loosely monitored the results are transparent and openly discussed. only those aged over 60 can now get the senecas shot for people in berlin the decision has further erode its trust in the vaccine. as resent it i'm not convinced at all there's been so much negative news here buys me i don't know about astra zeneca i would consider it although there's been a back and forth now those over 60 can take it. and i don't want that vaccine i have an issue with my lungs and i don't want that when i'm waiting until may 14th that's when i have my appointment for the biotech shot all i want to take any other vaccine in this latest blow to germany sluggish inoculation campaign follows a new guidelines from the national vaccine commission. we learned from regulatory authorities that younger women but also men are suffering from

severe cerebral vein thrombosis. and have died from it constantly. and the number exceeds what we would normally expect i thought age. we conclude that it has to be related to the vaccine therefore we have to act. as our. almost $4000000.00 doses of astra zeneca will arrive in germany next month but another dent to public confidence in the vaccine means using them up could prove difficult. morally i spoke to thomas americans the chairman of the german standing committee on vaccination i asked him if he thought his committee's recommendations have damaged overall trust in the vaccine even more. i cannot exclude that but on the other hand it does it could be clear to the people in

germany that we really monitoring every risk and that we react when there is a obvious risk and as i just said the incident is was not only seen in our countries the sunscreen risk has been observed in different countries and different countries reacted to this information it's different completely the story from the frequency of the vaccine does doesn't. as not to be mixed up with the frequency of civic si which is still very good but we don't want to give the vaccine regularly. age group of people under 60 years of age so that's your recommendation but the european medicines agency issued a statement today where they have reiterated that the vaccines benefits outweigh the risks and he said specifically that they did not find a specific age risk for the astra zeneca vaccine of course they are planning more

consultations to come so why is germany not following best recommendation because we have our own very solid day turn this far and then must say that we are not aware of how monitoring is performed in other european countries says one of the problems we have and having this very clear signal in germany we have to react for the general population not about not at all happy about this decision you can believe me but the need couldn't act in a different way in the moment what of what about the u.k. for example where there vaccination campaign is done almost exclusively with the astra zeneca vaccine i mean why does the u.k. government continue to rely on astra zeneca on the one hand where germany is seeing these issues of blood clots. to be honest i'm not really

a aware of the real data from the u.k. we do know that the u.k. and contras to germany started x. in aiding the very old people 1st and then they went down through the age groups from starting from the very old one and we also we did not see the kind of side of take it in the older people to fill the acts and they did i'm not aware really of the numbers of young people of our critical. say u.k. the other thing is that we heard from the u.k. . colleagues that they are at the moment evaluating the. let's say the messages of outside of sates or going to wait for our the things will develop in grade 3 and it is probably as securely do the very interests of the from the u.k.

. again this is brilliant of field as a date as we have our power then we should see to it now that astra zeneca has been made unavailable for a lot of the population of germany i mean are there going to be any other vaccines in the pipeline it will be approved and can be used in germany's vaccine rollout. yes we are waiting for the johnson and johnson we've seen as you know which is already approved. and will be will start using this folk scene in the very near future in april we will now have other vaccine doses from. the embassy in that are announced and will come and we are still waiting for as of x. since to be approved so hopefully. we will continue our in a zation campaign and i have to add that our. actualized

recommendation that has no difference in the vaccines available just shifting vailable vaccines to one age group to the other great and in other words we have still the same amount of fixin's available and very much old so that we will not have. no overall pixelation paid. match and chairman of the german standing committee on vaccination thank you so much for coming into the open as thank you. and let's take a look now at some other stories making headlines around the world the jailed the kremlin critic i like saying avani has announced he is going on hunger strike this follows a demand by an of on these doctors that the dissident receive immediate medical treatment for a severe back complaint of only has been detained at

a penal camp since february he survived a near fatal poison attack last august. an italian a navy captain working at the defense ministry has allegedly been caught selling documents to a russian official in response italy has expelled the 2 russian diplomats a navy captain has been arrested and russia's ambassador has been summoned to italy's foreign ministry the kremlin says it hopes bilateral ties will not be damaged over the affair. well appeals judges at the international criminal courts have upheld the acquittal of ivory coast's former president on charges of involvement in deadly post-election violence. by boat was acquitted 2 years ago along with former youth ministers charlotte in a good day they were accused of responsibility for crimes including murder rape and persecution following disputed elections in 2010 of the judges in the hague said

that the prosecutors had failed to prove their kids. are ruling ends the proceedings against both men. and we are now joined by jim warmington a human rights watch a senior researcher in the africa division jim so good to have you with us how was it possible for this acquittal to take place. yeah well so. was accused of crimes against humanity in relation to the 201011 post-election crisis in. which which came after the 2010 presidential elections and lead to the deaths of $3000.00 people in really brutal violence and include people being burnt alive in the streets and widespread sexual violence and the challenge with the case against. as is often the case is finding the way to connect the awful events that happened in could you walk to the home by who was that the president the outgoing president at the time and he was also to the commander of the armed forces that

fought on his side of the conflict and so the challenge for the prosecution in this case was to show the ways in which what happened at a street level the killings that happened on the streets were connected to the home by bush as commander and president and what the judges are essentially saying in this case is that they they didn't the prosecution didn't manage to do that you didn't manage to show how backed by was connected to what foot soldiers were doing on the streets and the fact that they were unable to show this connection in the view of the appeals court and how much of a setback is this ruling for future trials coming before the i.c.c. . i mean we see each case is different and in this case in the investigations i think were difficult. because a lot of time had now it's been 10 years since the post-election crisis and partly because finding that connection between a sitting president and commander and what happens at a local level requires you to kind of have insider witnesses perhaps people who

defected from the back very regime who could talk about how that regime worked in a circle is really like and the prosecution never really had those witnesses or witnesses who were able to speak frankly but at the same time it's also true that this is a real setback for the i.c.c. prosecution and the i.c.c. is in the midst of a review to assess how it functions across the whole courts including the prosecution in this case hopefully is going to give. people the prosecution that they care about how it investigates these kinds of complex cases. from human rights watch thank you so much for that update. and keith. sports news before we go and a kayaker in chile has accomplished something that has never been done before and landed the 1st ever double kick flip over a waterfall starting with a 25 kilometer descent down a snowy volcano before entering the region's lush forests but the icing on the

cake was. topped off by nailing the world's 1st. in a kayak over a waterfall and the spaniard nailed it on his 1st attempts. i am pressed there watching the news will give you a reminder of our top stories before we go. drugs regulator has reiterated that the benefits of astra zeneca vaccines outweigh any possible risks medical body said it had not yet. identified any blood clot risk factors associated with any investigations are still ongoing. and italy has expelled 2 russian diplomats after an italian navy captain was allegedly caught red handed selling secret documents to a russian official the kremlin says it hopes bilateral ties will not be damaged

over the affair. don't forget you can always get these news on the go just up there apps and google play more from the out start will give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications for any breaking tips if you're part of a news story you can also use the d.w. out to send us photos and videos of what's been happening. and i'm very interested in berlin from in the whole news team thanks so much for watching. the fight against the corona virus endemic. as the rate of infection the been developing what does the latest research say. information and context the coronavirus update. on t w. e n b o of climate change. comes from the survivors.

what do you think of her future. going to dot com for her to survive the making. clear. when night falls when we can finally forget about the virus and close the bedroom door to spend time with our pocket. nothing happens in fact births are declining around the world is this what the future holds in store. there will still be babies but perhaps less many countries are reporting

historically low birth rates during the pandemic as much as 10 percent less in some places. family planning touring the coronavirus pandemic has become difficult after all it's hard to get into the mood or be optimistic about the future during a pandemic. hello welcome to good night in a special i want to get jones and berlin a city that doesn't feel like it's going to be deserted any time soon there's still enough hustle and bustle despite the pandemic but who knows what the future holds and it's that question that seems to keep many couples from having kids now. the children's playground eerily quiet the numbers are out italians are having far fewer babies during the pandemic. they too have had to put their family planning on hold more in an even chance or just bought a new home in a suburb of baghdad

a big step for the young couple and everything is ready for the next. ques the comment i made my meaning this will be the children's room it has yet to be set up we want to put in one or 2 beds depending on the size of the we also have some space downstairs which could become another room for the children. when i thought i had. been changed and i were planning on getting married last summer before their move but they had to postpone because of the pandemic and having kids before marriage for the 2 devout catholics was not an option to the union make it after not funny. for us marriage means union and creating a family of our own marriage home family and children moving was supposed to be after the wedding but we had to switch on a little. while the individual reasons differ of the situation is emblematic for hundreds of thousands of couples across the nation wanting to have children.

exactly 9 months after the start of the lockdown in december here in italy the birth rate dropped by more than 20 percent compared to the previous year with many couples calling off their plans to have kids the birth rate in italy has reached a historic low but even before the pen demick italy was left trailing behind most of its neighbors on average women in the e.u. had a 1.55 children in 2018 in sweden this number was 1.76 in germany 1.57 and italy 2nd to last in the e.u. with just 1.29 births the per woman. it is too early to determine with certainty what exactly is causing tell you numbers to drop even further says hole geologist giuliani believe me the pandemic is likely affecting couple sex life but more importantly financial security seems to be the driving factor in the decision not to have kids. i think. young capos are becoming

much more economic rationale that then emotion i will be convinced that it's important to have another child so there may be more worried about the future of children buying a house postponing marriage while working full time for the moment in chance with morena have a lot on their plate but that hasn't changed their wish to start a family of their own has soon as the time is right natalie nature is deputy head of the laboratory for fertility and wellbeing of the max planck institute in rostock and she is joining us now good to have you with us let's start with the obvious how house the pandemic impacted the demographics so far quite a bit we have seen a lot of excess mortality in many countries in the world so i think that is currently the biggest factor but births are also going to be much affected as we

are just starting to see and then of course migration has been halted across europe and the united states that's another factor that is affecting the demographics right now so there's so there are various factors but let's stick to having babies so what all the driving factors for couples decide whether or not to have children . yeah before i get to that let me summarize a little bit of what we know you know births happened 9 months after conception so we just got data in from a variety of high income countries for births that occurred between november 2020 and generally 21 and what we do see is a huge baby bust across the high income world for example spain and generally has seen a decline of about 20 percent compared to births and 29000. not all countries are affected specifically southern europe eastern europe also taiwan south korea nordic countries and germany interestingly haven't seen that decline yet but of course the story is still unfolding. people are handling handling the worries differently or

is there some saying a common thread that you see. that's a really good question and honestly we don't know yet as the story is still unfolding couples fertility behavior is affected by many factors 1st the needs of a couple so partnering is a is a big piece in that story and partnering is certainly right now. kind of disrupted it by the by the distancing measures i expect that partnering. effects will only be seen later on in declining birth right now it's probably economic insecurity that couples had during the 1st wave of the about health about what does it mean if i get sick if i have a baby now so i think couples during the 1st lockdowns have postponed not knowing if they will catch up later what would you say this is all in the mind are we talking about existential worries getting in the way or all those worries are actually affecting a once a women's fertility in

a biological way. you know that's a bigger question i don't think mind and body can be disentangled that much because literature in epidemiology actually shows that stress and worries and emotions really affect health. system also probably the productive system interestingly enough. the literature is all in the medical and epidemiological realm and we don't know yet much in fertility and demographic literature how health sifts or worry shifts may affect fertility rates later on but i do think worrying is not only affecting behavior and being more careful with contraception perhaps lowering sex drive but also could have effects on the reproductive system i've seen article on the regular menstrual cycles of women that have increased during the lockdowns that could have effects on obligation so that would be stress affects but then there could also be of course covert effects on pregnancies and reproduction which we

still know very little about that is still unfolding and the studies of course i mean we pretty much every day something new about this time demick and you just mentioned you know social distancing obviously doesn't help when it comes to get babies do you think that couples will catch up one of the viruses under control what do we know from previous pandemics. yeah that's a good question from previous pandemics for example the flu 918 pandemic we do know are 14 to 18 that there was a big baby bust so birth decline that was followed by a catch up quite a hump that is usually what we see after these disastrous events disasters recessions that affect fertility to decline but here you know it's a very different situation it's an economic crisis it's a health crisis and we really don't know when it's going to be over yet so i assume there could be small declines and small harms for example the 1st wave depression and fertility could be followed by a little bit of

a hump maybe in the births that didn't happen during the summer but now people are seeing on oh this is lasting so another postponement could be going on it's very difficult to predict but the distance i certainly has affects the front not find it part 2nd families who are very stressed taking care of the children were not going to school. will likely postpone having another child that could very well happen so we could see decreases you know 1st burst 2nd verse this will still unfold ok and you keep an eye and it's not telling you from the max planck institute thank you so much. well here's some news. just announce that vaccine is 100 percent effective in 12 to 15 year olds some good news even if the pace of vaccinations is still an even around the globe time for derek to answer your questions. because some countries vaccinate now and others nature will it impact to try success in vaccinated populations.

it very likely would months look at the current playing field for a minute as of today well over 550000000 doses have have gone into arms worldwide in just a few months sounds great until you consider that around 2 thirds of them went to people in just 5 countries with another quarter of them distributed in only 15 others including many countries in europe just 10 percent of all dozes have been given in the world's other $175.00 nations for the obvious reasons this is a huge problem ethically but it also poses a clear danger to both vaccinated and unvaccinated ally that's because in the last several months we've seen the emergence of dangerous new

variants know for complicated reasons related to how it replicates sars coby to doesn't mutate as quickly as some other viruses out there the flu mutates much faster for instance but but the corona virus does change and theory says evolutionary pressure from measures like mass vaccination can cause it to change faster. although it's an unscientific way to describe the situation you can think of our vaccination drives as an attempt to corner the virus and stamp it out while it on the other hand constantly looks for an escape route it's already like trying to herd cats and the longer we leave people un vaccinated hence unprotected the more and better opportunities we give the virus to mutate into forms that might be more contagious or more deadly or simply unaffected by our vaccines so

it's a kind of race to control the virus before it can change in those ways and if we stumble in that race by not vaccinating everyone fast enough the virus will very likely rebound in new forms also in countries that thought they'd vaccinated their way out of trouble. that's all for now thanks for watching.

where i come from we have to fight for a free press and was born and raised in a new talent to thank our ship which just wants to be a shadow and a few newspapers one official information as a journalist i have worked on the strength of many cat interests and their problems are all was the same forward to social inequality

a lack of the freedom of the press. corruption who can afford to stay silent when it comes to the fans of the humans and see the microphones who have decided to put their trust in us. my name is jenny harrison i work a day. this is africa on the program today. the former president is a free man judges at the i.c.c. have rejected a bid to reinstate charges of war crimes against him buckle was cleared of those charges off to retrial and 2019 but his freedom was pending today's decision. to put a 75 year old. head to the sexual minority of healing for recognition. gender

people say they live in constant fear they want a war it seems to help.