that's what to do with all our waste. we try difference by choosing smaller solutions overstrained said it always. the one to use the room into a series of mean little 3 holes or only to double the normal. this is d w news and these are our top stories british prime minister boris johnson has denied that his government banned the export of covert 1000 vaccines to the european union he told british lawmakers that he opposes vaccine nationalism in all forms johnson made the statement after european council president shot in the shadow accuse the u.k. of imposing an export ban. former brazilian president luis and asked who would do that to silva has slammed president your boss naro and his handling of the corona

virus pandemic was making his 1st official appearance since his corruption convictions were overturned by a supreme court justice meanwhile brazil has been posting a record deaths from coke at 19 this week marking 2000 fatalities in a single day for the 1st time. the us congress has passed president joe biden's $1.00 trillion dollar coronavirus relief package over republican opposition it will give a direct payments to most taxpayers as well as extended jobless benefits in a major expansion of the country social security net republicans have criticized the bill for being too expensive. this is w. news from berlin you can follow us on instagram and twitter at g w news or you can visit our website w dot com. today texas allowed all businesses in the state to reopen 100 percent and it ended the

state wide facemask requirement the number of people infected with the coronavirus is planted towing it's not going down and only 80 percent of texans have been vaccinated and yet the governor says we've waited long enough a huge risk in a state where the locals claim everything is bigger for the texas themselves let's hope this doesn't apply to the number of people who could soon be headed for the hospital i'm bored golf in berlin this is the day. it is now time to open texas 100 percent why not. you know the timing doesn't make sense texans have mastered the daily habits to avoid getting cope with the last 3 or 4 think you've already had 45000 people those

are lives in the state of texas and now it's going to go up removing state mandates does not in and personal responsibility are concerned here is on the health welfare wellbeing and survival frankly of people across the country. also coming up a political leaders using the pandemic to put a free press under lockdown the european union today pointed the finger at 3 countries hungary poland and our destination tonight slovenia is absolutely a systematic attempt to control the media to silence the critics and the government to resent that there's not stopping it criticizing the media they are personally attacking journalists they are particularly attacking. to our viewers on p.b.s. . in the united states and to all of you around the world welcome we begin the day

taking the temperature in texas today texas lifted its state wide mask mandate and ended all restrictions on businesses texas governor greg abbott saying it's time to focus on saving livelihoods as well as saving lives but in a reminder of how political the pandemic remains in the us the democrat led capital city austin is defining the republican governor by demanding a citywide mass mandate stay in place in a pandemic the actions of a large state such as texas they have consequences that go far beyond the border almost 20 percent of americans have been vaccinated against the corona virus in texas only 8 percent the number of new coronavirus cases in the state is not climbing but it's also not fall and doctors say vaccination levels are still too low the chances of spreading the virus still too high unless everyone keeps wearing those masks a before you enter that establishment you need to know what's expected as

a guest eat at lines and for employees to know what as guests and again. i'm sorry you know that the rules you know if you if you want to come into my business you have to be respectful of other people from the us could be in here i did and just let it all. know what it was that it's a conversation about this we don't need it. it's just each person has their right to make the decision and we should all respect me enough when my 1st guest tonight is dr william schaffner he is a professor of preventive medicine and health policy at vanderbilt university in nashville tennessee dr schaffner it's good to have you back here on the day let me start by listening to president joe biden his reaction earlier this month to that announcement that texas and mississippi would end their mask mandates take a listen. i hope everybody realizes by now these must

make a difference. we are on across the globe being able to fundamentally. change the nature of this disease because of the way in which we were able to get proxies in people's arms no one asked them the last thing that is neanderthal think united in the retirees trying to mask forget it it's still matter. and the show after the us president he got a lot of boy back from his choice of words there and i'm going to ask you is it neanderthal thinking to end mask mandates while the virus is still spreading all right i think it is mistaken thinking we're not yet at mission accomplished for sure we're vaccinating more and more people in the united states but this virus is still effecting more people than we want life far we're still at very very high levels and we're coming down a bit but now we've played well most of the country and i am concerned that texas

mississippi and other parts of the country are now removing their masks mandates and masks work they're cheap they're very very effective they protect the wearer and they protect people around us masks should be the last thing we stop as we fight this outbreak i know i was looking at the numbers 8 percent of the population of texas has been vaccinated so we're not talking about a lot of people and at the same time the number of new infections in the case loads they're not going up but they're also not going down we're talking about this plateau does that give these new viral variants the advantage then to come in and to start spreading again of these face masks or not be more. well surely what we're concerned about is indeed these variants which are even more contagious and the parent strain the british parent actually is likely to make you more seriously ill

if you become infected so we need to do everything we can to reduce the transmission of these variants then asks social distancing good and hygiene avoiding groups that all continues to work while we're vaccinating but we need to do both sorts of things for a period of time until we can relax you know that especially in texas they've not only lifted the mask mandate they've also lifted all the restrictions on business is 100 percent that means people can go back to restaurants for example for dining talk to me a little bit about how the virus spreads indoors particularly in restaurants well clearly indoors prolonged contact close contact in bars and restaurants and other gathering places including religious services that's

a place that the virus loves to spread and if you have a super contagious virus such as these british variant is that's just an environment where they'll soon be more cases following the cases will come more hospitalizations intensive care unit missions and after that will come the deaths we got new guidelines from the centers for disease control this week about what people who have been vaccinated what they can do now and i was wondering what does that mean if you have a room with some people who have been vaccinated in some here who have it what rules still apply. yeah that's the more difficult question the easier question brant is can a group of people who vaccinated get together for dinner or game of cards or whatever and then he answers easy that's yes now when vaccinated and unvaccinated people come together the question is who are these only vaccinated people and if

they've been careful day to day or are we in danger of having them bring the virus into that environment remember the vaccines at their best are 95 percent effective not 100 percent so you still have to maintain some caution the governor of the state of texas has said that the people should be able to decide what is best what is right for them we ask you as a public health official is it is it wise to trust the public to take the necessary precautions when you're in a pandemic you know print it's less a matter of trust then it's actually a matter of this virus be communicable so what you do for yourself what you decide to do for yourself actually involves others the the image i'd like to have is at a traffic light we go on the green light and stop on the red light if someone

drives on the red light. death that's their own volition that's their own independent decision but they endanger not only themselves and others not wearing a mask is like driving on the bridge it's right there when you drive on red and you're also breaking the wall that's an important point there dr william schaffner from vanderbilt university in nashville tennessee as always our discover is going to talk with you good to get your insights thank you a pleasure. well to morrow march 11th will be exactly one year since the world health organization declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a full blown pandemic despite shutdowns and lock downs these past 12 months our world has changed dramatically one year ago today china reported the 1st drop in new coronavirus cases while numbers here in europe were beginning to explode europe had become the new global epicenter of the pandemic and as you'll see in this look

back march 10th would be the last day europe's political leaders would be able to talk about the virus with a smile. today may go down in history as the moment when the corona virus mutated geographically so we're at the very beginning of this epidemic we have to keep it clean mind that this cannot be business as usual we are facing an exceptional situation it's not an end to what sort of their methods to be done to their ain't going to work tonight across europe governments are scrambling to put as much space between millions of people and the virus and those who don't know what this is it's a kiss you we haven't used them for sneezing and chew on if you don't have one cheek use your elbows you have to strong to do what china just it is that even possible it still does from now even with stopping shaking hands. so there's

a big overhaul. to go. former u.s. president jimmy carter says he is saddened and angry about the restrictions on voting while makers in his home state of georgia are considering today the 96 year old carter released a statement which reads american democracy means every eligible person has the right to vote in an election that is fair open and secure we must not lose the progress we have made we must not promote confidence among one segment of the electorate by restricting the participation of others our goal always should be to increase not decrease voter participation. and voters in georgia turned out in record numbers last november electing 2 democrats to the u.s. senate thereby giving democrats control of the u.s. congress republicans say the new legislation is necessary to restore confidence in

elections but carter says they are misleading the public with lies championed by former president donald trump trump still claims the election was rigged although he has never provided any proof the renowned and respected u.s. television journalist roger mudd has died he was 93 mud was one of broadcast journalism's original titans working alongside c.b.s. anchor walter cronkite he spent 20 years covering politics in washington which brings us back to former president jimmy carter carter lost the election in 1900 to ronald reagan one year earlier it looked like carter the incumbent could be challenged by fellow democrat massachusetts senator ted kennedy roger mudd interviewed kennedy in 1979 and with one simple direct question the hopes of kennedy for the white house were dashed the reporting prowess of roger mudd is

still studied and admired to this very day here is that famous exchange followed by months commentary years later on the stump had a vacancy dominating imposing a masterful officer and personal interviews he can become stilted elliptical and at times appears if he really doesn't want america to get to know him why do you want to be president. were i to make the announcement to run the reason that i would run is because what was interesting about it was how how really discouraged we were at the results of the interview but once you. i took it into a screening room and you saw this sort of sculpted irish face on the screen of able. to articulate why he wanted to be president everest

caught all my duty he doesn't know. the right to report it something many journalists in the united states and here in europe take for granted at their own peril today the european union called out 3 of its eastern members poland hungary and slovenia saying they are exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to clamp down on the work of reporters we want to take a closer look at slovenia where the prime minister is accused of waging a war against the media with a campaign to label journalists as spreaders of fake news observers say his attacks are creating a climate of fear in newsrooms across the country our correspondent barbara visa will travel to slovenia and met one of the journalists targeted. journalism is really a walk in the park but being regularly attack by your own government should not be

part of the job description that is why i have a board slovenian reporter on his experiences when she publishes critical articles right now so on a personal level i'm just fed up. on the professional level i'm just very worried because i don't want to be living in a country without a press or without a vigorous press did she was targeted by a prime minister young team as distinctly biased and leftwing other journalists were compared to prostitutes most attacks are launched on twitter ranging from personal insults to condemning the whole profession he was basically attacking. journalists from the public broadcaster this is something that he has been saying for ever if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes journalism i mean that's what he's been saying in many different ways you know about journalists and about media and deduces the barrage of smears and personal assaults has become markedly worse in the past year

it doesn't play it this time around. and as the answer took the gloves off even the very thin gloves that he used to wear and he doesn't care anymore even slovenia's national news agency is known for its independence and impartiality finds itself under attack the government is questioning its legal basis and threatening to pull funding. the fact that s.k. is facing really a serious of attempts to destabilize it this instability financial instability and or saw this let's say this credit they should return going on especially on social media and especially from the highest ranks of stakeholders they are really worrying and they're also about 90 people who are war jobs. so this is a really tough situation slovenia has largely been seen as

a success story among the ex-communist countries of central europe but experts warn that under this glossy the new year the current government is moving the country in the wrong direction. she does absolutely this is dramatic attempt to control the media to silence critics and you wish to regain control of your relevant media in this country. during the last year day became much more aggressive much more and to get mystique and the government representatives are not stopping at criticizing the media they are personally attacking journalists they are particularly attacking female journalists so i would say that this is a really a behavior that of course is not in line with the standards of the union and of course they also feel that there will be some repercussions or that the e.u. will have to make up its mind whether to take a stand and defend press freedom in slovenia as long as there still is a free press to protect in this country. and my colleague has returned from

she's back in brussels tonight good evening to you. sir what do we make of these 3 countries you've got a pandemic going on in all of them and you've got all 3 of them basically targeting journalists that's more than just a coincidence isn't it. absolutely i'm in the using the pandemic there have been throughout the last year to tighten the screws even further but let's not forget this has been going on for years particularly in hungary and poland and sylvian is see viktor orban the hungary and prime minister warless as the godfather of the how to abolish press freedom in your country and they're really following his playbook how do you do this you 1st threaten journalists you poison public opinion against them then you start throttling them by new rules and regulations and then you get your supporters and your political cronies to buy up those media step by step and

after 10 years of the hungary we see today there is simply nothing left and that is what the others are more or less emulating you know it's like the godfather redux for the journalists that you love to hate let's take the country that you visited lenient the government is personally attacking individual journalists they are why . they're attacking them because they can poison public opinion against them this way and it really goes to unbelievable extremes younus the young the prime minister himself a couple of years ago called 2 journalists 2 women journalists who had done a report about right wing tendencies in the countries and groups in the country and the new nazi groups in the country he had called them cheap prostitutes on twitter in writing and that really is that drive you know takes it to a point where you just sort of wonder how is it possible that in the midst of europe somebody like this can be prime minister so what do you do if you poison

public opinion you denigrate people you denigrate their opinions and what the ruling party in slovenia hopes to do somehow is to really get rid of any free media any free journalism that will sort of criticize the government and we know what's at the end of that it's a sort of attack recy and this is not a slippery slope this seems to really be really like a steep hill that things are sliding down there and you hope the public is able to recognize this when someone is is hitting someone below the belt what about people in slovenia what what do they think about the media. some of course i mean who are following the more right wing populist a mindset they they they by this i mean you you have the the usual echo chambres in on social media and so those people who follow this they will believe it and it has to a certain extent already poisoned public debate people started to stop believing in

politics at all they think all politicians are somehow just nasty people and have a bad character that lumping the one side together was the other side this time a lot of people also well fighting back against this so our media who report freely or try to defend themselves but they would need help from the outside of if they don't get it and if you can continue on this way it's not going to take very long another couple of years and slovenia will have been go it will have been going the way hungary has known in the 1st place you know this is a cautionary tale of what happens when you take a free press for granted. in brussels tonight barbers always thank you. tomorrow japan will polls to remember the natural and maybe manmade disasters that forever scarred the people and their country exactly 10 years ago

a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami the tidal wave slammed into the coast and set a chain reaction in motion a nuclear meltdown at the fukushima nuclear power plant more than 18000 people died the land around the power plant contaminated with radiation uninhabitable to this very day we have this report now from inside the exclusion zone now me it's a ghost town situated just a few kilometers from the fukushima nuclear power plant the only thing left here is memories from march 28th levon. samuel cano grew up here. nowadays he rarely visits the family home it lies in the exclusion zone. where it's been too dangerous to live ever since. to call it what i don't find the time missed it still is that i feel more that everything has gotten worse. now there's just silence here.

but sammy o'connor is still haunted by the sound of the tsunami and the image of the wave destroying everything in its path is stuck in his mind. for you there. have to respect nature these are nature's warning signs that you must treat the earth with care if you are on your bed of ok if you are. some you know used to work at the power plant. now he wants nothing more to do with nuclear energy. one look at the area explains why the banks littering the ground are filled with radioactive soil an entire city has been eradicated and almost no one wants to live here cleaning up the damage will take generations thousands are busy on the site of the nuclear plant but the toughest work is yet to come west. there's

no blueprint for the work here and even though we're making progress you still come up against problems you didn't anticipate. you can you will be much. the workers recover spent nuclear fuel and make sure the reactors a constantly pumps with cooling water the water is purified but it's still contaminated and it may have to be dumped into the ocean at some point. the area is still in a state of emergency according to greenpeace. we're only a year or 10 over nuclear disaster that will be going on for at least the rest of this century. japan has invested billions of euros rebuilt sounds and constructed entirely new ones but they are mostly empty filled only with those who work at a power plant or the elderly. sami o'connor who hates the word we construction he says nothing will be like it was before. the gravesite of his family lies in the

exclusion zone no sure not over but just look at what i have to put on the kinds of annoying things i have to put up with just to visit a grave site. it won't be over tomorrow or in 10 years or even decades from now that's why salmiya cano feels compelled to talk about what happened on march 11th 2011. and that is our world tonight the day it's almost gone but the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter either in the news you can follow me at t.v. and remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see you then everybody.

are we about to run dry. water is a very big business and it's getting us gas. what do we have to do not to end up high and dry. do we have to rethink the water industry. made. into

the conflict zone with tim sebastian germany's human rights policy both of us felt like these days also sessions of national business is only if it's a little strange to gas deal with most folks and those who say system is soft and some of my guess is we can foreigners the christian democrats and congress nick these are the most closely to junk food rights in favor of business conflicts. in 60 minutes phone. by 2050 more than half the world will be leaving with limited water resources we haven't had to think about or worry about. i think that era is over this is the crisis of our time it's a financial problems like any other financial we live in

a kid to do for discord it's cool it's blue cold water used to be free but the world is changing the most important commodity jumper's. be free for. modes of water the city for commodity starts march 22nd on d w. the world's most important resource a given for many regions but experts warn 2 thirds of the global population could face water shortages in the next 5 years like so often in life you only notice something when it starts becoming scarce. and by that time it's often too late it's

no longer as easy as turning on a tap for more and more people water our most precious resource welcome to made. there's a reason earth is known as the blue planet the majority of the globe is covered by water of course around 97 percent of it is so porta i mean it to a hospice said is freshwater but much of that is locked away in ice soil and the atmosphere that he bore of it is highly polluted or too deep underground to be extracted at an affordable cost just how tough a percent of all water is readily accessible from lakes rivers and aquafers water scarcity it's one of the most serious risks we face and the problem is growing. new deserts are emerging forests are drying up and we're still wasting water. the regions marketeer in dark red are places where water is extremely scarce and

sources are drying up peel red and orange indicate areas where water scarcity is only slightly less critical. delhi in india the southern part of the city. water tankers supply poor neighborhoods but only come once a week. if they plan to get the most delegates where they can get out of the electorate in line or like water is so scarce some mornings there are so many people you would think there's a fair on everyone is struggling to fill can see that there are arguments fights even accidents water is our biggest problem of the well and we wish they would fix taps on all of our houses just like they've installed electricity on. delhi's main water supply is the moon a river but there hasn't been enough rainfall so its water level is low. so what are your sources problem in delhi today is the availability of clean water. a lot

of work has gone into cleaning up the. lake and or program but there is an urgent need to address the issue of making more water available. as ation is taking place rapidly and with it the demand for water is rising just as fast as. in germany water is also becoming an issue. u.s. based electric car manufacturer tesla is planning to build its european factory in brandenburg outside berlin once it's operational it will consume millions of liters of water every day. water levels in this nearby lake have already sunk due to a series of hot dry summers the water at this point in the lake used to reach us moderns waste. he grew up here on lake strauss say. the prospect of the new test the factory worries him. we have to assume that climate

change will continue and that there will be less rainfall and increased about peroration there's a vast amount of water consumption on top of that the water level will continue to fall as it has done in recent years it's likely to drop another few meters the ferry will no longer run then no one will be able to swim in the leg and bird breeding grounds will be destroyed. in the state of north rhine-westphalia there's concern about the drinking water supply at the gills investor waterworks to thoughts on this that we understand the situation is fraught called for saying some of the lowest water levels since records began as a result of the past 3 dry summers gets placed talking or. there's a slight improvement on the way but the rain from the past 2 months isn't enough that's why there needs to be a lot more rain with a few 1000000 fire. water is all part of the fun for tourists on the island of bali and as tourism grows so too does water consumption. bali

residents are getting worried about their drinking water supplies. because there's a shortage of sweet water we need to keep that within our system we need to keep it on the island we need to retain it push it into the ground and use it here where we need it the most bodies villagers have to travel long distances to get fresh water the next clean water is an hour walk from where this woman lives around the world 2000000000 people face huge problems when it comes to access to clean water legally on a walk to me every morning i go out to fetch water. for drinking water at home i fill up a large container and. when me i always bring the does he come. and wash them every day at flight that. they have enough time to go to the water still

several times a day to fetch water back home. what would global solutions look like one key aspect is utilizing waste water it's rarely treated in india but recycling it could ease demands. the absolute water start up came up with an organic innovation filtering sewage water through plant matter and sand in their system break down any toxins in the water digesting them into harmless components and converting sewage into drinking water. the most important thing is the operational cost which. means being. we are not subject. so therefore that the cost is the lowest so all in all it's a full sustainable. system and it is. the

grief increase already underway in germany as well where farmers are turning to crops which need little water researchers say climate change could make the long hot and very dry summers of recent years a permanent fixture that could lead to conflicting demands on water distribution the farmers association is already highlighting a potential flashpoint. because the. competition for water will increase for those relatively minor parts of the agricultural industry which use sprinklers meaning fruit and vegetable farms we need water for irrigation and obviously will have to weigh up the benefits of say watering garden washing machine usage showering. cooling water and washing up water and ask if we couldn't use it better to produce food for us the world needs investment in water pipes on bali aid organizations have stepped in to help the

villagers are also footing a share of the costs in projects like this where water will now be pumped up hill from the source to the village. when i went to new zeland in 969 everything was so like heaven it turned out that it got hold water not attack cold water this beautiful and. everything was kind of all right so good so i thought well why couldn't i improve the situation over here so i do that the state doesn't do much for infrastructure here it's the same as in many countries around the world. hot and cold running water a beautiful thing i never really thought about it the industrialized countries like germany nobody really does things are very different in many other parts of the

world where people can line up for hours just to get a few leaders of the precious stuff industrialized nations play a role in that scarcity as well that's because we eat large amounts of products like beans which require a huge amount of water to produce even if it isn't immediately apparent here's a breakdown of what some things cost in terms of h 2 o. . what is virtual water. let's take jeans as an example it takes around 8000 liters of water to make one pair that's $53.00 bathtubs full how come growing the cotton uses most of the water it's a very thirsty plant if the rains fail cotton fields have to be irrigated. and if the cotton is to be spun into jeans it also needs coloring rinsing and bleaching that pollutes a lot of water. virtual water is the unseen water that goes into the manufacturing of our product. nearly 900000 liters for one kilo of coffee 184

liters for a kilo of tomatoes and about 15000 liters for one kilo of beef. in a country with adequate natural water resources high consumption isn't a problem unless of course a lot of it gets polluted but in many regions water is scarce or supplies have been depleted by producing certain goods the water level in the aral sea has dropped 18 meters because of irrigation in cotton fields it's turned parts of was back you start into a salty toxic waste land. tomatoes are cultivated in the parched reaches of southern spain using water piped into enormous greenhouses and in brazil where there's a shortage of drinking water the country's huge coffee plantations are never short of a drop coffee is a major export for brazil. europeans import beings water guzzling goods and by extension all the virtual water needed to produce them seen from this

perspective someone living in germany uses 3900 liters of water a day slightly over the global average but cooking showering and laundry make up only a small part of that most water used here is a virtual water hidden in the products around us. so it takes 8000 liters of water to make a pair of jeans and they use so much more washing them over the years staggering numbers that pose some serious questions like what should water cost who should provide it is it morally acceptable for companies to profit from selling it to those who need it most of schmidt went to talk with the woman involved in a project that discusses issues like that she things to fix the problem you have to hit people where it really hurts their pocketbooks.

sophia maria schmidt is a professional musician and a student of economics who thinks a lot about war. the price must shorten the price should go up until it hurts a bit once to december simply to. make researches water related issues the united nations resolution says there is a human right to safe accessible and affordable water. my problem there not conquer the problem is that there is competition for the use of water if we want to introduce a basic right to water we have to consider which sectors which people are to enjoy that right we can identify 3 major players industry farming and private households which has priority who has more of a right to and who are less private individuals also depend on farming it's a very complex problem and we can't simply demand free water is a basic right i'm on the desk do you think that overall the world wide water is too

cheap. to believe is never the pleasure compare the united states in general in the us water consumption per person per day is almost 300 liters that's a huge amount in germany by contrast it's $122.00. and then compare the prices here water is twice as expensive as to i'm so if the price is too low we waste water and that's exactly what's happening in the us. mit is involved in a project to tell university in frankfurt that focuses on water and its sustainable management worldwide they hold events and have invited representatives of nestle to attend the swiss multinational faces a lot of criticism for bottling and selling groundwater and for generating vast amounts of plastic waste. and then you for some teaching prison. sponsored by nurses is that a conflict of interest this is

a feeling that there are many things to criticize but it's very important to engage with corporations it's all very well for academics to develop ideas that you can only achieve something if you work together with industry we should certainly view nestlé very critically but we also need to talk to it and find out what it can contribute. to most of us and that's kind of this little fountain is dried up. sources of water around the world are going dry so they need to be maintained in a responsible fashion by the public and the private sector. if a company slaps on a 10 percent profit margin water gets more expensive but given that it's our most important source of sustenance is it right for it to be provided by a private company from vending marsha. as long as the profit margin is not too high relative to per capita income so as long as people can afford it as

long as they stick before had a low enough price so that they can buy as much as they need there's no problem it's the same with everything food clothes so there's always a profit margin and that's ok as long as we can afford it that. doesn't are. the only way to prevent a supply crisis is to raise the price of water so we come to value the resource for what it's really worth. water is used in different ways in different parts of the world in europe for example agriculture industry and households and spit out pretty much equal amounts by the north and south america farming makes up a much more sizeable.