Rising rapidly. Germanys top scientific advisor warning the code infection rate here is still too high as the daily number of new cases remains above 20,000. And European Union countries awaiting millions of euros in Emergency Funding to help write the coronavirus pandemic, that hungary and poland are blocking the moneys release in a row over who respect the rule of law. Brent our viewers and 12 you around the world, welcome, u. S. Secretary of state mike pompeo is in the middle east on eight trip that is breaking with established u. S. Foreign policy. For starters, he became the first u. S. Secretary of state to visit a jewish settlement in the occupied west bank today, and occupation still not recognized by much of the international community. Later in the day he stopped in the is really held go run heights, it is good area that israel annexed back in 1967. Syria has condemned todays visit calling it a provocative act. It is a first for israeli American Relations and a parting gift from americas outgoing top diplomat. Mike pompeos visit to the Golan Heights making makes him the first u. S. Secretary of state to visit the territory since israel seized the region. The u. N. May have rejected the annexation, but for pompeo and the Trump Administration, this is is really land israeli land. You cannot stare out at what is across the border and deny the central thing that President Trump recognized that pres ash previous president s have refused to do, that this is a central part of israel. And another unprecedented move, he made a stop to a settlement in the west bank, angering some palestinians who say it legitimizes what they view as illegal israeli sediments. Pompeo had no scheduled meetings with leaders. Some have called the trip a victory lap of sorts, a chance for the administration to highlight what it sees as a devil medic success in the region including taking steps to legitize isrlis settlements. For the long time the state Department Took the wrong view of settlements, it did not recognize the history of this special place and instead today, the United States department of state stands strongly in the recognition of settlements that can be done in a way that are lawful and appropriate and proper. A stance the puts the u. S. At odds with Many International bodies and that could prove to be a stumbling block for incoming president elect joe biden. Brent lets bring in our correspondent now, good evening, talk to me about how controversial this trip to the Golan Heights was. It was label here as a tool for the outgoing secretary of state mike pompeo, but a very controversial one with a lot of stopovers, a lot of firsts as we also heard in the report. He went earlier this afternoon to the Golan Heights and that is an arena where the Trump Administration reversed longstanding u. S. Foreign policy by recognizing israels serenity serenity over the occupied heights. Earlier on he went as you saw in the report to the camp where he visited a winery which had released a wine last year named after pompeo. He made any surprising on unspent of a new u. S. Policy that allows basically products from settlements in the occupied waste west bank to be labeled main in israel and that is a very controversial move. It is also inline that the Trump Administration last year said they are no longer seeing settlements as illegal per se. Of course for palestinians, this was provocative, but they are also they also have the sense this is the Trump Administration which leaves the question, what impact this all has announcing this new u. S. Policy. It will set a precedent and is blurring the lines for this international law. Brent so much of this policy has been built on the close relationship that is really Prime Minister netanyahu is really Prime Minister hat netanyahu has withdrawn, what is the feeling that he has with joe biden . I think you have to see it from different levels, the president elect joe biden is well known in israel. He has described himself as a friend of israel, he has said he is known nearly every Prime Minister since the early 90s 1970s. He also knowns knows the current Prime Minister very well, but it will not be the same kind of relationship we have seen over the past four years between netanyahu and donald trump. The main concern in israel is how will the Foreign Policy look like after the incoming joe biden administration. What will they reverse . The main thing theyre looking at is the nuclear deal, the Trump Administration withdrew from it in 2018, but also pertaining from issues of the israelipalestinian conflict in which the Trump Administration recognized through slim as the capital of israel. Jerusha jerusalem as the capital of israel. And also how important the region will be for the incoming biden administration. Brent joe biden will have to deal with for years of trump legacy, that is for sure. Thank you. Lets have a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world, a new report finds that members of australias special forces unlawfully killed 39 afghanistans and prisoners, the internal investigation heard evidence of summary executions in afghanistan during initiation rituals, the chief of the Australian Defense force has apologized. In uganda, at least 16 people have been killed and 350 arrested in three days of operations by security forces. Authorities are trying to end riots spawned by the arrest of a president ial candidate. The popstar turned lawmaker is seen as the leading challenger to the current president in january selection januarys election. Human rights mitors s they are dangerous and degrading. It is also concerned over allegations in greece illegally pushes back migrants coming in from turkey. Donald trumps attorney, Rudy Giuliani has described recounts of Election Results as useless claiming the u. S. Voting system has been compromised by a widespread fraud. The state of georgia is finalizing its recount which is likely to have uphold Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of this previously republican stronghold state. Trumps legal team has filed multiple lawsuits in several states disputing the Election Results, allegations of voter fraud are so far unproven. For more lets go to our correspondent in washington, good evening to you. Rudy giuliani has just held a press conference, what did we learn about team trumps plans . It is one thing to claim voter fraud as a at a press conference as we have seen with Rudy Giuliani or by email or twitter as we have seen from donald trump and it is another thing to claim that in court and be successful because what we have learned is they have not produced any substantial evidence. It is not clear what they want, especially because Officials Say time and time again they are not able to change the outcome of the election in spite of that, only few republicans are currently opposing donald trump and their strategy they are following right now. Mitt romney is one of them and that is a situation likely to continue until january 5 at least because that is when the Senate Runoff in georgia takes place. An important race for both democrats and republicans, but the republicans are obviously trying to win the senate and to be able to push forward with an obstruction policy and a block joe bidens policies as he takes office. Brent georgia is a crucial state right now, i want us to listen to what Rudy Giuliani just had to say about the recount going on in georgia. For example the recount in georgia will tell us nothing. These fraudulent ballots will just be canted again because they will not supply the signatures to match. So it Means Nothing to have counted these ballots. Brent if it Means Nothing, then what does he want, a new election . Is this strategy going to work . It is very unlikely because the recount of that took place there went better for donald trump than expected, but still joe biden is in the lead with more than 10,000 votes and the georgia secretary of state was in charge of the election there said that small errors are normal and there is no evidence for widespread voter fraud. What the trump team does here is take legal action, they are unlikely to succeed, but they are creating a narrative and that works very well and that is that the election is stolen and his followers to believe that. That is a problem for the biden presidency that is likely to follow because you will have a certain amount of American Voters who will think that joe biden is not the legitimate president. Brent i think the latest poll shows 70 of republicans think that at the moment. Thank you. They look like flowers, but they actually are little white flags, each of which represents a u. S. Citizen who has died from covid19. The u. S. Covid death toll has now taught a quarter of a million, the highest in the world. The installation designed by the visual artist Suzanne Brennan is located in a park in washington dc and is dedicated to people who died in the pandemic. Many state governors and mayors are prepared to impose stricter measures before next weeks thanksgiving holiday, but with infections soaring to new highs, there is little relief for those hardpressed Health Care Workers. Another day on the front line, doctors and nurses are doing all they can to help the growing number of covid19 patients, but the death toll keeps rising. 250,000 americans lost to the pandemic, that exceeds predictions by the countrys top epidemiologists and experts say hundreds of thousands more could die in the coming months. Workers are pleading with people to take the virus seriously. We are understaffed, we have so much on our plates as nurses, there is not enough of us to help. We have i think they said it 10 covid units and one of those is just a place for people to go and pass away, unfortunately. Please take it seriously, wear your mask, and i hope i dont see you here. As a pandemic sweeps the u. S. , the midwest has become the latest hotspot did the dakotas and neighboring states have some of the highest per capita death tolls, but every state in the contiguous u. S. Is seeing rising numbers. Some are blaming the lack of a national strategy, cities and states have their own response plans. In new york city, schools closed again on wednesday just eight weeks after reopening. California is considering a curfew, other places have introduced mask mandates. President elect joe biden has called for a strong federal response and he has warned even more people could die if President Trump continues to rese to share cruciall information. On wednesday, biden held a Virtual Meeting with frontline workers who told him about chronic shortages they still suffer under. I myself have held the hand of dying patients who are crying out for their family that they cannot see. We nurses know that we are facing immense death and suffering in the coming weeks and we will be there, but we need to act now. I am sorry i am so emotional. Now, you got me emotional. In many places, the morgues are filling up again. In texas, prisoners are helping move the deceased to refrigerator tracks. It is a bleak milestone and even with hopes of a vaccine, the disarray and hurt is far from over. Brent it is dire on this side of the atlantic as well, the disc Disease Control institute warned that the National Rate of infections remains too high. More than 22 thousand new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours. There are signs that restrictions could be working as the numbers begin to plateau. The head of the robert kok institute says despite all that, the incident the situation remains serious. The case numbers are much too high, the number of severe cases and number of patients in intensive care are also on the rise. The number of deaths is also very high, as we know, this is a lag in severe cases and deaths. Brent and as infection numbers here in germany increased, hospitals are having to handle more and more critically ill covid19 patients. Germanys parliament. She has been working for 18 years, but she has another job, too. When the coronavirus pandemic hit germany, she volunteered to work parttime as in intensive care nurse in a hospital. She just finished a nine hour shift taking care of covid patients, now she has come back into the office to finish off some work for her fulltime job. I cannot stayathome with a clear conscience if my colleagues are slaving away in the icu. I have the training and can help, so i help, so i hope. There is no question about it. German hospitals are in dire need of help, intensive care units are stretched thin. He is chief nurse of the one of Largest Research hospitals. She is per problem on the pulse of the problem they are facing. We have enough ventilators, enough beds, enough masks and gowns and gloves. We are worried that all the beds cannot be used because we do not have enough personnel. To deal with this, they have launched a campaign to rehire a former Health Care Workers like susanna. She trained to be a nurse over 25 years ago, but deced to ve into a different profession. In this all hands on deck situation, it is people like her that are needed now. The icus are running at full capacity, if one person is tan care of, three or four covid patients, that is rough. You have very little time. After work, i leave the hospital with a sad feeling because i could not give the patients the attention they deserve. Despite rising to run the numbers, Germanys Health care system has not crashed yet. Hospitals were already understaffed, and the workload was too high before the pandemic. Despite all the problems, susanna has rediscovered her passion for nursing care. She could even imagine quitting her job. For that, she says, hospital working conditions would need to improve. Brent heres a look at some of the other developments in the pandemic, africa now has more than 2 million confirmed cases. Officials are warning of an impending second surge. Japan has set a record daily high of more than 2000 infections, the Prime Minister has urged maximum caution that stopped short of calling for new restrictions. China says nearly one million essential workers have been given doses of an experimental vaccine, no serious Adverse Reactions have been reported. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world, the crew of the International Space station have given a Media Briefing from the weightlessness of space, their first public interview since they were joined by four astronauts brought there by a spacex rocket. That was the first time crewmembers were carried to the station by a privately funded spacecraft. Bmw is to stop making petrol and diesel powered cars at its main plant in munich, germany. The maker planning to invest 400 Million Euros to shift production to electric vehicles and powertrains in the year 2026. Bmw will continue reducing producing combustion engines. The opinion has announced plans to increase its offshore wind capacity by five fold. Renewable sources like wind and solar provide around one third of the eus power, but europe is aiming to double that by the year 2030 and become climate co2 neutral by the 2050. European Union Countries are waiting for a 750 billion Emergency Fund to help them get through this pandemic, but a diplomatic row has installed of the relief effort. Leaders have been trying to resolve the dispute. Hungary and poland object to a rule of law mechanism which would allow the eu to withhold funds from Member States which violate democratic norms. Something both of these countries have been accused of doing. As the politicians negotiated, europes Health Care Workers face the full force of the coronavirus is second wave coronavirussecond wave. This roof room is providing comfort. The second wave is hitting italy just as hard as the first and the economic consequences are rough. Italy along with many other eu states is anxiously awaiting a multimillion euro finance packets to help ease the crisis. The funds are blocked, hungary and poland reject conditions. We say no to all mechanisms that are designed to punish us and which treat poland and other countries unequally. On the table is the eu budget of 1. 8 trillion euros for the next several years including 750 billion euros of coronavirus aid. Payment of the recovery funds is blocked in cases of corruption or violation of the rule of law. That is what hungary and poland want to prevent, they along with lavinia oppose the other eu members there are many other Member States who are not willing to make major compromises on the rule of law. The leaders are trying to find a middle ground, but given these entrenched positions, it is clear the pandemic is not the only crisis in europe needs to solve. Brent the money and the virus, lets cross over to our correspondent in brussels following this summit for us. This seems to be the big elephant in the room. What will it mean if the budget and this recovery package if they cannot be unlocked . It is bad particularly r the southern European Countries like italy as we just saw because they have been hard hit economically. Italy had hoped that with the beginning of the new year they could quickly get access to funds in order to alleviate the problems they have and help their economy. This is not going to happen quickly, european leaders are struggling. They talked about 30 minutes at their Virtual Summit tonighand then had to give up because Angela Merkel told of the three opposing countries, slovenia has added itself to the list, and we need a solution, this needs to be done, the consent needs to be given. As we know, a zoom conference does not lend itself to yell at each other or to strike a quiet back room deal, no solution could be found. They have three weeks to meet again in december when they come in person to brussels for a real summit, and tell them they have to have something figured out because this is a pretty big disaster. Brent a disaster made worse by zoom, is there any way the European Union can bypass the veto by hungary and poland . They can, and the first thing they are going to try is to have some declaration added to this rule of law mechanism where they promise the country the countries promise that everyone will be treated equally. That is what they have been saying that they were singled out here and the other countries are saying no, everybody has to stick to the same rules and we know that those two countries in particular do not do that and do not want to do that. This is a very obvious attack against the basics of the European Union. If that does not work and there is no climbdown by those two governments, than the other possibility is that today figure out some sort of intergovernmental contract between the remaining 24, they raise the money on the financial markets, they figure this out illegally. It can be done, it is a bit complicated but it can be done in the end and that is what diplomats here call the Nuclear Option because it really would deepen the rift that we have already been observing for quite a while now between Eastern Europe and the rest of the European Union. Brent thank you. Before we go, the pandemic is not just affecting humans, the lives of lots of animals are also being disrupted particularly those in captivity, i want you to meet ray, a sixyearold african penguin, she lives in californias Monterey Bay Aquarium but is closed at the moment because of the pandemic so she has taken to exploring her home as she waddles around following the staff and just like the zoos human visitors, she has discovered there is lots to see. Some species even look good enough to eat. She is clearly taking plenty of exercise, hard work for a member of one of the worlds smallest penguinpecies cute, as well. Here is a reminder of the top story we are following for your, u. S. Secretary of state mont mike pompeo visited the Golan Heights disputed territory that israel annexed in 1967. Earlier in the day he became the first top american diplomat to visit an israeli settlement in the occupied west bank. You are watching dw news, after a short break i will be back to take you through the day, stick around. Host you are watching france 24 live in paris. Here are the top headlines. Praise and outrage. The u. S. Secretary of state makes a controversial visit to the west bank. It is a first for a u. S. Secretary of state. Hoping for a deal, the 27 members of the European Union meet on videoconference, trying to hammer out agreement on a 1. 8 trillion euro proj
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