this is deja vu news live from berlin china sees its deadliest day yet in the corona virus outbreak health officials they're attributing a surge in deaths and infections to a new reporting method the spike in these numbers raises questions about how long it will be before the outbreak peaks also coming up. a new study shows a record number of children are caught up in armed conflicts around the world we

look at the toll the war in syria is taking on children there. and germany remembers one of the most controversial chapters of world war 275 years ago today allied bombers began their attack on the city of dresden or some of the bombing was a military necessity for others a needless fashion. i'm brian thomas a very warm welcome to our show today well there has been an alarming surge in the number of infections and deaths from the coronavirus now also being referred to is covered 19 now this is what health officials are worried about the number of infections worldwide has shot up 260000 after nearly 15000 new cases were reported in just one day. and over 240 deaths were recorded on wednesday alone in the

chinese province of who bay it was the deadliest day so far since the virus emerged . ok let's get the latest on this sharp spike in corona virus cases now it's correspondent but here's berlinger in beijing mathias can you tell us what's behind this unexpected spike in fatalities and new infections. yeah the authorities have in a very quick moves lowered the criteria for registering patients ask coronavirus patients before they insisted that besides showing symptoms that would point to quite clearly to an infection people would also have to be tested positive really there was these tests there were a bottleneck because there were not enough test kits not enough laboratories to test their results will take 2 or 3 days until they come back and they would have

big. rate of wrong results so i spoke to a woman for example who had whose mother had symptoms and the doctors confirmed that these were symptoms typical folk or own a virus infection but she could not admit her to the hospital for almost 10 days because twice the results the results of the tests showed a negative result and the criteria for admission to hospitals was a positive result so by removing this criteria now people can be admitted if they show symptoms but have no test results yet. and they include of course a huge number of people who would keep waiting for admission to hospitals who are not showing up in this is statistically but who have already been sick for days and days ok we have a new picture emerging don't we as a result of these numbers what does this tell us about the threat the real threat

of coronavirus. as these problems were already know and then it was clear that. there was a high the number of undiagnosed patients in one this does not come as a surprise and a nice serious estimate for before would have included this at least in evaluating how reliable the estimate is now we seem to have more reliable figures but still. and the province of obey is a black box it's only the chinese officials who have data and who release date and there's no independent verification we still do not know that the hospitals with which seem to be still running out at the edge of their capacities whether they really are able to register all patients are not so at this situation is as before

nobody has a real liable estimate about how long this outbreak of the corona virus will last him and his thanks so much for that from beijing today. and e.u. health ministers are meeting today in brussels for talks on europe's response to the virus europe has already canceled commercial flights to china and its evacuating its citizens as well didn't use max center went to the emergency response center in brussels which is coordinating europe's a back you asian efforts. a dramatic journey coming to an end these passengers disembarking from a german air force jet in frankfurt earlier this month were among the 1st to be evacuated from china to europe due to the coronavirus it was a challenging task to organize. here at the european commission in brussels christiane yacoub is helping europeans in china return home safely on flights such

as the one to frankfurt in the operation room of the emergency response center it's his job to oversee all processes and coordinate help we are in close contact read our member states by phone by e-mail and true especially for mission systems we are in close contact with the chinese authorities in order to receive updates from them and to see. the most need to lie to them so that you know to contain the disease the e.r.c. see has been coordinating the e.u.'s response to global emergencies since 2001 during the evil after demick in western africa the organization oversaw assistance and relief to the affected countries such as liberia valuable lessons that are proving helpful today operations in brussels have taken up pace since france triggered an e.u. wide emergency response procedure over the corona virus outbreak situation

definitely is worrisome. to some epidemic this is a serious danger. this virus as you know spreads with great speed so measures have to be taken and we are trying to see that they're taken in a coordinated manner for the e.u. getting its citizens out of china is a 1st important step but with the number of coronavirus cases growing rapidly brussels and member states will have to come up with a broader strategy to prevent the disease from spreading on european soil. now a just released report has thrown new light on the massive number of children and young people living in that war violence around the world there are 415000000 children caught up in armed conflict that's one in 6 children on the planet the study by save the children shows the numbers highest in africa with 170000000 children living there amidst violence it also shows 100000 children have been

killed or maimed in conflicts around the world over the past 15 years. now one of the countries where children have been most affected by conflict is syria violence there has been intensifying since december as government troops advance on the rebel stronghold of it live families there must decide whether to leave and face the bitter winter or stay and risk air strikes a warning this report contains distressing images. terrified and in shock 3 children are rescued from what's left of this building which was hit by it and strikes in what's become known as the battle for it lip. for too many syrians including children this is the reality of life in the never ending war zone. since december almost 700000 people have been

forced to flee their homes they're trying to reach the turkish border but that's closed and so this road has effectively become a refugee camp. no wonder some are too frightened to leave. i'd prefer to rethink but i want to wait till the last moment because i can't you know living in the wild in the cold because i might see my kids dying in front of my eyes. it live is the last rebel stronghold in syria it's under attack from president bashar al assad's forces who have the support of russia turkey meanwhile has sent in reinforcements to try to push back the syrian army escalating tensions between ankara and moscow. and it

civilians who are paying the price for these $3.00 children are lucky to have survived the latest and strikes but unless there is a lasting cease fire no one in it live can feel safe for long. so what can we do to alleviate the suffering to talk about that i'm joined by joel basu a from save the children in amman jordan thanks very much for coming in this morning and these numbers are shocking one in 6 children on the planet living in war zones were you surprised by the findings. this is the 3rd new that save the children published. in the 4th and why everyone knew the findings of stalking they're not really surprising because we don't know that the number of children we think in conflict i guess has been on the guys from about longer than 2000000 and 199-2402 1000000 in 2008 and as you mentioned so this year therefore cooked again at the 6 gay violations against children in conflict. killing and

maiming abduction and sexual violence among the other and we looked at how these my lesions affect boys. why they affected them differently for example goods i hope won't do sexual violence why boys victims of recruitment that affect equally you know the broad range of violence and violations that you just mentioned just as disturbing as well on your study you focus on the mideast your study finds that the ongoing war in syria has been going on for 9 years now is placing children there especially risk. yes now in the north of syria children are the living and a high intensity conflict zone for the past few days since the offensive sought to show that in our kids and every single day and today they make up one 3rd of all victims so again we are seeing something and paying the price of a conflict which they did not decide to be part of and this is not to mention their

living conditions so if they make it they thank you see if they make it safely to the border with turkey if they are not because that means they are living in open fields intense and it's very cold. it's snowing in these areas and you know all problems on the ground out of that and why children are happy to see snow for example they are so cold that they have to sleep with all the snow on their backs at night to people. what are some realistic expectations a lot of these conflicts have been dragging on for years to to do something want to be done to help the millions of children back to the globe and here we have seen focus in some areas for example being quotes month over the use of long lines all the key things i would say in conflict but for us to turn the tide we need the governments take the size of action now especially by upholding the 3 things and

violate those. holding them to account upholding standards and woods and conflict and finally affording to all that a cup of support and they need to be able to grow up and be happy adults. save the children thanks very much for your insights this morning thank you. let's get you briefed now on some of the other stories making the news today. united nations has released a report that accuses more than 100 israeli businesses of being complicit in violating palestinian rights by operating in the occupied west bank palestinian officials have welcomed the report israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has called it a shameful attempt to blacken his country's name. at least one person has died as trench will rains batter australia's eastern coast the woman has also been reported missing emergency workers have rescued dozens from the floods and many schools have been closed down authorities say the rain has helped them put out

multiple blazes in the fire ravaged region. german media reports indicate that the conservative politician for a dish merits is planning to run for the leadership of on a limb ackles christian democrats he's one of the chancellor's fiercest critics and 2018 narrowly lost on a draft current power who announced this week she would step down as party leader. well it was 75 years ago today in the very final months of world war 2 that british an american aircraft began bombing the german city dressed in in the days that followed were planes dropped incendiary bombs that killed thousands of people many of them women women and children fleeing the soviet armies advance in the east now there's been much debate over the years over whether the bombing was a justifiable military attack an unnecessary tragedy or a war crime we met with one of the survivors in the now rebuilt city.

when aaron's tears comes to the new marked public square and sees the restored. he is reminded of the dresden bombings 75 years ago. here. and everything was destroyed and this was where most of the people were killed in the fire storm then on the next day the taste and phone kisha collapsed yes the square was reduced to rubble. on the evening of february 13th 1945 over the span of just 15 minutes the allied forces dropped bombs containing 900 tons of explosives on dressed and during the next 2 days 3 more attack waves followed after that the baroque old town lay in ruins at the time and tears was 9 years old when the bombs were dropped on dresden he and his parents

he had in a bomb shelter in the cellar of their house seen here in the former your hungry organ alley. after the 1st attack we left the apartment while everything was burning and i can still see it before my eyes the flames creeping over the rooftops of neighboring houses and. that's what it looked like afterwards that was my parents' apartment was on the top of the that's what the ruins looked like you can see the facade was still in good shape but inside the building everything was burned out and that's what the whole wonderful street looked like. ants tears and his parents were lucky they were able to flee the city as many as 25000 people died during the air raids many of them suffocated during the firestorms. in my eyes this was

a war crime many things happened on all sides but this was an act of destruction directed at the civilian population. and tears started working as a camera man in the 1950 s. his nickname was the eye of dresden he documented the reconstruction of the destroyed city and he's been collecting photos and videos of dresden since the 19th century for his film archives. documentary film can be brutally honest if you do not read it or change the footage and i never did this then for me it is the most impressive historical witness. today the rebuilt cityscape of dresden betrays few signs of the destruction that took place here 75 years ago. the most wonderful thing of all is that the dresden for our own care has been restored that is really

the biggest miracle and after the destruction i experienced in my childhood and youth i never hoped or expected this to happen i hope it will stay this way forever . the dresden for one cure here is where aaron's tears was baptized before the war today he sees it as a symbol of peace. was a legitimate military target or a war crime. for that good morning to you john. the survivor a report says dresden was a war crime. that really is the key question and it's very difficult to answer it simply by the standards of the time it was not that is if you interpret the letter of the law at the. by the standards of modern times it almost certainly was. when. we look at the destruction of dresden we have to keep in mind that it

was politically instrumental ised as it occurred when it happened at the time in 1945 can you tell us something about that it's been instrumentalists perfectly since that well the argument is being that it as we heard in that report many people believe that in also in germany today that it was simply a civilian target and that is not true that is that is a lie that was probably days that the next day after the 1st attacks by the nazi propaganda chief of goebbels. it's not true because dresden was a very important railway hub the main hub in fact for supplying a moment to the eastern front the russians had already entered german territory from the east and were surging towards berlin dresden was in the way there were 20000 troops stationed there it was a garrison town and the. town itself had sworn loyalty to the fira and said it

would under no circumstances surrender that is not to say of course automatically that the bombing of dresden was somehow justified and the motives of the allies were almost certainly mixed as always in war there's a large element of hatred resentment revenge and it is also true that the civilian population was of course also the target ok now dresden though has become a symbol of the of the allied policy of strategic bombing as it's called when in fact dresden was not alone no in fact there were far worse casualty figures the official historians cons of the dead in dresden was 25000 sturrock a commission of historians spent 6 years examining the details and came up with this conclusion. hamburg on the other hand suffered far far higher casualties to 100000 as dresden was of course. also

a cultural jam that was destroyed but then so was lubeck so was. the problem is that this has been instrumentalists particularly by the rightwing in germany and by holocaust deniers such as david irving. the world over who tried to bring this often in connection with the holocaust they tried to relativize the genocide against the jews by exaggerating the death tolls and the suffering as terrible as they were interested in john burke thanks so much for coming in on this today john. now it may be less than a centimeter in size but the time in the studio is one of the biggest health threats to us humans mosquitoes can transmit malaria a disease that kills more than $400000.00 people each and every year worldwide for a very long time pesticides were effective in controlling their numbers but mosquitoes have become resistant to them so scientists are hoping to hit back with

a new but controversal alternative. in the book enough fossil village off so mosul damane went although it's visiting his son's grave since the 2 year old died of malaria a couple of months ago he has been here every single day. so i am losing a child is really painful for me for any parent for that matter. so if we can find a solution against this disease which killed my child we will thank god. they should do everything to eradicate this disease. roughly 8000 kilometers away at the university of maryland in the us scientists are conducting an experiment that could be a breakthrough in the fight against the disease which kills hundreds of thousands every year. the research team took a naturally occurring fungus that is known to infect mosquitoes then they genetically modified it to produce a toxin similar to

a spider venom when the most kito comes in contact with the spores it gets infected and dies. brian lovett is the lead author on the study out of the box if they land anywhere on the outside of the recognize that they're on a mosquito and the burrow their way into the mosquito. to test the fungus the researchers build the test side in book enough fossil in an entity area this simulated a village with hearts vegetation water sources and food for the musky toss in the hearts they hang black cloth that was soaked with oil and the fungus spores then they released hundreds of mosquitoes. so. the mosquitoes fly around the room looking for something to feed on and so they feed on an animal after feeding the mosquitoes look for a close to rest the usually land on the walls given they are attracted to the color black they will rest on the tree which is black. that is when they make contact

with the fungus spores and the fungus starts to grow inside them and that's what kills them. within $45.00 days that toxins had killed almost all of the insects even the ones resistant to pesticides without the presence of the fungus the population of most ketosis increased over the same period the researchers say the fungus does not harm humans and other insects they hope that one day their approach could also help fight diseases like. that are also transmitted by mosquitoes. so could this be a workable alternative let's talk about that now it's eric williams from our science desk good morning derek good to see you ever. tell us about mosquitoes 1st of all why are they such a lethal pest for us humans well the thing is is that every female a novelist mosquito the enough list mosquito is the one that carries malaria every

one is that basically in and of itself in the state of factory enough least female can lay up to $200.00 eggs at a time and those eggs reach reproductive maturity so they themselves are sexually mature within 2 weeks after hatching and so every female enough of these mosquito can potentially produce thousands with and of new mosquitoes within a couple of months and the problem is if you wipe them out or wiping them out is a major challenge because their populations can bounce back very quickly even if you wipe them out and localities ok this approach that we're looking at genetic modification to wipe them out as a potential downside potentially adverse effects on the environment could just get out of control well the thing is is that in order to wipe out mosquitoes you need very highly specific tools just like just like this one you can't use really broadband insecticides because they're going to kill all kinds of other insects as

well it also small mammals and birds so you need something that's highly effective like this fungus which only affects this particular this particular organisms of the mosquito itself the problem with genetically modified organisms in particular releasing them into the wild is that you don't know you you to lose control over them they're in the environment and so you can't really predict what they're necessarily going to do within the environment or how that organism is that securing that gene that genetic modification is later going to evolve and so it's not enough to just say we think that this is going to work we really need to think about it long and hard and you need to take it very slowly ok as this process. continues what are scientists saying are they confident that we can get malaria under control the insect question is only one aspect of getting malaria going to under control there's also the question of for example developing effective vaccines malaria is a very very tricky organism in the sense that it's able to get around the immune

system in a lot of different ways we don't have effective vaccines like we do for example for polio and smallpox yet but we're working on that that said it's going to take take decades and there isn't really going to be a silver bullet anytime soon ok no silver bullet derek thanks very much durk williams from the science desk. the state of the news live from berlin i'm brian thomas from the entire team thanks so much for joining us.

into the conflict zone misty and sebastian. my guest this week your load is the show's we're going stop the hottest solo for is a media exploits closer to abuse of some of the kludgy that is the boss ago serious about real choices for women continues to provide opportunity as cover up priests who commit these also post conflict. next on d

w. the world has become less safe. new arms race is looming media used to ensure international stability of the alliance is crumbling. our security focus. and germany's reputation is also tarnished how can national interests be aligned with the supernational strengths. good alliances new threats. in 45 minutes on d w. or. they were forced into nameless mass. their bodies who really are too little. the history of the slave trade is of africa's history. describes how the greed for

power and traffic plummeted and entire continent into chaos and violence. this is the journey back into the history of slavery. our documentary series slavery routes starts march 9th on g.w. . such. i feature and happened people just don't believe that such a catholic church is not a monolithic block new rules this year on the holocaust holdall sexual abuse in the catholic. filed the south has 5 victims groups which is going to insist that the innocent are grist from credit food. my guest this week here in rome is the jesuit priest father funds solo who is a leading expert on.