this is the news from berlin the standoff in myanmar escalates there are reports that more people were killed as the security forces used rubber bullets and also live ammunition to suppress the protests but demonstrators are still showing no signs of backing down. also coming off germany's coronavirus star lemme pressure to relax restrictions is growing but health experts say that might lead to more infections and then more restrictions. plus we meet the activists in the d.r. seen trying to encourage the public to take covert 19 precautions many people that

don't believe the virus exists. and another 3 female media workers murdered in afghanistan while militants targeting women journalists what is the government doing to protect them. i'm going to have our 1st while come to the program reports are coming in from me on ma that several people have been shot dead at new pro-democracy demonstrations this is the latest in a deadly crackdown by the military who are feared to have killed at least 21 people demonstrations since seizing power just over a month ago several people have been wounded as protesters clashed with security forces a number of cities around the country witnesses and local media say police opened fire and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

can you tell us about these reports of. the protesters. according to media there. after today's crackdown by police as well as military and what we're seeing in the city is. mandalay where most of the dead most of the protestors have been shot. at the military is being involved in the crackdown to not just. up till now largely been shooting bullets as well as at your gas. mates so just. killed. yes they've been killed by the mission and there's reports that it was the military that was involved as opposed

to simply just police. dispersing crowds. so how do you think this will impact the rising number of dead how how will this impact the pro-democracy movement. i think more calls from the international community as well as a hardening of stance especially back off. regarding your military's reaction to protestors and calls for democracy and i think a lot of these deaths although they have been causing street protests. civil society civil disobedience movement by. really the large majority of the country. by these sorts of crackdowns by the military. we're hearing that fewer people are taking to the streets now. behind the scenes what does that mean. yeah so a lot of what was to buddhism indians were going to do with it is denying

the military. any legitimacy as well as any building to govern the country so you have civil servants who have been you know leaving their jobs. refusing to go to work or working in ways that disobeyed military commands as well as companies are now no longer working with military own assets our companies are people also boycotting the military owned companies as well as businesses. i mean tons any angle many thanks for your time are here and germany's state and federal leaders are meeting today to decide whether to extend or loosen the country's coronavirus locked up until now germans have largely supported chancellor merkel's rather cautious approach but opinion polls now indicate the mood is changing. 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. when 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 it's been i'm unemployed and i can do anything i can work anywhere and nothing side 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 knock down 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 fueled by more contagious variants of the virus loosening restrictions now as 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 there was a 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 patients 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. but time to have

a look at some global developments in the coronavirus pandemic data from public health england shows the threat of serious illness is cut by 80 percent and seniors even after just one shot offered to those vaccine the u.k. was the 1st european country to authorize covert 19 shots the children's charity unicef says more than 168000000 children are not in school due to the pandemic and are calling the situation a global education emergency the new head of the u.s. health authorities says rapidly spreading variance pose the threat of a 4th pandemic wave in the u.s. and is calling on americans to remain vigilant against the corona virus. i saw reports takes us to north kivu province in the democratic republic of congo activists in the capital city goma are working to raise awareness of covert 19 because many people don't believe the virus poses a serious threat to them the country as a whole has been spared the worst of the pandemic it's officially reported $700.00

deaths and just over $20000.00 cases but it's fear the misconception about the pandemic could cause the situation to change. benedikt my name is 66 years old and diabetic when she arrived at the hospital she was weak and needed oxygen for 5 days 60 seats all over exposed the head of c.b.s. but we. got this he's improving very well. dr i'm wondering gamelan is the only emergency physician and he africa and funded hospital in goma in eastern congo in the past week he received 5 covert patients 3 of them severe cases the doctor is glad the case numbers compared to countries like south africa. if we'd have that here in goma or in the country i think that would be catastrophic because we are not well prepared to receive a big number of sick people coming over in my life. this must be prevented by

sticking to the rule says miller. but on the street you hardly ever see anyone wearing musk says he but then i haven't seen anyone die of corona so how would i believe that. any hope of covert is a disease or westernesse not for africans there is no covert in congo. what i believe is that corona kills it kills a lot of people so much you know what. a survey conducted by the ministry of health in goma showed that a quarter of all those questioned believe covert 19 does not exist one reason for that according to the minister 80 percent of cases he has shown no symptoms and of the 20 percent with symptoms most isolate at home nobody really knows how many people got caught with 19 already. the population things people died because they had diabetes high blood pressure heart disease that's where the doubts set in but

we continue communicating to the people listen covert exists every day we have new cases and we don't want the numbers go up. we are now going to meet a group of young activists in goma set up that the government doesn't enforce wearing masks in public and they feel like it's their responsibility to raise awareness about the dangers of rides. as part of. a group of young people who don't get tired of telling people to wear a mask a tough job because often she gets rejected the world. it's the government who should do this of the government has abandoned the population and now it's up to us to sensitize the people that's in. every saturday they're out on the street distributing stickers and informing passers by and shop owners sometimes people get aggressive. there are people who touch you or even try to hit us but we continue

because it's for the wellbeing of our people to look at africa. for rebecca and her friends it's been a successful day if they have convinced 2 or 3 people that covert 19 is real. and some of the other stories making headlines today iraqi and american military officials say at least 10 rockets targeted the coalition base in iraq early wednesday it's the 2nd rocket attack in iraq this month it comes as the country makes preparations for the visit of pope francis on friday it will be the pope's 1st visit to iraq. an explosion at a coronavirus testing center shattered windows in the dutch town of over. 60 kilometers north of amsterdam nobody was hurt in the blast dutch police say the explosion appears to be caused by a device that was intentionally placed at the testing facility and best occasion is under way. 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 the carried out by people looking posing as trump supporters he described the events of generous 6 as domestic terrorism vowed to hold the rioters accountable. australia's attorney general says he categorically denies a rape allegation against him the accusation was made more than 3 decades after the alleged incident when christian porter was 17 at the accuser was 16 years old porter says he had no sexual relations with the woman she took her allegation to police in 2019 but later took her own life. the allegations he was on the so-called islamic state has claimed responsibility for killing 3 young female media workers in afghanistan their women work for a local afghan radio and t.v. station in the city of jalalabad carroll was being held today the women were recent

high school graduate and were shot on their way home in 2 separate attacks they were working for the dubbing department of the media company the station says that of the 10 women working for them since the it began broadcasting and 24 have now been killed the latest in a string of attacks targeting female professionals in afghanistan. let's bring in our correspondent ali laetitia in kabul ali what more do we know about the background of these attacks. so as you said earlier this is the 4th instance of a female media worker being killed in this media outlets specifically and what we have to remember is that it's only been in 3 months that this has taken place. so it's really very worrying because again this is a small outlet they may not have as much security or as many and the resources as some of the bigger t.v.

and radio stations in the country so unfortunately may make it more of a target for a group trying to you know instill fear in the public and in the people and we have to remember that these attacks are often preplanned. and if you look at it you know these these are not women that would have been out in the forefront they wouldn't have been out on t.v. or you know well known on the radio because they would have been dubbed dubbing voices so it really shows a lot of premeditation because when these attacks take place they're following these people for 1520 days at a time to really understand their routines and the fact that again they're choosing young girls that were behind the scenes this really shows that there was a plot behind all of this. but this is not the 1st such attack a number of female journalists have been killed by extremists over the last few months why are women being targets of this if you

i mean obviously it's and a very specific message you know about the fact that women are not save it may keep women from working in me trying to keep them at home it may sort of you know when the u.s. began their invasion in 2000 and $11.00 of their justifications were for it was that they wanted to restore the rights of women and to advance women's place in society once again so this is a way of instilling fear in all of that and saying that you know that hasn't happened to the degree that you think it has or that it can very easily backtrack. so what's the government doing to protect them that's that's the issue is that i mean on the one hand there's very little the government can do because as we've seen with this attack you know these are behind the scenes workers you know it's very they're not unfortunately the most likely people that you would think would be targeted but they had received information in the past i had spoken to

a female journalist but a couple months ago and she was saying how the intelligence agency had told her that there would be women posing as women in distress that needed help who are you being used by local forces to lure famous and well known women to their death so there has been some level of information about this and so the question is you know what is the government doing exactly as you said and the most important thing is will these crying to be investigated will the families finally have some closure and some answers beef we've had so many instances of male and female journalists being killed in over the past few years especially over the last year where we know very little about who was responsible and what happened to those who were allegedly responsible for the attacks that if we thank you very much france 25000 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 mainland spain and on woods to other e.u. countries but the spanish government is now cracking down hard in an effort to prevent that some locals are sounding the alarm though they fear that the islands could become a prison for refugees our correspondent john philip short's reports from the island of gran canaria. this spot is where our my dude europe and his friend began their new 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 again 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 corey door to europe it's a clear violation of spanish law according to refugee law down yet i haven't seen anything. like that 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 it if a person is not in custody they can just be detained by the authorities. that it was. observed that the islands have long reach the situation point videos of protests and clashes between locals and refugees pop up more and more on social

media. and his friends are going to 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 have concerns about the an 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 of inhabitants live 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 strongly 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 the porting people with no official grounds for asylum the measure which is said should be expanded in the next few months. germany is a domestic intelligence agency has put the country's largest parliamentary opposition party the far right turn to for germany under surveillance and c. is planning to monitor the party because of suspicions that its right wing extremist positions could violate the country's constitution the youth wing of the party was put on a covert surveillance 2 years ago for downplaying germany's nazi past. the right wing populist e.f.t. flushed major triumph in 2017 when it entered the german parliament becoming the

largest opposition party ever since the f.t. has offended relishing in islamophobia racism and the glorification of germany's past you know when he is your friend and the nazis are just a bet of bird poop and all 1000 year history. some e.f.t. members openly support the xenophobic movement piggy among them extreme right wing up beyond who he's the party's loudest and most aggressive anti immigrant rabble rouser. in this i'm following this nation except that the children and youth in their own country regard school as a nightmare because they are bullied beaten and tom mentored there by migrant much . founded the parties in town who group the wing which chairman security authority flagged as right wing extremist in response the wing was dissolved however its leader and supporters remain active in the party but now

germany's intelligence service says the entire party is under surveillance. let's bring in our political correspondent nina for more on this story nina the biggest opposition party under surveillance how significant is this. well politically of course extremely significant and in concrete terms it gives the intelligence agency the right to actively gather information on the party and on its officials they can for instance work together with undercover agents they can tap phones they can tap other agencies for information and so far they've only been able to analyze publicly available sources and they did that for 2 years for the past 2 years and apparently what they found in their analysis is which is an $800.00 page document was that there have been you murs violations of human dignity and of the principle of democracy which then led the agency to come to the conclusion that the whole party needs to be put under surveillance and that there's

a real risk that it is a right wing extremist group inc having said all of this it is important to know and to remember that all of this is based on german media reports who quote from information from security sources and we will probably not get official confirmation from the agency itself and that has to do with the fact that there is a lawsuit in a court in cologne on the issue because the a.v. obviously wanted to prevent that surveillance from happening and before that case has been closed the agency can't comment on it in public well to put this into perspective germans will be going to the polls here in september what use then mean for the chances. well naturally it could deter some of the more moderate voters from voting for them those who voted for them out of protest against the other big parties but many experts are convinced that it's not going to take away the eighty's appealed to most of the core voters because they argue that there have been many cases where the politicians have in public in the past made racist sexist

or right wing extremist statements and that all of this never meant that their poll figures slumped considerably well it does have a bit of attorneys doesn't it not feed into right wing conspiracy theories. well many of the politicians have in the past tried to present a policy as the underdog that is being demonized by what they call the mainstream parties the media the institutions here in germany and the mood here specially during the corona crisis is very divided a many of the politicians have supported the anti corona protests so it would only be logical if they used this piece of news as an opportunity to replay that choosing of victimhood especially because we're going to the polls in september and parties are currently working hard to position themselves and to reach their voters with a message but of course there's also the more moderate part of the party which is a considerable one still and so it will be hard and interesting to watch over the

next coming months how the party is going to try and align those 2 big factions within the party. political correspondent nina thank you nina some football news now in the quarterfinals of the german cup. beat much luck by a score of one they'll after 66 minutes without a goal jaden sunshine finally broke the deadlock the 20 year old latched on to a pass from marco and hit the target store on to the 1st team through to the semifinals. i'm honestly garside shaka have hired their 5th coach of the season in an attempt to save it demetrius gramont says a coach from the german lower divisions is the latest to be in charge his contract for now is on till 2022 look to be turning things around after winning their 1st match this season back in january the best they've done since is half 2 draws. only been asleep the team still in single digit points and appear headers to the 2nd

division unless their new coach can improve things. and finally american country singer dolly parton received a 1st those of the coronavirus vaccine used the occasion to encourage others to do the same. let's see let's see let's see baby none of you please don't hesitate. f c. c this one should be a good submit to release. a 75 year old was given the madonna vaccine which she helped to develop after donating $1000000.00 in april last year and that's the latest on d.w. news this hour up next is africa more headlines at the top of the op remember there's always more news and information on all the news and of course on a website stand up you. can also follow us on instagram and twitter we're out.

in berlin thanks for watching.

eco afrikan. mugu michael goodwin this from a guy who's eating a national park in congo was he and his family would love nothing more than to live in peace. but poachers and farmers are hunting them and threatening this species. what's being done to protect them eco for the. next on d w. imagine

how many polish homeless us thrown out in the water right now climb a tree to fight off a story. this is life less the way photos one we. how much work can really do. we still have time to act i'm going. to success. but subscribe is like a. different on the islands of guinea-bissau no. here women are in charge. archipelago has a patriarchal system for centuries and. the rare form of society.

women differently than. what they do with their power. and how sustainable is this culture. of the clintons over rango starts marching on t.w. . hello and welcome to eco offered what live fire nation magazine produced in lagos. girl in person lives in lagos nigeria being joined by my colleague sandra heller crease and hello to everyone out there very glad to have you with us again i am sundra to no deal coming to you from kampala in uganda today we'll be looking

out innovative bubble houses in nigeria and plenty of other interesting stories. one hear how one month's best friend is helping to fund muslim reports on the particular lifestyle. we'll also see how some african land owners can get a tax break by protecting the environment. and find out why ugandan families but indigenous elites. we thought the show in the democratic republic of congo a country often modern conflict as a result for a long time little attention is paid to the environment but that is starting to change we want to call the begun national park where people are now devoting time and effort to protecting the nature of it not only is that good for the tropical forest bot the local people and the way to which includes.

the sis family lives in the tropical sewers. this one people they knew by. someone in their good arguments we are now in cousy be a national parks and right now we're in the presence of this year bone only miss you point to me and to many members of this family you know. we think so who says the national park is a national conservation area. democratic republic of congo of the ground was all eastern the land guerrillas have been a major tourist attraction for decades the main source of income for the park are the admission fees foreign visitors pay $402.00 was still is each because of the pandemic there's no visitors right now but the rangers still go out on patrol. they

want to keep track of several the us troops and usually know where to find them even though the park is huge it covers 6000 square kilometers closer g.p.s. device for each family of gorillas gunpoint to go into the forest to check on them we also collect data and if we find chimpanzee tracks we record back to on them see if we find evidence of illegal activities such as traps and we just manto them and over the coordinates or the record on a few days is the use for scientific research the number of lowland gorillas here has declined by hoffa over the past 3 decades to just a few 1000 researches estimates of the ranges wealth with pemex whole gist of boston bus a bossy he had its problems experts is a nonprofit study because it's a public research and conservation. he says poaches and their traps are

a continuing threat of this gorilla is lucky to be alive. here we see the silverback move when he was 4 years old he was caught in a snare and unfortunately he lost his right hand but despite that hearing news and he's with his family. but 'd the range is not only patrol the park to collect data but also on the lookout for poachers. that's why there aren't. security we have security issues in some parts of the park there are a poachers out there every day and the rangers try to track them down people from the surrounding communities also sometimes damage the park they cut down trees or bamboo. from. the park is a unesco world heritage site but this part of eastern d.-r. sea is densely populated and there's no buffer zone between the park and the nearby

villages people live in the needed facility some work could see plantations or in the park but most small holder farmers promise experts his not only seeks when show conservation of the gorillas but also to improve the livelihood of local communities it has also launched a project to replant areas of forests that have been cleared illegally of dustin besser both say says working closely with local people is very important. he hopes they will come to care for the environment as much as they respect the group that will go to go the plan is just an appealing only for some time now has been seen much more often at the edge of the park himself. what pleases us as scientists and conservationists is that the communities respect me go to. nobody has been throwing stones at him or threatening him even though we often see him passing through their

fields. for around $100.00 villages. in the reforestation projects for a project that will help preserve the forests for the good of the gorillas and. let us now come from preserving way of life on the forests to creating good sustainable housing africa's big cities a crowded. over crowded you know witness that we are doing good deeds when we need to and i do an entropy anyone could do now who builds houses from a material found in abundance. love. nigeria's population is rapidly growing and with the need for affordable housing. ibrahim something soon came up with the idea. he constructs houses and

made entirely of bamboo which grows naturally in the area. may not well versed on times like this lasts longer than a house built with ordinary wood and bamboo is better when it comes to withstand like floods and garage and you and your family can live in a house like this for a very long time without having to worry that it might collapse and then toss away domini. bamboo which is actually a woody grass is strong right and environmentally friendly it grows incredibly quickly without having to be weak planted after harvest. it's much cheaper than most other construction materials but it should be treated or leeched to eliminate it susceptibility to insect attacks and weather where not all bamboo varieties have the same quality but if a suitable variety is used for him some lisa says a sizeable house can be built in less than 20 days. then how about you

if you're also doing your bit tell us about it visit our website or send us a tweet. hash tag doing your bit. sharing your story. a note to one of the wall of the environmentalists hobble mochas that every you are on 25000000 tons of weight and. let's not talk old every single minute of all plastic clothes sumption continues to live in the present right over discarding so truckloads a single minute within the next. and 4 percent by $20.00 to $30.00 why is this happening one reason is that only a small proportion of plastic waste is recycled another is that around half of all plastic goes to product that i use just once and then thrown away now some young

german activists are cleaning up local rivers and working with scientist to calculate i'll watch a plastic and stop in to see. an idyllic location on the who're river in western germany but take a closer look and it's not as beautiful. last night. kevin though where and their classmates have come to do some fishing but not the usual kind it's trash their fishing for those lists are everywhere they look and there's plenty of plastic. plants quite a few glass bottles to. the students attend a local high school and are taking part in an initiative called plastic pirates it's a research project where young students get to do the work of real scientists. they take water samples and measure count and record the pieces of trash they recovered from the rivers and rather than. the scientists in kew use the data to generate

a garbage map of german rivers and calculate how much trash ends up in the sea. the teachers are happy to do their part to inspire the budding scientists. out there. it's something i care about myself it always bothers me when i see people leaving rubbish behind especially when they have small children with them and are supposed to be setting an example. the work of the plastic pirates shows that on average one piece of trash can be found for every 2 square metres of riverbank in germany. france also has a project aimed at tracking down the trash it's called plastic origins and goes a step further using artificial intelligence and an app we want to move as much as brought us and citizens as we can to go on the reverse or you can create a product. or walking around that we do bads and using those data using

the video footage that they are going to take over the river banks we will be able to analyze as we do. early to items and uses data to my previous plastic pollution the aim of plastic origins is to get straight to legislation introduced on plastic waste and regulatory limits with the amount of plastic in european rivers their garbage map is intended to identify especially polluted areas we know that most of the pollution we found the ocean is transported by rigorous. right now we don't know which groups are the most polluted. but the app contract micro plastics in germany and our own full kilos of micro plastics per person per year end up in the environment the main sources particles from vehicle tires industrial waste and household garbage it's difficult for waste

water treatment plants to filter out the tiny particles but a munich startup called eco faria is showing how it can be done using a simple but effective method this is how it works the waste water is pumped into the filter a powerful voice x. is generated in the pipe pushing the water containing most of the micro plastics to the top of the company says 95 percent of micro plastics from municipalities and industry could be filtered out in this way. the young plastic pirates agree that more needs to be done to combat plastic pollution after just 2 hours in this idyllic location they found more trash than they can even carry. now we had to solve africa to find out how a tax break helps to promote conservation the country's fables for its wide life and vast areas of almost off the land and then go there come up with

a way to encourage people to set up nature reserves on their property. 88 percent of land in south africa is not suitable for agriculture it's too rugged too dry and too one even. but everywhere you look you see life in abundance the country boasts rich biodiversity but how best to preserve it in south africa environmental protection is chronically under financed. that's where candace stevens comes in she's a tech specialist at the n.-g. o. wilderness foundation africa she wants to encourage landowners to turn their holdings into nature reserves the government offers a tax incentive to do so. what

you're doing here is looking off to south africa's natural wealth in the public good yes and so there's this unique tax incentive to benefit that bind of this city this man is already converted his land into a protected area he can write off the cost of the purchase over 25 year period photographer cost fundal and purchased the land 5 years ago and has taken countless pictures of the area since then it rarely rains here but when it does the landscape is transformed into a pageant of color. another special feature about this area of land is that it could act as a corridor for wild animals since it's located between 2 different protected areas . we standing here on about in the on the northern border of it. to the west and you for self stretching down the macro national park then to the

north east look up. and you can see the proposed corridor linking the 2 protected. the crew region of south africa is home to more than $5000.00 species of plants and some 40 percent of them can only be found here. once upon a time this area was farmland due to global warming and that the rainfall diminished quite a bit and it just became impossible for these people to to make a living with cattle and agriculture and eventually they had to sell and that's why we brought in the farms for conservation. with climate change threatening biodiversity candace stephens has not found it difficult to persuade other landowners to follow suit. dozens of signed up to the scheme her 1st experience of implement.