a young people clearly had the solution, the future with 77 percent. now, every weekend on d w ah ah, this is dina, be news live from berlin. the latest surgeon cope in 19 cases is worrying governments around the globe. many are imposing new restrictions and looking for ways to stop the rapid spread of the highly transmissible omicron bearing. also

coming up president joe biden, vladimir putin se they'll seek diplomatic solutions during a 2nd phone call. to discuss rising tensions over ukraine. and we miss you. we love you. we thank you. does the south africa, remember nobel peace prize? lauren and human rights activists? desmond tutu, plus one of the biggest chinese lab, lantern festivals, right here in europe. a town in south western france life self inspect tackler, fashion, with authentic displace, brought in from china. ah and william good craft. welcome to the program, including our p. b. s. viewers. surgeon cove in 19 infections are worrying governments around the globe. many are hastily introducing limits on new year's celebrations in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus official say the

highly contagious micron variant is driving the latest search. despite a shortage of tests, the u. k has been reporting record breaking case numbers just like denmark. many countries in europe are seeing unprecedented peaks amid the rapids spread of the omicron variant in germany. case numbers are also rising, but for now still comparatively low isn't in schools. and overall, we're a bit more disciplined than some of our european neighbors. haitian mosques are especially effective against omicron that sets germany apart. we cannot forget that england and denmark, bailey had social distancing measures in place recently. and masks were not born. that is certainly different here in germany, just as in balancing dorchence one, unless the end of the year come may be deceptive. few tests were administered during the holidays and numbers reported more slowly. health minister col lauterbach says the actual volume of cases could be 2 to 3 times higher, and

a spike may be seen quite soon. hughes at test centers are increasing. this location in berlin carries out over a 1000 tests a day. then we feel it's coming that the numbers are slowly increasing on distance lying by mid january. that should be a more realistic picture of the situation. but the number of confirmed omicron cases is increasing at a faster pace in northern germany as such, entirely possible that the proximity to scandinavian nations is a factor. omicron is very dominant there, so the virus may be traveling over the border. i think everyone understands that a virus will not stop at border starting. he's just the was fun again finish. i had my other federal and state officials in germany a do to meet on the 7th of january to map out a strategy to combat the spread of the virus. let's dig into this a bit more. we have dr. faculty on the line in epidemiologist, in a senior fellow at the federation of american scientists and he joins us from washington, dc. dr. welcome back to d a v news 1st, you know, so we were hearing of course, every day,

these record number of cases all across europe. and yet there is plenty of resources like booster shots and increase testing and masks. so what then is driving this latest surge? well, thanks for having the 1st booster shots work, but booster shot role as you know is very inadequate. is incredibly slow. many places they take time for to work, and on increasing exponentially will do, sir. you can only roll them out, logistically feasible as you can, but this is a virus on current is $5.00 to $6.00 times more contagious than delta, which was already twice contagious in the strength of last year. so we're talking about the strain that potentially 10 times more contagious than before. nothing we do right now is enough to keep up unless you think of something on a blanket decide what scale. and that's why when the mitigations were used to p, i'm across delta and other barrington check will be sufficient enough against all

crime. and with high cases you're going to boom, the number of people infected and ultimately overwhelm the hospital. so you talked about blanket restrictions there, i guess during about locked downs and we've seen countries take different approaches, some of them lighter or touch some of them heavier, but yet cases are huge. everywhere. is there an argument for fewer restrictions like we've seen in the u. k. know that the fewer restrictions is not the way in, by the way what i think blanket mitigation. i don't necessarily mean lockdown. you can have, for example, back in passports. you can have much more aggressive thing, but map mandate which, you know, germany, austria already have and of course premium no more clock, no more surgical. ready news spitting mask premium. all these are blanket mitigation in the blanket mitigation or what is needed to curtail or exponential

arrives. and of course, if those are not enough, then you have to go to the next layer. but there's other things like ventilation standards, indoor air, just infection. all those are blanket level societal guidelines or if it could be put in place in lieu of a lockdown. and of course indoor dining restrictions as well. but we need blanket restrictions because boosters increase a linearly, this virus increases 5 to 6 or more contagious, lee and exponentially. that's why what we do now with boosters. it's too late by itself a to could curtailed as we have to think of more aggressive measures. all right, dr. eric cycled, they were have to leave it. there are lots more of course we can talk about and hope we will get a chance to. thanks for joining us. and let's get a look at some other developments in the pandemic. the us centers for disease control is advising americans to avoid crucial travel regardless of their vaccination status, saying it's too risky with the highly contagious omar crime variant frances banding

and consumption of food and drinks in cinema theaters and sports then use as well as on public transportation, all part of its efforts to stop the spread of the corona virus, and new york city will ring in the new year in times square. despite record numbers of coven, 1900 infections, event will be scaled back with smaller crowds and visitors will be required to have proof of vaccination. russian president of russian president vladimir putin and his u. s. counterpart joe biden are set to discuss tensions over ukraine. in a call scheduled to begin in the hour. now it's the 2nd time this month, 2 leaders has spoken with both sides, acknowledging that bilateral relations are at a low point. washington has warned that the massive russian troop build up near the ukrainian border may signal in invasion next year. moscow, meanwhile, it uses nato of eastward expansion into its own back yard. i made absolutely clear . and let's get more now on just what we can expect from this phone call. we're

joined from moscow by andre court and off he's the director general of the russian international fairs council. a largely state funded think tank. and from brunswick, maine were joined by michael kim aj. he said for a history professor at the catholic university of america in a former state department, russia ukraine expert under president obama. welcome to both the w news 1st. let's turn it to andre cotton of because it's the russian side that the white house anyway says has cold for these talks. so what exactly is president putin likely to demand? well 1st of all, i think it's clear that to present wouldn't, would like to talk to present by didn't because he believes that the u. s. president can deliver on what he promises present by didn't committed to, to extended the new start agreement. and he actually did it with no strings attached. he committed himself to studying dial a car on arms control as to the digit stability and even on cybersecurity with

moscow. and he actually entered this negotiation. so the perception is that you might be in a disarray. i and it's hard to counter on either berlin or paris, but the united states, roommates and indispensable partner. so i think that the idea of who to is to touch base with present by them on the reaction to the proposals. so that representative to the western side earlier and to see what might fly with washington, what might fly with brussels and where the red lines are. i think that is already an important outcome over the meeting that we can expect later today. michael, coming over to you, dr. gardner. if he doesn't say anything much about ukraine, is that what we can expect to hear from the us side? what, what exactly is going to be the details here?

well, i think that there's consider book consultation between president biden and, and president on sky and ukraine. you've gotten the repeated reframe from american diplomats in the last 23 weeks. there's going to be nothing that's going to be done without the knowledge and the permission of ukraine. on the other hand, exactly as dr. pointed out, this was a bilateral phase of diplomatic negotiation. and it's sort of at the highest levels of the russian american governments and, and we'll be seeing this for the next 2 weeks or so as to what they can accomplish . does go back over to you now, the u. s. and its allies, including and ukraine. they say the solution to this current crisis is simple. russia just needs to pull back its troops on the ukrainian border needs to stop meddling and ukrainian in fairs, including its presence in crimea and don bus. one other message is put in sending except to threaten ukraine with this true presence. i think the message should, to the west is very clear on the clement is not head the above the comp to

developments saw in europe about the security situation. ah, ah, in this space and they would like to get some assurances off for nato that did to, to practice a degree of prudence and constraint self constrained in terms ofa future deployments, sir, or military cooperation with the ukraine. all we show is a country very close to russia and which can at least, theoretically present an existential challenge to the russian security. but the u. s. and nato forces haven't taken any, any particular territory they've, they're in within their borders em. whereas it's, it's been russian troops that have gone into ukraine taken for example of crimea. so what role does that play in terms of security affairs? well, you know, i think right now the are among the, the movements so of the russian troops are not to cross in the ukrainian border. but i think that the concern of the russian side,

the ease that nato is extended its military cooperation with ukraine and always see our target drones, for example, used in don't boss. all we can see sama, u. s. made debility hardware utilized in the east of ukraine. and this is something we, char, i think it creates concerns in the cabinet that to nato might to upgrade it's military corporation with ukraine and u. k. at some point, we'll decide that to use mil to power in order to solve the pocono don't boss. so did zaleski my to appear as the ukranian it hum alief who used military power and was successful enough taken not gotten the car box in the south caucasus, that are coming over to you. can you respond to that? because doesn't russia have good reason to suspect us and nato's intentions in what russia considers its rightful sphere of influence? well, that's very broad language, that's not the language the us government would use or would accept for ukraine.

the position of the u. s. government that, that ukraine is, is sovereign and can make the security choices. it wishes to me and if it wishes to have a closer relationship with the american military. so be on the other hand, you know, i think the by the administration is aware that it's treading on very sensitive ground when it comes to its military relationship with ukraine and the vitamin ministration has its own reservations about. for example, ukraine's entry into the nato alliance. so there's a very small room for negotiation between presidents with an invite and, and will simply see what they can accomplish in the next 2 weeks. but the states wouldn't accept any formal sense that you created the rest of the sphere of influence. i. we're going to leave it there for obviously a lot more to come as this call takes place on recording from the russian international affairs council and former state department official. michael kennedy . thank you both of you for your time and your views. a jury in the united states,

a sound british socialite going maxwell guilty of helping the sex offender jeffrey f. seen abuse under age girls over a period of years after 5 days. the days of deliberations in new york jury found maxwell guilty on 5 counts, including recruiting and grooming at steams teenage victims. the verdict could see the 6 year old spend the rest of her life in prison, recruiting and grooming teenage victims and trafficking a minor. these are the heavy charges of which british socialite glee maxwell was found guilty by the new york jury. the road to justice has been far too long. but today, justice has been done. no one, no matter how powerful or well connected it is above the law. elaine maxwell is the daughter of british newspaper. baron robert maxwell, in court, accuser showed evidence of maxwell's close relationship to late fine and sheer and convicted sex offender, jeffrey epstein. epstein was jailed in 2019 based on charges of sex trafficking

miners, but he committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial. in the current court case of killing maxwell, she was found to have helped epstein systematically procure young girls some as young as 14. the charges against maxwell were brought forward by 4 victims, but many more feel they have been served justice. this is a victory for all the victims of miss maxwell and abstain. moreover, i think this is a victory for all young children, boys, girls, women, and men who are victims of abusers like this. it will give them the needed push to step forward and to speak their truth and to hopefully get justice like these young girls have with respect to miss maxwell, the defense as to 60 year old is being used as a scapegoat for other people's crimes. i. we

firmly believe in glens, innocence. obviously we are very disappointed with the verdict. we have already started working on the appeal, and we are confident that she will be vindicated everyone the healthy, have a happy new year. how you doing, maxwell now stands to spend the rest of her life in prison. if she receives the maximum possible sentence of 65 years, get more now from heather driven a. she is from the rape abuse and incest national network. it's the largest non profit anti sexual violence organization in the u. s. thank you so much for being here to talk about this important topic. what does this mean exactly, for the survivors this verdict has come out. thank you for having me 1st to are so relieved to see the guilty verdict and this trial and for the survivors you have been so great and gone for so much to reach this moment to finally see someone being held accountable for what they experienced. we know that for survivors of

sexual violence, the odds of having a perpetrator held accountable are very low. and so this is a strong. 7 message that people can be held accountable even years later, and even if they are powerful and well connected. exactly. so because that so often is not the case. do you think this verdict, is it a turning point anyway? will there be more accountability to perpetrators or more protection for survivors and victims? i think this is part of the positive pattern that we've been seeing. you know, we've seen several high profile, very powerful individuals from harvey weinstein to maxwell now being held accountable for their crimes. and that sounds a powerful message to people. we know that the statistics are low for how many people actually get justice through the justice system in these kinds of cases. particularly when they are stacked up against a perpetrator with financial means with powerful connections. a lot of survivors feel that it might just not be worth it to subject themselves to the re

harmonization. that often goes with the legal process. if they don't have a chance of justice. hopefully people are seeing that that tide is turning. i was heather revenue from the rape abuse and incest network speaking earlier to me. now let's get around of a so other headlines doctors and sit and say security forces have shot dead for protesters during demonstrations, against military rule. tens of thousands of people brave tear gas and defy the security lockdown in cartoon, and other cities are calling for a peaceful transition to free elections. police and hong kong are formerly charged to senior editors from the online news outlet stand, news with sedition. they've been identified in court documents as former stand news chief editor john quinn and patrick lamb. the announcement comes a day after authorities rated this offices of stan. it's a memorial service has been held for the late archbishop desmond to 2 in south africa, the anti apartheid fighter and nobel peace laurie it died last weekend,

aged 90. his funeral sets take place on the new year's day in cape town, people across south africa, i've been paying their respects. ah, just a simple wooden coffin for a man whose being remembered as a humble hero. score was gathered in johannesburg and cape town to remember archbishop ameritas desmond to to one of the rainbow nations most revered voices for human rights. his successor embraced one of 22 daughters. she's grieving her tata her father as to was known to so many south africans is like a daughter, really in pain cry, or somebody for a finger new to pray for her religion. ashore had, we lost her and we will continue to support her, even when he's gone to,

to didn't want to be remembered with pump. so inside the cathedral, a small ceremony was held. leaders and ordinary south africans alike laid flowers. and those gathered performed songs and some of to two's favorite hymns. ah, his grandson spoke and thanked manas for helping his family through a difficult time. we've been reassured by the outpouring of love and prayers and support that a port in from around the world that he will not be out of mine just because he's out of sight. we miss you. we love you. we thank you. as to to coven was carried out, members of the public sang songs and celebration of his life and legacy. oh,

born under apartheid, he dreamed of a different south africa. and through his ministry, he helped bring that nation into being. now as 2021 draws to a close, dw news is looking back at some of our more notable reports from the year. and one of them is about the taliban declared war on drug production in afghanistan and even opium. and the heroine that comes from it have long been a major part of its economy and a source of income for the taliban itself. for example, it's estimated that around $1400000000.00 us dollars worth of opium leaves the otherwise impoverished country every year. as thought to cover 80 percent of global opium and heroine supplies into an illegal industry worth tens of billions of dollars, all based on initial afghan exports. now many farmers find opium is the only reasonable option in

a totally destroyed economy. so in one of our stand out reports from 2021, d, w, 's, nick connelly met some of those afghans who said nothing else can pay their bills. these are definitely not scenes. afghanistan's new telephone, who lives with the outside world to see opium being smoked and sold, improved daylight. this bridge has long been home to cobbles, best than community drug uses, but now its members starting to disappear, rented up nightly by telephone patrols and taken to forcible treatment centers. when you get in to get it, they come and beat us up. if they catch you, you're sure to get a beating. they tell us to stop using drugs and change our ways. and they go after the dealers either of the years voting protection money from the legal drug trade, or fighting their insurgency against afghanistan's western back government. taliban now say they want to put an end to the cultivation and use of what is by most estimates the country's most valuable export. this at

a time of extreme stress with the countries farmers, drought plummeting, consumer demand, and border closures have seen the incomes dwindle. to one crops, still performing for these farmers is the opium poppy. here in canada, our province, it sold openly alongside the farmers of the producers. and on the 3rd nothing that the only thing the tell about announcement changed. the phone was tell us was to drive open prices up the time when prices for the crops a collapsing with the was jo john. i just tavis did onions and couldn't even sell them for $0.20. a sac that we know this isn't a legal crop and it's not right them. honestly, these are illegal drugs and we know that we're going to what else can we do? you know, amazon moment one that you homer them much my with them with kind of stands land, borders, logic shop for legal experts, into harvests of pomegranates and other crops of rotted. been sold for a pittance, was smuggling roots for opium and cannabis who stayed open. this farmer lost his leg to soviet landmine as a child. more recently, his village,

so repeated american bombing rates targeting taliban insurgents, they in turn brought their own improvised minds, leaving some fields too dangerous to cultivate. his feel to tell us a too dry for most crops this year, even for opium poppies. so he's planted cannabis instead. nike, the ringo financial part from the leaves, which we so you also get the sees the feeder chickens and the stems to use for straw one gives us 3 harvest in one that doesn't go bad in storage, like onions or corn. i mean, if i fi, margins, he at a tight, even at the best times. right now he's struggling to find the 20 years per month. he needs to send one of his sons to school money. he has no chance of making with legal crops your way around to national community was helping us. we wouldn't be growing canvas or opium, panama. jacqueline, of course we draw the girl legal crops. we do the labor and get the blame, but the big profits end up with the foreign smugglers. korean was, but for now, this little prospect of international aid returning in anything like the volume

seen under the previous government. without it, afghanistan's economy looks at to suffer for the foreseeable future, opening the way for more puppies and more cannabis across these fields. and when aquatics on the streets of afghanistan's neighbors. let's bring it back here to europe. now, a small town in southern france has been lit up in a winter of blaze of color and light. the lantern festival near the city of to loose is one of the biggest of its kind outside china. take a look. glass filled with colored liquid, 2800 lanterns lit up by eli d's. this park is filled with imaginative illuminations. o navy, then we saw the animals in the airplane. and of course, the giant panda to nice see of what up says rich, he genuine me. i like the pandas and the big tower is very beautiful to go to p a.

t t van orchard, shanta dish answers. yes, there are different themes, ira travel and chinese art. mia and metal where you can learn a lot about chinese traditions here, john that john publish. and that's great. you also is there a strong echoes of china here because everything comes from china. every single item originated there and was installed here by chinese craftsman. ah, a french businessman came up with the idea of holding a lantern festival and flung jak. ah! if it's you or that identical result, china's lantern festival is huge. 10 times the size of this one week of it's impossible not to love the lanterns and sculptures. their fear. the like creation said, our festival were assembled on the spot. every festival starts from scratch,

everything was tailor made for us. so you're apart from the pandas of course, because a pander is always a panda bluff overdue. she sorted it, but we have a lake we can use to no luck. and we have a pagoda for the emperor, and a boat which travels down the river is a boil for the samo ally in the flavor. visitors can even get to the festival on the boat, or by other means of transport. blimey ox, lantern festival runs until the end of january. ah, get it while you can and stay here because up next we have focus on europe featuring a report on a roam, abandoned serbia. fighting for women's rights are going to want to watch that and keep watching us. i'm william glue. crampton, berlin. yes sir. ah

ah ah ah ah, ah. finally learning to read at 60 for her entire life. osley, anybody has invested everything into education for her 10 children. she herself is

illiterate. mike and men older women in turkey. but honestly, in but i know that learning always pays off. focus on europe. the next on d. w. oh. the fight against the corona virus pandemic. how has the rate of infection been developing? what measures are being taken? what does the latest research say? information and context with the corona virus update that goes with jean special monday to friday on d. w. o does

a moment glass or an eternity time. it can be measured precisely indeed everyone experiences it differently as if there are different forms of time. time. ah, a phenomenon, a dimension. we know we won't live forever. an illusion. about time presenting futures past starts december 31st on d w t ah hello. in a very warm welcome and a to focus.