this is deja vu news live from berlin the state premier of the eastern german state of turin gere is set to resign just one day after being controversial acted with the help of a far right political party that party 1000 up with the far right to gain control of the state government there was outraged and shocked as the taboo is broken chancellor merkel says the deal must be reversed and it looks like she might be getting away also coming out the fallout from the coronavirus in beijing it's normally of bustling city but now it looks like a ghost town this is usually

a bustling commercial street lots of souvenir shops marked shops tourists who visit 13 usually come to spend time here today or are the only one. family in busy streets in metro trains are deserted as the city fights the outbreak. and with wiki leaks founder julian assange studio appear in court in connection with an extradition request by the west to the u.n. repertoire on torture accuses western democracies of manipulating the evidence. i'm sumi so misconducts good to have you with us the state primer of the eastern german state of carinthia is set to resign just one day after being controversial elected with the help of a far right political party it was the 1st time in german post-war history the 2 mainstream parties work together with a far right. now for

a party rather until now other parties have shunned the far right alternative for germany or a.f.d. and the development into india is seen as breaking a political taboo now one of the parties involved is chancellor angela merkel's conservative c.d.u. and of the tremors are being felt thousands of kilometers away in south africa where americal is paying an official visit it was the 1st topic that she addressed at a news conference there. and let's bring in our chief political editor michelle in berlin hi michelle or tell us more about that these latest developments. yes well i'm going back it was pretty much put on the spot she called what happened inexcusable a bad day for democracy something that must be reversed a breach with the values and the convictions of her conservative c.d.u. party words of a chancellor who no longer is her party's leader and essentially what happened is that a red line has been crossed which was set not just by angela merkel's party but all

other parties in german parliament not to cooperate with the far right if t. that's essentially what happened in the state parliament of the ring year to help outside a really whose own party got 5 percent in those results actions to power whether tricked or not there were wont warnings from the party headquarters here in berlin not to go down that route and yet the c.d.u. wanted to prevent the left party from being in power once again this smacks with historical reference and that's the big fear and that's what this whole earth quake here in germany is really about of the center ground of conservative and conservatism that helps essentially the nazis to power in germany opening that darkest chapter in german history now we've heard from the feed democrats that their new state premier intends or they tend to resolve the regional

parliament but the historical damage has been done here by then what is the damage been to the governing party. well they call operating with the far right if do use lead in the state of the ring which is a stronghold region of the far right if tea party can acquire into a court order legally be called a fascist and that's where we stand and this is something that machall didn't want the party leadership here but lynn didn't want the free democrats who benefited from it say they didn't want either and yet their candidate there went ahead and let himself be elected with the help of the far right if d. it also hands the a of d. a success on a plate because their declared aim was to get the old parties as they call them to corporate with cool off rate with them whether they want to or not. the only viable

political option and they achieved that this solves nothing at the regional level of with now a big question marks over what will happen next it looks more likely that there will be fresh regional elections but it uncovers an undercurrent of tension also within anglo-american party between those in the eastern states particularly the ring gear who are more open to a call for eating with the age of 50 and the policy a central headquarters here who has sent absolutely against that and what about for chancellor merkel's governing coalition could this be yet another factor that threatens the stability of their government the social democrats junior coalition partner demanding answers here. well it certainly doesn't help but what we have seen over the past hour or so is that this situation will be resolved that simply this government that that isn't really up and running yet in the regional

parliament that simply won't ever really come together it doesn't help but it would seem rather unlikely that the social democrats although they kind of enjoy that for once i'm going to michael's own party has such serious troubles getting control of its own people. would really break this ground so-called grand coalition i very much doubt that's but talks have been held and more talks are to follow this weekend on that all right our chief political editor michelle because now with the very latest there thank you. as we heard there from michelle that this is been a hugely controversial story here in germany and jill dougherty has been looking into all of their reactions on social media for us hi jill tell us what you've been seeing well the reaction has been really stunned and surprised and sad that this could have happened at all and it's been resonating right across europe on online social media so the hash tag if d.p.

was trending now that is a combination of the 2 party names i have d. and f.t.p. we see the same in this merging of the party logos here there was a video a meme that really got quite a lot of popularity and that was all of the local left party leader susana handing congratulating the temporary state premier thomas kenniff by dumping flowers at his feet now she's being compared to nancy pelosi in the u.s. who's famous for her take downs of donald trump there were a few voices who was speaking out in defense of this election outcome now this one was opposed from the f.t.p. federal member could be key saying what the constitution allows shouldn't be discredited he and a few others were pointing out that the result was achieved democratically even if tactically we heard as well joe that there are comparisons really being drawn here in the darkest chapter and german history tells more about that well as the state

where the nazis 1st came to power in any meaningful way they were given ministerial positions in 1930 as a result of a collaboration with liberal policies and so yesterday we started seeing images being shared comparing the photo taken here of the state leda chemical shaking hands with daily to be on hookah and then it was being compared with the picture from 1933 of out of hitler with then jump present poles on hindu who is the man who appointed him chancellor in $133.00 even though the nazis were only a minor party at the time there's also an image. you know these images of been doing the rounds and of course the situation has changed a bit now but we did see this image here of the then of the party leader kevin of his standing in front of his own election billboard saying a skinhead who hasn't ignored his history so back then he presumably meant that he's a good kind of skinhead but it took on a whole new meaning after this election because he was of course given the post the

premier thanks to the votes of a party whose leader is now being called by some a nazi and what are some of the reactions that you've been seeing up beyond germany across europe well one of the people who shared these hitler images across europe was gave the hoffs doubt who was until recently the leader of what the european alliance that included the f.t.p. now tweet of this he said what happened in 3 india is totally unacceptable my response not in our name to which a green party spokesman responded that he can should could should consider expelling the f.t.p. from the european parliamentary group so of course the situation is now changing very quickly on the ground we're not sure what the outcome is going to be but whatever it is is really quite clear that serious damage has been done to multiple german political institutions is jill dougherty bringing us the debate online thank you very much i am moving on to some other news now and the world health

organization is calling for almost 700000000 dollars to help fight the coronavirus it says that money is needed to help countries that don't have systems in place to combat the virus meanwhile the death toll is approaching 600 and more than 28000 people have been infected china's capital beijing is not at the center of the outbreak bus correspond to spending of found its streets and squares deserted as the government attempts to bring the disease under control. a rare sight in the dry winters of beijing the gate to the forbidden city covered in snow a few people have come out to take in this spectacle but getting inside is out of the question just like almost all public facilities beijing's most famous historic site remains closed i get it it's good that the government took these measures we support them we depreciate even struck to measure his. business activity has largely come to a halt across much of the capital this is usually

a bustling commercial street lots of souvenir shops snack shops tourists who visit beijing usually come to spend time here today i'm the only one. every day human interaction has become suspicious this truck asked its customers to stay outside and communicate their needs from the outside. some pharmacies take the same approach everyone is wearing. because the younger it's a national emergency we stand together who were not standing together should not be taken literally residential complexes keep strangers out in this compound visitors have to register with their id the guards look for the place of birth who are overweight people can't get any even if they live here they'll be quarantined. people from who by a province where the virus originated are to be isolated in this hotel discrimination against them is now rampant. at the entrance to the subway system

a mandatory temperature check. at the same site as everywhere in the city lots of space. trains are running as usual it's the passengers were in. this circle i think some of beijing's most patient is a shopping area as the railway station is. road to. beijing has reported less than $300.00 cases so far but fear here has spread much faster than the virus ever could. now at some other stories making news around the world 3 people were killed and dozens injured when a plane skidded off the runway at istanbul 2nd biggest airport the boeing 737 caught fire and split into 3 pieces after landing in bad weather the flight was

operated by the turkish low cost carrier pegasus. italian authorities say 2 people were killed when a high speed train derailed several others suffered serious injuries an investigation is under way to determine the cause of the 2 relevant which happened about 50 kilometers south of milan. israeli police say they are investigating a car ramming in jerusalem as a terrorist attack 14 pedestrians mostly soldiers were injured when the car sped into them police say the driver fled the scene in the vehicle the incident came as 2 palestinians were killed in clashes with israeli forces. and u.s. astronaut christina cock has returned to earth after shattering the record for the longest time a woman has ever spent in space that coke was on board at the international space station for almost 11 months she also led the 1st all female space walk as part of her mission. senior german politicians are launching an

appeal to have wiki leaks founder julian assange released from jail in britain former foreign minister sigma gabriele is among more than $130.00 public figures who say they want the u.k. to follow the advice of the un special reparatory on torture to release a songe on medical grounds the founder of wiki leaks which publishes news leaks and classified material is in a high security prison british prison awaiting extradition to the u.s. on spying charges he had previously evaded capture by to. diplomatic refuge. the 1st few months that julian assange spent in the ecuadorian embassy in london it was all defiant and optimistic gestures 7 years later he would emerge as a broken man. when british police tracked the wiki leaks founder out of the diplomatic mission in 2019 he looked confused and was almost unrecognizable. by u.n. experts on torture said

a son showed symptoms of psychological torture some fear this torture may still be happening today so how did we get here and why. julian assange to grow fuge in the ecuadorian embassy and 2012 after sweden asked the u.k. to extradite the wiki leaks founder to answer allegations of rape in that country. his son has always denied those allegations saying they were pretense to have him eventually extradited to the united states where he is wanted on espionage charges . as we can you expand under threat so it is a freedom of expression and the health of all our society. his supporters share this view they say the swedish rape allegations were fabricated and an excuse to punish sanj for the leaking of hundreds of thousands of confidential government documents and for exposing possible war crimes. one high

profile leak was a video obtained from the u.s. military which wiki leaks says shows he was soldiers opening fire on people in baghdad and killing several civilians and 2 journalists. a son just now in a maximum security prison in the u.k. and continues to fight against his extradition to the united states. if he loses his fight and disk convicted in the u.s. the wiki leaks founder faces up to 175 years in jail the rape case and sweet and has since been dropped. and we're joined now by niels meltzer is the united nations special wrapper tour on torture who investigated this case mr meltzer thank you so much for joining us here on new i want to start by asking you about the rape allegations against really innocent because you've been very critical of this case

we just heard there that the allegations the charges have been dropped are these assault allegations false were they fabricated. well i have to admit to you when i 1st got into this case i was a very looked into look into this because i wasn't a supressed let everyone else in the public. interest some guilty turkeys and nurses attack her rapist and so i was very reluctant to get into the scales just as lawyers convinced me to look at just a few key pieces of evidence and destroy it as soon as you scratch the surface of the public narrative slightly it becomes very contradictory and you can see those internal correspondence between police officers in the dictionary to the statements of you know which victims and regions he lives in the woman who was supposedly raped sends a text message to the friends out of the police and intuition saying i don't want to accuse a such of anything and just want him to do

a needs i detest what the police wants to get their hands on here so that we will use pieces of evidence that that's sold at the adult match with the public narrative of the suites and also the way the proceedings have been conducted. reveals with grave due process violations we should all match in interest of getting justice here he said how that you know that you're in a fount of lawyers approached you asking for you to look at this case you have a un special rapporteur on torture was julian assange is torture. well that was the other reason i was reluctant to get into this because i didn't 1st see the link to my mandates but then it immediately became clear to me that there's actually 3 aspects that are important your 1st mistress sounds disclosed and revealing information evidence for systematic torture of the us and its allies and none of

these crimes have been prosecuted so clearly that's a violation of the convention against torture and thus already within my manhood and secondly i visited him together was to medical experts who specialize in examining torture victims and both of them came to conclusion that he showed typical signs for psychological torture so again this falls within my monday and the u.k. government is would like to investigate those to provide address will be done now thoroughly he is threatened with extradition to the united states and real low security defendants in the united states if convicted it's are likely to be held in supermax conditions under the so-called senate special measures which worldwide are considered to be in violation of the provision of 2 treatments you've been very critical of a lot of the players in this case have democratic governments of sweden u.k. the us also ecuador who are all involved here how they intentionally manipulated justice. this is my conclusion yes i was

a bit reluctant to go out into public this statement because i thought no one will believe me but i have 2 pieces of evidence and i pushed the questions to vs 4 states that i asked them to explain how their conduct is compiled with human rights law and none of them were able or even willing to respond to me and to engage in an aisle which certainly is not of the sun what would why would that serve sweden's interests why would it serve sweetness interests to the word justice here. i think we have to take a step backwards here and just see what we should be constant we should be 1st created a system where whistleblowers around the world can anonymously submit secret information about misconduct of space and how to publish through which leaks not the trenching ones the standard practice of governments to conduct their business in in the large scale secrecy. of a group a tendency of governments to classify information think of the senate committee

report of the us and cia torture and be completely classified basically apart from it is separate it is again the half of it was black and and those who read it was an ally of the us government and the u.k. obviously as well so the states all have an interest in not having their dirty laundry washing puck and they are now found saying that julian assange would not receive a fair trial in the us one of those powerful democracies in the world why is that. yes not all of the states you know for normal everyday cases obviously there is rule of law and there is no reason to doubt that but i have seen the evidence that as soon as we have national security interests involved the rule of law really goes out the window then the national security cases all of them in to us will be tried in the 2nd quarter another example here before drew is you know our man made me

employ years off and as. you know less is based on secret evidence the exclusion of the public. and no one has ever been. there so there is no doubt in my mind that also that the public prejudice against us and she's not going to get a fair trial and mr nasr you've also won for best sets a dangerous precedent for both press freedom and democracy why what do you actually foresee happening. well you see what we're seeing here this is not really only about mistrust this is what is being done to something to make an example of him to intimidate other investigative journalists who might be tempted to. publish secret information about misconduct of states because what us to say here is that if foreign non-u.s. journalists who is not in the u.s. and has no sense of allegiance to the u.s. if they accomplish as it misses you journalists should do information that is from

the government misconduct. and that will be punished 175 years in prison for comparison to worst for criminals and they receive fixed term sentences of 45 years so that's a very grave and is left to do away with with freedom of press right a stark warning there from neals mel so united nations special properties or on torture thank you so much for joining us on day to. thank you very much. now francis ice skating federation president did a gay a gay is refusing to resign amid a growing sexual assault scandal earlier this week french prosecutors opened an investigation into the sexual abuse of former world championship bronze medalist sarah to bowl she's accusing her old coach of sexually assaulting her when she was 15 and president gag a says he absolutely did not protect the coach everybody makes mistakes were the comments from dva gay gay head of the french ice skating federation when he was

grilled at a press conference about sexual abuse allegations dating back to the early 1990 s. many including the country's sports minister were calling for his resignation but instead the president refused to step down. you don't see. it isn't gentleman there is no perfect federation because the society and the people are not perfect. in order to resign i would have had to be at fault and i don't think i am i certainly committed errors several of them but i am not at fault. if not the short form or fringe figure ice skaters published a book last week accusing her former coach of raping her from a 990 to 1902 when she was a teenager in a recent interview but both spoke with her long silence. why did they wait for so

long to talk this inexplicably it's inside me inside my body inside my soul it was very difficult to talk because you feel ashamed guilty i try to talk to my ice skating club the president as a sports minister all the doors are closed. it made it to having inappropriate relations with that ball at the time and has since apologized and inquiry from 2001 showed they had inappropriate behavior with under-age skaters yet he was still made team manager of a french juniors team in 2011. was in charge of the skating federation did france's top athlete signed a letter supporting miss abbott ball on wednesday saying they were disgusted but not surprised prosecutors in the country have opened an investigation to establish if anyone else had been abused. and the legendary oscar winning actor

kirk douglas has died at the age of 103 he made his name in hollywood's golden age of movie making and he was one of the biggest box office stars of the 1950 s. and sixty's his son the actor michael douglas announced the news of his father's death saying to the world he was a legend but to me and my brothers he was simply down. let's get a reminder now of our top story here on the premier of germany's eastern state of turin stepping down a day after being controversially elected with the help of a far right political party thomas kemalist says his resignation was inevitable to remove the stain of the far rights involvement. coming up next on news asia the coronavirus victims targeted not by infection but by racist abuse we need someone who's faced this firsthand. and the girls and young women paying the price of tradition in indonesia. a beer is found you will have those

stories and more coming right up on d.w. news asia you can follow us on twitter for all the latest headlines or handle their . news thank you for watching. subject.

actually christmas just shows the numbers but rather shows. the bomb. them. because. of the smart place to kick when you're going. to rebel although a mobility show every week w. . in the army climate change. the

tubes missing 6 come. to. the big one here is today the future looks. d.w. dot com africa america series the many. click the counter. where i come from we have to fight for a free press and was born and raised in a military dictatorship with just one t.v. channel and if you are his favorites when official information has adjourning i have walked off the streets of many cameras and their problems are almost the same 14 social inequality a lack of the freedom of the press and corruption gone the fortunes stay silent when it comes to the fans the humans and see the microphones who have inside to put

their trust in us. my name is jane paris tonight born again. this is the wus a show coming up a coral no biters spreading infection and racism chinese people and those of chinese origin are reporting racist abuse all over the world we speak to someone who's experienced this 1st time plus. the young victims of a practice justified under the cover of religion and tradition look at why female genital mutilation is to widely practiced in indonesia.