time by. the sound of fresh starts february 7th on w. . this is the w. news live from berlin the united kingdom formally leaves the european union. celebrations a rupture at the exact moment breck's it comes into effect but much uncertainty remains over what exactly comes next also coming up 2 votes shy democrats hoping to call witnesses in president trump's impeachment trial are defeated in the senate

clearing the way for trump's almost certain acquittal in the coming days. and lame good thanks for joining us the united kingdom has formally left the european union starting in 11 months 11 months transition period advocates of brecht's sit in london celebrated as the clock struck 11 marking the end of the u.k.'s membership others opposed to the decision gathered to commiserate it has dominated british politics over the past few years since the u.k. voted to leave the block in a 2016 referendum. the prime minister boris johnson hailed this moment as quote the beginning of a new era for the u.k. . we will rediscover muscles that we have not used for decades the power of

independent thought and action not because we want to detract from anything done by our roads of course we want this to be the beginning of a new era of friendly cooperation between the e.u. and an energetic britain of britain the small tenuously the great european power and truly global you know range not bush did abuse brecht's analyst alex force widing joins me in the studio we have dared modest in brussels alex 1st to you seems very positive a lot of positivity but of course that's not the full picture of what's going on in the u.k. right now yeah i mean look that the u.k. whatever anybody says whatever spin boris johnson puts on it is still a very divided country and even recent polling this week has shown yet again the country is pretty much split down the middle but brick's it has happened the youth the u.k. has now left the european union and i think you will find that those voices that have been very much opposed to this well now just have to quieten down and get

behind bars johnson and the government because whatever happens it is in the u.k.'s interest to try and to get some kind of deal from the e.u. in the future and for those voices who are opposed to brics it to get behind boris johnson pushing him towards a good deal with the e.u. and they are quite the opposite in the e.u. on almost a mirror image tell us what was going on in the e.u. today and what where things stand now. well today you had in brussels a number of you'll flex going up and down down at the british embassy up at the european parliament the british like going down brussels really try to keep this not to make a momentous moment of this keep it low key events here with those flak removers the british like removals because from a brussels perspective breck's it has always been a loose noose scenario now having said that on the other hand there's

a number of member states who also will be happy to see the britain that has been dragging its heels on a number of issues take for instance the defense topic. will be happy to see that things will be moving forward more quickly in the future and also after all there is a positive aspect one high diplomat here lately told me when he said look the attractiveness of leaving the european union is at an all time low. alex back to you so the u.k. certainly has its work cut out for itself what now this transition period walk us through that so 11 months now for the u.k. and the e.u. to reach some kind of deal for future trade now 11 months may sound quite a long time to particular want to bret's it to be done last year certainly back back back in march and it's dragged on so they want it just done but 11 months actually isn't very long atolls trying to strike

a deal with the we know that with canada it took years and years in many other countries as well boris johnson though has to do his part he has to try to get a deal even though he's making it clear that he doesn't want to play brussels game anymore he doesn't want to stick to necessarily to the rules to the regulations they want to global question they want to strike they were in jails they want to make britain a popular and prosperous place in the future the new they're saying if you don't stick to our rules if you don't. stick to the regulations in place then you are going to get a west deal than he would do so now boris johnson has to make some decisions here is he going to try and sell whatever for which some kind of deal with the you or will he possibly even decide that come the 31st of december this year we could be talking about a no deal bricks it a no problem dale and world trade organization rules back in place between the u.k. and the e.u. there is still that possibility they are what does the e.u.

make of that what it what do they want out of this transition period i think alex already mentioned the key point and that is sticking to the rules level playing field is something the will bring to the negotiating table when it comes to a dropping tariffs on both sides that will be absolutely key so alignment is the big is the big big word here but also look it's not just about trade there's a number of fields where the e.u. closely corporates with the u.k. and the tricky thing really bill will be to forge that close relationship while at the same time not selling out on the advantages of the u. membership so making a deal but making clear that the best deal is inside the european union not outside and that will be a tightrope to walk all right in brussels alex here in berlin thank you both very much now to some of the other stories making news around the world israeli aircraft have struck militant targets in the gaza strip in response to new rocket fire from

the palestinian territory israel's military said 3 rockets were fired at israel overnight without causing any casualties and the strikes come amid heightened tensions after the release of a controversial mideast peace plan by u.s. president donald trump a key accuser and harvey weinstein's trial has alleged that she was raped twice by the former hollywood mogul actress jessica man said she remained in a relationship with him out of fear weinstein has been charged with several counts of sexual assaults. u.s. secretary of state my pompei as met ukrainian president followed me as a lengthy and he have to arrange talks with president trump democrats accused of pressuring this is the lindsey into investigating political rivals secretary said the 2 presidents would meet since. staying with a u.s. issue here the other big story tonight the u.s. senate has voted against hearing from witnesses in the impeachment trial of

president donald trump with chief justice john roberts presiding senators voted 51 to 49 against the motion only 2 republican senators sided with all the democrats in their effort to hear from witnesses especially from former national security adviser john bolton who claims trump told him of wanting to pressure ukraine for his own political gain on the 2020 election defeat paves the way for trump's likely acquittal in a vote set for wednesday let's listen to what senate democratic leader chuck schumer had to say after that vote failed. it's a grand tragedy one of the worst tragedies that the senate has ever overcome america will remember this day unfortunately where the senate did not live up to its responsibilities where the senate turned away from truth and went along with a sham trial. for more we're joined by tyson barker u.s.

policy analyst for of the berlin based think tank the aspen institute. tyson tell me decisive points on both sides what led senators one way or the other to vote for or against more witnesses and more evidence well we had a very close vote obviously 51 to 49 a bipartisan vote to have additional witnesses and what led to that swing for 2 republicans to join all of the democrats was essentially the fact that new evidence had been presented in the form of john bolton's manuscript transcript that he's going to be coming out with a new book which had evidence that he personally witnessed attempts by the president to pressure him and other top aides in the white house to pressure of lattimer the lindsey to open an investigation into joe biden as early as may that's 2 months before but july 25th call that was basically the impetus for the pietschmann process to start with on the republican side we saw some movement

towards a new position which was essentially that while the case might be made for a so-called abuse of power that abuse of power did not rise to the level of an impeachable offense and 2 of the key senators lisa murkowski a maverick senator from alaska and institutionalise lamar alexander's tennessee both said you know the even if there were witnesses that wouldn't change any votes therefore it was time to move to a vote. but john bolton a key figure in the trump administration why not just hear from him why not why not hear from under oath what we've now read in a manuscript i mean literally that is what lisa murkowski who would have basically placed the senate into a tie position said in a written statement today which was essentially even though that would be. would basically reaffirm the case against trump or the case for his guilt it wouldn't change the kind of the threshold calculus that the senate had it in its in its in

its sights so the question think comes the senate well ok if there's an agreement of what happened then what is the level of censure that should take place are there other options on the table aside from impeachment should they consider censure option for example and that's one option right were not done with this impeachment trial yet we're going into the weekend next week's a big week take us through some of that right i mean well it's going to be quite a gauntlet for the american political system and there are 2 basic characteristics in american political system today one is political polarization the other except exhaustion we're starting on monday with the iowa caucuses there's basically a head to head run between 4 top candidates will have a new front runner perhaps after that then on tuesday we've got the state of the union address and wins they we've got the vote in the senate to acquit or not to acquit so it's going to be a really really tight political week all right tyson barker aspen institute thank

you very much thank you. now in china the number of people infected with the corona virus has topped 11000 on friday more than 40 people died as the virus spreads more countries are confirming cases the latest are in russia the u.k. and sweden guatemala and iraq say they'll deny entry to people from china the world health organization has declared a virus a global health emergency that's led countries to start flying their citizens out of the chinese city of where the outbreak started military medical stuff instead of hostesses but at least they're active who han french citizens flown home from china spent 2 weeks of quarantine at this holiday resort among them generalists who'd been reporting on the pandemic. nobody suspected this prize so i saw the people like they were like you know looking forward to to leave move

on they were scared but not in panic. course i mean i guess that they were happy to to land fronts that we i saw people clapping their hands when the wind blew when the plane landed that was that was a good sign that the people were happy to be here you know it was. this will be temporary home for the hundreds of so germans being flown out of who had a military barracks in the rhineland. i'm relieved that we're now in a position to end the difficult situation in which our citizens find themselves. yes just rubbish we can now fly those out who are willing to leave most of this is also. here others are making their own way home. with the we will lock down for 8 days i'm very happy that finally our government

paid heed to our requests. i'm happy to be going home to bangladesh where the for the. most countries like here in algeria are setting up medical checks at airports it would seem the rational approach so i hope that. russian scientific object of attitude could be conducted to the development of this outbreak so there is no need for unnecessary. and no need for. excessive measures. yet what is excessive and what's enough in china officials direct the nation's manufacturing might towards providing for the pandemic liquid disinfectant protective suits and gloves are being produced in huge

quantities and a top speed. that's all from us for now due to the news africa is up next don't forget you can get all the latest news information around the clock on our web site t w dot com or follow us on twitter at c w news and william look crossed for news at the top of the hour thanks for watching . it is done critics say has finally happens after 3 years of uncertainty great britain has left the. city please divided country means much more uncertain future generations remains how did we get here.