very tough negotiations but merkel said that it was worth staying up the whole night to have this agreement and of course it is a huge success for her and the german e.u. council presidency there were some countries a member states that did object because they for example do rely upon coal energy so how did they manage to strike this compromise and convince them. so we're talking here about hungry poland and czech republic who are opposed to the plan saying that they would need to more help to clean up their economies and in particular it was poland blocking this compromise or the plan until the last minute today the polish prime minister said today that they are hoping to go to get more money from the modernisation fund and i would say that what helps weaken the momentum in the end was the agreement on the budget and the coronavirus with cauvery package because in large amounts of this package are meant to

be spent to boost the economy and to help member states still struggling with their green transition. our brussels bureau chief alexander phenomena reporting for us thank you very much. well another breakthrough to come out of that brussels summit was an agreement on the e.u.'s $1.00 trillion euro budget it includes hundreds of billions in coronavirus relief on its member states poland and hungary initially blocked approval of this budget because it would have made it possible to stop payments to member countries that breach e.u. laws but a tough compromise brokered by germany ended that deadlock. and let's talk more about that i'm joined now by catalina bonnett she's the vice president of the european parliament miss bonnie thank you so much for joining us here on d w are you satisfied with this compromise well i'm satisfied that

for the 1st time in history we have a very powerful link between the e.u. budget the financial subsidies and and the rule of law but we still have of course now we have a unilateral declaration by the council that china is well to give the impression that if we can see them but you have to bear in mind that a unilateral ho decision cannot we can our interpret differently an agreement that has been reached over between different partners it's as if you if you were buying a house and then after you having studio you go you go to you or to your mother and say and i also got the car and the job that doesn't change the contract you still have the house and those marlice like happened here ok so that like

a strong on paper but what about in practice because doesn't it allow this rule of law mechanism to be delayed while violations of the last could continue. this is the only really serious point in this council paper that it's been all clear that the council paper that says that what the commission is going to do we will see but it says actually the commission will not use this mechanism until it has issued guidelines and still the european court of justice has decided on this and it's now this of course takes time but well 1st of all we have to see if how the commission reacts to the ball is now and if feels and they have to act very very quickly this is all the handwriting of the 2 or one who is one of the most corrupt heads of government in the opinion and he has questions

trying to fill his pockets and pockets so it's clear as long as possible. you said that this will take time and if you look at the reality you mentioned viktor orban and hungry right now hungary's already saying that's going to launch a case to an old this rule of law regulation asked the court to check whether it is in line with the u. treaties and that this probably could take 2 years so again can this really ever be effectively implemented. well i hope that hungary and or poland or whoever is going to ask the court of justice to decide upon this because we need territory and then they can hide. behind any kind of propaganda or or whatever because then we have a verdict by the european which is just and it doesn't have to take us on this that we have seen that the european court of justice can act very quickly it can set its own priorities and if it is. more advanced. the

average is only 10 months and not 2 years so we will see but after that once this has all been cleared. then of course we have a very efficient meccans i just want to drill down on this question you are a german a former justice minister and so if poland were let's say tomorrow to the polish government to take a step that would then further erode judiciary independence in poland what could the european union do to combat that violation in the short term. well in the short term i mean if it if it if it is a step that actually influences the european budget and it has to be. probably we will have to interpret that also it probably has to be the new budget but as soon as they do that the european commission has the right to to actually

take certain measures amongst them to freeze european means and so this is a very serious threat especially to these member states who are who are great beneficiaries of european funding if we get to speak more and more and generally about their backsliding on democratic standards and hungry in poland why do you find it so important for this tool to work when it was our last chance i would say in hungary this is been going on for 10 years in poland for 5 years and there is not very much democratic structure left 5 harbor if you put it there is no 3 really there are no independent there's no independent judiciary the minorities are not protected anymore are there influencing politically every every part of the nation culture education it cetera et cetera so it was actually now that we

have this big. ringback financial package in our hands that this was the pressure that we could put on these 2 countries and of those to say if you want to continue to receive european funding you have to return to 2 european values it's not something one or another time you violate european law that we have the european court just to correct that it's a systemic and and a fundamental violation of the rule of law of european values and that it's been done in bad states in both countries will have to leave it there ca talking about vice president of the european parliament joining us thank you so much for your insights. thank you. let's check in now on some other stories making headlines around the world hong kong media says democracy activist jimmy lai has been charged under the controversial new security law he's accused of

colluding with foreign forces and in danger a national security law is the most high profile person yet to be charged under the new law police say he will face the charges in court on saturday. the trumpet ministration has allowed the execution of death row inmate brandon bernard it was the 1st federal execution during a presidential transition in 130 years and the 9th since president trump restarted federal executions after a 17 year hiatus his administration plans to rush through another 4 before his term ends next month. cuba has announced a long awaited monetary reform due to take effect on january 1st the country will eliminate its dual currency system in a bid to attract foreign investment that will likely spark inflation but the government has promised significant wage increases to cushion the impact. in germany the latest coronavirus numbers show

a dramatic spike in new cases of the past day the country has had a new high of nearly 30000 cases and 598 people have died the highest daily total yet weeks of partial lockdown haven't slowed the spread of infection anough much tougher restrictions seem almost inevitable now with political momentum building for a harder lock down over the holidays. with only 2 weeks to go until christmas the looming question across germany is will a hard lock down come before or after the holidays. at its weekly briefing on wednesday germany's robert costa institute said it was alarmed and that it was bracing for a significant increase in case numbers. the difference or is going to situation could easily typically end before it's hiding in russia exponential growth put into our story. the situation is especially problematic in assisted living facilities according to german authorities residents of nursing homes are at more risk than ever. currently we're seeing double the amount of outbreaks in assisted living

facilities than in the spring and every outbreak affects a lot of people are tough and. several german states are now considering tightening the measures already in place berlin's government is considering closing all non-essential retail before christmas the busiest period of the year winter break may be extended and schools could return to distance learning. i believe these 2 and a half 3 weeks will give us plenty of opportunities regarding disease control. state leaders are now hoping to set out a coworker needed plan in a meeting with chancellor angela merkel. if you get a moment of fun also if you miss the gathering looks likely to take place on sunday . we were very interested in getting together as quickly as possible in order to rapidly gain clarity about the path our country will follow used to open door at one point they're cute in light of recent developments religious services over the

holidays are also being scrutinized. then i would if there is a possibility of a religious gathering endangering lives i'll be the 1st to call things off. the so-called most wonderful time of the year now marked by deep concerns a new lockdown in germany isn't a matter of if but rather when did i use julius how delhi is following the story for us hi julie a let's talk about these numbers nearly 30000 new cases and 598 people have died in one day why are these numbers continuing to rise. well the lockdown that we've seen in place in germany over the last 6 weeks a partial lockdown appears not to have worked it was meant to bring down cases significantly before the christmas period so that some restrictions could be loosened then people could enjoy the festivities with

a bit more freedom but it clearly didn't go far enough in bringing them down the numbers are actually going up again now we've seen in other countries in europe for example ireland that stricter lockdown for a limited period of time was able to do just that to bring the numbers down and stop the virus and its tracks here in germany when the decision was taken. over 6 weeks ago there was no political consensus between the federal government and the state governments to tougher lockdown and that's how we saw the compromise of the partial lockdown that didn't really work well for a look at what the german interior ministry is saying he's made his position very clear here lou if we can bring in the quote he said germany has wasted the advantage it managed to gauge during the spring the only chance we have to get him to get control of the situation is a lockdown but it needs to be immediate if we wait until christmas will have to continue fighting these numbers for months those words from the interior minister

who will for how much agreement is there behind his call for an immediate lockdown . we see more and more voices in germany's political landscape calling for tougher measures and we have seen also state premiers who are hesitant to go ahead with tougher restrictions now call for an immediate lockdown now we will see over the weekend probably the next few days a meeting between german chancellor angela merkel and the 16 state premiers to try to find a common nationwide approach to the issue and find common rules we don't know exactly what they will be it we're looking at probably school break a longer school break for students until january 10th we'll probably see the closure of a non-essential shops we don't know the timing yet we don't know when the lockdown will come into place and what exactly we will look it will look like. julia so delhi reporting thank you and let's get some more perspective now with dr

toby escorts he is an epidemiologist and the director of the cherry tape institute of public health here in berlin good to have you back on the show 1st of all what do you make of these numbers the numbers are alarming as we have already discussed yesterday the numbers are high since days and weeks and we have to decide now to go into a hard lockdown now we cannot afford to wait after christmas people are saying family members if you travel across the country see your family members members you put people at risk you put people at risk to get sick you could people at risk eventually dying we cannot afford this the numbers are far too high the hospitals all for and we know that 3 to 4 weeks after the cases that are infected now will appear in the hospital so there is even the rise in numbers in the hospitals this is dramatically high we have to act now when we spoke yesterday the head of the

robert clark institute warned that we could see exponential growth again have we already reached that point. the point is not whether we see an exponential growth in a few days or tomorrow or the day after tomorrow the numbers are too high it's not a discussion whether we see the exponential growth or not we need to acknowledge the numbers are too high already why are we seeing such high numbers and what is the biggest source of transmission right now it's a diffuse infectious. thing going on right now in germany where many things are happening often you don't even realize that you are infected and where you go and who you putting at risk so we cannot say suspicious if exists situation or they are specific hotspots or clusters this is a diffuse affection situation right now so we have to act and it's not possible to really plea and say people please stay home keep your distance is obviously not working if we take a look at why germany has gotten into the situation the country fared comparatively

well during that 1st wave that the pandemic do you think that there was a false sense of security that has contributed to the spike that we're seeing now. where we have to understand as you say that germany got lucky and we made it quite well through the 1st wave and then the summer months the warm weather helped as well so now obviously that was not enough we started with a light lockdown germany never had a hard lockdown where we actually are forced to stay home and now we're facing a situation where the numbers are dramatically higher so we definitely have to act now and we're seeing more than siva 100 people dying a day and yet there's still hasn't been a decision made on a tough lockdown the next political meeting is supposed to happen as we heard this weekend do you think action has been taken quickly enough. and we discussing since many days we know since weeks we facing a potential risk of having numbers the hospital or fall that the health care system

is in danger and so i don't know why we're still discussing we having we have reached this point already so we need to act now. toby escort epidemiologist director of the sherry tate institute of public health thank you so much thanks for having me. well germany still has a long way to head for a vaccine european regulators will meet just before the new year to decide if the biotech pfizer vaccine is ready for mass distribution but the government is already planning the epic task of how to deliver the vaccine across the country with some disputes already over distribution d.w. correspondent tess of alta reports. the everynight in berlin was well known for its rock concerts and techno parties now its latest to house one of 6 specks the nation centers and berlin so far there isn't much to see but everything is scheduled to be ready by then that december project manager but i promise convinced things were from smoothly. through this time the process we allow 4 minutes for each

person to get in take of their coats sit down and roll up their sleeves then the vaccination team comes in they did in fact inject and put some cause a new wound on the last step is the documentation that's it here the vaccinated people will then be looked after by doctors and nurses the patient doesn't have to pay their health insurance covers the costs 1st the elderly will be vaccinated then medical personnel than everyone else right now more than 300 of such vaccination centers are being built throughout germany the government hopes this system will simplify logistics and make it possible to vaccinate millions of people in the shortest possible time people probably won't be able to get the jab from their family doctor until spring time before that they will have to go to the center.

i think will have to wait for hours at the banks and nation center thousands of people will be. found on care whether i get vaccinated at my family doctors or the vaccination center would have him also i would prefer going to our family doctor because they know about my medical history and will take any risks into account of my belief that doctors ability katzenstein agrees she was one of the 1st 1000000000 family doctors who specialized in treating covert 9000 patients vaccinating people as part of her daily routine when it comes to covert 19 she says she should be allowed to vaccinate and her own practice is. xa nation is a matter of trust it's important to know the patient because every patient directs differently to unknown risks i think the general practitioner is best equipped to advise each patient in making a decision about the parana by respects the nation she believes she and other family doctors in germany can head of the vaccination campaign in the pendant i

thought you can fit in my opinion the vaccinations and those were probably not necessary in france and vaccinate its population using family doctors only by common germany. germany has opted to make some nation scientists a bit katzenstein argues that the best answer is possible consultation 2 roads one go next and they think as much of the population as possible as quickly as possible . let's take a look now at some of the other developments in the pandemic french drugmaker send elsie and britain's glaxo smith kline say their vaccine won't be ready until the end of 2021 interim results showed a low immune response in older adults australia has cancelled the production of its own covert $1000.00 vaccine after some trial participants returned false positive results for hiv and researchers say the global response to the pandemic has driven a record 7 percent drop in annual c

o 2 emissions the un says they'd have to continue to decline at that rate for the next decade to reach international climate goals. that she was simply a woman on her way to work a high profile job that was too much for extremists in her country to stomach afghan a television news anchor my one was shot dead on thursday along with her driver in the eastern city of jalalabad but those who took her life could not a race the depth of respect she had earned from the nation. oh laura who are prayers for a heroine hundreds came out to pay their respects to journalist my wand and her driver assassinated on their way to work. for many young women in afghanistan my one was larger than life a t.v. anchor in a country where 2 thirds of girls are barred from attending school my one was also an advocate for women's rights and continued to speak out even after her own mother

was killed for doing the same. but. then early thursday morning in this street she and her driver were ambushed by gunmen the attack was claimed by the militant group islamic state. but my wand was a brave female journalist and anchor she was working for any local t.v. . unfortunately today she was martyred by the enemies. not only her family but all the women a lot of province are sad for. the. islamic state has claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks on civilians in afghanistan. as the u.s. draws down troops there and conservative militant groups resurge many worry that a life like my ones will once again become impossible.

let's get a reminder now of our top stories european union leaders agreed on dramatic cuts to the blocks of greenhouse gas emissions all in all my talks in brussels the member states agreed to reduce emissions by 55 percent by the end of the decade. and germany has seen a dramatic spike in corona virus cases over the past 24 hours a new record of nearly 30000 cases was reported and another 598 people have died from cope at night she calls are growing for a tougher lock down during the holidays to curb infection so. you can always get the w. new song to go download or out from google play or from the app store that will give you access to all the latest news from around the world as follows push notifications for any breaking news and if you are part of a news story you can also use the app to send us your photos and videos of what is

happening where you are. coming up next our political talk show to the point looking at the cycle of violence in strands surrounding both islamist terror and police brutality state you. going to.

be. contained. come. to the point. in the canyon clear positions of international perspective such. falling terrorist attacks this fall french president jacques rogge wants to crack down on radical islamists will they succeed in stopping the cycle of violence or further divide the country find out on to the point. to the point. the next up to the leaders. in good shape.

uses. it makes us happy. and music makes us healthy. research shows that those who see regularly live longer than i. do so sing and it will keep you good shape. in 60 minutes on d w. in the far north. it's lonely. and breathtakingly beautiful. the arctic and the. money take a journey around the north pole meet profiteers and talk with people experiencing

a changing environment will be ice disappears earlier and it keeps retreating. no we're future depends on what happens here. northern lights. or to church or 21st d.w. . francis in a turbulent autumn with the pandemic only part of the reason ongoing street protests against police violence multiple terrorist attacks now president barack obama wants to take back control this legislation that critics see as a repressive turn to the right following terror attacks in october a new draft law to curb the influence of islamism would make it easier to inspect or shut radical mosques limit home schooling and otherwise widen the government's powers to restrict behavior deemed harmful to the values of the republican critics

see those values themselves as at risk of being undermined the legislation along with a draft security law is sparking pushback and protests are title today can france stop the cycle of violence. in the. atlantic. welcome to to the point it's a pleasure to introduce our guests often of both tsonga works for the berlin based think tank s.w. p. with a focus on counterterrorism policy in the european union and he says the islamist threat for europe remains high but france seems to have the wrong focus in its fight against terrorism. and great to have with us once again. she works as an author and journalist and says the entire game is between the right wing conservative and the left wing secular cabs in france reveals the weaknesses of

a country where the rules are democracy transparency responsibility dialogue compromise are still not solidly anchored. and we're very pleased to welcome. she is a sociologist at the university of life and she says france currently has a highly bellicose rhetoric that not only leads to extreme polarization but also prevents in-depth debate on historical and social issues. let me start by asking you. because you say you acknowledge that the threat is high the french government says that it is simply aiming at reinforcing principles of secularism and gender equality what's so misguided about. well it's a risk to conflate these much bigger social issues which do have to be tackled with the more specific threat of terrorism and i'm not saying that the reason some

connection but it would be advisable to rather be focused on specific counterterrorism measures and then have a separate debate as far as possible as it's done now really sort of fosters polarization and really accentuates the so the polarization and polarization of course was one of the problems that you mentioned i mean you accuse the government of bellicose rhetoric but the prime minister firmly denies that this law is anti islam or even anti religion saying the goal is emancipation from religious fundamentalism in fact separation of religion and state is a long standing tradition in france it is true it's a it's a longstanding tradition but i think their words are very powerful so if you constantly use the word war in when you want to prevent something then it creates a kind of atmosphere that it's you know it has this. this feel like people

have this fear of being an a in a civil war and everybody agrees that the the the enemy comes from within but nobody takes the time to really define where and who the enemy is and this creates a very ambiguous situation which can become very dangerous for democracy. you say the rules of democracy are still not solidly anchored in france that will come as a surprise to many viewers who see france as one of the cradles of democracy and republicanism. yes the different crisis that's false is facing right now because there are many crisis not only islamism bringing up to the surface different structural problems that have been for 102030 years and while the structural problem is an institutional problem the fact that the power isn't concentrated in the hands of one man the president nowadays mcconnell at the expense of the

parliament and also the fact that the power is concentrated in one side which is paris at the expense of the region. is then managing the idea of compromise and dialogue which is actually very important in a democracy the other structural problem that this crisis is showing is what you mentioned the tradition of secularism this tradition of secularism was normally intended to be a kind of framework for the relationship between states and the church and now it's being instrument allies against islam this is the 2nd structural problem and the 3rd would be the relationship that france has was its colonial past brutal can have a past and as far as hasn't really faced this history which of course creates resentment among the muslim community let's come back

to that in just a moment but i would 1st like to take a closer look at the threat to which the government is responding more than 250 people have died in terror attacks in france over the past 5 years that is more than any other western country during the same period. in mid october history teacher somewhere petite was killed in beheaded in the middle of the street in a paris suburb the perpetrator 18 year old islamist is motive the teacher had showed caricature of the. that mohamud from the security magazine sharky they don't during his lessons as an example of freedom of expression. that was followed by an attack on religious freedom less than 2 weeks later during a night in a church 3 people were killed and several were injured. shortly before the stabbing the perpetrator had travelled illegally to france. a few days later friends

commemorated the $130.00 people killed and the hundreds injured in paris on nov 13th 2015 on that day multiple attacks were carried out at several locations in the city including a stadium and at a concert in about a clint theater the i.r.s. terrorist group took credit for the attacks which many french people view as an assault on their liberal values. there have been 260 islam is motivated attacks in france since 2012. the country is gripped by fear of another attack what are the right strategies in the fight against terrorism. yes we know how is it really so surprising that the french government resorts to martial rhetoric after dealing with this kind of a threat for 5 years. yes and no it's not surprising because france has also like you know had the tradition of brutal attacks and having recourse to.

repression in a certain way. but also know it should not be the answer i guess like to have a very very warlike myths over it that we have also seen in the war on terror right i mean like. the the words are very important and i think we shouldn't we shouldn't let this happen that as if there was a civil war going on. i would like to add i mean the threat is considerable but we are really not in the same situation as in 2015 to 17 and more so it doesn't help making this analogy is all the time but i call i mean there are things to be taken care of but at the current moment we have individual attackers improvised means who killed there a few people i don't want to denigrate this but we shouldn't be panicking in other words the scale of the threat now is smaller than it was at that time well we can't rule out that there will be

a new major attack but the last sequence of attacks has not been of the same quality and hence there isn't a need to respond forcefully just not in how has this series of attacks how has it affected the french society in general how is france changed let's say since the dough and better. there is a real demonic former or authority from the society and you can see actually that of course the evolution of this terrorist attack going hand in hand with the evolution of french society wanting more and more this kind of responses the mccraw and the government giving now to this society. and this separatism we're talking about you were mentioning the civil war the government is actually fostering we must not forget actually where that comes from and. the muslim brothers.

they are the 1st to use the vocabulary of them and us. the infidels who deserve this so we should also be very aware of where the problem comes from i want to come back to the separatist aspect in just a moment but let me ask you to talk a little bit about the particular situation in france because as i understand it an unusually high share of european jihadists are in fact young frenchmen why is that what makes france unique one could give a very long answer to that the 1st of all of course france has the biggest muslim population in europe and it does have some structural problems we heard about so there is a potential reservoir of native people who don't believe who are in search of a new identity an alternative identity and that is exploited by certain actors so i would also say this is the 2nd part of the equation it's not only structural

problems but also active recruitment and active ideology and france and heritage some of this already in the ninety's from algeria and wars and there is a particular north african that works at work here so it's historically grown threats it's persisted serious because it said it's not of a new quality and hence i don't think there is a need to lost a lot of the law to repress it and. let me again come back to the topic of polarization because. i touched upon the french government actually sees polarization as rooted in separatism saying that islamised social services radical mosques are creating parallel worlds and values that are diametrically opposed to the values of french republicanism is there something to that argument. i mean it's clear that there has been a violent incident and brutal incident i mean there is and there are problems in

that but at the same time to go back to this ritual rake and say they started it and we're going to continue this it would only. suppression will only will only increase violence again right i mean if they started it then we will have to again go back to the roots of the problem which is not only then tawfiq but also like you know problems that you have also mentioned colonialism social problems racism so we we cannot just. just. say that there is a problem and we're just going to use oppression geraldine you talked about french values values of democracy in your opening statement is there an argument here that if france truly wants to reinforce the fundamental principles of the republic it should be doing more for the t. and for me today those 2 founding values equality and brotherhood.

i'm not sure actually the problems are really linked i would say it's much more linked to the cornell past of force and the problems france has to integrate the 2nd 3rd generation of those who came after the even more a specifically to from us one big problem of france is that they build cities in the parish very to you know to welcome these general these migrants coming from the former colonies so that. these born you what we name beyond you and this was actually translated as suburbs yes it is which actually exposes as you know and so it's also also an urban mistake exclusion and i think this kind of his conclusion is even stronger than social inequality.

income or all you know it's this physical exclusion of muslim communities out of the city center. in one french village where numerous young people have actually joined the islamics islamic state the mayor says that the government partly at least bears responsibility for doing too little to integrate them is this ultimately also about social exclusion and is a serial killer to clamp down simply easier than perhaps putting into place the kind of social reforms that would really make a difference. well security measures are always better to communicate but of course to really do them effectively is maybe just as hard as promoting integration but i you know i think every case is slightly different and i fully agree there is a problem with the bomb you at the same time we also see that not all the attackers

have come from this kind of particular setting that we have cases like in the village where it's other forms of social network to drive people to attacks there is no one size fits all explanation what i would be in general more concerned about in france is that france has been late with preventive strategies in comparison to strong repressive strategies they recognize it. is a topic of discussion but there is a lot of talk and seemingly very little structural changes happening afterwards and so i think that will be a very negative outcome of this debate if one is to change it but it might be just presidential declarations and no infrastructure so we make it happen. meanwhile parallel to this debate over the new law in islam as in france has also been seeing ongoing protests over police violence and also over a new security law that would limit citizen's ability to film examples of police repression president.