♪ ♪ anchor: this is dw news, live from berlin. harsh words from germany's president as he opens the munich security conference. he accuses countries like the u.s. and russia of stoking global mistrust and putting national interests over international cooperation. coming up, delegates at the conference will focus on the international community's failures in syria. dw looksks at families torn apat by the conflict. >> we are going to die.

planes are killing us. the army is very close. anchor: as the government offensive against a live province intensifies, -- against idlib province, we talked to a civilian desperate to get his family out of harm's way. and manchester city banned from champions league competition for the next two seasons, for breaching spending rules. we will get reactions and look at what is next for the english club. happy birthday to you. the massive video sharing site all started 15 years ago with the elephant video. ♪ ♪ anchor: to our viewers on pbs in the united states and around the world, welcome. a laundry list of conflicts and

uncertainty over the west's role in the world are the top issues at the munich security conference, which kicked off this afternoon. nearly three dozen heads of state, diplomats, and top security experts are coming together for the annual gathering in southern germany. the west's dwindling influence on global security has even spawned a new term -- westlessn ess. reporter: a who's who of international politics. with plenty to discuss. german president -- the german president spent much of his keynote speech deploring the decline of internationalism and european unity. he had harsh words for russia, china, and the u.s. >> our closest ally, the united states of america, under the current administration, rejects the idea of an international community.

"great again" -- if necessary, also at the expense of neighbors and partners. reporter: fittingly, it was a u.s. secretary of state from another era, john kerry, who made a plea for reviving international cooperation. mr. kerry: no country can solve climate change, cyber, warfare, nuclear challenges, extremism, disease. all of these things require cooperation. if we did not have the united nations, we would have to invent it. people need to stop playing with people's fears. reporter: protesters gathered outside the hotel where the conference is being held. they said social problems and climate change should be considered major security issues. >> [speaking german] >> if you cannot exclude climate protection from the security issue, because it is a huge issue, and war is definitely not climate neutral.

anchor: the conference continues until sunday, with debates over the role of nato and the conflict in syria likely to dominate. melinda crane is in munich for us now. in his address, the german president was highly critical of the big powers. we are talking about china, russia, the united states. tell us more. what exactly did the german president say? melinda: as mentioned in your report, he essentially accused them of putting national interests first, of prioritizing their own perceived needs, undermining international institutions and international rules and norms, and thereby making the world as a whole less secure. he said that when we come to the point that countries see their interest in terms of a zero-sum game, meaning their strength is others' weakness, and vice

versa, that in the end, we will be unable to solve the pressing problems the world faces -- problems ranging from nuclear escalation and essentially the decline of the architecture of international arms control, and climate change. he said very clearly, and many speakers have echoed his words following his address, that we absolutely must have multilateral initiatives to address these problems, and many more besides. anchor: melinda, these features are one thing, but typically the real business happening in a place like munich security conference -- it takes place offstage, behind the scenes. what has been going on behind the curtain? melinda: i think there is business on both sides, both on and off the stage. tomorrow, for example, we are going to be hearing from the french president, with his push for stronger nuclear arms control.

i think that will certainly be something that will also create some dynamic. but beyond that, offstage, absolutely right. there are a wide range of bilateral meetings here, because this gathering does bring together so many national and world leaders. just one example of that -- today, on the sidelines at the conference, u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo, u.s. secretary of defense mark esper, and the afghan president, ashraf county, met -- ghani, met and agreed on a reduction of violence agreement. you know the u.s. and taliban have been carrying on negotiations for some time, with the aim of eventually getting a framework in which the u.s. can begin to withdraw its forces. but the afghan government has not been party to those negotiations. it had said that it's precondition for an allll afghan agreement that could set the stage e for a peace process and

eventual u.s. withdrawal is exactly this -- this reduction of violence, where the taliban will commit to showing for one week, seven days, that it is able to reduce violence across the board. it apparently specifies roadside bombs, direct attacks, attacks by its proxies. it will commit to that, and thereby essentially create a precondition under which the afghan agreement might be willing to sit down with the taliban. certainly, that is movement. that happened right here on the sidelines in munich. anchor: melinda, we saw a clip from a young climate activist. what about climate security? what is the discussion like at the conference about climate question mark melinda: -- about climate? melinda: after 20 years attending the conference, i am hearing about the nexus between the climate crisis and insecurity in the form of

migration, insecurity in the form of massive population displacement, and insecurity can form of conflict that are fed by drought and poverty. i am hearing more talk of that than ever before. in fact, tomorrow i will be moderating a mainstage panel on exactly that issue. we are also hearing many people saying that if we don't get stronger multilateral cooperation, we will not be able to address climate insecurity. certainly, one of the key u.s. speakers here did not have much to offer in the way of hope about whether the u.s. would at any stage returned to the paris climate agreement. anchor: that is certainly one of the big topics and one of the driving factors behind many of those global problems. dw's chief protocol correspondent, melinda crane. thank you very much. the syrian government defensive in idlib province is leading to a growing number of refugees.

people are heading for the nearby turkish border. the human estimates that 140,000 people have fled their homes in the last three days. germany is already home to hundreds of thousands of syrians who have fled the conflict over the last nine years. those with family members still stuck in the war zone feel powerless to protect them. dw met one man who fled syria in 2013, hoping his family would soon follow, but now, nearly seven years later, that hope has proved wrong. reporter: he checks the news from syria on social media all the time. where did the latest bomb fall? who or what was hit? well he isn't safety here in germany, the rest of his family are in mortal danger in idlib. he is desperately worried. >> whenever i eat or drink, i think of my children. have they had anything to eat? are they ill?

do they have a warm blanket? reporter: his sons are nine and 10 years old. he had to leave them with their grandparents. he thought it too dangerous to flee with them. if the internet is working, he calls them several times a day. >> hello. how w are you? what is going on? >> it is cold. they arereombing. and a plane crashed. >> w where? >> very near our village. get us out of here. come and get as. -- us. >> i want to,o, but i can't. we need to get passports for you and lots of other things. i can't bring you over here. >> we are going to die. the planes are bombing us. the army is very close. reporter: the only adult member

of the family in idlibib who les usus show his face is the e unc. >> people are suffering, especially the refugees. there is chaos. i don't know whether i am coming or going. everybody is heading north, camping in the olive rose, sleeping in the open, unprotected, e even though it is truly cold. reporter: the united nations estimates that more than 7000 -- 700,000 people have fled their homes, many heading towards turkey. but they are not being allowed in. the refugee camps are overcrowded. it is frfreezing. ththere is a lacack of drinking water and fofood. >> therere is no g going back fr them. the townsns arere being bombebet and thehey are facing a dire humanitarian situationon. this is why an immediate and complete cease fire is important going forward. reporter: there is no sign of that, and the fighting continues. he would do anything he e couldo

rescue his children from danger, but he cannot. all he can do is follow events from berlin. >> nobody notices. people see me and think i'm doing fine. but inside, i die a thousand deaths every day. my heart goes out to my children, and d to all the other children. anchor: an emotional situation for those watching what is happening from afar, and for those on the ground. for that part of the story, let's bring in david swanson, the u.n. . regional spopokespern for the syria crisis. he joins us from turkey. the u.n. says more than 140,000 syrians have been displaced in the last three days by violence. is there anywhere safe for those peoplele to go? david: well, tragically, the number of people displaced continues to spiral out of control as we speak, with

thousands of people on the move right now. the highwayy area, which is lalargely emptied out of i its population, along with the area in which communities have largrgely emptied, you now havea large wave of people moving northward, into a very small, shrinking area of land for protection purposes. anchor: are they being let across the border? can they leave syriaia? david: no, at the moment they are being pushed into a very small enclave of area where assistanance is limited and protectionon is limited. i mean, we now have one off the most densely populated areas in syria,a,ll this inin shrouded in an actctive war zone, witith artillery shellingg and airstrikes c continuining as we speaeak. anchor: gigiven what you hahavet said, is t this shapiping up toe one of the worst humanitararian

crises of thisis nine-year conflict? david: absolutely. already, we have -- the number of people displplaced, this particular wave of displacement, is w without doubt the largest individual displacement we have had since the very beginning of this crisis, which is almost nine years old. i am reaeally, reallyy saddenedy the international inaction in bringingng this conflilict to an end.d. as humanitariansns, we a are desperately trying to provide assistance to the people in syria. there are more than 3 million people in idlib righght now, and they are in urgent need of protection and humanitarian assistance. anchor: tell me about those 3 million people. there are people who choose to stay or cannot leave. what are the living conditioions lilike? david: i think what is important for r your viewers to understand is, up until now, whenever the

syrian govovernment forces toook over an area, people were evacuated to idlib. it is the e last opposition-held area available for people to flee to. there is no place else. this is the end of ththe road. that is why what is happening is so important and comes at such a critical time. it is bitter cold temperatures right now. we have people, women and children, shivering at night, fleeing for safety, not knowing where to go. the only way of describing it is as a crisis. the situation is going from bad to worse. anchor: a crisis within a crisis. david swanson, the human regional spokesperson for syria. thank you very much for that perspective. here is a check noww of some of the other stories making headlines around the world. thousands have taken to the streets of algeria, marking one year since the protest movement began. demonstrators have marched every

friday since last february. in that time, they forced president to resign, and have seen dozens of leading figures arrested. the protesters say they will not stop, because much of the ruling elite remains in place. china says more ththan 1700 medical staff are infected with the coronavirus, raising questions about how the country will continue battling the outbreak. the number of infections in china has jumped to more than 55,000. and the coronavirus is in africa, with egypt reporting its first case area u.s. attorney general william barr has taken a rare public swipe at president donald t trump. he told u.s. television that tweets were making his job impossible, after the president tweeted praise for his handling of a case involving a former advisor. trump tweeted thahat he has the legal right to interfere in criminal cases. teenage climate activist greta thurn bug -- greta thunberg has

praised young people for keeping up the protests, but her message for older generations was less friendly, accusing them of mouthing empty words and not taking the climate crisis seriously. she e was attetending a protestn her home country of sweden. police here in germany have detained 12 men, following a series of rapes targeting -- a series of raids targeting members of a far-right network accused of targeting politicians and asylum-seekers. reporter: investigators rated this house, as well as 12 o othr locations in sixix german state. the federal prosecutor's office has accused five men of forming a right-wing terrorist group. eight others are accused of providing them with support. friday afternoon, the federal prosecutor said they allegedly exchanged information in chat groups. >> they discussed killing a

politician or carrying out an attack on a mosque, but the plans were not concrete. he did not state names and locations where the attacks would be carried out. reporter: the interior minister of north rhine, westphalia said one of the men charged was a civil servant in his state. the man was immediately suspended. >> anyone who has anything to do with this should know that our intelligence agencies are on their trail. there is no where these people can feel safe -- not even on the internet. reporter: the 12 suspects are to be brought before a judge at germany's high court on saturday. the judge will then decide whether or not to issue arrest warrants. anchor: european football's governing body has banned english side manchester city from champions league competition for the next two seasons. that's because of "serious financial fairplay breaches." uefa said manchester city,

coached by pep guardiola, were found of having falsely inflated their sponsorship revenues. they also f fined man city 30 million euros. the club says they will appeal the decision. joining me in studio is max merrill, with the w sports. walk us through this. what did manchester city do wrong here? max: they fall afoul of financial fairplay rulings introduced by uefa back in 2011. they have not been completely enforced all the time, if you ask me. it is set up to prevent spending more than clubs are in. that is meant to secure long-term investment. we have seen a lot of billionaires invest in football clubs over the past decades. also it is designed to dampen player wage inflation, which we have seen quite a lot of. manchester city's owner is part of the abu dhabi ruling family,

and he has plowed literally billions into this club. one ththing you mentioned is thy falsified their sponsorship revenue. last year, "there spiegel -- " der spiegel" unveiled that a sponsorship deal with etiad airways -- actually, $57 million of that was being paid by shipments who are -- paid by sheik manzour or his company. anchor: this came out of the emails that have been leaked? max: city have been flouting these rules since the beginning. the losses they posted were 180 million in that period. they were fined at the time and had squad restrictions in european competitions, but it was a fairly lenient settlement.

this is a lot harsher. anchor: what surprises you more? that manchester city was caught -- this evidence out there in emails -- or that eu -- uefa and limited the rules in a strict way? max: it is surprising that uefa have acted the way they have. in many cases, they have been very hesitant, if we talk about race -- racism, tackling, financial fairplay regulations. they have been quite hesitant and have not really tended to go after the big clubs. that is a huge problem when you want to prevent these kind of things happening. in those leaked e-mails we have been talking about, one thing that came out as well was that the city chairman a few years ago had supposedly told the general secretary that he would rather spend $30 million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue over the next 10 years then

pay any fines. they paid their last fine, but said they would appeal this decision. anchor: any chances they will be successful? max: what they might be successful in doing is moving this decision further off. they will be banned from competition the next season and the following season. clubs like chelsea, barcelona, and real have gone to the court of arbitration in sport and have managed to move these decisions into the future. anchor: interesting stuff in the world of football. max merrill, dw sports, thank you. to a different kind of scandal now. the entire leadership of the french film academy has quit over a controversy involving disgraced filmmaker roman polanski. his newest film received several nominations for the academy's upcoming caesar -- cesar awards. the film maker fled the u.s. after pleading guilty to the statutory rate of a teenager in

the 1970's. >> roman polanski's film about alfred dreyfus, a jewish french officer unfairly accused of spying for germany in the 1890's, as been well-received by critics. it picked up the grand jury prize at last year's venice film festival and topped the french box office. but screenings in france were also met with widespread protests. the outrage intensified in january, and the cesar academy announced that the film led the nominations. the academy initially defended its actions, saying it could not be expected to take a moral stance. polansky fled the u.s. to avoid imprisonment after pleading guilty to the statutory rate --

rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1978. and a french actress alleged that polansky raped her in 1975, when she was 18, an activation he has denied. for the time being, the nominations for an officer and a spy remain in place. a new board will be selected after the awards ceremony, which takes place on february 28. anchor: today marks 15 years since youtube was born. the site was set up by three former colleagues at paypal to give people a chance to share clips online. a decade and a half and countless cat videos later, over 1.5 million monthly uses -- users. here is a look back at how it all began. >> here we are, one of the elephants.

something about these guys is that they have really, really long tasks, anththat icocool. anchor: the first video could scarcely have been simpler. during his trip to the zoo, the cofounder hadad no idea what his primitive creation would become. this to year later, he and his friends would be striking the deal of a lifetime. >> we just wanted to say thank you. today, we have exciting news for you. we have been acquired by google. reporter: for no less than $1.65 billioion. youtube itself has bececome the world's second most visited website. and it is not just three people it has made rich. they created a new brand of celebrity, with the most successful youtubers making in excess of $10 million a year.

over the past 15 years, youtube has become more than just videos, branching into music and subscription services in more than 70 languages. youtube his contribute in $15 billion a year in ad revenue to google alphabet. if you told the creators that would be the case back in the early days, they might have laughed. [laughter] anchor: in case you have not noticed, today is valentine's day. in thailand, more than 20 couples marked the occasion by gegetting marriried aboarar hotr balloons. hundndreds of people turnedd ouo watch the love birds receive marriage certificacates and then take to thehe skiess s newlywed. the weddings were part of the balloon love festival. if you fancy statarting your married life on a higigh, you shouldld know that organizers ae ping for more participants next year.

a reminder now. the top story at this third hour -- the munich security conference has opened with a warning from the german president. he told world leaders that a lack of unity in the west is fueling global insecurity. you are watching dw news. after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. we will be looking at antarctica and why global meat -- global leaders meeting in munich say the climate crisis is also a security crisis. stay tuned. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

twenty four correspondents around the world. ten pm here in the french capital headlines from around the world. in france the l leage sex tape foforce a key a ally of president matt corn out of the race to be the mayor of paris. private lives of french politicianss agagain in the spotlightt in mac phones polity in trouble. i swear i wh officials investigate the spread of coronavirus china's response to it. the travail i have a one thousand seven hundred health workers a fallen sick during the outbreak. when a stumble tribunal a quick office to ask me out on but terror i locations case came in the wake of turkey's cracked down after a failed to. fuel concerns