ah, the journey the destination right ah, finds out this documentary with the full, the fried now i came in tree ah ah, this is dw news. why from berlin? could german made tags soon be on their way to ukraine? poland says it is prepared to send a lever 2 tanks to the front line, even without berlin's permission. and germany's foreign minister says berlin won't stand in its way. but the german chancellor is yet to change his official position

. also coming up on the show, prosecutors in germany charged 5 people with high treason for allegedly plotting to kidnap help minister carl lauterbach and toppled the german government. and you foreign ministers agree, a new package of sanctions on iran, amid calls to brand the countries revolutionary guards. a terrorist organization. ah, ah. hello, i'm claire richardson, a very warm welcome to the chef. german made the leopard 2 tanks could soon be helping to defend ukraine. that's after poland said it would take its own action on sending the tanks there. germany's neighbor says it is eager to ensure ukraine has better weaponry to fight the russian invasion and will apply directly to berlin for permission instead of waiting for the okay. from the german chancellor. ukraine

might be one step closer to finally getting the modern and german made battle tanks . it says it urgently needs. poland. prime minister mateusz would have ascii said his country will apply for permission from berlin to supply its lepper tanks to ukraine. but he added that poland could also export the tangs without a green light from germany. his goggles thought that even if we were not given the approval within the framework of a small coalition, if the germans were not present of this coalition, we would still send the tanks together with others to ukraine. a condition for us is to build at least a small coalition of countries concerned with the issue. although germany has been providing substantial support to key if it's been criticized for hesitating when it comes to sending battle tanks or allowing others to do so. but there appears to be a shift in berlin's position by default, speaking to french television on sunday, german foreign minister on a lena bear box said berlin would not stand in the way if poland decided to send

its lepper tanks to key of and at an e u foreign minister meeting a day later, she reiterated the importance of full fledged support for ukraine mission upgrade weaknesses. when testing is the survey, this does fios internet logs important that we as an international community, do everything we can to defend ukraine so that it winds and winds the right to live in peace and freedom again. keith has been asking western allies to supply them with modern tanks for months. ukrainian officials say the military vehicles in particular, the leopard tanks are vital for fighting off an anticipated kremlin offensive in the spring and retaking territory. i stay in brook to folk. earlier i spoke to deed of his chief political correspondent, nina hossa, and i asked her about the mixed messages coming from germany, chancellor and foreign minister. i think that is one of the very big problems here in this ad tank discussion that there is no single government position in this topic. so if you want,

that position hasn't changed. even with an alina burbock statement, there is no big news that has come out of berlin. the decision has not been made. it's a decision that officially the national security council makes. and that was repeated by a government spokesperson, who spoke for chancellor schwartz today, but unofficially, everybody knows it's the chance level of choice. who has the last word, the new defense minister boris. the story is that on friday that the decision will be made soon though, but that decision can be positive, it can also be negative. we don't know when it will come. we're expecting it for this week on next. however, many are seeing the fact that the defense ministry is not officially looking at what they could get, hold off in terms of leopard 2 tanks. if the position, if the decision is then positive as a sign that germany could be willing and municipal stories also said that other partners can of course, start training ukrainian soldiers on the tanks already. but yes, you're right. the chancellor himself has been very tight lipped on it. he's thrown lots of criticism for it. and as a result, there's just a lot of speculation and

a mixed picture. give us a bit of context. what is behind this reluctance to send these tanks? well there is one thing that does seem to be clear is that combat tank deliveries are seen by the german government as a different quality in terms of weapons delivery. the chancellor, myself has always said that germany would only be taking such an important step to deliver those battle tangs in close coordination with its partners. now everybody knows that all afterwards means the u. s. berlin, once the us to be involved in such a step, there is fear of german tanks facing russian hangs on the ground and all of so it's just one to wants to avoid those pictures. and that argument is, of course, beginning to sound less convincing because other countries are also saying they would deliver that like the brits would or the challenge or 2 tanks for example. and you also do get hints here in berlin, that there is a real fear of escalation because doria said in an interview on,

is very fast day last week that germany is not a nuclear power. so there is a fear of what we do. this is seen as too much by the kremlin. what if this is considered a, an escalation? and what is also true is that german public opinion here with people is split on the issue and narrow majority once leopard to be sent to ukraine. but a majority doesn't want them used to get back crimea, for example. now perhaps we'll learn more at the press conference on tuesday morning between nature chief and started back and forth to stories. that might be the breakthrough for that green light for tanks. but i wouldn't bet on it could also just be about details of air defense deliveries. i thank you so much for that . that is, did of these chief political correspondent in house for us or prosecutors in germany have charged 5 people with high treason for allegedly plotting to topple the german government. and now health minister car law box, prosecutors, they've had a 3 that was plan one 1st to call the nationwide black out land to object to the

health minister. and finally, to the post the government. believe the plotters were prepared to kill lot about bodyguard up to carry out their plan and stuff. so let's get straight across to our political correspondent, simon young. in berlin for more 5 minutes. sounds like such a wild story. can you tell us more about who the accused are? yes, bless him. bizarre details. these 4 men and one woman against whom charges have been brought now. they've been in custody since last year. most of them since last april . in fact. and the prosecutors say that they had these concrete plans to cause a nation wide power blackout and then to sort of profit somehow from the shooting chaos to as you mentioned, kidnapped the health minister. and then they were going allegedly to

actors in front of t, v cameras who would impersonate the the chancellor and the german president who would then sort of abolish the current government. and these people had apparently already caught up the future government of their new state to you who would be leading in, who would be doing what job. so quite advanced plans. now these people have said to have connections with the circle, right? citizens movement. that's a great, we've heard of a lot of a, particularly during the pandemic. they've risen to find to, to a degree on pandemic skepticism. but that people essentially who reject the german state and of proposed various methods of changing that and installing their own people in power. and why was it that we saw german health minister carlotta box specifically targeted us and lead targeted in this alleged plot? you have a course to have ministers been heavily involved in leading the government's response to the covey pandemic. and he's somebody who's stood up for particularly

tough restrictions. and he's faced a lot of vitriol in particular on line. he reported last year that he has repeatedly face threats of violence, death threats against him and his family. he can't go out. he says without a permanent body guard. so that i think fits with this idea of these rights citizens and people who reject the german state. also rejecting the pandemic measures that a lot of people have complained about thank you so much for that update. that is d, w simon young. and we can take a look now at some other stories making headlines around the world. norway has detained a former commander of the nurse and a highland their region. lisa say they believe andre marietta entered the country illegally. let her hold him there for his own protection. madrid of says he fears for his life. after witnessing the mis treatment of rushing prisoners brought to the front lines to fight for wagner,

russia and estonia have expelled each other's ambassadors and are downgrading their diplomatic relations. moscow says it took its decision after the baltic country ordered a reduction in the number of russian embassy staff, the already strained relations of take any further downward turn since the war and ukraine began. or quino foster has confirmed its intention to end. it's military cooperation with france, the military who has given france one month to pull out its troops. observers believe the hunter is trying to reconcile with russia instead. some 400 french special forces are stationed in uniform to help battle and insurgency and holocaust survivor, marco philander, has been awarded the federal cross of merit in berlin. the 101 year old emigrated, united states after surviving a concentration camp. and in 2010. she moved back to berlin and has been telling her story and schools ever since. you foreign ministers have

agreed to impose a new set of sanctions on iran over its brutal repression of anti government protesters. the ministers are meeting in brussels to discuss a range of issues including punitive measures against the country. but there's been no mention of iran revolutionary guards, which some member states they should be listed as a terrorist organization. sharon has task guards with stamping out anti government protest that have gripped around since september. let's take a closer look at them. the home of the founder of modern day iran and it's a religious government in flames. youth versus old age and the people versus the state. i mean that state is made up of the elite revolutionary guards who control most of the economy and security, and the clerics lead by supreme leader, ayatollah hammond nay,

who make the rules. the regime has long blamed the west for its troubles, including the latest round of protests. kiddo guzman, why did the enemies, why did america and the zionist regime, conspire against our nation, our country, and our revolution? and create these riots? as the supreme leader said, our country is advancing and the enemies don't want our country to make progress. only the protesters don't seem to be buying it. the brutality of the security services, the corruption of the revolutionary guards, the decline in living standards as the country strains under sanctions. all feed into a rejection of the ruling classes. and the authorities seem split on what to do about it. there were announcements that the dreaded morality police would be shut down. and the law requiring women to wear a head job be relaxed. but it's unclear if either has happened.

meanwhile, the executions of protesters have spurred fresh outrage. death to the dictator, the crowd shouts, not death to america as the regime would prefer. and it's not just young women and students getting involved. these auto workers walked off the job to support the demonstrations. no one knows if or when a reckoning is coming for the guards and the clerics. but the states brutality has guaranteed that the divisions will not go away anytime soon. a pakistan's government is scrambling to restore power to millions of people after a fault in the electricity. greg triggered a major outage. officials blamed the cuts on a voltage surge after generators were temporarily switched off and then on again to save energy. it is the 2nd major grid failure in 3 months, in addition to the blackouts. and millions of people in pakistan suffer almost

daily lives reliant on backup generators. at this hospital in karachi that was running without any great electricity for several hours up and down the country, people sat in darkness. a regular occurrence in a country plagued by unreliable power. some attempted to keep businesses open in the hope that the power would come back on. he was beginning, we're facing so many issues are worked depends on electricity. only when there's light, are we able to do business? otherwise we can't work on it. otherwise, jessica community schools were also pitched into darkness. something that many students are used to by not right when there is no power at her school, then we have to study in the dark. but sometimes we even have to leave the classroom and sit outside in the cold because sometimes there is no natural light

inside for us to see the last me person. these are some of the problems we are facing. the stuckey issues as being a victim. pakistan's grid is in desperate need of an upgrade, one which the government says it cannot afford. this is the 2nd nationwide power outage in the last 2 years, highlighting the infrastructural weakness of a country struggling through an economic crisis. i think you're up to date up as our i'm claire richardson in berlin for me in the team. thanks so much for joining us. i just got issues with also great.