for christmas all right the british health secretary says that cases of the strain of virus have already been found in europe is it too late to stop it spreading across into the continent where this is this is how to tell because the united kingdom the authorities just told the european authorities on friday that this virus is 70 percent more transmissible than the original strain that's why no people. entering a kind of an emergency mode the virus the new virus strain is known since september already so it's highly likely that it's already on the continent and in the world. now of course we can't forget that the clock is also taking on breaks at negotiations what effect will this likely have all my gosh ations directed talks are going on here in brussels given the fact that the united kingdom is now it's under so much stress because of this new strain of the virus that is there speculation that the united kingdom is for an extension of the negotiate

a negotiation period so that they would not go into total chaos in 12 days from now on so maybe the negotiations through drag on and you is very likely to accept that because they don't want to push britain over the cliff right now. part of that reagan in brussels thanks very much for the update. concern about the new strain has led british prime minister barak johnson to reverse plans to ease coronavirus restrictions over the christmas period he's imposed an effective lockdown on london and southeast england. less than 5 days until christmas london is unrecognizable the normally heaving oxford street is almost deserted millions of people have been forced to cancel their christmas plans under the new restrictions after the discovery of a new corona virus strain virus the new strain was out of control

we've got to get it under control and the way that we can do that the only way you can do that is by restricting social contact it's an abrupt u. turn by prime minister bars johnson that's been widely criticized. we don't want to as i say to burn christmas too to cancel it and i think that would be frankly inhuman biddies with a very heavy heart i must tell you we cannot continue with christmas as planned i raised this with the promise to stay and he dismissed that or went on to tell people top up married little christmas only 3 days later to rip up their plans of i think the british public's entitle to more decisive leadership than that the new strain of the virus is said to be 70 percent more transmissible than other strains and behind the surge of new infections in london and southeast england but that didn't stop london shoppers from making a final dash to the stores on saturday before the new restrictions came into force

while the new rules could remain in place for some time britain's health secretary has tried to reassure the public saying a national lockdown is not inevitable. lawmakers in the u.s. have struck a late night agreement on a multi-billion dollar coronavirus relief package clearing the way for the bill to be voted on by both chambers before a sunday deadline the stimulus plan worth nearly a trillion dollars has been fought over for months if passed it would extend benefits for struggling businesses and millions of unemployed which are due to expire at the end of the year it's been a source of distress for many families across the u.s. and their leader mir is in california is no different she's balancing paying for rent and food when out of a job. but part from that was 1. 1 way of bringing home.

church of local church and they give. give more and more supermarkets once every 3 months. a lady lost her job as a waitress to took over 19 and she's been relying on savings food gift cards and nephews part time job for extra cash. she's one of more than 12000000 americans who are unemployed or without income who face losing their benefits the day after christmas when the aid package passed by congress in the spring expires unless lawmakers pass a new bill this weekend. in new york marsal gonzales relies on a food bank after losing her job as a massage therapist. i have been coming to get food aid for 7 months because i lost my job to the pandemic and this helps me alone. with no.

food banks across the country are struggling with the demand to continue to support families like maurice souls who's managed to pay rent through a series of small jobs. with the relief bill still not passed and the pandemic still raging across the country it's unclear how long marsal and millions like her will struggle to make ends meet. and i say could have found some of the other stories making headlines this hour a powerful blast has rocked the afghan capital kabul killing at least 9 people officials said the explosion was caused by a car bomb more than 20 people were wounded in the attack including a member of parliament. a powerful cycling has left a trail of destruction in ficci more authority say entire villages were wiped off the map emergency services are trying to provide food and shelter to people in the worst affected places 4 people were killed but that number is expected to rise as

aid workers reach outlying areas. 18 italian fishermen who were held for several months by a libyan warlord have arrived home if family is greater than that as a syrian port prime minister just had become to negotiated their release from live in general a hostile last week after us forces had accused the group of fishing in libyan waters. in eastern england there's a new initiative to reintroduce wild species like long extent links on to the land wild east promotes the principles of regenerating land of one of the most heavily farmed regions of britain the movement is working to convince everyone from landholders to garden owners about the benefits of turning some of their property back over to nature. to court large blacks and they're allowed to roam almost anywhere to dig up the ground at summer late in the state in the east of england. they are learned last summer leighton's secret weapon.

you can afford to have cordova pigs. for quite a short time to get to. the grind to a lot of open space for new seeds. some of the items the state covers over 20 square kilometers he himself lives in the manor house but in the adjacent park all the animals are allowed to roam freely the lot of the manor has such a part if east of his property and left it completely to nature england's biodiversity is declining and has been for decades 13 percent of species are threatened with extinction and 36 plant species have already become extinct but the good news is public support for conservation is growing. some are late and does eventually slaughter the pigs but it's also their job to ensure greater biodiversity there has been an overgrowth of a specific foreign species and the pigs help contain it. to.

the soil and to the perceived by the thrall seabed of the new. we need to disrupt brocken. as soon as they have completed their task the bigs have to get out of the forest. lots of relating does not accept the argument that only rich landowners can afford to protect the environment he believes people need to change their mindset the nearby warren school for children with special needs is sharing his approach. a garden which helps and vigor at the senses has been largely left to nature. a lot of our land is we're actually request to go outside and request to come up here when they're not treating very good and when they need the space and and they need to sort of interact with nature. being in touch with nature not similate and believes that as many people as possible should experience this he'd

like to turn the adjacent marshland into nature park for. pelicans and stuart's and white tailed eagles kind of walking up and down this river valley but still with cattle and with. farming systems but that have to be gentle. but to do that he has to convince his neighbors 1st because free roaming pigs on the property that just do what they want for most farmers that's simply a step too far. some support now and in the bundesliga get football buy in munich to travel to leverkusen in a bid to knock their hosts off top spot and go into the winter break in 1st place they because and when the last tame left this season having conceded only 10 goals along the way but they had their hearts broken by a last minute when. a gracious gesture from the hosts played because i'm boss is presenting flowers to newly crowned player of the year robert levon dusky and

goalkeeper of the year manuel neuer. but once the game started leverkusen turned less hospitable patrick schick opening the scoring with 14 minutes gone i'm the flowers a distant memory for noir. a short corner now a demon marries our king pass and schick beautifully meeting the ball on the volley for the opener. then byron got another present just before half time who else but robert levin doffs be the beneficiary across from thomas millar and leverkusen stefanski left the world's best player unmarked just scored the equaliser. and laver couzens generosity continued in the game's final seconds live in dusty getting his 2nd of the night i'm here in a tent with the defensive blunder and the prolific poles shot deflected off edmond

top soba into the net. $21.00 the final score and prior munich and a fantastic 2020 in there a custom spot top of the table. and a new coach have stevens and 2 of their. 29th straight game without a win on saturday losing one nil at home to the promoted side bealefeld nathan sent a beautiful long ball into the box and savvy and class was there to head it home early in the 2nd half of stephen's wasn't pleased with his team's defending with close given far too much space in front of goal chuckers last win was way back in january. let's take a look at the other results from match day 13 so far they were away wins hoffenheim braman and frankfurt and leipzig dropped vital points at home to cologne and here in berlin they proceeded dortmund on friday night and on sunday freiburg host and

took up travel to all spec. it watching news live from berlin up next our dock film series which this week looks at the soviet afghan war stay tuned for that after a short break i'll be back at the top of the hour with more news headlines until then there's always our website dot com since it just the other rules that are suffering the environment if you will to those polls will lift up the priest and the whole truth strange to. listen to our podcast. and those who see the boots a soviet made no maybe check. the trails of the soviet the weapon soviet. built soviet jerk a soviet you can see through the curtains in the magazine soviet the backpacks soviets the park over the afghan camp and this is

a real afghan. radio the world. sautoy. yaws you know it was the 25th of december 179 when the soviets entered afghanistan to shit on all of us i admitted it was around 2300 hours 1130. they dogface suddenly heard the infernal din of tanks and

planes. what do you got up and went outside and we saw thousands of tanks coming into afghanistan via the north road. and that went on for days and days the commercial. people from the information that i was given and that i could gather 100000 soviet troops had just invaded afghanistan. the soviet intervention didn't just happen by chance afghanistan was a buffer state trapped between the u.s.s.r. in the north and iran in the west pakistan to the south and east and china in the northeast the soviet union and afghanistan had traditionally been on friendly terms lenin's russia had been the 1st country to recognize afghanistan's independence in 1900 afghanistan was the 1st to recognize the soviet union in 1922.

the 2 nations had long maintained a close relationship with the soviet supported afghanistan in a variety of areas such as agriculture the development of infrastructure and training the afghan army. moscow was cobbles leading economic partner but afghanistan remained an independent sovereign state. it was a marriage of both love and practicality. but it ended paradoxically on the 27th of april $978.00. the day the afghan communists came to power in a bloody coup d'etat in kabul. last

bridge near the start of soviet leader leonid brezhnev was. against unarmed intervention in afghanistan he wasn't against sending aid including in the form of military advisers like afghanistan fell into a bloody and chaotic civil war it wasn't clear how the crisis in the ruling communist party might be resolved you thought you could use to put between march 1979 and december 979 when the soviet union does invade several things change one is that the tensions within the ruling party become much worse. and not only are many of the party members of creasing we sidelined but even the 2 ruling how key leaders mohamad and. and his ally i mean are increasingly at odds with each other 6 years after several things would change direction as opinion for your piece if it were in decline again that they don't and peace was he's baby that it also office will be from the american perspective the soviet union is also using the day this kind of period of

detente to expand its influence in the 3rd world. 175 of course we have the downfall of south vietnam and the reunification of vietnam as a communist state and afghanistan then seems to fit into this pattern i think the problem for britain of personally the reason to become so amenable to the idea of moving i mean is that his embrace of he was very it was very public right he made a point of saying don't worry you'll be ok we'll support you when he misses when he visits moscow in 1979 and sees him off at the airport that he goes back and then he's arrested and killed and so then version of also sees this not just as a political insult to the soviet union but as a personal insult to himself. once his rival was out of the way has mean undertook new revolutionary reforms in the country they took no account of traditional culture. and were widely misunderstood by the public. are from sticking

to brushing have stopped i mean provoked the soviets by installing a dictatorship in afghanistan and oppressing the people many of the afghan military deserted and joined the mujahideen. in the soviet kind of mindset of the fall of 1979 where they're worried about the united states taking advantage of the situation in afghanistan it almost seems like i mean is deliberately destabilizing the country and look deliberately destabilizing the leadership on top of that they're receiving subsidies that i mean had met with americans and of course there's the fact that i mean had studied in the united states right so suddenly these kind of aspects of his biography and his behavior which on their own would not even be that suspicious start to come together and start to kind of point to the idea that i mean might be working with the cia.

in total secrecy the red army invaded afghanistan at the end of december 1979 the soviets assassinated i mean and replaced him with a kremlin loyalist kamel. an air bridge to kabul marked the start of a bloody conflict one that was to be the final engagement of the cold war it would seal the fate of the communist bloc and the soviet union it would change the world . this is a fellow's volley of international law and the united nations jordan. it is a deliberate effort of a powerful atheistic government to subjugate an islamic people. to power for longer than you would for a watch. to

make and imposed on the world where i don't have. to. you know. there was a meeting between british never and his closest advisors when they decided to intervene in afghanistan still a way to instill reduction but the only document we now have about it is titled the situation in a which was solicitors and the letter a is in quotation marks with me. doc a look at nasa create your clothes they was a climate of secrecy it was conspiratorial even some of the politburo were not told immediately and wouldn't learn about it until early 1980. s. the soviet people would learn from press reports that there's a limited contingent of troops that had been sent at the request of the afghan government to help them reestablish order and that this contingent would not stay

long and that it was either a friendly country and they were there to help them as they've been doing for years etc etc i said that the soviets had wanted to get out of afghanistan almost from the moment that they went in right so they were there from 1900 in 1989 but they had never intended to be there for 10 years and they were looking for a way out very early on so already in 1980. when they decided this they made a mistake they didn't talk about the duration of the occupation of iraq how long would our troops stay there a month a year 2 years 3 years or so in my opinion that was very important times events that followed proved but even the intervention and the deployment of troops was womanly welcomed by the americans visits it was as if they wanted the soviet union to intervene militarily somewhere or other it's august when that happened in afghanistan they were well pleased by the will still. be another part but the

united states and other western countries wanted the soviet union to get involved in a war that would weaken the country economically militarily and politically and that's exactly what happened pretty scarce among the military the professional military as far as we know was very happy with this decision and they were actually warned. they'd warned the civilian leadership that it would be a mistake. marsalis we had good relations with the afghans dollars toward the so deployment of our troops was welcomed by the populations for sure. but soon began the so-called resistance short of which i stress the word. because they quickly started to receive lots of money from the pakistan militia. it was clear the americans were giving money to the much ideals through pakistan to do this for you . i didn't care who they made it war against it was normal thing that we were going

to do they were always as war with some a sort of snooker you sustain you learn the skill your job you know they want you idea we were a group of about 20 or maybe 30 i wish i had seen and many were very young men. i had some very good friends in that group may they rest in peace and may god be merciful to them they are martyrs. we planned the attack well i asked them have you got incendiary bullets they replied yes we have i asked them to find out which vehicle in the soviet convoy was carrying the reserve a few of us would look at me and to tell me if it was in the front or the middle of the convoy that was not the shell we waited on a slope for the convoy to arrive and then we fired at the field tanker after that the convoy was blocked. the armored cars caught fire and the russians were all killed. that's how it happened. after that attack we

seized 30 or 40 weapons you. see jimmy sell all. of my group. one of our units was caught in an ambush. come on the pedestal of one of my friends had command of the unit the fighting was very brutal. some were beheaded or had their eyes pushed down and. furious but you. are the 1st thing you feel when your friend is dead is a desire for revenge. but i'm still i thought about the magazine in my weapon and i wanted to empty it into my enemies were sitting where it should get what we're. going to use this desire for revenge overrides everything else but.

just where mr butler there to get your stuff the actual city can they the soviet reaction was a sort of genocide by deportation. to see due to the regime of populations that lived along the big roads connecting afghan cities to the borders of pakistan and iran were routed and pushed out of the country. that would extend your sis was moscow's strategy in central asia and the 1920 s. and early thirty's the beauties of the 12 to surround isolate and destroy because. 20. 3000000 afghans pledged to pakistan 2902000000 to iran. whose you both pakistan and iran were pursuing their own interests in the region and played a big role in the afghan resistance unleased us again sheila d.c.

was. this is your disability it to noon on the soviet public was kept in the dark about what was going on in afghanistan. soviet media was under the complete control of the communist party. the press radio television. they only reported on what was happening abroad in a very limited and filtered way even before the intervention the soviet regime was not very popular. there was a general disinterest in politics and a lack of belief in communism was more the regime couldn't ensure supplies of basic necessities the keepin you legal thought if they can't even do that what good. regime the tenuous hope of are approaching with the west was ended by the intervention in afghanistan with the consequences were clear. there were sanctions against the soviet union and in bargo on cereals and technology and the boycott of

the moscow olympic games in 1980. the reason i peaked. in terms of image afghanistan was absolutely catastrophic for the soviet union. even and then died from this with you know i remember the absolutely soporific spectacle of these old fossils carrying the coffins of leaders of the politburo who were all over 70 years old. of the funeral with images of the regime on its death bed and. the soviet union was in its death throes yet the old guard chose another sick old man to succeed. yuri andropov.

yuri andropov was a man of the k.g.b. because he headed the k.g.b. with the secret service and secret police from 1967th 1982. embodied the golden age of the k.g.b. with its vast operations abroad in latin america and africa. want to be on their feet and they claim that he also represents a time when dissidents were arrested and put in psychiatric hospitals with a period of repression you have. a little her on the above. andropov who wanted dialogue with the united states. but when he came to power soviet american relations were very bad so. or rather east west relations. put by could he do it was a phase that couldn't be called a cold war anymore

a chilly war maybe oka men don't east west relations had again deteriorated though not because of and drop of rise to power because the process had begun in the 2nd half of the 1970 s. preschool lead because that's when the most often don't assume what it is and this was something. i merely an illusion. i'm a pilot in the soviet air force my name is bloody made a coalition a cough. for coming here to afghanistan. i only knew what i'd been told which in reality means absolutely nothing. naturally i had my doubts really sorry but i knew that if i came here. anything could happen to me more from which it's. not on julie doot.

elite as time went on doubts grew of waddle because there were huge losses it could be and the soldiers who came back alive began to talk about the atrocities they'd suffered. or that they'd inflicted. because both sides were violent people and all that began to attract criticism slope lucas's model of the us you see dear decree teac. my mission today was to seek out caravans and targets to strike. and i think the only people who could understand how i feel and what we experience here are those who were in the vietnam war. they lived through the same thing and were exposed to the same dangers that we are. in all countries and all societies people look out for themselves their own daily

problems and i don't the soviet union people don't know about what goes on in afghanistan as an ordinary north korea when we go back there are people who will ask us questions but i know now that they won't understand anything about our life here you see him throw them over the next door this is a really dirty war. this meeting is very now. if i'm a sucker designs on expression theory blah the famous coffins in which the dead were transported homes were sealed so the families couldn't see their loved ones. and they suffered because they imagined the worst. more and more the war was no longer seen as legitimate by the soviet people who said. they started asking questions and there was anger when they found out they'd been lied to sit.

in your grief is us. sometimes we had to transport coffins. and there should i have to say that was the most difficult part of our mission bringing back those confidence in them or. not one single mother accepted an explanation that her son had fulfilled his duty and had been a good soldier to the. jewish such words had no meaning for a mother's heart and sure. nothing could replace their son who'd been killed. ocean seraing to comfort them was the hardest thing for us because just.

to sit the arrival of these coffins changed public opinion the opinion of civil society looked you'll see less and less so she did see the fallen soldiers wives and mothers would come to embody the rejection of this new war in afghanistan to sit to do sit on that getting stone. but for the united states the war in afghanistan was a godsend it's allowed the country to justify its own foreign policy. i mean it's in 1901 ronald reagan became us president in 1903 he delivered his famous evil empire as be john. was. and squeaky clean is the wrong word in that some believe he gave the speech to evangelical christians as break in the view that many religious people in the us were pacifists who might

become an obstacle to his aggressive policies against the soviet union still. looks to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil. you know as in vietnam the soviets were hoping you know the americans we. were always hoping that it would be the south vietnamese who would deal with the communist insurgency and that the americans would just be there in a supporting role. carrying out some operations but mostly focusing on training and . and in a very similar way this is what the soviets were hoping that their military could do in afghanistan also as the case was in vietnam it was very hard to maintain security once an operation was finished. so the american forces would pull

back to their forward bases and once again the terrain would be the train would be open. and of course both shared a kind of. it's a materialist idea of what it would take to win the majority of the population over to their own side i mean and the soviets also thought ok we need to do economic development we need to provide aid we need to provide you know food and medicine all these things and that will make people more amenable to the communist government in afghanistan. and so they spent a lot of resources on this but of course in the end there wasn't enough. i. mean. the formal proof just when i turned my andropov who was very ill at the design it was proof that his worst fears were true that a series of events supported enteral cold belief that the united states wanted to provoke a war as it is you need to know the particular game that there must be if it is not

. until the end it was the number but you are going to go behind the town of cherry county. that's highly dangerous here. from here on words is the most dangerous zone in the region. that you just of we control this route from 8 o'clock to 6 o'clock and a little bit at night it's controlled by that much a deviation of the day watch out and sometimes fire at times during the day to. the point of british. the local. lookout take cover they're firing up ahead. of the. and. for the love of a rocket landed right in front of our tank of gas at the bottom graduations comrade

capitalists. even if the mujahideen and your weapons a bit better. nobody would ever see your film your. music history in 1985 the cd it became clear to the us that the resistance would last also of gun do you have good looking humans human in the muslim world have realized that this wasn't just a proxy war between the soviets and the americans. because it was the sort of justified muslim resistance for it none seek a cinematic it was an illegal in the reagan administration sense that it's now had political cover to supply aircraft weapons to resistance groups and together with its pakistani allies young google is he still. but where the americans

aiding the right side while the mujahideen declared jihad or holy war to drive the soviet occupiers out of their country other extremist groups took advantage of the situation. to get there with the pakistani secret service they tricked the americans a large portion of the american military aid fell into the hands of radical fundamentalist groups including one led by a certain osama bin. there were also resistance fighters for whom no us help arrived like those in pan shia a valley in the northeast of the country they had to fend for themselves doing whatever they could to secure weapons.

to be gay so very much here in the valley of i'm sure. we have nothing but soviet weapons. weapons captured from their enemy. leading the pan hsieh mujahideen was a 28 year old commander a homage shah massoud with no support from the u.s. he managed the impossible he resisted the red army repeatedly the most powerful force in the world. we have no direct or indirect relations with the americans. and. during the last attack no one came to our aid. the articles in american

newspapers our lives. they aren't true. it's in every muscle his natural charisma and his military exploits against the soviets made him a symbol of the afghan resistance he was respected as a commander and loved as a person but apart from his strategic and military talents he was known in pangea for establishing a community based on respect for islam even today he remains a legendary figure. of church joe on. was young tall handsome and. with fine features and offers of said shortly after he was very charismatic and well spoken so work making sure he had a big effect on people he was friendly. we chatted on kind of book and his army though

she was there's no doubt that he was a gifted military strategist and an exceptional talent but i want to stress his humanistic values he was a great humanist as a church it should matter one but. he was the most peaceful man i ever knew but he found himself in the worst of circumstances war. so even while afghanistan was at war with the soviets he was thinking about the future about the schools that should be built about the education of the next generation or more going to be tentatively that's before we are so my pleasure. i can only say positive things about masood. he was intelligent sophisticated and he never made irrational decisions. he always kept his word however difficult that might be he did a great deal for his people with the store you support him in. while most sued for

the red army life in moscow continued his normal until the day when the aged constantine chen yanker who had succeeded andropov died in march 1905 a younger man came to power a new face in the kremlin the fate of afghanistan and of the soviet union would change forever. i'll sit for our says will not go but short of. the hour had come for mikhail gorbachev the heir apparent.