expo of the cities biggest convention center. just days after the border with the chinese mainland was reopened to quarantine free travel is that that i'll have it feels great. it's been 3 years. the last physical expos in 2020. since then, we've only been able to promote our products, through videos and social media, but it's nowhere near as good as being able to demonstrate them in person and communicate with clients face to face. it's not just the relaxation of cobra 19 rules that listing local tween makers spirit in 2020 the u. s. ordered all product imported from hong kong to be labeled made in china. a protest against paging, correct down on the cities pro democracy movement. the world trade organization is rejecting that border paving the way for local manufacturers to take back control of their marketing. and when the client 1st reach out to their brand, if they see it in hong kong, maybe they will feel like it's more confident about the policy. the us only accounts for 0 point one percent of hong kong exports. but local government officials say this isn't about the money to change all he has this ruling shows the u. s. has disregarded international trade rules attempted to impose discriminatory and unfair treatment and unreasonably suppressed, hong kong products by politicizing economic and trade issues. but while hong kong may have won the battle, it hasn't yet won the war. to us says that the will trade organization ruling is flawed and they didn't no longer use hong kong, separate enough from china to justify having separate trading benefits. international trade experts say the stemmed off may be hard to resolve because of problems with the w t o is appeals process. the appellate body system is not functioning, but the system still allows parties to appeal. and so what we say is that they appeal into the void. certain members have set up a temporary alternative arbitration system as a work around i'm calling as a member of that system. the u. s. is not sometimes manufacturers.