as their support and voice their support for this constitutional referendum now alexina on the label them as traitors which resulted in this landing slander charges that he's facing today now of course this trial was originally slated to take place last year but of all these poisoning with a soviet era nerve agent nova truck and then his resulting recuperation in germany prevented the trial from taking place and of course he returned to the country earlier this year was arrested and that's part of the reason that prosecutors are now going ahead with this latter case aaron any indications of potential verdict. well no of course we don't know exactly how the court is likely to rule but it bears saying that the russian judiciary has never been very sympathetic to alexina volley in the past now if you were to be sentenced he could be facing additional jail time or a fine or something akin to community service but at least here in moscow it's not expected that he will be facing additional jail time specifically because he is already looking down the barrel of a 2 to 3 year sentence on

a different fraud charge instead talk to people around a legacy of all these orbit they say that there's a little bit of a different motive is behind this slander charges right now they say that the kremlin is attempting to hurt alexy standing in the court of public opinion you have to remember world war 2 veterans were held up to a very very high standard in high regard here in russia so by accusing him of slandering one of them it could be an attempt to harm his standing with everyday russians and at the same time his defense team is still looking at avenues that they could use to get him out of jail long term and this ties them up in court in a time when they could be using those resources elsewhere so of course the position of the russian government is that these are serious charges but if you ask people surrounding team of all me they say it's an attempt to basically harass them in the court of law ok and i want to talk about on the diplomatic level internationally because we have this very dramatic threat today from the foreign minister of russia sergei lavrov saying that moscow is ready to sever ties with the european union just walk us through the back story here and what such

a move could mean. well i mean on the face of it it is kind of hard to take these that threat seriously i mean you have to remember the european union is still the most important trading partner to the russian federation it's also the largest sort of a source rather of direct investment was in the country so it's hard to imagine a scenario where moscow and the e.u. could completely sever ties and we have to be honest i mean. the relationship has been livable and loaded with sanctions since the crimea conflict and since the conflict in ukraine and they're still talking to each other they're still working with each other so it's kind of hard to imagine a scenario where they could completely break off ties and you also have to look at the context that these statements were made and it was made on a live stream of a russian journalist and there's a lot of you over who is often considered to be one of the kremlin's chief propagandists he often gives the kremlin an avenue to help shape the conversation

within the country so these statements it does seem because they were taken place in that live stream it seems they were more intended towards domestic consumption as opposed to being some type of message directly labeled at the european union so i would say well of course you have to take statements like this seriously i would say this is more a little bit of saber rattling intended for domestic consumption rather than a threat directly at the e.u. erin tell tim in moscow thank you and as we have been hearing there from aaron alexis only is increasingly the focus of a growing diplomatic crisis between the e.u. and russia moscow says that it's ready to cut ties with brussels if the e.u. goes ahead with harsh economic sanctions one possible target is a nearly complete gas pipeline between russia and germany but some people say linking the project to human rights concerns is about idea. the north stream too is ready at least the german end of the nearly 2500 kilometer long pipeline it

starts here in the baltic sea town of lukeman the receiving terminal with its thick pipes and heavy safety valves has been ready to go since the summer. goodmans mayor oxus forked is concerned that despite this the russian gas pipeline might never be operational. but. it would give us a very bad public image if we had an investment disaster of this magnitude and the political debate continued to be so heated i suspect that would also scare off investors we'd like to keep out of. this 150 kilometers of pipeline has become a hot topic. the section has yet to be completed on the bottom of the baltic sea. but calls for tougher sanctions against russia are getting louder. after the reported poisoning of opposition politician alex enough ali many demanded a halt to the construction of the north stream to local authorities refused to

believe that construction might be stopped. being finalized can you really link the case of nevaeh in the 2 a project like north stream to. what would it be better to look at these 2 events separately especially when the facts at least according to my assessment are not yet clear enough to place the blame on russian government or. the mayor is voicing the opinion of the citizens of lukeman a seaside resort on the baltic sea because of the coronavirus there aren't enough tourists but there are also very few locals on the beach their opinion is almost unanimous. and people think everything the russians do is bad that's not right and yvonne the is an important north stream is important to. us can we afford to waste millions millions of compromises have to be made i think it must be completed in the model dismissed because it's only one person dares to criticize russia.

using the longer they were historically a reliable partner as long as it benefited them for political reasons i would not continue this project. would be easiest for you mission for folks all that matters is a consistent supply of energy after germany's nuclear phaseout gas will become essential he says even if it comes from russia we find russia including let me putin to be a reliable partner in social and economic life in the state of mecklenburg western . and especially here at our energy and business site i see no reason for putin or the russian government to be sidelined like that is going to mean expects russian natural gas to flow through these pipes soon. so as we have been hearing there are some in the region are very much pro north stream too let's hear from somebody who thinks that the project should be cancelled we're joined now by og next will grass

she is a member of the german parliament for the opposition green party and she sits on the board as tog's defense committee welcome to the program and thank you for joining us as we've been hearing there supporters of this project say it's an economic it's not a political project it should not be used as political leverage what is your view. i think building this pipeline was wrong all along and there are many reasons why this is so and it's never too late to fix something steak and i think the most important reason is that we have to take our own climate goals seriously and this is why i do green party has been a post from the beginning to an austrian to but there is of course a link to the attempted murder attack on because the german government should send a very clear message to putin and to the crown land that we will not. let

this answered and this would be the searing that would hurt i want to get your opinion on a counter argument now and here's the german foreign minister speaking in parliament earlier this week let's have this very nordstrom's why anyone who fundamentally questions the nord stream to pipeline and you can certainly advocate that opinion must also consider at least geo strategically what consequences that will have it will drive russia and china closer and closer together and it will create the largest economic military alliance there is and i don't think that should be the strategy of the west in this dispute and that's why i'm against burning all bridges to russia in this context i'm just large distances are so when you put it in a broader geo strategic picture as we're seeing there just the foreign minister have a point. i don't think so because 1st we have to take our climate

goals seriously and when we do there we see that the time of this make our fossil fuel project is over we have already overcapacity in our infrastructure so we really don't need it and it's bad for the climate but the other hand we see when the when a foreign minister says this is the only good. link we have words of president putin we have to cooperate in questions of energy we can cooperate on renewable energy use and i think the time. for only concerned words we have to send a very clear message to the kremlin and not only take some political answers ok so your position is clear so then let me ask you you know what the next step would be if that indeed was carried out because the back and forth about north stream to

also of course has economic financial implications there are private companies involved here the project cost some 10000000000 euros who should answer for the losses if the project is indeed celt. it's not. really clear how to get out of this project we don't have the contracts and the german government does not answer many questions about it the 1st step would be to draw the political support of the. coalition and i think it's the most important one if you want to stop the project and then you have to look for a good way out you have to look at the contracts and there are still some issues some legal issues about environmental impact assessments from the european side or our saw competition routes so there are maybe many ways which could

lead to an end of this project and nest of program member of the german parliament for the opposition green party thank you. it's. prosecutors in the united states have wrapped up their case in the 2nd impeachment trial against donald trump they urged senators to convict the former president for inciting the violent mob that stormed the capitol building on january 6th the prosecutors say the convicted trump is necessary to ensure something similar cannot happen again later today trump's defense team will present its side of the story. so far during a timely end to the day's hearings on the 3rd day of the impeachment trial of donald trump and prosecutors made their closing pitch without using up their allotted speaking time of 16 hours. i wanted to start simply by saying that in the history of humanity democracies an extremely rare and frau dryland

precarious and transitory thing this isn't just an attack on the capitol building and the dedicated people inside it was an attack on what we were elected to preserve our democracy. for you know thank. god the prosecution made heavy use of video footage of the january 6th riots to prove that the former president had incited the violent insurrection godfrey impeachment is not to punish but to prevent we are not here to tarnish donald trump we're here to prevent the seeds of hatred that he planted from bearing any more fruit republican lawmakers who are quick to dismiss the arguments but if you think that the arguments today. i thought they were awfully repetitive. i thought. trump's defense team will make its case on friday the way that

a final vote is expected this week and the 2 thirds majority is needed to impeach a trumpery meaning 17 republican senators have to cross the aisle to make you know this and more of the stories making headlines around the world the organizers of next week's munich security conference of the u.s. president joe biden is going to take part remotely a meeting at tracks heads of state as well as business leaders security specialists and diplomats in would be the 1st sitting u.s. president to take part by then has attended the conference before while he was vice president to barack obama. china's broadcasting regulator says that it has banned b.b.c. world news it's a largely symbolic move as the channel was only freely accessible to foreigners the decision comes a week after britain revoked the u.k. broadcast license. of china c g t yes it concluded the network was controlled by china's communist party.

of facebook says that it will limit content and profiles run by myanmar's military saying that the army has continued to spread misinformation it comes as the 2 sides wrestle over information access in myanmar where facebook is a key source of news nationwide protest continues across myanmar since the military overthrew the civilian government and detained most of the country's top elected leaders and now the military is hold on myanmar never really least despite a brief period of democracy today the junta freed some $1000.00 prisoners but that's unlikely to appease demonstrators many accuse the military of using lethal force against them our next report takes a look at the events that have rocked the country. the biggest street demonstrations in miami mark in over a decade protesters want the generals to step aside they're calling for elected

leaders to be freed and that calling for a new constitution. that's because the army says an article in the current document allows the generals to take over. when the state of emergency is over we will hold a free and fair and general election according to the 2008 comes to him and ham power to the winner. it's a promise the people of my own ma don't believe. was at telecoms and social media blackout days after the crew did not stop people organizing mass demonstrations to raise international support for what. the police responded to the army who had got more of the military said it didn't use lethal weapons on demonstrators on tuesday. but time the see international says

police recklessly told her to protesters with no respect for their lives or safety . this video shows riot police trying to disperse a protest in the capital naypyidaw a protester wearing a red shirt and admitted to bike helmet shelters with others at a bus stop where. were you know moments later she slumped on the ground and fellow protesters tried to help her. banners on the fly over capture that moment. doctors told reporters that a bullet penetrated has skull and her condition is critical demonstrators are holding photos of what they say are her injuries. yeah army has banned large gatherings the authorities say this peaceful protest outside the chinese embassy is illegal. china supported my on mars military

dictatorship for decades even as the international community xanga country over human rights abuses. her. was the army conceded some power to a civilian government in 2050 but they never truly left memories of brutal military rule is still fresh in people's minds and let's bring in kelly along who research just me on march amnesty international she joins us now from london thank you so much for joining us on the program we're seeing these fresh protests and demands for release of aung sang suu kyi how do you see the situation developing and do you have any more information about sochi very dangerous situation in myanmar moment and it deserves top billing in the international community in terms of our sons who she was delusional where she's being held as is the case that many others who have been to spain's and they've been sleeping or it's at least 220 and

there were reports of the night which was seeking to confirm at the moment so the number of people who've been detained is isn't very high and the situation there is very combustible as we've seen the use of intentionally lethal force against purchases and it's really just unacceptable. tell us a little bit more about that because the military for its part it denies that lethal force is being used systematically but you know we we've heard in our piece that your organization amnesty says that police have targeted protesters with apparently no respect for life or safety do you have evidence of lethal force being used. incident in question in a video at the capitol was we were able to locate where the incident took place we saw that they were using a in louisiana locally made a locally made clothing of and reason with him and that is that the shells would indicate it was live ammunition and not credible it's happened to so that is

something that we've been following closely because that is the 1st as far as we can tell the 1st use of live ammunition against protesters and we've also seen and seen the musical tendency of the disproportionate force in trying to quell the protests the u.n. deputy human rights chief is saying the following are speaking out about this and the military presence on the streets is growing in fact and issuing quote kone an order against a freedom of speech and i'd like to ask you now you know the military has promised elections in one year's time when you when you hear those promises from the military what do you think this is a military with a long history that unity an amnesty primary concern is always human rights and rather the medical systems we're trying to monitor the situation as best we can but we have huge concerns there over 300000 people displaced becomes like nationwide there's over 600000 are injured affectively intended reckoned state so this is

a massive human rights issue for us came a long amnesty international thank you so much for joining us to share that perspective. the president of the tokyo 20 twentieth's lympics organizing committee has resigned 83 year olds yoshiro mori caused a firestorm for sexist remarks that he made at a recent japanese olympic committee meeting moreas also the former prime minister the outrage over his comments shows that japan is slowly changing. yoshiro mori wanted to guide the coronavirus delayed tokyo summer games all the way through a closing ceremony but his tenure ended in controversy. the important thing is for the olympic games to be held in july and in order to hold the olympics if my presence is a hindrance to the preparations this cannot be allowed to nominate at least mori

was leading an olympic board meeting last week when he was quoted as saying women talk too much something he called annoying the former japanese prime minister later apologized but it was too late his comments through sharp criticism in the parliament and on social media. and some $400.00 would be volunteers for the summer games quit in protest. i think mori should have resigned when he apologized but he didn't correct so i thought he was tone deaf he should have thought about the impact of his comments being reported overseas i know people in other countries have a stricter view on issues of equality than the japanese. mores strongly supported the effort to bring the 2020 olympics to tokyo and some officials fear that his resignation could spell doom for the games now set for this july. still his downfall to some represents an opportunity. put him live in the i think this is

a good chance to change japan's current mindset about gender equality if it marked a kind of milestone since a person who makes such remarks has to resign so i think this has great significance. meaning out. after the 83 year old mori the 84 year old former head of japanese football. is considered likely to take over the japanese olympic committee. and in football news more calls for celebration for germany's biorn munich the bundesliga champions edged mexico's team great to win the fisa club world cup taking all 6 major trophies they could win in a 12 month period and barcelona was the only of the club to do so back in 2009. out of the starting blocks to grip to show they had every intention of battling man well neuer put a stop to this attack. but it remained

a physical affair throughout neither team giving ground easily. biron appeared to go up in the 18th minute. only to have the goal disallowed by video assistant referee for offside. leroy's sign a had a great chance but rattled the crossbar and the 1st half and it scoreless but by and got on the right side of the v.a.r. in the 2nd half benjamin kovach banging the ball in and assistant referee immediately called it offside but with the match on the line video replay over ruled the goal was good off the usual commish cross one nil by and that's how it staged by intern our club world champions and winners of a historic sex couple. up next on news it is to the point of my colleague melinda crane talking about the global race for cove at 19 vaccines you can always get more in the meantime on our website at

www dot com you can also follow us on twitter instagram the social media platforms at. i'm sorry kelly and thank you so much for watching take care and stacy.

to the point of strong opinions clear position some international perspective such . as covert 90 takes an ever harsher told me they're feeling their hopes on vaccines developed in record time yet in many places there rollout has been patchy the race for covert vaccine rich against poor are top they want to go to the point cut up next the t.w.r. . good shape. they're lurking everywhere.

well you think it's kind of disgusting no it's not because of those but a very important for our health and well being. what to do and what not to do. affect of hygiene concepts during the car abandoned. in 60 minutes on d w. or. young german. and jewish. just one jewish or so was. not does that mean. in daily life. and at school something is something we should not be given a special status but be completely normal beyond this look of shock like wow

there's a jew at our school that's the bad thing. 11 teenagers 11 stories. 85 jewish is. german and jewish starts feb 22nd on b w. as coach at 19 continues to take a harsh toll many are pinning their hopes on vaccines developed in record time and yet in many parts of the world there rollout has been touching and best deliveries from some manufacturers falling short of what was agreed in europe in squabbling with the pharmaceuticals industry over who's to blame someone or a country's find themselves shut out altogether in the vaccine scramble and many of their citizens may have to wait as long as true years to get the job the world health organization warns no one is safe until everyone is safe but how do we

ensure access for all the race for covert vaccines rich against poor. much. welcome to to the point it's my pleasure to introduce our guests beginning with some economists he is head of migration and diversity at the bush diff tone and he says what this pandemic demonstrates once again is the global epidemic of injustice that we never managed to bring under control. and i'm very pleased to welcome to the program frank. he is president of the world medical association and he thinks the vaccine was developed in record time supply chain bottlenecks are perfectly normal vaccine for hundreds of millions of people isn't something you just plucked from thin air. and we're very pleased to have with us.

joining us from brussels. and she heads a studio there and she says with the scrambling to vaccinate its own citizens and the u.s. absent as a global player china and russia are winning the vaccine. so let's start right here in germany dr germany has just decided to extend its lockdown although in fact in fact infection rates have been dropping and vaccine availability is on the rise is that caution on the part of the government justified . a very important question and is very much justified because. drop by drop to slow and we know that if we start from a too high level to go back into normal life we will be up very quickly again and

the 3rd wave of the disease will be much worse than the 1st of the 2nd so i think it's a good policy let me come back to that w.h.o. motto that i quoted a moment ago that no one is safe until everyone is safe the fact is that a number of germany's neighboring countries are easing restrictions so will germany's tighter lock down really be effective under those circumstances it will definitely be effective but it could be even more effective who would have a sort of european solidarity by all doing the same things but. i think it's worthless to discuss that at this moment no because it simply is not the. you know why it would help a lot and we'll come back to why it's not there in a few moments but let me 1st. and ask you. about the situation also in terms of global equity germany's chancellor frequently points out that we are all in this together essentially that w.h.

auden model once again and last fall she appealed. in the g 20 to do far more to ensure fair distribution of a vaccine are you seeing any evidence both here in this country in europe and internationally of real action to mitigate what your statement referred to as an epidemic of injustice. well i truly believe that there is the intention to work more on silly verity and also to have a better distribution practically i don't see any actions on the ground because since lasts march many of the african countries in asia and latin america has been fighting on the ground without any sanitation was no lack of resources. let alone which with other developed vaccine and so on so what i see is the ease and intention to always think of.

the poor within the context of. sherry the resources we have but looking into what has been done so far i don't see any encouraging actions or. so far i've pretty much pessimistic again we will come back to dig a bit deeper on that let me go now to brussels and alexandra as i mentioned even in europe there are disparities both between the containment approach and in the vaccine rollout the e.u. commission has repeatedly pledged that the e.u. must act as one but the reality on the ground is pretty different as an. yes you're right it is different how member states are handling the pandemic what measures they already introduce or are about to introduce and the problem is as we can see

now with you know the scrambling to get enough vaccines for each member state that's of course something that you can understand that they see the problems and now they doubt that such a united europe can really handle depend so i think that's that's a real issue and it's important now to make sure that the european union will get in the scenes for each member state to make sure that everyone is on track to vaccinate its citizens so that member states now again will believe that it's the right way to do it together and to show solidarity because we are in the together indeed pointing out the enormous importance of political trust and confidence there again something will come back to in a moment but let's 1st take a look at where things stand in europe at the moment as we've heard the speed with which the coded vaccines were developed is

a startling advance and it sparked hopes that we'd soon put the pandemic behind us but those hopes of getting away to anxious competition and envious recrimination. the u.k. is vaccinating people faster than any other country in europe on december 2nd 2020 it became the 1st country in the world to grant emergency authorization for the cold in 1000 vaccine from pfizer the u.k. government signed deals for the vaccine last july the e.u. didn't manage that until months later it waited for the normal authorization procedure before starting inoculations in january in order for 300000000 more doses was placed the e.u. backs in action rate has been disappointing despite newly approved jabs from austria and went down a. little too late the e.u. commission faces harsh criticism for its vaccine roll out orders in the name of the $27.00 member states have been placed with several companies but only a few of them can deliver and eastern european countries seem to want to save money

and france wants to prioritize its own drug companies. the commission blames pharma companies for delay deliveries. the companies on the other hand claim limited production capacity is responsible. who is to blame for the e use vaccine dilemma. let me put that question straightaway to dr mcgovern coupled with a question or a criticism that we're often hearing at the moment in regard to the negotiations between the e.u. commission and the pharmaceutical companies some critics are saying that the e.u. prioritized cost over speed of delivery do you think that's right and even if it did would there be some justification to that. i would say we know today it wasn't right but it was justified because countries poorer countries in the

european union couldn't pay the price which was called up by companies like and also the just background of litigation etc it was very. heavily on the side of the pharmaceutical companies so at the time when the negotiations went on the european union i had to discuss prices and delivery schedules with the companies today we know that it would have been much cheaper to invest more money in vaccines and save money on the lock downs which are so harmful to our economies until industries so but. as. those 2 no one said i always like to talk to profits 3 years later. and i think that is the problem we have now we are past the stage it has been a mistake now we have to make the best of what dr just described mcmullen is a bit of that dilemma of damned if you do damned if you to what some critics say

the e.u. should have been more aggressive competed harder against countries like the united states others say europe is too selfish prioritizing e.u. interests over those of poor countries what's your take well the idea of solidarity is the right track i think europe actually the way how it's has been dealing you know as a common region and also thinking of the poor ones and those who have and who have not i think that was the right track but we should extend this globally as well the other thing is of course now we have you know like we d.d.t. each of us like i'm sort of purchases on a daily basis and that's they were actually hoarding yeah exactly that's exactly what's happening when we see into the number of betsy's which has been ordered it will outnumber us in any way. europe has ordered around 2300000

vaccines for 448. seats and a population which is one to 5 u.k. has over 400000000 vaccines for you. 68000000. population which is around 6 vaccines to once it's and and this is exactly what troubles me when we look into the global situation where we have regions where they don't have even just a vaccine proceeds and or let alone. twice and so on so i think. the idea of sort of dirty you that is the way how we should also handle on a global way although i know that some countries has been more aggressive like the u.k. or trump or israel and also how they dealt to beginning with the price politics and so on so there are so far successful but when we think oh no more regional and

global weight national. solutions were never the best way to deal with spending or make an accent or stay in europe just for the time being would you say that brussels and e.u. member states have done enough to ensure equity of distribution of the vaccine with in europe. i think yes that's what was the goal of going together and curing click scenes together and this was rightly the go because now we are hearing from poorer countries within the european union praising this approach and saying we are happy because otherwise we wouldn't have had big scenes at all on the other hand we have to say that death was of course a reason for the european union to move slowly much slowly or than the u.k. for example or israel and mistakes were made that was e.u.

commission president or that i funded lie and said repeatedly we were too little too late granting also ization we were too optimistic with regards to mass production of vaccines and we were also too naive maybe to believe that everything will arrive in time but still i think this approach to to procure vaccines together so that everyone will have eventually enough of them to inoculate its population was the right step white decision to do. dr macgyver your opening statement says that supply locked as supply shortages are standard they're normal and you're essentially cautioning everybody to just be patient and in fact we do hear that there will be a great more vaccine coming online in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of this year but the question is how much time do we have how quickly do we need to get that vaccine into people's arms in view of these new mutations oh he should have done the months

ago but we're not talking of a of a cookery rests recipe somewhere we are talking of a highly complex chemical product which is produced sometimes it takes more than 3 months to produce a single molecule of this vaccine and there are a lot of things can go wrong during the production i remember a year when the whole range of influenza. vaccines. were destroyed for a simple technical mistake and therefore we must be fair with the companies as well and we must also realize that some of the the very prominent factories that produced in the past like some newfie event is totally failed on producing a vaccine up to now so they are now offering their production plans to the other producers to produce more vaccine but it is not that it's not like a switch which you turn around and one day you produce vaccine a and the next a vaccine be it takes up to 3 months to build up

a production line and this has mere technical reasons so if you buy vaccines 2300000000 doses of vaccines to imagine that they're all there in the 1st quarter of 2021 is an illusion do you ever worry that we are relying too much on the idea of a vaccine as a kind of silver ball that the bullet that will solve all of our problems given those mutations the chancellor has said we could be looking at a situation where we have to vaccinate people anew every year as we do with influenza i have no other silver or gold and bought it in bullet in my gun it's the only thing we have there is no direct therapy against the corona virus there is a coming vaccination and we have to be quick with that oxidation because the more people under the.