bases data of a news live from berlin a desperate rescue operation is underway in china to free miners who've been trapped underground for 14 days hundreds of emergency workers are on site specialist tames are speeding up their efforts to reach the miners after an air ventilation shaft was clear. also coming out thousands detained as police cracked down on anti putin protests across russia huge crowds turned out in moscow and other cities demanding the release of the jailed kremlin critic alexina founding his wife is among those held. an important goal almost every day brings with it

record numbers of new coronavirus cases as the highest infection rate in the world in proportion to its population despite this voters have been urged to venture out into person to elect a new president. i'm rebecca riches welcome to the program 11 miners have been lifted to safety 2 weeks after an explosion trapped them 600 meters below ground at a gold mine in china a dramatic rescue operation is gathering pace one after another workers are being pulled out a hastily cleared mine shaft $22.00 workers were cut off after the blast at the mine in shandong province one of them was confirmed dead several days ago the rescued men have been taken to hospital by ambulance. from what you

call has crossed straight to china where correspondent fabien encroachment is standing by in beijing fabien what more do we know about this rescue operation. in total there are $22.00 miners the whereabouts of 10 actually is unknown and one is supposed to be dead but already and 9 minus already have been rescued but the operations is ongoing we have to see that they are already tripped since january 10th so more than 2 weeks they are they were trapped 600 meters underground and the rescuers they were actually able to communicate with them minus a small tunnel that was enough for example to exchange a piece of paper so they were actually sending a message demanding from it more medicine etc and of course the state in which the rescue miners are in this very french they are immediately brought to the hospital and of course the situation is very serious indeed we're seeing pictures of that

rescue very dramatic pages do we know more about the condition of the mine is. sore i don't know any confirmation whether they will make it or not i mean they were immediately brought to to the hospital and we just hope for the best i think they will survive but when you look at the pictures then it's really i mean it was a matter of several hours and maybe one more day and they were about to really die and that was really the last chance that the rescuers had so it was really very very urgent tell us a little bit about how they got trapped in the mine. the only thing that we really know for sure was that an explosion block the entrance off the tunnel in which the mine us were in the reason however for this explosion and why they were blocked it's not really confront get. help us explain for us when we were hearing just a few hours ago that it could take possibly another 2 weeks for these miners to be

pulled out what was the sudden dramatic turnaround in this rescue operation. well i mean the big issue was that. they had to dig through a lot a lot of meters of concrete stone to get there and that actually is a speed in which they could succeed was faster than expected so it was a dramatic turnaround but what is also important to note is that those kind of incidents a little bit systematic especially in the countryside in china has a lot of explosions minus getting trapped and the problem is that yeah there's a lot of corruption i mean actually woods and laws are in place but often safety standards are not implemented not controlled because of ongoing corruption so it's a really a huge problem why it is good news and same so far having krejza thanks very much for the update. the u.s. and the in you have condemned russian authorities over they use of harsh tactics

against protesters demanding the release of jailed opposition leader and x. in a valley the demonstrators on said the valley's call to rally right after he was detained upon his return to moscow last weekend he had been receiving treatment here in berlin after recovering from a near fatal poisoning with a nerve agent saturday as protests were on an unprecedented scale spanning more than 100 cities across the country thousands of people were arrested. with chants of putin is a criminal and freedom for novotny thousands of demonstrators rallied throughout russia fighting for their government officials say at least $4000.00 people gathered in moscow's pushkin sky a square independent observers put the number at more than 10 times that. police detained participants in mass at the un sanctioned demonstrations amongst those who were bundled into police vans were alexei navalny his wife yulia and

prominent supporters of the opposition leader like his aides who buff sobel. if she . can. assume he is holding the demonstrations after he was arrested at a moscow airport and quickly sentenced to 30 days in jail who mean by us and by us them more than what are many of the demonstrators here saturdays protests were about more than free. with yeah news i'm not worried and i'm not for novell me or against putin i don't care who's in charge i just want to live like a human being that's it like a human being like a normal person and that's it that's why i've come today. the. most organizers didn't apply for permits expecting they wouldn't be granted and ahead of the protest authorities warn security forces would be deployed citing concern. learns about the coup of a pandemic. that refrain from through to supporting me i have to warn that

law enforcement agencies will ensure the necessary order in the city you ordered in the speech of. arrests were made in cities large and small across the country as part of the largest opposition action in years and alexei navalny is anti corruption foundation is calling on its supporters to prepare for another wave of protests next weekend. when i attend on some of the up a story is making news today police in the netherlands have arrested the alleged head of one of the world's biggest drug syndicates on a warrant issued by a stray m c h e law is said to be the head of the sam gold cartel which dominates this 17000000000 a year asia pacific drug trade as trainer is seeking his extradition to face trial there. the ocean viking rescue ship is seeking a mediterranean port the will allow more than 350 rescued people to disembark the

migrants were picked up off the libyan coast on friday and saturday after trying to cross to europe in rubber dinghies weather in the area is worsening. what is in portugal a bank to head to the polls in person to elect a new president that's despite a deepening coronavirus crisis in the country almost every new day brings with it a record number of new infections portugal has the highest 7 day incidence rate in the world in proportion to its population $785.00 at the moment that's more than double that of the u.k. and u.s. rights and 7 times that of germany's. it's the all important issue and portugal's presidential election. has organized many elections and portugal's capitalist spawn but this time he faces expected just to call challenges the biggest problem finding enough election workers for the more than 12000 polling stations in the country number of election workers in our database changes every

day many volunteers have become infected with hiv we also feel that. at the last minute the real problem the all the election process in portugal has been a complete lockdown since mid january but infections continue to rise dramatically 90 percent of intensive care places full doctors representative say it's like a war the government is using promotional videos to convince voters that they can cast their ballot safely but there are fears that turnout will be historically low . and opened me as saying election conscious and postpones i call that there is no end to the pandemic inside me now. that president's current mandate is ending and he kind of just stay on longer otherwise the portuguese constitution which has to be changed. yet is who essentially means to do so almost all forecasts that the incumbent presidents marcello rebello decide will be

reelected despite the current explosion in coronavirus cases most portuguese people believe the conservative politician is still at the country whether through the crisis. it's a presidential election completely different from previous ones all campaign events have been canceled instead of candidates and their agendas it's all about corona and safety at the polling stations for many portuguese stopping the dramatic rise of infection numbers seems more important at the moment then the question of who will be the next president back at the polling station volunteers take a well deserved break but there is no end to the bad news the aggressive british variant of the virus is spreading faster and faster on top of that election organizers worry that bad weather across the country but prevents more people from voting in correspondent john phillips shell to follow that report joins us from

lisbon found out why the number is so high now in portugal what went wrong. well it's apparently mainly due to the very fast spread of the new coronado virus variant from the u.k. and we know by now it's more contagious and it's probably also more deadly than older forms of the virus but the portuguese government has been relatively slow in reacting to the news and experts say that that's also not enough testing so new studies show that at the moment here in this pond more than one 3rd of all new cases are already do to the new variants of the cronut virus given the situation and why have authorities detained in person voting rather than mile inviting necessary in today's election well they say that logistically impossible to do everything. by e-mail and experts also say let's basically impossible to postpone elections due to 2 constitutional

for sure guys that have been some options of early voting and there were even some volunteers going from door to door to give boller groups a chance to to vote but we're only talking about around 200000 particles here is that even enough people to get a legitimate outhouses election. you know let's watch a lot of people say that it's probably very difficult situation when it comes to legitimacy of the election many people feel let's turn our drapes very low probably even below 50 percent because a lot of people simply fear to go and to the polling stations and this of course has an impact on the credibility of the elections that's understandable and what is the government doing to get the situation the current situation that is under

control. well basically strict and strict on lockdown measures the government already introduced quite strict a lockdown in mid january but it kept the schools open and that was probably harshly criticized and then they changed their opinion and the very last minute and they also closed schools on friday so at the moment portugal is basically in a complete lockdown with the only exception of course that people are allowed to go to the polling station right now in front of health speaking to us from listen thanks very much thank you. well here's some other developments in the pandemic now the netherlands has brought in its 1st national curfew since world war 2 people have to stay at home between 9 pm and 4 30 am and zealand has reported its 1st community transmission in 2 months of returning traveller had been released from 14 days mandatory hotel quarantine officials are working to contain a wide outbreak and spain's top military commander has been forced to resign after

he and other office of jumps are keen to get vaccinated. you're watching news here's a reminder of the top story we're following for you a dramatic rescue operation is underway at a gold mine in china 11 miners have now been freed after spending 2 weeks cut off following an underground explosion emergency workers are hoping to reach more of the minus 22 in total were trapped about 600 meters below ground after the last one was confirmed dead several days ago rescuers have been working in difficult conditions to free the miners who've been trapped into different parts of mine shaft. and place in russia have detained thousands of protesters at the nationwide anti-government demonstrations activists were demanding the release of the jailed kremlin critic at exeter valley his wife is among those arrested. let it remain and the team here in berlin dog film is up next

a state change that coming back with more headlines at the top of the hour until then you can always stay up to date on our website at d.w. dot com and you can follow us on twitter and instagram at data every news i can be found at rebecca written on faces. and you hear me and all yours we're going to and her last years judgments are so i will bring you what i'm going to call as you've never thought i would surprise yourself with what this possible clue is medical really what moves. along the way maurice and critics alike joining us from echols last august.