2014 successive presidents have been trying to find a way to leave afghanistan. but it's hard the taliban is in control over much of the country. and women are already seeing many of their hard won rights rolled back. their almost weekly attacks on afghan forces and civilians alike. this is no peace. despite this donald trump promised all u.s. forces would be out by may the 1st this year. president biden also wants troops home but in coordination with nato allies we still have thousands of personnel there. wired ministration strongly supports the diplomatic prague process is underway and to bring an end to this war that is closing out 20 years.

although he won't meet trumps may deadline september is the new date. among the more marked 20 years of a costly war with little victory to tool called. a new deadline a poignant day to stick a closer look now with our ali witty fee agents to in kabul afghanistan and it was terry schultz who is in brussels covering nato h.q. i want to give you the 1st word ali not exactly a surprise this is a decision given that previous u.s. administrations also set deadlines to pull out troops still how has the leadership in afghanistan reacted to this. so we just saw a statement come from dr abdullah abdullah who is the head of the national reconciliation body and he said that the taliban shouldn't think that just because the us and foreign forces are leaving that they can come easily or that the state

will collapse or that this will be that and but in terms of the people the biggest fear and the biggest cause of concern is the fact that this withdrawal is without conditions if you look at previous statements by the u.s. including a letter sent by secretary blinken about a month ago to that of our government they had referred to things like a reduction in violence a cease fire things like that none of that is present and in terms of the current rhetoric and we'll see if joe biden actually brings that up tonight because that's really what's most worrying for people is they haven't actually seen the situation in terms of violence get any better and yet the u.s. is saying you know we're going to leave no matter what. right now so obviously the security situation as you are reporting it is still very precarious a terry defense secretary lloyd austin and secretary of state anthony are blinken are in brussels meeting with nato allies mr blinken earlier essentially said

mission accomplished we've reached our goals i mean how will this decision impact coalition forces in afghanistan. yes the u.s. forces are now only about a quarter of the 10000 international troops in afghanistan but the thing is they possess all the best capabilities necessary essential capabilities for the rest of the more than 30 nations who are there alongside u.s. troops so basically even if some countries wanted to stay they couldn't they would not be able to operate safely for for their own efficacy and their own protection without the u.s. capabilities and so when president trump former president made this deal with the taliban which was conditional on several things at that point he also said that nato troops would leave because everyone acknowledges they want to have the choice to stay even if they wanted to i'm not hearing that they would want to lay low or frankly i spoke to some sources and they said we're tired too you know we may disagree on what we've accomplished there but we're ready to go more what does that

mean for the people in afghanistan ali because for months now there have been peace talks peace conferences with the taliban if it's game over an hour centrally what is the incentive for the taliban to continue engaging in peace talks. this is exactly the question that the afghan people are asking you know if there are no conditions if there is nothing that joe biden says tonight about a cease fire or about a reduction in violence why wouldn't the taliban just wait until september 12th to begin you know a very hardcore offensive and try to retake the country this is the biggest fear for the people because what they've seen is that since these talks began and you know the situation hasn't gotten any better in fact the u.n. put out a report today saying that the number of civilian casualties has actually increased in this last quarter to 2021 compared to the same period last year so this is really the fear among the people is that ok you can leave you know we were

expecting you to leave at some point but are you going to do that responsibly and are you going to make sure that we're not all killed as soon as you do so that is a very heavy a responsibility there at area 2 months ago nato said johnson berg said no premature we're drawing does this one draw essentially now mean an admission that afghanistan's problems are just too big to solve. that's not certainly a conclusion i would make but that's been the line all along that they will leave when the time is right the only thing that's changed lately is they they've decided now is the time i was very surprised as someone who's covered this war long time since its beginning in fact to hear them suddenly drop all the conditions and the taliban has come out and already said that well if if you're not meeting the may 1st deadline that you had with us we're not coming to talks so one of those conditions up until now was that there were robust peace talks with participation

by the taliban the fact that that may not even be underway by the time the u.s. pulls out is really surprising for a lot of people who watch this process and even had some hope for this process we want to give you the final word i mean if you look ahead for us for just a moment i'm gonna start after america leaves is there a prospect for enter. peace. that really comes down to the government and the taliban both sides have to feel that there is an incentive to them to come to peace talks and to begin to speak to one another obviously the taliban have said you know that until all foreign troops are out they have no interest in any kind of talks about the future of afghanistan and now it's really a test of the government going forward they have the next 4 months to prove that they can make the situation here better in terms of rights in terms of. security in terms of economy and to really comfort people and say that even without our foreign

backers without all of their money without all of their military support we can try and undo some of the wrongs of the last 20 years and we can try and assure you that your life will go on so right now the onus is really on the government to prove that you know. the world will not collapse on september 12th and on the taliban to say that ok we say that whenever all of the troops leave we will actually begin these negotiations for them to actually go ahead and follow through with that. reporting from kabul afghanistan and teri schultz in brussels thank you both for your coverage. i think on some of the other stories making headlines around the world at least 20 children were killed in a fire at a primary school in the western african state of any share numerous other children were injured most of them were still attending preschool the fire destroyed several classrooms and blocked exits as cause is still unknown authorities have launched an

investigation. south korea has condemned neighboring japan's plan to release treat it radioactive water from the fukushima nuclear plants in 2 years' time so has asked officials to explore possible international litigation against japan but tokyo says disposing of the water into the pacific ocean is safe and essential in order to decommission fukushima. the mastermind behind the world's biggest ponzi scheme bernie made off as died and prison at the age of $82.00 he was serving a 150 year sentence for defrauding tens of thousands of investors out of billions of dollars over 4 decades. now the rollout of the johnson and johnson vaccine has been paused in the u.s. much of europe and south africa after reports of rare blood clotting in a very small number of people health authorities say they were halting the use of

the shot while they investigate the cases and that they were doing this out of an abundance of caution the astra zeneca job was also recently temporarily suspended in some countries after being linked to rare blood clots. 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 job 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 u.s. developed 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 in 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 instead of my wife just 10 days after that. that we did it and so you know i didn't know then that i did not think that it's going to happen you know that you know anybody that budget. 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. in your magic 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 and i mean it wouldn't be. 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. well as we've just been hearing the suspension of the johnson and johnson shot has dealt another huge blow to south africa's vaccination rollout in february the country already stopped the use of the astra zeneca vaccine after it showed low efficiency rates against an aggressive local virus variant biotech pfizer jobs will only arrive next month and experts have warned of a looming 3rd wave will the situation in hospitals it is already spiraling out of control for patients and for health workers in our next report we meet a doctor who had enough of what she says are unsafe working conditions doctors so little was sick from the is wary of vaccines 9 years ago when she was 21 she became ill with tuberculosis despite having been inoculated against it before coronavirus

vaccines reached south africa she resigned from her post in a public hospital because she didn't feel safe anymore. kids senses are still as deaconess as they were when i checked it. takes the top you know which i feel is a huge problem it's a huge problem and shows that after all these years you know the lives of some of us a former colleague made this video of supply here she is wearing full personal protective equipment but she says that in the hospital where she worked it was either not available or inadequate sifaka worked in intensive care and as a midwife she's been at home since she left at the end of the year even though she feels guilty about leaving she believes she did the right thing. medical staff are badly needed but her life has to come 1st. hundreds of doctors and nurses in south africa have already died from covert 19. i really

felt as though i was working in a system that didn't really care about my own life and with i was going to make it to tomorrow not you know especially seeing all the health workers dying the tributes online going out but then that's going to be units. those fears are justified only a few $100000.00 people in south africa have been vaccinated there aren't enough doses to go around at the current rate it would take 16 years to vaccinate the whole population south africa would like to manufacture its own vaccines but the patents are all registered overseas the only way i'd go back is if i'd be able to control. you know my exposure to illnesses you know and if i am exposed to illnesses make sure that i have the corrects effective keep it civil but also needs to be vaccinated but while she's no longer working as

a doctor she doesn't mind waiting. and we are now are joined by our caton he is the c.e.o. of the international council of nurses which recently how they were with the african health workers thank you so much for your time sir can you tell us what the situation is right now in the hospitals in south africa. they are close to being overwhelmed the staff are exhausted some are some are scared as well there are issues with numbers of beds scarcity of p.c. of i.c.u. beds and of oxygen supplies as well this suspect of the change a vaccine it's it's a temporary and it's a precautionary measure people worried about vaccines being developed quickly and actually this shows us the detail the scrutiny that's being given to these vaccines we just need to let the scientists and the experts look at the evidence the numbers

from the u.s. i think there was 6 cases where they've been close out of something like 66000000 and it's not clear whether there's a causal link or or not but the key issue here is to make sure that health care workers and nurses do get a vaccine as quickly as possible for for their health and safety and protection absolutely indeed and that's why i'm wondering what impact does it have to this and this temporary suspension of the change a shot. we are really concerned that there is a gross inequality around the world in terms of the access to vaccines out of all the vaccines that have been delivered administered only about 2 percent have gone to the african continent wealthy countries use their economic might to preorder and buy are millions more doses than one needed an across the range of

vaccines is a form of hoarding and control the consequences of that are that we're seeing younger and less vulnerable people receiving vaccines in some high income countries before nurses health care workers in africa and vulnerable people in other places as well it could be 202-020-2023 before all populations in some countries are vaccinated more people will die as a result of this inequality there is a an absence a vacuum of moral leadership which i think g 20 leaders need to step up to but also to recognize it's actually is in a self interest to make sure that vaccines are shed can you describe for us just the working conditions that critical health workers currently have to deal with in the south africa. they are dealing with many many more critically ill patients than they normally would 2 nurses say used to very sick people and and

and you know it's bad numbers close to full but this is putting people in the situation where often they're not sure where the free bed will become available from their working conditions wearing p.p.a. for you know long long shifts is really difficult particularly in heat the mental health strengthens pressures that people are under as well just with so many sick people and then often having to stand in the shoes of relatives who come visit the last hand people are holding might be that of the of of the nurse so it's not just the physical it's the emotional burden that it's putting on our stuff and that's why we must do everything we can to protect and make sure they have p.p. but they are prioritized and get the vaccine as quickly as possible howard catton the c.e.o. of the international council of nurses in geneva i thank you for your time. now to

some of the other developments in the pandemic biotech pfizer says it will provide the e.u. with an extra $50000000.00 doses in the 2nd quarter of this year this is on top of the 200000000 already earmarked for the block and denmark will stop using the astra zeneca vaccine entirely because of its possible link to rare cases of blood clots well this could delay denmark's vaccine roll out by up to a month and south korea has reported its highest daily jump in new infections in 3 months now the experts are blaming increased travel which they say shows public vigilance is falling. now to research from the field of physics that scientists say could be a major breakthrough in our understanding of the universe it all has to do with the behavior of some atomic particles called neurons experts said at a lab near the u.s. city of chicago have shown that they move at a rate that's faster than expected potentially a lock in the secrets of

a previously undiscovered 5th force of nature. this could be the door to a whole new world of physics for years researchers have been using this ring made of super conducting magnets to accelerate the tiniest building blocks of matter called nuance until they're almost as fast as the speed of light that's when they can observe how you want to interact with other forces and particles. and the results show that beyond actually behave completely different to how current theory says they should up until now something called the standard model explained all subatomic particles and they characteristics such as charge mass and lifespan but scientists have observed that the behavior of these new one suggest particles and forces exist outside of the theory. everything that we can see in our universe everything around us can be explained by

a few building blocks these blocks describe the standard model of particle physics . one group of these particles makes up matter. the other's transfer force this theory can explain 3 of these forces but the 4th force gravity can't be explained in this way this is the force that keeps planets in their orbits and better fix everything that has mass. when the universe was created by the big bang these 4 forces combined that's why the standard model can't explain what exactly happened at the beginning of time. the myans experiment could help us plug these fundamental gaps in our scientific knowledge and help us solve mysteries that have been confusing astrophysicists for

decades. but 1st more exact measurements and testing needs to be carried out to make sure the myans unexplained behavior really can be attribute it to a known particles forces. like said to pan has staged a ceremony to mark the start of a $100.00 day countdown to the olympic games in tokyo organizers unveiled the a limb pickering's at the top of mount to cairo west of the japanese capital while the international olympic committee says the games will go ahead despite fears about the pandemic the i.o.c. says it has taken measures such as banning international spectators to rent a surgeon infections and to avoid the games being cancelled as they were last year . at the swimming and diving venue the high tech starting blocks for the tokyo games and the starting gun stand idle as though they were paused after the on your

marks set bit of a starter's commands but 100 days out as the so-called test events continue to iron out possible wrinkles and event organization it appears the olympics are back on line. that. pandemic precaution will be a priority and all the domestic fans will be permitted to attend no. but there will be competition. and i think you'll be chilled out you must know they're having discussions you know so personally as much as possible i want the athletes to really feel that we're prepared to host these olympic games in japan when you look at it. all these discussions here have demonstrated that we are putting safety 1st. not every japanese is happy the olympics are scheduled to go ahead in fact pollsters say 70 to 80 percent believe it's a bad idea to hold the games with

a pandemic still raging in the country. even event volunteers at this online training session have concerns. too good luck yet again what i'm worried about is what will happen with the new variants. and how will they spread. the japanese have invested more than $15000000000.00 to host the tokyo 2020 olympic and paralympic games as they will still officially be called. but $100.00 days from the opening ceremony when excitement is normally reaching fever pitch cold at 19 and its variants have washed much of that excitement away. we're still excited you're watching your new year's live from berlin made in germany is up next but before we leave welling stones legit mick jagger has teamed up with dave grohl of the foo fighters to release a pandemic anthem which mr jagger says was inspired by coming out of lockdown so

let's take a listen now to easy sleazy. the

oceans which you just think our simply going to make products made into some plastic and together we can make the aid a little bit better. not a. spy plane as an advertising strategy but is that the hindmost or

is it just greenwashing playing the closer much. more all set to go beyond the obvious. amenable. as we take on the world. we're all about the stories that matter to. whatever's eastman for the. w.b. on fire make for moms. their story their very own personal trauma. people

survived the chesterfield remember. and they share private footage with us that has never been seen before. back internal sorts of people 20 takes on t w. we humans can be very inconsistent we demand the most exotic of holiday destinations expected to be unspoiled but don't put much thought into the carbon footprint of our flight halfway around the globe a mate of mine.