a storm. the mass offices in our mattie and the state of emergencies, declare those protests, to play across the former soviet republic. also on the program, united states cops, a 1000000 new corona, virus infections in a day. the president biden makes another appeal. please, please. it's actually now a certain cases raised concerns over disruptions to public life, but the president says they'll be convent poses the biggest threat to the unvaccinated plus outrage in australia after tennis don't know, vacaville choice granted special permission to play the open despite to silence all his vaccinations status on the decline. decaying urban centers being offered new leases of life. 3 cities will be named european capitals of culture. this year. the w has to luxembourg to find out ah, i feel gail, welcome to the program. protest as a storm, the government offices and set some a light and catholic stance. biggest city al matty violence flat as a mass demonstrations or researching fuel prices. entered a 4th day security voice is made hundreds of rest and used tear gas and stun grenades. try and disperse the crowds. the president has dismissed the government declared states of emergency in 2 regions and said some caps on fuel prices would be reinstated. i grima to la, you can, nova is an independent journalist from catholic stand. she joins us from prague. welcome to d w. what are you hearing from your contacts in the country? thank you for having me right now. i, i do not hear much from my friends or acquaintance almighty, at least because the internet has been repeatedly blocked the entire country. and i'm not sure whether the internet is working now, but i can see for sure that what's up and other messengers have been unavailable since yesterday. and people who are texting me on this messengers are doing so through vpn. and that's the situation with people on the ground. okay, so internet blossom, the only way to get into traffic out is to pretend that you're somewhere else in the world. what is the background to be disturbances if it's really about the price of fuel? this is definitely not about this one particular thing because the situation, political, economic and social situation and because extent has not been improving the last few years. and i think that after we had to change the president in 2019, the people will promise change and real political reforms. but in reality, this did not happen. and in fact, it became even more repressive. and i think that's why people got really angry and spike in oil prices was just the last job. and i myself was in marty just 2 days ago. and i weakness the very high inflation and people struggling economically saving money, even for groceries. so i think that the people's desperation is what we see now, although there are some people who become really violent and now we have seen total care of at least you know, marty because my friends or sources lead to a have seen that the cars are turned upside down in the city, the government buildings are on fire and we don't know whether the police is present or not. and there have been a tax on some hospitals and some ambulance machine and also on journalists. because some of the tv presenters, for example, they were evacuated from the buildings because the protesters entered and destroyed their equipment. right. and tell us about the state of the, the government now, who is in charge because the government was either resigned or it was sacked. so let's start there. did they, did they step down where they fired? i think it was more that they were attacked because president a guy today in the morning asset that basically the government is to blame for all of this situation. and right now we, we had to address to the nation just an hour ago. and he said, the president said that he will act very harshly now because he had become the head of the security council, which is a very important title in complex done, which is another bias what's holding before recently. and now we don't know where another bias is. but these title basically means that the class now can control the situation with security both internally and externally. and we have seen some of the changes in the power structure already and to kyle has promised the real political reform. once again, we don't know whether that will come in to reality, but the situation is still ongoing, so it's hard to predict what will happen in the next few hours. ok, thank you for that. thanks for joining us. i get him tonight can over thanks for having me now to south africa and it seems the only con corona virus variant is on its way out without the feared surgeon hospitalizations and deaths. as that case number's drop. officials have loosened corona virus restrictions. so they say there is still reason to be cautious, which just over 6 weeks ago on the 24th of november when the world's 1st case of omicron was announced, south africa, new case numbers shot up picking up a 127000 in mid december daily. infections and dropped by a 3rd in the week leading up to christmas and they've been falling ever since. on new year's eve, the south african government lifted a late night curfew. the authorities, se omicron is still a threat. aha, hussy can tell us more. she is a medical doctor and public health registrar at south africa university of cape town. welcome to d, w a. dr. at the certainly looks like encouraging news and good afternoon. yes, thank you very much for having me. and it does our announce have started go down. okay, sammy's and admissions as well. so, and we're still watching it all very closely. but at the moment it does seem very reassuring. what do you think is behind this? why have numbers dropped a despite relatively loose restrictions? well, with all and surgery, we seen increasing and obviously case that we have to go down at some point and it appears we're on a chrome, be much more transmissible than at the variance. and this whole process happens a lot faster and, and so we saw a very rapid increase of case number in november, december. and now we see the return it. right. and the world, of course, has been holding its breath watching the south africa experienced a should the rest of the world now be encouraged by what's happening there or other factors particular for south africa that might have helped oh so it's, it's quite difficult to say because obviously, each country has their own experience of covered and the situation for africa is, is, you know, it's very particular a couple of things. firstly, we've had 3 large ways before which is given us quite a lot of em protection. and we, and we've had a very large delta driven wave in june july. the other thing is that, you know, it's difficult in our city with overcrowding, people reliant and having transport not able to work remotely. so it's been difficult for us to contain and to contain that there were some other countries might have it a different experience. and then also at the same time it is summer and people can gather more outdoors and, but in the same time it is also the festive season and the christmas and new year's and how little the holidays at the moment. so it's, it's untangling, all these different bits and pieces is very, quite complicated and we're still trying to unravel, unravel all of it. and that i, i do still think it is in the dark coming out of africa at the moment is quite reassuring. right? and now there is another, another variant on the radar. this i h u, which was identified in france back in november. is this is this, should we be worried about this, or is this just corona virus doing what viruses do and just changing and mutating? oh, i think it is really too early to say, obviously we are, we will expect viruses to mutate and to continue to mutate. the real question is, what these mutations, what the, the real world implications of these mutations will be what it will mean for disease guarantee for vaccination. and, and so it's, it's way too early to say how things are going with these would be variance. ok, thank you so much for joining us, dr. dr. hannah jose are from the university of kato, you left the united states where president biden has appealed to unvaccinated americans to get vaccinated after the rest recorded more than a 1000000000 new cove. 19 infections in a single day. no worries. now over how the fast spreading over convent could impact the young vaccinated under countries health care system. in texas as largest childrens hospital, grayson was struggling to breathe. he's just 4 months old and has contracted cobra 19. is really scary, so i just hump day, you know, he's able to get better go. his mother. gov yell thinks that the youngest of her 3 children was infected at a family, christmas gathering what i'll do talk to him in like a little baby voice. i think to him like a thing like he likes it. grayson is only one of some 70 children currently being treated here for coven 19 chart. the one in the past 2 weeks covered admissions have quadrupled here. most of the children are unvaccinated. the bar for resilience just keeps moving. you think that i don't know how we can do this again and then we keep doing it again. they don't have much of a choice. coven. 19 numbers continue to rise. and not just in texas. nationwide some 1000000 new infections were reported over 24 hour period. more than 95 percent are being attributed to the omicron buried. growing numbers of americans are critical of president jo biden's response. a shortage of testing capacity is just one of the problems confronting the white house. everyone, if you're vaccinated and boosted, you are highly protect it. and i'll be concerned about i'm a crown, but don't be alarmed. but more and more vaccinated americans are worried and are calling for schools to be closed, at least until the latest wave has passed. but new york's new mayor opposes that idea. we can't continue to stop our children from developing socially and academically and a support that they need. so we have to learn how to live with co it and live with coal would cope with a safe way staff at the texas childrens hospital say they expect the situation to become even more critical in the coming weeks. even if omicron usually results in less severe cases than previous variance. the problem is that with so many children and adults in fact, even if the percent percent hospitalization rate is lower, we're still could see more children hospitalized over a very short period of time. so that certainly puts a strain on our health care resources. healthcare workers are hoping biologists are right, when they say, or mcmann will pass its peak by the end of the month. let's take a look at some more developments in the pandemic or starting hong kong, which is imposed a 2 week band on flight from 8 countries including australia, india, britain, and the united states. polish president. andrew duda has tested positive for cobra . 19 apologize. one of europe's lowest vaccination rates and one of its highest death rates with few restrictions on socializing or vaccine requirements. the french parliament has suspended debate on a new cove at 19 low. president macro wants to make life for unvaccinated people so complicated they have to get jumped on it some more stories from around the world. the japan says north korea appears to have launched a ballistic missile into the sea of japan, prime minister from your shita, expressed regret that the north is still launching missiles towards his country. united nations resolutions ban pyongyang from tatic ballistic missile canada is to pay $30000000000.00 us dollars in compensation to indigenous children who were taken from their families. a human rights tribunal found that officials discriminated over decades against the indigenous population around $55000.00 children should benefit settlement of $40000000000.00. 1000000100 hostages in nigeria had been freed 2 months after they were abducted. please say the hostages, including women and children, were released unconditionally armed gangs in the country often kidnapped for ransom . francis one so thought is to make it simpler for couples to have children and has criticized people for having pets. instead, describing it as a form of selfishness is previously spoken out against what he called the easy relationships with the complexity of bringing up children. the issue of australia's prime minister says tennis donna about jock of it must prove that he has a medical exemption to play in the australian open or he'll be on the next plane. hope world number one intends to defend his title in melbourne this month and has previously refused to reveal his vaccination status. is world number one and the feeling australian open chip in novak joker, which giving special treatment or not. people in melbourne are demanding answers. now that job beach, the public, and the vax, a person who really has advocated against it. hell those, you know, prominent tournaments last summer where the picked up kind of it himself. he's the one that gets medical exemption it's, it's not come down well at all. prime minister scott morrison applied some pressure, making it clear that choke of itchy one will be treated like every one else. he must provide acceptable proof that he cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, am and to be able to access the same travel. arrangements is felipe expedited travels, so we are white, his presentation, and what evidence he provides to support that. if that evidence is insufficient, then he won't be treated any different to any one else and he'll be on the next flight, not. so there should be no special rules that i, that joke which at all. just maybe there's nothing to see here. all stray an open organizer stage joke of which had been given no special favor during the process to receive his exemption. they're not allowed to reveal the details of joke of inches exemption application, but they urge the serve to reveal why it was approved, if only to call public outrage japanese electronics giant. so he says it plans to enter the rapidly growing market for electric cars. the company, c, e o, use the consumer electronics show and las vegas to unveil the 1st prototype, which is already being road tested. that wasn't the only surprise that this u. c. s. you might be seeing this 7 seat electric s u, v from sony on the road. soon, 2 years ago, the japanese company displayed an electric sedan at the c e. s, but it was simply to show off sony's image, sensors and cameras. now the company moves from being a part supplier to being a manufacturer with its own. brent many here wonder with so many auto manufacturers already making inroads in the e v market. does sony really stand a chance if it has to do with to close? there's a lot of technology was in this cars, and so he has the advantage that they have a lot of the sensors and technologies that they have been building for many years for a cameras the legacy house. so it gives them an advantage from that sense. during chase of different kinds, is this 9 meter long, reusable spacecraft at the c s? it's meant to carry people and equipment not only to the international space station, but also to new inflatable structures that can house humans in orbit something the company, sierra, and visions building in the next decade, a hub in space, where tourists can spend the holidays and where biomedical companies, for instance, could develop and produce drugs for people back on earth. space is no longer the domain of governments. it's, it's a, it's a commercial arena. now an companies like sera space and obviously space acts and many others are starting to come forward to develop rocket ships and other technologies to do business and space. the 1st come, manufacturer us exhibited their vehicles at the c s in 2007. now space business appears to be the next frontier or the pandemic has hit many cities hard in the past to urban centers in decline, sometimes managed to re brand themselves by focusing on culture. that's why the european union has named 3 cities, european capitals of culture. this year the title comes with funding to put on a year of events and aims to put places like ash, sir alice, that in luxembourg, on the cultural map. ah, a former steel mill in ash 6 years ago, production here, close down. now the industrial ruin is to become a culture factory, a venue for dance and street art installations tied johan started work on this piece long before the official program for the european capital of culture was finalized and got familiar. my whole family worked here a working class family. so this means a lot to me and also this, this morbid thing going on here. i like the way everything is decaying again, this is ash 2022 will involve the entire region. the iron and steel industry extended across the border. and so does the cultural project. 19 municipalities are involved 11 in luxembourg and 8 in france. ah, if i am dick, we really want everyone to participate every community, no matter how small we think they're all important. they each have an exciting history and cultural heritage. and of course we want to build it and illustrated together. oh, fallen on tighten. ash bellville, is a showcase for successful structural change. the old blast furnaces have been integrated into a modern neighborhood startups, high tech, and the university are part of it. a few kilometers away in odon leticia, in france, things have worked out less well. those looking for jobs had to luxembourg, but the cultural project is a ray of hope. especially would be good for our young people if culture comes, if they provide work and careers because there's nothing else here lawyer. the mind just outside the village closed in 1997 nicholas cartoon, and his friends are now re opening up their grandfather's mind. i and or hear now they're mining a rich vein of culture. they are restoring machinery and plan to open a restaurant and an escape room project. nicholas's grandfather came from italy in ensemble. this pet is a symbol of our immigrant culture. it was the immigrants who made us what we are to day. and we owe that diversity to the mining and steel industries. yours when colon steel. we're booming. people from many countries came here to work, creating a unique, historical mix of cultures. jason, very, it's great ish is a beautiful city. they also say it's the most diverse city in luxembourg, or it, la multi cultural heart of europe will soon be beating in this order region. industrial beauty, it has to be a good thing, a david levitz from the d. w culture desk can tell us why. welcome david. so why does, how does a place like ash but it's industrial, a city gets get me honor of being europe's cultural capital. well, obviously, when people think about european culture or european capitals of culture, they're probably thinking of paris, rome, maybe berlin. and those were the cities actually, that the e u was looking at 40 years ago when it started this program along the way that they kind of figured, you know, what, maybe paris doesn't need any extra attention. maybe there some other places that could actually benefit from, from this attention and from being put in the spotlight in this way. places like ash that have fallen on hard times that have maybe lost their industry. and that are looking to re brand themselves looking for new opportunities and can really benefit from gaining the attention of europe's cultural elite, let's say. and culture really is a great tool for bringing places in a new direction, giving them a new lease on life. um and, and creating new opportunities. and this year that, that a 3 european capitals of culture, the scattering it around like confetti. so tell us about the other 2, but i will, you know, the eat, you did something a little different this year. they said, let us have 3 and let them be 3 cities and 3 different countries and they will all be the 2nd largest city of those 3 countries. wrap your head around that. so these are all cities that have that are used to being in the shadow of the bigger city in their countries. so ash and luxembourg, novi sad in serbia and countess in with a way, nia, and now no beside we're seeing here in serbia, has quite a checkered past. it was part of the austro hungarian empire than decades. under socialism. it's best known internationally for when nato bombed its bridges. in the yugoslav wars that's his international reputation right there. they've managed to come back and, and modernize a lot, and they're looking to continue to modernize and to re brand themselves really as a destination for culture. we can also take a look at countess in lithuania, also with a waning a 2nd biggest city countess, which has also quite a difficult pass that they're going to be looking back on this year. really traumatized by the german occupation by the holocaust, by decades of soviet rule. but they're also a city with a great wealth of modernist architecture and art and design movements, which they're definitely excited to show off. they're also going to be receiving some major international art stars, including yoko ono and the serbian performance artist marina abram of it. ok, so all this culture sounds expensive. so how does the you help out where they do pitch in a little bit. they give one and a half 1000000 euros to each of the cities, which, you know, is a lot of money. maybe it's not a lot of money for the you, but they say it's money very well spent. they say that for every euro, or the every euro they spend on this generates another 5 euro's. so i take that to be the saying, go invest in culture. it's a good investment, which is good for you. it's good enough for me. david levitz from the date of the culture. i thank you. thank you. and finally, organizations all over the world are coming up with creative campaigns to encourage vaccinations or hitting germany. an entrepreneur teamed up with a shepherd just because for a unique stunt in the push to achieve a human herd. immunity, $700.00 sheep goats will let loose and formed in the shape of a 100 meters range. and the animals will coat into position by pieces of bread. at the study organizer said he hoped to reach the emotions of vaccine has been people where scientific re thing had failed. is reminder of our top story of this. our processed as a stones government offices and cuz it sounds largest city out of massy, the unprecedented violence came as mass demonstrations of a searching fuel prices and the energy which i former soviet republic. i've entered a full day coming up in news asia, in just a moment after a lifetime of jihad, how will the young taliban fighters transition to peace in afghanistan? life left behind the hardships of starting over for afghan to flood the tell about, take. let's chime, we'll have those stories, and d, w use actually in just a moment and i'll be back at the top of the day with you a we failed. i can see, and i think that was know, tomorrow at some point applies. well for now. ah, we end up surrounded with we say resources now. we'll all have more of them for longer made in germany. in 60 minutes on d w. imagine how many portion of lunch us heard out in the world right now the climate change. if any, off the story, this is life less the way from just one week. how much work can really get we still have time to go. i'm going with his subscriber all morning with global ideas is on its way to bring you more conservation. how do we make cities greener? how can we protect habitats? we can make a difference. global ideas, environmental series in global 3000 on d, w, and online. t w's crime fighters are back to africa. most successful radio drama series continues this season. the stories focus on hate speech, cholera, prevention, and sustainable charcoal production. all episodes are available online. and of course you can share and discuss on d, w, africa's facebook page, and other social media platforms. crime fighters, tune in. now. are you watching b, w, news, asia coming up? if all you've known is war, is it possible to adjust to a life of peace? young taliban fighters have had to fill new roles ever since taking over as the country face is multiple crisis.