coronado came for an operation on his foot some years ago on its website the hospital says its proud to be continuing all of its normal services despite the funds and those services cover a wide range from 10 such treatments to cost metric surgery not only that in its latest annual report but it says it will continue to focus on profitability despite the pandemic the hospital isn't providing the intensive care unit fun nothing the portuguese government is paid. the operating company behind the hospital is in the hands of a chinese congo marriage we asked the health ministry representative who was paying for want. there's an agreement with a private hospital yes to have the patients here so you have to pay the creditor for money that's or the person has because we are using the services the hospital did not want to speak with us offering a statement instead it. sounded group considering the critical stage that portugal

is going through does not intend to benefit financially from the situation but above all to help the country chinese congress its own many host companies in portugal a trend that where reason number one focus service louis bardo as an investigative journalist found out that in the 1st 6 months of the pun demick the portuguese government paid to the loose i would group around $14000000.00 euros for covert 900 services it's interesting to see that these 3 biggest. companies 3 companies the most amount of money. obviously connection share. news was really at a key role. although all the parties government and will depend i mean do you think this will increase europe's and in part a growth dependency on china i think he said in base as europeans we should.

they are just 26 military medics sent from one european country to another but they work of us a glimpse of a new reality that reality is of e.u. countries relying on a hospital owned by chinese companies as part of the all for profit business. all right save want to turn now to philip per your she's a researcher with the china focus think tanks and office and prague and has written extensively about chinese influence in europe a good day sir we just there saw an example of a chinese investment in an elaborate state that is raising a certain questions why does it matter that chinese companies have invested in infrastructure in europe why is that problematic well the problems we can see now in australia are basically it's clear that china has this priest friend centralised strategy of weaponize ing and politicizing anything that is economy and business cooperation and using this dependency as

a weapon to achieve political goals which for the chinese communist party politics is 1st business is 2nd so it's creating lots of dependencies the can then be turned into a weapon against against those infrastructures and the people behind it but i mean does it always have to be nefarious intentions can't it just be direct investment. of course i mean it's not that every single contingent of us been is somehow in the fire's plan but the problem is that when push comes to shove the party can actually make anything that 10 years ago was not a problematic issue into a tool of politics and this can include even for example these medical services now as you know a couple of months ago the european union and china agreed a land mark deal that has been the recipient of christian criticism by the new u.s.

administration. in terms i mean the e.u. is in kind of a bad and in a bind it has to start this delicate balance between you know keeping the us happy keeping china happy because while they need both of them it is true but i feel on the part of the europeans we don't see that china also needs us and china is actually in a more in need of europe right now during its trait was a war with the u.s. and this is why china has actually pushed for this deal whilst it seems that europeans haven't really gotten anything out of it as far as we can say there's lots of concessions or issues that we don't talk about in exchange for promises that china made 20 years ago when i joined the w it's your promising to open its market to free use basically by foreign companies which is sort of happening 20 years now and they're breaking the same promise ok

now the covert of course that we're still going through the pandemic what effect has that had on chinese on china's rather global influence. i thing in the global perspective it's probably in the end at least in recent months been improving because china is basically seen as a competent government a company country that actually tackled its in a rational manner when compared to the west but at the same time there's lots of i would say. resilient sort of a lot of negative opinion still lingering especially in western countries that have now become more aware of the dependency on china and basically in western countries they're still narratives about how china in the beginning did not actually handle the pandemic which is true but to be fair for example when you look in africa or latin america a you see the positive outcome the sort of china being the the responsible rational

player that is tackling the pandemic and helping others through mass diplomacy so it basically depends on where you look right so if you're a show researcher with a china focus think tank synopsis and prague thank you for joining us. thank you very much as speaking of vaccines israel's vaccine rollout has been one of the most successful in the world more than 80 percent of those eligible have now or sieved at least one shot and that's allowed israel to start we opening its economy many shops as services are back in business again but they're not open to everyone some only allow customers who are fully vaccinated with a so-called green pass that have used tiny crime reports. since september classes at this television studio have been held online because of the pandemic now people can attend again and person but only those who hold a green pass the kindness issued by israel's ministry of hers is given only to

vaccinated people or those recovered from cold at 90 so it's an amazing feeling and everyone needs a vaccine a did so there's no fear and it feels slight and parallelly. are broadcasting the classes that are taking place here we are broadcasting them for people who still did not vaccinate on sunday is rare for the east restrictions after prolonged lockdown most museums and stores have been opened for me but gyms close cultural and sports events will be made accessible to cream pass holders of over $4000000.00 people have received at least the 1st try and take pfizer's israel is one of the 1st countries trying to get life back to normal opening up has also opened a debate over a variety of legal and moral questions of limiting personal liberties as there are

someone not rushing to get the vaccine we are limiting few people and i believe this is balance we are not doing that for good you can really enjoy a cultural life you will enjoy those balls you will enjoy. no you know going to the gym but in this time only temporary base on the shoulder we will let only people being vaccinated all the coverage for corona to have the green posts it remains unclear where the international travel could also building to the green house for now israel's bengalee an app poetry remain closed for another 2 weeks to keep barris variants at bay travelling is not yet on the mind of this group or film term friends and to loosen them 3 aged between $84.95 they had to play that favorite chinese board game on line for the cost after their vaccinations

they feel safe again to meet. i feel like at this point i am sorry i mean just to be able to talk to people you know it's a wonderful very nice to see everybody's ok and remained pretty healthy throughout the year but very lonely and. it really is a wonderful feeling it's a 1st but cautious step back to some kind of snow man a team. here and as some are returning it to some form of normality in israel devastating news coming out of the united states it has marked another somber milestone in the coronavirus pandemic more than half a 1000000 people there have now died as a direct result of covert 900 but overall daily case numbers and coronavirus related deaths are continuing on a downward trend still u.s. president joe biden urged americans to remain vigilant as he led an emotional

commemoration for those who have lost their lives just over a year since the pandemic claimed its 1st known victim in the u.s. . asunder president joe biden and the 1st lady commemorated the 500000 victims of the pandemic on the lawns of the white house along with vice president come in the house and a husband they called on the nation not to forget the individual stories behind the numbers. that's more americans who died in one years pandemic. than a world war one. ward to the vietnam war combined as more lives lost to this virus in any other nation on earth the president has ordered flags to fly at half mast for 5 days across the country. according to the chief medical advisor to the white house the previous administration is partly responsible for the high death toll in the country but i

don't think kids you know all donald trump all this or all that it's a combination of things and certainly the lack of involvement at the very very top of the leadership president biden has made the fight against the virus a priority the good news is that the number of infections is falling but the fear of yet another wave is growing due to the new variant of the virus. right dr eric cycled ng and joins us now from washington he is an epidemiologist and a senior fellow with the federation of american scientists or thank you for taking out the time to speak to us we greatly appreciate it i mean it is an unthinkable number 500000 people who have died as a direct consequence of covert 191 of the highest death tolls for capital in the world where did it all go wrong. it is such

a sobering number and we we knew that this virus was going to be your pen turmeric and we are the white house will mourn as early as late january and february you know we do not take action we do not have extensive testing we do not order p.p. ease off for all we do not invoke defense production acts for writing of things and we downplayed it we made it a political war a political football in which. the defense production acts for writing of things and we downplayed it we needed a political war a political football in which some people didn't think it's a hoax that they don't believe in mass and now some of the same people don't believe her back scenes and this is how you lose a pandemic by downplaying it ignoring its minimizing it in the hope of sitting on your hands while the while the world burns and now we are living the consequence

and we're trying to turn around the titanic but it's not an easy job right but you're trying to turn the corner the u.s. leading in terms of vaccinations one of the countries in the world leading a vaccinations are at 13 percent of people they're receiving or have received their 1st shot is that changing things on the ground what you're seeing. it is in certain degree but you know we're not at israel level of vaccinations yet and in addition oftentimes that will go back to the backs nations it's not fast enough and we're approaching 2000000 a day but because of the more factious variant which is 50 percent more in fact we need to get at least 3000000 preferably if we're 5000000 people that's needed a day to stay up ahead of it is just that much of a race against time right now we're not a lot because if you want 17000000 has not grown now much but the vaccination rates still muser pick up tremendously and i cannot stress enough because right now you

have a lot of willing people but as you get further for the law there's no me. we're going to run into more headwinds of people taking the vaccine so we need a lot of communication coronation and mass mobilization in conclusion dr how do you see the situation involving the united states. i think the keys will drop for another of few weeks but i'm really worried about the surgeon variants in the combination complacency and now the more we vaccinate the worry is that once we got there will be a push through reopen all businesses reopen all schools without adequate safety measures for schools to stop future spread and i think trigger another surgeon probably or maybe and that is my biggest worry so we need to stay vigilant dr erica fable it's being at the knowledge just and a senior fellow with the federation of american scientists or thank you very much.

let's start out to some of the other stories making news this hour. one of 3 men accused of assassinating maltese investigative journalist daphne karr want to go as pleaded guilty in court he admitted all the charges against him are want to go he said died in a car bomb attack in twin 70 she'd been exposing corruption in the country's political business. canadia is a part parliament has passed a non-binding motion saying that china's treatment of weaker muslims. amounts to genocide by mr just introduce his cabinet abstained from the vote china has condemned and reject at the motion. memoirs military regime is facing growing pressure both at home and abroad 3 weeks after it seized power the european union has warned that is preparing sanctions and the u.s. says penalized 2 more generous protests continue to swell the spite the killing of

at least 3 demonstrators. hong kong is introducing new legislation to ensure that any one seen as being disloyal to beijing is barred from elected office chief executive carrie lam has given her support to the reform which will require local councillors to pledge allegiance to hong kong status as part of china violators will face an election battle following mass protests and the introduction of a sweeping national security bill last year opposition forces in hong kong have increasingly been silenced. let's get you more on these developments said you know we use a correspondent phoebe kang is joining us now from the territory phoebe tell us what's behind this new wood draft bill that the hong kong government has announced . the home government has announced a new piece of legislation that will we fly over this to counselors to plaster

legions to the cities many constitution so anyone who fails to to express loyalty to the coast duration will be unseated and put up banned from running for elections in 5 years so our behavior is defined 5 as unloyal including endangering national security denying sovereignty of china sovereignty over hong kong including is power and the controversial national security in our but also simply the utah government's bill are or indiscriminately or insulting the national anthem could be deemed as a lawyer and the speech and the behaviors for the passage of the new legislation will also be taken into account when the councillors take the oath in the future what does this mean c.v. for hong kong's residents. well it really concerns many citizens

and especially the opposition came under ground because the definition up of the teachers could be fake sweeping and changeable over time depending on the authorities political agenda and baiting beijing is now setting new rules new route lines to only allow to dos loyal to beijing to serve in public office as they are changing the game rules fundamentally now in hong kong and so we can expect. this qualification of opposition councillors as many of them were not being to meet their will they require ments of loyalty according to beijing standards that they have to pledge allegiance to the coast and in other words a little as to the china's communist party as well when will these new requirements come into force. what a new bill will be tabled to the hong kong is that just a chair in mid march and it is expected to be passed in this shop pier of time

because there is no opposition now and that's just a check and this bill just comes a day after beijing's top top official and now is saying beijing's plan to reform the whole electoral system in hong kong saying that they were only allowed what they call patriots to run hong kong and whole culture if accepted carry them has already expressed support in these kind of freeform despite the fact that the home government did have a role in the political reform in hong kong but now hong kong government is cooperating with beijing and i mean the new rules only believed to be the 1st step of a serious off a caress reform in the upcoming future t.v. kong thank you so much for your continued coverage from hong kong facebook says it will reinstate access to australian news pages in the coming days after reaching a compromise with the government facebook you might remember blocked the pages

after the government unveiled new legislation requiring tech giants to pay news outlets for content social media companies have been fiercely opposed to the law they say it would create an international precedent similar legislation has been considered in other countries in the compromise australia will not penalize facebook if the company reaches some deals with local media now take a listen to what the australian government had to say about this or facebook has refrained of a strike. and a stray in news will be restored to the facebook platform and facebook has committed to entering into good faith negotiations with the strain news media businesses in seeking to reach agreements to pay for content. that their reaction from the australian government i'm not sure i did have you report a problem fully ileus who is tracking this story for you pablo how did facebook and yes really government and up here. well essentially this proposed

legislation in a strain which would force platforms like facebook and google to basically compensate publishers for the content that they use on their platforms now facebook could claim that in fact they don't make much of a profit over the content that these publishers at have on their platforms have but they're saying at the opposite publishers are saying that they do and they also have said and critics have been saying to in fact there was a lot of lobbying going on ad by the news corp which is owned by rupert murdoch they're the owner of that the majority of newspapers in astray so there was an interest for them for this legislation to be passed as well in a strange and facebook essentially said that it was being forced to negotiate terms that would be unfair for them and would be more biased in favor of

publishers in australia so essentially they got to the point where they said right now we're going to pull the plug on their content being used on our platforms and how what impact it facebook's decision to pull the plug have. what was actually really interesting if you look at how the content fell. or the. number of clicks that went from facebook to a lot of these publishers a mystery in fact in the 24 hours after the overall traffic to astray the new site fell quite dramatically and facebook's fault alone because they were saying that they were actually helping these publishers by having their content on their platforms it actually then subsequently led people to go to their ad their web sites and it appears that by these numbers it sort of is backed up so the problem really in many respects now that many are asking is do the publishers need facebook

more than facebook needs to publishers 22nd so where does it go from here well essentially everybody across the world is looking closely at whether other countries are going to introduce similar legislation there is talk that for example in the u.k. canada and possibly even here in the european union we could have legislation similar to this one that's being proposed in australia to be continued publicly at least reporting thank you. sports for you now champions league football and by munich will play their 1st competitive match ever against italian side last c.e.o. in the round of 16 on tuesday night well coach hans blix of bahrain are the champions league title holders but have failed to win their last 2 games in the bundesliga players missing due to kovan 1000 has left the squad stretched thin and by and will have to rediscover their good form in order to find success in rome

tonight. snow and ice have been causing serious suffering for parts of the united states in recent days but the big freeze can also bring great beauty parts of the famous niagara falls froze over creating huge abstract ice formations as the main current rush down the fall span the border between canada and the united states vertical drop of get this more than 50 meters. or just up next kick off with all the highlights from the one to sleep on way about iraq on behalf of the attorneys who thank you so much for spending this part of your day with us we'll be back to the world headlines of the any of those you.

kick off. frank rich are making the leap. exciting again the team of the alabama can stand. chasers are in hot pursuit might say climb the tables or close in on them but their. most borg are right on target after a victory and be left out because. they were forced into a nameless mass of. their bodies near tools in. the history of the slave trade is africa's history. it describes how the clique for

power entropic plummeted an entire continent into chaos and violence. the slave system created the greatest planned accumulation of wealth a world had ever seen up to that moment in time this is the journey back into the history of slavery. i think will truly be making progress when we all accept the history of slavery as all of our history. our documentary series slavery routes starts march 10th on t w.