the increasingly rare breed meanwhile let's say all of the little ones are doing well. you're watching to news out from our land up next is our code in 1000 special and don't forget you can always get the latest news and information are around the clock on our website at www dot com also twitter and instagram at the unit and richardson in berlin thanks so much for watching. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and. our corona update. covert 19 special and next on d w. how does

a virus spread. why the repairing and when will all of this. just through the tax relief check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your pod cast you can also find us at dot com slash science. you. can. for can can trace poor living conditions or in demick and diseases such as malaria diabetes and tb who widespread. health care facilities are generally under resourced and often decrepit. and yet so far the continent has avoided the worst of the demick 'd. there were fears that living conditions in urban communities in south africa and beyond would accelerate the spread of the virus for some experts are now asking what is to say in crowded conditions for some extra protection

against comic night. some scientists thought a useful population might be behind africa's relatively no infection rates but as the pandemic continues analysts are more and more reluctant to put the continent successes down to demographics. some researches have also hypothesized that the presence of certain parasites in the body are contrary to the higher survival rates . but they're still trying to unravel the mystery. africa has recorded a little over 1400000 cases of coronavirus that's less than a quarter figure of the figure for the united states alone almost half of the continent's confirmed cases are in south africa but even there the death rate is surprisingly low and the country scientists are pushing to find a vaccine. to search for

a lifesaving covert 19 vaccine is back on in johannesburg. christians that survey today we don't think 88 sorry minutes to make sure that he had to stay there to actually discuss this thread pools and the steadiest thinking of. oxford university partnered with south african blacks knology experts in june to begin producing a locally effective serum to vaccinate against the corona virus which was halted when a sister trial in the united kingdom saw participant take ill. you. think you can pick up a stick and i just kind of know when someone was sick in england i was worried because they didn't know what to be close. at least involved with this. vaccination shy but after

a few days i understood what it was about and i'm here particularly do you. try. to go to sleep but still very kid the efforts form part of emergency measures to deal with the coronavirus pandemic in the world's most unequal society it's very important for us to know that these vaccines are safe and effective in a south african population who may differ greatly from from populations in in other parts of the world. south africa much like the rest of the continent has not experienced the covert $900.00 death rate seen in parts of the developed world i. discussed buffel some experts as to how a country with poor living conditions a high burden of diabetes tuberculosis and hiv aids was not overwhelmed by the pandemic. i said africa has a much younger population than many european countries and younger people are less

severely affected than older people in addition about 40 percent of those young people we estimate had a symptomatic infection and that might be because they've been exposed to other coronaviruses that cause the common cold early on. indigenous communities have a simple hypothesis and claiming south africa whether the covert $900.00 storm it's through the power of traditional medicine that is widely used throughout the country. for them the search for a modern vaccine in africa is futile and offensive. so you feel insulted that. people who come with me at the damages from the west could come in mindanao shores and want to think that you can just be vaccinated is problematic with that recognizing the fact that the infant systems of healing that exist in prison i do know in their midst. amid this opposition the vaccine trial continues with fears a 2nd wave of covert 9000 infections could arrive in coming months. we need to try

and diminish the impact of covert both from a health point of view but also from associate konami point of view and that can actually only be done if we have a suitable vaccine going forward. only a few months old the vaccine trial is expected to run at least on the latter part of 2021. i'm really hopeful that by this time next year we'll have a vaccine available the studies are going well and we should be able to achieve. with almost 16000 deaths and over 650000 texans in south africa alone productive fairly on her team the arrival of a vaccine can't come soon enough. for corona virus deaths across africa lower than scientists would have expected especially when you consider there may have been many more cases than have so far been recorded

a number of reasons have been put forward for that from africa's young population to traditional medicines there is another more unusual hypothesis some scientists believe parasitic worms could be protecting some africans from the full effects of coffee 19 on this we can speak to dr kim hair off who is a parser taller just on university thanks for joining us can you please tell us what this hypothesis is all about. you know get out of those. we have been working a long time on the middle of a parasitic diseases and the host response of the human immune response particularly against warms and one of the dominant features is that the wars ensure their survival for 10 years and longer in the body by suppressing the immune response for example. which is a parasitic one sees it is spread through tropical africa with about $40000000.00

people infected and here you have one larning in the skin amounting to somehow doods per square millimeter yet the. immune response is sort of regulated that there is almost no inflammation in the majority of people and they sometimes don't need nobody have these so we know also that there is a spill or work of immune response to other. immune responses for example negative is that some of it seems to look it works well as they should and this is also been very clearly aligned to this immune herd suppression and the motivation is more of us are well established and the hypothesis now is that this is overshooting immune reaction that carries with severe chronic 90 cases might be mitigated because the people who are were wars and have an immunosuppressed general

. status if this hypothesis does prove to be true other any implications for possible treatment coronavirus. just long sought to carve out the beneficial parts of the immune response of a parasite immunosuppressive molt and voids the talking parasitic infections but this is very tricky you have to imagine that the parasite harbors a 10000 different proteins and even more other molecules that it can play with in order to interact and down regulating real systems not to speak about that of the infection of the locality and all these things it's very complicated so far. except for a few molecules that for example have been shown to dargon lote never comes a very specific color like perceptor sort of pollen you are in the immune system

also playing a role in septic infections they can be addressed by small molecules but they are still in the brutal developments and we are not yet there are definitely the longer . perspective 19 we've seen which seems to be moralists problem so we went be relying on the worms just yet stocks are aqim her are from bone university thanks a lot for joining us thank you very much. and now is the part of the program where we pose one of your questions to ask science correspondent eric williams. if you inhale sars cofa too does the number of viruses you inhale make a difference in your symptoms. this is a really interesting question because it touches on a recent comment made by a top american health official that universally masking up might be more

effective than a vaccine at protecting us from covert 19 the idea behind that claim is that although masks don't prevent people from being exposed to the virus entirely by limiting exposure they could help reduce the number of people who develop severe cases of the disease and the theoretical equation is that light exposure leads to more asymptomatic cases ed and there's some evidence to back that idea up from settings like crew ships and meat packing plants where where people who were required to wear masks during covert 19 outbreaks on average less severe forms of the disease know the exact amount of virus that it takes to make someone really sick is a kind of a slippery concept called the infectious dose or viral disease and and there's no

way to really tell for sure whether a higher infectious dose causes more severe symptoms or not at least not in humans that's because if you really want to test the either you're going to run into a major ethical problem you'd have to intentionally infect people with varying amounts of the virus and basically wait to see what happens next but we have carried out studies like this in animals for example hamsters and they do indeed showed that there appears to be. a correlation between being exposed to more sores cove 2 and disease severity which is not really a surprise but of course other factors like like age and general health also play a big roles and i don't columns. science correspondent derek williams there and if you've got

a question for derek you can submit it through you tube channel that's all from this call that 19 special if you do want more from us check out the dedicated coronavirus section of the d w website that dot com thanks for joining us and until next time take us. into the conflict zone with jim sebastian. welcome to this special edition of live conflict so over the last 4 years we've interviewed several senior lebanese politicians about felix or bill breakdown the very call of me and their state institutions what they told us provides an unusually clear insight into the recent elections in trucks of the crisis the conflict. next on t.w. . water's cold cold anyone searching for gold to acquire

a thick skin it's like a piece right there you get stuck in there during the clinton era the finding in tradition holds back. how they do it what they find enough and why it's a great way to conquer existence to feel i've already forgotten all my problems. only. seem 60 minutes. oh. sparrow see the sony console. that will never be. caught connected to the highest levels of government. why did journey. shockey have to die. was 3.

years later the reasons are still unclear. the case of jump. start september 30th on w. . long before the massive explosion that tore into beirut last august lebanon had been following a path that led to only one way to self-destruction. as the smoke rose over the city around 200 people lay dead 2006 injured victims of the up to do competent politicians who for generations allowed their citizens to sink into poverty and to spend. explosion was a terrible symbol of that neglect because

a highly volatile quantity of ammonium nitrate but it sat for years in a warehouse of port officials warned of the dangers posed warnings that were systematically ignored but would anything change in the aftermath would anyone ever be held to account for and sympathy arrived in the shape of france's emmanuelle macro only he brought an uncompromising message there's no blank check he told people if your political class fails we won't come to the level of say and fail it did days later the government resigned not only did the politicians have no answers they had like so many before the simply given up who would now fill the vacuum. hello and welcome to this special edition of conflict zone over the last 4 years

we've interviewed several senior lebanese politicians about the inexorable breakdown of vera qana me and their state institutions what they told us provides an unusually clear insight into the reasons for lebanon's intractable crisis we saw it on says to some key questions what had gone wrong who was to blame for the sinking economy and how could the country move forward but instead of answers we got promises of progress of clarity and commitment even transparency that in most cases came to nothing in february 26th 18 i caught up with gibran bassil then the country's foreign minister who acknowledged the central feature of lebanese politics in demick corruption as well as all the other contradictions that have made it impossible for the state to function. yes we have corruption and our country but this is where we need to have strong leaders to fight corruption corruption and different factions playing politics with a nation that can ill afford it i mean even the patriarch spoke of the erosion of

your state institutions at the moment as of course the collapse is real there are the states collapsing. it depends how you do how you define the course we still have at least a family and the bottom we still have values values of how we live how we think towards the other we're well aware that this is fading completely in other parts even and strong and prosperous countries you don't see this kind of cohesion that we still have 11 or coalition you fail if you look at a presidency most years about cohesion is that almost 35 attempts to get a quorum in parliament you have managed to do it you haven't passed the budget since 2005 you have a parliament is mandated 2013 and i had to extend it twice without recourse to the public you have to have a legislative election since 2000. and 7 we were given 6 complete paralysis of the

political body has only had a guest on this but when i'm here i'm very much a balancing on the other the family being against it i'm not defending the politics and the ban on the politicians nor the you know one of the ministers you are living and defending something that belongs to all of us and humanity and defending the idea and the more that we stand the prism of diversity of living together accepting each other where we are different this is what i'm defending and this is where i'm saying the importance of lebannon if we have this model birth is the model of what do you choose you choose the rock up more than it was dash or you still have lebanon where people can still live together because what else can you get so you can get the dash model to how much of this living together was apparent when you see the people protest on the streets of weapon of this they have done over the last year and they get. subjected to unacceptable violence by the security services. can and tear gas but you know

a lot of bullets you know i was among the protesters so i want to know who's of violence i let myself to the street because i refuse the situation to who's in china. geniuses the government at this is in charge we are we are in jail they're in jail of power because we cannot leave again you're a government that doesn't control your security services is that what you're telling us even with the security level we still find there for you compare us to other regions other countries around us in the region so again it is a situation that we have to fix how by not imposing. a solution that is ready a solution that idea basically by allowing the libyan east let's let them go to elections and allow them to truly 11 elections reported out since 2005 and we were against this we can continue on because you because your prime minister said the levels of force used against demonstrators was unacceptable he's the prime minister told you do anything about this yes he stopped it but there's

a person who was prosecuted as a person telling you i was a prosecutor i was myself on the street nobody who was on trial where you 3 times 2 for the services because i would if you were the situation minister you refused the situation but people got beaten up people got hospitalized dozens of people were taken to hospital people were injured all those every let's not portray about on as a country where you have or you don't allow people to express the we have an excess of them or capacity and and level and people are allowed to speak out whatever your security organizations are out to this culture all the sound this happened again 11 of the bacon of freedoms in the region and this happened once we don't take this incident and extrapolate it on our minister they laugh when you claim to be a beacon of freedom when the allegations of torture carried out by your security services are widespread in june last year there was a leaked video showing members of your internal security forces torturing inmates

in roomier prison north of beirut the interior minister confirmed that the video was authentic this is the kind of big. because of tolerance and coexistence that you say you have where torture is widespread not the human rights watch said this was just the tip of the iceberg. call for the rule no we don't have the stomach this is an incident that happened there if you say the this is what happened in the guantanamo that's it means that in the us to live the torture this is an incident that happened once and confirmed that with this is not the case unless you know you know very well mr know it me this completely because we have so many things that we are not satisfied about alone but we don't turn it into being a place where people are tortured and yet the reports credible reports of torture have continued to surface in the 4 years since that interview was recorded no change there no change either in any of the sectarian carve ups and political

patronage for the fact it and still act as immovable roadblocks to reform ever since the civil war the complex power sharing system spawned many factions and warlords who are empowered to enrich themselves at the expense of the people they share between them the spoils the top jobs the lucrative contracts and even as they watch the country disintegrate and default the last thing they wanted was to give back the money and relinquish their power in june this year the combative foreign minister at the time not if he was still repeating the same vegas sure and says the same good intentions but inconsistent let know where. here intentions your public sector has been looted for decades by the same sectarian powers that still dominate as were you trying. to finish the phrase so i'm listening to you now you have to tell me what i have you finished perhaps you haven't finished the question

you think these warlords and power brokers like you have never letting me finish the answer you've been giving me a great answer for a couple of minutes and you think do you think these warlords and power brokers who control so much in lebanon will just sit around while you shine a light on all their dirty dealings and then they'll just say sorry and hand back all the billions that they've stolen you really think that's going to happen. we are not going to think so thanks for putting this question we know it's an uphill struggle we know it's a key challenge and you have to stand up to the challenge or fail i know the difficulties i fully agree with you about the seriousness of the challenges about how having you there are weighing on us since he is but we have to come out with an answer otherwise you will not be taken the road that you promised to take that's a very important matter i fully agree about the challenges the nature of the challenges and the magnitude of the challenges but you have to come out with an answer to these challenges and create a sort of rapture with the past and get on

a start on a new foot you're your country's wreck or doesn't inspire confidence does it since the civil war lebanon has promised 4 times to reform in return for for it seems to enjoy something about the power you about the future if you want to go into the past you can have a lesson in history now that you have why should anyone trying to tell you we know the stories we learned the lessons we are trying telling the international community look at look at us and let's see if we succeed we are planning to succeed we are committed to success because we have to save our country again i agree with you about your description of the situation which i already know we all know and i again am saying it's a major challenge let's see for you if you could succeed in facing up to it and this is the challenge that you are taking on us is to succeed this matter with the cooperation it's our primary sponsor ability and his government it's not an easy matter i fully agree which is

a very difficult matter because of this well established well entrenched system that you rightly described and with which i fully agree with you but this is the only road that we have to take to create a rupture with the past the challenges are very important very deep but we have to take this is the only road to get out of this messy situation but 2 months later mr he took his own road and resigned. contradicting all the firm assurances he'd given in the interview and declaring that the government he'd so briefly served had shown a lack of will to reform of course it had to many lebanese the system had long since passed the point where it could be effectively reformed it now needed to be replaced from top to bottom but how to convince the power brokers of that even the slow motion collapse of the state signposted some often and in so many ways still wasn't enough to persuade them that the old game was finally ending your prime minister warned last year that lebanon risk becoming

a failing state even the most basic services now don't get provided to people why did you let it get so bad. i wouldn't call him the failed state when he was able to cope with 50 percent of its population as refugees $200.00 syrian displaced to lebanon per square kilometer already one that he said last october i've warned we are moving towards a collapse if matters committee here but when when solid states and successful states like in europe were not able to receive more than 10000 refugees and 11 on that it was one a half 1000000 i wouldn't we have a very successful more that but if it fades i want a model of diversity and coexistence then everything will fade and ministers not successful when you can leave cope with the rubbish on the streets the rubbish you can blame the refugees for that can you know but this is this is our responsibility

i cannot deny it but this is a system that has become the activists say so inefficient and corrupt that it can't provide basic services depends how you how you measure the success of a society you can have a very democracy and prosperity but no cohesion and society so everything gets the same great society the country of the rubbish and code clearly for its people puts their health in danger shouldn't be governing shit not defending this but i'm saying you have also political garbage and you have the war garbage that we are witnessing everywhere and i think this is still less costly than having to dealing people that's garbage and killing them like when we have 200000 killed people and and syria and in the region we are enforcing a terrorist or the government that cannot provide basic services isn't worthy of the label of a government is that why don't you reserving because if i find somebody who can

clear the right you know you are right on this but the problem is that we have vacancy and if you go there is and you stay there we cannot resign we are obliged. stay because there will be no government there will be complete void and in lebanon if we have is our staying together with the health of your being no no no we should elect a president who should be a representative of his people a strong president was strong popularity and then we'll have another government stood there a few infighting manipulation. and you say this is a model of cooperation more than of coexistence this is a model of political paralysis or something that is yes it is so so will the european the order to call paralysis another talking of corporation talking of call existence because in the ban on. muslims the christians are still living together in the power sharing modern and parity where this does not exist anywhere

else in the world and certainly is and she despite all the tension around us are still not fighting and there's no leadership and there's no decisions yes this is from another central bank governor this is guide or sort of the pearl is that we have in the whole region because when the ban on this reflected in politics this this will of eliminating the other but you know to blame your part of the system of the system that is most broken down on him politically are not the denying they were aware of global and collective responsibility last october thousands of demonstrators angry and frightened called for an end to political corruption and for a new untainted set of politicians to run the country to topple to the station in rapid succession. the protest movement cuts across religious and political lines with demands for the recovery of stolen funs and for the corrupt to be held accountable and there was plenty to account for years of squalor in the streets as

politicians bickered over garbage collection contracts and electricity failed for hours on end month after month among those being called out for criticism was that hezbollah movement the self-styled party of god financed by iran and they didn't like it. let's talk about only massive street protests that we've seen in lebanon in recent months one moment you seem to be listening to them then you claimed with no ever. dence that they were being exploited by the u.s. and israel and then last october you sent your thugs to beat up the demonstrators because they dared to criticize your leader an absolutely not little enough i'm not i'm certain i'm sort of i don't know you like that i'm not i don't know that he was sure that we send our people do other proof it was widely reported that one of the time when we went against the in october and december widely you know the media show you in the media i'm in the media this is

a massive photo measure the air we don't make it out i can tell you i live is the most i was about to get up and i live here i tell you. i tell you do it we are not part of those who suppress the people we are with the masses we are with those who are the ones that i think we want to protect them we have the same issue actually we consider mr mousavi in december your supporters attacked an anti-government protest camp in central beirut and the army had to be called in to disperse the groups around the same time you and your allies from amal targeted other anti-government protest camps in different parts of lebanon so much for listening to the demonstrators and heeding their demands you beat them up. i can simply say this is not the way as well or whether you like it or dislike it represents a large component of a society it's a main political party political actor and and on and everybody is welcome to join and help us and this whether directly being involved directly supportive or not

supportive of the government let's see for the observers turner observers and external observers like you if you succeed you say this and i hear what you say why should the west lift a finger to help a government actively being constructed by hizbullah which is why do we view the round the. terrorist or onset i think is a point of view it's not absolute reality hezbollah is widely seen around the world as a terrorist and as a noise ation is not seen around the concert by some but it is not what this some i don't agree with this view you may disagree either logically politically strategically with a lebanese political party or libya's national resistance movement that's your right to do so but it's a major represent a major component of the of any society social component and political component what i'm saying take us to task as a government telling our western countries with which we are committed to develop

the best out of relations culturally politically socially economically strategically with the western countries are very close to most of those countries we have very good relations are trying to develop to deepen strengthen and a lot of these western countries take us to test about what we are doing what we are planning to do that about what is said here or there or about any ideological sloganeering or at the logical views according to the drug enforcement agency has been increasingly relies on criminal revenue from the wider array of sources that include the lebanese diaspora group members affiliates and such are the organization is even competed for money laundering contracts in the same. as colombian drug cartels and other criminal organizations so you belong with some shady new groups on the international crime scene don't you. you can't continue to mention only if you want to continue this episode as long as you want you can

continue to mention as much as you want of examples but this is not going to change the truth that these are things are put in the most of the western media against hezbollah against any. religious stance move against any resistance group in order to distort the image in order to justify the sections against it you asked for examples i gave you so let's talk if we may about your support for the assad government bashar al assad in syria despite its shocking disregard for human life especially civilians you can hardly claim ignorance of what they've been doing or don't you the party of god have anything to say about policies of rape torture and extermination that. his forces have been carrying out you've got no principles no red lines as far as that sort of behavior is concerned. let me ask you about the

western media about your government of the western governments of the united states governments and what they did to the israelis who crush the people every day who bipolar star and who by parts of lebanon who by parts of the golan heights and who continue to occupy also they want to annex part of jordan parts of of other places i mean if we ask those questions in other programs i'm talking to you or not as i'm talking to you about hezbollah because you represent hezbollah and i'm asked why you are silent why you support hezbollah regime in syria when the faeries out extermination policies towards its own thing i want to cause we are fighting this we will we will we will fight think that create a global beheaded people who took the hearts of people who class d. g. the children who made an illusion this is we will fight things that are clearly groups it is a priority because they came and they got it digressions against our part of the

country you know we had a wide open oceans against the north lebanon is lebanon mr those i will say critically important thing is that by lending mr assad to your support you became complicit in everything he did and these are crimes against humanity the un high commissioner for human rights in syria got a torture chamber they are complicit they are complicit with the with mohammad been said about all of those cities he is making in yemen. the united states and britain and all governments who are complicit so it's the west's fault along with everyone else's lots of blame to be shared around so much in fact that it doesn't actually stick to any one party's take responsibility in name only and they stay in their posts whatever mistakes or crimes they've committed it's a system of accountability but with 0 consequences except of course for the people who have to live with all the criminality and incompetence poverty and now hunger

small wonder that their patience is close to exhausted. how long do you expect people to wait for these rights that you're promising these reforms that you're probably seeing the end to corruption and has apparently just. our looted money give us back looted money this is what they say when one of the people of lebanon going to get back i know we are very much we are very much aware and committed to that it's not that government that lot of the money before it's not business government that created the situation that was before but however we are committed to do what we can with our friends again saying inside and outside reaching to everybody in order to get out of this vicious destructive circle that lebanon found itself in i understand very legitimate frustration as well as the very legitimate demands of the iranian population of which i'm a member i mean of any citizen before being

a lebanese official you understand these problems we have to get together and try to get out of this very difficult situation at least we have a commitment and the clarity that we need to get out of this difficult situation so i ask where are the reforms why aren't you pushing for them you blame the system. being a king of also having you in government if you don't bring it out ailments i'm talking i'm talking about the ailments of the system that has been going on going on for so many years i mean for decades now we have reached we should be held responsible for what happened about these responsible those who are in the government we are part of the government we don't deny our responsibility we have to embrace our full responsibility in this we were there to take part in the small responsibility but the still when you talk about the kind of reforms that we want to do they should be structural we are one component of the mosaic of components of course the u.s.

is in the lebanese society we take our share of the responsibilities and they should be blamed. they did if even just a few of those comforting words from our politicians had been turned into action then lebanon might look very different from the way it does today but no single political figure or faction appears to have the oath or a t. to bring about fundamental change and there's little chance of the different groups agreeing on a single course of action as for the people many say they believe if they could food prices have skyrocketed unemployment is rife the banks are severely limited access to save. for now 2 important questions hang on so that over lebanon can the cash strapped west afford to give it the emergency support it needs and then i highly volatile region like this with conflict never far from the surface come it really afford not.

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compatible with the bad. muslim women choose between their fish and self-determination. i don't want anyone to tell me what the right through my head scot enough how women are striving to reform their islam away from traditional prejudices for. women in islam. in 75 minutes p.w. . good girl who. can. be personal for zuma.

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all of them come straight from the heart to its corner see you before there's no more delusional mush to enjoy. from the 1st look to their final resting place the russians are g.w. documentary. this is it of you news and these are our top stories protests have broken out in louisville kentucky to demanded justice for briana sailor who was shot dead by police in march they're angry after prosecutors charged one officer only for endangering her neighbors and not with her murder taylor was shot dead when police raided her apartment on a so-called no knock warrants. the european union has unveiled a plan to overhaul its migration all.