the band. this is d w news live from berlin no end yet to germany's coronavirus shutdown chapter angela merkel says that lockdown will be extended for another 3 weeks but she also announces steps toward a gradual reopening of still coming up to e.u. member states look to israel for cooperation on coronavirus vaccines it's already inoculated more than half of its population far more than any european country and hundreds of people at times the funeral of

a 19 year old protester shot dead in the car in the bloodiest day since the military coup began the army is stepping up its crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program germany is extending its coronavirus shutdown by 3 weeks until march 28th but some restrictions will be eased to allow the non-essential stores and other businesses to reopen in areas with relatively low infection rates and chancellor merkel announced a plan after extensive talks with state leaders they agreed new measures intended to offer a glimmer of hope that life will soon return to some kind of normal. the talks between regional leaders and chancellor angela merkel stretched into the night with state premiers having to negotiate

a number of details but when merkel finally emerged she had an optimistic message for the german public despite announcing the lockdowns extension until later this month. you know we're at the threshold of a new phase of the pandemic. i mean it's a phase which we can't go into carelessly but i think it's important to say with justified hope. the leaders agreed to a step by step reopening strategy for businesses schools and public spaces with emergency breaks built in each new step will require affection writes to remain low less than 50 cases per 100000 people over a 7 day period if infection numbers begin to spike then the measures will quickly be reversed however contact restrictions between households will be slightly eased

as of next week the reopening strategy also focuses on vaccinations and mass testing jabs will soon be available with many family doctors to try and boost vaccination numbers starting next monday people in germany will get access to one free rapid test a week. moco said the regional leaders understood the public's desire for normalcy but stressed optimism shouldn't come without caution when you think the office our job now to make sure that the next steps we take are smart ones the steps should allow us to open up a bit more but at the same time they should set us back months in this pandemic. with elections looming and public pressure growing regional leaders want to curb restrictions quickly but they also want to avoid having to potentially return to yet another lock down. and political correspondent nina hasa is standing by you know some commentators are calling this

a change in strategy is it. well you know if you look at the situation germany has been in lockdown since mid december since before christmas and the goal was always of course to bring public life to a standstill so that you could bring down the number of new infections so that the health system can cope because we did have an extremely difficult situation in the hospitals around christmas and that strategy did seem to work the numbers went down but then the new variance started arriving and so germany stayed in lockdown but the numbers have started rising slowly and so impatiens in the population has been growing over the last few weeks and so anglo-american has had to concede that now the pressure is so high to open up and to change that strategy because you can't have that solution of only ever extending lockdowns again if that's because strategy is clearly coming to an end and so many of the state leaders insisted that

they think that the health system can still coping even if we have slightly higher numbers than the ones that machall wants because we just need to put more effort into speeding up the vaccination process and into being really quick when it comes to the national testing strategy and tell us you know what this is now going to mean in practical terms what it does a day to day life. well if you look at the graph it is very complicated so essentially as a normal german or as a person living in germany you will need to know where your local area stands in terms of numbers of new infections and depending on that number your regional government can then make decisions over the next few weeks which areas can open which speed so if you take the example of where we are here for example and i will have to look at my paper because it is extremely difficult so berlin is at the

moment number that is 100 new lower than 100 new infections. and people in one week and that means that from next week on words our regional government can open museums for example and then we need to wait for 2 weeks until the government here in berlin can decide on the next step because they of course need to check whether that decision has infected the new infection numbers and so if that number stays under 100 and berlin can open theatres and allow for outdoor dining if people can provide a negative test result wait another 2 weeks and we're still below 100 assuming then berlin can open shops with only a limited number of people inside so it is very complicated you will need to look at if it's the vaccination rollout we have to say has been bumpy to put it mildly tell us whether or not you know merkel has discussed this and also the rapid

test rollout how is that supposed to go. well i have to say that our health minister is not looking good the opposition parties are already calling for him to resign because the vaccination process as you said has been extremely sluggish and also when it comes to testing now the government has promised that germans will be getting a rapid test per week from next week on roads but if you look at a neighboring country austria for example they've been giving out these tests for free to the population since mid december and this is when they were approved so here in germany it's a completely a very complicated mix of responsibilities but it is going to be very very crucial for you and spawn to speed up the process and to come up with a proper national testing strategy so that it doesn't look as bad as it did in the vaccine rollout. in berlin thank you. so that's what's happening on the

german level on the european level there is of course a big struggle with the slow vaccine rollout amid that leaders of 2 european countries are traveling to israel to discuss closer cooperation on covert 19 and vaccines austrian chancellor sebastian kurtz said that his country and denmark will no longer rely solely on the european union for corona virus traps the 2 countries are exploring working with israel to produce more vaccines israel has already vaccinated more than half of its population far more than any european country now kurt said that austria needed to develop its capacity to react against future virus mutations. threw in the recent shelf mcguinn the phone also leading scientists to say that in the coming years also what probably needs some 30000000 vaccine doses but all who via the here and that's why we've decided to cooperate

with denmark and israel. is that a deviation we've been preparing for a while to concentrate our forces in research and production some under no in the political tool and for more let's bring in mohammed m. he is a dutch member of the european parliament for the center left progressive alliance of socialist and democrats group and welcome to the program and thank you so much for joining us this trip to israel is it a vote of no confidence on the e.u.'s vaccination cooperation i mean a thing to make sure that we are better to tackle these type of and then mix in the future is no nothing against that but. there's no need i think to all the more vaccines i mean do you have as all the 2900000000 vaccines and what we see is that at the end of the day we're not living on an island so it doesn't make any sense to have the start of sexy nationalism because you can have a high tax nation rate in austria or in the netherlands but if you'll neighboring

countries don't have the same height of vaccination rate you are risking mutations of other countries coming entering your country unless you close the ball the so it doesn't make any sense but doesn't it i mean doesn't it speak though to the level of confidence that these leaders have actually and in the overall european strategy and i'd just like to point to some of the numbers because in terms of doses for capita when you compare you know the efforts to 2 other efforts for example in the us of the u.k. they've administered more than 4 times as many vaccines we mentioned israel they have ministered 12 times as many vaccines already so i mean aren't austria in denmark just looking for a way to guarantee more vaccines for their citizens what's what's wrong with that. there's nothing wrong with that but let's also look at how israel is one to me israel at different times called relations one front with some of the produces that was also a lot of privacy and data sharing with the produces i mean i don't think we want to

have crafted and what we want to have has we want to have a transparent supply chain i want to have control on the production facilities in europe we are now developing that with the hate to be there for the health and good super badness and response at 30 i mean that's a fairly good initiative and it's oh totally in line with what prime minister because once you do so i would say no needs to go to other countries but corporations are always good but i do believe that this is a political distraction so point your finger against to to tear it up and act as if we are failing i mean this is cooperation in europe together indeed in the beginning things didn't go smoothly for the does it send them again we didn't have any experience with these type of friend them x. and we are trying to beat them much better professor mouth while fighting this pandemic at the same time i do believe that the european commission is going in the right direction and you know what a lot of countries though some some countries in the e.u. don't apparent terribly confident with that you know we look at the case of hungary

and poland the czech republic slovakia they've either bought our their i and russian or chinese vaccines and i'd just like to ask you to weigh in a bit on that approach you know this approach which has if it doesn't matter which vaccines or where they come from the only thing that matters is how fast we can get some kind of herd immunity how fast we can get them into our citizens' arms. i mean i fully agree what we see now if you look at the projections of the supply of sexiness in europe we do believe that before the summer everyone who wants to be vaccinated will at least have one job so that's fairly good i mean every member state have the opportunity to give themselves give away in emergency approval as has been done in the u.k. as has been done in the us we chose another approach in europe we wanted to have a full regular approval and i do believe that i mean the european chief is working really hard i mean the approval comes within 4 weeks but we are also depending on the data that we get from the produces and i do believe for example also also say

nikka and yeltsin have delayed a couple of times the date that they provide to the european medicine agency so if companies and produces provide us with the data faster i mean all procedure cannot orangs not become faster as as we have it now mohan a child member of the european parliament thank you so much for joining us and. thank you very much of a quick check of some other stories making news around the world police in sweden say that they are investigating a possible terrorism motive after 8 people were wounded in a stabbing rampage the suspected attacker was shot and arrested by police following the incident in the southern town that's in london police say that they did not have any prior information about an attack the. u.s. capitol police are tightening security after announcing evidence of a potential plot by a right wing militia group to breach the capitol building on thursday the capitol

police and others in u.s. law enforcement have been facing criticism for failing to prevent a pro trump mob from storming the capitol building on january 6th. in myanmar protesters are back on the streets today after the deadliest day so far last months since last month's military coup $38.00 people were killed yesterday according to the u.n. special envoy on myanmar among the victims of the violence was in 1000 year old woman who was shot in the head despite the increasingly violent crackdowns by security forces demonstrators are showing no signs of backing down. and ayman tonked is a journalist covering the coup and the violent crackdown they join us now from young gone thank you so much for giving us a little bit of perspective here 1st of all i'd like to ask you we just saw protesters are back on the streets of several cities in me on mar do you expect the

situation to escalate again today we've already been seeing escalations actually so today a few hours ago i think the reality of hours ago in mandalay fighter jets were spotted above ventilates where 4 people were killed today and you know. on the street escalation today and more deaths than we saw yesterday . that the military is also not backing down and indeed are showing you can show more force matija. as you know as we mentioned earlier the u.n. special envoy on myanmar has called wednesday the bloodiest day since the military junta overthrew the elected government tell us why do you think that you are seeing this intensification of violence this rising death toll right now. so in the last few days you know the previous deadliest date was on sunday and in

the in between sunday and wednesday we had a number of more townships in myanmar declare themselves self administered answerable only to an elected government and we also saw a 2nd town 2nd city and declare itself to be self administered and knew i meant where those 2 towns happened as well as you know what number of townships have to declare themselves. rule i've seen the most deaths so it's quite likely that the military is. trying to show that regardless of what the students want and what they've declared themselves to be they are still the ones who are in charge. absolutely and so far they also appear to be completely ignoring international condemnation and sanctions. through that lens what more do protesters want to see from the international community.

so protesters want to see a number of things some of which are not necessarily on the table right now producers have all u.n. peacekeeping forces to be implemented in iraq for myanmar to be tried in the year national courts of law as well as for special investigative groups to be in your march monitor situation. what the u.n. and other national other countries could do at the moment based on what i understand international mechanisms is that it will arms it would protesters have also been calling for as well as to send in mediate the situation and push for it to come to the goetia should people with the elected government so that the american figure on the patch after training the country back to the book you see and especially nations like us here have been called to help facilitate that process journalist in intent thank you. it's one of the world's most

spectacular displays of political feared are china's annual national people's congress while the event is held largely to rubber stamp decisions already made by the communist party elite it does give some indication of where china is heading the country's leadership uses the congress as an opportunity to roll out some of its most important new. red flags are flying on tiananmen square head of the most important event on china's political calendar this year's national people's congress takes on a special significance as a coincides with the centenary of the founding of the communist party much. like it's been a big year for china the only major economy to grow during the pandemic delegates are expected to approve its 5 year plan a blueprint to expand the middle class which already counts $400000000.00 people it's a quick rebound from the coronavirus means china could on sees america as the world's

largest economy by 2030 so so the economic nerds are going to be looking much for us where the economy is in terms of momentum through 2021 year over year. but it's going to be you know it's good growth. will be around 7 or 8 percent would be my guess. president xi jinping will aim to keep the focus on national pride innovation and self-sufficiency in the run up to the congress he launched a major propaganda campaign to claim poverty in rural china was over. the congress will also move to quash any criticism of the communist party china wants to tighten its grip further in hong kong the high profile trials of hong kong democracy activists has brought attention to beijing's crackdown in the territory. it wants to ensure hong kong is firmly under the control of what the party calls chinese patriots. and. we've already seen some very difficult days recently on all kong and

over the past few months or so you know again and again and n.b.c. beijing his comments are beastly set the rules and all call change the laws if they don't action and i think it will be very all eyes will be there to see is the n.p.c. at this setting going to be getting more laws which are going to direct him and all crock i'm reducing the role of hong kong holcombe people running all the congress also gives an insight into china's defense budget last year military spending fell to its lowest in 3 decades has been rising international tensions especially over taiwan but also over the south china sea could see the congress approving more money for the armed forces this year now all of the $279.00 nigerian schoolgirls released by kidnappers this week have been handed over to their parents but emotional we're getting in was overshadowed by violence mobs began throwing

stones at officials and one person was shot in the stomach when security personnel opened fire the government has vowed to prevent such kidnappings in the future but nigerians one actions to speak louder than words a moment to save before police and top security officers the kidnapped girls are in the east in front of the press. they jankovic galva stayed overnight at a government facility after spending nearly 5 days in the hands of their kidnappers . it's a big relief to them and their parents. i'm really happy i came back home with time god for everything. on sunday we spoke to some cigar do a parent whose daughter was among the 279 kidnapped girls. i went back to meet him after his daughter was set free got to could only speak to her on the phone. and i hear.

so it in throughout my sister completely and that. early so excited that yes this is my daughter. the release of these girls is no doubt a big win for politicians but when they wake up tomorrow they will be reminded that they need to do more to protect their citizens it's pressure children from militias state officials have told me that they are going to beef up security at schools and they will prevent such be developing in the future but nigeria says that similar promises have been made in the past and yet there are people being killed all kidnapped by the gunmen. i asked this official what his government was doing to put an end to the virus is not something that you continue with in one year this is

just a gradual forces so gradually all those bonded will be different i'll come back to our normal activities for the gals their resolve to continue their education has not faded though their kidnappers give them a strong warning. the bandits said to us that they will return to attack us when they finish their money it's different screw we got that the key did not pause we have paid off though officials deny they paid their ransom to secure the freedom of the girls and the nigerians won't take pretty shuns word for retail. and let's look now at some other stories making news around the world space x.'s latest unmanned rocket exploded just minutes after landing a test was initially declared a trial with the starship s. and 10 performing the space companies only successful vertical landing but shortly

afterwards it burst into flames israel's environment protection minister has accused iran of links to a catastrophic oil spill off the israeli coast the spill is one of the country's worst ever ecological disasters israel says it's found the ship responsible for the slick and is calling it environmentalism terrorism there has been no immediate comment from iran. carlin's international film festival often showcases documentary as which thanks largely to streaming services have moved from a more nice offering right into the mainstream on the festival's 3rd day we're taking a closer look at 2 films in particular which use drastically different methods to tell their stories. long before me to a woman in showbiz showed how to deal with harassment and violence from men in 1978 tina turner divorced her husband ike and started

a solo career bigger and even more successful than before. describing her marriage to ike turner she said i was living a life of death but the divorce brought her liberation and she triumphantly rose to the heights of pop music fame. in some ways we are telling that story to a new generation. but we are also hopefully exploring it through point of view and what it means for her to be kind of. so associated with some of the worst times in life. the documentary teano gives a chronological overview of all the ups and downs in the life of the woman who was born as anna made public while it offers few new insights it is thrilling to watch . this next film could not be more different in anime says 2 filmmakers meet stefan who is in prison for

having murdered a woman in order to interview him. and his response of his story are retold by 2 public tiers. doesn't. start coming i thought the next time i talk to stand we want to. but look sometimes looks really threatening sometimes also really child larg what you know what time the person is a performance you know it's always an interpretation of the way that we see here on the way to be profiteers react to what they're performing the moment. the directors try to avoid a supposedly objective point of view because their film gradually reveals that there are at least 2 truths but the justice system requires an unambiguous account

of events because only then can it declare the accused guilty or innocent this is an exceptionally intelligent film but also an uncomfortable one raising more questions than it can or wants to answer. up next focus on europe i'm sorry kelly in berlin thanks for watching.

trafficking in. force in the netherlands 16 drug dealers are now on trial it is the largest criminal chinese country's history and it involves the kind of violence that the netherlands has never seen. at the heart of the issue lies one. truly controls the country. some goods are a. next on d w. into the conflict zone to suppress. the

world health organization is going to fall from values and so exists no movie is moved truly to join the bendix my guess is we forego the negatives in european regional director of the w.h.o. times clearly deaf children eyes asian the ducks to stand up to the joy well it leads to. conflict. in 60 minutes on the job. lot of people looking for coverage. there are many answers. there are many resumes.

and there are many alternatives to. make up your own mind. d.w. made for minds. it was the act. was the oath was the out i am a low end welcome to focus on europe with me liz show glad to have your company today recently german authorities seized the largest haul of cocaine ever found in the country the drugs were discovered in containers at the port of pumblechook they were hidden in tins that were supposed to.