came in hong kong but among the 10 defendants half of them were centers to prison and they will have to assert their sentence immediately tonight and the rest of the other 5 at the kindness were given suspended sentences choto and that includes martin lee as you mentioned in the report 11 months jail term with a suspension of 24 months and also mark right now the whole many of them are lawyers and barristers and also former lawmakers he know that just a church so. i think the reaction on the ground has been pretty expected people expect that they will face are not lenient sentences given the current political climate but the length of the prism and it's a little bit out of expectation and it was quite a scene at the courthouse where you were earlier in the day to just walk us through what you've been witnessing today. yes

this case has been put under spotlight in hong kong not only at the local level but also the international communities are still very concerned about the restart of these cases that point diplomats from western countries and including you the european governments they sent representatives here today on to attend a hearing and observe the results are part and a lot of supporters but talking about. thousands of supporters from the opposition came show up here and they sways inside the car and chant a slogan for it the owsley fairy we can say that certainly after the census is that they want to cheer up the shouts defenders and was and in response that some of the chose to defend as they are told to supporters to hang in and insisted there's no nothing criminal to our all the nice peaceful assemblies even those without.

permission to be put this into the bigger context for us i mean this is a dark day today for the pro-democracy movement talk with us about other efforts and how things have been going. yes this is another major setback off the opposition came because all these defendants but talking about the most i'm balling my claims of that back a strong stucco off democracy movement in hong kong that they represent see this civil society and various fronts including the media the legal sector the whole of the public the political sector that they are. literally the effectiveness of the hote camp announced today because it was a sense of deterrence to the whole society that the court is not going to tolerate similar kind of those fans even though they are participating in a few soul rallies and their conviction and also the sentences were in fact other

similar cases that many of the defenders and now also facing multiple charges of lying about unauthorized assembly and illegal assembly charges that pending context that these results weigh may affect the sentence of a similar case is that even though for those who didn't have to go to charity day they are expecting that any time soon they will have to be sensitive job because of other charges that they are facing because in hong kong thank you. and earlier phebe had the opportunity to speak with one defendant the former chairman of the hong kong democratic party about how he sees the increasing crackdown on dissent. a silver medal awarded to you by the government for his political work it was something this former lawmaker felt proud of but 12 years later it seems to represent a hong kong. it's been lost time this government is beating. us

to. i don't know column i'm opposed to hong kong china is my country my home course my home but to love your country doesn't mean you love a certain political regime young so much as one of 10 defendants found guilty of all going izing or attending marches in 2019 during massive anti-government protests many opposition icons of his generation now sentenced for the 1st time this is just the 1st of 6 charges against your. the 73 year old has taught at the university of hong kong for decades while also engaging in politics in course he was lee only defendant to read out his submission in person as a civil disobedience i play a beauty but i don't feel remorse because i don't think i have done anything wrong

and so i don't be picky my pace and our goal for appeal imprisonment. won't be a surprise to me. young son calls himself a moderate who hoped for democracy under chinese rule but that hasn't happened before hong kong's handover from britain to china you saw him and fellow activists martin lee set up the democratic party they were among the 1st lawmakers directly elected to voice dissent in the chamber and paved the way for hong kong's party politics but now the national security law and intellectual overhaul are making it difficult for opposition parties to even survive. typical really to impress me just to be worth all the praise of democracy we have managed over the past 23 years so this is

a big retreat of democracy in hong kong is it to stand for you action again i mean thing about the politics i think is a big question or whether we go back to the pressure group politics i didn't like in 70. 5 of his generation may soon become history but he doesn't think that efforts will have been in vain hong kong history is so full of stock was. never the same gauge myself in politics and i don't think i would leave hong kong at all democracy and not as about a party politics not as about the world but also just our ways of living but i was to insist on the russian law and peaceful approach and i think this is the way to solve the problem in the long run he also member leaves democratic values a noun deeply rooted in hong kong culture his fight isn't over yet.

and we can tell you that young song the former chairman of the hong kong democratic party featured in that report has been given a suspended sentence he has now left the court but he is still facing 5 other charges let's look at some other stories making news. several people have been killed in a shooting in the us city of indianapolis police responded to reports of shots fired at a fed ex facility on the southwest side of the city near indianapolis international airport police have confirmed that the gunman is dead. chicago police have released body cam footage of the moment that a police officer shot and killed a 13 year old boy adam to ledo the police said that the teenager had a gun a lawyer for the boy's family said that he had complied with demands to show his hands when he shot. china's economy grew rapidly in the 1st 3 months of 2021 as it recovered from

a pandemic induced slump the total value of goods and services that china produced jumped by at least 18 percent compared with the same period last year. the head of the world health organization has sounded the alarm saying that covert 900 cases around the world are rising at worrying rates at a press briefing the director general warned that steep increases are being seen even in countries where widespread outbreaks were previously avoid it but not on the woo cases is continuing to increase rates globally the number of new cases per week i was merely over the past 2 months. this is approaching the highest rate of infection that we have seen so far during the pandemic flu and europe is in the middle of an intense 3rd wave of the corona virus pandemic in france more than 100000 people have now died from cold at 19

meanwhile germany is saying its largest rise in new infections since early january that's despite vaccinations picking up pace new national controls have been approved by the country's cabinet but they could take another week to pass through the parliament doctors and health officials are pleading for immediate action. on germany's intensive care ward this is what the 3rd wave looks like more than 29000 new coated 19 cases were reported on thursday the highest number since early january doctors are warning that in parts of the country only 10 percent of intensive care beds around filled the head of germany's public health institute is alone. christ yet it is clear that we need to act now on all levels above all the decision makers need to take action we need to reduce our contacts now break the infection chain now and save lives and the health of many

people. but not all decision makers share that sense of urgency in particular some regional leaders have been reluctant to implement tough restrictions now chancellor merkel is introducing a change in the law to grant the central government temporary powers to enforce lock downs in areas with high infections but even for the health minister this could be too little too late. because i already said a week ago that we needed extra measures and that we needed to take firm action time is not on our side and everyone already has the option to be taking measures they need not wait for the law to be finalized but. the new nationwide regime mandates school closures and contact restrictions when infection rates hit defined levels much of the public support staff action but critics say the focus is too

much on limiting personal freedoms for instance with the proposed introduction of night time curfews. a lot of people of my age will just meet at home in secret curfews won't get this under control people will meet privately this dimension. that's my guess and i don't like it you can't do that with people marking that's a loaded gun at all i also like to be outside and meet people but i think we just need to shut things down for 4 weeks and stuff done. didn't lose you didn't follow the rules before won't listen to these new laws but those who did a very feel they're being treated like full. restrictions in some parts of germany have been life for much of the pandemic but as long as the titan's people here having to face the fact that corona virus not only costs lives it corrodes liberty as well. and for more i'm joined now by you were young since he is general secretary of the german society of medical intensive and emergency medicine and

teeth of internal medicine at the st antony s hospital in the city of ashkelon thank you so much for joining us this afternoon what is the situation right now in your hospital compared to say 6 months ago and how is your staff coping. it's the same with 6 months we've flora's 8 months before we all rooting on the high level of trust. because we have to treat patients but also we have to treat patients without killing once and with quite sick so this is a mixture of the 19 patients and on covered patients and at the moment the increasing numbers here in need to cologne and overall germany puts a very big pressure load on the ice use you just reported it and in some areas there are only 5 to 7 percent 3 i.c.u.

there that is not enough for example in cologne 5 percent 3 as you base this means 20 beds for is city of 1000000 inhabitants for if the 2 to merge and see that it's really not enough and there must be there must be taken very strong measures to get the infection rates down let's talk a little bit more about those very strong measures because i mean i hear the sense of urgency in your voice we know that the chancellor said today the virus does not forgive hesitation and yet one year into this pandemic things appear to have gone from bad to worse how high is your hope that politicians will now act decisively. i think at the moment we see that many of the response of politicians they got the message the message we pronounce and the view of 20 that is false will not for weeks and months we told them to get very well measures like strict

lockdown to get to smoothen the current to get the curve down nobody. to us and snell they realize and that's good that they realize that the pressure with very sick people is increasing and that means not only sick people cope with 19 patients on ice use that means if you go get it on a nice to you have a mortality rate. about 50 percent that means from these patients at the moment 4670 patients on as you that means perhaps the half of them will die and that's very very very sad message and everybody should notice that and i think the politicians and dr merkel the chancellor she realize that but she did realize that in the last year but nobody strong the prime minister has followed an absolute tragedy you know the statistics that you're mentioning from from those i.c.u. patients tell us i mean even you mentioned lockdown for example you know

this is currently you know being being debated tell us what specifically are looking for. you see we are physicians we are not politicians which should do the measures with decide which measures to be taking but if we look too great united can and if you if we look to our law and order to portugal you clearly see that these measures these countries 2 of them were very effective they did for instance beside many other measures person yes so this is 1.11 little piece of the most to get the contact rates down to 2 to ensure that social distancing takes place in the evenings and i think to do the curd to do occur for between 9 pm and 5.

that should be. very it's an add on on all the other measures but the people of very very tired and following these regulations and the compliance of. brought great a great population germany is decreasing and that's i think the problem and the result of very very discussions between the chancellor and others well hanson's general secretary of the german society of medical intensive and emergency medicine thank you so much for joining us i thank you. french president emanuel makana is hosting his ukrainian counterpart followed amir's a lengthy and paris for talks on escalating tensions with russia they will be joined on a video call by german chancellor angela merkel there's been growing alarm in recent weeks over russia's military build off along its border with ukraine moscow has

also moved warships to the black sea to the ukrainian south and there's been a spike in clashes in ukraine's don boss region between the army and pro russian separatists now the talks in paris are show of support for kiev which after russia's annexation of crimea now says it fears another invasion. tensions in eastern ukraine boiled over in march and april 24th team following russia's seizure of the crimean peninsula pro russian separatists proclaimed a new republic in the eastern bass region the government launched a military operation in response that began a grinding conflict that's claimed at least $14000.00 lives so far. month by month in 2014 the atrocities mounted in may clashes in the seaside city of odessa left dozens dead

a months long battle for donetsk airport saw the facility reduced to rubble. then in july pro russian forces shot down a malaysian airliner over the conflict zone killing all 298 people on board an international investigation was hampered by evidence tampering but concluded that a russian made anti-aircraft module had launched the fatal strike in september 2014 nato certified that russian troops were coming over the border to help the separatist cause. things took a turn in early 2015 in february germany and france brokered a deal that resulted in a shaky cease fire though it was violated often the cease fire kept the conflict at a simmer for the following 2 years. in september 29000 a prisoner swap between russia and ukraine gave hope that further deescalation was

possible but though the conflict disappeared from the headlines it never really went away in early 2021 clash again erupted in the dawn by us and russia again massed its own troops and hardware at the border more trouble in a region that hasn't known peace in years. and we are joined now by the empress dicho he is ukraine's ambassador to the u.k. and the former foreign minister and former deputy prime minister welcome to the program and thank you so much for joining us we've heard that your president will speak with president mccrone and test america within the next couple of hours what does ukraine want from france and germany today who will. the president is meeting president as we speak and the chancellor will join them but you as you mentioned just the governments will hope to achieve this is our hands to the lower leaders needs in the moment to foremost we've been waiting for

this for quite a while meaning there will have to tell president chancellor and president putin at the table last time as you remember was the last december where we did 1st on ceasefire now we have it even dispersed items not all through it will all go to 27 soldiers soon the 1st of january this year. and we have heard you know we've been having hearing all of these reports about the the russian troop build up in the region that is higher than at any time since 2014 what are your greatest fears what do you think putin's intentions are to speak to the a notice which was done in just previously play your game of this is very offensive what with your the most beautiful skill invasions in ukraine i have to tell you just to give you hell all the conspiracy. news the key is to refuse a plan he says the net all the shelters the bomb shelters of the sort of election just in case people started by intervention with hoots so that's hollow high

expectations and if you're sitting there and we have this then there's not enough jets to fill in the asian go so are all of western partners became much stronger over these 7 years soon the forces are in comparable and we will have a very good people. over in the north the border and all of the support used controlled areas to ukraine so there's been a lot of top tough talk on your side and your foreign minister for example has said that russia will suffer if it crosses the red line of the state or what do you mean suffer. i would be amused that so will the low anybody to come in and rush out specially this historic rather it's in ukraine and russia and it's not the 1st time that governments all that we know how many people who are examples is their own what you solve sorry boy will help or that i will then it's a good reference indians will understand that we are also making some casualties

almost like russia recycling phone bill but it is a full scale exact the even when you will be able to hide from the russian public how much he is his behavior and how much his actions. that impressed iko ukraine's ambassador to the u.k. former foreign minister former deputy prime minister we thank you so much for joining us on this day where we know president selenski is meeting with mccraw and merkel and just a quick apology to our viewers we know there were some technical difficulties but mr ambassador we're glad we got to hear what you the message that you have to bring today we appreciate it if you very much thank you now how do you capture a year's worth of emotion and drama anxiety and loss at a single photograph judges of the world press photo contest have selected the one image that they say tells the story of the unforgettable year that was 2020 was taken by a danish photographer have

a look. the many aspects of the corona virus pandemic top photographers around the world captured their impressions of exhausted caregivers people dying alone social distancing and loneliness. the winning photograph shows an 85 year old woman receiving her 1st hug after 5 months isolation and her son apollo nursing home through a plastic curtain which happens to resemble an angel's wings. she had the jury viewed this photograph as one of the pandemics few positive images this picture suggests vulnerability loss grief and death but above all survival and. brazil has been especially hard hit by the pandemic 350000 people have already died their nursing homes were closed off for months to protect residents.

and the split of a 2nd that we see the images we feel. how it must be good that all the person get a sense of. what unites us the jury looks through nearly 75000 images. but disposable surgical mask even made its way into the winning photo in the nature category. now a giant cloud of sand is darkening the skies of beijing and showering residents with muddy rain the city suffers from several dust storms every year but this one is being called the worst in a decade flights are being councils and people are urged to stay indoors. 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. for its climate change there's nothing we can do about it. meteorologists say the particles drifted from 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. you're watching news live from berlin stay tuned for our debate so to the point with more on the russian ukraine crisis today the panel are asking disputed want i'm sara kelley of berlin thanks for watching.

good shape. there's no cure for a child. how can one lead to normal life with a potentially deadly virus they are working on a back seat and better therapeutic drugs. nummi be able to defeat the virus from day week top to end like today leaving a child. the be. told. their story their very own personal trauma. the people

of today should chesterfield remember. and they share private footage with us that has never been seen before. back to tribal structure people 26 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 an accession of crimea since then russia has been deploying mercenaries volunteers and local collaborators to wage hybrid warfare in eastern

ukraine now clear along with europe and the us there a dramatic escalation in violence. and europe are urging russia to stand down and we ask russia ukraine crisis what does putin want. to. commit hello and welcome to the point it's a pleasure to welcome our guests zena dawn plute is a freelance journalist who has reported extensively on and from russia for german public broadcasters she says we have seen it all before the kremlin triggers an escalation then blames the west but moscow is the aggressor and there must be consequences and i'm very glad to welcome alexander our he's an author and analyst who also does political consulting for russian firms including. he says the phone

call between presidents biden and putin helped to deescalate the crisis and avoid a possible full blown conflict and joining us virtually from d.w. is gone bureau is my colleague roman gonchar franco he's an editor in the russian department and was born in the ukraine region of what was then the soviet union he says russia is using bullying tactics to press ahead with its creeping on the sation of donbass ukraine must stay calm. so let me begin by asking all 3 of you whether you think this is mostly just saber rattling or indeed something more and because in a donkey that your opening statements certainly suggest you see a very real danger of a russian offensive well not necessarily i think it's saber wrestling and it's yeah directed for impressing the west it's a signal to the west and 2 presidents

a lansky from ukraine and it's. i think russia's try. to build up the stakes and all that to have a better position for other. than what is fundamentally for. the eastern ukraine exact as a negotiating card you also said in your opening statement that there must be consequences crisis but the kremlin says look we have every right to move our forces within our own territory these forces are still on russian territory what would you say to that yeah that's not exactly true because within the sea there are mechanisms and they are blige every participant and every member state to make transparent if you have such movements of troops especially close to your neighbors countries so this is only this is not true. and the consequences i

think the west should send a clear message a very clear and united message to its mosco that moscow is the aggressor and they stand in solidarity with ukraine thank you very much alexander are your opening statement referred to the call between biden and putin which biden apparently offered to meet with putin sometime in the next couple of months so would you say this is mostly about testing the new u.s. president. i think it's a sincere wish of biden and probably and hopefully. to meet together looking each other into the us tackle the problems and try to discuss it because the russian side fully understands that the key for some kind of stable relations between the west and russia lies not in brussels not unburden not in paris but in washington and in order to negotiate on the future of european security

architecture on everything you have to talk to the american president and biden also understands and i think she has a lot of support of. of consultants were telling him this don't drive russia into the arms of china the main adversary of the united states is china russia and here biden wants to tackle of course the problems with find out how far he can go in order indeed to deescalate or in turn to do that confrontational that was rush i assume that you followed russian media after this phone call they some at least suggested it was a real climb down by biden what makes you think that the call had a deescalating effect for moscow. well one thing is what the some. commentators are sort of bored but i'm pretty sure that in the kremlin of those people who are responsible for the decision making in russia. this statement of

biden that he wants to meet putin has been welcomed as the if makes russia specht of partner it makes russia. look strong on the international agenda it doesn't isolate russia the greatest fear of russia to be isolated to be completely neglected to be disrespected by the west and here by this gesture and to meet maybe in geneva or in vienna in the next weeks i think it will happen. and biden will meet the russian leader before he meets the european leaders in paris and berlin or in brussels as a sign which russia cannot ignore and i want to come back to that a little bit later on but let me go now to roman. and your opening statement refers to the creeping alex ation of the eastern ukrainian region of donbass in fact an all out invasion is not generally moscow style until now. infiltration hybrid warfare have been the preferred method so do you think that is

changing would you expect to see a true military offensive here. i would not exclude but i think. it's about 80 percent or 70 percent. muscle flexing. and threatening ukraine and the west and what 20 or 30 percent maybe military escalation i don't believe in a full scale invasion just like we saw in creamier for them for several reasons i think. a strategic aim of putin and russia is to weaken ukraine to prevent it from joining nato and e.u. probably to divide ukraine into several states and to to create a new ukraine so which would be a russia friendly i think that's a russian strategy but at the moment on the technical level i think russia is trying to negotiate with america with the new administration of president biden and

this is i would say russian style invitation to a conversation we should remember that just a few weeks ago at the u.s. president u.s. president in a television interview. said yes putting me as a killer he didn't say the word killer himself but he responded positively to the question and this is something which irritates me approaching very much and i think it's played a certain role in the clintons decision to escalate now but the problem is much deeper i think there are several problems in eastern ukraine which putin doesn't like and wants ukraine to move and tends to yield to russian wishes the west is not behaving like russia would like it to and maybe also putting seize an opportunity in a general jail political constellation because in the u.s. we have a new administration which is not quite strong enough we have in germany angela

merkel the chancellor who is going yeah and it's not clear who will be after there is a pandemic in the world to the world is weakened by the pads. demick ukraine is very weak so this is just a chance and putin is known to be someone who uses the chances. thank you very much and i want to come back to some of the points that you made but 1st let us take a closer look at what is going on in eastern ukraine instability in the dun bass region actually goes back 7 years following the russian an expansion of crimea pro russian separatists in the eastern part of the country seized a large swathes of territory fighting there began escalating in february of this year and for weeks now russia has been deploying additional troops to its side of the border. according to the ukrainian government russia has deployed up to 40000 troops to the border with eastern ukraine russian state television reports that this move is

a response to provocations by ukraine while russian military maneuvers on the crimean peninsula annexed by russia continue. both sides are playing with fire ukrainian president selenski wants to show strength as he visits his troops. what is clear to everyone is that if our soldiers are attacked if there are casualties the mission we have to fight back if you put it. this conjures up memories from 2014 when russian soldiers were also stationed at the border supporting pro russian separatists in eastern ukraine who sought independent status 14000 people died in the conflict and there is a living fear that this could happen again a previously agreed peace deal has so far failed to be implemented. the destruction we are afraid for our children i have another 5 year old in kindergarten how are they supposed to cope we are afraid of every noise. if there is a loud noise somewhere the children get scared and hide it so it's

a russian attack on ukraine in minutes. because you know let's drill a little bit deeper on what we can discern about russia's strategy here i actually have seen some commentators suggesting that an attack could be imminent simply because the conditions on the ground would be so problematic at the moment in terms of weather and and so that troops would get bugged out. that's something i read too in april it's not the best month but you never know i mean nobody expected in 2014 that russia would and explained crimea and that it would send its troops and most of the to the dawn bond so you never know. i. think about the motive there might be one motive for a real invasion of this concert on crimea and the water supply so right now the only contacts are connection between the opponents the law and russia

bridge the bridge and crimea has a cute little surprise supply problem and maybe this is why russia would like to have a land corridor who crimea but this is speculation and indeed there are many other motives for just saber wrestling indeed so let's talk about some of those as well alexander how our report pointed out that ukraine also has been deploying additional troops to the region and in fact president selenski rather ostentatiously took a c.n.n. camera team with him to the front lines does ukraine bear at least some responsibility for this escalation of things the same part of the same responsibility as russia because a crane is also building up its military presence at dawn boss and in my view it was against thought that while president trump ex-president trump was not interested in the crane he may now gets more support including weapons

weapon deliveries from that it states he hopes the united states will help him maybe in a certain way to get back on bass in the crimea at least he sees his timetable and he wants to secure his interest or the trains interest in this in this manner for russia the main multi-faith of what they are doing is to prevent nato expansion to crane and therefore they want to keep creating a split country they want to threaten also the west that each side each step towards more membership will create a nato will bring more confrontation of the west or nato with russia sorry to sorry to direct if i may because i think it's not acceptable to say that both ukraine and russia are in the same time responses. well for the maybe new escalation because president the lansky said that yes we would like to defend we will of course defend our land in case of an aggression he didn't not say that he would try to get crimea

and the don't bounce back by force and on the other hand you have these many thousands 10001000 of thousands of troops on the russian side so you can compare that let me ask running gun to rank or to come in on the same point i know you said in your opening statement you cautioned ukraine to stay calm but going to the front lines with a c.n.n. camera team doesn't exactly fit that description i would say do you see ukraine as bearing at least on responsibility for provocation escalation. well i don't see any point in. i don't see any proof of ukraine escalating because you cannot compare the forces of ukraine and russia militarily and financially and what we've seen so far in the in the years before and in the days and weeks before this escalation was the wish of the progression separatists who are backed by russia

militarily. to or to to start a fire i would say and by caution in ukraine i mean are you crying should be very careful not to. to create a situation like we had in georgia in 2008 when we had some weeks of fighting in the region of south ossetia and then the georgia decided we will try to liberate as they say the president saakashvili said that region and russia of course was nearby was ready in a standby motos and then the invasion was legitimized so to say yes and this is this is what russia maybe would like to see in ukraine as well russia would like to see ukraine make a mistake and maybe let itself be provoked by by the fighting of the recent weeks and this is this is probably the biggest danger and the biggest challenge.