you can find much more news analysis and video on our website dot com but up next is the corona special i really mohamad thanks very much indeed for watching i'll see you soon take care of. the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and context the coronavirus update. on t w. a little guards this is the subject the 7 percent about full force on the streets of this week's issue has shared.

good. young people clearly have the solutions good future comes. to 77 percent now. on t.w. . when night falls when we can finally forget about the virus and close the bedroom door to spend time with our poc now. 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 october 1000 special i want to get jones and berlin a city that doesn't feel like it's going to be to set it anytime 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 the 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 that

has yet to be set up we want to put in one or 2 beds depending on the. we also have some space downstairs which could become another room for the children. then when i sit on one of them had. been changed and i were planning on getting married last summer before their move but they had to postpone because of the pen demick and having kids before marriage for the 2 devout catholics was not an option glad of the union they had asked and a funny. thing 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 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 villany the potomac 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 emotional not 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 well being 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 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 happen 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 in 21000. 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 so 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 need to be a couple so partnering is a is a big piece in that story and partnering is certainly right now. kind of disrupted 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 anxiety about health about what does it mean if i get sick if i have a baby now so i think couples during the 1st looked ons have postponed and not knowing if they will catch up later which 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 infertility in 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 pandemic 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 the clients and small homes for example the 1st wave depression and fertility could be followed by a little bit of a hump maybe in the births that then happened 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 fault 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. now 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. some countries vaccinate now and. when it impacted dr success and vaccinated populations. it very likely would let's 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 known for complicated reasons related to how it replicates source code due

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 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 'd 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. entered the conflict zone the government of sri lanka has been strongly criticized the un human rights council for one of them a deteriorating situation in the country and the increase marginalise ation of minorities my guest this week is giant tough call i'm a geek secretary just rwanda's foreign ministry physically johnson is dumb enough to take the criticism seriously i'm still something about the conflict so for next sunday published. one continent.

700000000 people. all with their own personal stories. we explore every day life for. what europeans fear and what they hope for. some construction there of. 60 minutes on t.w. . look closely. to see carefully you don't know who is soon going. to be a good. match.

discover the. subscriber to a documentary on youtube. it. was part of the on speaker see all these things well than you don't know that you proud of living in a country where child killers are get presidential pardons being vilified rule anyone who is doing something wrong the government of sri lanka has been strongly criticized of the un human rights council which warns of a deteriorating situation in the country the erosion of judicial independence and the increased marginalize ation of minorities my guest this week is john a column by secretary to sri lanka's foreign ministry is there any chance at all

that his government will take the criticism seriously and finally do something about them. jai and off colombia gave welcome to conflict zone in the last few days the un human rights council passed a landmark resolution highlighting your government's failure to ensure accountability for human rights violations and mandating un investigators to collect and preserve data that can be used in future judicial proceedings they did that mr secretary because of your abject failure to do it for yourselves and because of the worsening human rights climate in your country aren't you ashamed of that. well tim let me say the world war ended 78 years later. and we still see the residual effects on the environment on the

physical things and the good friday agreement was in 1998 and there are 116 wars which is called peace while still we're not talking about his novel arlan mr secretary i was talking about we're talking about sri lanka and your failure to ensure accountability for human rights violations which you've already illinois in which you have denied in other interviews. no we had the war for one more one generation and it takes time to heal completely war and it us a device spitting war it was a brutal war right and we finished the war in 2009 and between 2009 and 201592 percent of the land occupied by the military were wheelies 295000 people who were used as a human shield we integrate and resettle into the community well i

understand i understand all that mr secretary but your your foreign minister has already denied the accusations of serious human rights violations you put up the inevitable barriers of denials and accusations of western bias do you really think that the rest of the world is so stupid that they're going to immediately accept those denials in the face of overwhelming documented evidence of your current human rights abuses i'm not talking about those just in the past i'm talking about continuing human rights abuses in your country. there are these documents can we have a look at these documents that you are referring to the u.n. has said about are you the u.n. has sent to you numerous times you read them in the in the resolution of the human rights council so it's a little strange for you to pretend that you haven't seen them. we have seen this document prepared by the human rights commission now that's ok but you know there

had been 5 i mean from 201220132 those and 14 and now 2 of those went to 21 so every time this government comes to power they said resolution from the united nations human rights council right is that fair i think we have to ask that the human race council when that that is far should be held to a country or actions isn't it mr secretary i don't know what your father as one of your foreign minister called the accusations forced and complained about the resolution was politically motivated but more than 40 countries co-sponsored this resolution 22 voted for it 14 abstained only 11 against your rapidly losing international support and credibility and the votes prove it to him who are these 40 countries and if i countries are in your wrong right then outside the europe is canada and america england malawi and solomon marshall islands so $35.00 countries got together and make this an unsubstantiated accusations allegations so this is

nothing to do with the human race in sri lanka so they're automatically so they're automatically wrong even your good friend india who you loved it incessantly to vote against the resolution they abstained they were buying your denials either were they. i look at mark the statement made by the indian permanent representative in the beginning they said this kind of country specific resolutions are wrong and then they said they abstain that is their policy that yes i know your kind but if you want that to support you the real question from all this mr secretary is do you want to be taken seriously on the international stage or just dismissed as one more serial human rights abuse or protected by a small gang of other abusers we want to be taken very seriously in the international community and nor other country or entity is more interested than sri lanka to find a lasting solution to the residual issues that we have in sri lanka because we are

a small country small population and the harmony and peace is of critically important for us more than anyone else but it has to evolve within us no one can force a conciliation lets you say you want to hear wounds and you want reconciliation but let's take the un's charge of you marginalizing minorities one of the worst examples has been your instruction to cremate the bodies of covert victims something that you knew would be deeply hurtful to your muslim community and other minorities you've now retracted this order but you claimed in a recent interview that you simply followed the science on the world health organization had originally instructed all covert bodies should be cremated that statement of yours was completely untrue wasn't it they never said anything of the kind. well if you look at the world health organization there said cremation of

all korean bodies it is they are of course they haven't they know they didn't mr secretary they did not get what one state what date was that when they could have that out but i will come back to you on this and then lead grounded change that to katie the burial is permitted and now that question is behind us steam we have buried 69 i saw you when you change the subject but you told them you made a statement that was blatantly false since march last year the w.h.o. made it clear that the burial of covert victims was perfectly acceptable its statement called it a common myth that persons who have died of communicable disease should be cremated but this is not true commission as a matter of cultural choice and available resources to date and there is no evidence of persons having become infected from exposure to the bodies of covert 900 victims that was march 20th last year but you ignored all that and your government kept on ordering the cremation of covert victims despite knowing that

this would cause untold pain and distress so your excuse for the world health organization said this falls apart it just simply doesn't conform to the facts mr secretary well it was never a political decision it was always a health and science decision only thing years we did fight against the decision to change that back but it took some time and we do understand that past not the best thing to do we didn't hurt the sentiments of a population our community in sri lanka that is not the best thing we could do yes we do understand i'm not arguing against that but now we have corrected it and we have moved on 69 bodies have already been buried and now it's behind us we took time. talking of marginalizing minorities it turns out that your own president has indulged in some pretty inflammatory rhetoric over the last year hasn't he on november the 18th he talked about legitimate fears that the sinhala race religion

national resources and the heritage would be threatened with destruction in the face of various local and foreign forces and ideologues that support separatism extremism and terrorism this was a clear dog whistle to his supporters to be on their guard against muslims and other minorities wasn't this wasn't a call for national unity he was blatantly pressing the fear button knowing full well that it would stop the kind of discrimination and disharmony that you claim to be fighting. team you wait and see there is a lot of evidence surfacing regarding the easter bombing easter bombing was the single most devastating act of terrorism which took place in this country nearly 270 christiana's foreigners and 3 hotels and 3 churches were bombed by the extremists you wait and see there was going to be 19 that was 2019 and everybody everybody admits there's no argument there that this was

a terrible attack i'm talking about what your president said november the 18th last year stoking the fires of into communal hatred as i said this wasn't a well for the last no unity he was pressing the fear button telling people to be afraid of the minorities quite clear from what he said. thing in the same state mon i fail remember right he made it very clear that he is the president for all communities all people in this country although he was elected by the scene the limits already so you take one portion of that and argue but i can argue back it is not what the president meant president has been very focused on maintaining harmony but on the back of the elections one of them said mr secretary whether or not as many said it's what he said is exactly what he said he said i am the president and i am the president for all people of this country so there was not an occasion in

that i was contradicted by what it was contradicted by what he said about national resources and heritage sent her heritage will be threatened with destruction but this is. it's been pregnant for the last 5600 years from time to time yes it does mean yellow not even more and more fearful of minorities let's you know your holiday let's look at your anti terrorism regulations which of so upset the un and human rights groups the international commission of jurists has consistently called for the repeal of this act which has been used it says to arbitrarily detained suspects for months and often years without charge or trial why do you keep such repressive laws in place. team from 2015 to 2019 there was a discussion of a counter-terrorism bill the unity government which was formed by coalition of the main 2 political parties with the support of e.u.

with the support of us and other countries drafted the counterterrorism proposal that is the new act but they could not just do it right so there are issues in our p.t. if we do accept that we need to revisit our p.t. if we do our said that this long term and i mean given the same thing your time on on revisiting it you said that sri lanka has a very democratic regime no repression whatsoever these are your words but your anti terrorist laws make a nonsense of that what place does arbitrary detention without charge or trial have in a democratic country if that's what you are that's what you claim to be this is why i said we need to revisit the prevention of terrorism act and we need to draw lessons from the best practices internationally and we are going to do that given tunnelling while you are passing your passing new repressive legislation march the

12th this year your so called the radicalization regulations these allow for arbitrary administrative detention of people for up to 2 years without trial this is a whole mark of repression arbitrary detention without trial you say you're working on it you keep passing new regulations that are just as repressive as the old ones . well imagine the situation if we did not have the pedia after the 192001000 easter bombing we would not have been able to do anything in this country it would have been a chaos maybe somebody wanted our country to make our chaotic so i am seeing the p.d. here is in the in the topic of discussion and we are determined to revisit and we are determined to amend and also the long term detainees we need to find a solution to that we do agree that it is wrong if i would charge to keep someone for a very long period precedent already given that it is for the attorney general to

find a solution to this when meanwhile these regulations are in blatant violation of your international legal obligations and they violate article 13 of the surrey lankan constitution do you know what that article says. well i don't have a copy right now but what it says advice can remind you is that it guarantees freedom from arbitrary arrest detention and punishment so you're wrecking your own constitution with these new regulations which you can battle because. he doesn't come near him in the beginning i requested you please vet for another few weeks and you will come out i mean we are in this to get us will come out with the real picture and then the whole world will leave what has gone underneath we have only seen the tip of the iceberg on the is the bombing but there is a whole heap of things this has happened before that and it is happening even now

so things will come out in due course and just p.t. if we will really see but there will be new legislation introduced to the country for the protection of human dignity or the shore cell harmony theme of yours that would that would that would make a change wouldn't because let's look at you know the way you've been handling trials and commissions the main reason the human rights council voted against you was that you've disrupted and impeded efforts to bring justice and accountability for all sides in the civil war that's the u.n. saying that they accuse you of him in trenching impunity for grave human rights violations and abuses by all sides this is not one of the hallmarks of your state isn't it. well it has nothing to do as you said because if you remember if you recall from 2009 to 2015 there were 3 commissions appointed to find out the way forward but unfortunately after 2015 none of these commissions could continue

function and now the president has appointed a commission of inquiry with the supreme court judge maintaining it misses the balance me and engender gender balance in order to find answers to whether there are any issues to guiding accountability whether there are any issues regarding missing persons so give us time the need we have given them a time behaving the facts you've had time to disrupt and impede the existing judicial processes this obstruction says the u.n. has taken the form of actually arresting some of the war crimes investigators and threatening others the un said one former chief of the criminal investigation division who led investigations into several key human rights cases was himself arrested and another nation for silver from the same division had to leave sri lanka because of threats immediately after the last presidential election and you tell me that's the way a democracy which you claim to have pursues justice doesn't look like it does. well

everything is in the media everything is in front of the commission a police inspector can leave for another country without taking up less than 12 hours it doesn't have to be stressing this particular case they are saying. we want you for our number one who says he was threatened you must not be part of a conspiracy all these things well and they will probably give me lots of money to move these all these no no no you don't know that was the secretary that's that's a sign i'm saying that inquiries are coming out all these things that is why i said it will come out with the talk in china in january last year at your presidential commission investigating so-called political victimization of public officials began intervening to halt prosecutions including those of 2 former navy officers charged in relation to the disappearance of 11 people in 20082009

this intervening in judicial proceedings doesn't inspire public confidence does it so also this commission has intervened in favor of military intelligence officers interfered in other trials including by withholding documentary evidence threatening prosecutors with legal action running parallel and contradictory examinations all these are accusations by the united nations in other words you've been destroying any chance of a proper trial and bring proper accountability you've allowed suspects to go free you're not interested in. him i will not comment on a presidential commission and that matter is before the court in the country they support the senate against that let me sense well i'm not in a position to comment on anything on that presidential commission on political rights because it is a matter before the courts. well you may not want to comment on that the fact is that you have been freeing guilty people in march last year the president pardoned

a soldier convicted of massacring 8 civilians including children human rights watch said it showed your government's disregard for justice for the worst abuses mr secretary you pardoned child killers the other no limits to which you won't sink you a child killer convicted child killer gets a presidential power pardon what kind of country living in well team do you know that elson 500 x. . for pardon similarly without any trial did you know that the you know 459 child soldiers as young as 10 were not even considered as veterans but considered as of war and sent back to school to study with books and school bags and shoes right so we have done both so i can't argue i can't comment on a mission made by the president to pardon

a person and the devious regime also. hard core terrorists so these are things happening so it is not like route i'm i come back to this you proud of living in a country where child killers are get presidential pardons you can't sing my i don't know man you're not you're not holding your own forces accountable the message that that sends to your armed forces is basically you can get away with anything can't you if you can kill hills and if you don't kill children in cold blood you can get away with anything it is never like that we will never pardon anyone who is doing something wrong and the president is determined to make things right and make someone accountable if a person has done anything wrong against the law a president will never ever. the side of a criminal never ever not just give him a presidential pardon mr secretary your civil war. his presidential pardons are there in the world now we're not talking about the rest of the world we're talking

about sri lanka and about my why why you only see like i why you need you talk about one person who is going to represent you don't represent our rest of the world and talk to the rest of the world about what they do i mean talking to you about sorcery lanka does is hypocrisy i mean you are talking about one person may not be saying it's asking you to account for the actions of your government it's as simple as that oh it is just one person and we help out with bells and a 100. mr secretary your civil war may have ended more than 12 years ago but since your government isn't interested in accountability thousands of family members from all communities are still seeking justice and truth about the fate of their loved ones and your response to date has been to send state agents to harass and intimidate human rights defenders lawyers journalists social actors and victims of human rights abuses how does how hopeful is that to your declared aim of bringing reconciliation and the count ability to your country how helpful that

piece of piece of missing person established according to this last one in 2015 and this of peace is empowered appointments made by that of the locations given given an action plan is requested and they have produced the size as loudly about the harassment i'm asking you about the harassment your police. your police have continually harris to a member of the adversary advocacy group mothers of the disappeared one of them whose son was disappeared in 2009 told human rights watch that officers of the criminal investigation department continually questioned her about who's going to meetings who's going to give testimony in geneva what are they going to say what business is that of your criminal investigation division. well if there is an issue with a person they can always complain to the police and they can see from the judiciary and our judiciary is very independent and in this talk all areas is mostly it is

they are all natives who are the judges so this is these are only accusations very conveniently made without any substance why don't they make a complaint to the police where they can make a complaint to the president they can make a complaint to the inspector again the law police and the enemy judicially perceiving without doing that you just complain and then you mentioned about human rights defenders we know most of the human great defenders are receiving money from the west and we know the bank accounts we know how much money has come and gone so these are not born of being the human brain defenders they are playing to the sound none of them you've just smeared the whole lot of them in one sentence is that really what you want to do you don't have a lot of times to smear and smear a whole raft of your society defending human rights. we are very much interested in human great nor one else is interested in human race than sri lankans and sri lanka that is

a fact no one is impressed and about human race and be concious and then sri lankans in sri lanka what way not only is your human rights record is criticize you deny everything mr secretary the u.n. insists that you address these criticisms some of which we've talked about during this interview and it also holds out the threat that member states might start applying targeted sanctions asset freezes and travel bans against your state officials and others credibly alleged to have been involved in human rights violations are you ready for that. well you know if individual countries have a separate agenda not necessarily human race but using human rights as a gap and there is very little we can do but let's wait and see i mean we also have support from a large number of countries it was evident in the human rights commission proceedings in the beginning when the report was submitted 21 countries spoke against the human rights commission erst report and in the proceeding discussions

there were a lot of opposition to this of course the warning they got 22 but even they got one word less than the last time and 14 and there were a large number of absentees that is 14 so this world is divided so you are i mean some very very very quickly as we're running out of time are you going to take note of these criticisms or are you going to stick to your blanket denials which no one believes where there we have gone away or not we are going to continue in the play just that we have made to the international community to find answers or in consultation missing persons we are going to and accountability we are going to find answers through a domestic mckenney some as quickly as we can we do shed of it from the responsibility to the international community more than that to the ok well of this country we've run out of time john on earth column by again thank you very much for being on conflict zone. thank you.

up.

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. this search for the last summer. with the secret. leonardo da vinci's masterpiece montage history. art restorers medicine icing discovery. oh my. oh mysterious coffee exists. in 75 w. . let's get right to the heart of the. post good times are good for the. former doesn't do very. douglas will not yet. the industry is controlling your

thoughts the great books of the 20th century. present a hoax lose. the treated memory. the turing ignorance starts may 3rd to double. the power of foreigners. where i come from i never saw the sun where it took to. heaven on earth in brazil the sun was always the man since the portuguese word for sun is masculine when i moved to germany as a 10 year old i want to cut to one t.v. that looks change how i see the world because in germany the sun is family. even now but the side of a good listener sorry for a ponytail instead of a deep voice exterminate the guy seemed absolutely incredible. i realized how language shapes our thinking how. definitions of harm not only mental that you may

just put a whole perception of the world. is inside save my life and was one of the reasons i became a journalist i'm a storyteller and i use my words to how with intercultural understanding my name is the one where you and i work and to town. this is the job you news and these are all top stories u.s. president joe biden has unveiled an infrastructure plan worth 2 trillion dollars the spending package will help repair roads and bridges as well as improve the quality of drinking water by then said the plan will also creates jobs and help tackle the climate crisis. france has extended its current virus lock down for one month to prevent a 3rd wave president in my name across the want to the at the.