this is the w. news wire from berlin tonight ukraine and russia tensions along the border are rising us president by calling for call a buildup of russian troops along the border with ukraine is prompting fears that the 7 year conflict could flare up again meanwhile the u.s. president will reportedly make the 20th anniversary of the $911.00 terror attacks on the united states the new deadline for the withdrawal of all american troops from afghanistan also coming up tonight worries about side effects from yet another coronavirus vaccine u.s.

regulators recommend stopping use of the johnson and johnson one shot vaccine after reports of blood clots and here in germany more than 3000000 cases of the coronavirus some hospitals are at capacity after 6 months of lockdowns the federal government says it now has a plan and the power to slow the spread of the vibes. i'm off to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and to all of you around the world welcome we begin tonight to with worries over war in ukraine yet again u.s. president joe biden is urging russian president vladimir putin to reduce tensions with ukraine in a phone call today with putin biden proposed a summit between the 2 leaders kiev is accusing moscow of amassing thousands of troops along the border and on. the crimean peninsula russia claims the truth

movements are just military exercises ukrainian soldiers have been fighting. since 2014 and there is renewed fear that bloodshed is again on the horizon. russian warships on their way to the black sea parts of the military build up around ukraine that's been stoking tensions in recent weeks. military camps like this one have sprung up and witnesses have reported seeing rows of tanks in the area now the west is condemning russia's build up and reiterating support for ukraine. united states stands firmly behind the sovereignty of turkey for turkey of ukraine. we. are seeing unfortunately. russia taking very provocative actions when it comes to write without. borders concentration. russian forces on ukraine's border since $24.00 team.

that was when fighting between pro russian separatists and ukrainian troops 1st erupted in ukraine's east more than 14000 people have since died in that conflict which has yet to be resolved. in response to russia's latest moves nato secretary general yen stultified said the military alliance would stand by ukraine. we are also increased presence in the black sea region in the black sea with more and they will present some more ships more puerto visits and we are constantly looking into how we can continue to step up and provide more practical support to to ukraine to help them defend themselves ukraine's foreign minister said the offer of help was urgently needed we meet measures which will deter you can russia and which will contain its aggressive intentions. these could

be as secretary-general mentioned. a new round of sanctions which would trace the price of russian aggression. later on she's day must go hit back saying its appointments were due to nato his actions. in response to the alliances military activities that threaten russia we took appropriate measures with must go sending more troops and equipment to its western botha's ukraine and its allies that also pushing for a diplomatic solution but accusations of blame on both sides looks set to continue . well for more now i'm joined by sergey soon let me use the head of the key of regional office for the 100 good foundation that's a german think tank that promotes human rights instability across the globe it's good to have you on the program mr simlins let me ask you will the talks there were held today in brussels will or are they going to make any difference whatsoever in

the tensions that we're seeing right now in eastern ukraine. thank you i think yes i think it is very important step for. diplomacy the direct direct military will talks without the invitation of so-called 3rd party which is of course a competent part of russia as like normally work to a european diplomacy offer to crane a software that is always talks with russia as e.p. russia would be a moderator or a messenger but not a conflict and park it as and maybe a few grand occupy huge parts of ukraine and now a direct talks between ukrainian diplomacy and us diplomacy in the strong assigned towards russia that a crane has a us that or it that is a very important step to raise that to keep peace in the region that the you asked supports what about the suggestions you do from u.s. president biden that a summit to take place with biden in russian president putin both attending

wouldn't that actually make a bigger difference. well actually. that was the in tans of. year 2 starts of negotiations about his belief that is a typical russian approach roast to increase tension stress to build dark army presence and to threaten its neighbors and then call forth talks or for negotiations in order to you to save some. girl some wings that russia has achieved in their region that is also earth that is always want russia to start in a fancy to you capture some territory or to gain stomping and then to talk like our russia can go one step back after having done 2 steps forward nand to present because as it diplomacy as a diplomatic victory i think that. many things will be dependent on how strong and how to seize it by will come to these negotiations barks now it looks like

a minor victory for putin it was he's intent invited by to start negotiations and out there is nothing to you negotiate about russia you must earn bring our troops out of the greater russia months must stop the threat your brain and its neighbors russia must stop to you or bombard to share the positions and russia must talk to occupy printing of that so earth simple nothing needs to be used after you are missing let me ask you what about the mentality inside the kremlin is it moscow's belief that ukraine belongs to russia. i would say. the most important thing is that for putin for age that ukraine should be a russian baths are like you have with the russian stuff and that was the problem there for russia for many years as soon as ukraine storage to demonstrate its only dependency and to give its way and to be successful it was was seen in moscow

as a threat for putin right and now i've been there to many quarts of grain are especially in the east and in this hour are conceded in russia as russian territories and as these things should be even. if we follow the model it's perfectly should be at least governed by russia directly or indirectly i think the most dangerous being the most dangerous part of these perception is that russia. wants to be side who is russian and who is not and mostly for russian or russian everyone was speaks russian is a russian person and leave on the russian rule that is what to some extent a certain extent what germany used to say in leipzig your use of gear every year german speaking britain in austria and switzerland or look some work is a german in moscow you quote the german brig and that makes that is what makes moscow so dangerous for your brilliance as many brink's russian is initially or

their native language but they don't want to be russian mr so when unfortunately we're out of time but we appreciate your time in your insights tonight thank you. u.s. president joe biden reportedly plans to withdraw all american troops from afghanistan by september 11th of this year biden is due to an illness the plans tomorrow the decision will keep thousands of u.s. troops in the country beyond the may 1st withdrawal deadline which was set by the trump administration there are about $3000.00 american soldiers in afghanistan serving alongside some $7000.00 additional nato forces the taliban has threatened to renew attacks if foreign forces are not out of the country by may 1st. are even more now going to take this to our washington bureau chief in his post she's following the story for us good evening to you even is why is the u.s. president why is he announcing this withdrawal now. time run

out for him. brende as he has said recently that the may 1st stead line which was established by the trump administration was not a realistic timeline to really remove all troops from the region and as americans really have grown tired of these endless wars in the middle east and want to see them come to an end he really really had to come out with a precise date and we also have to keep in mind brant the initial purpose for the u.s. presence in afghanistan was to stop any potential attack on american soil and as the geopolitical situation is changing has been changing many experts are actually saying that the threats to the u.s. would now most likely not from syria or yemen that might be another reason for this withdrawal not the new u.s. defense secretary was here in berlin today it it melts that the u.s.

military presence here in germany will be expanded what kind of signal does that send to germany and to nato. oh this is this uncertainly will be seen as the. commitment to the transatlantic transatlantic relationship something biden has touted since he was actually running for president and this decision itself this commitment itself is a major shift from the trident trump administration who planned to actually scale bag troops from germany and was doing though potentially ask elating tensions with russia so the visit of lloyd also in which you just mentioned to germany is another another happening which also underlines this deep commitment towards nato and i think it's fair to say especially to germany as we mentioned earlier in the program

that the u.s. president today proposed a summit with russian president vladimir putin what more can you tell us about that he needs. but president biden from day one on has been very critical of putin he just called him a killer some of all international audience the international view was my recall this conversation today was also a necessary step because of his commitment to the trans the transatlantic relationship we were just talking about president biden ones to avoid any military conflict in crimea which by the end of the day would automatically. 92 forces to get involved and potentially really distemper lazing the whole region and that is something that joe biden hopes to avoid all right our very own you just go with the latest from washington tonight as always thank you. all right let's take

a look now at some of the other stories that are making headlines around the world but the president patrice telephone has won reelection early results from sunday's poll in the west african nation indicate that he took more than 85 percent of the vote to lone had previously bound to serve just one term in office critics accuse him of rigging the race by sidelining opposition figures anti cue protesters have again taken to the streets of me and more as the united nations warned the country could be heading towards a massive syria style conflict the un has called on the international community to take action to stop the military's brutal crackdown hundreds have been killed since the military seized power at the beginning of february 12 germans accused of plotting attacks on muslims asylum seekers and politicians have gone on trial in the city of stuttgart prosecutors say 11 of them were members of the far right group s terror organization which aims to overthrow the government the 12th man is accused of offering the group material support. the pharmaceutical company johnson

and johnson is says it will delay the rollout of its code with 19 banks seen here in europe that's after health authorities in both south africa and the united states move to suspend its use due to the effects possible effects side effects the single shot vaccine has already but administered to nearly 7000000 people in the u.s. most with no or very mild side effects but u.s. health bodies are now investigating unusual blood clots that occurred in 6 women under the age of 50. authorities are calling it a short pause the u.s. is johnson and johnson vaccine has hit the same stumbling block as the u.k.'s astra zeneca jab did last month a likely link to a rare and deadly blood clot use of johnson and johnson's janson vaccine has now been halted across the u.s. with health authorities investigating 6 incidents of clotting in younger women one

of them fatal. the us developed a vaccine uses an adenovirus to trigger immunity the same mechanism as the astra zeneca vaccine janson accounts for roughly 5 percent of vaccines delivered so far in the u.s. so i had a j. and j. that's an appointment today and. i saw the news about it getting kind of revoked so i called and i asked and they said you can get the pfizer vaccine and said my wife just had to take that and that's it that's it and so you know i'm hoping that i know that it's going to happen you know you know anybody that budget talks. this is a setback to europe to johnson and johnson announced it will delay its rollout on the continent the company had already started processing an order from the e.u. of 200000000 doses. magical i imagine

there will be repercussions as we're waiting for millions of doses but this means the controls are working if we need to be cautious we need to be cautious i mean. the janssen job has been partially rolled out in africa where a majority of countries don't have enough vaccines even for their own health care workers the african union signed a deal for 220000000 doses this year but u.s. authorities remain hopeful they're saying it could only be a matter of days before the rollout resumes. and for more now i'm joined by mohamed windier he's a viral logis from lancaster university in the u.k. it's good to see you again mr mir let me ask you this this stop of the use of the johnson and johnson vaccine in the united states what do you make of that decision . well brant i think it is really unfortunate news particularly because this was the only single short of vaccine that was approved and it's one of the 3 vaccines that are currently being told out in the u. u.s.

and also this is one of those vaccine that we were considering as a tentative. vaccine concerns because it could be stored out there after you take your temperature but we're looking really on to that that is being generated out of the u.s. applying to be vaccines there is no such concerns advise that anybody had no vaccine numpad what we have seen that that johnson and johnson so this clearly indicate that there is some general consensus that makes this as being caused those are adamant and those evidence are not really seen in normal population of that clot in the into intervening in the blood so certainly that is something that we need to watch medicare for the in coming days well this is really a double whammy though for the european union isn't it because astra zeneca has been palls for people basically under the age of 60 because of fears of blood clots and now johnson and johnson says it's going to delay the rollout of the vaccine here in europe because of these blood clot concerts. yeah absolutely i

mean any vaccine that is not considered health thing into the deployment not only in that about what but also and he contributed to developing what is really a blow for much needed efforts to blanket vaccinate the whole herd and for the european union i think is certainly a setback although this pass' from see it as temperately at is is only a precautionary but i personally feel because the austrians and and the johnson johnson they used the same to quality ad in the wireless so there are fears chances that the association of this mediated depletion of the cells and old so the blood clot is associated with the fact that it's so if that is proven to be associated it would be certainly a setback for the euro and also floor of the countries who have made the container i really want to make one point rentier is that this was the only vaccine that has proven i think it's you against so that's really going to matter yet and that was the only reason this whole trafficker decided to deploy this one and they already have caused it because also that it can actually has only 10 to 13 percent of it is

you against south africa and that intense old african variant is emerging i mean here in london there is a big evidence even if people are being sickly and because of this old african very intimate just and if that situation come certainly we will have not back up even devise that wouldn't be as effective as it's destroyed some don't some beans so what does this mean this really are for the efforts in africa to vaccinate people successfully if you don't have the johnson and johnson vaccine. i think this is actually a setback is that because you are at the african union once they have seen the concerns about the oscars that it got they declined that contract and moved toward the johnson and johnson and now if this would carry on happening with the johnson and johnson it would certainly be a big concerns for the european sorry the african union to deploy the vaccine at the rate they would anticipating and also the contribution to the coal that facility would also be reduced because of the demand by other countries on to the

johnson and johnson so all in all any any vaccine that is having consents well not only have a contribution to where you know the vaccine hesitancy but owns on to the supply and that a committee would effect on little doubt all right mohamed joining us tonight from the u.k. mr rayney as always we appreciate your time your insights thank you thanks for having me well here's some other developments now in the pandemic india will fast track emergency approvals for cope with 1000 bank seeds that have been authorized by western countries and japan the country is ramping up its vaccination rollout has had battles soaring infection rates and the director general of the world health organization says confusion and complacency are ensuring the pandemic hands a long life the w.h.o. says proven public health measures if applied could bring the pandemic under control within months here in germany chancellor angela merkel she would like to leave behind what has been a fragmented and largely unsuccessful pandemic response in the midst of what is now

a full blown coated 1000 crisis the german chancellor has one additional powers today she revealed the details of a strict nationwide response to the pandemic if infection numbers and hospitalizations remain high. she wants more clarity and a more uniform approach to coronavirus measures in germany frustration had been mounting over the last few weeks as it became increasingly difficult for the federal government and germany's 16 states to agree on common shared rules to tackle the growing covert 1000 cases. in order to improve the situation and to slow down the 3rd wave to break it and turn it around the measures implemented thus far by the federal government and the states don't go far enough our response of a pandemic must be more stringent than consequential. the response includes changing germany's infection protection act in order to grant the federal

government more power to enforce coronavirus restrictions health matters are normally under the jurisdiction of the states but this has led to a patchwork of sometimes contradictory rules the new law would force any state with the high incidence of covert 1000 cases to implement the same regulations including limiting gatherings introducing a nighttime curfew and shutting down non-essential shops leisure activities and restaurants people in berlin think stricter measures should have come sooner. i don't think they are the right measures but it's basically too late for the right measures as. they should have been introduced in the year ago. i think there are too many people involved and it is very difficult to reach an agreement it would be more efficient if fewer people were making decisions if more power lay with the chancellor. health experts have been warning that the

situation in germany is serious the number of covert 1000 patients currently being treated in intensive care units is rising and risks reaching higher occupancy levels than at the peak of the 2nd wave of the pandemic if you don't take strict measures this number goes higher and therefore really concerned and actually we have to act as soon as possible to prevent people from going on because they are not treated in the right way the new legislation still needs to be approved by the german parliament angela merkel has said she hopes the buddhists will implement the changes swiftly ardmore now let's take the story to our political correspondent simon young going to need to use simon so this federal approach a nationwide approach to trying to control this pandemic why is it so controversial

. well brant of course measures to restrict people's freedom during the pandemic of by their very nature controversial and some people say you know lock downs are essential to get out of this other people say the emphasis should be on opening up and the measures press proposed in this bill include some pretty drastic ones like night time curfews potentially and also possibly going back to closing schools if infection numbers go up so controversial in that way beyond that the question of whether one regime for the whole country is the right way to go if you remember a year ago in the early stages of the pandemic people said that germany's federal system was a strength allowing for the local responses and now the fear is that that sort of find sheening will go out of the way of you have to say the mix of 16 different regional approach is hasn't so far succeeded in bringing infections under control

to. the chancellor she wants to have the federal approach one approach is she going to get what she wants. well the government would like to put this through parliament in a sort of speeded up legislative process and for that they need to a 2 thirds majority in the buddhist tog. it's not clear if they get that because of the largest opposition party the f.t. very much opposed to this bill they say it is an assault on germany's federal system some of the opposition parties are more inclined to vote for it but it would also have to clear the other legislative house the boom this wrought with the states who represented a lot of those regional states and not happy about this sort of one size fits all approach so we'll have to see if that will pause quickly i'm sure it'll pass in the end and let me ask you something the other big issue here in berlin too conservative governors who would like to be the conservative candidate for the

german chancellor in the election this coming september we're expecting to find out what friday that person's going to be of the 2 where do things stand tonight do we know. well the 2 men in lashes and marcus said of the heads respectively of the c.d.u. and the c.s. parties they met with conservative parliamentarians today seeking their support trying to i think talk the other down in many cases a pretty bruising encounter by all accounts who can best unite the party who can win the most votes in the election in september. but it seems they've agreed to sort this out by the end of the week they say they want to agree on whoever the candidate ultimately will be it's just that they both want it to be them and not the other guy all right so i mean young as always i mean thank you. muslims across the world are marking the start of ramadan islams holiest month.

pilgrims in saudi arabia prayed at the sacred site of mecca while social distancing rituals during ramadan include fasting from dawn to dusk international prayers only worshippers who have received at least one coben $1000.00 vaccine shot are allowed to enter mosques in the holy city as. you're watching the news after a short break i'll be back to take you through the day tonight the russian threats what will the ukraine nato and the u.s. do about we'll be right back.

and i was front of my dignity 77 percent takes on modern slavery shining a light on the fate of many german women in italy. obscene that's one man where. the source is going to cross a 2 ship there are stories 'd must be told once you force me interesting stories.

and exclusion of the 77 percent starts of people 17th on t.w. . more than 1000 years ago europe witnesses a huge construction boom. with christianity firmly established there is a greater demand for houses of worship. and both religious and secular leaders are eager to display their power so churches become palaces. the race begins who can create the tallest biggest most beautiful structures. stone masons builders and the architects compete with each other. even to projects the but this is how massive churches with towers that

pierce the clouds like skyscrapers are created. contest of the cathedral struck people 12th on t.w. . defense secretary was here in berlin today to shut down any talk of a drawdown and a reversal of policy pushed by former president trump the u.s. is not cutting its troop numbers here in germany in fact the numbers are about to get bigger and that has everything to do with another american foreign policy about face if donald trump was the u.s. president blinded by the kremlin joe biden is the president who claims to see the kremlin for what it really is a threat i bring off in berlin this is the day.