these german children had a hard time choosing because they were a reminder of the. explosion. forced sterilization under the nazis. examines the few traces that remained of their existence. starch january 11th on d. w. . you're watching news asia coming up today deadly attacks in afghanistan taint another round of peace talks for many afghans peace seems like a distant dream when they still see so much violence d.w. visit a family whose daughter paid the ultimate price for daring to stand out plus where is jack ma he's $1.00 of china's richest and most influential men but hasn't been seen in months is he in trouble with beijing.

i'm melissa chan welcome to news asia we're glad you could join us talks are set to resume this week concerning the future of afghanistan with negotiators from the government and also the taliban among the different stakeholders they call it a peace deal but that hope seems less and less apt instead we have seen a string of targeted killings across afghanistan specifically of the educated elite the kind of people the country badly needs such as government workers and those in civil society these include judges doctors and journalists including television anchor malala my wand who was gunned down last month. miller ghoul's wife was murdered by the taliban years ago now their daughter has also been killed malala my wife and was one of the few female journalists in afghanistan until she

was shot dead last month in cold blood. she was brutally murdered for no reason at all her only crime was that she spoke the truth and fought against injustice to give her life because she wanted to help other women in particular. malala was an anchor at the afghan news division any cas her boss zalmai latif he remembers her as a fearless broadcaster on the day of her death she was shed you have to present the morning show. to your colleagues who are waiting far in the studio at some point a call came telling us she was dead. it was tragic we all started crying and couldn't understand who would do such a thing to malala. and. her father shows us where his daughter

and her driver were killed by unidentified gunmen attacks like this are growing more frequent in afghanistan in 2020 more than 10 journalists were killed malala former boss is concerned about this constant threat. to all of course this puts a lot of pressure on us it restricts our reporting and we expect the government to take necessary security measures so we as journalists can once again report freely in the country and in the future. do you sit well with. malala as funeral was well attended. there are many here who fear the recent uptick in violence against journalists. intellectuals were far the silence civil society. just wanted one thing peace in afghanistan she was so happy when the peace

negotiations with the taliban started and she was so sure that everything would finally get better once she told me that she was ready to die for peace no she's dead but there was still no peace. as legacy hangs over afghanistan a defiant reminder of the victims of violence and the peace for which they fought. joining us is journalist allie latif in kabul ali how is it possible that you have a group sitting down for peace talks when the reality outside the meeting room is that there's a lot of violence this is exactly the question people are asking and i think more than anything what it shows is the desperation of the situation because you know while these politicians and these representatives will definitely be jockeying for their own position and their own. advances the average person at this point just wants an end to the fighting they you know they don't

understand why the war's still going on while there's peace talks but they just want something to actually come from these peace talks so it will be very important for both sides to actually deliver something tangible after all of these months now when it comes to the violence in many cases no organization has claimed credit for these murders but do we have an idea who they might be is the taliban involved in any way. so if you ask the government the intelligence agency the ministry of interior will say that 99 percent of these attacks are perpetrated by the taliban and you know these things are very difficult to prove. and just the fact that there really is very little proof of what's going on and who is behind these attacks that makes it much scarier for the average person because they feel like anybody could be behind my death and it could come at any moment for literally anything i say or do and so it makes it that much scarier

and that much more difficult and again this is part of why people are so desperate for a peace because they feel like is behind these attacks maybe a real peace will actually bring an end to it what is the message what is the goal of attackers here if we don't know who they are here. ideas that literally you are not safe anywhere you're not safe from stick you are not safe from you're not safe from suicide attacks you're not safe from someone getting on a motorcycle and shooting you and you're not safe because of what you say i was just speaking to an analyst for another story and they asked that i don't quote them in the story because of these targeted killings they were so afraid that you know because as we said we don't know who is behind these then what they say could end up getting them killed and this was just an analyst for

a simple story for another you know news agency that's really what these attacks are accomplishing. but what is the goal of fair do they just don't want a government do they want an arche is that the sense that people are getting behind you what's driving these attackers. sure the sense is that it's either censorship trying to keep people from criticizing the government or the taliban or any other organization. and or it's literally the fear that no one is able to protect you that this state. cannot protect those of your the taleban you want to create the fear that the state cannot protect you if you're the state you want to create the fear that the taliban have not changed that they you can't be protected from them as long as they exist in and we should be attacking them and going after them so whoever is behind these attacks has their own unique message they're trying

to send. thank you for joining us. questions are growing over the apparent disappearance of chinese billionaire jack ma the founder of e-commerce giant alibaba hasn't been seen since october after he publicly criticized china's regulators for stifling innovation speculation about his whereabouts intensified when ma failed to appear as a judge on his own reality business show us financial services arm and group was due to be listed on the stock market but days after the remarks regulators pulled the i.p.o. until his disappearance mott was the richest man in china and is one of the country's most influential entrepreneurs he stepped down as chairman in 2019 but remains its biggest shareholder. joining us in the studio is d.w. correspondent clifford kuhn and formerly based in beijing clifford what is going on

well you know the question that they have the answer the germans don't like to give but we don't know but we do know is that the most famous businessman in china has disappeared. and there's been no message from his company from. came shortly after he made some comments in shanghai on october 24th saying that he believed the regulations in china for were too difficult to foster innovation so a combination of all these things means that we suspect that he is probably one of several things he could be in singapore on a fake passport that's one room or another is that he's been in the ministries of detention but he's been picked up by the police and then the other is that he's been ordered to take to keep a low profile and he's in hung joe which is the chinese city where his headquarters is give us a sense of how big a deal this is well i think i think it's very difficult to overstate how big jack

is in china i mean when you get india. the shelves are full of books about how to be like jack or you know the advice of jack ma the words of jack he's he's most of these t.v. shows that he's on his company is is is the flagship company for china it's one of the 3 biggest tech companies there he's very very important so for him to suddenly disappear like this is definitely suspicious it's a bit like jeff bezos of amazon disappearing or something like that it is it is and as we know china is not a model of transparency so it's not great for getting this information so that's exactly what i wanted to ask which is what does this tell us about the government and also what does what should the international business community take from what's happening well it's interesting the timing of this basically it's not a good sign in terms of transparency and if you're thinking of investing in china you know you're going to see these 2 going to be

a bit worried about this kind of thing when someone so famous such a big global company like ali baba can can get can just disappear like this it just shows to me. politics always beats out financial in china even if there's a good sound financial economic reason for this you can be sure that it's something to do the communist party asserting control so i think that's that's the key factor here and as you know this year is going to be the 100th anniversary of the communist party so there's a real sense that in china everyone is getting things lined up getting all the ducks lined up so it's going to be a big year celebrating the communist party and it's very possible that. well it's very interesting because silicon valley is big when it comes to investing in china and china chinese tech so one really wonders what's going through their minds in terms of processing this and to what extent it's going to impact how they invest in china so i guess to sort of step back a bit how this is really weird is it it's stephanie very weird but we see. this

kind of thing before we had the case a couple years ago with being being the actress who is china's most famous actress she just disappeared for 2 months nobody knew where she was. absolutely no information and 2 months later she to months wherever she was she really emerged with a massive tax bill full of apologies and messages of support for the communist party so like taylor swift disappearing exactly yes so it's not it's these these big figures and it's almost you can almost see a pattern you know i don't read too much into it because there have been other things about the government to implementing rules and about monopolies and stuff but it's also highly symbolic i think that the most famous entrepreneur and the most famous actress you know these leading figures show that in terms of power they're not they're not the main thing on chinese thinking that it could fit couldn't thank you for joining us. that's it for today form or check us out on

facebook or twitter we'll leave you now with pictures of workers in japan visiting shrines to pray for a good start to 2021 are back tomorrow to fight. the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection in developing what does the latest research. information and contacts. are on a virus update. on t w. to come to.

one problem. in. the church in. our world climate change or for us and our children. dot com slash water. people with masks a common sight now around the world some of the masks are sown at home others professionally made. and then there are the disposable masks the ones also used in hospitals they pose a huge risk to the environment because they contain class. and often enough they

end up polluting rivers and oceans. we've seen all around the world well with washing up with barks and stomachs these more so on another edition better nor worse than the rest of the trash. we can't stop using masks but we should not have to choose between saving lives or the environment so what should be done. hello welcome to the 19th special in berlin and this here is a reusable mosque we all have them here. to keep each other safe and i certainly keep this one unlike those single use ones which most of us where only once or twice and then throw away but what happens then time to take a closer look at an item that's become essential for our everyday life. disposable masks are everywhere on the ground in hong kong in the rivers in ukraine on the

beaches of italy and california and on the streets in germany a growing problem. and then to my isp pia you always think it's a paper because you look at the tissue on the surface. but inside it's at least 50 percent plastic and the rest is cellulose or paper but half of it won't biodegrade and then there is the elastic ear loops which are completely plastic you might think the clip over the nose is metal but it's also plastic so overall 70 percent of the white of this mask is plastic and therefore not biodegradable. bottles they're designed to be used by medical professionals but for many they've become a standard household item a lot of masks end up in the scene because they haven't been properly disposed of used basques are considered unsuitable for recycling as they contain germs not just coronaviruses. they basically made thermal treatment to get burned up in germany

that means they're supposed to be disposed of as a general waste which means they'll be incinerated that's a process which can be used to generate energy producing electricity and heat. but not all countries treat waste this way in many places masks end up in dumps where they get buried or blown into waterways scientists are working on alternatives such as but he would agree to pull so you those from bamboo the masks need to be robust and developing them will take time. shaft much and i know the mass create new waste in which we cannot recycle these materials are definitely not compatible with the ideal of a circular economy hasn't got the time we are burdening our planet with a lingering legacy one that is likely to outlast the pandemic by centuries. of a more. and for more i'm joined by mark commute dominic from the

university college london where he's professor of materials and society a project lead the plastics waste innovation hub good to have you with us let's start 1st of all you putting things into perspective how big a global problem ah single you masks single use masks in comparison to to plastic bottles and backs of force. it's a it's a very significant problem simply small so it's getting bigger so in the u.k. we did a calculation that every year it creates $124000.00 tons of single is plastic waste a recyclable that's just in the u.k. with 60 people it made it equal now if you think that well you know you've got a 1000000000 people and lot wearing single use mosques then you realize it's an enormous amount of plastic waste and it's growing every day of course i mean as long as the pandemic is with us we'll probably have to wear masks but why do single

use masks need to have components that are made of plastic. is there any all the material available. well yeah i mean so it depends what you say use them as full for the general public the mosques are to protect all the people so in case that you have the virus and you don't know you have the virus but you're out and about meeting people there is to protect others and so you don't need to use plastic mask which are designed for surgery and hostile environments you can use and we the data shows very clearly that cloth masks which are made of cotton or wool are as effective for doing this. so so you can use or usual mask and they don't need to be plastic right but it's i mean as you said i mean surgical masks for medical staff they should use the single use mask that contain plastic that in itself is a huge problem as well. it is and what we've done is i mean i'm not saying plastic

isn't bad itself of course what we need to do is recycled plastic and so we should be designing things for recycling and what we've slept walked into in the medical establishment in hospitals is this idea it's been sold to us as a very hygienic way of making sure people are safe in hospital so everything is single use it's all incinerated off to it's and that hospitals it developed countries are all set up to do this but what this does to criticise of white cycle of waste and see it to emissions which we have to wean ourselves off we can't continue like this even in awful environments right i mean i don't know if you can answer that question it just popped into my head because i know that the european union wants to ban as single use plastic this summer that would also include face masks are they still available then do we know. i think those those those directives they they only include the use for by the public so things being

sold to the public they usually have exceptions and i suspect the hospital in violence will be exceptions because the whole of the hostile environment including injections and all the packaging and bolt is all single use so i suspect what they're talking about there is banning single use plastics sold to the public in terms of food packaging. what we know that the pandemic helps temporarily at least to lowest c o 2 emissions do you think the pandemic will also help create more awareness when it comes to plastic pollution. i think what people see with the with the disposable mosque is you see them on the ground all the time and why is that partly it's selfish people taking them off the contaminated soil and down the ground so it's partly that but it's because they're very lightweight then get blown around in the wind they end up in the sea to end up in the rivers they end up in the in the countryside so yeah it's a very visible sign of our attitudes towards each other towards the environment and

towards and this is that we we kind of got used to this terrible addiction to single use plastic and the mobs really are and i'm on it and i'm at the mob and really not a good example that yeah that's no yeah absolutely the but i mean if they sort of incentive say you know couldn't couldn't policymakers say every mask that you dispose properly we have containers put top outside supermarkets and wherever people ah let that be a feasible solution. well we looked into that very expensive solution so you could say well ok if you want to use a single use plastic mouse and we're going to put these containers everywhere and we get it yet we're going to monitor that and give you some incentive but that's got to be a big infrastructure you could put into place when in fact an easier solution which is the one that most governments are trying to persuade the populations to follow is a really useful moss one where you yourself as

a citizen have the responsibility for cleaning and for using and for and for carrying around with you and and and that that in itself i think would change people's attitudes that is the idea of disposability whether there is a structure or not is actually not very good for the environment rights market near dominic professor and london and said in an expert on material society plastic waste innovation thank you so much for your time i was talking to. time now for more of your questions over to a science correspondent williams. is a new variant of the virus more dangerous than the old one. viruses mutate constantly producing a never ending stream of new variants but most of the time those mutations don't

change the virus much or or they even have a negative effect on its ability to propagate still every once in a while a mutation will provide advantages like making the virus for example better invading your cells or better at replicating and them and that appears to have happened with a new variant 1st identified in the united kingdom back in september which has in just a few short months become the form detected in most new patients there that rapid expansion the experts say is them to the fact that one or more of the mutations it's accumulated make the variant more contagious it seems to spread more easily exactly how much more easily is still kind of up in the air but but does that make it more dangerous the ensor is both yes and no the know is if you

look at things from an individual level although it looks to be a lot more contagious the fast spreading variant doesn't appear to be more virulent so it doesn't seem to make the people who catch it any sicker than the old variant does but but seen from a population perspective the new variant is more dangerous because the fact that it's more transmissible means that of course more people will catch it and more people catching it translates into more people ending up in hospital wards and i see. new year that's looking forward the new variant could prove more dangerous for another reason as well which is that contagiousness is directly linked to herd immunity the more contagious a pathogen is the more people have to be vaccinated to stop its spread the good news is that experts are still cautiously optimistic that approved vaccines

should prove just as effective against the new variant as they are against the old one. there are volumes there and he'll be back again tomorrow so if you have a question just send an e-mail to feedback adult english to diddle the dot com and type experts in the subject line or you leave a comment on our you tube channel that's it for today thanks for watching stay safe .

to. come. the christmas season has come to me to sleep again everything is almost back to. triumph mimes doesn't stand a chance to talk the day closer to a. victory winning away in print and there's just no way

to shock. young moroccan emigrants. they know the police will stop the. the the rudest solution. they know their flight could be fatal. not an option shattered dreams starts january 18th on d w. l z a view of the world. where i come from that all of that to get to cisco it just like with chinese food that's measurable where i am it's always reminds me of home after decades of living in germany china's food is one of the things i miss the most but that taking a step back i see things that you took different in our. benefits personally going

a sense that it's just the other part of the wall haven't been implemented in china that you cannot touch and it's people wondering if they're going to take it but if you have a right to another that is this is their job just that of them how i see it added up to why i love my job because i tried to do it exactly this hour a day my name is the name too and i work at it that. 2 frank food. international gateway to the best connection soul spirit road and rail . located in the heart of europe you are connected to the whole world. experience outstanding shopping and dining offers and try our services. be our

guest at friends food city managed by from. this is the w. news live from berlin germany is locked down summit gets underway after a delayed start the chancellor and regional leaders are now discussing further restrictions one contentious issue proposed limits on people's movements also coming up england's looks down again people are on the borders to stay at home for another national effort as

a program of mass vaccinations gathers pace. and america's incoming outgoing president rally in georgia ahead of pivotal runoff elections joe biden tells voters they can start america's course for a generation and donald trump repeats unfounded claims and still calls for a republican victory. i'm going out of his welcome to the program chancellor angela merkel and her germany's regional leaders are set to extend the country's coronavirus lock down to the end of january after more than 3 hour delay their meeting is now on the way further measures including travel restrictions are also on the table parents and teachers will be watching to see what comes out of those talks schools are currently closed in germany and many families are bracing for yet more home based

learning. students in germany have not yet returned to the classroom after the christmas break most schools will stay closed until january 10th while others are offering virtual lessons germany's federal and state governments now have to decide on the way forward as calls grow for schools to say close even longer or to only open partially in berlin opinions on the matter very. thank you about that i have 2 children myself one in high school and one in elementary school i think schools should remain closed a little longer even though it's difficult for us parents. perhaps we can find a good balance with some learning at home and others allowed to be in school. i think that as long as the lockdown stays in place and i expect it will be extended children should stay at home. hope for a return to normal lives with the vaccine germany has administered almost $317000.00 jobs so far but the government is coming under pressure it's vaccination

program has been criticized for being slow and chaotic german health minister defended his government's plan. she was the vaccine delivery my own tech pfizer have always said they could only produce 50000000 doses worldwide by the end of 2020 that explains this initial shortage the 2nd issue is that those german states that are vaccinating are doing so mostly in nursing homes we have always said that this will take a little longer because of course the process there is more complicated new cases and deaths have remained high over the holiday period now medical experts report germany's critical care units are nearing capacity. what is going to be decided. well it's already pretty much a given that we will see at the very least an extension of the lockdown we're currently seeing at least till the end of january and then the big question mark is

how much tougher this lockdown will get and what is already being debated is something like we're already seeing in saxony the worst affected region at the moment here and many more people are no longer allowed to leave a 15 kilometer radius around their homes unless they have a very significant reason and that doesn't mean shopping any more the only essential shops are still open here in germany already and there doesn't seem to be a reopening of schools inside so the key decision we're waiting for now is whether there will be a new mechanism once a new level is reached that new measures of potential curfews would immediately come into effect or whether there still is room for decision making at the regional level and that is something that has been strengthened now probably also a weakness in how the german government couple tackles this. decision making also

on how the vaccinations are conducted are very very local indeed that's been an advantage in the past when it came to a dusting policy but now it seems to be a weakness in finding a uniform way of how to reach everybody above 80 in this vaccination drive so where do you germany's federal regional governments disagree. well they disagree on a lot less than they did in the past we saw the german chancellor here move to months ago say that what's been decided simply isn't enough she was tangibly frustrated with regional leaders readers who simply wouldn't follow what was already the advice months ago by scientists who predicted a 2nd wave that would be a lot worse and it is a lot worse than the 1st pandemic wave we've seen here in germany so far so there is a will to find a new baseline of whether that will mean a departure downwards from the target formula of 50 infections per 100000 habitants

in the space of 7 days down to probably 25 or something i very much doubt but there's a willingness to act and i would expect us to see more tightening of measures on top of that extension that is already a given here. function and death rates are so alarmingly high here in germany where has the government's strategy gone wrong. well you say still but we actually saw more deaths in december pretty much the same number of deaths than we've seen in the entire pandemic period before that and that just highlights that germany simply wasn't braced for this that clearly there were not tough enough measures in place in time to prevent this wave to flatten this 2nd which is a tsunami compared to the 1st one and here there are a lot of question marks at the moment whether the government did enough ordering of those vaccines whether going the european way through brussels was the right way in

the end and whether germany should have spent a lot more money buying vaccines that then probably wouldn't be needed rather than being a bit more economical with this so we expect there to be another meeting on wednesday after the regular cabinet meeting to discuss what can be done to get 1st of all more vaccine and to deliver those vaccines much faster to those in the ticky vulnerable groups here and many. germans vaccination program is being criticized for being too slow. what is going wrong with. what one has to say when you compare it with the united states or with britain who were much faster in getting that underway those are states who decided we simply won't go the regular way which means that the companies producing the vaccine would then also have to pay up if anything goes wrong in the u.s. and britain biotech will not have to pay anything if there is

a medical problem with that vaccine so that's the reason why it was so but there's a lot of question right now why there wasn't a lot more ordering why there wasn't more of a financial risks taken now particularly when comparing it to the billions lost every week when you look at the societal damage we're seeing that the 2nd wave is doing right now. our chief political editor thank you very much michel. now going to england where people aren't instructions to stay at home as their 3rd national lockdown takes effect prime minister boris johnson announced emergency measures just yesterday as the company battled so fast spreading new coronavirus variant scotland wales and northern ireland also bring in strict lock downs. 5 days into the new year brits woke up with a covert hangover. streets once bustling now all but to serve as a new highly contagious period of the virus history tapping throughout the country

forcing england into its 2nd straight lockdown since the start of the pen demick. you may only leave home for limited reasons permitted in law such as too short for essentials to work if you absolutely cannot work from home to exercise to seek medical assistance such as getting a test or to skate domestic abuse. for many a tough pill to swallow but most agree there is no where the cure as england has seen a 50 percent jump in covered hospitalizations since christmas day. my view so i think it. needs to be done to. people take responsibility for themselves then ultimately i suppose this government has responsibly. yeah i definitely think it was the right decision. i just hope that

everyone. again so sure that the opposition is calling on the government to provide the 8 needed for those affected. by the parents support in the coming days because the schools are shot businesses will support because they won't be able to package needs to be put in place the soonest possible because compliance you know clear messaging but also support for people to make sure that they comply in wales where patients were among the 1st to receive a 2nd approved vaccine produced by astra zeneca tough luck down measures have been in place since the 20th of december. before johnson's announcement scotland's 1st minister nicholas stern imposed similar restrictions while north and ireland's executive is expected to follow suit oh british hospitals now have more code in

1000 patients than at the height of the. with resources slow and staff overwhelmed the prime minister warns the coming weeks could be the hardest yet. now let's have a look at some of the other developments in the corona virus a pandemic german firm biotech is warning against delaying the 2nd shot of its covert 19 vaccine beyond 3 weeks saying it has no data about effect is active list some countries have been postponing the 2nd job in an attempt to inoculate more people and it is or will begin a nationwide vaccination program on january 13th president djoko we dawdle will be given the 1st dose of the vaccine made by a chinese from brazil is reporting at least 2 cases of the new more contagious corona virus variant one of them after contact with travelers from europe and mexico as granted approval to the astra zeneca for vaccine that makes it the 2nd vaccine to get the go ahead. and after some of the other stories making headlines

around the world today a chinese court has sentenced the former head of a state owned asset management company to death for taking bribes lies arm in there was also convicted of bigamy the court said the sums involved were in the hundreds of millions of dollars china exit use more people than any other country in the world. iran has rejected accusations that it seized a south korean tanker to pressure seoul to release billions of dollars money that was frozen as part of your sanctions over to iran's nuclear program iranian troops vessel in the persian gulf on monday claiming it was polluting the water. saudi arabia's crown prince has signed a deal to bring qatar back into a coalition of the gulf arab allies taz leaders say timing been hammered out tunney co signed the agreement ending 3 years of isolation from its neighbors

a number of gulf states cut ties with qatar 3 years ago if using it of being too close to iran. now polls have just opened in a critical special election in the us state of georgia 2 seats are up for grabs in the senate the outcome will shape president elect biden's agenda democrats will soon hold the white house and the house of representatives but if republicans hold control of the senate they can block biden here's the balance of power in the senate where republicans have 50 of the 100 seats democrats and 2 independent us hold 48 democrats need to win both of the ga seats by as president elect carla harris is vote breaks a tight senate effectively creating a majority of 51 polls show the parties are neck and neck with the democrats enjoying a slight advantage. a final pitch to voters that could reshape politics in georgia

and the nation head of tuesday's vote democrats raphael warnock and john r. sophomore confident of victory. in georgia is that this is a bit over. the it's a. good day to do. both candidates also getting a late assist from the president elect joe biden's ability to implement his political agenda would be boosted by democratic victories here. the power the power is learning in your hands unlike any time in my career one stary one state can chart the course not just through the next 4 years or for the next generation. democrats may also be hoping to capitalize on recent comments from donald trump on sunday audio emerged of the us president pressuring the state's top election

official to alter the state's presidential election results citing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. no love lost i want to do is as i use one of the fine. $11780.00 loans which is one more that we have. on the eve of the runoff georgia secretary of state dismissed trump's claims once again. it's just been a big canard it's been a red herring people trying to blame shift and find excuses why they didn't turn their people out to win as a republican i'm disappointed with those results. but trump isn't backing down to us president flew to georgia to campaign for the state's republican senate candidates he once more refused to acknowledge his election defeat. i want to thank you very much oh georgia by the way there is no way we lost georgia

this. was originally i should. have.