news live from berlin and chancellor merkel defends germany's continued locked out she admitted to shortcomings in germany's response to the 2nd wave of corona virus infections but said a few more weeks of patients were needed now calling the lockdown extension necessary and proportionate. also coming up prosecutors unveil tilling images to make their case against donald trump on the 1st day of arguments in his impeachment trial they show rioters breaking into the capitol as overwhelmed police officers

plead for help. and u.s. president joe biden announces new sanctions against the military regime that seized power in me on march the last there's been a new wave of arrests of civilian officials and ongoing protests against last week's crew clubs a film festival lined up to reflect the world we live in online and slimmed down for the coronavirus era the organizers of next month's parallel now that say that it will feature movies that demonstrate a sense of apprehension. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program german chancellor angela merkel has defended the decision to extend germany's lockdown until march 7th telling parliament that easing restrictions too early could lead to a rebound of infections that merkel said that this is a hard winter but hey. and perseverance are key she expressed concern about new

aggressive imitation saying that it could undermine vaccine strategies she also defended the e.u. wide vaccination program and a unified european path out of the pandemic but she acknowledged people's freedoms are being limited in a way that would have been previously unacceptable a simple cut you can go after democracy it is our duty not to have the restrictions one day longer the needed and deliver them when they are no longer necessary that is exactly the goal of the government and i know it's also the goal of the entire german parliament. let's get more on that we are joined by political correspondent nina was standing by in berlin nina tell us more about what was decided exactly on wednesday and how merkel defended it today. it is a nick stream we difficult situation to communicate and to make decisions in for

politicians because of course we have to remember where we're standing germany has been in a partial lockdown for 2 months now public life is on standstill schools are closed etc and because of that the infection rates have been going down so many people are saying there is a light on the horizon but at the same time the coronavirus mutations are causing a big headache and so there is a fear of a sudden spike again if we open now without knowing enough about those mutations especially because the vaccination program has been so slow here so uncle americal defended the decision taken with the 16 state premiers on wednesday night that now is not the time for a proper return to normality and instead the lockdown will be extended till the 7th of march medical had her way it would have been the 14th of march so even later and they will meet again on the 3rd of march to reassess the situation and was also new is that they are now saying that in order for the 1st reopening steps to be able to be taken they have to reach the districts have to reach

a number of new infections of 35 per 100007 days rather than fifty's and century under medical asked for yet more patients ok and she's made the goal really abundantly clear was that goal shared by the rest of parliament. well the goal to fight the virus is of course one that is shared by everybody but there was a lot of criticism of the details so by the far right of the party for example that questions the entire decision making process as factually and legally wrong and the liberal f.t.p. party again said the process was wrong we're going to start to debate new measures before they're taken and not be informed about them at a later stage and the greens are deploring that germany is navel gazing too much and that they're not cooperating enough with their european partners and of course you have to remember that all those politicians are getting continuous feedback from their constituents hotel owners restaurant owners everybody parents who are

exhausted so there is a lot of pressure on them to fight for soon a reopening process let's talk a little bit more about those parents are because we understand that what you know one of the exceptions to the extended lockdown is when it comes to child care centers another exception is with regard to hairdressers why are those exceptions being made hairdressers are allowed to reopen from the 1st of march and you have to remember that at the moment only essential shops are open in germany so that is a big exception to the rule and the varian state prime min state premier michael souter justify the decision by saying going to the had dresses is also a question especially for the elderly of a life in dignity. correspondent nina thank you. and following angle americal speech in the german parliament our chief political editor michelle cosigner spoke with a member of the parliament who is one of germany's leading health experts about the

chancellor's lockdown strategy. it's a lot of art and usually the german tanks i didn't mention europe in her address today can't only do this pandemic alive indeed it is impossible for us to be suspended may go on i was a little surprised as i'm sure narco did not mention europe says time we are in this together we can only defeat the core of it and in particular the mutants that are currently running the variance if we keep working for gas a europe is becoming more important or less important with the new wave of mutations europe does seem to have failed when it comes to vaccinations what has to happen now it is extremely regrettable to say the least said europe indeed in my opinion my personal opinion failed to deliver the vaccine early enough there was too much focus on the c. supporting research and for much less the focus on getting the vaccine available process but there was much too little for course on the safe production

lines and that was much better in the us so therefore in the run for the vaccine your was somewhat defeated we cannot afford to run into these problems a 2nd time when we address the 2nd vixen challenge here because they will not be the only opportunity for us who can use a vaccine vs 2 he was was the shot to the new waves of the vector nations he has to become much quicker in europe than we are currently we have to get better we have to deliver in the future as the old 13 force also has not been vaccinated at all even outside of europe but at the same time you have to be able to deliver the vixens per 2nd rather boost around in order to protect against a dangerous mutation in particular that are coming from south africa or brazil and there isn't much more to come left side is short. so there's the imminent threat of another wave and public patience is wearing thin how are you balancing that out we

have to explain why we cannot open up currently that we are in a very dangerous. pivotal to asian earth. as i would call it and that we have to lead and get a good grip off the crisis at the moment if we do that that is an investment for the next couple of months a real investment for the next couple of months in the next 3 or 4 weeks we if we deliver into next 3 or 4 weeks we will be in a position to really control the next couple of months and there's a summer when vaccination rollout is gearing up call out about thank you very much . americal spoke about her concern about the emergence of an increasingly contagious corona virus variants u.k. experts say that the variant 1st detective in southern england is likely to become the world's most dominant strain now in response the u.k. is sending up to 10 percent of positive covert 19 tests on 2 labs to check for

virus mutations as part of a growing effort to catch the more contagious new strains before they take hold. in the global fight against 19 is mutations that of preventing the next great challenge and here in the u.k. you take enough money to directly into people's homes. they're doing do to do the testing in areas where you need haitians have been found to go to identify cases before they have a chance to spread. it was just one case of the south african variants found here in this community that launched this door to door testing scheme but the concern is that one case could just be the tip of the iceberg ordinarily only a small amount of positive covert tests to scream 2 mutations meaning that when they all found authorities here a cracking down hard it's thanks to genome sequencing that authorities can pinpoint where to look the u.k.

is the world leader in sequencing analyzing 10 percent of positive covert samples for the emergence of new variants. in total the team of the u.k.'s prove it 19 genomics to suit him is responsible for almost half the world's poor by sequencing . work that will continue to prove crucial as more mutations emerge i don't think we've seen the full spectrum of mutations that could arise so the very common in england at the moment 117 that's very good at spreading but actually what i'm looking for very carefully is mutations going into that there isn't that also impact on immunity and that's what starts to worry me considerably and that is what we're seeing in the in the u.k. but no population is immune to retain sions that's why professor peacock says genome sequencing needs to become a global priority without comprehensive international screening it speeds new more dangerous variants to take hold putting vaccine programs at risk mutations will be

in the 4 corners of the year and there'll be lots that we don't know about that would be quite concerned if we did know about now the reason that support of all of us is because some of these variants are actually going to lead to a challenge in terms of immunization now that is really critical as we go forward we need to know what the virus is doing so that we can keep up with that scene development work is already being done to modify that things to protect against existing variants. professor paul heath is the chief investigator at the u.k.'s novak spanx in trial he says he's confident sequencing can help manufacturers keep ahead of mutations one of the 3 vaccine technologies or platforms that we're seeing. in the production of 19 backings are very recent and calexico and so it's entirely possible that

modified vaccines will emerge very quickly from. their print vaccine manufacturers vaccines will lie. they have to adapt in the meantime identifying and isolating mutations will be an invaluable tool in the cats and mouse game between vaccines and variance. there are some more of the stories making headlines around the world president alexander lukashenko says that he defeated a foreign quote blitzkrieg to overthrow him the longtime leader made the remarks at a 2 day convention in minsk the opposition has been holding weekly protest since has disputed election when last august says that external and not internal forces are driving the protest. the wife of jailed kremlin critic alexina vali has reportedly flown to germany from russia according to german news magazine dash the girl yulia novel in iowa flew from moscow to frankfurt on wednesday last week her

husband was sentenced to 3 years in jail for violating his probation after he was poisoned in siberia. one of saudi arabia's most vocal women's rights activists has been released from prison losing out flew has been arrested in 2018 allegedly for violating counter-terrorism laws charging critics charges that critics described as politically motivated she openly advocated for the right of women to drive and for an end to the country's restrictive male guardianship system. u.s. president joe biden has spoken to chinese president xi jinping for the 1st time since taking office she warns that a confrontation would be a disaster for both nations but biden said that his administration will counter china's growing global influence earlier biden had announced plans for a pentagon task force to review u.s. security strategy toward china. now in the united states house

democrats have wrapped up their 1st full day of arguments at donald trump's 2nd impeachment trial the former president is accused of inciting the riot at the capitol building in which 5 people died last month prosecutors unveiled a chilling new video of the violent mob breaking into the building and the subsequent chaos. on the 2nd day of the impeachment trial democratic prosecutors wasted little time to make their case. they used security camera footage to reconstruct in painstaking detail how the rioters worked their way into the inner sanctum of u.s. democracy coming within touching distance of the politicians inside. as the riders reached the top of the stairs they were within 100 feet of where the vice president was sheltering with his family and they were just a feet away from one of the doors to this chamber where many of you remained at

that time you can see vice president pence and his family quickly moved down the stairs the vice president turns around briefly as he's headed down. other footage leaves little doubt about the mob's violent intent. but what recordings of police radio calls show how the embattled officers lost control of the situation. they were doing. there 4. or what our group peers know you're up there. were 34 to go. we knew someone you work up when i was growing up we were going to. the rioters did finally manage to breach the senate floor prosecutors say they acted at donald trump spend. but this was not

a coincidence none of this was donald trump over many months cultivated violence praised it and then when he saw the violence his supporters were capable of he channeled it to his big wild historic event. democrats hope these dramatic images will convince some of their republican counterparts to vote to convict the former president. with millions of americans watching the televised proceedings the intensity of the prosecutor's arguments has reverberated far beyond the senate chamber. when a pressure is building on me on mars crew leaders after u.s. president joe biden announced new sanctions against the military regime that seized power a week ago biden also repeated demands for the generals to give up power and for his civilian leaders meanwhile a close aide of ousted leader aung sang suu kyi has been detained kyoto and sway

was among those taken into custody in a new wave of arrests overnight protesters remain defiant and are using increasingly creative tactics to make their demands. dressed in furry animal suits and risking their lives. these groups of young protesters and young go on a challenging the coup leaders with humor their protest tactics which is slogans with pop culture references i knew from my own mom. and the most generations it's a good idea from our generation said where l g b t groups and cosplay is and where wearing costumes and trying to get international attention on twitter people from other countries have noticed it was going to be a lot. to gain attention and support abroad younger generations are using both social media and lessons learned from protesters in neighboring hong kong and

thailand. wear in crowns and ball gowns thank. you for going share this like these members of a bodybuilding club people are showing bare opposition to the coup. demonstrators are calling for an end to the military dictatorship and freedom for the nation's elected leader own some suits she and her allies they also want to new constitution on their return to democratic freedoms to groups remain on deterred off to choose days violence. security forces declared the rallies illegal trenching peaceful protesters with water cannons there are reports that police fired large rounds to disperse some marches. the teenage protester was shot and critically injured. the bomber shows the injured 19 year olds

and demonstrators know their actions could risk a stronger crackdown from the authorities here but i mean we are ready to give our lives if they're trying to threaten unarmed protesters we have nothing except our own bodies we are peacefully protesting but i don't. think we don't want to live under the military rules we want freedom. a curfew and restrictions on gatherings have been put in place but they have not stopped fresh protests from breaking out across the country. and here are some other stories making headlines around the world china says that it's young when one probe has successfully entered mars as orbit nearly 7 months after its launch the spacecraft will aim to complete a one full orbit around mars before attempting to land on the red planet in marks a key milestone in china's mars exploration program. supporters of ecuador's

largest indigenous political party have been protesting alleged election fraud in this month's national elections the vote was split 3 ways and indigenous candidate yaku perez who ran on an environmental platform is not expected to advance to the runoff election in april. a faction of nepal's ruling party has organized a march through the capital cop on do opposing the prime minister's decision to dissolve parliament the nepal communist party is the locked in a bitter battle between allies of the prime minister and critics within the party. 2 men and a woman have been rescued after $33.00 days on a deserted caribbean island the trio said that they survived by eating coconuts they were stranded after their boat capsized in the bahamas the u.s. coast guard rescued them after spotting the group during a routine air patrol earlier this week. organizers have announced

a very different looking oscar award ceremony for 2021 as the movie industry continues to grapple with the coronavirus and i'm at the academy of motion picture arts and sciences said that this year's academy awards will be a live in person event which will air from multiple locations that includes the traditional venue of the dolby theater in hollywood organizers say that they made the decision to decentralize the ceremony in order to prioritize public health and safety. and the berlin film festival the berlin allah has announced the movie selected to the showcase competition to be held in march the festival directors announced the lineup in a digital press conference on thursday said the film's selected show the new world we live in and that they demonstrated a sense of apprehension the reduced selection is completely online this year due of course to the coronavirus pandemic. of that the lowdown with scott

roxborough who's joining us from culture scott any surprise announcements here. well i mean the surprise i guess is that how the announce it was done i mean this is the 1st time that the better now has made their famous competition announcement online that they live streamed the announcement because of course we are locked down here in germany and it would be impossible to have a public press conference in terms of the the films that were picked particularly for competition this year it's sort of what kind of things that we're used to seeing from bill in some very interesting movies new movies from german director maria hsia from a. famous french artist director hong kong who one of my favorite directors but very much on the sort of hardcore art house side which really is sort of known for but is definitely has its fan base and all those a worldwide fan base sadly they will be able to come to berlin this year. but you

know it's known for art house of course as you mentioned but there are a couple of hollywood movies in the lineup so tell us more about that. yeah these are films screening out of competition but a couple of big names i mean jodie foster's a new film the mauritanian with the hero as well as the film from kevin macdonald it's a it's a sort of a real life thriller it's the story of a man who is written dish and from germany to guantanamo bay and then his his legal battle to to fight to be released that's at the top of my list to watch there's also another film that could be a relief from some of the more political or serious movies that berlin is really known for it's a film called french accent and it stars michelle pfeiffer as a sort of aging socialite who's a bit short on cash and is forced to move back in with her son played by lucas hedges in their small tiny apartment in paris it's looks like it's quite light comedy and i think that's kind of thing especially

a sort of gray berlin night that we could hold really use. your bra and of course what is this going to look like this year compared to last year it's going to be utterly different i mean last year berlin was pretty well the last big festival to have a proper person festival pure pure you know the gallows the red carpets hundreds of people gathered together to watch movies that's not going to happen this year at least not initially berlin splitting up its festival to 2 parts in march it's going to have an online only festival mainly for the the film industry and for sort of film fanatics like myself who can watch and then there are going to award the winners of this year's daily nala and then those winners will be shown at another event which is hopefully going to be public in june with proper red carpets with sort of big audience participation that's the hope at least we'll see what happens of course with the coronavirus if the let's go ahead with those plans but that's the plan at least 1st a small digital festival and then in the summer

a big public event flexibility of the name of the game stop rocks franking it all down for us thank you. sports news for you now of japan are you sure morey president of the tokyo 2020 olympics organizing committee is set to step down on friday the 83 year old's more evade sexist remarks about female board members during a meeting which set off a firestorm in the media and the more he refused to step down but after nearly $400.00 volunteers quit from the games earlier this week tokyo organizers revisited morey's position as president according to sources a replacement has already been found. in tennis reigning australian open champion american sophia cannon has crashed out of the tournament in the 2nd round the 22 year old was defeated in straight sets by a stony and cannot be after several unforced errors and falling short of defending

her title kennon said that she had been struggling to contain her nerves at the prospect of repeating as champion. well the tampa bay buccaneers meantime the football team they have celebrated their victory in sunday's super bowl with a boat parade in their hometown fans and players took to the water and a flotilla of boats sailed down the hillsborough river and tampa thousands of supporters who won the riverbank to cheer on on their heroes city officials asked to wear masks and socially distance but their request was largely ignored. a quick reminder of the top stories that we're following for you here on news chancellor angela merkel has addressed the. defending her reopening strategy and calling for patience on wednesday merkel announced that the lockdown will be extended until at least march 7th that the government's objective is to lift the

restrictions. on g.w. news it is complex with my colleague do stay with us if you can i'm sorry. web site www dot com on social media at thanks for watching take care.

into the conflict zone wisdom sebastian for years now the government of bangladesh is being criticized around the world foods human rights record my guess is week from back eyes galleries meet foreign affairs advisor to the country's prime minister level below 30 stop denying the truth about the repression may be

inflicted and clean up their acts conflicts. just. want to see what's going on the knowledge of the emergence of that you know what you have to do to fight it. the sharp microscope that had been fed the dollar it would come better and better and better over the years we were in the bad ol for example of the viral infection the bald molecular ditto and therefore a lot of a lot of the fighting much more easily i work to speculate about what's going on in 2050 i can't imagine that it will add to that the cause of god much better and then reduce the number of cancer cases there is the opportunity to live

a much more fulfilling life because many diseases shortcomings causes of aging can be counteracted a large degree of people but they held for a longer period of life. sure you want to talk good things about your country because that's what you're paid to do every question you have also told us you have bunch of things that they didn't mention is presidential my habit of giving pardons to convicted murderers so the certain 50 of the rich york in many ways is a surprisingly for years now the government of bangladesh has been criticized around the world for its human rights record but its reputation received another jolt this month with the release of a new documentary alleging high level bribery and corruption my guest this week

from baca is gallery's me foreign affairs advisor to the country's prime minister the movie authority stop denying the truth about the repression they've inflicted and clean up their act. now here is very welcome to comfort zone thank you your country has become a byword for egregious human rights abuses which your government routinely did noise as an academic who's used to dealing in truth why do you so have a government that seems to have some little regard for that commodity alyssa sebastian i think this question needs to be qualified. when you say egregious. rights violations might pay. explain that hoover's human rights is

a very large. word well let me remind specific then let me be more specific arbitrary detention torture in force disappearances extrajudicial executions all of which your government is accused of by the un human rights groups around asia human rights watch amnesty international the committee against torture that's what i had and i well. i wish i could accept these allegation in its entirety i will run we did i know that there have not been instances of. some disappearances. when you talk about torture there is no documented evidence of torture for the best of my. knowledge when committee against torture is certain that it's carried out routinely it's received report after report that it's

carried out routinely by your security forces and you would know you would have us believe that they've all got it wrong and where bangladesh i would not i would not deny it and i would not say that they have it wrong but i do also want to say that as far as the government is concerned culture is illegal and we try to make sure that doesn't take you know why i was objecting to the way you posed the question with a sebastian is because so many good things have happened in bangladesh. could a bangladesh is one of the spectacular successes of development yes and you're very good at promoting the successes economic successes prince wrath of your country and the like but that's not what i have come

a long way around i'm not what i'm asking you about i'm asking you about the things that have gone wrong in your country your government for instance claims 0 tolerance of corruption where the boss of transparency international bangladesh himself summed up the extent of corruption when he accused the government of going after only what he called the small fish the activities of corrupt leaders at the top are beyond our imagination he said we don't see repast investigation or effective legal action against any of those big clients so so much for the the promise of 0 tolerance for corruption. if you if you recall about 6 to 9 months ago there was a big. action against various corrupt individuals and organisations many of them have been arrested police investigation is taking place. the anti corruption commission is an inquiry.

at the end of the day we have to follow additional process and this is a time consuming process i'm not saying our process is perfect i have got say that there isn't sometimes a political. consideration also go into it these things are true but where i object and sebastian you are such an experience. is that. the great you read the picture it's all one side if you don't you will you were getting the wrong impression that well if i'm not i me painting the picture i'm relying on reports for internationally respected organize asians like human rights watch amnesty international committee again after i was active in that allow me to a balance that picture with the reality as it happened on the ground yes which is

which which you are doing but but all of this has paved the way for a high profile documentary which was released this month by the al-jazeera network which alleged shocking levels of corruption among senior officials of your state and your government's immediate reaction was to brand the film false defamatory and the smear you didn't even bother to investigate 1st that's not the sponsor banani government is that. inquiry is taking place it is being inquired but let me really all. ask you the title of that documentary was all the prime minister's men and we were told that it would expose corruption around the prime minister lew relievedly that documentary succeeded in doing that was there is a single evidence which intimidated the prime minister in the alleged.

corruption i mean this list is where i think a sensible academics and journalists we should. stand back and ask ourselves what was the evidence. given to intimidate the prime minister's involvement and yes this whole document this was big. as to show how corrupt the regime is countries we have come to respect looking looking at the film which was produced by al jazeera he was a television team that was able to locate 2 high level fugitives from justice convict. who's out the brother just happens to be your serving chief of the army general as this up met apparently your annoying forstmann couldn't find his brothers who were on the run but they did that's pretty embarrassing for you isn't it. certainly but on the other hand again i'm not going to be defending everything

but the way you are putting the question to me i feel it is necessary a person be judged guilty because of the guilt of his brother i think this is a question we need to us now if the brother has. if. the brother in. law has helped his brothers to invade justice to avoid. further his criminal activities this accusation would be extremely extremely. valid what happened was long long before this gentleman. became the army chief all right well and let's just look at some of the details which came out in the film about the general general aftermath brothers 2 of them are nice and harris were found guilty of

involvement in the 1996 murder of a member of a rival party and both absconded from justice and went on the run now a 3rd brother joseph was also convicted and spent more than 10 years on death row magically just before his brother as he's was promoted to head of the army joseph gets a presidential pardon how did that happen is bangladesh in the habit of giving pardons to convicted murderers who gunned down their opponents on the street in cold blood is that what you did you give him a president. sebastian the certainty with which you are the king in many ways is a surprisingly and you have lent the appointment of army chief and his brother's release. into one school let me remind you there is one hour a doctor no no no no no mr sebastian little one for you has to be pretty well connected to get a power for cold blood letting you let me give you the facts then you draw your

conclusion please let me give you the facts. the brother in question has served about 20 years in prison that is if. law in the country that after serving a certain amount of years you may be given for were ought clemency by the president all this happened long before months and months before even the vacancy to list the brother was appointed or arose it happened completely separately this man has 35 years left in the armed forces who worked his way up our with a fairly record so why should be maligned and link link these 2 stories together i would like you to look at this time i would

like you to look at the timeline of the 2 events these are 6 months apart all right ok don't tell me 3 the point is also which the film brought out is that your army chief knew perfectly well where his 2 other brothers were the ones that were on the run and apparently didn't tell the relevant to authorities is not worth investigating it would be worth investigating but please also you know as much as i do would this gentleman outside the jurisdiction of bangladesh. and yes if this information had been available we would have tried to have extracted extradited them and provided we had an extradition treaty with this book and in fact in many cases we have done and there is no reason to believe that we would not

have done and you are quite right. that if this republican had been available to the government the government would have taken action well perhaps this is all just too close to the higher echelons of power are too dangerous to delve into in the fact that nobody in your country wants to delve too deeply into suspicions of high level corruption do that too many people disappear and end up dead if they say the wrong thing and ask the wrong questions don't say fact of life in their own country no dodo this is the best year. we we are proud however of it we have proud of our liberal democratic system we are proud that we have a prime minister who has. a. very lowly intolerance of corruption our armed forces a family under civil control and therefore who says that.

corruption is connected at the high level but how do you think how is it how is it then that in a state which is supposed to have a functioning justice system that these 2 fugitive brothers of your army chief anderson harris convicted murderers actually a report we turn to return to back are in broad daylight in 2019 to celebrate a family wedding. there aren't many fugitive killers who can shop in a big society wedding mingle with the president's signature domestic have protection right at the top you know that is well why do i we are we are both you are absolutely right if it was known to anyone that this gentleman have returned to bangladesh. immediately they would have been apprehended there is no. question about it but they were pictured at the wedding

doctrine let let let let let us know i mean literally club to convict murders uncles of the bridegroom happily celebrating with everyone else we at telescoping something that happened over 25 years. into a single incident the the brothers had committed a crime in 1906. long before the real and this had even joined the army as a cadets we now. go forward 25 years later and we are saying that these 2 men came back to bangladesh and if they did and as the photographs had this was absolutely a great failure of our. just

a distraction and the. immigration police in the airport there is no question about that but you will also have to understand that these people had acquired different pass. which. unless it was known to the government unless that was on the watch this it is quite easy for them to have slipped in along with thousands of other people who come in and wow i am not running for one moment suggesting that this has not been a failing of the government it has done a lot differently. that's arisen. in a democracy with the kind of free press that you've claimed exists in bangladesh all these allegations from al-jazeera would be plastered all over the newspapers in the broadcast media parent of a.