this is dw news from berlin. you can find out a lot more by heading to our website. that's d, w dot com. ah. after a decade, long legal battle wiki leaks, founder julian assange, could be just weeks away from extradition to the united states. the british government rubber stamp the move that paves the way for him to face trial on spying charges. the self describe radical transparency advocate is a polarizing figure. here are to some lot for aaron us. wrong doing and have gone to start and iraq villain to others responsible for putting lives at risk. this is the day i'm layla, iraq. ah . the factors that if he's expedited to the united states, we will continue to have you the conditions you will be under will be so oppressive

. this is not the end of the road. the case he is facing is so oppressive. this decision is great to freedom speech that it will drive him to take his own life. also on the day could cove it soon be a thing of the past. will future vaccines in the game changer here presume? is often personally, i believe we will succeed in developing vaccines over the coming months. may be within the next 6 to 12 months. in shop with which we can basically prevent infections and listen, the unstable for wiki leaks, founder julian assange, is a step closer to being extradited to the us after the british government approved his extradition to the united states. that's where he's wanted on 18 criminal charges, including spying. washington says mister assange endangered lives releasing troves

of classified military records and diplomatic cables, wiki leeks called friday's decision, a dark day for press, freedom and british democracy. it's valid to appeal the decision at britain's high court. all right, let's get reaction for you were rebecca vincent is standing by. she's the director of operations and campaigns for reporters without wars, and she joins us now from london. so good to have you with us some events that you have campaigned against, mr. sanchez extradition? can i have your thoughts on today's decision? well, we're deeply disappointed by the decision, but unfortunately not surprised. this is not the 1st time that the u. k. government has taken a political decision which instead of protecting press freedom and journalism, puts juliana on one step closer to extradition to the us where of course, he will be tried. as a 1st publisher tried under the espionage act for publishing information in the public interest, which should not be a crime. now, as you know,

the u. k. authorities have justified their decision by saying they have received assurances from us authorities that mr. assange will be given his full a human rights. are you convinced by an argument i have to say no, and you know, even if we do take the assurances at face value, even if we do assume that they will be honored, which we have no guarantee that they will join us. funds will still be at great risk, whether it's special administrative measures, whether it's the specific detention facility that had been in question. he is very likely to still be held in conditions of extreme isolation conditions that will remove him from the support system that he has in place in the u. k. such as access to his family and all of the medical evidence that we heard in the extradition. proceedings in london, courts pointed to a severe risk of suicide, which would be exacerbated in conditions of extradition. so, you know, while, while our main point is on the principles of press, freedom and journalism and the dangerous precedent that this will set for

journalism internationally. there are serious concerns about his well being. in fact, we are concerned for his life if he is extra to us. and conclusion i'm, this has been such a protracted, long legal, a fight. he has 14 days, i understand to appeal this decision. are you hopeful that his appeal will be successful? and we understand from wiki leaks, and from his wife stella assange, that he will indeed be filing an appeal in the next 14 days on that can be a broader cross appeal. so we'll have to see what the court does next. but we could end up in a very interesting situation where the court considers the broader case because of course the appeals process that was followed last year ended up narrowing to just the point of the mental health questions. and then in the, in the diplomatic assurances, not the broader principals at stake in this case, we could end up in a situation where those, those principles are considered. we could end up where he might have a ruling strongly in his favor. so it's hard to anticipate what will happen next.

we do hope the courts act in the interest of press freedom, where the u. k. government so far has failed. rebecca vincent, director of operations and campaign for reporters without borders. thank you very much for taking our questions. ah, a panel investigating the you as capital insurrection says that former prison, donald trump tried to force, then vice president mike pence to reverse trump's 2020 election defeat the congressional prob. i also found that mr. trump put mr. pence endanger as the vice president trying to certify present jo biden's victory writers on capitol hill. we're calling for mr. passes hanging or just meters away from him as he's sought shelter from the mom. and today mark's 50 years since an earlier assault on you as democracy that did lead to the resignation of

a u. s. president. the watergate scandal made headlines. the world over when it was revealed that richard nixon had ordered wiretapping and other illegal actions against his political opponents. the building complex that gave the watergate scandal its name still stands to day. 50 years ago, during the night of june 17th 5 men broke into the headquarters of the democratic national committee. apparently to install bugs and take photos of files. the men were caught, but others were involved in the scandal all the way up to the u. s. president journalists revealed that richard nixon, eustace power against political opponents, good wife, buddy for a year earlier. nixon had told his chief of staff that he wanted the use to use wire tapping and a tailing and other shady to illegal forms of a intelligence gathering against the democrats. so while nixon didn't know about

the watergate break in advance, he had he was morally responsible for it. the i'll be getting these hurt. did nixon commit a crime of an investigative committee? tried to clarify that, but he refused to testify or resign than they stumbled upon oval office recordings of conversations. after resisting the probe, the nixon administration agreed to turn in the tape. so my attorney later it became clear that a crucial passage of the recordings was missing. it was the one in which he ordered a cover up of watergate. but at this point, impeachment proceedings against nixon were already under way when he was under the pressure became too much money to leave office before my term as completed as abhorrent for every instinct in my body. but as president, i must put the interests of america 1st. therefore, i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. that of nixon was later pardoned by his successor,

gerald ford. and watergate became the epitome of political scandal. it's important to remember watergate, because it reveals the vulnerabilities of our constitutional government. it also the strengths are you there. it's very hard for a country to protect itself from a bad leader. a lesson that still stands true to day. we have a special gas, former watergate prosecutor, nick, i ackerman, that mister ackerman is a former assistant us attorney and he helped prosecute watergate back in the seventy's a very warm welcome sir today. good to have you with us. now watergate council is the epitome of a political scandals. but when you watch the january 6 earrings and compare them, was the us in much greater danger on january 6th? yeah, i think it was because really what president trump was trying to do was essentially

disrupt the transfer of power that normally takes place after an election used basically trying to ignore all of the votes. joe biden got and tried to put himself in power for a 2nd term. richard nixon obviously did things both presidents believe they were above the war. our president nixon, i believe, ordered the break in, at the wire gate, he orchestrated the cover up of the watergate scandal. but the trunk, did you know, things that were even more egregious in terms of going to the heart of our system and the peaceful transfer of power that every president has undergone, or since the republic was founded? now, president nixon was disgraced and the republicans made him go. the danger for you as democracy passed, president trump is still very much a force to be reckoned with. no question about it. and what's even worse and more

dangerous is that there are people who are buying into this big lie or the president trump won the election. and some of these people are actually going to be on the ballot this november to be in charge of elections in various states. so yes, this is, this is a danger that has not passed on this. they're trying to do exactly what they did last time, but this time they're trying to put their own people in charge of the elections in key states in order that they can throw the election to donald trump if he should lose a 2nd time. so yes, this is a continuing danger. what lessons can be learned from what you did as a watergate prosecutor that could be a fuse today for the january 16? well, i think look, it's the same problem that was just alluded to before. and that is just how fragile our democracy is here in the united states. a lot of people look at water gate and

say, well, this shows that the system worked. and that nixon ultimately left i but we came very, very close to nixon basically. why not firing the entire watergate, hardy investigation? any of the argument cox was fired on the saturday night notice a saturday night massacre. but for the fact that the public rose up in an absolute disgust and forced nixon to appoint another special prosecutor who kept this in place, he kept the investigation going on. this may never going forward. so one of the lessons i think that we have to learn from here is how do you room the system? and what do we learn from what's happened, for example, wonderfully after watergate, one of the reforms i was to institute a protection system for whistleblower. that turned out to be very important that there you are in terms of the public learning about my president trump trying to

get present zalinski if you don't have of ukraine to work on and initiate an investigation into trump. chief rival joe biden with whom. but for that whistleblower statute, it's very unlikely that the person who did come forward would have come forward and very unlikely that we would have learned to buy. so part of what we have to do in each of these scandals is try and figure out how do we make it so that the system actually does work and will work in the future. certainly with watergate, no one ever believed that this would happen again. and here we are with donald trump. yes. um, how does vice president mike pens come out of s? i think he comes out of it as a real hero. he stood up to donald trump. he refused to go along with this crazy idea that he could decide who would win the electoral vote, or that he would send the vote back to the states so that the state legislatures

could come up with a new slate of electors. i mean, he basically stood out to donald trump in withstood a lot of pressure. and i think everybody has to give a lot of credit to mike pence for doing the right thing and having the courage to do that. i'd like us to briefly discuss the role of virginia thomas and her husband considered a supreme court to judge a clarence thomas said the january committee want to question her, and he voted against the release of crucial documents. is a supreme court compromised as well? oh there's no question. i mean, she was, it wasn't as though she was just exercising her freedom of speech in a right to say what she wanted to say. she was actively involved trying to get legislators in arizona to overturn the election and come up with a separate set of electors as she was pushing the chief of staff for donald trump to do the same i. she was much more involved in this,

and i don't think we know the full extent of that yet. but it certainly doesn't look good just because on clarence thomas, supreme court justice, her husband wound up being the only vote against on directing donald trump to turn over all of his presidential papers and finding out that he did not have a valid executive privilege over those papers, so yeah, there, there are some real concerns about you know, the, the supreme court right now and in particular, jenny thomas's husband, i mean, it just does not work good. a very, a final thought very briefly is a democracy at stake in america. it definitely is, it's definitely this has not been decided. donald trump is still around. he is still perpetrating the big lie and that he won the election. there are lots of

other people running for election this time around that are also perpetrating that big. why are and looking to under cut of the democracy and under count or electro crosses from a watergate prosecutor, nick ackerman. sir, thank you very much for your time. thank you for having me. ah. the battle for control of you craze. eastern industrial heart land. the dumbass region continues to rage full force and the civilian toll is rising. the regional governor of the ask says, heavy shelling by russian forces in the city of lucy chance has killed many people . it comes as russia fights a brutal battle for full control of neighbor. neighboring severity nets is a chunks is the only city in the key battleground region still under ukrainian control. while as russian troops close in and hundreds of ukrainian civilians are

caught in the relentless assault, there is growing uncertainty about what the future will hold for you. great. well, if it's up to the european union, ukraine's place is inside the block today and a groundbreaking move europe, as said yes to ukraine, that you commission backs you grain for you membership candidate status. and this will allow keith to start negotiations with brussels commission presenters love underlying added that ukraine must carry out a number of political and economic reforms. the commissions recommendation will be discussed by all of the blocks 27 nations at a summit in brussels next week. it follows an endorsement for fast tracking ukraine's candidacy by 4 european leaders visiting heath. but even if all you stacy give ukraine a thumbs up, a process could take years or the leaders of germany, france, and italy, bags candidate status for ukraine when they visited. president zalinski on thursday

. earlier we asked artist publics the deputy prime minister and defense minister of lot via if he thinks they are doing enough for ukraine, or if they need to offer more support. well, i guess, sir, i am very outspoken, full edition from small country, so probably not everybody's happy what i'm saying. but her, this is of war time. and that is no also time for niceties. for political correctness, i would say that i highly value this announcement from german, french and italian leadership about a u candidate status, because it has a symbolic value to day. it has a symbolic recognition for ukrainian swords they are doing and they've would expect this. but we also understand that as it should be a long process, and there will be a need for a lot of a job also and outside than ukrainian side for ukraine to become a new member. as far as a support for ukraine at this moment,

what is the most needed and what can change as this war situation is? first, the fall was a necessity for every leader in europe to accept it as it. our goal is that ukraine must to win and rush our muscles, and that must be clearly stated. secondly, i would believe that every country in europe, including germany, should have put a maximum military support for ukraine to day. and now, and if you asked my position, if i would be the german politician, i would say my country has a big economic and industrial might. and because of this gravity of situation and danger for future wars, if ukraine is losing, i am putting all the industry of germany behind your cray. u. s. regulators have cleared the way for cover 19 vaccinations for infants as

young as 6 months old. starting next week. the food and drug administration approved their kit sized shots made by me were during our and pfizer, which can now be shipped across the u. s. no trouble is expected this weekend from the centers for disease control and prevention. the u. s. began its vaccination campaign with adults in late 2020, about a year into the corner of our basement. but there is one drawback to the corner virus vaccines currently in use based on the original woo hon strain, they only offer limited protection against variance of concern like armor crohn and its sub variance. both the world health organization and the european medicines agency are backing the use of a variant adapted vaccine currently being developed by pfizer. and minturn up here in germany. health minister car lauterbach says he believes there will soon be a vaccine that can stop covert 19 infections, i presume, is dublin personally,

i believe we will succeed in developing vaccines over the coming months. may be within the next 6 to 12 months, in fills with which we can basically prevent infections and listen. the unshaken friend william schaffner, is professor of preventative medicine at the department of health policy at vanderbilt university in nashville. and he joins us right now. so good to have you with us, sir. thank you very much for your time. we heard the german health minister just moments ago suggests that future vaccines might be able to effectively prevent infection. the science support that assertion that he's making. well, i think a minute the law box is optimistic, shall we say, we don't know that vaccines, at least those developed in the near term future will be able to effectively prevent infection and thereby the transmission of this virus. we do know that the

vaccines that we currently have and the ones that the manufacturers are working on will be able to continue to prevent serious disease, the illness that so bad that it requires hospitalization. that's after all, the major public health interested at the moment. let's keep people out of the hospital. let's keep them alive, quite literally. and the vaccines continue to be very of you doing that. now, dr. these new vaccines, as you alluded to, are being adapted for i'm across by a biotech, pfizer and more during up will we all need that when they become available. well, we're getting ahead of our skis as they say a little bit. we'll have to look at the vaccines that are produced and look at how effective they are in the clinical trials. but the notion is not unreasonable. that

perhaps all of us, as we do in the united states with influenza vaccine, which we take on an annual basis, we might have to take an annual booster against coded also. that's a reasonable thought. now i'm told that on a cron subtypes can apparently evade immunity. the be a for and be a 5 can boosters of the current and tweet vaccine deal with those new types of with those new types of with those new subtypes i should say yeah, be a for da, 5 or a little more distant from what we have in the vaccine, or vaccines are still pretty good, not as good as against oma cron itself in keeping people out of the hospital. and that's why we look forward to the development of coven vaccine. 2 point oh, right. the newer ones that will have to be adapted in order to keep up with the

changing coven variance that are out there. we do that with influenza vaccine. currently we updated internationally twice a year. once for the northern ones for the southern hemisphere, we might have to do something similar with cove. it vaccines. now, dr. here in germany, infection that rates are rising again. do we need to worry about a summer of cove at 19 in the northern hemisphere? yeah, well it's happening in the united states to it turns out that all across and it's, their aunts are very, very contagious. and moreover, they can actually infect people who are previously vaccinated, as well as people who have had previous episodes of cold it. now, when that happens, you get a milder illness, something like a bad cold, you aren't hospitalized. but nonetheless, that does mean that these strains can continue to spread. and we're seeing that

here in the united states at the present time, and likely also in germany. now as we started out of reporting, as we mentioned, the vaccine roll out for babies as young as 6 months. babies as young as one month already get a range of vaccines, would go from $1000.00 vaccines, be beneficial, and are they safe at that age? they have to be tested level and those studies are now underway, as you were saying in the lead in the c d. c tomorrow i think is on track to approve vaccines for infants, 6 months and older. i think that that will happen, and the companies are studying inference from about age one month to 6 months at the present time. and in conclusion, or final thought from you how good is vaccine uptake in the united states, especially when it comes to the boosters?

well, it's good, but not great. there are still many people who, although they've been vaccinated, about half or 60 percent of the population has received a booster that 3rd dose, which is so very important because that booster does provide the greater assurance of protection against severe disease. so we're going to have to do that, and parents of younger children have been slower to bring them into their pediatricians to get them vaccinated. they still need more encouragements. william schaffner, professor preventative medicine at vanderbilt university in nashville, usa doctor, thank you very much for taking a questions. pleasure talking to my place and that was the day as ever the conversation continues online. you'll find us on twitter at the w news. my handle is at layla rock. thank you very much for keeping me company this

with with with the co india killer heat waves are hitting record tires in india. but our community seems to have found a solution based on early morning how

effective visit and can it be implemented in lower income countries? eco, india, connect on d, w. making the headlines and what's behind them. dw news africa that shows that the issues have been the continent. life is slowly getting back to normally on the street to give you enough reports on the inside. our correspondence is on the ground reporting from across the continent, all the trend stuff, the mazda you in 60 minutes thought d w one. ah, hello guys, this is the 77 percent the platform

with, you know, or this channel. we are not afraid to happen. delicate topic because population is growing fast. and young people clearly have the solution. the future belongs to the 77 percent every weekend on d w. a blistering heat for days that stretch in 2 weeks. scientists say this spring, devastating heat wave and south asia.