but everyone has the right everyone has the rights of this is g.w. news live from berlin, here in the german capital, a clash of people politics, and the police over the police used water cannons to push back thousands of demonstrators. today they were protesting against a new law, extending government powers to impose cruel new virus restrictions. also coming out of the indian capital delhi battles,

another spike in coronavirus cases will meet the front line workers during one of the hardest jobs that there is every day. and u.s. president orders u.s. troops to come home from afghanistan. the move is drawing fire from america's nato allies, including germany, plus 2 fatal crashes kept it grounded for 2 years now. after months of scrutiny, the boeing $737.00 max has been cleared to fly again. i burnt off to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and to all of you around the world. welcome. we begin tonight with politics and the pandemic. lawmakers here in berlin have voted to give the german government new powers, allowing it to introduce restrictions to tackle the coronavirus crisis. german president, vulture steinmeyer,

signed the bill into law earlier this evening. it takes effect tomorrow. thousands of demonstrators took to the streets today to protest as politicians debated the legislation thank water cannon and pepper spray deployed by police to disperse the demonstrators. thousands gathered near the german parliament building many in the crowd, not wearing masks, or maintaining social distancing. they were protesting against coronavirus restrictions, which they see as a violation of their civil rights. in my opinion, the restrictions are disproportionate. surely it should have been possible to come up with other measures that don't cause so much suffering. you still believe i'm here for my children and my grandchildren. i will not allow their freedom to be taken away. yeah. well police clashed with protesters outside lawmakers inside parliament who are largely in agreement and approve the new

infection protections long. the law is meant to put the government's response of the coronavirus on a stronger legal footing. previous legislation only listed broad general provisions and didn't foresee the severity of the pandemic, or the specific restrictions needed to rein it in. this led to local courts overturning some of the measures. the new law defines more concretely which restrictions can be introduced, including mandatory face masks, limited social contacts, and restaurant closures. health minister, young spawn, defended the measures and criticize those protesting against them. to be allowed to be against it or even to deny the obvious oh, that is possible and must be possible in a free and open country. but those who are allowed are far from being right and certainly not in the majority or this did not deter the demonstrators outside.

despite polls showing they are in a minority, a recent survey found 56 percent of joy, women's believe the restrictions are justified. and some actually want even stricter measures are for more now we want to go to our political correspondents. i mean young, he's on the story for us here in berlin. good evening to you saw him in so we know we're talking about a minority here in germany. but a very loud minority, what kind of people were at today's protest, yet different kinds of people brained, many of them very angry as we saw all the ass, some of them throwing bottles. soul studies at police who responded with would say cannon. these are a different sorts of groups. you've got some anti vacs is you've got corona skeptics, you've got some conspiracy theorists and people with connections to the far right. but many other people just saying that really they're worried about what they see

as an erosion of civil liberties. but they only know it was a pretty noisy and agitated and at times aggressive, often in central. and is that their main objection here with this new legislation that personal freedoms are being eroded? well, i had the impression that a lot of the protesters on the streets weren't particularly focused on the legislation being discussed a short distance away in parliament. what they're mainly protesting about is the corunna measures. in general, they oppose the distancing rules, the rules on wearing mosques and a lot of towns. and they say that those are, you know, that the government is taking away their freedoms. but i think it's worth saying that some of those ideas were certainly echoed in the parliamentary debate. you had

opposition parties and not just the far right a.f.p. by the way, saying things like the government was giving itself carte blanche to impose unlimited measures or indeed accusing the government of, you know, imposing unprecedented curbs on people's freedoms. so there is some sort of crossover from this move in the street to the way they say she's being talked about a political level as well. and somebody, we know what the government's next step is in fighting this virus. well we know that there will be another top level meeting with the charts that and regional state lead is next week. and the big question there will be will the current lockdown around germany be extended? will it be toughened up? we know that the infection numbers have improved in the last couple of weeks since lot down began, but maybe they haven't improved quite enough yet. and some of the measures agreed

in this new legislation today. point towards, for instance, compensation that can be provided to people who've been affected by lock downs into 2121, going through to march and beyond. so that gives you some sense. the government is ready if they decide they need to extend the restrictions that are currently in place. as political correspondent, simon young, on the story for us in berlin tonight. simon, thank you. well, finding a pandemic is difficult politically, not only here in germany, governments are struggling to balance public health, personal freedoms and health care systems at their limit and weakened economies. to talk about all of this, i'm joined now by geoffrey levy, professor of health management and policy at george washington university professor levy. it's good to have you on the program. these karuna restrictions, they are not popular anywhere. isn't there an automatic conflict here between public health policies and personal freedoms?

i think that's a false choice. i think, you know, people need to understand and i think our political leaders perhaps have not on the as good a job as they could have. and explaining that these restrictions, however severe they may appear to be, are necessary to keep people alive and to restore our economy. and that in the long run this will benefit everyone in society. i think the particular challenge that we face in the united states is that even the animal restrictions like requirements to wear masks in public, have become so politicized. and therefore polarizing that it's almost a political statement in some parts of the country. if you are wearing a mask, but we know we can return people to closer to normal lives if we adopt some of these restrictions. and i also think that now that we have axes truly on the horizon, recognizing that this is for a short period of time will make

a big difference. well, across the globe used to have groups of people who simply do not believe that the virus exists and they don't believe it in its dangers. and how do you approach these people? well, i think that's a big challenge. i think, to some degree, we've been hurt by the politicization of this by many political leaders across the world. but i think it also comes at a time where there is so much distrust of expertise, so much distrust of science and so much distrust of government officials that this can be hard to overcome. i'm not sure in the context of this crisis alone, we can do that though. what i do know is that certainly in the united states, as we see higher and higher rates of infection, as we see more and more people getting sick and dying, some of that skepticism about the nature of this disease goes away. it's a tragic way to overcome that attitude. but that's the reality. there is very good

news. this week we've got 2 promising vaccines, pfizer in biotech saying today that they're going to ask for a merge and see approval by the f.d.a. in the u.s. . that's all good news. are you concerned though that once that 1st vaccination is given and that becomes a news story? are you concerned then that people will just drop any attempt at social distancing and wearing face masks the things we have now to prevent infections? i think that is a very legitimate concern. i think people, but i also think the opposite mails to be true that we can tell people, hold on, hang on until you get that vaccine because it's for a limited period of time. we do have some real challenges about making sure that we can produce enough vaccine that's going to take time, making sure it is equitably distributed within countries and across the world. but ultimately, this does shorten the time horizon. all right, professor jeffrey levy,

professor of health management and policy at george washington university. reza live. we appreciate your time and your insights tonight. thank you and stay healthy . thank you. you do the same. thank you our, let's take a look now at some of the other developments in the pandemic, the united states has reported its highest daily coronavirus related death toll since may. the u.s. food and drug administration has approved the 1st covert 19 home testing kit. it provides results, positive or negative within 30 minutes, south australia has imposed a 6 day lockdown after a sudden outbreak ended. what had been a long period with no new infections. and japan has seen its biggest rise in new delhi cases as preparations begin for next summer's olympic games for india. where the capital delhi is considering plans to reintroduce some walk down

measures following festive gatherings and a drop in temperatures. the nation as a whole is bracing for a spike in new infections, but residents in delhi have already seen the numbers go up. w. meets those on the frontline of the city's battle with code 19 the day is just beginning, but he knows if it be a long one. he counted 15 bodies in the morning when he left the morgue at delhi's largest school with 1000 hospital, where he will, he will spend all of the, at this chemical area. he helped commit the body sifi and ensure that people suffering the shock of losing a family member to the could. one of my it is have to up a protective dia as they see their last goodbyes for the last week. has been bringing in twice the number of bodies that are dead. he is experiencing its 3rd spike in over 1000 cases,

but close 200 deaths every day was assigned to the mortuary. often many vocals befall him quit although vary by the number of corpses coming in. i had to step over bodies to sort through the names of the victims. i had to summon all my courage. of course i was scared. i've never seen anything like it in my life . i've never seen so many bodies still, he soldiers on. he says someone has to here at the local, delis largest go, don't know why this facility. the spike is evident. the severity of the cases has also risen. as many more see admission. while this hospital still has a high number of designated coronavirus beds available, they only have a handful of free ventilators and intensive care units or i.c.u. beds left. this after i.c.u.

beds at this facility alone have been for drupal during the pandemic. authorities here are confident that things are under control, but they are also bracing for more cases. more and more people are coming home. so we hope this is because of the number of people who was there and social gathering. the authorities are now mapping out ways to prevent the health care system from being over the end, with daily gases in delhi, crossing the $8000.00 mark. the national government has now stepped in part these plans to significantly than pop the thing. increase the number of i.c.u. bed and also deploy emergency health care office. elsewhere to delhi still the morgue and the board of stokley, distant worlds, crowds continue to try on the market. just didn't think really for the restrictions

is unnecessary because you is no need to worry cases are going up. so keep rising even during a shutdown. people go out anyway, you want to make a difference. it's not so would be interesting to eat. and right now, if you take some precautions, so it becomes easy for them. back at the crematorium strongly disagrees. his is the kind of book that makes him vince when he sees the markets overflowing. and together on the street, memories of the don't don't maybe feeding for goes out and about but is still afraid to come close to his cheese young daughters and his aging mother. but he's not giving up. lock down 15 is not an option. it's only that the pandemic ends that are jewish, and julie go home the pandemic in india. let's take a look now at some of the other stories that are making headlines around the world . thousands have been marching through central warsaw,

protesting moves to tighten poland's abortion law. it's the latest in a series of adminstrations. last month, a court handed down a ruling that would impose a near total ban on abortions. that ruling has yet to go into effect. thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in the thai capital bangkok as lawmakers rejected their demands for sweeping changes to the constitution. demonstrators want the prime minister just step down and they want curbs on the power of the monarchy . chaotic protests a day earlier, left, more than 50 people injured. u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo is holding talks in jerusalem. he's meeting with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. and with bahrain's foreign minister ability for jani, the 2 countries have agreed to normalize their relations under a u.s. backed deal. well, with just 2 months left in office, u.s. president has called international law by ordering a sharp reduction in american troop numbers in afghanistan and iraq. by mid january

numbers will be cut to 2 and a half 1000 u.s. soldiers in each country. as trump looks to make good on his campaign promise to end what he calls america's endless wars. but he's facing opposition, especially from nato allies. soon there will be fewer u.s. soldiers on the streets of kabul, as the pentagon prepares to reduce its presence in afghanistan even further. american soldiers have been deployed here since 2001, helping stabilize the country after overthrowing taliban rule. but suffering of a 2000 deaths of a time, the numbers of wind now outgoing president donald trump wants to reduce them to a skeleton force that's raising fears among afghans over the future security of that country. in my opinion,

the withdrawal of foreign troops from afghanistan will cause the taliban to escalate their violence across the country. and it will also cause women to suffer more than one way as a goal. when u.s. forces withdraw from afghanistan, creative power vacuum and the taliban will escalate the violence to seize more political power in afghanistan. and that as u.s. troop numbers have fallen, extremists have gained in strength. this attack on kabul university earlier this month killed 22 people. it was claimed by the so-called islamic state, which is emerged as a rival to the taliban. the taliban themselves have stepped up their attacks on security forces and civilians violating an agreement that foresaw the withdrawal of all u.s. soldiers by may next year. speaking in the afghan parliament, after the news of the drawdown broke the acting afghan defense minister played down

the move. i wonder how much my own eyes don't talk about 1st of all. i don't have a sense that anyone is leaving. it could only, they might be ups and downs and numbers, but we are not worried about it. we have ready to defend afghanistan independently of him, but the point was that colonial understand, but many world leaders are concerned. nato chief u.n. stoltenberg has warned of a potentially very high price for a premature pullout. and germany's foreign minister heiko mass cautioned against creating problems. for the peace talks with the taliban. it's specially important to us that the progress we've achieved so far isn't thrown into jeopardy by hasty actions. that's why we're particularly concerned about the u.s. announcement could mean for the continuation of peace talks in afghanistan. in iraq, the u.s. military presence was greatly reduced after the defeat of isis in 2017. this is

increased the sway of neighboring iran and militia groups aligned with to hahn as u.s. soldiers head home. they could risk leaving the field to america's enemies. all right, so what is the impact of this move on nato to talk about that, i want to bring in historian and former nato staffer, mr. clouds, that mr. bittman is good to have you on the show. let me ask you, why is nato so worried about a reduction in u.s. troops in afghanistan? i mean, what will nato have to do if there are fewer u.s. troops there? let me stop by saying something basic. i think that these announcement by the still u.s. president, irresponsible he seems to want to keep pot leaving, taught us behind him and to fulfill promises to his bow ties without regards to losses is just not acceptable for nato. it

was the a problem. the outset that we would go into afghanistan to get them and that we really need to get in and in close consultation. and that is why our instance defines terry was against it, but that therefore he was sent away and puppets were installed in the m.o.d.e. to know stuff to reduce costs this as stone, dingly foolish. even the republican majority, leader in the senate says it's against american interests and you quoted secretary that's right. let me just ask you, was, was there next consultation? was there no consultation between the united states and nato, about this decision to withdraw u.s. troops to my knowledge, to my knowledge, not at all. and there were sufficient warnings seen in fall most

discussions. and some of it you sent already. it will strengthen the taleban and eventually also i and the i s. it movie, can the afghan and west on position in the peace talks that have begun. it will damage the fulfilment of the missions of the allied of the united states because they depend on us capabilities like support, helicopter transport and so on and withdrawal and reduction without close consultation and joint planning is something impossible. and i do not think that with this was at all consulted in nato like the announcement to draw u.s. troops and installations from germany. mr. me only reason was to punish germany for

not paying enough for the fans. let me just ask you about 20 seconds. do you think that president elect joe biden, will he be able to repair any of this damage in the alliance? i hope so very much. i also hope in this afghanistan thing somebody will stop trump audit. the experts in the military will slow down the implementation of to his decisions so that damage can be limited. it's ok mr. klein said we appreciate your time in your insights tonight. thank you. thank you. well, the u.s. federal aviation authority has cleared boeing, 737 max to fly again, provided that the aircraft are fitted with software upgrades and that pilots are given special training. the planes were grounded last year after 2 crashes which killed nearly 350 people. both accidents were caused by faults in the flight control system. the 20 months ground the is the longest in aviation history.

it's all right with me here. the big table is my colleague robots from business. good to see you rob. so what does this mean? so they're cleared with fly again. does that mean that we'll be seeing 737 matches on the tarmac there? well, it senses on the road to that, but there's still a bit of progress that needs to be made. what essentially the f.a.a. has done is rescind the grounding of these planes. what now needs to happen is that the f.a.a. has to approve the return to service. all of the fleets of 737 max as a whole, 59 of the u.s. airlines, the one to use that plane and for them to get that's approval. the airlines are going to work with boeing to make sure that each of these planes has the software updates that it needs. the pilots have the extra training the now been mandated to have. and even then the f.a.a. says it's going to check every single one of the some $400.00 or so ach raft that

will be taking back to the skies. so the aim is for boeing anyway to have this plane back in the air by the end of december. sure, it's looking like that could happen. american airlines has already shadowed a 737 max on its route between miami and new york to begin on the 29th of december just in tottenham the new year. i mean, it also is good, but what about passengers? are people going to want to fly these boy?, yeah, i mean, the f.a.a., as you would expect, has said look, we wouldn't be saying that this plane is safe if we didn't think it met the standards. if the head of the f.a.a. said, look, i've put my family in one of these tomorrow. he said he was 100 percent confident in its safety, but there has been criticism of the timing of this from, for example, the families of the $346.00 people who died in those 2 crashes. they say that it's being rushed. they want to be an extra sensor on this cas anti stall system than i'm blamed for. for those crashes,

they want to be 3 sensors on there. and that's not going to happen for a couple of years. so people are going to need persuading to get back into this, but we don't disapprove, applies just to the united states. when it's the 737, when is it likely to be able to fly again outside the u.s.? well, for example, here in europe, natalie last month, the, the leading aviation regulator here, which is the regulator for the european union, said look, we're actually happy with the at craft the stage that they've got it to and they will be happy to approve it. they've indicated that that could come quite soon. the f.a.a. has to be the 1st country, the 1st order logic. so i'm sure that the europeans were ready to clear the way before the americans. generally, it is a bit of a surprise, but the f.a.a. has got some reputational damage to repair and it wants to do. the last thing you want to be seen to be doing is rushing it so that another group has gotten ahead of them is quite a big deal. but the extraordinary thing here is that, you know,

the europeans, the chinese, the canadians, the brazilians, are all carrying out their own assessments in the past. the f.a.a. say so would have been enough. but there you see the credibility loss right there. rob watson did of your business. rob, thank you very much. all right, so you're watching d.w. news. after a short break. i'll be back to take you through the day. stick around. we'll be right back

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as we take on the more right. we're all about the stories that matter to you. what every good to see. coming out d.w. made for mines. useless. your country. people will make you rich. people oil will provide you with china, the oil will take good care of my future has to be one of the few for took hold on the west coast of going down in 2007. investors made the promises but here's later, reality looks very different. beaches drinking water shortage of employment.

people tell me in this day if the trace of oil money to happen to the mystery of black coal oil promises starts december 4th today, german lawmakers passed legislation that gives the government more legal backing for decisions aimed at protecting public health in the pandemic. and this includes social distancing, rules, facemask, requirements, and closing stores. the government enjoys broad support for these coronavirus policies, but there are loud opponents making outrageous claims saying politicians are using

public health to disguise the erosion of personal freedoms. similar they say to hell the nazi party use the power of parliament to.