stonemasons builders are jacks compete with each other. this is how massive church is its towers that pierce the clouds like skyscrapers or create a. contest of the cathedrals stars of people 12th on t w. this is news and these are our top stories u.s. secretary of state antony blinken has made an unannounced visit to afghanistan after president biden confirmed that all american troops will leave by september 11th blinken said his visit was to demonstrate america's ongoing commitment to the country. u.s.

president biden has announced a new round of sanctions against russia including the expulsion of 10 russian diplomats it's in response to alleged interference in last year's presidential election and the hacking of u.s. government agencies russia's foreign ministry has condemned the sanctions saying a response is quote inevitable. germany's coronavirus vaccination program is picking up pace thursday thursday saw a record number of daily vaccinations with nearly 740000 people receiving a 1st or 2nd dose but the country is also seeing the biggest rise in new infections since january health officials are warning of a dramatic situation in hospitals as intensive care ward fill up. this is news from berlin you can find more headlines on our website that's dot com and also on our social media channels.

the u.s. expelled 10 russian diplomats today and slapped some of the harshest sanctions yet on dozens of companies and individuals the list includes people close to president putin and a businessman with the times to the trump campaign washington is blaming the russian secret service for election medley and for the solar winds hack a cyber security breach inside the u.s. government tonight president biden taking a hard line with russia doing what a former president refused to even talk about on bergdahl from berlin this is the day. i told him that this aggressive behavior will be firmly resisted. our objective here is not to escalate the response to the sanctions is an obstacle. are just

here is to impose costs. something to needs to understand that there will be a price to pay for degrading bilateral relations we can't predict what the impact will be but we still believe that when there is unacceptable behavior which a consequence is in place. also coming up the last week the corona virus infected a 160 people every minute here in europe vaccination numbers were predicted to be much higher by now and that was before scientific fears remove some key vaccines from the equation but i know of suffering blood clots is much higher for some of this over 19 and for someone who has thinking the us doesn't have a. the mill though to both of us doesn't evoke seen effective in reducing over 1000 hospitalization and but offending that's. to our

viewers on p.b.s. in the united states into all of you around the world welcome we begin the day with washington's carrot and stick approach to moscow this week began with u.s. president biden calling russian president putin and suggesting the 2 leaders meet in a summit to talk about where they can work together that was monday today the white house told russian diplomats suspected of being spies to leave the country and it's left new sanctions on companies as well as people inside the inner orbit of leather mir putin the u.s. says the russian secret service was behind interference in november's national election and it is blaming the kremlin for a cyber security breach inside the u.s. government known as the solar winds hack here's how the white house press secretary summed it up earlier today our objective here is not to escalate our objective here is to impose costs for what we feel are. unacceptable

actions by the russian government some of these are done in court nation with our european partners and allies in the past and our view is that when there are actions that are taken that are unacceptable that are not aligned with our interests that we feel. go beyond what should be acceptable from any country you have a partner ever lation ship with then there should be consequences we can't predict what the impact will be but we still believe that when there is unacceptable behavior we should put consequences in place to be administration still it's bad to have a summit with. the invitation remains open and we believe it would be a good step forward and continuing to move forward on a stable that the development of a stable and predictable relationship. well as we just heard the by the administration says today's sweeping measures are meant to punish russia and to hold it accountable the russian government wasted no time in responding today

telling the u.s. ambassador that a russian response will soon follow. a decision that this aggressive behavior will be firmly resistant what i can response to the sanctions is inevitable. washington needs to understand that there will be a price to pay for degrading bilateral relations with some of the responsibility not fully with the united states that the i mean. well the european union and nato both issued statements today in solidarity with washington saying sions against russia but the transatlantic united front it may have some holes in it the bind administration's tough stance with russia could possibly hurt u.s. times with germany the white house and the u.s. congress claim that a new natural gas pipeline connecting russia with germany known as nord stream 2 poses a security threat to europe the us wants the project killed germany and russia do

not today noticeably absent among the countries targeted by the new sanctions was nord stream 2 this was the response when a reporter asked did german chancellor merkel seek to keep nord stream 2 off of the same sions list. i don't have any more detail on that i understand the question i would just convey that obviously if there's additional actions taken we certainly preserve the option of putting additional actions and place and it doesn't mean that we don't have more but i don't have any more detail to prove to project to you about any considerations about what sanctions were not were not finalized for more i'm joined now from washington by our correspondent there really needs a more good evening to you carlino when donald trump was president he refused to even criticize russia or president putin is president biden is he making a point with his tough stance on russia in other words trump let the kremlin get

away with lots but i couldn't is holding the kremlin accountable for everything that it has done. well prince let's not forget that russia has alleged interference in the 2020 election was in support of donald trump so there has been obviously a personal interest from former president trying to keep good relations with russia the u.s. is now taken as expected a much more aggressive stance towards russia for its election interference biden said these sanctions are in response to russia attempting to undermine the democratic process in the united sates but the sanctions are also for the cyber attacks on solar winds which gave it the ability to spy on more than $1600.00 computer systems worldwide according to the white house and you know brant in washington there is always a political division everyone is divided but this is

a policy move that most lawmakers are in favor of even during the trial but ministration republicans and democrats criticize donald trump for his russia policies so beyond a few this will probably be met with with praise. yeah and this this this carrot and stick approach that we're seeing and president biden he spoke with president putin of russia just a few days ago proposed summit talks and now we've got washington punishing russian companies and individuals close to putin i mean can we say is there a single body administration white house stance towards moscow. the national security advisor mr sullivan said today that president biden is aiming to strike a balance and provide a significant and credible response to rush of bad not escalate the situation so

according to the white house by then to get the ability in the u.s. russia relationship and they believe that if president putin is prepared to do that as well there could be a way that would not lead to a cycle of confrontation this is why biden apparently proposed a summit between the united states and russia in that phone call you mentioned and at the same time these sanctions are going after the russian economy and there are sanctions against 6 russian technical companies that support the russian intelligence services their sanctions against $32.00 entities and individuals for carrying out russian government directed attempts to influence the election last year there are also sanctions against another 8 individuals and entities that are being sanctioned for russia's own going acute pace and repression in crimea and of

course the 10 russian diplomats who are being expelled and to our base in washington d.c. and new york and will have only 30 days to leave the country so this is a very fine line that president biden seems to be drawing between keeping a dialogue a diplomatic dialogue with russia and at the same time pushing with these sanctions and moscow as we already heard has already announced that their reaction will follow soon yeah exactly must go does not like the stick but maybe the cure early to morrow in washington tonight is always go alina thank you. now we want to return to a story that we told you about last night u.s. president joe biden's historic decision to wind down the u.s. troop presence in afghanistan after 2 decades today his secretary of state. surprise visit to the afghan capital kabul with many worried about the country's future security after international forces leave. sure afghans that washington is

not abandoning them. the u.s. secretary of state pledged washington would continue to offer strong support to afghanistan after years of saying that we would leave militarily at some point that time has come but even when our troops come home. our partnership with afghanistan will continue there is no military solution to the conflict that remains here. the only path forward to a durable lasting and just end of the conflict is through negotiation we are doing everything we can now to advance diplomacy to bring in regional and international partners. so that everyone is using their influence and their leverage to advance a peaceful end to the conflict. france today

became the latest country to surpass 100000 deaths from 19 here in germany 30000 new infections reported in just the last 24 hours the highest daily rise that we've seen in 3 months a more contagious variant is fuelling the 3rd wave of infections here tomorrow german chancellor angela merkel is due to get her 1st vaccination shot with the astra zeneca jail and the astra zeneca vaccine as well as the johnson and johnson vaccine have been halted or restricted in a number of countries due to concerns about rare blood clots denmark has stopped using the astra zeneca vaccine all together and his way what to do with its vaccine supplies the disruption to national vaccination plans threatens to further set back europe's slow roll well fronting a warning from the world health organization last week we should bust 1000000 confirm over 1000 deaths in the region the situation in the region is serious to be

milled out of the us doesn't it of oxy effective in reducing over $1000.00 hospitalization and preventing that's. to to commence all image of at least 2 game protection from the subsequently do letters as quickly as possible. are for more let's go now to the united states dr william schaffner joins me from nashville tennessee dr schaffner is a professor of preventive medicine at vanderbilt university school of medicine dr schaffner it's good to see you again when you look at the situation here in europe what do you see happening i mean we are now in a 3rd wave and we do not have 2 key vaccines that we hope to have in our arsenal any more well i'm obviously very concerned for my friends in europe and indeed my son who lives here perlin because this virus is spreading and it seems

not to be at all and it are hampered by the current interventions ness querrey social distancing avoiding groups there are a lot of people who are still not doing that and the virus is spreading we need to vaccinate more people not only in the united states but in europe and the astra zeneca vaccine the one that's available is certainly an effective vaccine for the populations for which it's indicated you've heard the news that denmark has taken the astra zeneca vaccine out of its arsenal completely is that a wise thing to do at this point. well they will have their wisdom in making their decisions but the way i look at it is the risk from covert is very high the risk from the vaccine is very low we're in the middle of a pandemic and we're all adults we know that there's no free lunch there every

drug every vaccine has certain severe affects side effects associated with it in a crisis you have to use the any initial new ever they will and the vaccine we have available now is the extra zeneca vecsey i would use it because the risk from coated is so high you know we know that the german chancellor she's going to get the vaccine tomorrow her 1st shot that's the picture here in europe now let's compare that with how dr fallon she sees the situation at the moment where you are in the u.s. take a listen we are in a race between vaccinating as many people as quickly and as expeditiously as we possibly can and a threat of the resurgence of viruses in our country because as we know we're at a precarious situation with many states having increases in the dairy number of

cases and that does have a we can hear the worry in his voice and yet at the same time the united states is vaccinating what is it around 3000000 people every day so what is the situation. well as tony says it is indeed a race a race between how quickly we can vaccinate and how quickly this virus can spread at the moment the virus is ed and here in the united states throughout most of the country you know the eager beavers the people who were early except there's this come into the vaccinated we're now running into vaccine hesitancy and even concern that people won't get the vaccine at all so we're going to have to work harder and harder to bring more people in comfortable and reassured that vaccination is important for the and their families and their communities but in the united states you're still a long way from being close to what would be considered herd immunity in my right

that's absolutely correct herd immunity will require about 80 percent of the population to be vaccinated that's what the calculations indicate and we're nowhere near that yet that's why the mess querent social distancing ovoid in groups is so important but at the same time so many people are starting to behave carelessly and ignoring those very important interventions that are 7 before we run out of time and i want to ask you tonight about brazil it's being called a humanitarian catastrophe made worse by political mismanagement does brazil because i mean it does have so in many cases now it's the virus is spreading like wildfire does it pose a health threat now to the entire world. of course it can this virus can spread locally but as people visit brazil or as brazilians go outside in

the immediate neighbor neighborhood in south america but even beyond these viruses can spread further and really inoculate other parts of the world setting up new outbreaks so where ever the virus is it threatens us and everybody else at home yeah it's definitely not a good situation in brazil we certainly wish the folks there all the best dr wayne schefter in nashville tennessee as always like to schaeffer good talking with you we appreciate your insights tonight thank you thank you duncan. finding of fordable housing is a problem familiar to big city dwellers around the world germany's capital used to be known for its relatively low and cheap rents but in recent years as the city attracted people from all over the world those rents here in berlin they have soared last year a lot went into foreigners that aimed to deal with this problem it kept rents at

a low level for most apartments in berlin and it even forced landlords to reduce writs in many cases but today that wall was overturned by the german constitutional court which found that the city's government did not have the power to introduce it the judges said only the federal government could bring in such legislation the ruling sparked a protest march by angry demonstrators in central berlin. today's ruling here in germany has even attracted attention from the united nations' balakrishna budget gopal does the un and special robert scheer on the right to housing and joins us from near washington it's good to have you on the program you tweeted today that the german government has international obligations on housing right explain for our viewers what those obligations are.

thanks for having me. first of all let me say that. the german constitutional court ruling. is. very important and they go in constitutional court of course is known for many progressive rulings and that's where it comes as a concern that the impact of this ruling even though the ruling it's so it was actually based on her legal grounds in back of the room and could be quite sylvia on in boden and elsewhere now and those of the international obligations of germany germany has of course become a party to many international agreements among them is the international covenant on economic social and cultural rights as well as. the convention of that eye to that side and these impose obligations and among those obligations obligations by

thinking only when it comes to housing is the obligation to make housing and keep it affordable and that is my main concern as bad this particularly good effect the ability of the funding government as well as the federal government to ensure that housing amends a horrible what was it about the berlin writ cap struggle what was it that attracted your attention to the case. well as i said the german constitutional court has been a very progressive court in many ways and germany and its. influence to deal with the mental crisis as well less i mean other social issues as attracted the attention of many for good reasons because often it has done quite well in kind to address some of these issues and so you can see that that is a general interest and trying to understand how economy does on this front and the

influence that germany's record without on other countries that are also facing similar crisis of affordability in other life global cities like but not on the world how we love think they had ability to control the problem or one of the levy they had to actually be dealing with and finally i would say that the german government of course has been a very. robust and constructive. sort of. partner meaning gaging with human rights issues at the u.n. the bank's council so of course you know. it's always important to follow the. track record of many of these countries who are strong supporters on trades in your you when you talk about human rights that is in stark contrast to what we hear here that this has been an issue basically of capitalism

and of property owners verses renters what message do you think that the german court decision since to politicians and other cities who are trying to find ways to ensure affordable housing. well i think 1st of all the german constants of course ruling as i understand might be based on a basically an issue of german constitutional law that it has to do with the division of powers between the lender in burma and the federal government whatever the legal grounds might be sense unfortunately the message. that has been witnessing increasing the problem of portability by beginning the last 10 years or so and this is being better documented in the trigger on linen and on policy discussions a lot of the point of the lady. the influence by the voting government have been

discouraged by and shinedown by this isn't the point today and that sends a negative message around the world unfortunately and that is why i'm quite kind of . ok u.n. special balakrishnan roger gopalan we appreciate your time in your insights tonight i'm sure there will be a reason to talk about this again in the near future thank you thank you very much . a giant cloud of sand is darkening the skies over the chinese capital beijing and showering residents with mud the rain the city suffers from several dust storms each year but this one is being called the worst in a decade flights are being canceled and people urged to stay indoors take a look. sick and opaque pollution clouds the atmosphere and shrouds

beijing skyscrapers and dust and sand. but it was bright earlier this afternoon but after a little while it suddenly went dark and then there was stunned and rain with muddy raindrops. i don't feel good we've had several dust storms this year the air quality is much worse than in previous years and. the air is so dirty in the chinese capital that people can not only see it but feel it to this finance workers forced to wiped out his motorcycle before heading to the office. told us it's climate change there's nothing we can do about it meteorologist say the particles just get from one and the chinese region of enter mongolia high winds are expected to propel more polluted air to central and eastern parts of the country by friday. finally 2 years ago today one of europe's most famous landmarks the notre dame

cathedral in paris went partially in flames. the city's residents along with the rest of the world watched in horror as the iconic spire gave way firefighters fault with their lives risking their lives and prevented the complete collapse of the building 2 years on and the work to restore the cathedral is well underway french president emanuel visited the site this week to mark the anniversary and he thinks everyone who's involved in the effort to open notre dame begin to worshipers by the year 2024. well the day's almost done but the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter either in the w. news or you can follow me at went t.v. every number whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see that everyone.

comes. to the point. clear position of international perspectives russia's military buildup on the border to ukraine is the largest prison for 2 mechanics a ship in the crimea the u.s. and europe are urging russia to stand down to russia ukraine crisis what does putin

want to find out from the 2 point cut the next couple are. going to come a good folks a because i'm patient to gibson limits. the economy. consuming the worst fighting the taliban. strong women tough faced. in 45 minutes on d w. all. 19. it's their story their very own

personal drama. people to chesterfield remember. and they share private footage with us that has never been seen before. back at the tribal structure april 28th on t w. tens of thousands of soldiers and heavy weaponry the russian build up on the border to ukraine looks more like preparations for invasion than the standard military exercise that russia claims it is conducting it is the most massive show of force since russia's 2014 and accession of crimea since then russia has been deploying mercenaries volunteers and local calabro.