documentary. coming out today fears for the future of. women in afghanistan. and the expectations from. kids struggling to survive.

welcome to. glad you could join us nato defense ministers are meeting their counterparts from the united states for the 1st time since president biden's inauguration the future of the alliance in afghanistan is an important point of talks over 2 days nearly 10000 troops from 36 nato nations including the united states the support of forces in the country and whether these forces can secure. is a key concern. with the taliban to trumpet ministration agreed to withdraw all u.s. troops by me. by the by. but even as that review is also discussed with nato partners levels of violence have continued to increase in. attacks often but attributed to the. taliban are

on the rise of that's left particularly afghan women concerned about a future where the taliban could play an important role. aided doesn't stay long on the street she wants to get inside quickly afghanistan's best known model poses for the camera without a veil embodying the lifestyle of many of today's young afghans. the 26 year old has found fame as an influencer with more than 200000 instagram followers it's an image of the modern woman which the taliban cannot accept and i do receives regular death threats. that person has only that i worry that if the taliban become part of the government all the progress we have made in the last few years will be lost i studied abroad and returned home to set up a modeling business that if we lose our freedoms and women have to stay at home

again then i will be forced to leave my homeland as well. once done. ringback nothing in kabul can be taken for granted especially not a yoga class factory of montana's wants to bring in a peace to a country which has been shattered by war for the last half century. korea opened her own studio 5 years ago in the face of stiff resistance from religious fundamentalists. her pupils are students office workers and housewives it takes a measure of courage to join the class in spite of threats from the taliban they say that yoga goes against islam and women shouldn't be involved in sport but these women are undeterred and factory refuses to be intimidated. she will only agree to

be filmed in the studio and at home not out on the street. after we 1st met her a year ago she started getting death threats from the taliban and had to close the studio temporarily. and. well known religious leaders have started talking about what we do. by leading declared holy war on us. that makes them. use the opportunities which of opened up for women in recent years to start a business in the city center. she has benefited from western intervention in her country. but now she worries that american troops could soon be pulling out.

it's not a good time for the americans to be leaving afghanistan. everything is very uncertain . the americans should at least day until we know what's happening in. the future of ideas business should become clearer over the next few months there's a lot at stake for afghan women their freedoms up more at risk than at any time in the last 20 years. joining me now for more is journalist if you drop me from. we have been reporting continually to the concerns of women in afghanistan have about them lost their freedoms if the taliban came to power but how much of a concern is this across afghan society. i think the problem is that the

taliban haven't been upfront about what they want in terms of women's rights they recently issued an open letter to the united states about you know their dream and peace deal and one of the things that they brought up was the issue of women's rights they said that the rights of women would be maintained and accordance with islamic law in islam practices but again what we have to remember is that the entire of on the equal system the terror of our constitution and law and society all of that is based off of islam so the question that women men everybody feel that want to ask about any sort of societal issue is you know what do they mean by this law macv you say women's rights because as far as anybody can tell everything in afghanistan currently is based off of islam no founded on control in some shape or the other more than roughly how far gone is stones territory based on your travels around has been this on what has been the experience of people living under

taliban control and what form of islam have the polygon been implementing. it. you know it really depends on which parts of the country you're living in it's interesting because a few years ago. i was in that province which is south west of kabul and i was talking to people who were saying that the taleban in part in pox on had allowed for girls to go to school but the taliban on the ground in law that weren't allowing it so this is kind of the issue that it can become very ad hoc depending upon where you are in certain places you know they'll be there they'll let you get away with more and in other places the be much more brutal and then there are also places where people you know turn to them to solve things like legal disputes land conflicts things like that that otherwise if you went to the court system would mean you're stuck in endless bureaucracy and paying bribes and just

years of complication so it's really complex issue with that situation being on the ground middle ministers are meeting here in brussels to discuss the future of nato troops including u.s. troops in afghanistan do you get a sense that of cons want them to stay. that i want people just want a solution right 1st thing they want is peace whatever will bring peace for over an end of the war and then beyond that they just want to know what's going to happen they want you know with this nato meeting or with whatever you know for a future decision joe biden takes they just literally want to know are you staying are you going how long are you staying for and what are you really going to do that's all they want they just want to definitive answer the road security duties have been in the hands of of gun forces for some 6 years now after nato handed over to sponsibility to the opcw on security forces are they in a position to battle the taliban and other groups singlehandedly.

so i was just in lookout province in the south of which is just south of kabul and i was talking to soldiers and i was talking to police and they were saying that the u.s. presence really doesn't make that much of a difference for them in the fight because for the most part they haven't actually been involved in combat in whatley 8 years 7 years. but what does make a difference of them is being properly equipped is having the ammunitions i mean the guns as having even walkie talkies things that they are lacking at the moment or even being paid on time you know there are several that said that it's been 6 to 8 months that they hadn't paid so to them they feel if they're properly quipped and they're properly supported they could stand a good chance at standing up to the taliban if they were given that support right we'll leave it there for the time being but i do know if we thank you so much for joining us from kabul if you.

gaming arcades or for an alternative to playing online and often popular in many parts of japan many enthusiastic go there for the retro experience of meeting an actual human being and that unfortunately is the rub as we all know by now the pandemic has made such face to face contacts perilous that means many of the our kids are now at risk of being closed. it's a throwback to a golden age of gaming. video arcades like this are usually the stuff of eighty's nostalgia but in japan they're enjoying extended play. the mikado in tokyo is no legends cave a vintage games. among the rows of cabinets classic tartans like street fighter and gallagher a still going strong. it's a mecca for old school button mashes. you didn't have all the information we can play games online at home but one of the pleasures of coming to an arcade is to be

able to strike up a conversation with others to hear what they're thinking. or games if they can. but in the age of social distancing it could be finally game over for arcades and japan's mission see measures businesses have to shorten opening hours and adhere to strict hygiene rules and all that costs money but unlike bars and restaurants arcades aren't eligible for government assistance the mikado is manager knows he's facing an uphill battle over the what you are going to get i know i have to work hard to earn a living in these hard times but the pandemic is truly an extraordinary event. and the government is doing nothing to help us out of this hopeless situation. so i'm thinking about asking for support through crowd funding. for.

several arcades went bust following japan's 1st lockdown last year those remaining are now struggling to keep the doors open leaving a richer a game is in the cold. it's sad i've already lost one arcade that i used to go to and i've also lost contact with people that are used to play with. a lively and social place is now simply gone well you know but when you come up with. them a cargo is now adapting to keep itself afloat. even streaming matches on youtube to reach game is stuck at home in. a full video game arcades the pandemic is one last boss fight for survival. that's it for today there's more work so i did i. will even though with images to do with up top story today of understanding women as they contemplate the fate of their freedoms in

a future afghanistan respect more with the by. the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. has the rate of infection in developing what does the latest research say. information and context the coronavirus update 19 special. on t.w. . young german and jewish just one jewish son was what does that mean in daily life and at school. we shouldn't be

given a special status but being completely normal. 11 teenagers 11 stories hey i'm jewish and so. german and jewish starts feb 22nd on d. w. . new covariance on the making the buyers more transmissible there are pending efforts to can. infection rates. this month south africa council plans to give people the astra zeneca jab after finding it wasn't effective enough against the local variant. it was definitely disappointing here in. much lower than expected a ficus here astra zeneca vaccine. time is taking no one knows when and how when

you variance will affect transmission and whether the current back scenes will work . the u.k. is stepping up testing to stop virus variance from spreading up to 10 percent of positive tests are sent to labs for further genome analysis. in the global fight against 19 is mutations that are preventing the next great challenge and here in the u.k. authorities are taking that fight directly into people's homes. they're doing do to do the testing areas when he meets nations 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 tests to scream 2 mutations mean that when they all found authorities here

a cracking down hard it's things 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 toto the team of the u.k.'s pivotal team 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 in which 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 taishan so that's why professor peacock says genome sequencing needs to become a global priority without comprehensive international screening it's feared 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 he 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 beauties of be vaccine technologies or platforms that we're seeing. in the production of 19 back in the

very recent and lexapro 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 to the cats a man's game between thank scenes and variants. back julian tell who is a consultant they're all just at the leicester royal infirmary new mutations are called variants of concern how concerned are you. so. i'm not that concerned i think and actually need to adapt to these variants i think most people concerned because they may go transmissible so they may overwhelm the health care service for this new customization and there's also some fact in escape properties that some of them are showing maybe just the effects of the

current vaccine but there was sort of as we did of years of ok so no panic yet but what about the various variants tell us about the bristol liverpool variant the south african one. yes there is no can't be 117 did not have to for it for claim you've taken that seem to be conferring vaccine estate properties but now the $17.00 can bring to the choir the 4 it folk is now who are still variant but also the previously existing circulating strain from the original who hunt chinese variant has done quite well for 4 as well but. certification is not kind of infiltrating the u.k. so it'll be 2 viruses and then of course these $44.00 plays already present in south africa in very other brazilian variants seems to be a kind of global adaptation to the human host ok you're just breaking up a little there but i'm getting the gist of it what what is the data actually show

us about these variants. so erosion of the 117 can vary and seems the more transmissible there were some fact confounders and that they seem to be spending more quickly through what you keep up later and also in other places like australia for example and perhaps journey where you've got some cases the bristol a little too variance have come on top with that may wash as in fact escape properties. additional research on the region of the 17 variant suggests some. increased severity but there hasn't been separated from the normal winter seasonal effects of enhanced. what i think of it c.g. to pieces in conditions like hypertension diabetes heart disease etc so there is still some. doubt about the. true effect of the of clinical severity also that the original people on 7 vary they can vary may have

a wider spectrum of clinical symptoms compared to the previous cyclical strain and it may well be that it prevents more morwitz was pretty symptoms and less with things like loss of taste and smell but again this is ongoing the number still needs to be proven creased for we can be definitive this what about the effects of weather at the moment of cold weather and hospitalizations as well. yes that's why it's late in the season the winter cold may exacerbate a lot of the cable but it is that these patients present with and giving the impression that it is there it is more severe at this time so again this is the can vary the one certain variance. we have an update of the liverpool impressed the 1st to make a comment like this but the dates are so from the $17.00 temporary suggest will transmissibility and more severity the onus at least being hostile people to hospital wasn't hospital there's no increased mortality and the relative increase

in socal severity is about 30 to 70 percent compared to what it was in the previous original one tourney strain of the variant again that's subject to indoor crowding during winter and hence mortality mobility that you to these preexisting conditions during the cold winter months so i think it's not entirely certain yet but the straits really causing all this extra effects separate from the winter indoor crowding and the winter increased mobility mortality of those preexisting conditions and just really really briefly in which direction do things as kovi 2 ways actually evolving now. oh i think the same of ours is evolving to a more transmissible as the doctors trade with the ether at footscray and the additional meters to see what the also hurts as well as the south african brazilian variants and the fact that these for the full pay far toward influence of mutations occurring independently across the world different variants from different

countries suggest that these are the true. to the changes that we're seeing now not to the human population joleon tom thank you very much. for your questions now here's our science correspondent derrick williams. i've heard that like influenza sars cough too is destined to become endemic even with widespread global vaccination is that true this is another $1000000.00 question that no one get knows the answer to but increasingly it appears to be yes to understand why let's look at all the things that would have to happen to make the answer know instead in other words what would it take to put the genie back in the bottle and eradicate cope with 19 completely well as one w.h.o. official put it that's of a very high bar several factors were played key roles and whether or not we can even hope to do with one is the extent to which people are protected by

a natural infection and the vaccination we now know that getting sick with covert 1000 provides a protective shield for at least half a year or so but not a perfect one and people can get reinfected after time has passed which is is not a surprise as that happens with other coronaviruses too assuming reinfected people also in fact others which is a pretty good bad you end up in the long run with a circular fairly stable system. of a certain number of people regularly passing it along to a certain number of others whose immunity has lapsed it's endemic if vaccines can spur long lasting immune responses and and to help prevent transmission to things that we still don't really know yet then it would give us

a fighting chance of breaking the circle but but that would take moving fast with vaccination programs on or on a really nasa scale worldwide because we're also in a race against a new tating viral enemy with with new variants arising all the time and as long as the large numbers of people remain and vaccinated wherever they are they'll continue to provide a reservoir for the virus and also a space for it to evolve potentially turning progress we've made so far into a 2 steps forward one step back situation. before i ruin your day though please remember another important thing we can still end this pandemic even if sars co 2 does become endemic all that means is that once we have the situation at hand to some extent in the future we'll have to react quickly to help breaks

with effective control measures and we've been developing an arsenal of those for a year now. there could never my day thanks for watching stay safe and i'll see you again very soon here on d w a but. to

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sun question it think having gone up in brazil in the sun was always a man since the portuguese word for sun it's masculine when i moved to germany as a 10 year old. i want to come to him on t.v. that would change how i see the world because in germany the son of this family can . see him now but the sight of a good listener almost tyreese upon the table instead of a deep voice extroverted guy seems absolutely incredible. i realized how maine which shapes the thinking how definitions are not only a mental image just what our whole perception of the role. is inside save my life and was one of the reasons i became and joined in this i'm a storyteller and i use my words to help with intercultural understanding my name is eliminated and i worked it out between.

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this is data from. nato considers its future in afghanistan alliance defense ministers begin a 2 day virtual summit to defense side whether to continue the fight or withdraw their troops as taliban violence increases also on the program protesters in myanmar turned out for some of the biggest demonstrations yet calling into question the general.