if you leave. of this i'm certain seldom has a scientific achievement of such a sexist tensional important spin grech you can hide in this palace. that will. turn president from father stand by as big and then from the bellevue palace the official residence of the german presidents are now joined by political correspondent thomas sparrow thomas the order of merit of the federal republic of germany as well the highest honors conferred by the german state of significant is this for those too. it is very significant or no warded by the german president who is the german head of state and in the presence of the german chancellor who is the german head of government so it is certainly a very important for the 2 founders of my own take on it's also important for germany if you judge by were found by the time i had to say during his speech the fact that they recognized early very early on an opportunity the fact that they developed a vaccine that has no nationality that it's not german not turkish not american

that's something that goes for everyone around the world and he also stressed. and that's something that i believe is particularly important about his speech the fact that this gives germany hope time i recognized that there is certain frustration now here in germany such an insecurity about the way things are going with the coronavirus and he stressed that the story of these 2 found us can actually give germany hope that germany can achieve its goals and also successfully fight the pandemic so it was a 2 fold message from stein my obviously recognizing what these what these 2 people did but also making sure that it's something that goes beyond them and it's also important for germany as a whole some good news. tom as we come back to you in a moment but 1st let's have a closer look at the people behind us. where the dream team behind the biotech success story as numb to the t.

and. physicians immunologists pioneers. here at their company's headquarters in minds they've been working on the next generation cancer treatment for more than a decade using m r n a technology that was until news from china emerged about doctors discovering a mysterious new virus spreading rapidly in the city of han at 1st the world didn't pay much attention to design and did. i still remember the day we were having breakfast on january 24th when we made the decision that we needed to get started. we diverted all of our resources into developing a vaccine. and the whole company and all of our partners behind this. so even before the world health organization issued its 1st major warning the

biotech team started working around the clock less than a year later their vaccine was approved in many countries around the world. it's an achievement that's won them praise from the highest levels. didn't make the german government extremely proud to have such scientists here in our country. 1000 over the past year the couple are fed a huge amount of media attention many outlets focused on their turkish heritage or portray them as scientific superheroes but zion and to maci never basked in the glory. we're scientists and and and super hero it just means that that the science that we did is important but we were not alone in developing the science so i think the whole scientific community is

a superhero like the rest of the world both are now looking forward to the time when the pandemic is over and they can return to normal life for truancy and sayen that means getting back to work on their original mission developing that new treatment for cancer. 2 very modest super heroes thomas what is next for the 2 they've been tipped for the nobel prize as well and. while they may be considered for the nobel prize but i think if you judge by what mr steinmeier said and what they said themselves as we saw in our report they're probably not particularly interested in following that path they're more interested in following their scientific interest is on the scientific goals so yes they may be considered for the nobel prize but they are for the moment most probably more interested in in science and their developments. of correspondent thomas sparrow them berlin thank you. meanwhile germany has resumed astra zeneca vaccinations a day after the european medicines agency the m

a said the drug is safe and effective as germany works to restore public confidence in the vaccine helpless against bad was underlined inoculations we made a central plank of the strategy to end the pandemic with a compelling will take time. with infection numbers rising a new variance causing a large share of the cases sponsored germany was not dealing with a 3rd way. escaped europe does not yet have enough vaccine doses to stop the 3rd wave through inoculations alone even though the e.u. can now count on the reliable live you have dropped it will still take several weeks until all those groups are completely vaccinated since only does that will be able to talk about a further loosening of restrictions so we still need to be patient to. chief political correspondent lyndal crane later sponsors there's a shortage of vaccine in europe but we keep hearing about millions of doses going unused in germany what about that there absolutely is

a shortage of vaccine here in germany and in europe as a whole which is why you're hearing some e.u. leaders and also leaders here in germany saying perhaps the e.u. needs to be considering halting exports of vaccine material to at least some other countries including possibly great britain now this idea that there are millions of doses going unused is something that our reporters on the ground looked into about 10 days ago and they could not find any evidence for massive disuse of vaccines in some places they discovered so very small amount of vaccines that had been prepared and then had to be disposed of because they weren't taken up right away but to the numbers were very very small indeed and i think you spoke to the head of the vaccine center today who confirmed that you know that's true. you mentioned export bands that are being considered by the u.s.

the moment the health minister also have any other suggestions about how to get around this shortage. he absolutely did he had a couple of interesting solutions 1st one is that germany would consider going it alone to order the russian vaccine sputnik v. if the e.u. doesn't move forward on that itself as a whole he said however that to do that if germany were to do that it would want to have absolute clarity and commitment about the amount of the vaccine the spot take that could be provided that was point 1.2 was that he said germany needs to move ahead faster to allow individual physicians so family doctors to administer the vaccine this is something that's been discussed for weeks now but he wants to see faster movement on that germany's governments general and regional governments are having another coronavirus meeting today what can we expect from them as another lockdown around the corner well the health minister and those from the country's

leading health authorities who were with him today in the press conference said that is what needs to happen they said any moves toward opening shops and other facilities should be halted should be reversed because we are heading into exponential infection rate increase and and a situation that could resemble what we had here in mid december where intensive care units were overwhelmed so there is pressure on but we'll see what the regional leaders decide because that in the past we've seen a patchwork come out of these summits and it's not at all clear that will be any different today. but it will correspondent linda gray thank you let's take a look some of the other stories making headlines around the world today. surging covert infections have forced some of france's most populous areas into limited

lockdown starting this weekend paris and the north of france have been the worst affected in the country's 3rd wave france recorded nearly 40000 new cases on thursday the government has ordered stores to close for a month's. tons and the arm has its 1st female president some years a new her son was sworn in as have a head of state following the sudden death of john michael fully she will serve for the remainder of his 2nd 5 year term which ends in 2025. demonstrators have rallied in the u.s. city of atlanta to show solidarity with the asian american community this after a gunman killed 8 people including 6 women of asian descent in the shootings believed to have been at least partially motivated by race as many u.s. cities are stepping up their police presence in areas with large asian american populations. reports from myanmar says security forces have shot

dead 8 people during a confrontation with opponents of the military coup. local news outlet miramar now says police in the central town of opened fire as they moved in to clear protesters barricades this is mobile phone footage from the scene where people were also wounded news outlets said protesters were back on the streets around the or other country including the largest city young gone. well those like this is increasingly hard to come by as mere miles military continues a brutal crackdown on dissent crackdown has affected protesters and the media itself the u.n. says at least 5 local news outlets have had their license revoked including myanmar now in addition more than 30 journalists have. arrested case or no case on here is one of the local reporters and editors who were taken into custody

sometimes under threat of death members of the foreign press have also been targets such as chainsaw a photographer for the associated press is believed many jailed journalists are awaiting trial at insein prison a facility that's notorious for human rights abuses they could face 3 year jail sentences on charges of spreading false information let's take a closer look now at what journalists face as they try to give us a fuller picture of what's actually going on in myanmar. these police offices in young gone charging after empty military demonstrators and a journalist taking photos a bit old several police around ten's or as he tries to get away one puts him in a charcoaled he's then handcuffed and dragged off this happened in late february 10 zorn's pictures were to be sent to his employer the global news agency a pain outlets like a d

w then by this material so journalists like him are critical for international media to be able to report on me and my instead tens or is now behind bars he and a growing number of journalists and media workers in myanmar and facing up to 3 years in jail under vague charges of violating a public order law. or whatever that the. tens or was arrested while he was performing his work according to the video recording and pictures published in the news he was arrested while doing his job this is not related at all to the public order law he has been charged but that's what they are accusing him off of the one of. it's estimated that over 200 people have been killed in myanmar in a brutal crackdown on largely peaceful protests since the military's take over on february the 1st getting information is becoming trickier to the military

regularly shuts the internet down and it's blocked some social media sites it's also withdrawn the licenses of 5 major media outlets. no one is safe and the military government especially at this time you know at the nighttime the reagan really didn't know media. and media bias and if that's what one of my senators got right at that time at his house i'm already prepared that there will be 5 that crapped out our independence me and there will be no no more press freedom. a decade after the end of the junta in myanmar the military is back in charge it's a major setback for press freedom and for journalists on the ground it means facing censorship threats and intimidation once again. i'm not joined from young on by sweyn with this when the editor in chief of myanmar now so your news of it is among

those that have its license revoked yet you were among the force of the 1st to report today's shootings in on bond how are you gathering information now. we. moved the whole internet is. trying to gather the news or risk in the allies. trying to mingle with the protest list the new longer are they going to long i did before i. done so some of them are recorded in the. trawl some of the. we have. so. we must be doing a job. with a lot of around iraq alone or it's actually we are.

in private cars and you know trying to run the sins or whatever is going on history . before your license was taken away by the who into your office as well also raided what exactly happens and how did you and your colleagues experience than. we anticipated that. the all the independent media would be a tie in the event of the coup this is the reason why i even created my office 3 days before the coup there was a genuine 28 so as we expected. the 1000 foods is rigid my office is. turned it 10 days ago but they confiscated our computer. you just saw us as

a draw but none of none of the reports are what was arrested because we have already stop using the office but the police and the school just knew that oh we were a new law in the office but he wanted to cry but he wanted to quote all oprah shots this is the reason why they read it off is. the honda has failed to stop the protests in the country would you say is now trying to silence the media so it can track down even harder on the protestors is it is certainly the monteux is trying to respond to the old willian state nema had been for decades this is the reason why the don't want our. is trying to open the tree and he thought of. all the vision again.

including the media are so. we at this moment. we can see that. we have any kind of freedom loft in this country. thank you very much sway when editor in chief of a 1000000 man now good luck to you and your colleagues when. u.s. and chinese diplomats saf clashed at their 1st meeting since president joe biden took office the 1st face to face talks got off to a confrontational start with both sides attacking each other among the issues brought up in the meetings in alaska where human rights coronavirus pandemic and china's military build up in the south china sea. u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken accused china of putting global stability and wrist also discuss our deep concerns with actions by trying to including actions

wrong hong kong taiwan cyber attacks on the united states economic coercion toward our allies each of these actions threaten the rules based order that maintains well stability that's why they're not merely internal matters and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today and in a blink in there but china wasn't having any of that chinese communist party foreign affairs chief young years fired back by questioning american status as a leader on the global stage. when talking about universal values or international public opinion on the part of the united states we hope the u.s. side will think about whether it feels reassured saying those things because the u.s. does not represent the world it only represents the government of the united states . well for more on this when are joined by jessica berlin she's

a us political analyst based here in germany and of course the w.'s china expert to fit in and here in the studio with me let's start with you jessica this was not really promising stars in the 1st face to face meeting was it not at all the u.s. delegation really came out swinging and the chinese delegation was not shy about of swinging right back but let's bear in mind that this is not a surprise we knew already from both science and in the days in advance that it was likely that this would be a contentious conversation and behind closed doors is really the question how did those conversations evolve how is the u.s. administration attempting to redraw the lines and reassert their authority and their position in the chinese american geo political arrangement. there was also a strong pushback from china what does this tell us about beijing's view on this

relationship where clearly china is going into these talks feeling very confident it's coming out of the pandemic its economy is growing strongly and it's feeling more confident it has for many years they were wondering how things were going to be post trump and now they've they've seen that the u.s. is actually kind of sticking to the similar line to trump except that he's also bringing the u.s. also bring its allies with them so it's come out swinging i think into these talks just what does this tell us about the biden ministrations approach on how to deal with china in the future. yes well the by administration is making crystal clear that the trump era is over america is back and they're not going to shine down from talking about human rights and from making very opinions heard but let's remember that the big elephant in the room here is taiwan and as was mentioned by the biden ministration in previous weeks they see

a real threat to taiwan coming from china in the coming years and they are trying to place the markers now stay away from taiwan and also they really really need the chinese government to be a stronger partner on dealing with north korea to do so in setting the tone in this way that biden ministration is making clear to their chinese counterparts we expect you to be a more responsible player in there as a regional power and as a global power in dealing with the security issues but the chinese delegation for their side is of course standing up and saying look america you are able to use your economic and military power to advance your own interests in the world so why shouldn't we it's basically a geo political version of takes one to know one. looking at this confrontation really is any cooperation going to be possible in the future between

the u.s. and china. i think a lot of this is negotiation on trying to showing has always shown that it likes to be a tough negotiator. we all thought an instance today with one or one of the canadians who's been detained the trial started you know in china no foreign diplomats were allowed there china sort of laying out a table that sort of say that we're we're going to stand our ground and we're feeling confident i think or there will be cooperation and maybe will be on things like global warming and they're definitely going to be looking for more cooperation on trade because they will need. to get rid of they want to remove some of the sanctions that have been imposed recently so i think that we will see cooperation but china is very keen to be a tough party in this negotiation. difficult and jessica thank you both very much. here's a reminder of all top stories this hour germany. astra zeneca vaccine after

the european agency says it is sick fishel is one of the country is facing a 3rd wave of infections as tases rise despite. diplomats from the u.s. and china have traded barbs at the 1st meeting since president by. the u.s. called beijing a threat to global stability china and accuse the u.s. of hypocrisy. that you can always good news on the goal just download our op from google play all from the app store the interview access to all the latest news from. push notifications for any breaking news. news story you can also use the d w app to send us your photos and videos. international

debate show to the point who'll win the race for the. rich and of course there's more. to follow us on twitter instagram. us from my school.

to the point of strong opinions clear position of international perspectives. the arctic ice cap is melting away making it easier to exploit the region's huge reserves of natural resources 3 major powers the us china and russia vying for the biggest possible shout of the cake saue explosive is their rivalry. to the point. next not a t.w. . good change. getting rid of wrinkles tightening

up the body people use a variety of methods to improve their looks and. the wish to embellish one's appearances as old as mankind. which methods are most effective. and what are the potential. good. 60 minutes w. . in many countries education is philip privilege poverty is one of the main causes that some young children work in mine shafts instead of going to class and can attend classes they have to be finish one again. millions of children all over the world have to go to school. we ask

why. because education makes the world more just. make up your own mind. d.w. need for minds. who does the arctic belong to the bonus region was long seen as a little mole than snow and ice but now 3 world powers russia china and the united states are leading the charge to take control of the immense natural resources the new trade routes the door opening up even as a potential climate catastrophe takes hold so long to the point we ask our play hole when the race for the optics riches.

thanks very much for joining us here on to the point where my guests michele powell a specialist on security issues and the arctic in particular with the german institute for international and security affairs his opinion in light of the competing security interests of russia china and america we urgently need a military dialogue also with us is the oceanographer and climatologist stefan dramas though from the potsdam institute for climate impact research he argues the things that happen in the arctic don't necessarily stayed in the arctic and a very well welcome to territory now filatov from russia deskins. who says the arctic has vast economic resources and russia wants a big slice of the cake. thank you all for 3 for being with me today interesting insights to begin the show and to get us going i'd like to begin by asking michelle

powell the apparently straightforward question who does the arctic belong to those it's quite clear the area around the north pole belongs to the human mankind. the rest was clearly defined by international law a law to see. russia claimed in 2000 or so the arctic is russia. or ok a straightforward answer based on principles of law you say why all things so tense around the region at this point in time. oh in former times it was cold norse and low turn but right now and little years off to 2000. president putin claims russia's return as a world power. they started also. in the arctic. reactivating

the former basis from the cold war it's all ok stuff and. the scientist in our ranks not going to ask you the same question who does the also belong to because i anticipate we might get a different answer well i think that the the whole arctic ocean should be declared as a common heritage of humanity and the nations should pull together to protect the arctic it's not likely to happen it's it's happened and acted so it's not out of the question and we are in an unprecedented climate crisis the arctic is warming 3 times faster than the whole globe the ice is melting away and this is affecting all nations level rise from melting greenland ice through the effects on the jet stream and our weather systems in the mid latitudes for example. ok let's bring in fellows who are from born. here you know why is the region suddenly so important everybody is talking about it much more than they were. together to sort

of create the interest. well i wouldn't say that it suddenly got so important the interest in the arctic has been there for decades is just that like powerade to say or russia declared its return to the arctic 2007 and clearly. there has come more out as asian from other countries the strategic importance of this region and of course also arctic got into the spotlight in connection with their estimates. for scientific instruments it's about their enormous potential resources that are hidden in the arctic and of course like was out in the introduction everybody was once a big slice of pie this is why the countries have intensified the arctic countries have intensified their activities in the arctic have started to show more ambition

but not given them i mean look at china they also have declared themselves a new arctic country although they don't even have a direct access to their arctic ocean. want to see all to russians and so right. into ordinary russians you're talking a lot about sort of your resources and history what have you but what about you know the russians so. well i need to say that russians are very proud of the arctic there are many examples of that. a very example arctic has become a huge part of the russian cultural legacy there are a lot of books written about it a lot of fairy tales a lot of films have been made in russia about the arctic exploration there is also one fanfare. actually the reason moscow special housed we just told the house of polar research as the house of arctic researchers it was it is also

actually part of their architectural legacy in russia it's historical it's a memorial right now but the house was built in the 1930 s. for their arctic researchers and deaf himalayas and it's still functioning as a residential house and people leave there still yeah it's even possible to buy apartments over there but then in the 30 years i mean it was actually. degraded and built like in a very fancy way i mean to provide as more comfort for the people who work in the arctic as possible kind of compensate for the severe conditions they have to work in. it is illegal labor just concerned because i think you know i can sense your passion and i can understand the message it's all about prestige and i could hear you michaud sort of not being in the background you know the prestige kind of these reminiscence a little bit of the sort of the cold war space race almost. on the rolls

as the darkest articles of russian arctic which began in service times was a prisoner camps and it was all it's on the shelves from that since. so that's the dark side of the arctic. really became a hot spot now because of the. interests of in the context of great pile of rubble. that means. has declared itself in new york to. everybody was a little bit surprised because geographically it makes no sense so we'll talk about that just in just a 2nd the chinese the russians and the american sort of a 3 way race for a power grab essentially shift and you said something at the beginning of the show to thought was very interesting things that happened at the outset don't necessarily stay in the wood you mean. well the arctic is a very vulnerable ecosystem vulnerable region and one of the key factors in terms

of climate is that it reflects a lot of sunlight by the bright ice and snow surfaces and as these shrink the global warming is amplified and even just shipping activities in the arctic make the ice shrink fos the because there is emissions which settle on the bright snow and i surfaces make them daca and that helps to heat up the globe and then when the greenland ice sheet melts there is a tipping point which you know could be reached even below 2 degrees of warming which will mean that eventually it will take a long time but we will get about 7 meters of global sea level rise if we push greenland past that tipping point and then obviously the coasts worldwide will be massively impacted by that ok let's just get some images that will give us a feel for what is at stake in the rivalry that we've already touched on and the

environmental factors that stefan has been speaking about. the arctic is warming more quickly than any other place on earth from a 7600000 square kilometers of ice that were there 40 years ago only half that amount remains in the next decade there could be no ice there during the summertime . that would make raw materials like oil and gas more accessible as well as rare earth and precious metals it would be a $1000000000.00 treasure industry. 5 countries within the arctic circle each have a 370 kilometer wide zone the usa canada denmark norway and russia. but a huge area around the north pole doesn't belong to any of them so far russia has laid the strongest claim to it. but china also has strong ambitions and the country has already secured rare earths in greenland china now sees itself as

a near arctic state because of the northeast passage which is eased maritime travel in short distances china is a polar silk road exploiting the arctic at what price. well i have mentioned. there is also the gulf stream which has a huge influence on the climate not only around the north atlantic even down to the tropics and we have recently. started with much stronger evidence that this system is already slowing. water from greenland diluting the oceans in the north and there is also growing evidence that the disproportionate warming affecting the jet stream and makes. this exceptional cold breaks into north america into europe and this january and february have to do with the

extreme war. of the arctic and so even our weather in the united states in europe is affected by these changes going on in the arctic it's interesting i found a quote from you yourself you started to continue to start trying to dig up fossil fuels is absurd and you appear to be say sorry not just we're not just digging out resources but we're digging our own graves it's pretty drastic well yes all nations have agreed in the paris agreement to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees possible $1.00 degrees and that means we have a limited amount of fossil fuels we can still burn and the known reserves are already about 3 times larger so we have a lot of fossil fuel reserves that are just on burnable carbon as it's the technical term is and so it's stupid to spend a lot of money to look for more and highly volatile risky places like the arctic it's specially stupid ok so there is my serious the price to pay are i see

a green and meanwhile there is a prize here p r. because i mean we're looking at 2 incredible resources here politike oil gas precious metals gold you radium and so on who's going to pressure who's going to profit most. well. the one who is the 1st is going to profit most of course because we know that there are huge resources i mean not proven yet but they're suggested they're huge resources in the arctic and 'd russia for example already is trying to claim it's right for more parts of their offshore for example the. it already applied with the united nations and miles of regions actually the part of the shelf where actually it. reserves of the. raw materials supposed to be and if russia managed to get approval from the united

states from the united nations and if. actually. there is a confirmation that russia can claim these parts of the shelf and sells that russia will be able to develop this potential oil and gas field and now the question is whether it's economically viable for russia to do so it's very difficult to i mean imagine you have to work in a severe arctic condition in a very sensitive environment it's a lot of money it really does russia have it not necessarily because we're in the pen demick i mean we see that that russian economy is actually not doing so well recently and also the question of technology matters russia does not necessarily have enough to knowledge to go forward with all these projects and we can see for example. project. in the arctic. a project to develop to extract condensate gas. has been put on ice for the next few years because russia acknowledges they don't

have enough to acknowledge it to go forward with it so it's a huge question i mean you know they're going to reverse where it wants to go but it's not quite sure how it's going to get you could sorry exactly. michelle or just let's come back to the point that we were talking about suburban colonial legacy old. so the colonial feel toward various you know we talk a lot about the race about the charge about to push about a power play and about plunder and about countries winning their booty it's very reminiscent of the colonial period the colonial legacy tell us a little bit more about that it was respect to greenland for example clearly so colonial legal sea is still existing to remind greenlanders that they have tools is still true for independence by for example exploiting rare earths. issues the whole debate on the

arctic goes about. because that was of interest clearly is the chinese people have been in greenland on that was also attractive to us president the donald trump you remember who wanted to buy greenland because of her errors and because it was due to strategic importance of greenland clearly there are very many aspects. one really interesting thing about this story about the future of they are thinking is that it brings together military issues geopolitical issues. economic issues and environmental issues i know you're a person of ideas can you somehow we've got all together to sort of explain how there was the independence of those factors well this is a tough question but i would say what's going on now with the race for resources in the arctic and economic benefits is very much.