in the ne plus 0. 0 dollars in the military. right now, i'll climb a tree to bring our story. this is one sibling, one just one week. and i want to work and really don't. we still have time to work on doing a little subset of subscribers in the news like this. this is g.w. news, and these are our top stories. the u.s. department of defense has confirmed it will be cutting the number of troops in afghanistan and iraq before mid january. it will leave 2500 troops in each country . the move would fulfill one of president trump's campaign pledges, but nato has warned against forces leaving too quickly. ethiopia says its

troops are marching on the capital of the tikrit region after local leaders ignored a surrender ultimatum. earlier, the federal government carried out what it called surgical airstrikes on the regional capital killing. the un has warned of a full scale humanitarian crisis. central america is reeling after being battered by a hurricane for the 2nd time in less than 2 weeks. some 40000 people in nicaragua have been evacuated into shelters, iow that made landfall in the northeast of the country with winds of more than 260 kilometers per hour. this is due to the news from berlin. follow us on twitter and instagram apps to double your news, or visit our website, w dot com the,

the corona virus is spreading like never before in the u.s., and here in europe hospitalizations in france and america, patients with coke at 19 are at a record high despite promising back seems the short term future looks grim and unless radical steps are taken. now, today, austria begin a nationwide lockdown for almost 3 weeks. practically, everyone will do just 2 things. stay home and then be tested for the virus. i'm burnt off in berlin. this is the day we're going through challenging times. we have a terrorist attack and we hike around a virus infection right on this because 3, unfortunately has the highest infection rates in europe at the moment. $500.00

cases per 100 patents in half a sentence because it's so we decided to act decisively and implemented a short but sharp 2nd drug for 2 and a hop weeks straight. i think it makes sense because we don't know how the situation will develop if we do nothing that we need to see is also coming up in his new memoir, a promise to land. a former u.s. president barack obama opens up about his relationships with other leaders, such as german chancellor angela merkel and his friendship with president elect joe biden. i was thrilled to see it's become a brother, a genuinely good friend, kamel as one of my earliest supporters when i 1st launched my presidency. so i am personally invested in them. i think this gives us a chance to get back to the kind of competent,

caring government that we so badly need and to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and to all of you around the world. welcome. we begin the day with austria's new strategy to squash the coronavirus and to salvage christmas. today, the country began its 2nd nationwide lockdown after a partial lockdown proved unsuccessful. in reducing the number of new infections for almost 3 weeks, people will only leave their homes if their jobs are deemed essential or if they need to exercise, buy groceries or buy medicine. that's it. for as much as it is strict austria's lockdown is also ambitious. it is supposed to slow the spread of the virus significantly and be followed by a mass testing program. the goal to test everyone, all $8800000.00 people in the country. so much of austria's lock down depends on

public cooperation, and that is true everywhere when everyone is not on board. the consequences are the tragic scenes now playing out in the united states, the austrian prime minister has issued one urgent request to his nation. don't meet anyone. vienna's commercial district was full of people on monday night. locals want to shop before the lockdown since only grocery stores and pharmacies can remain open during the next 3 weeks. home goods and electronics are especially sought after right now to men and so on. i'm looking for a camera for me, learning for my son, so that he can take part in live online lessons and show it does that is what i'm looking for. everything that i need, i don't know how long the lockdown will last, supposedly until december 6th, apart from shops and restaurants, schools and daycare centers are also closed from tuesday. but here in vienna, many establishments offer childcare for kids with working parents or those who can't take part in online classes at home. she was with me the whole time during

the 1st lockdown. sometimes i had to have a zoom conference and she was sad. the entire time, she's an only child and she doesn't have anyone else our busiest. and since she had me, man, there are exceptions to the current curfew. people who must work in person, visit a doctor or buy groceries mainly, their homes going for walks and exercising outdoors is permitted, but only with social distancing. and there might be more signs of life outside than there once during this spring's lockdown. because this time, playgrounds and parks are staying open or partial walk, the walk down old steroids. you can say when you look out your window, can you, can you tell the difference? i certainly can't today, things are very tranquil when the lockdown came into effect. things did shut right

down and the contrast to yesterday was amazing because the lock that was announced on saturday. so everybody got ready for monday and stormed the stores. there were lines out the door. everybody wearing face masks, so it immediately became apparent why the lockdown was necessary. lockdowns work or not popular, but it's what was required when people were left to their own devices. the infection rates were off the charts. and we're still seeing the effects of that. nearly $6000.00 infections just over the past 24 hours. intensive intensive treatment centers in hospitals are in danger of being overrun. i think austria only has about $522.00 beds left. switzerland hit capacity today. it needs to be stop. the government plans to also test the entire population. when this

lockdown is finished, talk to me a little bit about the logistics here. i mean, this sounds like a job for the military. if austria were to follow the slovakian model, it would indeed require the military testing more than $8000000.00. people would be a monumental task, but chancellor of the boston courts is going to convene a meeting of experts tomorrow morning at the chancellor. and even ahead of that meeting, what's now coming out is that what is more likely is that some sort of targeted testing will be pursued. what they didn't, slovakia was they use these antigens, tests which are not very accurate. and they're not really meant to test populations where you're going to have a lot of people testing negative. it's good to prove that people were positive, but it doesn't accomplish what you need to accomplish to find out where you have clusters and why they built. the big mystery in austria is why the end inspections

started to increase the rapidly in some areas. so this mass testing program will be clarified after this big meeting tomorrow, whether australia pursues a walk in model is yet to be seen, but probably not likely. ok, correspondent steve shades with the latest tonight from vienna. steve, as always thank you. are going to stay in austria. now i'd like to welcome biologist norbert noble to the program. dr. novotny, it's good to have you with the partial walk down. did not bring down the number of new infections in your medical opinion. is this total lockdown for the next 2 and a half 3 weeks? is that the right solution? first of all, believe the names. while these powers are locked down for almost 2 weeks, now, at least not hold new infections and we see some decline in, you know, the law to date. so i'm pretty sure that

a complete lockdown. it's hard to lock down your in the upcoming 20 days. it should work at the hall in other places like it or than out of a belgian public though there are a number of other countries which successfully hardtalk alberta successfully and as we heard, it is absolutely necessary. but i think their mother, shirley got a hold of it all capacity and is public about it in the i.c.u. was to balance after the walk. yeah, we understand that austria wants to test the entire population for the virus. do you know, maybe you could explain to us, will these tests before the presence of antibodies or will these tests before the actual presence of the virus?

you know, i think the idea is in design a few days to test for vitals. in order to find the pill infected in order to say, you know, there's not to be before christmas for shopping at that time. and also with, you know, an awful lot of police during that time. i think you have probably been the entire population. as you said before, i'm more thing targeted to certain groups of people, for example, because one is definitely the last element to think these embers and on the 7th and spangles into schools. open the school for people aged 14 to 18.

and that he just didn't make sense and some other doctor, no burden of ought to be joining us tonight from austria. dr. we appreciate your time in your insights tonight. thank you both on come on have a good night. i was thrilled to become a brother, a genuinely good friend, kamel. i was one of my earliest supporters when i 1st launched my presidency, so i'm personally invested in them. i think this gives us a chance to get back to the kind of competent, caring government that we so badly need. and every president has been held to a different standard relative to this president. i think donald trump breach so many norms. so made a basic assumptions about what

a president should or should not do that you can't come up with a comparable set of behaviors in the past. those kinds of things, which in some ways we became numb to over the last several years. i think that the stuff that can be fixed and joe and comma will set a different tone. we are now seeing in the middle of a pandemic, the consequences of not having a good public health infrastructure. because no matter how good your health insurance is, if everybody around you is getting sick and then you're at risk as well. and that was former u.s. president barack obama talking about america's coronavirus crisis and the president and vice president elect. and he says, will rescue the country. obama is talking a lot this week to kick off the publication of his new memoir entitled

a promised land. the book with more than a 1000 pages covers the years 2009 through 2011 includes key moments during his tenure, such as the arab spring uprisings in the arab world. and the fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis. it features many leaders who are still in office today, such as america. here's a taste of what obama writes about. the german chancellor. the more i've gotten to know uncle america, the more i've come to like her, i found her steady, honest, intellectually rigorous and instinctually kind. but she was also conservative by temperament. not to mention a savvy politician who knew her constituency. and whenever i suggested to her that germany needed to set an example by spending more on infrastructure or tax cuts, she politely but firmly pushed back yob iraq. i think maybe that's not the best approach for us. she would say her face pulling into

a slight frown as if i suggested something a little told it is rare to read such a candid and well written account of a european leader by a former us president. to take advantage of this tonight, we've invited jeff rocca, president of the american institute for contemporary german studies at johns hopkins in washington, d.c. . jeff has worked in the u.s. state department, the white house, and here in berlin at the u.s. embassy, geoff, it's good to have you on the program tonight. i hope you've had a chance to glance at the passages about the german chancellor. what surprised you most in obama's description of her and of their relationship? well, thanks for having me on brant. i think what you see in that passage is the complexity of the american obama relationship. it, you know, we think about when barack obama left office and the warm close relationship that

they exhibited. but it didn't start out that way. you know, it started off with barack obama having campaigned in berlin during the 2008 presidential election, which merkel was not very enthusiastic about. and it also started off with very strong differences of opinion between the united states and germany, about the fiscal stimulus that came after the financial crisis of 200-820-0918, few other issues as well. so what you see here is that it took some time for the, you know, intellectually strong and very distinct personalities to find their working relationship and to make it a productive one. you know, we know that by the end of his tenure, we can say that obama was even enchanted by the german chancellor. he was not in chanted by the french president sarkozy. this is what he writes about him. what

sarkozy lacked in ideological consistency. he made up for in boldness, charm and manic energy. indeed, conversations with sarkozy or by turns amusing and exasperating his hands in perpetual motion. his chest thrust out like a bantam cox. his primary barely disguised interest was to be at the center of the action and take credit for whatever it was that might be worth taking credit for. as much as i appreciated the fact that sort cozy had embrace my campaign early on. it wasn't hard to tell which of the 2 european leaders would prove to be the more reliable partner jeff obama is calling the french president there a fair weather friend. that's not the nicest compliment you can give someone. can you tell us? is that how the state department viewed sarkozy at the time? well, i don't think we would look at it that way. i think, you know,

like many other french presidents. and indeed, if you look at the french diplomatic tradition, air france is interested in action. and in shaping the environment around them, and their sarkozy is not any different from his predecessors. or you might also say from emanuel macro today. and i think the, in my experience as a diplomat, the, you know, you have this balance in europe. on the one hand, you have often ambitious french leaders who are trying to get something done to make something happen. and you have a certain caution and circumspect approach by, by germans who either are worried about footing the bill or perhaps there are concerned about how they're very different public opinion will accept the idea of ambitious action in which germany is a part so. so i think for an american leader like obama, you need to have

a bit of both. you need to have someone like star cozy who wants to see things happen and who wants to be part of it. but you also need someone like on the american who is able to take a long view, and you can have a sustainable policy that is going to, you know, see that she can stick to for a long longer period. you mention policy, obama also did a huge part of his book to the euro crisis, and he, he's not calling to germany and france when he describes their treatment of greece . this is what he writes as the debate about greece, heated up public discussions inside some of the original e.u. countries would sometimes veer beyond disapproval of the greek government's policies and venture into a broader indictment of the greek people. or as i dove, or here one e.u. official of undetermined origin. tell another, well i was washing my hands in a g. 8 summit lavatory they'd, i don't think that we don't think that they like us. i notice that they merkel and

sarkozy rarely mention that german and french banks were some of greece's biggest lenders, or that much of the greeks accumulated debt had been racked up by buying german and french exports. facts that might have made clear to voters why saving the greeks from default amounted to saving their own banks and industries. that's rather scathing, and i would say your average observer would not have picked up on obama's disapproval of the german and french approach. would you agree with that? well, over time there have been disagreements, and the one that you've just described is a good example. but there have been, there have been others. and obama, early in his presidency, was concerned about, you know, we don't remember it much now, but about the trade deficit and about germany's export driven economic model. so

this is that this is a consistent theme of that. the more progressively oriented obama administration at times took a very different view of the international economic priorities and is especially the recovery plans that would be most effective if you think, take into consideration the financial crisis that marked the, the start of obama's term that he inherited from president bush and then what, what we saw even more starkly during the eurozone crisis, a few years after that. so i think that, you know, this is, you know, the difference if we compared to the last 3 or 4 years, is that the german american and the european american relationship in those times was imbedded in a larger, shared purpose. and the fundamental understanding that we were hoping to go in the

same direction even if we chose different paths. and that's why you could have disagreements about specifics. but without it calling the fundamentals of the relationship into question are i just wrote the president of the american institute for contemporary german studies. jeff, it's great to have you on the show tonight. we appreciate your insights as well. thank you for a pleasure. thanks. it was one of the biggest jewel heist in germany, the green vote break in the city of dresden one year ago. now there's been a breakthrough. in the case. police have arrested 3 suspects in a massive operation here in berlin, but they say they have not found any trace of the 1000000000 euros worth of precious gems that were stole. it was the pride of dressed and green vault, 18th century jewelry of immeasurable worth. items that once were

worn by june in kings and queens us but since the smash and grab burglary a year ago, it has been no trace of them. but there could be of the thieves in berlin, more than $1600.00 officers from around the country, raided several apartments, taking laptops, potential evidence, and arresting 3 suspects for 2 of the arrested suspects. the judge in charge has issued an arrest warrant the 3rd suspect, who will still be brought before the judge. the prosecutor's office in reston expects an arrest warrant there as well. the police have also launched an international search for 2 additional suspects. all of them have been identified as german citizens who belong to the so-called criminal clan,

seen organized crime networks whose members are mainly of middle eastern origin. gemini's capital bolen has become a stronghold for them in recent. yes. and the challenge for police and prosecutors . the jury heist is the 2nd high profile robbery in germany, in 2017, a 100 kilogram gold coin was stolen from a berlin museum. the theft to the same criminal clan that is now in the focus of investigations around, dressed in green belt. and my colleagues gone from v.w. arts and culture is here to talk about this. i mean, really, this heist itself was spectacular. oh yeah. it is like something out of a movie. i mean, this is almost exactly a year ago, november of last year, early in the morning in dresden. and what the thieves did is 1st, they set fire to electricity junction point, so that the power become off on the block. so the bow street lights were out and

they went to ground floor of this museum, tore the bars off a window ground floor window went through with an axe straight to a display case of the jury, smashed at, grab the jewels and got out there within 5 minutes, but it's too late, they're already gone. their getaway car was found later not far from, from the site burned out. and they took jewels with them that are worth what? a 1000000000 1000000000 euros is the, is the guesstimate that they, that they put out there. but really, i mean, to talk about these, this is this, this, this treasury, this is from the strong 18th century saxon leader. this treasury is the equivalent of the british crown jewels. i mean, it's always the prices, the, the, the cultural value, the, the financial value is priceless. and that's why it's been so important the police to try and catch these people and to try if they can to find these jewels because they can't be replaced. there's no way that this is not the 1st big museum robbery

that we've seen in germany. and police are telling us that there is a connection maybe to previous ones. yes. seems a direct connection because one of the people who was arrested today for the green belt robbery has already been convicted of another robbery that happened in 2007. this one was mentioned in the piece, this huge gold coin that was stolen from another german. you see him 300 kilograms coin worth of across the $4000000.00. that was the police think was, was taken down and then sold off one of the people who was arrested for that. he was sentenced in february, but he was out on bail pending appeal. and he was then picked up this morning and that is the fear here is that once these jewels are stolen, they will never be seen again. yeah, i mean, this is, people said last year when the robbery happened, our experts said these pieces are so famous. they couldn't be sold legally, they probably would be sold illegally. the fear is that they were the pieces were

just broken down, maybe cut, cut and then and then and sold off. there are some small hope that maybe some haven't been, they could be recovered. but those those hopes seem to be getting smaller by the day. so that story there is always got. thank you, that well, the day is almost done, but the conversation continues online. you'll find us on twitter either at u.w. news or you can follow me at brant galt's t.v. . and remember whatever happens between now and then, tomorrow is another day we'll see you than ever, but they're

constantly growing. living costs are rising, they're becoming more densely populated. and now cities are pulsing to the beat of corona. they've become breeding grounds for the virus. isn't the end of growth a new beginning to see the planet in the flux made in germany

next time and forgotten by society. discarded children on the streets of the philippines, searching for home, they find persecution, prison and violence. dominoes, homeless children who are fighting for survival every single day. 45. d. w. is a master of the art of confrontation and this is wrong. measuring of verbal combat doesn't mean you're going to see ya. it's like the undisputed champion of tough

political talk. trying to frighten people is a fact everybody understands, is that you enter the conflict zone and join to sebastian as he holds the powerful to account. this is a fix for your whichever way you like to spin conflict zone d. w. . nico is in germany to learn german english been called. why not learn with him d, w z learning course? because vic just when things were looking up, everything shot down again. the 1st lockdown was a nice chance to take a bit of a break for us lucky once, and if you managed to remain untouched by the virus, fix

a few things around the house. read lots of books, learn to bake bread, but it did drag on and now partly because some people let their god down.