A president ial election next year. There have been mass protests across the country since the impeachment of a popular former president. My team to scatter Central America is reeling after being battered by a hurricane. For the 2nd time in less than 2 weeks. Some 40000 people in nicaragua have been evacuated into shelters. Iow, it made landfall in the northeast of the country with winds of more than 260 kilometers per hour. Iota comes to shortly after the region was hit by hurricane. This is d. W. News from berlin and follow us on twitter and instagram at news, or visit our website dot com for a long, long war. The corona virus is spreading like never before in the, u. S. And here in europe hospitalizations in france and america. Patients with coke at 19 are at a record high despite promising vaccines. The short term future looks grim and deadly unless radical steps are taken. Now. Today, austria begin a nationwide lockdown for almost 3 weeks. Practically, everyone will do just 2 things. Stay home and then be tested for the virus. Im bringing off in berlin. This is the day were going through challenging times that we have a terrorist attack and leave high ground a virus infection, right . That, that is just because 3, unfortunately has the highest infection rates in europe at the moment, 500 cases term, 100 patent inhabitants. So we decided to act decisively and implemented short, but sharp 2nd drug demand for 2 and a hot weeks straight. I think it makes sense because we dont know how the situation will develop if we do nothing naturally proceeds. Also coming up in his new memoir, a promise to land, a former u. S. President barack obama opens up about his relationships with other leaders, such as german chancellor Angela Merkel and his friendship with president elect joe biden. I was thrilled to see its become a brother, a genuinely good friend. Tom was one of my earliest supporters when i 1st launched my presidency. So i am personally invested in them. I think this gives us a chance to get back to the competent, caring government that we so badly need and to our viewers on p. B. S. In the United States and to all of you around the world. Welcome. We begin the day with austrias new strategy to squash the coronavirus and to salvage christmas. Today, the country began its 2nd nationwide lockdown after a partial lockdown proved unsuccessful. In reducing the number of new infections for almost 3 weeks, people will only leave their homes if their jobs are deemed essential or if they need to exercise, buy groceries or buy medicine. Thats it. For as much as it is strict austrias lockdown is also ambitious. It is supposed to slow the spread of the virus significantly and be followed by a Mass Testing Program. The goal to test everyone, all 8800000. 00 people in the country. So much of austrias lock down depends on public cooperation, and that is true everywhere when everyone is not on board. The consequences are the tragic scenes now playing out in the United States, the austrian Prime Minister has issued one urgent request to his nation. Dont meet anyone. Viennas commercial district was full of people on monday night. Locals want to shop before the lockdown since only Grocery Stores and pharmacies can remain open during the next 3 weeks. Home. Goods and electronic come show it does that is what im looking for. Everything that i need, i dont know how long the lockdown will last, supposedly until december 6th, apart from shops and restaurants, schools and Daycare Centers are also closed from tuesday. But here in vienna, many establishments offer childcare for kids with working parents or those who cant take part in online classes at home. She was with me the whole time during the 1st lockdown. Sometimes i had to have a zoom conference and she was around the entire time. Shes an only child and she doesnt have anyone else our busiest. And since you have there are exceptions to the current curfew. People who must work in person, visit a doctor or buy groceries mainly, their homes going for walks and exercising outdoors, has permitted but only with social distancing. And there might be more signs of life outside than there once during this springs lockdown. Because this time, playgrounds and parks are staying open or partial walk, the walk to steroids. You could say when you look out your window and you can you tell the difference . I certainly cant today, things are very tranquil when the lockdown came into effect. Things did shut right down and the contrast to yesterday was amazing because the lock them was announced on saturday. So everybody got ready for monday and stormed the stores. There were lines out the door. Everybody wearing face masks, so it immediately became apparent why the lockdown was necessary. Markdowns work are not popular, but its what it was required when people were left to their own devices, the infection rates were off the charts. And were still seeing the effects of that nearly 6000. 00 infections just over the past 24 hours. Intensive intensive Treatment Centers and hospitals are in danger of being overrun. I think austria only has about 522. 00 beds left. Switzerland hit capacity today. It needs to be stopped. The government plans to also test the entire population. When this lockdown is finished, talk to me a little bit about the logistics here. I mean, this sounds like a job for the military. If austria were to follow the slovakian model, it would indeed require the military testing more than 8000000. People would be a monumental task. But chancellor, the boston court is going to convene a meeting of experts tomorrow morning at the chancellor. And even ahead of that meeting, whats now coming out is that what is more likely is that some sort of targeted testing will be pursued. What they didnt, slovakia was they use these antigen tests which are not very accurate. And theyre not really meant to test populations where youre going to have a lot of people testing negative. Its good to prove that people were positive, but it doesnt accomplish what you need to accomplish to find out where you have clusters and why they built. The big mystery in austria is why the in infections started to increase the rapidly in some areas. So this Mass Testing Program will be clarified after this big meeting tomorrow, whether austria pursues a slovakian model is yet to be seen, but probably not likely. Ok, correspondent steve shade with the latest tonight from vienna. Steve, as always, thank you. Are going to stay in austria now id like to welcome biologist Norbert Novotny to the program. Dr. To me, its good to have you with us that the partial walk down did not bring down the number of new infections in your medical opinion. If this total walked down for the next 2 and a half 3 weeks, is that the right solution . Theres a vote, but even inch. While these polls are locked down for almost 2 weeks now, at least not hold new infections and we see some decline in, you know, the last 2 days. So im pretty sure that a complete lockdown. Its hard to lock down during the upcoming 20 days. If youre burkes at the hall in other places like that or the netherlands, belgium, republic, there are a number of other countries which successfully hardtalk alberta successfully. And as we heard, thats not necessary, but i think theyll manage regarding most of it all capacity public embedded in the i. C. U. What about after the lockdown . We understand that austria wants to test the entire population for the virus. Do you know . Maybe you could explain to us, will these tests before the presence of antibodies or will these tests before the actual presence of the virus . You know, i think the idea is in the last few days to test for vitals. In order to find the pill infected in order to say, you know, theres 2 weeks before christmas for shopping at that. Gotten off with, you know, an awful lot of police during that time. Although i think you have probably been the population. As you said before, i am more thing targeted to certain groups of people, for example, because one is definitely down and to the denver and on the 7th open and spangles into schools. Open a school for people aged 14 to 18 and testing that he just didnt make sense and some other talk to no burden of off the joining us tonight from austria, dr. We appreciate your time in your insights tonight. Thank you both on come on. I have a good night i was thrilled, hes become a brother, a genuinely good friend. Calm was one of my earliest supporters when i 1st launched my presidency. So im personally invested in them. I think this gives us a chance. Get back to the kind of competent, caring government that we so badly need. And every president has been held to a different standard relative to this president. I think donald trump breached so many norms. So made a basic assumptions about what a president should or should not do that you cant come up with a comparable set of behaviors in the past. Those kinds of things, which in some ways we became numb to over the last several years. I think that its the stuff that can be fixed and joe and comma will set a different tone. We are now seeing in the middle of a pandemic, the consequences of not having a Good Public Health infrastructure. Because no matter how good your Health Insurance is, if everybody around you is getting sick, then youre at risk as well. And that was former us president barack obama talking about americas Coronavirus Crisis and the president and Vice President elect. And he says, will rescue the country. Obama is talking a lot this week to kick off the publication of his new memoir entitled a promised land. The book with more than a 1000 pages covers the years 2009 through 2011 includes key moments during his tenure, such as the arab spring uprisings in the arab world. And the fallout from the 2008 Global Financial crisis. It features many leaders who are still in office today, switches on the america. Heres a taste of what obama writes about. The german chancellor. The more ive gotten to know uncle america, the more ive come to like her, ive found her steady, honest, intellectually rigorous and instinctually kind. But she was also conservative by temperament. Not to mention a savvy politician who knew her constituency. And whenever i suggested to word that germany needed to set an example by spending more on infrastructure or tax cuts, she politely but firmly pushed back yob iraq. I think maybe thats not the best approach for us. She would say her face pulling into a slight frown as if id suggested something a little told it is rare to read such a candid and well written account of a european leader by a former us president. To take advantage of this tonight, weve invited jeff rocca, president of the American Institute for contemporary german studies at Johns Hopkins in washington, d. C. Jeff has worked in the u. S. State department, the white house, and here in berlin at the u. S. Embassy, geoff, its good to have you on the program tonight. I hope youve had a chance to glance at the passages about the german chancellor. What surprised you most in obamas description of her and of their relationship . Well, thanks for having me on brant. I think what you see in that passage is the complexity of the american obama relationship. It, you know, we think about when barack Obama Left Office and the warm close relationship that they exhibited. But it didnt start out that way. You know, it started off with barack obama having campaigned in berlin during the 2008 president ial election, which merkel was not very enthusiastic about. And it also started off with very strong differences of opinion between the United States and germany, about the fiscal stimulus that came after the financial crisis of 2008200918, few other issues as well. So what you see here is that it took some time for the, you know, intellectually strong and very distinct personalities to find their working relationship and to make it a productive one. You know, we know that by the end of his tenure, we can say that obama was even in chanted by the german chancellor. He was not in chanted by the french president sarkozy. This is what he writes about him. What sarkozy lacked in ideological consistency. He made up for in boldness, charm and manic energy. Indeed, conversations with sarkozy or by turns amusing and exasperating his hands in perpetual motion. His chest thrust out like a bantam cox. His primary barely disguised interest was to be at the center of the action and take credit for whatever it was that might be worth taking credit for. As much as i appreciated the fact that sort cozy had embrace my Campaign Early on. It wasnt hard to tell which of the 2 european leaders would prove to be the more reliable partner. And jeff obama is calling the french president there a fair weather friend. Thats not the nicest compliment you can give someone. Can you tell us . Is that how the state department viewed sarkozy at the time . Well, i dont think we would look at it that way. I think, you know, like many other french president s. And indeed, if you look at the french diplomatic tradition in france is interested in action. And in shaping the environment around them, and their sarkozy is not any different from his predecessors. Or you might also say from emanuel macro today. And i think the, in my experience as a diplomat, the, you know, you have this balance in europe. On the one hand, you have often ambitious french leaders who are trying to get something done to make something happen. And you have a certain caution and circumspect approach by, by germans who either are worried about footing the bill or perhaps there are concerned about how theyre very different Public Opinion will accept the idea of ambitious action in which germany is a part so. So i think for an american leader like obama, you need to have a bit of both. You need to have someone likes our cozy. Who wants to see things happen and who wants to be part of it. But you also need someone like on america who is able to take a long view and can have a sustainable policy that is going to, you know, see that she can stick to for a long longer period. You mention policy obama also did against part of his book to the euro crisis, and he, hes not calling to germany and france when he describes their treatment of greece. This is what he writes as the debate about greece, heated up public discussions inside some of the original e. C. U. Countries would sometimes veer beyond disapproval of the greek governments policies and venture into a broader indictment of the greek people. Or as i dove, or here one e. U. Official of undetermined origin. Tell another, well i was washing my hands in a g. 8 summit lavatory. Theyd dont think that we dont think that they like us. I notice that they merkel and sarkozy rarely mention that german and french banks were some of greeces biggest lenders, or that much of the greeks accumulated debt had been racked up by buying german and french exports. Facts that might have made clear to voters why saving the greeks from default amounted to saving their own banks and industries. Thats rather scathing, and i would say your average observer would not have picked up on obamas disapproval of the german and french approach. Would you agree with that . Well, over time there have been disagreements, and the one that youve just described is a good example. But there have been, there have been others. And obama, early in his presidency, was concerned about, you know, we dont remember it much now, but about the trade deficit and about germanys export driven economic model. So this is, and this is a consistent theme of that the more progressively oriented Obama Administration at times took a very different view of the International Economic priorities and is especially the recovery plans that would be most effective if you think to take into consideration the financial crisis that marked the start of obamas term that he inherited from president bush and then what, what we saw even more starkly during the eurozone crisis, a few years after that. So i think that, you know, this is, you know, the difference if we compared to the last 3 or 4 years, is that the german american and the European American relationship in those times was embedded in a larger, shared purpose. And a fundamental understanding that we were hoping to go in the same direction even if we chose different paths. And thats why you could have disagreements about specifics. But without it calling the fundamentals of the relationship into question. Are i just right, the president of the American Institute for contemporary german studies . Jeff, its great to have you on the show tonight. We appreciate your insights as well. Thank you for real pleasure. Thanks. It was one of the biggest jewel heist in germany. The green vote breakin in the city of dresden one year ago. Now theres been a breakthrough. In the case. Police have arrested 3 suspects in a massive operation here in berlin. But they say they have not found any trace of the 1000000000 euros worth of precious gems. That were still it was the pride of dressed in its green vault, 18th century jewelry of immeasurable worth. Items that once were worn by german kings and queens us. But since a smash and grab burglary a year ago, it has been no trace of them. But there could be of the thieves in berlin, more than 1600. 00 officers from around the country, raided several apartments, taking laptops, potential evidence, and arresting 3 suspects for 2 of the arrested suspects. The judge in charge has issued an arrest warrant the 3rd suspect, who will still be brought before the judge. The Prosecutors Office in reston expects an arrest warrant there as well. The police have also launched an International Search for 2 additional suspects. All of them have been identified as german citizens who belong to the socalled criminal clan, seen organized Crime Networks whose members are mainly of middle eastern origin. Geminis capital bolen has become a stronghold for them in recent years. And the challenge for police in prosecuting this the jury heist is the 2nd high profile robbery in germany. In 2017, a 100 kilogram gold coin was stolen from a berlin museum. The theft to the same criminal clan that is now in the focus of investigations around, dressed in green belt and my colleagues gone from d. W. Arts and culture is here to talk about this. I mean, really, this heist itself was spectacular. Oh yes, it is a like something out of a movie. I mean, this is almost exactly a year ago, november of last year, early in the morning in dresden. And what the thieves did is 1st, they set fire to an electricity junction point, so that the power be cut off on the block so that those street lights were out. And they went to ground floor of this museum, tore the bars off a window ground floor window went through with an axe straight to a display case of the jury. Smash that, grabbed the jewels and got out there within 5 minutes. It was too late. Theyre already gone. Their getaway car was found later not far from, from, from the site burned out. And they took jewels with them that are worth what . A 1000000000 1000000000 euros is the, is the guesstimate that they, that they put out there. But really, i mean, to talk about these, this is this, this, this treasury, this is from the strong 18th century saxon leader. This treasury is the equivalent of the British Crown jewels. I mean, its the prices, the, the, the cultural value, the, the financial value is priceless. And thats why its been so important the police to try and catch these people and to try if they can to find these jewels because they cant be replaced. Theres no way that this is not the 1st big Museum Robbery that weve seen in germany. And police are telling us that there is a connection maybe to previous ones. Yes. Seems a direct connection because one of the people who was arrested today for the green belt robbery has already been convicted of another robbery that happened in 2007. Those one was mentioned in the piece, this huge gold coin that was stolen from another germ. You see him 300 kilograms coin worth of print problem across the 4000000. 00. That was, the police think was, was taken down and then sold off one of the people who was arrested for that. He was sentenced in february, but he was out on bail pending appeal. And he was then picked up this morning and that is the fear here is that once these jewels are stolen, they will never be seen again. Yeah, i mean, this is, people said last year when the robbery happened, our experts said these pieces are so famous. They couldnt be sold legally, they probably would be sold illegally. The fear is that they were the pieces were just broken down, maybe cut, cut and then and then and sold off. There are some small hope that maybe some havent been, they could be recovered. But those those hopes seem to be getting smaller by the day since they were there was always got thank you. Well, the day is almost done, but the conversation continues online. Youll find us on twitter either at u. W. News or you can follow me at brant galts t. V. And remember whatever happens between now and then, tomorrow is another day will see of the never, but theyre constantly growing. Living costs are rising, theyre becoming more densely feeling. And now cities are pulsing to the beat of corona. Theyve become breeding grounds for the virus. Is it the end of drones . Beginning, city planning in the flux made in germany next, hunted by a Law Enforcement and forgotten by society. Discarded children on the streets of the philippines, searching for home. But what they find is persecution and prison, and violence in the us Homeless Children who are fighting for survival every single day. 45 w. Sleep carefully choose to do discover subscribe to documentary, to get a book that just when things were looking up, everything shot down again. The 1st lockdown was a nice chance to take a bit of a break for us lucky ones. And if you managed to remain untouched by the by