he will go to the store he the chinese state has a lot of money at his disposal. and that's how it's expanding and asserting its status that in position in the world to be very sick above board are you. chinese gateway to europe or with your every 19th on d w. this is d w news and these are our top stories germany has extended its current lockdown until at least mid february with tighter restrictions introduced on what types of masks must be worn in public places and more working from home chancellor angela merkel and the leaders of the country's 16 states announce the measures following concerns over a new variants of the virus. the top republican in the u.s. congress mitch mcconnell has openly blamed outgoing president donald trump for

provoking his supporters to attack the capitol earlier this month saying the mob was quote fed lies the comments came on trump's last full day as president joe biden's presidential inauguration is on wednesday. an independent panel has criticized china and the world health organization for their response to the pandemic the panel said beijing should have intervened more forcefully from the outset and that the w.h.o. should have declared an emergency sooner the panel also denounced the an equal supply of corona virus vaccines and roll out programs in rich and poor nations this is due to you news from berlin follow us on twitter and instagram at state of the news or visit our website state of the year dot com. or. in less than 24 hours dawn will but trump will depart the

white house without welcoming its new resident soon to be president joe biden a final break with tradition by a president who came to power promising to break all the rules and he deliver on that promise at home and abroad tonight trump's former national security adviser john bolton joins me to discuss the global order after 4 years of america 1st the good the bad and the broken i'm often berlin this is the day. watch you how not to lose by trying something new like from this pandemic this horrible plague that came in from china it's going to disappear one day it's like a miracle it will disappear the united states will withdraw from the iran from the paris nuclear deal climate accord for absolutely no reason and for absolutely

no reason i got a picture of you frankly we didn't win this election. and new administration will be inaugurated on january 20th thank you god bless you and god bless america. also coming up the cold hard truth about the russian winter every year on january 19th russians tests their body and soul by taking the plunge in the festival of the epiphany. guys and why are you doing these. it's a piston each day so we have to wash away all our things really just give us our you think the water has magic balance. no idea but believing is everything. well to our viewers on p.b.s.

in the united states and to all of our viewers around the world welcome we begin the day on the eve of the end of the presidency of don't trump these are the final hours that donald trump can call himself u.s. presidents the final hours that he can call the white house his home he has spent most of the day we understand meeting with advisors and issuing some 100 presidential pardons it is doubtful that he spent a minute preparing the oval office for soon to be president joe biden trump will not attend biden's inauguration tomorrow and he will not be at the white house to greet the new president and 1st lady the respect shown to donald and melania trump by brock and michelle obama 4 years ago will not be on offer tomorrow will be gone by noon on wednesday gone but not for good as president elect biden will soon experience the reach of the trump presidency will be long and lasting tonight we survey what 4 years of president donald trump meant to america's role in the global

order what has changed what is broken and what can if possible be repaired e.w.s. chief international editor richard walker starts as all. chaos in washington a pandemic out of control. an economy on the brink they do not get a nation profoundly divided rule like you would not run the u.s. has enough crises going on at home to take up the energy of any new president but the rest of the world looks everybody says don't see. china is now a rival superpower. russia he's openly hostile. and climate change threatens everything. unveiling his foreign policy team joe biden said he would tackle all these challenges by rejecting trump's slogan of america 1st and reviving american leadership at the head of the western alliance america is

back ready to lead the world not retreat from it once again sit at the head of the table ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies this new spirit from biden is being warmly welcomed here in berlin and in other capitals around europe and yes on this crucial issue of china the europeans have started doing their own thing. the e.u. has just agreed a sweeping investment treaty with beijing ignoring requests from the biden team to wait and work together i'm glad merkel herself was the driver of the deal which will be a money maker for german companies. it's not a great omen for biden's plan to hold a summit of democracies he wants free societies to line up together to challenge china seeing it as a growing threat democracy everywhere he'll want europe fully on board european

leaders too often condemning china over human rights abuses but that rarely turns into action and many a wary of being sucked into a long term conflict between the u.s. and beijing for 10 year appear in hate ging on this could expose the underlying tensions in the transatlantic relationship which burst into the open under donald trump if europeans believe they can remain neutral in a growing rivalry between the united states and china and sort of have an equally good relations with beijing and washington and at the same time expect the united states to be the 1st responder whenever anything happens in europe i think they're living in a dream world that that's not going to be possible this was the heart of the crisis between the u.s. and europe during the trump years from school and european allies as freeloaders and that has shaken trust perhaps even permanently because one day trump or someone

like him could be back now if europeans look at the transatlantic alliance there is a strong a degree of course and that world. and europeans need to build up their own research and their own strategies to be able to act in a more indeed and the death throes of the trumpet ministration have added to fears that the u.s. has become fundamentally stable a power that allies can never again depend on in quite the same way. ultimately that means that biden success or failure at home will profoundly affect what he can achieve abroad he says america is back but the rest of the world is asking is it too broken to lead. well my 1st guest tonight can speak with authority about the presidency of donald trump in his book the room where it happened former national security advisor john bolton offers

a detailed account of his months as national security advisor to president trump john bolton also served as u.s. ambassador to the united nations under president george w. bush ambassador bolton joins me tonight from washington d.c. embassador it's good to have you on the program you recently said that donald trump is the political equivalent of a street riot or we know that in less than 24 hours he will no longer be president pal should america's allies how should they be feeling tonight well i think. foreign governments foreign people in general should understand that donald trump is an aberration in american politics he's an anomaly he's not an indication of the future of american politics or stability of our constitution i think the inauguration of joe biden return a sense of normalcy to the country not necessarily normalcy that i'd like to see i

didn't vote for trump or biden i wrote in the name of a real conservative republican but i think hope is that biden can return to a less all arise less highly partisan political dialogue and i think that will be good for the country and good for our relations with the rest of the world i want to draw a moment from your foreign policy experience you tweeted that the 1st crisis for president biden could be a national or a threat to national security from iran do you blame that on trump's maximum pressure policy. you know if anything i blame it on the president for not following through on the logic of that policy and bringing the regime in tehran down i don't think we're going to have real he said security in the middle east until the regime of the ayatollah is replaced not just because of their threat on nuclear weapons but because of their continued support for terrorism and their. more conventional

military operations in iraq and syria in lebanon and yemen. we know that the us president took the united states out of the iran nuclear deal you were in favor of that it happened much to the dismay of the opposition of the other signatories of that agreement including germany and the u.k. tell me what did you know what did donald trump know that apparently the british and the germans still do not know about the danger of the iranian regime. well they may appreciate the danger of the regime but they overestimate the effect of an agreement. that iran signed that said that it should not get nuclear weapons the deal itself the 2015 deal is based on a flat out lied iraq that they never had a nuclear weapons program we know after the dairy israeli intelligence raid if we

didn't know it before that of course they had a nuclear weapons program and i think they never gave it up there's no strategic indication that the iranian leadership is prepared to do that so this is yet another agreement by one authoritarian state to a bunch of gullible democracies that says oh yeah we'll give up that nuclear weapons program in exchange for tangible economic benefits the north koreans have done it by my count 4 times in the past 25 years so the iranians know what their audience was and i think what trump did was to say i'm not going to play this game anymore and if president elect biden if he tries to inject the u.s. back into that nuclear deal and everyone else says yes is that going to be in your eyes a disaster. yeah sure it will it will allow iran to continue

along the course that it's now pursuing look it was the critical mistake that was made in this deal and it was made at the entrance of the united states i'm not blaming the european countries plus to a last iran to have any uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing capability at all you know in the u.s. and licenses nuclear technology to saudi arabia or the united arab emirates 2 of our friends in the region just. just a few months ago the united arab emirates recognized the state of israel to get american nuclear technology they had to give up any claim to enrich uranium or reprocessed plutonium then they turn around and find that we're allowing iran to do just that so all i'm saying is we should treat iran just like we have good friends like the united arab emirates the saudis and others and give a front end in the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle i don't think they'll do it

because it has nothing to do with the peaceful use of nuclear energy it has to do with and indigenous nuclear weapons program let me switch gears here and talk about domestic politics for a moment the democrats we understand may call witnesses in the impeachment trial of donald trump have you been contacted about being a witness in testifying i know i have not i know that you refused to testify in the 1st impeachment trial if you were asked this time around and bester will you say yes. now i didn't refuse to testify in the 1st the peach new trial and you know the democrats never issued a subpoena for me what happened was they issued a subpoena to my deputy charles compliment which was followed immediately by a letter from the white house counsel directing him not to attend his deposition by order of the president so from and had the congress telling him to do one thing and the president telling him the other and he did something that really offended the

democrats in the house of representatives he asked a federal judge threw on a day well faced with that outrageous behavior by conference the democrats withdrew their subpoena and never issued one to me so i'm here they know my address if they want to send me a subpoena look at it with care where you say yes i will look at it with care i don't know what i have to say about the current impeachment article but you know the democrats are just full of fun if an investigation determines that republican members of congress were involved in any way with the storming of the capitol on january 6th what in your opinion should be done well i think anybody who is found to have had any involvement. even simply being a coconspirator and the violations that occurred by that assault on the capital ought to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law they ought to receive the maximum possible penalty without any possibility of parole and frankly if the

key got lost somewhere along the line would bother me either. when i ask him embassador you have said that you knew when donald trump was elected back in 2016 you knew that he was not fit to be president and yet you took his offer to be national security adviser why did you do that if you knew that he was unfit to be in the office to begin with. to try to make sure that the united states didn't make catastrophic leave bad decisions would you prefer that i and many other people felt the same way i did who came in to serve the country in the trump administration would you have preferred we'd be every place by people with whose fingers dragged along the ground and who drilled from the corners of their mouths. so you do you don't regret. having to answer that question was no i mean well i mean you don't regret working for donald trump as national security adviser i don't regret working

for the government of the united states no not in the slightest ok ambassador john bolton it's good to have you on the program tonight we appreciate you taking the time to share your insights thank you thank you for having me. from politics to the pandemic here in germany the number of infections is finally on a downward trend after more than 2 months of a partial walk down that is the good news the bad news the numbers they remain too high today chancellor angela merkel met with the leaders from germany 16 states to agree on making that partial walk down even more restrictive we're looking at live pictures of her speaking right now the chancellor saying that the goal was and remains to force a drastic reduction in the number of new infections. and for more now we want to go to one of the german chancellor's chief scientific advisors rolf

viler he heads the european bio informatics institute in cambridge england it's good to have you on the program you have warned that if germany does nothing it could end up like it is in britain at the moment with this new variant there seemingly spreading more rapidly what are you advising the chancellor should be done now. well i think the. extension of locked up and typing all stumble through is absolutely the right way. to tuition which looks good most numbers are going down but i. can just. situation. in. the u.k. where. overall numbers went down in a month by something like 40 percent but when we did.

do some proper analysis later on end of this year you could show the. variance 50 percent in this timeframe we knew very 117 by 400 percent. didn't work and this is something which could be the same of course here. we have a situation where. where percentage of. 117 is too. but we can quickly and also come to levels where we can with contract tracing in isolation keep. baiting but the net over it we need to. ask you that the numbers there are not as good as the government would like to see though is that because people are not being the rules of the current lockdown

or is it because this new very it is simply spreading maybe more than we expected it. well i do think that. is. is. spreading so quickly already i think the numbers are too low that is if i believe it's some sort of lockdown fatigue. so i mean it's as long as beings drag on mall people gets sick of it. it's not a reaction. so 5. maybe you shouldn't worry so much this if you would just it's just human behavior to a situation think it's not an act come on take it a bit easier so that's why and why it's really important to have a clear message saying the real dangers which outfit you see in you know of

a situation in the u.k. in ireland we have a bad situation polter built in spain it's not skyrocketing in the last 2 days more . on a 20 foot. cases were reported for who. at the friday tent until today it's really shocking numbers and it's driven by this new variant and we need to act and we need to also introduce. new measures to better survey it vaccinate as quickly as possible as many people as possible so it became a race. against the virus trying. to win his business race by immunizing as many people as possible is it the fault is it happening mr of all it is the immunization the banks nations is that being rolled out quickly enough are you satisfied with the speed well actually i think.

vixens situation is something i wouldn't have believed a couple of. year ago because we would be so quickly already in a situation where we have a few events ins on the market and some of the banks in very soon coming onto the market so i'm really very very pleased with it but on the other hand we know that we need to what we need to vaccinate more or less build planets and we need to stamp is. everywhere so. you should meet all these and it's and we need to just. except the fact there's only a limited amount of. available at the beginning vet needs to be used in the best way very soon to free months. inject into we cannot well we certainly hope the situation will call much sooner

rather than later mr scientific advisor to the german chancellor we appreciate your time and your insights tonight thank you. thank you. every year on january 19th for the feast of the epiphany developed and daring russians freeze their fears and take the icy plunge. reports. this is one of the coldest winter moscow has ever seen. in the last a decade i've lived here for 5 years and i've never seen people taking the plunge in such cold to it's minus 20 degrees celsius. even still these brave muscovites have come here to the moscow canal is they all want to take part in a popular off

a duck's christian tradition. because celebrating this way has become popular among nonbelievers to you as it's sad that week i said bath can be good for your health. what. christians believe that on january 19th today still is the day when the jesus christ was baptized all want to became holy and taking a deep in a natural spring can wash away your sins and even your illnesses. usually the ice hole is blessed by a priest is a night before people jump in there but the see a many christian communities have warned believe us not to take an ice bath because of the coronavirus. nevertheless there are around 50 official public ice holes in

and around moscow the moscow city administration has even set up a rescue service points there and i'm going now to ask these russians why they're doing these to themselves but i also would like to know if these people actually believe that the v.c. has miraculous healing power was. discussing why are you doing this. it's a prison each day so we have to wash away all our sins really just about how you think the water has magic balance no idea but believing is everything. that you are it's so cold why are you doing this to your body vulnerable as a startle if i know the cold it is the warmer the water feels seriously this isn't my 1st time it's a really a russian holiday and i like it. of

a village and i want to has miraculous powers yes really miraculous i have never gotten sick i've been here when it was wet on this holiday when there was slash was never sick little one. so as there are lots of health benefits as we just learned but apart from the health benefits there are also a lot of health risks associated with this i swimming so it's not advised for those who are not the used to such activities plus you definitely have to be brave like these gratis. you're rachet are there from a public ice hole all right snow in the zahar they don't usually go together but over the last few days there's been snow fall in the world famous desert and when

you take a look at this area where snow has left beautiful patterns in the sand dunes although it gets cold at night here normally there just isn't enough water in the atmosphere for rain let alone for snow in fact this is only the 4th time in 40 years that snow has been documented here in the desert. all right the date is almost done but the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter either at u.w. news you can follow me at brant goff t.v. tomorrow we'll have coverage of that inauguration in the 1st day of the biden presidency and remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see that everybody.

needs. to own. or not to well. what about a sharing economy instead. of. a change in thinking is changing the economy to create something new. economics magazine in germany. next.

fat fat or fat in money the food industry earns staggering sums of money from junk food and is becoming a global health problem now for say activists in the u.s. and latin america they're using a variety of different campaigns that corporations find completely on college of all. right. in 45 minutes on d w. i subscribe to do you know what your books you mean your favorite writer things i like to see myself as the kid sky in the strange grown up world do you know where your books are new to. how does a virus spread. why do we panic and when will all this. just 3 of the topics covered in the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like

to make information on the front of virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at dot com for science. the case for innovation couldn't be clearer the world become a very different place and the pandemic is forcing companies to change the way they do business history shows firms that invest in innovation through a crisis outperform the competition in a recovery if they survive that is it's a balancing act the challenge is seizing.