we also hear there's been a response now from the moscow foreign ministry to the decision here to declare a russian diplomat persona non-grata the russians are saying it's also unjustified in unfriendly so it's going back and forth at the moment right so that's german his response so how else is the international community trying to put pressure on russia open a valley yeah well it's pretty clear that this was a concerted action with sweden and poland also taking this tit for tat action by expelling russian diplomats from their capitals today but it's probably worth saying that at least it hasn't been a an escalation from the e.u. side as yet. this decision also came a shortly after an online meeting between representatives of the u.s. britain canada and the you to discuss how to respond to russia and indeed how to

respond to the situation in moscow on the ground so there is international action the e.u. foreign affairs representative joe simpler else says that russia and the e.u. are drifting apart and he says it's now up to member states to decide what action they might take including imposing more sanctions on russia ok so focusing back now on germany where does this latest move leave relations between germany and russia. well race relations are very strained indeed angle americal said on friday that what she's seen emerging from russia in recent days is a long way from the rule of law as she put it referring to the police brutality against demonstrators on the streets i think but also on the 3 and a half year jail sentence for alexei in the valley and it is poisoning prior to that so relations are strained on a number of areas it's not just russia's annexation of crimea it's military

intervention in eastern ukraine also the e.u. and moscow apart on issues like belarus and syria as well so there's a lot of bad blood between them at the moment thank you for that simon at the doubly political correspondent simon young. i'm in mar where the army to says vote rigging justifies last week's military coup general flung insists the civilian leaders failed to investigate and that's irregularities in november election in his 1st television address since the coup of a general promise to hand back power after fresh elections the militias claim a voter voter fraud come amid growing international concern about the crackdown on protesters demonstrating against the ousting of the civilian government. one week on from the arrest of their elected leader me and mom has grown bolder.

'd protesters in the capital naypyidaw space police water cannons on monday blocking their path their only weapons a 3 think a salute which has come to represent the pro-democracy movement of thora he's have since issued a warning on state t.v. to protesters who break the lol you know if you are you must be taken according to the law with effective steps against offenses which disturb prevent and destroy the state stability public safety and the rule of law. in addition to the street protests a nationwide strike began on monday a campaign of civil disobedience has all the while been growing louder launched by medical personnel protests have now spread across the country after the army chief seize power on february 1st the military detained later cheney and dozens of her party members accusing them of election fraud demonstrators are demanding her

release and the restoration of her government. i'm supporting the young people demonstrating only if they fight against the military gentle can our country become better everyone must have this kind of courage for the sake of our future yet you know you know we don't want to live under dictatorship rule we want to live under mother sue the rules people would love and care. for them in a mature manner i've decided to fight until the end until they are released the rallies have so far been pace full unlike bloody crackdowns during widespread protests in previous decades pope francis on monday added his voice to growing international condemnation of the current with your these days my thoughts go in particular to the paid. of man mom. to whom i express my affection and my closeness. to the paf who wants democracy undertaken in recent.

years was brusquely interrupted by last week's could to talk. as the protests grow bigger and bolder demonstrators continued to be met with aggression show of force from both orange he's. a journalist today grown about reporting from him off for many years he joins us from kuala lumpur malaysia. we've seen the water coming on the streets there are reports of martial law in parts of men most 2nd largest city mandalay how dangerous is the situation yeah it's really interesting that they've gone with martial law i should say that's a report coming from a just cross press and assuming that report is correct that martial law declared in 7 townships not clear to me exactly why they went with mandalay although one thing that i didn't understand that only that i found really interesting was in addition to all the teachers and doctors nurses and laborers and students who were protesting there were firefighters in uniform part of the demonstrations in

mandalay today and i saw some of them they did that 3 finger salute for resistance that comes from the hunger games so really interesting there what we've got to keep an eye on tomorrow is how do the people respond to the people in mandalay they're not allowed to congregate the protests are not a lot of me in groups of more than 5 people outside so do they still come out in protest do they still do that tomorrow and how do the police respond is it just going to be mass arrests potentially would it be something more violent and then what goes on across the country do we see increasing numbers of demonstrators in the god we see it continue to spread to more and more cities and more and more villages a lot to really keep an eye on tomorrow of the militia leader. and address the nation in a short while ago what did he have to say. so from what we know so far about what he said he said the elections commission use kovan 1000 as an excuse and did not allow for fair campaigning so he's sticking with the same thing of election

irregularities he says that they will hand over after elections they will hand over power to the winner and that he says in the meantime is form the government of suitable ministers the bottom line is the majority of people me and maher are not going to buy his sales pitch it's the same one that came out from the window we could go same thing now they didn't buy then they're not going to buy it now the question is when the military started the show a little flex its muscle more you know we saw the water cannon his speech tonight reports of martial law and mandalay will this scare of any the demonstrators or if they continue to build and then the military comes down with more and more force does that get people to back down some people said they are all in no matter what they will not back down to this is about the generations so the question really becomes is how much force is the military willing to use because back when they had violent crackdowns in 2007 and also in 1908 when thousands of people were killed it was a different world that wasn't so easy to get video to the outside world like it is

now so the military is clearly aware keenly aware that their actions are being watched and so given previous history of military generals likely to be concerned about the growing international pressure and indeed calls for u.n. action well they were certainly prepared for this they would not have come forward this week ago without being prepared for this certainly with other countries in asia they're hoping that they can continue business relationships but they're expecting tough reactions from the west and then the generals there are less concerned with what the most of the outside world says particularly the west and senior gentleman on long he is all in now he has put everything all his chips on this power grab he is not going to back down. dave. many thanks for that sir. but here are some more of the stories making headlines around the world will start in the france and the southwest the country

which has been hit by heavy flooding after days of torrential rain the worst was in the town of song bordeaux north of bordeaux authorities moved around $400.00 people from their homes many more left voluntarily united states has announced it will ring gauge with the u.n. human rights council trump administration withdrew from the group 3 years ago so i think what it said was unfair targeting of israel un u.s. envoy mark assess that his country would return as an observer and seek reelection as a full member. south africa has suspended its roll outs of the oxford astra zeneca coronavirus vaccine a small clinical trial suggests the shot offers a minimal protection against the new local coronavirus very well forests are to offer vaccines by johnson and johnson and pfizer in the coming weeks.

and have biggest event in american sports quarterback tom brady had a great game as a tampa bay buccaneers beat the kansas city chiefs on their home field in the super bowl right the security 7 super bowl title the most of any n.f.l. player gave the city of tampa bay a big reason to party. i even the pandemic couldn't keep these fence off the streets masks and social distancing went nowhere in sight not after the tampa bay buccaneers stomped kansas city 31 to 9 to win the super bowl the victory exceeded all expectations. was crazy to me that brady just turned and went to super bowl in every field but again like that it's kind of a very minor little bit of a box where my boy for you to go to all gave it a big stone burrow was all my buddies that i called you know engage them i was sued and you know all of them are betting against the boxing you can't bet against tom

brady bats and you really can't tom brady threw 3 touchdown passes he also sees a record 7th super bowl title and a 5th m.v.p. award but was this championship more special. the girl special order or. it's been amazing year mazie year we stopped a good start 7th you and i had a rough stretch where we kind of identity and played a lot better football down last december january and just relate proud of all the guys proud of all the coaches after we put in. to understand just how impressive all this says no other paya in the n.f.l. has won more than 5 super bowls brady is also the oldest paya to win the championship he's 43 but age is just a number and tom brady continues to fly high. i have said show up tonight for world news at the top off 8 hour day w.'s kuroda kuroda

crossed coronavirus special is next a good day. to . the fight against the coronavirus endemic. as the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and context the coronavirus update 19 special. on t w. 2 only. real or not to well. what about assuring economy instead. of. a change in thinking

is changing the economy to create something the. economics magazine played in germany. on t w. you know. new more contagious variant of the corona virus could be behind a more serious 2nd wave in south africa. the 1351 could also be the 1st mutation to be to existing back scene a small study shows the astra zeneca inoculation only office limited protection against mild versions of the buriat and that's the vaccine much of africa was banking on. a moment just involved in that

astra zeneca study and put this into context but 1st let's look at some of the other factors driving case numbers in south africa. are also being. the developed world gathers momentum and vaccinating its populations south africa is fighting a corona virus mutation. that every guy has just come out of its 2nd wave of corona virus infections within the last period of 2020 and as is the research institute are very concerned that this may or may not be related to the new strain of corner virus infections which has been found in the country. the very interest been associated with a higher bar load in infected people making it more transmissible and leading to sharp spikes in infections. south africa recorded over 15000 covert deaths in the last month and its hospitals were filled to capacity. so it

wouldn't work so we have had an unexpected really strong 2nd wave in south africa it came earlier than with anticipated and it was much steeper in terms of numbers there were 2 reasons for this one was we think mass gatherings before the christmas period there were young people getting together but also that we hadn't really controlled the numbers of people for example at funerals so mass gatherings drove this party but that coincided with the emergence of the new variant which has indeed increased transmission from one person to another so 2 things at the same time. this seems to be confirmed by researchers on the ground. we found that participants particularly in our research have not been compliant in not promising to go into the insurance they would be non-compliant to travelling restrictions particularly across provinces they've also been non-compliant to self isolation after testing positive as well as attending parties. adjourns to

personal protection measures are also slipping like in my boning an inner city cultural hub in johannesburg. moving or somewhat walton haneen changes and we need to drink it in a school that makes the mosque wheat so they try to move the mouse but have a thin kink in the war so singing it's on the. locals are beginning to tire of some of the world's strictest lockdown measures and skepticism is taking hold. of this nor koran that. doesn't exist. doesn't exist or is it in terms of minds not. while struggling entrepreneurs are taking risks in order to survive. it difficult to adhere to the rules of social distancing and knowing fully so that's a bit of

a challenge but you know. you know i don't want to chase the last little crowd that i have so i'll do all that i can just to try and keep and keep you know keep the shop open. exactly what role did recently discovered variant is playing in local infection rates remains to be seen. here not particularly sure about what this puts this coronavirus infection strain will do in terms of the medication and the vaccines we have that's part of. we hope hoping to have some very exciting information in the next few weeks which will answer some of those questions and give us some more guidance around this particular issue. but until scientists can be sure south africa needs to remain cautious as vaccine rollout has only just begun. let's talk about new variants and the efficacy of vaccines with they're all just penny mostly joins us from the woods university at the national institute for communicable diseases she contributed to the laboratory aspects of this south

african study on the astra zeneca vaccine penny what's the main takeaway from that study. the main takeaway from the astra zeneca study in south africa is that the vaccine provides little to no if it can see against what we define as mild to moderate disease and that is a setback and that as a result of that finding the south african government has for now suspended the rollout of the esters and into exene which was imminent and very important to note that that study was limited by the fact that it enrol people who are generally relatively young and for that reason this trial was unable to define whether the astra zeneca vaccine was able to protect from severe disease from the let's not just point of view and from a public health point of view that is the primary aim a vaccination is to protect people from from dying from sars could be to and so that is a major unanswered question with the asters and it could china stage in the meantime though what does it mean for south africa. unfortunately it means that we need to

we need to start looking beyond the astra zeneca vaccine this is something that we have been doing as a country am so that it has been integral involved in testing several other vaccines and we have been trials in this country for the johnson and johnson vaccine the know that extra exene and so we are very well placed to understand how effective those vaccines are and continue will continue to be against both the old variant in south africa but also importantly against the new variant that has been scrapped. but as for then it has back seeing has also been seen to not be effective among older people in other countries then we have this problem with the effects on younger people infected with milder cases what's it mean for this actual acts and then at the end of the day. so was all that seems we constantly work out the tradeoff between the efficacy and measured as

a single number that we hear in the press and realistically high on how easy it is to roll that out in a country yesterday make a vaccine is very cost effective it's very easy to transport and so that that lack of if a casy against mild and moderate disease if offset by potential effects you can severe disease is balanced by that important need to be able to achieve coverage and that coverage is very important for achieving what we call her protection so with esther's echo and with all that scenes and this constant evaluation of all of the benefits and all of the disadvantages of a vaccine in a particular situation now this is a very it is already making its way around the world how how should other countries be about this variant that's important to understand to 2 things in this area that was that identified 1st inside africa is not going to stay in south africa and viruses do not respect borders and in fact it has already been detected in several

other countries as your viewers are probably aware but i think the 2nd thing to understand is that it's not just the south african variants that is worrying us a similar variant has been detected that arose completely independently in brazil the variant detected in the u.k. has not acquired one of the new tensions that we most concerned about its point for me tension and so it's clear that the virus is independently evolving away from the small sense to phenotype so more resistant state so it's not simply a matter of being concerned about one variant we have to understand in general how the virus is evolving and any just explain to me why it's me taking to the same pattern. it may take to the same pattern because in general people have a very similar response immune response to the i.r.s. so when are you studying somebody in brazil or the u.k. or in so that africa irene systems tend to behave in a very similar manner and we actually have systems actively target what's called

receptive binding demand and that happens to be exactly where these mutations are located and the fact that everybody has a very similar response that ours means that the virus we have you study it tends to have a very similar pattern in escaping from from antiquities and this is what viruses do best and this is the cat and mouse game that characterizes all our own infections of humans is an ongoing race between viral evolution and the immune system in this case but the immune response and therefore the viruses get past ways are pretty similar. just hang on thank you very much for being on the show today thanks bill. time now for your questions of the ta science correspondent there. as the sars kovi to virus inevitably continues to mutate could it also mutate to become less deadly. this is complicated but here goes the short answer is yes that could happen and we hope it will but there's no guarantee scientists used to

believe that pathogens always evolved to grow less deadly because it was thought a deadly disease is an ineffective disease the reasoning was that if a pathogen kills its host especially if it kills that host quickly then it lowers its own chances of being passed on so less deadly more transmissible variants should have an evolutionary advantage right well the problem with that logic is that virulence can also be viewed as an advantage because the sicker the host grows the more likely they are to give their pathogen to someone else since they're shedding more of it some so we actually think there's kind of a an evolutionary tradeoff between transmissibility and virulence and there are certainly pathogens for instance the birkie loss' bacterium that have been

infecting humans for thousands of years yet still kill large numbers of people to see what the future might hold for covert 19 therefore scientists have been looking at the other coronaviruses known to infect humans and in particular the 4 that we think have been doing it for quite a while they only cause my old cold like symptoms interestingly that might have less to do with them and more to do with us especially with our children one theory is that repeated exposure to those other. coronaviruses and early childhood might be helping to prevent more severe cases of the sicknesses they could cause later in life if source code too does become an endemic background illness in our societies then then later generations of children will be exposed to it early at an

age when it rarely makes you seriously ill and that in turn should make subsequent exposures much less dangerous or at least that's the hope. they're going to say i'm been fizzling thanks for watching stay safe and i'll see you again very sort of like.

i'm sick in the volume or not tired and in the end the. so me you're not allowed to stay here any more we will send you back. are you familiar with this. with the smugglers were liars of. what's your story. 'd on what numbers of women especially are victims of violence in terms of take part

and send us your story you are trying in order to understand this new culture. for your another visit or another yes you want to become a citizen. in 4 migrants your platform for reliable information. this is did every news africa on the program today disappointment and dashed hopes in south africa at the country has slammed the brakes on the rollout of the arts ford astra zeneca vaccine upset a study showed it's not very effective against the country's dominant early virus variant government to a remote group.