this is the w. news live from berlin no end yet to germany's coronavirus shutdown chancellor angela merkel says lockdown will be extended for another 3 weeks but bowing to increasing pressure she also announces steps toward a gradual reopening also coming up hundreds of people attend the funeral of a 19 year old protester shot dead in myanmar in the bloodiest day since the military coup began the army is stepping up its crackdown on the pro-democracy movement. that is fire shots and tear gas in

nigeria as hundreds of kidnapped schoolgirls are reunited with that found these chaotic scenes as parents rushed to take their children home. and gatto has welcomed into the program germany is extending its coronavirus shutdown by 3 weeks until march 28 but some restrictions will be eased to allow non-essential stores and other businesses to reopen in areas with relatively low infection rates chancellor merkel announced the 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 then. you know we're at the threshold of a new phase of the pandemic. 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 east

as of next week the reopening strategy also focuses on vaccinations and mass testing jabs will soon be available at 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. merkel said the regional leaders understood the public's desire for normalcy but stressed optimism shouldn't come without caution when you think the old go to 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 shouldn't send us back months in this pandemic . with the 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. let's bring in dr

jaenisch domini is a member of the german born to start for the opposition green party and also a physician who's experienced covert 19 at the frontline last year what do you and your party make of these latest plans. well they are quite confusing if we look at the numbers at the moment opteron steady state in the last week numbers are rising again and i am as a doctor very crowded turned biology mutated byron's which are spreading fast throughout germany i don't think that the measures which are taken between regional leaders and chancellor merkel yesterday will fit the situation and i think we are heading right into a 3rd wave so is it a bad plan that machall announced last night. well if we tell people at the moment that there is a chance to reopen on

a broad spectrum this is just not true the situation is very dangerous at the moment and as a doctor and opposition party member i my expectations were that we invest much more effort into speeding up vaccination campaign into home testing as a key measure in this country make some of the we're going to come excuse me for interrupting you are going to come into vaccinations in a moment i'm just trying to find out whether you actually agree with the plan that she put forward last night all or whether you are opposed to it. while it's there the plan from last night is just not enough there were there are holes and they those holes are just too big for the virus to be stopped so you you what you want be you want to be continued you don't want that opening that is being discussed in these plans yeah definitely i mean we could we could open if we if there is

safety nets with rocket testing with smart medical mosque for everyone and also a better more violent digital application for contact tracing but all those measures on meth missing so without the safety net opening is too dangerous in the moment. you mentioned vaccination which is deplorable state and at the moment in germany whose fault is that. well i it's a national government who is responsible to coordinate and to better communicate about the vaccination campaign there are many questions people have about different vaccines available at the moment on the one hand side but also the coordination bringing the vaccine to the right spot at the right time and making it more and more bile and available in private practices from pemberley doctors it's far too slow and that's why we are told behind d.s.

is using xen the federal government has failed in the vaccination drive so far yes i mean we are now on the last places where when we look on different countries in europe and this is not about something it's about life the people over here in germany only with foster vaccination we will get that pandemic on the control do you think that it's possible to get rid of the rock received on is at the moment hindering vaccinations. well it is a kind of typical german thing that we. are denied so this vaccination campaign very technically very centralized and not like in the mall by the way medical care works on on an area basis so i think put all those dreaded g s to centralise those vaccination strategy behind and put it to the private practices

put it to. doctors and physicians who take care of workplaces of the people so bring it make it more mobile and more available and then what we will be foster. 30 owners dominant member of the german bonus on full tilt position green party thank you very much for the time. they were very much. a new global study shows that countries with high obesity levels how far higher death rates from cold at 19 the report from the world obesity federation found that the covert desk rate is 10 times higher in countries where more than half of the population are overweight the study does not address who catches the corona virus but who dies from it the authors are calling for people living with obesity to be given vaccination priority olivia bharata cover company is joining me now the director of sciences science and programs at the world obesity federation joining she joins us from london to tell

us more about the study findings has this been an overlooked factor in looking at covert mortality. so in the last year we have been studying this at rapid pace and we have been finding associations between obesity and coding $1000.00 complications in the last few months from studies from several countries i think what our report shows is that 90 percent of all cope with $1000.00 related that happen in countries that had at least 50 percent of their population with overweight of or obesity so it's something that is coming to light now people are starting to pay attention unfortunately it is too late has been years that all of us public health professionals have been advocating for more action on obesity and unfortunately now we're paying a high price for it and the country is suffering most mainly which countries are they. yes right now that's what we're seeing but i think it's also important to

note that some countries that right now have low rates of obesity and low rates of or to of coping 1000 mortality like for example vietnam also have very rapid rising rates of obesity so even if right now those countries are not suffering if we were to have another pandemic in a decade or so those countries would suffer as well so the problem really is urgent concerns all of us tell us also about the effect the obesity factor has on public health systems in the pandemic. well the problem is that people with obesity are suffering because they can't access or treatment they can have surgery they have problems just checking in with their own physicians and even before that and that make we know the health systems are not prepared to handle to handle obesity most medical schools don't even teach obesity in their curriculum so we have right now a disease that is so prevalent and so urgent and at the same time health systems

that are not prepared at all to manage it or to treat it and to prevent it you also demand priority for the overweight in getting the job and the other recommendations from your study. i think that important thing here is really to look at the science and not the narrative you know unfortunately the narrative that we are fed is that people with obesity i lay say they lack discipline and willpower when they're reality the scientific reality is that obesity is a disease and if we look at the contributing factors for a coping 1000 complications the 2 main ones are age and b.m.i. so based on science we need to perfect ties people with a b.m.i. over 34 vaccinations and besides from that we just want governments to really take action against obesity to adopt the roots framework which is recognizing obesity as a disease ensuring obesity monitoring of visitor prevention treatment for obesity and adopting a systems based approach we need the coordinated response because this is

a really complex problem in europe just telling people to you know it last and move more it's not going to cut it it's not enough to live out a couple comes in from the world to b.c. federation thank you very much for this insight thank you for having me it's a good time to have a look at some of the developments in the pandemic the european union has started a review of russia's sputnik vina vaccine moscow says it expects several you country to approve its use this month's rees is extending its current lockdown through march 16th after cases of new infections have continued to spike for days millions of vaccine shots from the free kovacs program due to arrive in nigeria and goa and the democratic republic of congo last we got on the ivory coast received the 1st batches from the u.n. sponsored vaccine. funerals have been taken place in the bloodiest day since the military coup began last month's total of $38.00 people were killed on wednesday

but as people gathered across the country to bury and mourn the victims demonstrations continued pro-democracy protests leaders from a small. yesterday she was a protester today perception carries her body through the streets of mandalay carlson and 19 year old university student shot in the head during a protest against the military on wednesday. after funeral relatives surrounded her open coffin as mourners passed by paying their respects all singing revolutionary songs and chanting slogans. green emboldened protesters have returned to the streets of me in mar with a clear understanding of what's at stake they know their defiance of the military coup could cost them their lives. we don't want anything from them we just demand that our mother and censored she is back and the power is on the people sants we

don't want the military ruling the country that's why we're protesting and i'm also ready to die instead of others when soldiers come back again. and i know. the military to his rant up its response with the show of force scrambling fighter jets to make several low altitude passes over mandalay. with both sides unwilling to back down i mean maher remains on a razor's edge. as a journalist covering the violent crackdown and joins us from young on approach is a back on the streets in several cities is the situation there escalating again today. yes so we haven't seen the sort of violence that we saw yesterday today although we do see that protesters are out with even more and the barricades

that they have been constructing all week long have gotten more and more sophisticated as is have gone on and the bear is that we're seeing today are even more fortified they've been using sandbags as well as very large. types to have been left out on the streets because both the coup and the m.r.c. situation we're told bit. and it's unclear when and why security forces choose to use the sort of deadly force that we saw yesterday as well as on sunday well the u.n. special envoy has called wednesday the bloodiest day since the military junta overthrew the elected government why the intensification of violence that you also just described. so if we look at the numbers of people being killed and where they're being killed you can see that there's a concentration in places like mandalay yet. and mandalay among i have declared themselves south of minutes 30 cities who are not accountable to military regime

and many houses and yet have also declared themselves to be self minister and so it's quite likely that the military is focusing the majority of their force in these areas because they are the ones showing the most public and systematic resistance to whom. but so far the appears to be ignoring international condemnations un sanctions what more do protest is a need to end support from the international community. protesters have been calling for global arms embargo on myanmar as well as on all nation states around the world to not legitimize the 5 ensuring that if they are speaking with the military council they only speak with them in order to try facilitate those she will let the government and not work with to work as into these i was proposing just 2 weeks ago. to a new election in that year and so it's actually to withdraw any sort of legitimacy

from the military council journalist thank you very much for joining us today thank you. and i was some of the other stories making headlines around the world today police in sweden say they are investigating a possible terrorism motive after 8 people were wounded in a stabbing rampage the suspect attacker was shot and arrested by police following the incident in the southern town of atlanta police say they did not have any prior warning about and take. the international criminal court has opened a probe into alleged war crimes committed in the palestinian territories since 2015 the investigation will target both the israeli military and the palestinian militant group hamas it comes after the i.c.c. ruled last month that as yours dixon over territories occupied by israel including the west bank and the gaza strip. has reported

a loss of $6700000000.00 euros for last year as the covert 19 pandemic led to travel restrictions and tens of thousands of flights being canceled during the crisis the ally it was propped up with a 9000000000 euro cash injection by the governments of germany belgium austria and switzerland who may now lies also belong to the stones. it's one of the world's most spectacular displays of political theater china's annual national people's congress it starts on friday the event is held largely to rubber stamp decisions already made by the communist party elite 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 laws. red flags are flying on tiananmen square ahead 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 which in the end. 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 couldn't see america as the world's largest economy by 2030 so sort of 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. we've already seen some very difficult days recently on kong and over the past few months use in a again and again and n.b.c. beijing has commented beazley said rules and on kong change the laws given that 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 kong and reducing the role of on hong kong on people running on call to congress also gives an insight into china's defense budget last year military spending fell to its lowest in 3 decades the 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 on china the us secretary of state has warned that washington will not shy away from confrontation with beijing in his 1st major speech on sunday blinken described china as the 21st century's biggest geopolitical test the challenge posed by china is different china is the only country with the economic diplomatic military and technological power to seriously challenge the stable and open international system all the rules values and relationships that make the world work the way we wanted to because it ultimately serves the interests and reflects the values of the american people our relationship with china will be competitive want to should be collaborative one it can be an adversarial one it must be. your secretary of state and steve lincoln speaking there and security

teams are on high alert there in washington d.c. preparing for another possible attack on the company told by extremists on thursday and that's the day some right wing conspiracy theorists believe former president donald trump will be sworn in for a 2nd term in office the u.s. justice department has charged more than $300.00 people for the violent capitol siege 6. well the f.b.i. and others in law enforcement are facing a backlash for failing to contain the pro trump mob earlier we also washington correspondent ali was that what they're trying to do differently this time around back at the time on january 6th the threat really was not taken seriously enough it took law enforcement hours to respond to the fact that rioters had entered the capitol premises one explanation for that was the police by law enforcement they are didn't really see rioters as

a threat police was supportive of paul trump in general and simply because trump has been supportive of police at times of the black lives matter protests now this time around it is a very different situation clear there are miles off a razor wire top fences surrounding the capitol premises so you cannot even get any close to the capitol itself security has been tied some just for this day tomorrow on march 4th so it's really hard to imagine a repetition of what happened on january 6th law enforcement really wants to avoid a situation like that a repetition and comes well prepared for. all of the 279 nigerian schoolgirls released by kidnappers this week have been reunited with their parents but the reunion 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 kidnappings in future but nigerians want actions

more promises a moment to savor for politicians and top security officers the kidnapped girls are released 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 parent. i'm really happy i came back home we thank god for everything. on sunday we spoke to some cigar do a parent whose daughter was among the 279 he kidnapped girls i went back to me team after his daughter was set free. could only speak to her on the phone. i hear. so it didn't throughout my system of political

and that. early and so. yes this is my 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 for diminishes state officials have told me that they are going to beef up security at schools and they will prevent such he did not in the future but they did say that similar promises have been made in the past and yet there are people and not being killed all kidnapped by the gunmen. i asked this of fish or what his government was doing to put an end to the virus is not something that you continue with in one year or is it just a gradual forces so gradually all those bonded will be different and come back to

normal activities for the gals their resolve to continue their education has not faded though their kidnappers give them a strong warning the bandit said to us that they will return to attack us when they finish their money. it's defied screw we got that they kidnapped we are paid off though officials deny they paid a ransom to secure the freedom of the girls and the nigerians won't take pretty shuns word for e.t.a. the. latest space x. efforts to send people into space ended in another rocket exploding but father still says the test was a success. the company's s n 10 unmanned rocket blew up just minutes after landing the touchdown represents the 1st successful landing from this type of rocket shortly after the initial moment celebrated the starship but sed it to flames must later tweeted

rest in peace s n 10 honorable discharge the prototype rockets are being developed to carry people to the moon and later to mass. that's it you are up to date up next it up your business with stephen because i've got office pencil.

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make up your mind. and almost 7000000000 euro loss for live tons in 2020 it's a record slide for germany's flagship carrier and all thanks to the pandemic so what does move tons of need to bounce back in 2020 want to talk to our correspondent in frankfurt. also on the show europe's top football clubs are sweating their finances amid a pandemic and changing viewer happens smaller clubs are just trying to hang on we'll look at the financial struggles across the football world. and london doesn't quite look like one.