i have deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy and for the role all of you play as i noted earlier there will be moments when we disagree and there will certainly be days where we disagree for expensive parts of the briefing even perhaps i believe a common goal which is sharing accurate information with the american people meanwhile vice president come about how our us took up a post in the senate swearing in new members of georgia with the new law make is the senate is now split 5050 between democrats and republicans vote to tip the scales there meaning the democrats now have control of both houses of congress and the power to push forward with president biden's agenda. let's bring in our washington bureau chief you know as poll hi you know it's good to see you it is now joe biden's 1st full day on the job and he plenty has plenty of work to do he has made the pandemic a priority tell us more about what we're going to see there. right sumi you know we

have to keep in mind that alone in the greater area someone dies a cold every 6 to 10 minutes this is how grim it looks here and it will get worse that's what experts say because of the new more taishan so biden didn't lose any time it took him only like 2 hours in office before he signed the 1st executive order which makes it mandatory for mosques wearing on federal property and buildings and he also asked this fellow americans to wear a mosque in public for his 1st 100 days in office and he already has announced a new c.d.c. director so he is really making that a priority we also kind of have to keep in my o.b. aware. we spend some minutes of his acceptance speech to address this pandemic this is and this shows how seriously he's taking covert 19 you know as you

mentioned some of those numbers from los angeles but remind us how bad the pandemic is in the u.s. right now. the problem is that there is no plan you know biden didn't tarried inherit any vaccination plan from his predecessor so he has a huge huge task to really organize the delivery but he also will sign more executive orders that's what we learn too in hennes the production of the vaccinations maybe this morning he will do that and also expanding tests so the united states is not prepared however when it comes to code 19 that has a lot to do that. just made everything regarding this pandemic so political. and even as we heard joe biden now the president promised to fight for unity in the country how big of a challenge is that going to be. it's huge because this united

states has never been so disunited to and we all know that social media has played a big role in these 2 alternative realities people are living in now he presented himself to in his acceptance speech as a unifier and it was remarkable the way you did that in very simple words he reached out in a very like every american manner and also to his fellow americans for help but this will be a huge challenge and i think it's good for him to focus on the pandemic because if he really is able to conduct some success in that regard this probably will help in our washington bureau chief in this poll reporting good to talk to you germany's among the many countries hoping to see closer cooperation with the u.s. under the new administration chancellor angela merkel sent joe biden and come laris

a message congratulating them on their win saying warmest congratulations on your not to ration joe biden and come true celebration of american democracy i look forward to a new chapter of german american friendship and cooperation all former president trump ordered a reduction of u.s. troops at american military bases in germany such as the air base locals there now hope president biden will scrap those plans will take a look now at that and other issues affecting germany's relationship with the u.s. . when the some u.s. troops will leave this base has been the topic of conversation and the local bakery for months with biden now in office hopes a growing that they'll stay. isn't good for them we've grown so close together that it's natural they're here they just belong here. about $4000.00

troops stationed at spangdahlem base trump wanted to withdraw fighter jet squadron and half of the soldiers along with it the locals fear what that could mean for their jobs in the economically weak region. dave scholars' for example news of a looming troop withdrawal birken samah amid the car washes construction. of us when i asked myself we were shocked when we had the news americans our costs are being right to wash and take care of their cars so to some extent we were lying on them for business. this entire film without our lives and. the troop withdrawal is just one example of the damage german american relationship trump also imposed last minute sanctions on a company involved with the north stream 2 gas pipeline to russia germany's foreign minister hiker masses hopeful for more dialogue after all he said there are too

many unresolved conflicts in the walt visits to steve forbes szabo full we're counting on the us to return to the international stage and to do so responsibly biden says he wants to be good partners for peace and security. and for climate change too biden has rejoined the paris climate agreement he also wants to get the u.s. away from its heavy reliance on fracking and burning fossil fuels climate activists heard his promises turn into action. if biden succeeds combined with a push for innovation in renewable energies renewable technologies and nature conservation it will give huge momentum to international climate protection. germany can also expect to pay more gemini's defense minister says the country in europe should be ready to invest more in security. until now there was the

possibility to hand over all difficult tasks to the us that weren't happen any more will have to do ourselves and germany can't say we're happy to pay but france can do it france will expect us to be there and take responsibility. back near the base the locals have hopes in the new u.s. president not just because of bakery sales. twin suicide bombings have ripped through a busy market in central baghdad authorities say more than 20 people have been killed with dozens more injured according to the interior ministry the 1st suicide bomber rushed into the market claiming to feel sick and detonated as a bomb when people gathered around him the bombings are the 1st in 3 years to target the iraqi capital there was no immediate claim of responsibility. let's get the latest on the situation we can speak to maya badly a journalist for the a.f.p. news agency in baghdad what more do you know at this point

thanks so much for having me on this point there's been very little that's beyond besides the ones that you just mentioned but we are on the mission start to come in and around the world and also. i think it's. going to spas for so many iraqis who have become accustomed to having you know it's a living in a city where explosions and are not normal anymore basically 3 years oversight where they didn't have a sign of violence and so today to have just kind of violence break out on a normal morning in baghdad it was quite a shocking for many people there it is a horrific attack by is there any indication who might be behind this. at this stage there has been no claim of responsibility yet group very closely monitoring the usual channels through which isis claims such attacks but at this

point there's been nothing people in the street are quite afraid of seeing a return to those those missed any suicide bombings that were required comment or sectarian infighting in fact i was in and 6 onwards and during isis's campaigns around the country from 2014 on roads but so far intelligence agencies and other security officials have not revealed any information about what might be like this you mentioned that baghdad had reached some level of security and normality why do you think we might be seeing this type of attack now there haven't been any solid indications but one thing that a lot of the security officials that we've been talking to have mentioned is the planned elections that are supposed to place later on this year that actually if you go back to the last time there was a suicide attack that wasn't anything close to this deadly it was in january of 2018 which was just our minds of parliamentary elections in iraq the last time presidential elections took place in iraq later on this year we're also expecting

the entry elections are meant to take place early ahead of schedule and at this point authorities are deciding whether it's going to be june or later on like in october but many people are connecting the possible rise in political instability in the kind of inciting to potentially more violence like the suicide attacks that we saw today journalist michael palin from the a.f.p. news agency speaking to us from baghdad thank you very much. let's check in now and some other headlines from around the world in china a state media has reported that the that a worker trapped in a gold mine for more than a week has died as rescuers continue efforts to save 21 others still stuck deep underground rescuers have been in contact with 11 of the workers but the fate of the other 10 remains on no. security forces in mali used to tear gas to disperse dozens of demonstrators in the capital bamako on wednesday police also used roadblocks and motorbike convoys to stop people from gathering protesters were

rallying against the ongoing presence of the french military france has deployed over a 1000 troops in mali since 2013 on an anti terror operation. a 4th person has died after an explosion ripped through a building in central madrid one building partially collapsed on the residents of a nearby nursing home were evacuated the city's mayor says initial investigations suggest that a gas leak caused the blast. and hospitals in the u.k. are under pressure as daily coronavirus deaths rise to record levels over $1800.00 people died of the virus on tuesday this comes as a variant believed to be more contagious spreads across the country cathedrals have been converted into mass vaccination centers as the vaccine rollouts continues. german chancellor angela merkel says the country is in a very difficult situation because of the pandemic she says too many people are

still dying but that measures to bring down the numbers a new cases are paying off she also urged the germans to take the new variant of the virus seriously or face a 3rd wave of infections. the home business we're dealing with an alarmingly high death toll today alone we have again lost over a 1000 people this is terrible these are not just numbers these are people who have died all alone these are families who are morning we have to remind ourselves of this again and again and we also have to struggle with the fact that all our efforts against the virus do not exclude its danger. fuels we see the danger of the strain a little bit clearer and then at the beginning of the year. the mutant strain from britain and ireland which has also been seen in the netherlands in denmark and also in our country. in the. our political correspondent jared reed is tracking this

story for us jared what more has the chancellor said about the current situation. well she described it really as as a mixed picture because as we've been saying the last few days there are fewer people in intensive care units and the 7 day in fiction right is on a steady decline and uncle americal says well this is encouraging news it means that the restrictions are working but there is another side to this these very stubborn lehi in fiction numbers each day and deaths i mean today we saw more than a 1000 people die or all we've had 19 and what i'm going to medical did was defend this strategy and the decision by her and the state leaders earlier this week to extend these restrictions and to the middle of february to encourage more medical mosque wearing in public to encourage people to work from home more

reducing the infection risk in public because of the very real threat posed by these variants that are starting to be seen in germany she says she doesn't want these strains to become dominant ones here jared what about the vaccination rollout that has been criticized here in germany for being too slow what is the chancellor said about that. well essentially there at the moment as it stands there aren't enough vaccines to to go around to everyone that needs them and that is because of a lack of production capacity what markel said is that she basically appealed for patients saying that more needed to be done to support manufacturers vaccine manufacturing thing getting more vaccines out there what she said was to which we've heard earlier this week too from health authorities that is that the government wants to offer vaccination to everyone in germany by the middle of

september so by the end of the european summer what uncle americal to also said was in light of these variants these mutations that are being seen here in germany is that it is easy for vaccine manufacturers to to change the development of the vaccine based on what they learned from the mutation so the vaccine can be altered to fight the mutations that are being seen or those mutations are also raising questions about whether it's important to impose border controls around germany and across europe as well and what did the chancellor have to say about that well this is something that e.u. leaders including are going to be discussing later today in an online conference what angle americal basically said was that the government wasn't planning comprehensive border closures or controls but it wouldn't rule it out if neighboring countries were not able to get infection numbers under control and in order to do that on go americal says is that

a comprehensive strategy is needed across the block though she doesn't expect there'll be a comprehensive agreement today we just have to wait and see our correspondent jared reed reporting thank you. and let's check in now on some other developments in the pandemic china plans to impose strict code testing requirements during the lunar new year holiday season when millions of people are expected to travel the country is battling the worst wave of new infections since last march the netherlands will ban flights from the u.k. south africa and south america beginning saturday for a month the country is also set to debate a nationwide curfew aimed at curbing infections and australia has recorded a 4th day of 0 cases this comes a day before new rules go into effect requiring international visitors to test negative for the virus within 72 hours before departure. well the drive to vaccinate as many people as possible is set to top the agenda of a meeting of e.u.

leaders today they're also reported to be planning to discuss a proposal to allow e.u. wide travel with a coronavirus vaccination card but. reports some fear that this could be misused. no need for physical distance saying partying traveling this is what europe looked like before the pandemic are returning to normal life is what europeans are craving many here hope that getting vaccinated will bring that life back but slow vaccination rollout in many european countries means it will take months before jobs are available to all this raises questions about whether vaccinated people should receive privileges they've been able to travel freely greece's prime minister has me to tackle is floated the idea of an e.u. wide vaccination certificate to help restore cross border travel and tourism in his country his fellow party member mary espied akhi backs him. development to say for

the people to go forward to proceed forward to nation we have to motivate people adore him to explain to them but it is important finally to create it in order to protect ourselves in order to protect our way of life the e.u. executive says it will work with the e.u. states on a common approach this is a political and a legal decision what you allow to do with this or to fix it and i think this is something that we will certainly discuss on the cover of european level to have common rules but i think it's also indeed important always to find the right balance for example you can always combine either certificate or and negative coverage test if you did not have access to a vaccination so far. opponents fear that attaching rights to vaccination certificate would divide europeans into 2 categories the vaccinated and the non

vaccinated watchdogs are warning there is a risk that to certificate could be misused for example by potential employers. and the hind. which are dealing with. we have to be read the that we will use them for certain purposes only for this purpose the vaccines provide an amount of protection to those that have had them but it's still not clear whether they also prevent people from passing on the virus the fear is that giving people who have been vaccinated the freedom of movement could also pose a threat to those who are not. time to check in on sports now in football the bundesliga season has reached the halfway mark and are be allowed to beat only on berlin one nil in midweek action on wednesday night the only goal came in the 70th minute courtesy of forsberg it was the swedish wingers 3rd of the campaign he fired in and on stop and shot that when kids leipsic in 2nd place while

drop to 6 after losing for the 1st time since early december. from the top duel to the battle at the bottom cologne defeated shocker to take home an important 3 points in their fight to stay in the top flight but they suffered a scare when shaka equalized at the one hour mark through striker matthew hobby that's 5 goals in 3 games for the american. restored the lead for cologne late in at a time 21 the final score their. 12 year old freestyle football player from nigeria is already in the guinness book of records for his juggling skills he is now aiming to break his own mark and wants to become a professional footballer and he has an unusual style take a look. juggling one ball with your knees is hard enough but nigerian 2 non-so ha does it while balancing another ball on his head.

he's so good at it that he set a world record 2 years ago. 111 touches in one minute and not a single wobble from the ball on his head it looks like it's glued into place. he's only 12 and learned his skills from some footballing greats. nobody to me but my father made in part in my life some videos of. pitiful. he is now an online sensation videos of his football skills have received thousands of views but not everyone took him seriously. his record changed all that. before where face was close in the love not to me what recalled my face said i want to be that. the king of

multitasking is not satisfied years now aiming for another world record 2000 touches all while balancing a ball on his head a career as a professional footballer is his ultimate dream you wouldn't bet against it. coming up next on news asia the china challenge facing the united states will the new administration do away with the old policies. and what will the biden administration mean for u.s. allies in asia. to respond and she has those stories coming up but we leave your 1st with some images of the fighting the terrorists inauguration ceremony in washington and also get that you can always get the latest on our web site www dot com or follow us on twitter and instagram you can use.

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with numbers of women especially in victims of violence. take part and send us your story we are trying in all with understand this new culture. you are not a visitor not a guest you want to become a citizen. in for migrants your platform for reliable information. is did upload use a shock coming after the what does an issue of want from the 5 minute ministration . beginning with china u.s. policy on the donald trump set a confrontational tone with this change and what does china want. and what of u.s. allies in the region a regional expert tells us what countries in southeast asia shot expect to.