this is t w news live from berlin hundreds of boys in nigeria are free after being kidnapped by militants their abduction last week from a school prompted public anger and fresh demands to better protect the country's children. also coming up the french president has tested positive for covert 19 he's now isolating but there are concerns about all those he had contact with recently including a number of european leaders. physically and emotionally abused you speak for to delete germany's gymnast's who say they were bullied mistreated.

and we have good cruft thanks for joining us officials in nigeria say more than 300 school boys kidnapped last week have been released the boys were abducted from a government school in the northwest state of. the jihad group boko haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping though officials have cast doubt on that. now earlier state governor gave an update on the student's release.

we. let's get more now from our correspondent in laos nigeria fluster cora has more for us on what's going on down there now the governor there saying unharmed the boys are what more do we know about their condition well as you heard from the interview we don't really have more. with regards to the condition of the boys what we know is that according to the on we. see a nasty where the wreckage from to be reunited with their families parents and. this is the huge sigh of relief to the whole country. how much more do we know about what led up to this release of the boys.

so what we know is that. this was a joint effort between the police the army and the. security agencies in negotiating the release. of these boys. has claimed responsibility for kidnapping this boys however the authorities and even the local people still insists that the key was not done by this was. the work. in the area which of course the bandits have been trying to. foil while now many people are very fair to their muscle groups of. what regardless of the kievan ups i think the highlight of the woman's right now is that these boys have. indeed now what's been the public reaction to

all of this yet another kidnapping of so many children has there been political fallout. i would say that this has been a very emotional moment for the country just a lot of shock a lot of disbelief like. it's enough that students are kidnapped in mosques in your lifetime but to see that happen twice very soon then you begin to risk questions of also your own security because i mean it's one thing to keep not one person but where hundreds of students are being kidnapped. yeah and then he raises questions of the security of every single person regardless of where you leave whether you live in the north north east of the northwest where. about terrorist groups are busy busy police arriving so yeah definitely raises questions

and then a lot of people have been very very frustrated with the security corniche an engineer and yes that's what you hear when you talk to north of nigeria. or a stroke or fair for us law goes thank you very much. french president emanuel has tested positive for the corona virus the president's office says it's highly likely that he caught the virus at a european council summit last week his diagnosis is fuelling alarm and exile among europe's leaders many of them have close contact with the crowd at that summit he also hosted spain portugal portugal leaders in paris this week and they're both now in quarantine. in affectionate squeeze that's how french president emanuel greeted officials and heads of government last week at the e.u. summit and how he welcomed portuguese prime minister antonio costa to the elysee

palace on wednesday. but now that michael has tested positive for the coronavirus those close contacts may wish they dodged his warm embrace. last night the president started to experience symptoms indicative of 19 mediately isolated and took a p.c.r. test the results of which confirmed that he is positive for coping $1000.00. dollars. for everyone who test positive in this country contact tracing began immediately in order to identify the president's close contacts. back home symptoms are mild he attended this meeting virtually from isolation but the positive test has been to both his agenda and the agenda of european politics as the u.k. and the e.u. attempt to negotiate a brics a trade deal before the end of the year. a growing list of european leaders who met with michael are now working from home working that is unless they become seriously

ill. in paris there was little surprise at the president's misfortune. it's serious it affects everyone so there's no reason to blame him. it's obvious given his job that this would happen so it doesn't surprise me. probably didn't respect the social distancing rules. cohen joins a long list of world leaders who have caught the virus and just over a week before the e.u. was hoping to begin vaccinations let's take a look now at some other stories making news around the world the u.s. has moved closer to approving a 2nd vaccine after an independent panel of experts endorsed the shot made by pharmaceutical companies the decision paves the way for the f.d.a. to approve emergency use of the vaccine the u.s. has already started its mass immunization with a covert vaccine by pfizer. russian president vladimir putin has laughed

off allegations that the kremlin was behind the poisoning of opposition leader. speaking at his annual news conference said moscow would have finished the job vesta gaited released a report this week alleging russian agents tracking a volley in the days before the attack. bitcoin has risen to another record high topping $23000.00 u.s. dollars the value of the virtual currency has rocketed this year could be a boon for platforms like coin base which applied on thursday to go public and be the 1st big american crypto exchange to list the stock market. now to a controversy engulfing german gymnastics spiegel magazine reported recently allegations of bullying and mistreatment by a female coach in the city of cabinets u.w. has been speaking with 2 former elite gen this who say the problem is much wider than previously thought. then you know me and ruby vandyke are learning to love

gymnastics all over again for many years their love for the sport hatch disappeared . h 10 and primed for big things between this move to an elite training center. when their performances did they say they were called fat and lazy by their coach and that's slim's the front and worst thing was when he said he wouldn't come to competitions with us because we were embarrassing him when you're 14 or 15 you need to coach he supports you no matter how badly he always let us down just before the competition saying you're so you have a you're embarrassed i'm a. mess on one occasion injuring a ball as exercise naomi said she was purposely dropped on her hertz to teach her a lesson before had he pushed me 2 or 3 times to go down lower but i knew he wasn't holding me properly that's why i didn't go and then i did under pressure but he let

go of me and said that you see. they complained to the local gymnastics association but say they weren't taken seriously or believed and makes a field day with the problem with devastating affects on their development. and i still remember when i was 14 i just didn't want to wear my gym outfit anymore i always thought everything about me was wrong how i look where i come from what i do how i took who i am. so it really hurt me as a person then. in a statement to the local association the right nischelle turner said it was quote surprised by the allegations adding the r.c.b. takes the allegations raised 3 seriously and will clarify the facts as soon as possible. at the time naomi and ruby were given 3 options either put up with the coach quit the sport or as they ended up doing move to the olympic training center

in penates earlier this month problems there were uncovered by def spiegel magazine a dozen other gymnasts accused the head coaching chemists gabrielle or fraser of bullying them and making them train through injury naomi and ruby say pain killers and injections were handed out freely without prescriptions and without the knowledge of athlete's parents but the twins felt they couldn't speak up because of the baggage they'd come with. because we were always told we were annoying a we were the problem we didn't want to be a nuisance we just wanted to show we were actually hardworking and so that's why we didn't mention a lot of things. one time of this big. freebie that acceptance came with a price and she was forced to ignore her constant back pain with one coach telling her it was just 3 competition of. names and she would often tell me i was

imagining the pain in my back but i didn't know the difference between so muscles and real pain that went on for a year and a half and at some point i believed i was imagining it. being one of those not if it wasn't her imagination though ruby having been denied access to her mit scans would eventually need an operation. fraser who's been suspended pending an investigation has called all the allegations baseless and says she never overstepped the mark. it was her strong denials that prompted naomi and ruby to tell their story. stating that we can definitely confirm these baseless allegations that the i think it might 52 or 3 of them were with us in canada and we witnessed how badly they were treated it like we can easily say it's no basis for. these days between only competes in the national the the longer tree meaning of

international success but at least now they can perform again with a smile on their faces. byron the next robert lewandowski has won the fifa best men's player of the year award after scoring 55 goals in all competitions last season a player from poland helped byron seal a champions league bonus league and german cup treble it is the 38 year old's 1st global award to beat previous winners christina $1.00 and leo messi to the price have also been a favorite for the prestigious door the award was dropped this year because of the corona virus pandemic. the a stony and capital tallent has found a way to pay tribute to one of its most beloved residents he wrote on the streets for years before moving to the country earlier this year known for his shocking good looks he was also a free spirit brought the city together. fewer months are meant for that

matter are more be loved in this working class estonian neighborhood in zurich the stray the neighbors and on that he touched everyone young and old the stoniest and russians he was a force for social integration he was never the tail wagging lick your face cuddly type still zurich's presence in the heart of the capital tolland was a familiar comfort and just so missed that this likeness stands there now. people donated money for this monument they wanted it here and they still follow his life even though he's old and frail age has ravaged his body and mind so he's been uprooted to live out the rest of his days at a nearby farm the 4 legged vagabond has tried to escape back to the streets he's known since he was a pup even back then there were those who tried to have him rounded up and put to sleep while others fought to feed and protect him this time his friends say kindness won yet again. you're watching it happen you news live from berlin next up

our documentary series looks at how our memories work more news headlines at the top of the hour and remember it's always get more of our website to have you got calmer follow us on twitter and instagram i do get your news when it will prompt thanks for. calling me and i'm game you know that 17 trillion dollars or killed worldwide issue but it's not just the animals little suffering it's the right if you want to know how when clicked off the priest. strange stuff as we think is listening to our podcast on the green fence.

we cherish our memories. to help us recall our 1st love affair our temp anniversary and the rest of our life story. they tell us who we are. or do they. memory is being probed by a new generation of scientists and they're posing uncomfortable questions. can we trust how we remember our own lives. jennifer thompson was a north carolina college student of 22 when someone broke into her apartment. it was a night she would always remember. around 3 am when i heard feet moving around

in my bedroom and man quickly jumped up on my bed in there and i have to my throat and tommy sharp he was going to kill me. thompson was raped at knife point but somehow in her terror she carefully memorize details about her assailant. i willed myself to actually stay connected to my skin and and i started memorizing everything i could did he have a scar on his face did he have a piercing or did he have a tattoo somewhere. anything if i survived i would be able to help the police catch him. thompson came through police procedure with flying colors she help prepare this composite drawing then chose a suspect from a lineup eventually the case went to trial in a north carolina courthouse where she was asked if she remembered the man who had attacked her. thompson was dead certain. i said yes i do your cotton to the right over there the defense table i hated him i wanted him

to die been told they. no one had ever seen a better witness are better victim than me. in court when a judge asked cotton if you had a final statement before jail cotton requested to sing a song to calm himself i just stood up and asked tossing him. dean usage and zack in new moon made me because my future is so unknown to me being embedded. ronald cotton spent over 11 years in prison before newly uncovered d.n.a. evidence led to another suspect and he was released. jennifer thompson had identified the wrong man. thompson's memory error was one of many. these people all went to jail judged

guilty. but years later they were exonerated and freed by d.n.a. evidence found at crime scenes. d.n.a. has helped overturn more than 350 criminal cases in the u.s. and canada alone. in 70 percent of these eyewitnesses had identified the wrong person. and the d.n.a. exoneration cases the case gets overturned there incredulous they can't believe this wasn't the person they're false memory is a very genuine memory it's the way memory works. wells is an internationally acclaimed expert on eyewitness memory. he paid his way through university as a bull shark. memory scientists had known for over 2 decades that eyewitness identification was far less reliable than thought. but it took d.n.a.

exonerations like ronald cotton is to start convincing the law that science was right. we knew a lot by $990.00 that memory is not a law like a video system that changes that it's fragile but it was largely ignored by the legal system and they saw it as academic and heads flying around in their lab. testing has changed everything this feel. has d.n.a. exonerations sword wells was invited to sit on a major expert committee examining the reliability of eyewitness memory. wells demonstrated just what scientists were doing in their labs what i'm going to do. in this experiment well shows several subjects a 92nd video shot in an airport and asks them to pay attention.

then he interviews the subjects much as police would did you see anything unusual yes and what was that the man at the the taking counter there switched bags can you. describe this person maybe like his 30. very short hair is a white male. he is wearing the next wells shows a standard police photo lineup and ask them to identify the culprit but i don't think can you. think so i think it's either one or say. 6. there pick one or number 6 and if i had to choose the one i would pick number one. what the participants don't know is that the real thief isn't even among the photos. but when they finally make

a tentative choice wells offers positive feedback yeah yeah yeah right but you did good job. ok so your number 6 the jobs are sex with minors but well you're very you're very observant person the question is has he stood their confidence i think i would be about maybe 90 percent pop in the fat was the man. 8590 percent that's all that's pretty sure ok finally wells shows them a photo of the real thief so this is the person you pick right i suppose i tried to suggest to you that it means that person no no i would never. but in fact years the call for this is the line up and i showed you and that's the person you picked actually this is the guy. wow ok. there's the guy. one of the things i did was i said you know good job.

when you positively reinforce me i don't think that i was right and so that made you more confident yes when you said that you had a good job then yeah i did right but still wells and other experts say this kind of feedback during police lineups was routine in the u.s. and canada until recently forced with terrible consequences or certain. you know de officer might say something like good that that's who are suspect is that positive feedback will inflate the confidence of the witnesses and make them a more persuasive powerful witness by the time they get on the stand basically i'm stamping in that person who they packed into their memory so that person starts to increasingly become their memory. why do our memories change like this is there

a neurological explanation. neuroscientist and jogging addict steve ramirez says the deeper problem is that when a memory is recalled especially in its early stages it's highly vulnerable to change. when we recall a memory is put into this weird waxy like state where it becomes susceptible to modification or a kind of. each time that we recall it becomes vulnerable and changeable so it's a physical process that manifests as neurons that are activated neurons that are in activated its new link forming between the reason our our memories change is because the brain has a form of plasticity or the ability to change with experience that is constantly. so everything that happens to us is capable of. the brain to some extent and in some ways the retrieval of a memory is in and of itself

a change that is in of itself an experience as if you're including something completely new from scratch it's not necessarily that the justice system is doing it out of malice it's that it's it can unwillingly be implanting different kinds of memories that were not there at the time of a crime so it could be what's used to put somebody away for life. to. renounce psychologist elizabeth loftus has testified at many trials to point out the frailties of eyewitness memory. she says an eye witnesses memory is like a crime scene it must be protected from any possible contamination during police interviews and lineups. if you contaminate the fingerprints then you don't have very good fingerprint data and likewise if you contaminate the memory trace your own have very good memory evidence. that's what happened to jennifer thompson's memory when she chose cotton at the 1st photo

lineup after some indecision over 2 photos. as i looked at the 6 photographs very quickly discount. 4 and i think in my mind i narrowed it down and i picked a number 3 and i told him i was positive he told me that's who he thought it then and i really appreciated that because i felt so relieved in court it was absolutely unshakable. because he told me i was right in thompson's case she was reinforced after the photos she was reinforced again after the life line up telling her that again she was right by the time of that trial. was her memory. ronald cotton exoneration was big news in north carolina. it became the 1st state to pass legislation requiring mandatory reforms for eyewitness testimony. among these reform. arms the officer conducting a police lineup must be unaware of which person in the lineup is

a suspect other states soon followed just as memory scientists had long urged. fast changing memory science isn't only challenging assumptions in the courtroom. it's also posing intriguing new questions about the human mind. what does it say about all of our memories of our families our friendships and ourselves. are any of us reliable witnesses to our own lives. i still remember that day like yesterday i was with my friend element downtown when i'm at work with my colleague martin and i was shown turn on the t.v. . most people have emotional memories of where they were and what they were doing during certain events such as 911. j.f.k.'s assassination. the

fall of the berlin wall or the death of princess diana the events that feel seared in their brains. these are called flashbulb memories and we have great confidence in them but were surprisingly wrong says cognitive neuroscientist elizabeth phelps. in the days after 911 felt this team surveyed over 3000 people about what they recall doing that day. we asked people to how did you 1st hear about the tac who were you with where were you. then phelps gave them a similar survey after 13 and 10 years it turns out even flashbulb memories are often illusory overall people remembered the central event well the exploding towers but the rest of their memories often changed over time. if we compare memories for what you told me happened to you personally right after the

attack versus a year later about 40 to 50 percent of the time the details of those memories are different almost half. here we asked people you know what were you doing and this person the 1st time in the 1st service that i was in the kitchen making breakfast a year later they said i'm in the dorm room folding laundry we had one participant who we asked who were you with and initially she said i was with my husband the time after that she said i was alone my husband is playing golf we can't know what really happened to you all we know is that you're not consistent over time so one of those stories is right. people stories usually changed after one year and from then on they were utterly certain that's what had happened. 3 years later your fairy confident that your memory is 100 percent accurate most of the shift happened in the 1st year and then after that that sort of became their story i was in new york that day so you know i have

a story too and you know that's my story right now that i'm telling it for the time i'm telling it like it's a story not like it's my memory you sure stories are and of course of course i'm sure but you know david tells me i'm probably 50 percent. part of the reason we're wrong is that we can absorb and remember the astonishing richness of every life moment. so we fill in the gaps unconsciously and create a narrative story that makes sense for now. but that can make us defective at discerning truth from fiction say scientists who deliberately create false memories. dr julian shah is a psychologist at university college london in england. she is also the author of

an intriguing book the memory illusion. every time you remember something you activate that memory network in the brain you're actually evil to change it slightly so next time you recall it you're only recalling the last time you recall it and over time those changes can compound and you can end up very far from the original version of your memories and you might believe it wholeheartedly full of confidence and while it's not true. elizabeth phelps is kali neuroscientist joseph made a video illustrating phelps's idea that our forever changing memory is for ever reliable. let's say of a war hero going on a 100 city tour describing all the great things that happened during the battle and that the story gets more and more heroic as you go from city one to city 100 so by

the end it sounds so good to. us broadcaster brian williams and hillary clinton both falsely recalled being under gunfire in conflict foreign countries. where they deliberately exaggerating or just misremembering their own stories. the fact remains that memories as they are retold relived every experienced they are changed it's almost like a play to get a broken telephone so it's you know every time that you're retelling that story you're saying it over some detail is changed and the longer the time goes on the more changes you have our recollection of something that happened from 20 years ago is very different from what actually happened 20 years ago. the big question is what happens inside our brains to make us so confident when we're so wrong. it's

stored all over the brain most day to day memory is captured in the hippocampus a small seahorse shaped organ in the brain busy. meanwhile very emotional or threatening events are also imprinted on the. with a personal recollection for you or for event of your life hippocampus is always involved but it's something that's highly emotional so for instance like the terrorist attack of $911.00. you know the image will also become active in helping the hippocampus store the memory let's remember the central details of this a little bit better so that's the explosion not who you're with if you were ironing in the dorm room or in the kitchen. but phelps says the emotional intensity of that central memory may fool our brains into thinking our company memories are just as real we don't forget the important event itself we know that 911 happened we knew there was a terrorist attack and our memories for that actually are quite strong and the what

i think is happening is that the high confidence and vividness we have for that single event leads over to memories for details surrounding the events in some way . but that's just a normal part of memory right this probably happens to all different types of memory not just flashbulb memories as we get older our confidence in our recollections gets higher better accuracy goes lower so we are more confidence but our memories are false. the fact that we can remember so wrong while convinced we are right led some researchers to pose an extraordinary question can false memories be created deliberately. neuroscientist steve ramirez and shoot you did a much heralded experiment at mit that was right out of a science fiction film. but the stars were mice. the 2 scientists started by creating a fear memory by giving a mouse smiled. in

a box like chamber while identifying the individual brain cells in the hippocampus involved in making this memory. then the scientists genetically engineer these brain cells to respond to posters of laser light. now they could switch that fear memory on and off. this is a brain scan thousands of times the size of the mouse's hippocampus. so there's the branches that were active everything that's going green here was active in the animal was making this particular fair memory. next they put the mouse in a different box where nothing bad had happened to it after a while they shot light into the mouse's brain to switch on the fear memory from the 1st box. put out the $1000000.00 question is does the animal behave as though it's recalling a fear memory even though it's in a safe environment. how could they tell when

a mouse experiences fear it often freezes in place. but we're not scared it will run around exploring its environment. so how would the mouse behave. so as you can see the animal isn't scared from the get go of this particular environment and then it's running around and we should light into the brain and reactivate the brain cells that we think process of fear memory the animal immediately goes into this freezing behavior if they still so this is evidence that we were able to successfully fall this animal into recalling a memory artificially. months later the scientists tried a daring 2nd experiment erasing a real memory by creating a false one. this time they put the mouse in a harmless chamber and identified the brain cells of this safe memory. then they put it in another chamber and gave it slight foot shocks. but at the same time they

switched on the memory of the earlier safe box. so what happened the next day when the mouse was put back in the 1st safe box. freezes in terror falsely believing that's where it was shot. a false fear memory has been implanted turning a safe environment into a frightening one. the idea of being able to manipulate memories promised for for instance trying to turn off negative memories in p.t.s.d. or maybe trying to turn the volume up on positive emotions. i think that when we create a false memory recreating the links between the areas of the brain that wouldn't normally be there so they would be there if we were to create a false memory in humans. so how do you create false memories in people without shocking them or shooting lasers into their brains. elizabeth loftus has done many famous experiments creating memory mirages in humans. she's planted

memories in people that they hated strawberry ice cream as a child. or that they love disparate guests. who planted a false memory that you know as a child you loved asparagus the 1st time you tried it we got people who imagine those and later on they were more interested in eating asparagus so that actually that that scientific paper became a paper with one of my favorite titles which is asparagus a love story. by exposing subjects to fake advertising she's convinced many that they remember seeing bugs bunny at disneyland when they visited. but bugs is not a disney character and has never been there. they'll often then go on to tell us that they say shook his hand or they touched his tail or they heard him say what's up doc you can get people to become more confident that they actually had an

encounter with a character. that they didn't and couldn't have encountered i don't study forgetting i study in a way the opposite when people remember things that didn't happened false memories can be expressed with a great deal of confidence especially when they're a product of suggestions. just. following elizabeth loftus is memorable footsteps scientist julia shah published a dramatic 2015 study done in canada's university of british columbia. it showed how easy it is to obtain false confessions of committing a crime. show started by asking 60 student volunteers to participate in a memory study. but also privately asked the subjects' parents for one emotional incident from their childhood that she could bring up.

in something that's that's all i really are and that's me. charlotte then brings up a 2nd childhood memory where they committed a minor crime that involved police in their own hometowns with their friends only this memory isn't true for. the other events but your parents. are out was when you're 14 years old initiated a physical fight and it's of your parents that have an enclosure in the. right. so that you pretty i don't. i don't like i don't know what you. are this obviously i so here for this purpose but i've just introduced the 2nd memory the false one but she doesn't know that and then i asked when she of of course naturally can't remember anything given that it didn't happen i then as a helpful researcher offer that we can do this guided imagery technique which helps to retrieve lost memories so picture yourself at the age of 14. in colona.

and it's. try to remember that whether. or. in the 2nd session shaw continues the memory exercises and some details begin to emerge. oh mike maybe you remember a little closer where in the park once i can maybe remember getting it like a verbal fight with someone who did. this girl called. you on it will get it's ok well secretary about. by the 3rd interview the subject has filled in most of her supposedly lost memory. kind of vision of it i see myself wearing this. i think. too much. i think the cops showed up and we were.

to. try to. stop this. so it ended up being much easier than we were expecting to convince these people who'd never had please contact that they had committed a crime that never happened. over sean's team convinced 70 percent of our 60 subjects that they had committed criminal or violent acts that never happened. we even had participants reenacting the crimes that never happened showing me how they threw a weapon or how they attack someone physically it was astonishing. after the 1st session told participants the truth some had trouble believing the memory was false . it is. actually. saying that he preferred a call certainly there was resistance from some participants takes that that

actually this was a false memory rather than a true memory and that's the thing about false memories is that they feel like real memory they feel real to you you're playing with the original and you're tweaking it and you no longer have access to version want you no longer have access to what you originally coded you only have this new objects which stored at least memory. we don't know for instance if that original memory is permanently erased or if you're just very writing on top of that memory but the question now is what's actually happening at that neuronal level what's happening when the memory is being recalled when it's been updated with new information the honest answer is that by asking that question we now reach that edge of what we know. don't know generally in the brain false memories and true memories look exactly the same so for all your concern and for all in f.m.r.i. scanner would be concerned that is a memory it's not a memory of something that actually happened but in your brain it is now the same

and in this thing most of all. are we all vulnerable to these memory illusions or are some of us more vulnerable than others do some outstanding people have perfect memories total recall. when was your 1st dance so show these tomo 1st dance all that 6 string which me may 15th 2015 of the 1st 7 where the dance was our home or 23rd 2015 both nolan's took place on friday. tyler and chad he can bottom are identical twins but they have one major difference tyler has think sam highly superior autobiographical memory. this means he can remember distant events and dates in his own life like most of us recall yesterday. tyler and chatter being quizzed by

university of california irvine research or not he'd go far enough to see how their memories compare they're both top a students would have been on aug 16th 2014 or i'm guessing some would have been was soccer and that was my 1st soccer tournament no. on the 162014 it was a saturday and we went and we had opted our current count that we have a sentiment was right. in our breasts the script when did you watch the women's n.b.a. game at staples center to 1724 teen thursday july.