i say everything the hot commodity in this global experiment in our data, smart devices are embedded in our daily lives tracking our every move. the internet of everything starts january 17 on d, w. ah, ah ah, this is dw news lie from berlin, a life sentence for one of boucher allison intelligence officers for crimes against humanity. a german court convicts the former syrian colonel for presiding over

systematic torture and the killing of detainees. it is the 1st time state sanctioned torture and syria has ever been brought to try. also coming up, the arm of kron wave hits india cobra. 19 cases right? by almost a quarter of a 1000000 in a single day. we hear what measures the deli government taking, the slow, a wave of the fast spreading on the cross variance and serbian at tennis, started novak joke. havoc is selected in the draw for the australian open tennis tournament despite uncertainty over his visa. ah, i'm soon so misconduct is good to have you with us. we start with some breaking news. a german court has sentenced a former syrian military officer to life in prison for crimes against humanity. it's the world's 1st trial concerning state torture in syria. now the court found

on more ras, one guilty of overseeing the murder of $27.00 people at the all cottage detention center in damascus. graceland, the scene here during his trial headed and notorious secret service unit that was responsible for widespread torture and killings. a decade ago, the ex kernel then fled to germany where he was detained in 2019. germany is able to prosecute crimes took place in syria due to a legal principle called universal jurisdiction. and let's bring and d, w correspondent, louisa on waste halls. and she is in cobblins outside of the court house where she's been following the trial for us. hi, louisa. tell us more about the court's ruling here. as you mentioned, unwise as lan was sentenced to life imprisonment. but at this point of time, it's difficult to say more since the court is still out or outlining its reasoning

for this sentence. so they have been explaining how they came to this conclusion for siding with her in depth and explanation of what they call a systematic attack, unsafe the civilian population by the aside regime in the future we hope, or in the next the moments we hoped to find out whether the sentence will be appealed and also whether unwell has line will be able to leave prison for good conduct. after 15 years, that still remains to be seen. how strong was the evidence against and where baseline the evidence in this case was a very compelling, that's what the lawyers said. at least this is the 1st case world wild wide, where the caesar of photos were used. these are photos from inside the prison taken by a defector, a military police officer who took photos of bodies that had been tortured. and

this was the 1st time this was used, but the trial also included the several, dozens of witness testimonies. and so the evidence was quite damning. what significance does this verdict have for the victims of an whereby slime? but also more broadly, the victims of state sponsored torture in syria. this is a hugely significant verdict are everywhere here in co dance, you can see a form of relatives over detainees or former detainees themselves. they say this is hugely significant for them. this is the 1st time as well. that's a syrians have been able to tell about the experience in front of a, of a court. but of course, many of them said 1st of all it won't bring their disappeared relevant relative spec. and also many of them, of course, would have wished these trials to take place,

not in the southern german town of covenants within syria, them itself. t w's, louise f, one, at least often reporting there from outside the court house in copeland, where german court has sentenced a former syrian military officer to life in prison for crimes against humanity. thank you, louisa. moving on to our other top. storia. india is experiencing a rapid rise and coven 19 infections, as the arm across wave hits. the country. new daily cases have searched almost 250000, the highest number of infection since late may. this despite nearly 70 percent of all adults having received at least one dose of vaccine. even though fewer patients with our micron infections are being hospitalized. this new wave has had hospital staff hard with frontline workers falling ill. d, w reporters and delhi looked into what can be expected as india confronts the new variant. a new year, a massive new we've in india,

often months of low infection rates. corbett, 19 case numbers have shot up. the code below the band to make has the country in its grip. the positivity rate in delhi of those being tested, is at $25.00 listened. experts see the actual figure in the capital and the country is many times higher than that. more scientists now agree that only crohn is driving this week, while many indians are anxious about the increase, other said pink may be easier this time around hard, we have out. we have to be careful. the 3rd wave is here, mother. i'm here at the hospital with my mother who's a patient, you have to take extra care here because it's quite crowded near the water. i disagree. so near my i have been hearing that this time the virus is spreading much faster than before. but i don't think it is as dangerous because people are recovering quickly at their hands. doctor got the get only says the severity of symptoms and rate of hospitalization may be lowered on the chron, but people still need to be very cautious. they'll die in ward be lung squared the

lot, whereas in this one it is only related to the upper respiratory tract, and the symptoms are foster quicker, and the recovery is quite fast actually. but he warns that given the speed with which the widest is spreading, people off to lexus, especially older people and those with pre existing conditions. studies suggest that the pud, we will peak sometime around january end to february beginning and then we'll see a sharp decline. even though this way, we'd expect it to be short lived exports, see that it still has the potential to over been health care infrastructure. once it hits it's peak. public health officials are worried that the spread of a highly infectious weary and in a country of 1300000000 people would have serious consequences. if we left the wireless average way. possibly we'd see rice fast. and then also the give us maybe the next 2 to 3 weeks,

but it doesn't have interest to stretch to read so that you're not looking to have a large number of people calling you. because that could be ready to stop a foot. subbing need to avoid the massive upheaval of the delta out. pre indian authorities have implemented weekend and night go fuse to slow. the spread. people are hopeful this week will be shorter and they will be spared the hot shipped so many went through. less than a year ago. we can speak now to lance, a lot, pinto. he's a pulmonologist in mom. bye. thank you for joining us. it appears that the symptoms in the summer chron waive are often less severe than with the delta variant. is that what you have been witnessing? hello, so me and thank you for inviting me to the show. yes, that is indeed what most of the physicians on the ground have been seeing individuals tend to have people for a couple of days. a little bit of body back, a news motions sometimes of a bad, severe throat,

sore throat. but most individuals seem to settle quite well in about 2 or 3 days. the people then to oxygen levels remain rock stable. and this is a little different from what we saw with within a lot of individuals as low as 3 d symptoms. what awful lot would often drop, no small fraction of them would drop that oxygen saturation by d 5, the 7. unfortunately, we are seeing so much of that this time around. nonetheless, we didn't hear a doctor and that report saying it is important to stretch the arm conway, so that hospitals are not overwhelmed. if you look at the measures that are being taken at the moment, like local curfews, will that be enough to stretch this way? so i think we absolutely need to stretch this wave simply because this is a highly transmissible barrier. and if the entire country falls in, at the same time, even a tiny fraction of them eating hospitalization could potentially over been the system. i think if there's one thing that we've realized from the past 2 years is

that overcrowding or being in close indoor spaces and still have the potential of being super readily events. and i think these restrictions which have prevented overcrowding specially the stuff use which on restricting the number of people in restaurants and p o spaces to about 50 percent of what capacity is i think measures like that are welcome and i'm in the right direction. are you confident that india's health care system can cope with the expected search? i think a lot of this will depend on how when we manage hospital beds, a lot of health care in india is private health care and individuals be out of pocket. and very often there is a lot of pressure to get admitted to individuals who are high risk individuals who have a number individuals who don't want to be i will often try really hard to get hospitalized even when they don't meet the criteria. and that's the possibility i think if we can prevent that and in college, people do to get treated that to be the greatest extent possible,

knowing that by and large most individuals will get fine at home. there's being a says limited in this. i think if you managed to do that for me, hopefully we will keep our hospital bed open for that fraction which really needs it. and i think that's pretty much determined how, how well we succeed. an important point there from pulmonologist lanta, la pinto, joining us from mon bye. thank you for sharing your insights with us. thank you, sir. be antenna star. novak ciocca, which has been included in the draw for the 1st round of the australian open, despite the uncertainty surrounding its visa status. australian media and government sources say it is likely that took a bit of visa will be canceled. the men's tennis number one has admitted there was false information on his immigration form, and that he met a journalist even though he had tested positive for coded. the australian open starts on monday. now, during a press conference, a short while ago, australia,

as prime minister said he would not comment on joker, which is the visa. he instead emphasize the importance of sticking to the governments, the coven restrictions. what is it that all of these measures are designed to achieve that was sit out very clearly in the national plan. that objective, in this phase of dealing with the pandemic, is to minimize serious illness hospitalizations. and tellers. and the meantime, those baseline restrictions to support that doll and we're going to try to connect to steve pierce, who's been covering the australian open for more than a decade. there we have you, steve. we were just trying to get your line up and running there at steve. thanks for joining us from melbourne. i know that joked edge has been drawn to play the 1st round in the australian open. tell us what does that tell us about his status?

well, it really just tell assuming that and then he's got a valid phase or at the moment and he does because the federal government as much as they've been chewing and throwing and weighing out what exactly do you ever since monday when the last case went against them another joke which has been a free man. he's got to validate that he's out about in melbourne. he's practicing at rob labor raina. he's the number one seed and he's been drawn in the 1st round of the study. and i've been, as you would expect to happen because organizes can't really do anything else while he has a valid days up there. really obliged to expect that he will play as noble and they have to carry on such until it is the time when the federal government decides to do something or being not to do something. and exactly what that looks like. no 100 percent knows. we all expected the decision to die. but joker bitches, lawyers have delivered continuing amounts of information representations to the federal government, to,

to back up some of those inconsistencies marked inconsistencies that were prevalent on his travel beforehand as to why he marked his trouble. pike is coming in, so it's complicated. med is a bit. we're expecting a decision now to morrow, but exactly what that looks like. it's really unclear just quickly. you know what happens if his visa is revoked again? was it's revoked again, then they will have to put him back in to detention and aim to deport him. but of course he has indicated through his legal team not publicly but his legal team has indicated that they would then challenge that decision. now, how it would play out over the weekend with the start of the strategy in living on monday would be extremely messy, but it would leave out to exactly what this last week or so it's been which has been a complete circus. so it looks like if, if the federal government does look, move to counselors, be that there would be then a legal challenge in court. and that would be very hard to judge exactly which way that we got the story continued. sorry, steve pier speaking to us. there from melbourne. thank you very much for sharing

that update with us. thanks sir. all right, that's it for our new show coming up next on the w. inflation is soaring in the us putting the squeeze on americans. ross has more on that story and much more on dw business in just a few minutes set you up with with .