>> this is dw news. ending america's longest war. president biden says september 11 of thisear is the deadline for all u.s. troops to leave afghanistan. biden says the afghans have the responsibility to lead the country and the u.s. withdraw will be unconditional. it is not just the americans who are getting out. the nato head says the alliance will also withdraw its own troops beginning next month. also coming up, another

vaccination setback in south africa where use of the astrazeneca vaccine is already on hold. now the suspension of the johnson & johnson vaccine -- another huge blow to the country in its fight against covid-19. the tiny particles making a very big noise in the world of physics. scientist say what really matters the way they move could help explain the biggest event ever. i'm brent goff. to our viewers in the united states and all of you around the world, it is good to have you wear this. it is a date to end the longest war in u.s. history. president biden has announced all american forces will be withdrawn by september 11. speaking of the white house president biden said the troop

withdrawal will begin on may 1 and be completed before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack. he added the withdraw would be done safely and in full coordination with washington's allies. the move will mark the end of a 20 year conflict for the u.s., the longest in his history. president biden: we cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in afghanistan hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal, and expecting a different result. i'm now the fourth united states president to preside over american troop presence in afghanistan. two republicans, two democrats. i will not pass this responsibility onto a fifth. after consulting with our allies and partners, with our intelligence personnel in our diplomats, and our developing experts, with the congress and

the vice president as well as many others around the world, i concluded that it is time to end america's longest war. it is time for american troops to come home. brent: for more of what to pull in the asia advocacy director at -- human rights. he joins us from new york. what does all of this, this withdrawal, what does it mean for the people of afghanian? >> well, it's important to emphasize while a lot of mistakes have been made in the last 20 years, the united states and nato forces in afghistan have not been directly protecting the people of afghanistan. what they do is protect the government of afghanistan from military gains from the taliban. and they have not been dng at that wl over t last decade. what's going to happen, people fear is that the taliban will make further gains on the battlefield, and inhe areas they control, will implement

policies that are worse for afghans. that is the fear. but the concept that needs to be phasized he is tha it isn' just a withdrawal when an abstract. there are peace negotiations going on as soon as next week. and they were going to further negotiations initiated. it is important for the international community to focus on those issues, on the political issues. the military result, the military outcome of this is one matter, b the political outcome is another. i think it is important now, if you want to talk about protecting afghans, talk about the political negotiations going forward. brent: and what will that mean, especially for women in afghanistan? you know as well as we do that women have earned some veryard won gains in the past 20 years. there is fear they could be completely reversed once the americans and nato forces have

left. >> again, if you only look at it from military perspective and predicts that the taliban will make further gains, then absolutely yes, there will be negative, furthenegative impacts for women. there are already women living in taliban held areas that will be -- there will be more if the taliban made gains. that is why it is important for the international community to say to all the parties, to the taliban, to the republic of afghanistan, any other people involved in negotiations, we are not going to fund this government which continues to rely on that support unless there are guarantees foromen and girls. and that is how it is going to have to be done, because there is no military solution to this conflict. that has been made clear. it is now up to the people negotiating the future of afghanistan to figure out a way to protect women and girls. and the best way to do that for

the international community is to make a contingent for their continued support. brent: what you're saying as is it will be the power of the purse for western countries when it comes to ensuring that women's whites, for example, are protected once the military is gone? -- women's rights are protected once the military is gone? >> that is exact right. it is as simple as that. i do not think the european union and the united states and other countries are going to support a taliban dominated coalition government or future other government or any government that detracts, that declines when it ces to women and girls rights. so, that is the message that has to be made clear. but we also have to remember that we, no matter have to coinue pressing for humanitarian assistance and emergency assistance for this country, which is so dependent on outside assistance. we can't just decide that, because the taliban is now going

to be part of the political system, the world needs to walk away. that cannot be the solution. again, it is going to be a very complicated political set of negotiations. we don't take a pition as a human rights group but we kno that whatever happens women's and girls righ in all human rights have to be protected and the only way to do that is t make sure thatt's made clear to the parties they will knock at the support they need unless that happens. brent: john tipton with human rights watch. as always we appreciate your time and your insights tonight. thank you. nato secretary-general -- says alliance forces will also begin withdrawing from the country on may 1. alongside 3000 u.s. soldiers there are 7000 additional nato troops serving their. -- serving in afghanistan. >> we have been closely consulting on our presence in afghanistan over the last weeks and months.

in the light of the u.s. decision to withdrawal foreign and defense ministers, nato discussed the way for today. and decided that we will start the withdrawal of nato support mission forces by may 1. our draw down will be orderly, coordinated, and deliver. -- deliberate. we plan to complete the drawdown for all of our troops within a few months. any taliban attacks on our troops during this period will be met with a forceful response. brent: for more a way to go to our very own teri schultz at nato headquarters in brussels. good evening. shortly after president biden's speech today, we heard from the nato secretary-general that nato forces will also begin leaving the country. is this withdrawal, are we going to see coalition and u.s. troops leaving together in

tandem, is that how we should envision this? teri: yeah, brent, that is how it has to go, because basically, while there are many more non- american troops in afghanistan now, they are dependent on enablers, provided by the united states, infrastructure, air protection, alot of capabilities no other countries possess. basically nato forces other than the u.s. did not have choice but to leave when the americans left. brent: is there a sense that nato with the american saying it is time to leave and nato forces also leaving of a mission accomplished? teri: i'm not sure that is how people feel. we had secretary blinken and secretary austin flanking the nato secretary today and they were asking many question about how up until now there were three major conditions the taliban had to meet, and they

did not meet them. why all of a sudden do these conditions no longer matter? they simply said we have decided that a longer military presence by the international forces is not going to help the situation. and, while they maintain they will continue to support the afghan government, support civil society, support women's rights, there's going to be a lot fewer people there to keep an eye on this, along with not being able to protect the united nations and other bodies doing that work. brent: the u.s. president and his speech today also said that the u.s. nice to prepare for the challenges of the 21st century -- needs to prepare for the challenges of the 21st century and he mentioned china. was he speaking to nato there? nato is worried about an aggressive russia. should it be prepared to confront china? teri: confronting china on a military, in a military stance is a lot different than confronting china and other

ways. as you know, nato has in the last couple years started to really put china on the radar being a strategic competitor and possibly a threat in some ways. china has bought up a lot of really key real estate, should we say, ports, and airports and landing strips in europe and that is something that does worry nato. and something it will turn more attention to. pulling out of afghanistan, they simply believe they will now have the resources to put in places that may be a bigger threat and may still have a chance of winning. brent: teri schultz with the latest in brussels. we'll be talking with you when our coverage continues on "the day." thank you. let's take a look at the other stories making headlines around the world. the minnesota police officer who shot and killed unarmed black man daunte wright has been arrested. prosecutors plan to charge kimberly potter with second-degree manslaughter. she faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. the incident has prompted three nights of unrest near

minneapolis. south korea has condemned japan's plan to release treated ray directive water from the fukushima plant in two years time. seoul has asked officials to explore international litigation. tokyo says disposing of the water into the pacific ocean is safe and essential in order to decommission it. 20 children were killed in a fire at a primary school in the western african state of niger. numerous other children's were injured. most of them were still attending preschool. the fire destroyed several classrooms and blocked exits. its because is still unknown. authorities have launched an investigation. the roll out of the johnson & johnson vaccine has been paused in the u.s., europe and south africa after reports of rare blood clotting and a small number of people.

30 said they are halting the use of the shot while they investigate the case. -- authorities have said they are halting the use of the shot while they investigate the case. in february the country already stopped the use of the astrazeneca vaccine after it showed low efficacy against an aggressive viral variant. pfizer jabs are due to arrive in the country next month, and experts have warned of a looming third wave of infections. the situation in hospitals is spiraling out of control for patients and health care workers. we meet a doctor who' had enough of what she says are unsafe working conditions. >> this doctor is wary of vaccines. nine years ago when she was 21 she became ill with tuberculosis despite having been inoculated against it. before coronavirus vaccines reached south africa, she resigned from her post in a public hospital because she did not feel safe anymore. >> are still as dangerous as

they were when i contracted tb in 2012, you know? which i feel is a huge problem. a huge problem. it shows after all these years the lives of health workers -- >> a former colleague made this video of her. here she is wearing full personal protective equipment, but she says in the hospital where she worked it was either not available or inadequate. she worked in intensive care and as a midwife. she has been at home since she left at the end of the. even though she feels guilty about leaving, she believes she did the right thing. medical staff are badly needed. but her life has to come first. hundreds of doctors and nurses in south africa have already died from covid-19. >> i really felt as though i was working in a system that did not really care about my own life

and whether i was going to make it to tomorrow or not. especially seeing all the health workers dying, the tributes online. you can't help but think that that will be you next. >> those fears are justified. only a a few hundred thousand people and south africa have been vaccinated. there aren't enough doses to go around. at the current rate it would take 16 years to vaccinate the whole population. south africa would like to manufacture its own vaccines, but the patents are all registered overseas. >> the only way i would go back as if i'd be able to control my exposure to illnesses. if i am exposed to illnesses, make sure that i have the correct, effective ppe. >> she also needs to be vaccinated. but while she's no longer working as a doctor, she does not mind waiting. brent: here are some other developments in the pandemic.

pfizer will provide the european union with an extra 50 million doses in the second quarter of this year. on top of the 200 million already earmarked for the eu. denmark will stop using the astrazeneca vaccine completely because of its possible link to rare cases of blood clots. which could delay denmark's vaccination rollout by up to a month. south korea has reported its highest new infections in three months. experts are blaming increased travel, which they say shows public vigilance is falling. physicists are excited and they say this could be a major breakthrough in our understanding of the universe. it all has to do with the behavior of subatomic particles called muons. experience at a lab near the city of chicago have shown that muons move at a rate that is faster than expected, potentially unlocking the secrets of a previously undiscovered fifth force of nature. >> this could be the door to a

whole new world of physics. for years researchers have been using this rings made of magnus to accelerate the tiniest building blocks of matter called muons. they are almost as fast as the speed of light. that is how they can observe how they interact with other forces, and results shows that muons actually behave completely different to howurrent theory says they should. up until know something called the standard model explained all subatomic particles and their characteristics, such as charge, mass, and lifespan. but scientists have observed that the behavior of these muons suggest particles and forces exist ouide of ts theor everything that we can see in our universe, everything around us, can be explained by a few building blocks.

thelocks describe the standard model of particle physics. one group of these particles makes up matter. the others transfer force. this theory can explain three of these forces, but the fourth force, gravity, cannot be explained in this way. this is the force that keeps planets in their orbits. and that affects everything that has mass. when the universe was created by the big bang, these four forces combined. that's why the standard model can't explain what exactly happened at the beginning of time. the muons expiments could help uslug these fundamental gaps in our knowledge and help us solve mysteries that have been confusing astrophysicist for decades. but first, more exact

measurements and testing needs to be carried out to make sure the muons' unexplained behavior really can be attributed to unknown particles or forces. brent: the mystery of the muons. to talk about that i am joined by a research associate in the department physics and astronomy at the university of manchester in the u.k. it is good to have you on the program. how excited are you about this discovery? >> well, i think it's fair to say we are pusibly excited. we have taken a precise measurement of behavior of muons and done a calculation of what that behavior should be and we found they do not agree. there could be particles or forces contribute into the way the muon behaves with the rest of the universe. i say plausibly excited because we measure this for the first time about 20 years ago. and statistically, there's about

a one in 40,000 chance this is a fluke. the goal standard is 1.3 in that's the standard we want to set and as we go rward with experiments, we'll hopefully reach that. brent: we heard in the report this, could be proved plausible proof, that we could have an unknown force-out there or unknown particles. so, explain to the layman, what exactly does that mean? >> what it means is that, by comparing this precise measurement with this lculation, is that we have shown to extremely good there's something about the fundament structure of the uverse we really don't understa. andf that new measurement and the discrepancy between two would stand up and withstand the test of time, it will be proof there is something missing in the models or building blocks of what the universe is made of. this could be a new fce, like you said.

could be a new particle. but it will influence the universe and including muons. and that will define a new paradigm for how we look at what the universe is made of. brent: could it possibly help explain some of the biggest mysteries in the uverse? >> y ande there are several big mysteriess most physicis agree that our present and we cannot explain. the largest being we do not really kw what 95% of our universe is made of. we know that 70% is dark energy which is something we used to explain whether the universe is expanding and accelerating. there's also the other 25% is dark matter. we know that the dark matter has to be there because it influences astrophysical parts of the universe when we look at the stars. but we don't know what that dark matter is. they could be sure the result in muons-- experiment in chicago

be proved to be a new physics discovery, it could be that source of dark matter that as of yet we have not found. brent: let's say the numbers are in your favor and this discovery turns out to be real. are we going to have to rewrite the physics books? >> well, yes and no. i mean, the standard model described in the intro works very well and describes a lot of the universe around us, and we can do tests and show those to be correct. but it's true that if this result was to stand up, it will be something very fundamental about the structural universe, the structure of the universe we have not yet observed. and clearly there is something missing, given what we see when we look at the stars. but if we discor a new force or new particle it will open up a new area in attemptinto understand what constitutes the matter all around us. brent: alex -- helping us understand the mystery of the muons. it's fascinating.

thank you. bernie made off, the infamous architect of a ponzi scheme that burned thousands of investors, outfoxed regulators and earned him a 150 prison term died behind bars earlier on wednesday. the former chairman of the nasdaq stock exchange reportedly died of natural causes. he had been suffering from chronic kidney failure and several other medical ailments for years. here's a look back at one of the biggest -- wolves and con artists of wall street. >> bernard madoff was so disliked that he had to wear a bullet-proof vest a court. the man behind the largest known ponzi scheme in history wiped out people's fortunes, ruined charities, and foundations. he defrauded thousands, including a host of big-name movie stars and even the new york mets baseball team. for decades, madoff enjoyed an

image of a self-made financial guru whose golden touch defied market. operating out of these offices, he attracted a devoted following of investment clients who trusted him completely. he was brilliant at convincing people his schemes are safe. >> these regulatory environment -- today's wrigley tour environment, it is virtually impossible to violateules. and this is mething the public does not understand. you read things inhe newspaper d you see somebody venting the rule, you say they are -- bending the rule, they know they are doing this. it is impossible to go in for a violation undetected. not for considerable period. >> those words eventually caught up with him. his investment advisory business was exposed as a fraud in 2008. in march 2009, he pled guilty and was convicted on 11 counts for crimes that spanned 20

years. madoff was forced to leave his $7 million manhattan penthouse apartment and was taken to prison to serve 150 years behind bars. madoff died at the federal medical center in north carolina. he was 82 years old. brent: two years after the fire at the notre dame cathedral in paris, the blaze is set to be the subject of a documentary series and a big-budget drama. an oscar-winning director, the man who brought us "the name of the rose." will tell the story of the 24 hours in which the disaster unfolded. >> a group of tourists rushing out of the cathedral. the scene is not in the french capital but in north-central france, 120 kilometers from paris. french filmmakers are making a new feature film about the fire at notre dame in paris using

this cathedral is one of the set. the film due to release in 2022 will comp-- combined file footage with active scenes. >> i said to myself, it incredibly spectacular, touching the depths of the soul. and there is a symbol that is disappeang with the whole world cyring. three days later i was writing. inside the cathedral, 120 extras and actors wait for instructions. be careful, the camels will be close to your faces. -- the cameras will be close to your faces. no one is smiling. they are re-creating the last moments of the cathedral two years ago before the fire started in the alarms went off. as for the filming location, the cathedral, built in 1130, was inspired by notre dame. the fire i being reenacted in a studio near paris.

brent: here's a reminder of the top story we are following for you. u.s. president joe biden has confirmed the united states will leave afghanistan on september 11 this year after two decades of war biden says only the afghans have the responsibility to lead their country. the nato head says the allies will match the withdrawal at the same time. you're watching dw news. after a short break, i will be back to take you through "the day." complete coverage of the countdown to end america's longest war. we'll be right back.

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>> joe biden confirms the u.s. troop pullout from afghanistan starting may 1, to be completed by september 11 at latest, the 2010 anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack that led to the start of the war. bernie made off-- madoff dies in prison at the age of 82. the man whose name came to mean ponzi scheme was serving time for swindling thousands of people out of millions of dollars. and the latest in france on the covid pand