oh. this is eat up your news live from berlin a year after coronavirus forced china into shutdown now it is setting out plans to bounce back the country shift its focus from fighting the virus to longer term economic goals beijing also outlines electoral reforms that will tighten its grip on hong kong. also coming up more sanctions are placed on the yanmar over the military's deadly violence against protesters the u.n. security council is set to meet later to discuss the escalating crisis plus

germany's new phased plan to reopen is met with criticism retailers say it is too cautious while public health experts warn it could lead to another wave of inception we speak with an epidemiologist who also serves in the german parliament and the 1st papal visit to iraq pope francis will urge the country's dwindling number of christians to stay put and help rebuild after years of war and persecution. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program china is mapping out a new course as it bounces back from the pandemic the nation announced its growth targets for its economy this year and vowed to guard hong kong against external forces now these were marks. were made at the opening of its legislative session in

beijing china has rebounded strongly from the pandemic and was the only need your economy to see economic growth last year it has contained the virus through strict restrictions and mass testing. now hong kong will be a key focus during the annual congress and beijing has laid out its intent to overhaul the electoral system there. the chaos in hong kong society shows that there are obvious loopholes and defects in the current electoral system and mechanisms of the hong kong special administrative region we don't want provides an opportunity for the china forces in hong kong to seize control of the hong kong as they are. and for more on this i'm joined by journalist mathias bowling there who is standing by for us in beijing and mathias we have to just mention for context last year this national people's congress imposed a national security law on hong kong that has led led to dozens of arrests in the

region tell us now reforming the electoral system is in focus what does that mean. well in the past or until now beijing hired a mechanism which tightly control who can be their chief executive and who can be in the government of hong kong but. it also is sure the majority for the probe aging come in the legislature but the opposition always was able to gain quite a few seats in the legislature and use of course the legislature to promote their own political goes beijing has now driven out the opposition come out of the legislature that means they have disqualified some of the ledges laid his and then the others resigned saying they would not be part of a parliament that would not repress and vote his will and they are making sure no

that only people can get elected that are approved by beijing this is actually the end off the parliament as we have known it before so there is no opposition in the parliamentary right now and we have the national people's congress spokesperson saying that hong kong's electoral system needs to be improved to guarantee that patriots and minister hong kong tell us what do they mean by patriots and what does that mean for the hope of democracy in hong kong. in their off ishall. speech this means that anybody who is working to its secession or independence off hong kong could not be. a member of any governing body or the parliament in hong kong it means thout they are accusing the opposition camp of being secessionist and while there are people who promote on calling independence most of the opposition people just want to keep their one country 2

systems out as it has been on this stood on till now but increasingly beijing is using the word patriot meaning loyalists beijing is trying to eliminate the risk of opposition is trying to eliminate descend in public life in hong kong and it is just briefly before we go 6 percent economic growth that's the target now in china how do they plan to get there. yet this is what beijing. says it wants to achieve and it signals that beijing sees its economy back on track to normal how exactly they are going to achieve it is of course not clear the traditional way of achieving it is the investing public investment this is something beijing does not want to see it is the same extent as before and they want to rebalance the economy towards more consumer growth how they're going to do

it is probably something they do not know exactly themselves yet and it is falling and measuring thank you. now there's been developments in mar in the past hours police have reportedly opened fire on protesters in mandalay local media are reporting that one person has been killed fresh protests have erupted in several cities across the country that's despite this escalating violence that we have seen 38 protesters were reportedly killed on wednesday the united states has tightened export controls on myanmar its latest move to sanction the military juntas deadly crackdown on protesters the un security council is due to hold talks on the crisis later today. and let's bring in now sam we are calling him sam to protect his identity he is joining us on the ground there in myanmar just just give

us the latest about what we're hearing about this this crackdown on protesters right now. those are just wants to prove just this morning. no more than 10000 people joining. the troops just just didn't you know it was going to change in most games we all know that. which is just you know still one place so he wrote still yes noble as you care so will. the police came. to do nationally yes you may protest but. they want to short people don't dollars you know its own soul one person was shot in the next. week can you confirm that i mean were you there did you see anything to your hair or anything what was what was the situation. yes one with

the true protesting may persist in a group that i didn't do. myself. to my house and leader and so on all my facebook. ok ok and we have to mention i mean. you know you have this report of of this one individual now being shot we also have these additional reports of dozens of protesters killed in crackdowns earlier in the week and yet you know the resistance the protest movement it seems to be on the broken is that also your feeling when you're going out on the streets and if so why is that. just. you know mostly young people's you know ages. 20 the all lined up in front of the main protests. with with the shootings so those shoes this is really you know all. those years on

bullet proof but they are you know presenting them right right here you know so we're going to i can see that you know people are very concerned about. speaking of there are words spreading their words today onto the world in order to get you know democracy. there now you want then coud join the protest willing to die and everyone is willing to die wow i mean that's an incredible sense of resolve and you say that you're spreading the word you know international pressure does appear to be growing on the one we mentioned a little bit earlier that the u.s. has expanded its trade blacklist for me on march and i'd just like to ask you i mean when you see things like that does that give you a sense of hope or would you like to see more if you would like to see more what would you like to see. yes. unknown calling for

r 2 p. from un. yeah so do you want a guess you want to see more you know just as of action 2 words knows military on top. we all know that this is a you know long game and. people from all kinds of. government governmental you know position that's drawing including i'm president of us air right no more than 600 police have joined in syria. soldiers also joining in syria and so yeah but i think this is going to get you know bigger in the coming days and this has put lots of hope back into the people. i think this is you know message and also a message in fact on the military on star sam we thank you so much for joining us as we mentioned you're in mandalay where we've had these reports coming in in the

past hours for their crackdown shots fired and we thank you so much for telling us a little bit about your experience and what the protesters there are going through . and you. go check of some other stories making news around the world senegalese police clashed with student protesters in the capital dakar a police official said that one person was killed it follows the detention of opposition leader almost man zone call on wednesday now some close arrest was triggered has triggered the worst unrest seen in the west african country in years . authorities in new zealand have downgraded a tsunami warning untold thousands of people that they can return to their homes they had issued an evacuation alert after a series of powerful earthquakes off the country's northeastern coast. there has been widespread criticism of germany's decision to extend its coronavirus shutdown

until the end of this month chancellor angela merkel met with state leaders on wednesday and agreed to a cautious reopening strategy the plan also includes measures to make rapid testing more widely available and to speed up the vaccine rollout now so far germany has lagged behind many of its european neighbors in getting available doses into people's arms in a moment we will hear from an epidemiologist who was also a member of the german parliament but 1st a look at how the country got here i'm going to america has just reset full of her strategy on corona trying a new daunting balance in the face of a 3rd wave. and we are taking steps to open up but they must not set us back in our fight against the pandemic a drastic departure from her strategy so far which so locked down after locked down when infections rose the tonsil and her health minister yen spawn under pressure

businesses are struggling and public opinion is shifting over the past year angela merkel has used lockdowns as hope prying tool to keep covert at bay now growing frustration at the slow rollout of the vaccination program here in germany is mixing with lockdown fatigue and many are beginning to ask whether the americal still has the right approach when the chancellor 1st directly addressed the nation on coded right at the beginning of the crisis she vowed that her government would think on its feet. these are standard this is a dynamic situation and we will continue to learn as we go along so we can change course and react with other instruments adam and any time. biotech pfizer came up with that instrument everyone wanted the 1st market ready vaccine but germany and the you had vaccinated just over 5 percent of the people by the time israel celebrated vaccinating almost its entire population taking the european way may

have prevented an e.u. meltdown but it was painfully slow and the too late course the vaccination effort was slow to get going and going off it's only now that germany is adding rapid test centers and home testing to its pandemic strategy months after austria merkel's new approach of opening up as mutations gather pace is the wrong move says the opposition. i don't think that the measures which are taken between regional leaders and chancellor merkel yes that they will fit you a situation and i think we are right into 3rd way overall support for the government's coronas strategy is still solid at around 50 percent but it used to be more than 70 within 12 months i'm going to machall went from being europe's corona leadership champion who managed to flatten the curve to

a chance to increasingly on the defensive over these coming weeks and months her legacy may be rewritten of a corona. that was our chief political editor of reporting from berlin and d.-w. political correspondent simon young talked through germany's latest steps in combating the virus with carr lauterbach's he's an epidemiologist at a member of parliament who has become known as a voice of caution. the chancellor talks about an emergency brake if infections go back up you don't believe in the emergency brake i believe and emergency brake once we are up to let's say an incidence rate of a 100 per 100000 inhabitants per week. we will come back to the lockdown that we currently have so there is as an emergency brake and i do not only believe that this is an emergency way out to believe we will have to use it right

you've tweeted that the strategy will cost us a lot of covert cases and it won't help the economy on she being too pessimistic. i don't sing on too pessimistic what's going to happen we will have increasing case numbers because we are in a sort of wave and so the sation will not have the current payroll as the surveys and at the same time we will not be able to help the economy because we cannot open restaurants or bars or anything because when there is in increase in caseload such openings will not happen so you agree with the bavarian leader marcos who says that our hearts tell us to open up but common sense says be cautious don't people need to have a perspective of how lockdown is going to end a little saying we have a perspective that perspective is here vaccination where everyone was prepared to get vaccinated to speed up the vaccination podgy we have come up with important

decisions i suspect as a very important decisions and to use and asian testing says testing as a witch technology so there is a perspective. can you predict when lock downs will finally end in germany i think that log on and then join me once we have the 3. picks in the book the majority will support the president about frank you very much. and now here are some other developments in the corona virus pandemic italy has blocked 250000 doses of the oxford astra zeneca vaccine from being shipped to australia it is the 1st time that an e.u. country has blocked a vaccine shipment under export powers that took effect in january california is sending 40 percent of all vaccine doses to areas considered high risk that is based on metrics such as household income and education level the state governor says

that vaccinating the most vulnerable is key to reopening the economy. new zealand will lift a lockdown in its largest city auckland on sunday it was prompted by just one new case of covert 19 parts of the government's go hard go early response to houses made of scrap material no running water no electricity well if you think this is texas after a winter storm or a forgotten refugee camp think again this describes home for thousands of roma families across serbia many of them ended up in serbia 2 decades ago fleeing the war in kosovo now their temporary shelter now permanent housing entire makeshift neighborhoods that serbian authorities seem to overload year after year our correspondent funny for char visited one of these settlements on the outskirts of belgrade crossing the road to a life no one wants to live

a social worker takes us inside this room a settlement it's in the middle of a forest people here are left to fend for themselves. they are poor. trying to live. and they are angry various politicians have been here they say but nothing has changed see me in my you day when they make it back to me they only come when the elections are coming up the they give us some flour sugar or oil and macaroni and they think that we will live from this gift all year 9 minute. this settlement started out as a makeshift camp for refugees fleeing the war in kosovo more than 2 decades ago that's when sampson arrived back then a teenager now a father of 7 children us. he welcomes us into his house made of scrap material his youngest child is only

a couple of months old. because i don't want them to live in the same life. or not i've been struggling for so many years i most sorry for my wife she has to do laundry by hand i would buy a washing machine but i have nowhere to turn it on. with the ongoing pandemic the children had to drop out of school without internet no access and then there is the key legal hurdle to improving their lives so. we have encountered a lot of problems because i did not have any documentation when i came here we did not have the time when we left kosovo. he stories that of so many here one of their biggest obstacles to proper housing and health care documents without i.d.'s people who live here have become legally invisible in serbia. there are hundreds of

informal roma settlements but this camp is one of the worst people here are living in inhumane conditions with no electricity no running water they feel ignored and overlooked by the government the local government in belgrade did not want to answer all questions about the living conditions here mark of us yet each is not surprised he's been advocating for the rights of the romans to be up for years living without access to the very basics is a serious health risk at any time but especially during the current pandemic he says used to connect the world to the mental and physical that are in there their health is extremely affected both physically and mentally by people and this may at some point ask an auditor will store they are sporadic housing programs for people living in for most settlements because there is no systematic approach to all informal settlements systems to produce to the problem that she needs he believes this is due to discrimination of a community already marginalized in so many parts of the world. they are already

various action plans and national police ensued bia to improve the living conditions of froma together they are one of drew quiet to join the european union one day but such plants and police require a stronger political will to implement them so settlements like this one cease to exist. and pope francis is set to begin a historic tour of iraq today despite heightened fears over security and nationwide coronavirus curfews the 84 year old head of the catholic church is scheduled to arrive in baghdad on friday afternoon marking the 1st papal visit to the country security has been beefed up after a spate of rocket and suicide bomb attacks in recent weeks francis will meet with political and religious leaders and visit the former islamic state stronghold mosul . it is the pope's 1st trip outside of italy since november $21000.00.

vatican and iraqi flags going up for pope francis's visit. people here are working hard to fix everything up before he arrives paving the roads fixing street lights and setting up crowd control barriers expectations are high. we hope for this to be a successful visit and that it will help this injured country. when his holiness the pope visits any place where a lot of positive outcomes from his visit. to canada cost church sits on the nineveh plain in iraq home to some of the earliest christian settlements centuries before islam established itself across the middle east. over time iraq became home to one of the world's most diverse christian communities featuring catholic how they in armenian orthodox protestant as well as

other branches of christianity. then politicize. we are sending a message to the pope and to the world that we are here to do that now we are christians are remaining on our land though our roots are here so it is impossible to leave the homeland that embraced us let's see if that makes it much knowledgeable hockey a so. there were as many as an estimated 1400000 christians in the country at the start of the iraq war in 2003 sectarian conflict drove most of them away in 2014 the so-called islamic state started targeting christians driving hundreds of thousands of them from their homes those who remain belong to many different branches of the faith. but how much there is a crisis of instability our future is completely uncertain our faith has always

saved us so far during the islamic state regime and the countless attacks on churches homes and villages it has helped us in iraq and it will continue to do so now through this phase and we love our country and are rooted here but if the situation keeps getting worse we may have to leave. the pope's visit is supposed to send a message of support but who also meet with the head of iraq's shiite muslim community sending a different message that the different faiths can get along. some sports news for you now and of the term but it's a club shot to have been playing in the top division for nearly 3 decades but this year it looks like they'll be relegated it's been a chaotic period the club's new coach is their 5th it's the season. dimitrios promotes his has been unveiled as the new head coach and the 42 year old's task is clear say shall go from relegation definitely

a tall order. i see salt as a great challenge i'm really looking forward to the job and will try to channel more of the energy and power this club usually exudes into the team so we can then show that on the pitch. schult has new man gained his coaching experience in the lower division in germany but as a player promotes this made nearly 150 appearances in the bundesliga he's played at various clubs shoko only managed one victory under his predecessor their 1st all season now the aim is simple when. the voice and. we now want to approach it all with an open mind we want to push with the boys have fun and play like shall go again will now do everything for that. to his 1st chance comes on a friday in a real relegation 6 pointer at home versus minds. and with that now you're up to

date here on t.v. it is up next it is global 3000 is of course always more now i've cited up in dot com and on social media i've got the news i'm sorry kelly in for a laugh thanks for watching.

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