this is d.w. news live from berlin the standoff in myanmar escalates security forces are using live ammunition and tear gas to try to end the protests against the military seems sure of power but the demonstrators show no signs of backing down also coming up. germany's coronavirus dilemma pressure to relax restrictions is growing both but health experts say doing so will lead to more infections and dance and then more restrictions. and another 3 female media workers murdered anyone

afghanistan why are militants targeting women journalists and what of anything is the government doing to protect them. on pablo foley s welcome to the program. reports are coming in from myanmar at least 2 people have been shot dead at a pro-democracy demonstration it comes as protesters show no signs of backing down amid the ongoing crackdown by security forces police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse protesters who's being on the streets every day since the military seized power over a month ago demonstrations are taking place around the country and strikes are planned in at least one state diplomatic efforts to ease the crisis. stuart on

tuesday countries fail to make a breakthrough in talks with me on mars military. well we're joined now by journalist a min tant who's in yangon hi a well it's clear that protesting has become more dangerous how has that actually affected the movement so the street protests are definitely getting more dangerous and that means that there are fewer people out on the streets so you know earlier just walking around reading around town. the structure of the that struck me that you know there's parts of the city in you know normal you know who are tea shops to go out shopping doing their business and there are parts of the city that look like a war zone and so we've really shifted away from what we saw earlier protests you know kind of entire neighborhoods down the street thinking walking example speeches things like that into very concrete on the street locations where there are

barricades and standoff with police where sometimes you do see that things like water cannons and tear gas and bullets being shot. friday well we saw that in neighboring countries. there was a call for restraint on tuesday but they fail to go actually any further what does that mean for me on mars military into. i think the military is definitely looking at c.n.n. as well as countries like china and russia to see how far they can push what they're doing. because it does do a lot of trade with neighboring countries a lot of the country is agricultural and the country if you believe their lives on that cultural exports they're really looking to see if neighboring countries will sanction them and cause them to him to continue running the economy and make money . and i think we saw something yesterday where our military actually made an announcement telling security forces not to use live ammunition and the mirror

military has in the past since they scapegoated individual soldiers or police as bad apples in order to say that you know the leadership was in order this was something that people have to brown know what we're doing. and you know it's all it's always been the sort of cover for their actions right well meanwhile there's a brewing in the united nations in new york over at the bus or to the u.n. tell us more about it. so currently there are 2 people behind for it the gentleman position as ambassador there is the you and i asked are going to be appointed by the end of the government which you know has not really been replaced yet at least from the u.s. perspective the u.n. has not recognized a new. memoir since the coup happened on the day that the new government was in most form after the 2020 election and a half point and a 2nd ambassador and so now the u.n.

essentially has the side which government of myanmar they will legitimize and. all right well a min. germany's state and federal leaders are meeting today to decide whether to extend or loosen the country's coronavirus lock down until now germans have supported chancellor angela merkel's cautious approach but opinion polls now indicate that the mood is changing despite warnings from medical experts. to how much longer that is the question many are asking at the moment and knocked down that began in early november is dragging on and many germans are growing increasingly tired of it. and that if you're on it i'm really hoping for the easing of some restrictions that we get to see something other than closed shops and restaurants so yes i do hope we're going to open up a bit now there's been obviously i'm unemployed and i can't do anything i can't

work anywhere and nothing so i just sit around at home. for the past there's got to be some kind of prospect that some things are going to be possible again soon. and latest poll shows that a clear majority of germans now want to see lockdown measures eased the past 2 weeks have seen some tentative steps in that direction primary school children have returned to some classroom teaching and on monday headdresses were allowed to reopen. still there doesn't seem to be much light at the end of the tunnel vaccinations in germany are moving at a sluggish pace and infection rates are inching up again fuelled by more contagious variants of the virus. loosening restrictions now is dangerous experts are warning . if we open up right now just everything so normal life as before we would risk a massive 3rd wave that the speed of infection is really taking up and we seeing

a high number of infections in the next weeks and with the consequence of people getting sick people needing to go to the hospital and people risking their lives. german chancellor angela merkel has so far listen to scientists and taken a very cautious approach to the pandemic but now pressure on her is growing to prevent germans from losing patience she might have to be ready for some compromise as she heads into the latest meeting to determine germany's next moves in the pandemic well i'm joined now by a professor dr andrew all manner of germany's business friendly free democratic party is a spokesperson for the german parliament's health committee and an infectious disease specialist. professor dr allman and welcome to the program now i want to get straight to it how do you want germany to move forward. i think that that

question is very easy i want to have that our country has an opening perspective we need to understand that a pandemic crisis is real and that virus can cause severe disease and even death however we need to understand that everybody wants to have some kind of normality back in their lives and their social lives and therefore it's important to understand what the rules are to prevent disease so that we could see only open up more stores open up the social life with restrictions of course with precautions that it's important that's also a responsibility that we have to be cautious what we're doing and we're not talking about a radical opening that is not possible but locally we could do these things all right so not a radical opening but definitely a loosening so many respected scientists are saying loosening measures now is a very bad idea now for german politicians including your party is it a case of our electorate is tired of the pond to make but we don't know how to end

it so we're declaring it over. i don't think so that's that's all you should do politics and on the other side like to mention that there are a lot of scientists that have different opinions as well there is not one opinion that all scientists agree on that is doesn't really work in the scientific world because we usually have a lot of different opinions how to do things however when we see that in one region the incidence rate is severely low as sincerely low like around 10 per 100000 inhabitants per week compared to other areas where there are over $200.00 then is not correct to do the same measures in both areas so that's our perspective that we want to have a step by step opening not by a timeline but by certain parameters that are available of the pedantic so that people have a perspective and the other thing that really is. motivating for the people is that

we were always promised once we reach the number of 5400 tells 1000 per week then we could do regional openings all of a sudden now the new numbers 35 and this kind of changing of parameters without real logic behind it or no sometimes scientific proof is bothering the motivating and this is the last thing that is helpful in a pandemic when the people get demotivated not to follow the rules right well you were mentioning there has some areas have low numbers in other areas have high numbers but we also know the very quickly those numbers can change and there are fears that the hospitals could soon be filled with sets a younger patients and possibly even be overwhelmed and would your party take responsibility if that because of the recommendations we found ourselves in a situation where the hospitals were overwhelmed again. the question really is do we want to live with german ngs or german newt and this. or being

willing to be more. to look at things a different way because what we're doing right now is a lockdown which is a sign of an emergency brake or helplessness but we do understand the condemning a little bit better we do understand what arizona mean and we do understand what drop the precautions mean and we do understand that mask medical nascar very important and we are not part of you saying no we these rules do not count we understand that very well over party wants to actually show the route how to do this better than say we for a lockdown and of course if there is a high incidence in your region we have to go into a lockdown but the numbers the real life data show something else the number of people on the i see it with covert 19 has dropped by 50 percent. professor dr drew allman of germany's business friendly free democratic party thanks for joining us

thank you for having me. well meanwhile in the united states president joe biden says there'll be enough coronavirus vaccines to immunize all adults by the end of my thoughts 2 months earlier than and michigan forecast now many states are announcing plans to ease restrictions even as health experts continue to warn of the danger of new variants texas is already aiming to return to an almost preplanned demick normal as early as next week including lifting the state's mask on date. one shot and the worry is gone several states have begun rolling out the single dose johnson and johnson vaccine the 3rd now approved in the country with the world's worst coronavirus death toll. all i've been saying is go do it because it just takes so much pressure off of you worrying about you getting. more whole thing to biden administration is now asking states to prioritize vaccinating teachers in hopes of reopening schools quickly but the

president says it will be some time before the pandemic is over why do i think that you're back to the caution given the action that because you don't know for sure but my hope is by this time next year we're going to be back to normal but one very big city is pushing to reopen a lot sooner texas governor wants to put an end to the pandemics economic damage. but fact of next wednesday all businesses of any type. are allowed to open 100 percent also i mean in doing this stay wide mask mandate. one houston restaurant owner welcome to the news but said most customers supported keeping the existing safety measures. we have all of our tables spread apart. a certain distance which makes them feel comfortable and everyone

likes the idea that we require people to wear a mast tux this isn't the only state easing restrictions in spite of health experts warnings about new variants spreading. governments will be watching closely to see what happens as more of the u.s. reopens. well now to some other stories making news around the world and the u.s. state of kentucky a state of emergency has been declared historic rainfall it's water waterways flooded homes and left roads impassable the kentucky national guard has been called in to assist some cities will remain under curfew until wednesday. f.b.i. director chris ray has told us lawmakers there's no evidence to support a right wing theory that the siege on the capitol building was carried out by people posing as trump supporters he described the events of january 6th as domestic terrorism and 5 to hold the rioters accountable. the european union and

the united states have placed new sanctions on russian officials and companies connected to the poisoning and imprisonment of kremlin critic alexei navalny washington says its intelligence found that moscow was behind these poisoning with a nerve agent last august russia's ministry of foreign affairs says it will retaliate against the sanctions. work. well the so-called islamic state has claimed responsibility for killing 3 young female media workers in afghanistan the women worked for a local afghan radio and t.v. station in the city of jalalabad burials are being held today the women were recent high school graduates and were shot on their way home in 2 separate attacks they were working for the dubbing department of the media companies the broadcaster says 4 of 10 women working for the station have now been killed since it began in 2018 it's the latest in a string of attacks targeting female professionals in afghanistan well let's bring

in correspondent in kabul hi ali now what do we know about the background of these attacks. so what we have to keep in mind is just the t.v. station that said that it's been 4 of their female staff to have been killed since 2018 it's actually now. actually all 4 were killed in the last few months the previous incident was in december where television journalist another young woman from the same t.v. station was killed in the same city in the same sort of. way by a motorcycle attack by gunmen on a motorcycle so it's really become all too common you know just in the last 3 months this has happened now twice in the same city so you've mentioned that there we've already we've seen you know several such attacks now why are they being targeted. you know the exact reason isn't

clear but i was with another female journalist about a couple months ago and she was talking about how she had received information that there were women that were allegedly working for the so-called islamic state who entire purpose was to find well known female journalists and activists and info and media influencers and things like that and allure them in and basically lure them into their death so this has been something that's been around for a while and she actually said that she got that information from the intelligence agency of afghanistan so this is really nothing new in that sense right so if it's been happening and there is this information want to government doing to protect them nothing really. there's no. as far as i know there's nothing special that the government or media that

journalists or media outlets are being given to help protect them if anything they may be allowed to have more guns or guards or something like that but there's no actual. movement and the most important thing is that there's always very few answers in these cases when these things happen it gets a lot of attention the government will be quick to condemn it but then investigations investigations are promised but the actual results of those investigations are rarely if ever made public so the people of the country who are shocked by these attacks often don't even understand why these why these attacks are happening who they're being carried out by how they were plotted how they were planned there is really no follow up besides just a rote condemnation. correspondent in kabul thanks for that update thank you. around $25000.00 african migrants arrived on the canary islands off the

northwest coast of africa last year the spanish archipelago has become the european union's new migration hotspot many refugees have already traveled from there to maine then spain and other e.u. countries but the spanish government is cracking down hard in an effort to prevent this some locals are sounding the alarm they fear that the islands could become a prison for refugees our correspondent philip schultz reports from ground 0. this spot just up and just friends began then you life 4 months ago they had been at sea for 7 days traveling 1300 kilometers from their home and sinegal to get on. just of the spanish coast a rescue ship took them on board and brought them here to the part of our guinea guinea in the south of the island. has happened since then i have no work i have nothing to do i just eat and sleep that's not what i came here for we comes to

anything for our families in senegal like sending them some money for food for example 23000 refugees arrived in the canary islands last year 10 times more than in previous years they are accommodation in hotels and makeshift camps however the spanish government is working hard to prevent the refugees from traveling from the islands to the mainland it fears this could create a new unchecked escape kori door to europe it's a clear violation of spanish law according to refugee law done yet i haven't seen anything. that's in spain the rights to freedom of movement within the country is classified very high you can only detain someone if a judge has ordered that if a person is not in custody they can just be detained by the awful richie's. and that the islands have a long reach the sexual ration point videos of protests and clashes between locals

and refugees more and more on social media. and just friends for goodness protests regularly they normally work as a way to get the moment they are unemployed to the crisis. as larry important to us to make clear that we are concerned about the end action of our government and how illegal migration has been mismanaged we are not racists we have been living here on the. island for many years with people from many different countries and cultures and 180 per cent often cannot be as inhabitants lived directly or indirectly from tourism in addition to the refugee crisis they are also affected by the worst economic slump in the last few decades due to the pandemic unemployed island us angry at the lack of support for them and frustrated migrants who perceive the island as a prison they are desperate to leave the situation on the canary islands is becoming increasingly tense local politicians are urging the government in madrid

to finally start moving some of the migrants off the islands to the mainland islands or mainland it doesn't matter to him i do job and his friends a job in europe is all they want but their chances don't look good despite the corona crisis spain has started deporting people with no official groans was silent the measure which is said should be expanded in the next few months. the youngest person to plead guilty to rioting during pro-democracy demonstrations in hong kong has been sentenced to a detention center the correctional facility is an alternative to prison for young people the protester was 14 years old at the time of his arrest during demonstrations in november of 2019 he admitted to throwing a petrol bomb towards police in a tense late night standoff the courts convicted him of writing and arson the identity of the protester hasn't been released because of his age.

well phoebe wang followed the court ruling and explains what the sentence could mean for hong kong's democracy movement. the sentence is slightly softer than expected the teenage defendant who was arrested at the age of 14 was the 1st to plead guilty to writing charges doing $2900.00 protest today's ruling also made him the 1st to afford imprisonment nevertheless the judgment itself doesn't favor its intent of protest saying it is and the scepter pole to achieve justice by follow it into law so therefore it's not expected to be huge we are stories for other teenage protesters as many more being contracted and sentenced to jail and they are also losing confidence even to destroy under the current repressing words of hope climate. last years berlin film festival took place just days before the coronavirus pandemic overwhelmed europe this year. has gone online and despite the

lack of glitz and glamour of the program still has plenty of thought provoking films here's a look at just a few. yes . the film who we were opens with those words how will humanity be remembered in the future. director mark bowden meet 6 thinkers with special expertise like astronaut alexander gast they each share their perspectives from the bottom of the ocean from outer space africa for a buddhist monastery. we lived too long in isolation in a disciplined ation of our problems we all sought orders you were caught european contacts as an african context but to understand that everything going on right now

is connected to other questions out of people out of settings i think this is an important angle. can the earth be saved the film showcases potential solutions a complete change of direction would be sensible continued over exploitation and unmitigated growth would certainly spell our hand. to meet these people in the film. it was such a mind opener to see you you don't have to wait until something changes you can do it by yourself and then you meet r.s. and then you meet again others and does this like an internal movement. who we were uses powerful imagery to show what's at stake for humanity especially well done is the combination of different viewpoints on one central issue but there are also moments of hopefulness with

a combined effort done for right now humans would be able to preserve our habitat. the science fiction movie tides is less optimistic warfare pandemics and climate change have turned the blue planet into a flooded grey swamp contact with the ground is only possible during the daily low tide space colony astronauts are searching for a new life they find it in the form of members of a creepiest mission. they crossed. we had a malfunction after entering the stratosphere. this supposedly risky turns out to be a betrayal told in a visually striking style 2 completely different films with the same message the earth doesn't need humans but humans need the earth. alas the latest on ditto to news this hour up next is eco india at the environment magazine more

headlines of the top of the hour and remember there's always more on did the news up on d w dot com or also on instagram on twitter i'm probably means for me on the entire news team here take care susan.

see coal india. green home means more than having lots of crops to design the materials energy sources. all have to be sustainable upcycling also reduces the climate impacts of. living an eco friendly life can be inspiring going green looks good to go into the. next g.w. . is in freefall.

the state has a monster control. and as long as commissions are. billions of. dollars channel current is mostly. who are living. in 45 minutes on w. . we're all set. to go beyond. and. take on the world eat out of all this is where all of the stories that matter to you. would like to

find relief from the banks. we are yours actually on fire. our image and needs a shooting up every day heat electricity and water are all things recon booted out at home but producing these utilities emits carbon dioxide and contributes ok.