i'm going. to subscribe to the local. town. the c.w. news live from berlin and the european union looks to step up coordination in the coronavirus crisis e.u. leaders are to hold online talks over vaccine production travel restrictions and emunah zation passports a year after the pandemic started what is the effectiveness of the e.u. approach already also coming to the syrian kurds appeal for international support

as the islamic state returns in northeast syria they say that the us withdrawal has left a dangerous vacuum and that they are being overwhelmed by the terrorist group and dave was kept from the public eye for more than a century the rediscovered vincent van gogh painting that is finally about to go up for auction. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program. european union leaders are meeting today to look at ways that they can improve their pandemic response the e.u. has been slow off the mark in the vaccination drive and you infection numbers are still stubbornly high in many countries now this map gives us an overview of the infections per $100000.00 in. habitants over the past 7 days and yellow as you can

see here are countries with fewer than 50 like finland for example the darker the orange that's the higher infection rate germany currently has an incidence rate of 61 sweden and the czech republic war then 200 now ahead of the e.u. meeting we take a look at the challenges that the bloc faces here's brussels correspondent max sander vaccines variance and freedom of movement about a year into the pen demick the block is struggling to keep up with recent developments as e.u. council presidential michel made clear in his invitation letter to this 2 day leaders conference it remains challenging due to the emergence of new variants and the need to strike the right balance between restrictions and the smooth flow of goods and services in the single market. the block has failed to coordinate its anti coronavirus measures with traffic piling up at some of its internal borders

like here between germany and the czech republic joins us now to dish guns and chided us with for us it is essential to make sure keeping the safety of her citizens in mind that the variance of the virus do not make it to germany. with member states acting on their own brussels has reacted with a slap on the wrist. the commission sent specific letters raising our concerns to 6 member states which are. denmark finland germany hungary and sweden who are currently applying stricter measures than what is provided for in the recommendation in particular bans on entering or leaving the country while targeted restrictive measures on non-essential travel are necessary in the eyes of the e.u. commission blanket bans like those applied here in belgium do not serve this purpose the virus taught us that closing borders does not stop it but

we see the disruptions with spring on its way another fight among european leaders is waiting to break out greece in an attempt to save its holiday season had suggested an e.u. wide vaccination certificate other member states like denmark and sweden have already begun developing their own passports with a bloc as a whole risking fragmentation on the matter but the biggest challenge of all is the rather slow rollout of the e.u. wide vaccination program production shortfalls and other stumbling blocks have left the e.u. trailing behind countries like the united kingdom and lead to growing impatience among its leaders. couple of not because the european commission should exploit the economic power of the e.u. to put pressure on the ledge huge corporations. from ramping up vaccine production to closer coordination a lot is on the table. and many europeans have spent the last months in lockdown but with falling infection rates many are hoping that restrictions will be eased in

november last year a new wave of corona virus infections started here in germany the number of infections peaked in late december in the u.k. at the beginning of january and in spain in late january and the numbers are still falling new mutations are threatening however to reverse that trend and the strategies to reopen after lock down also differ we have better get mass standing by in london julia south delhi in berlin nicole reeses with us in madrid we're getting perspective from across europe nicole i'm coming to you 1st in spain now it's opening up how worried are people about these new mutations of the virus and what impact that might have on daily life. well people here obviously are also very worried about the varieties and the health of flora he's only just announced that for example the that was detected in the u.k.

only a short the ago might already take up 20 percent of the cases and expecting to be this to be the that this dominant by march so quiet is written out look yet regency here in spain i slowly and cautiously opening up because they were shut down for weeks in generous spain saw a very sharp rise in cases which forced them physically to shut down this was after the christmas holiday and that the people obviously mingled and well bit relaxed and now numbers have come down again so the measures were we are at 218 cases in 100000 people in 2 weeks basically so that's a good outlook some regions coming down from around 1000 so it's huge progress but you have to take it so here meant for it now miss us still double so it's still a risk but the city has never really shut down to be honest restaurants that business open arsis well from some theater old within some measurements that were put in a number of people you could meet were obviously unlimited also the curfew was

a bit earlier for some time yet the city decided they wanted to still be allowed to earn some money and when you walk through the city right now you don't really feel as if this was a fanatic if it wasn't for the auditory mosque that everyone has to wear and this also worries obviously mehdi mehdi at the moment ok we're going over to julia now in berlin for the perspective there julie of the infections there were also dropping as we've heard from nicole in spain now they seem to be stagnating what does that mean for plans to reopen after a lockdown. well pressure has been growing from businesses and some politicians to go ahead with a reopening since we've germany has been under lockdown quite a strict lockdown i could say since mid december and a german chancellor unget american has already showed some openness to the idea of a slow and gradual reopening but she has warned reportedly that germany is

currently already in the 3rd wave of the coronavirus pandemic and that are too harsh and too hasty reopening could lead to going straight back into a lockdown very quickly and it's going to be hard to strike a balance between a gradual reopening and keeping the virus at bay especially looking at the case numbers which are slowly starting to tick up again and the virus variants all also pose a threat and germany is going to next week see the meeting between german chancellor i'm going to america and the 16 state premiers to try to find a way forward way forward which is likely to in crude include strengthening of testing especially with rapid tests being widely distributed across the country and improvement of the vaccine rollout these are 2 aspects that germany has been lagging compared to other european countries and that the country hopes to step up a bit in the coming weeks ok so

a lot of caution there in berlin there get your standing by in london the u.k. we don't has a clear reopening strategy tell us a little bit more about what might be able to be learned there. it does have a clear strategy the government seems to have learned from his mistakes because of course our you have to see this in the context that the u.k. has been hit incredibly hard by the pandemic over 120000 people have died from the virus and this has resulted in the quite severe lockdown in the quite depressing winter for many brits not much of the economy is opening at present and the the government has had to fight off a lot of criticism when it comes to handling the pandemic it was seen as chaotic there were a lot of mixed messages last year the economy opened up pretty much it seemed by wishful thinking and not not by strategies and as a result the u.k.

has been hit so incredibly hard but also the economy is amongst the ones in europe that's been that's been harvested so they haven't really achieved their. aim of having a buy a balance between opening the economy and keeping the virus that they now though everything is different the government has set out a new approach and it is much more cautious than what we have seen in the past starting with opening up of schools and after that there will be 5 weeks where scientists with the government have time to assess each each step so before anything else is being opened up gradually over the next months there will be 5 weeks where the government can also just put on the brakes if they see that the strategy isn't working however by the some of they're hoping that the u.k. economy will be open and provided that the vaccination strategy is

continuing to work and that the infection numbers are continuing to go down there could mass in london in chile in south delhi joining us from berlin nicole greece in madrid thank you so much to all of you. here's what's happening elsewhere in the pandemic a large study from israel indicates that the biotech pfizer vaccine works as well as in the real world as it did in clinical trials now the study published in the new england journal of medicine shows that the vaccine offers very high protection against covert 19. india has reported its highest number of cases in nearly a month more than half were reported in maharashtra state home of the financial capital mumbai and crowds who turn out to watch the olympic torch as it travels through japan will be asked to clap rather than cheer the runners carrying the flame organizers warned that the event could be suspended if too many people turn out along the relay route. here's

a check of some other international stories. students and doctors in myanmar's capital yangon are among thousands holding new protests against a military coup in the country and it's the latest in nearly 3 weeks of demonstrations since the army seized power also thursday facebook said that it has banned all accounts linked to the neon mar military citing the hunt is use of deadly force against demonstrators. at least 6 people are dead after a mudslide buried workers at an illegal gold mine in indonesia rescuers are searching for survivors in the mine which is located in a remote part of the island officials say. search efforts are being hampered by unstable soil conditions. in the u.s. state of texas residents continue to repair water damage following last week's extreme winter storm more than 1300000 texans are still facing water supply

problems later in the day managers of texas' power grid will be questions by state lawmakers over failures that led to blackouts affecting 4000000 residents. which are many and prime minister nicole paasschen yon has a fire the head of the country's armed forces and denounced what he called an attempted military coup after armenia's top military brass demanded his resignation aposhian has faced months of protests and calls to quit since armenian forces were defeated by azerbaijan in the conflict over the territory in a corner. of. the kurdish dominated administration in northeast syria is struggling to hold off a comeback of the so-called islamic state syria's kurdish forces were instrumental in taking back control of i.a.s. help territories now the militias fighters are regrouping in the region especially

around the town of darryl's or and in the al hall prison camp kurds say that they have been left to fend for themselves. with abdul hamid sits off for dinner as or fear travels with him. the 43 year old father depends on his job as a bus driver to support his family but he risks his life on every journey. every day they find 2 or 3 dead bodies here people being kidnapped killed and tossed aside. islamic state militants have been spreading fear with increasingly frequent attacks on the main road through northeastern syria they strike villages and towns especially at night. money from residents set off bombs and behead people. has already attacked us in the village killing residents driving them away they are causing us so much suffering we need help to

stop this disaster. but the leaders of the kurdish autonomous region are hopelessly overwhelmed thousands of fighters are said to have taken up residence in the vast desert the kurds lack aircraft and special equipment to track them down allies such as the us have withdrawn. the kurdish units are the only ones still fighting i-s. that's what we're experiencing here right now and we're suffering because of it. tens of thousands of supporters mostly women and children remain in. 250 kilometers to the north. after the terror groups defeated $29000.00 they were captured by kurdish fighters since then many have become further radicalized. coming back hopefully you hope it will come back yes where where exactly

what makes you think it will come back. victory is near. is now pulling the strings behind the scenes at the camp smuggling in weapons arming its followers kurdish control of the camp is in danger of slipping away. state in miniature has practically emerged here the religious police patrol the camp if men have non-permitted relationships with women cooperate with the security forces they are executed. in the villages of the province memories of the i.a.s. reign of terror are fresh in people's minds in heena women with whips and residents terrorized but even after liberation in 2017 militants struck again and again. suliman darwish was targeted for cooperating with the kurds in the local council

one night he heard gunshots and. my wife was arguing with an armed man in uniform another was 2 meters behind her in between my son was lying dead on the ground they killed him with 5 shots the most. genuine alone the so-called islamic state carried out more than 100 attacks in northeastern syria 40 commuters died recently in an attack on a bus people in the crisis torn region once again fear for their lives. and let's get more on this we are joined now by journalist and middle east expert kristen helper welcome to the program and thank you so much for joining us christian what is the presence of the so-called islamic state right now in north eastern syria. kristen can you hear me a pass we can see we wanted to speak with kristen alberich

a little bit more about the story that we're having some technical issues at the moment so we're going to move on and we're going to try and get her back on the program hopefully a little bit later in the meantime here in germany customs officers in the port of hamburg have seized a shipment of cocaine 600 tons of it reportedly the most ever taken in a single raid in europe the drugs were hidden in metal canisters shipped from paraguayan as part of the same investigation 7 tons of cocaine were also seized in belgium police have arrested a man suspected of importing the trucks. these canisters imported from were supposed to contain putty filler but instead they're stuffed with 16 tons of cocaine it would have sold for as much as 3500000000 euros. we were very surprised by the amount of after we opened the canister is we multiplied the number of canisters by 9 kilos and came up with this unimaginable

amount of 16 tons. another 7 tons were intercepted in the belgian port city of the owner of an import company in the netherlands has been arrested the find is the largest amount of cocaine that has ever been seized in europe politicians believe it's just the tip of the iceberg. billions can be made in the cocaine trade these illegal funds can easily flow into legitimate areas of the economy causing untold damage. organized crime only attracts the attention of politicians when people are lying dead on the streets or when there is campaigns against it normally it's under the radar and that makes it even more dangerous. to god as it were to experts are calling on politicians to hold a summit on drugs the security problem is huge and police and customs are poorly equipped to deal with that and we're going to go back now to the story that we were

talking about earlier on the so-called islamic state about the technical issues and i'm joined now by journalist and middle east expert kristen it's good to see you what is the presence of the islamic state in northeastern syria right now. actually we are talking about a very rough region eastern syria and western iraq consists mainly of desert the border region is very difficult to control because we have tribal networks of both sides of the border 'd and isis has never really left the region test just gone underground it's a perfect hiding place for them and we can say that they are almost 10000 isis fighters still in hiding there who ever escaped couldst imprisonment whatever so vive the international international force of attacks went into hiding there and we see as this in nations and bomb attacks on a very regular. yes very regularly there are almost $100.00 attacks

a month in syria the same number in iraq these are a takes a look at population and there are ongoing clashes with the regime forces unit regime forces and even with the russian air force there and we saw you know some examples in that report that we saw earlier you know of the all hall prison camp for example you know which which is a controlled area how are they gaining traction there for example. i mean and hole is like a small city there are 60000 people living there and i mean these are people from syria these are people from iraq these are foreigners and there's a big difference between them because the most radical ones obviously other foreign us which is very interesting because they really came to the isis kalif it out of conviction so these are the women who are trying to reinstall on religious police sharia courts they are brainwashing the children they are really being dangerous so the kurds are trying to solve this problem by doing 3 things in the 1st step they

want to let the syrian national street because most of them really joint isis out of convenience personal gains they regret they have kind of turned their back to this ideology so they can register and go back to their hometown villages the 2nd step would be to convince the iraqi government to take their own nationals in and then in the 3rd step they would try to do you ready calliope's and rehabilitate these foreigners and the families of these former isis fighters and they're obviously kurdish fighters the kurdish autonomous region needs the help of the international community how optimistic are you that that all of those steps will be able to be executed in a way that will make a meaningful difference. i'm very pessimistic because until now the international community really has lent down to kurdish forces this is exactly what they feel it was the syrian democratic forces the kurdish forces the troll isis on the ground they still deal with several thousands of hardcore fighters in their prisons among

them several 100 foreign fighters europeans that no country in the world is willing to take back again the former bush. administration has withdrawn u.s. forces there are only $900.00 american soldiers left in the region and the rift draw in 200-1000 led to the turkish invasion and turkish attack in the north of the region so the really the currents really try to at the same time fight off to work as a texan in the north wind at the same time taking care of these isis fighters and this is obviously a situation that is overwhelming for them journalist and middle east expert kristen helper thank you so much for joining us to share that expertise fight for change of pace now we're heading to sports champions league football briefly and to manchester city be one to say yes i had lunch and bach to a nail in the round of 16 but nardo silva opened up the scoring for city in the 29th minute and gabriele his zeus scored their 2nd it midway through the 2nd half

also weigh on the dread debate a talent of bag imo one nail. had laid a man down most of the match but it took real madrid until the final minutes to score the game's only goal. police in los angeles confirm that there will be no criminal charges filed against all thing great tiger woods over tuesday's car crash police say that the rollover remains an accident and an accident is not a crime. was also not on drugs or alcohol the 45 year olds had to undergo emergency surgery after suffering injuries to his legs and woods most recent sporting success came at the masters tournament in 2019 but the icons future career means in doubt after crush. a painting by dutch artist vincent van gogh is to be shown to the public for the

1st time after spending more than a century in a private collection the late 19th century artwork will go on display for a month before being sold off it's expected to fetch many millions it's titled a street scene in moma it's part of a serious fund produced between 19861988 when living in paris with his brother taylor the work is one of the artists very few that have not yet landed in a museum for. this work by vincent van gogh is their real discovery in the sense that although he has been listed in the catalogs devoted to the artist it has never appeared on the market since it was acquired by a french family more than a century ago. the painting depicts a couple's room on dick stroll in the streets of. at the time the healy perry's

a neighborhood was becoming home to another raid of international artists attracted by its bohemian vibe and cheap rent including himself. the one yes it's a very interesting testimony of what looked like at the end of the 19th century when it was still very bucolic we can see the mills of the moon and then i get a place of leisure very appreciated by parisians at the time you know. the painting will go on display in amsterdam hong kong and paris before being sold off to a new home option household to be's estimates its value between 5 and 8000000 euros . the amount at the continues it's spectacular eruptions of red lava lighting up the sky above the italian island of sicily europe's most active volcano started abruptly last tuesday and has been belching lava ash and volcanic rocks for over a week italian authorities say that it poses no danger to the surrounding villages

but the nearby airport has been closed temporarily. up to date now on data via news coming up brussels has its sights on improving working conditions at big tech companies will have all of those stories and a whole lot more so do stay with us if you can there's always more on our web site www dot com and you can follow us on social media i'm sorry kelly in berlin thanks for watching.

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migrants perseverance here in the freezing cold like as mina herself along with many fellow volunteers is coming under pressure. from consuming europe. in 60 minutes on t.w. . they were forced into a nameless mass. their bodies and their tools. the history of the slave trade is of africa's history. describes how the greed for power and for profit plummeted and entire continent into chaos and violence a slave system created the greatest player accumulation of wealth the world had ever seen up to that moment in time. from its very beginning until this

very day human tragedy has shaped the law. this is the journey back into the history of slavery i think will truly. making progress when we all accept newsgroups we've read as all of our history. our documentary series slavery routes starts march 10th on t w. brussels takes a in of the gig economy the european commission launches a public consultation into the rights of casual workers we talked to the condition of jobs and social rights also coming up how the chips became the oil of the digital age and they'll do it takes a look at to the global semiconductor. lowball come to the business i want to get

johnson villain good to have you with us of brussels is taking on the big.