biala gassed at frankfurt airport city managed by from. this is you reduce life from berlin thorny talks e.u. leaders hold a crisis meeting on how better to combat a covert 1000 surge they're holding a virtual summit to address the continent's agonizingly slow vaccine will last the french president admits mistakes were made so how are leaders proposing to boost vaccine supply is also coming up a backlash from beijing we'll look at why nike and other western brands are facing

a huge p.r. onslaught from china and the joy of jigsaw jeremy self-styled puzzle king pieces together a place for himself in the record books. the heart thank you so much for your company everyone we begin this broadcasts with e.u. leaders meeting virtually to discuss strategies to tackle the cove it 19 pandemic all pressure is piling on officials across the bloc many european countries are now in the grip of the 3rd wave battling a surge in infections but the vaccine rollout and the block has been plagued by supply problems frustration among some member states is growing and ahead of the virtual summit french president emmanuel mccall complaint that vaccination. in the

e.u. r r behind other countries acknowledged that europe lacks ambition over its initial vaccine research and pick your mit efforts are currently less than 10 percent of the residents have had at least one shot that's far behind the united kingdom where the vaccination campaign is all speed ahead. rapid fire jabs are the order of the day in the u.k. even churches like the renowned westminster abbey have been commandeered in the battle against the virus the strategies seen some 30000000 u.k. residents vaccinated so far just under 50 percent of the population old e.u. member countries put together have only managed 57000000 the e.u. had ordered adequate supplies from producers but pharma firms have failed to keep up. cure vakil supply of 405000000 shots but it's vaccine hasn't been licensed yet for e.u. distribution roughly the same quantities are on order from astra zeneca along with

the recently approved johnson and johnson jab the e.u. wants 300000000 doses from sun aufidius soon as the european medicines agency gives the go ahead the same number from buy on tech modernity is expected to supply 160000000 shots all those pharma companies have production lines in the e.u. their most important locations are in germany france spain belgium italy and austria and production is being ramped up over the coming months the european commission has been angered by the sight of vaccines from e.u. production being export it was there in short supply here this year between the beginning of february to mid march of 41500000 covert 1000 shots were exported from the e.u. to the u.k. the americas asia south africa and australia. do you k. alone got 10000000 of those doses to the european commission says british swedish

producer astra zeneca has barely supplied the e.u. with 30 percent of the quantities agreed for europe's banks nation program needs now is a short and beyond. shot in the arm and you do have a user brussels birchip alexander the nominee is at the e.u. summit for us today the virtual one so she is right there where it's happening i was under the goal is very clear more vaccines for you countries what action will the european union take. according to the german chancellor the key issue here is to accelerate for duction in the european union and actually we have some good news here. develop a biotechs has started for the auction at its new plant in germany and to day ostracizing anika has submitted a request to the european medicines agency for the authorization of its dutch plant and if it gets swift approval we could see 1st deliveries from this deliveries from

this plant by the end of this month however we can also expect the majority of e.u. leaders to support the european commission's decision to introduce strict to export rules and to possibly ban exports of the scene if necessary many e.u. member states say this is the right way to move forward to make they've seen producers meet their commitments all right now meanwhile earlier today americal addressed the german parliament defending her handling of the crisis and the decision to allow brussels to handle it procurement let's take a listen to what she said exactly and then we'll pick up our conversation after that. it was right to focus on the joint procurement and approval of vaccines by the european union anyone who sees that even with small differences in distributions there's a great deal of discussion i don't want to imagine that if some member states had

vaccines and others did not that would shake the foundations of the internal market and that's why i'm believe that we've laid the foundation to pass this greatest test of the european union or. now this of course decision has come under some pressure in many a member states alexander would it have been even conceivable for the e.u. not to be the one to purchase vaccines collectively well i think that was something that richer countries such as germany might consider it at the beginning but it was not an realistic option at all because that would be the end of the solidarity member states would be competing against each other to purchase vaccines poor a smaller countries would be struggling struggling to get any of them so i think in the end it was important for the european union to purchase those axioms together

now i understand that the u.k. and the commission have kind of patched things up but i still would like you address i mean they almost went to the brink and then decided not to continue because obviously there is this perception that britain is failing to share vaccines and i'm just warning has the worst now been avoided. well at the moment it seems so both sides are talking instead of accusing each other they issued a statement yesterday saying that they're trying to create a win win situation and to expand big scene supplies for every citizen so we still have to see and weighed whether they could come up with a real solution to the problem and now obviously one of the things is this ongoing spat with astra zeneca but you gave us some good news at the start of our conversation they will probably increase their their supply. has been

a lot of discussion in terms of how the commission has dealt with astra zeneca of course and we have to say that many member states are very upset with astra zeneca and with them not living up to their promises and it's just i'm going to scotch and also with regards to the talks with the u.k. whether the european union should be more tougher on that and really ban some exports but many member states are also saying let's be cautious let's let's try not to ask to lead this conflict because that could really backfire if we move on to ban banks and exports to the u.k. they could in return a ban exports of important role matilda's for materials for the scene production in the european union so i think that the chances right now are quiet too to solve this problem. and i'm reporting from brussels thank you.

let's catch up now with some of the other stories making news around the world. greece is celebrating 200 years since the start of its struggle for independence from the ottoman empire the anniversary is being markets with parades and ceremonies attended by foreign dignitaries including britain's prince charles but the events were scaled back because of the pandemic with other spectators not allowed to attend the parade. north korea has launched 2 ballistic missiles according to south korea and japan it's believed the 2 short range missiles flew 450 kilometers before landing in the sea alice say the country has a history of testing new u.s. administrations with missile launches and other provocations to force the americans back to the negotiating table. several tug boats are struggling to dislodge a massive container ship that's blocking traffic in both directions along egypt's

suez canal the ever given vessel ran aground across the waterway on tuesday creating the world's largest shipping jam over 12 percent of global trade passes through the suez canal. now german lawmakers are due to decide any moment now whether to approve another extension of the country's involvement in the of gonna stunt peacekeeping mission more than $1000.00 german troops are currently deployed in afghanistan most of them around the northern city of mazar sharif while their mission now is to help train afghan forces the 1st german bund the spare troops were sent in nearly 2 decades ago as part of the international coalition against terrorism following the september 11th attacks on the us while the mission has claimed the lives of 59 german soldiers nato is contemplating plans to wind down its presence pending the outcome of peace talks between the afghan

government and the taliban. what miller has been to afghanistan 3 times as a soldier in the german armed forces he was 1st deployed at the very beginning of the u.s. led intervention just months after the 911 terror attacks. with his service dog eat or were miller's task was to track down mines and diffuse them as far as it was an atmosphere of a new beginning was in the air like we can make a difference here we can bring the afghans the security they deserve an explosive detonated 2 weeks into his mission as this team was handling it. 5 i said soldiers were killed instantly melissa vive seriously injured and traumatized. 160000 german soldiers have been deployed to afghanistan since 2000 to 59 of them have lost their lives. it was meant to be a short intervention to stab allies the war torn country almost 20 years later

despite progress made on women's rights and democracy the security situation in afghanistan is worsening. more than half of the population still lives in poverty. and the militant islamist taliban pushing their way back to power while months of intra afghan peace talks have made little progress. islamic scholar. lived and worked in kabul for 3 years she's now observing the peace negotiations from berlin if you want to really when peace close an agreement you have so many root causes and it's not clear what kind of government you want to have what kind of constitution you want to have what role women should play in their society how you do power sharing how do we expect to have such a peace agreement being cost in a couple of months or even a couple of years it will take a long long time. his deployment will stay with him for the rest of his life he

feels the war has come home with him. calm about it at night the comrade who died next to me who died in a very horrible way came to me and i could hear him calling for his mommy and yes i had to help myself 1st because there was no psychological and no therapy in any form or on the contrary one of the doctors even said it's best that you go back on a mission again that would help me before and so i actually went back to afghanistan in 2005 with a diagram was post-traumatic stress disorder. eventually the trauma caught up with me he had trouble sleeping suffered from flashbacks and suicidal thoughts it took him years of therapy to get better and a long struggle to get financial support from the bundesbank. today seeking his own peace he wants to leave the bundeswehr and work on this apple farm.

the afghanistan mission will never end for me never very hard when i look at the media today and i see that afghanistan is once again ruled by the taliban that peace treaties are being signed with the taliban then i ask myself where the seriousness where is the promise that we made to the afghans there's not much left of it before. the law hopes that someday they will be peace in afghanistan so that his sacrifice was not in vain. my colleagues some of peter's men is here now on the set she has reported extensively for my afghanistan for years and we're so grateful to have you here with us in person sunday now we are expecting lawmakers to decide whether to extend them the mandate what are your expectations well clearly in parliament we see a huge majority that's for sure if you asked me but if you would asked the populace how do they feel about germans troops still being deployed in afghanistan i think

you would get a very different on softer 2 decades people simply want to know what are we still doing there looking at what we have achieved and if you look at what we have achieved what the troops have achieved this whole military mission can you we see better infrastructure new universities schools treats roads richest all of that but the most important thing peace and stability we don't have that afghanistan is still a country at war and terror is still a part of everyday life in this country as you know one of the things that a lot of people are discussing right now is that that may 1st deadline for the u.s. that it has set for itself to draw down troops which now is widely expected to be missed that's probably logistically not going to be met. what impact does it have on germany in terms of if the americans decide to extend their mission clearly whatever the u.s. does germany and other nato countries with because that is the u. .