staunched december 25th. was. this is g.w. news a lot of folks from a bird land we are going to begin though with the news from of the united states and that is that joe biden is telling americans it's time to turn the page on trumped us president elect says democracy has prevailed this in a televised address to winning a majority of folks in the state by state electoral college has confirmed the results of last month's election. also coming up

a new report types of russian intelligence agents to the poisoning of kremlin critic alexei no value investigation shows how operatives trailed in a phony for years including the day this summer when he was poisoned with the nerve agent. and as clubs learned their fate in the last 16 of football's champions league at 2 of the german teams hoping to shake up the established marker . and play richardson and welcome to the show we begin with breaking news a from of the united states the electoral college has confirmed to democrat joe biden as the winner of last month's election fight in a spoke in a televised address after winning about vote telling americans their democracy still works despite unfounded accusations of voter fraud from. president trump

invite and now has a majority of the 538 electors who gathered in states across the country as well as in the capital washington to formally vote for the next president some states held the event online like nevada. and you're wondering why the united states is holding this meeting so long after november's election take a listen to deja vu washington bureau chief in as paul as she breaks down why the electoral college has been in the spotlight this year even weeks off those are white and was named the presumptive in or of the 2020 lexan there were concerns that the electors who cost a wote would not told of their and over the bargain but ultimately those chosen few kept their word usually this process of the electress meeting is just a procedural egg but like everything that donald trump touches it turns into a controversy the more chris see what donald trump lost and joe

biden will be officially president of the united states on general terms used 2021 in poll in washington there now that news comes as president donald trump announced the resignation of attorney general william bar following tensions over trump's claims of election fraud in a letter to the president barr said he was proud to have played a role in trump's administration the attorney general has been one of the president's staunchest allies although tensions between the 2 have escalated in recent weeks he will leave the post on a just semper 23rd. this comes at the same time as a major milestone in the united states a fight against the corona virus the country has begun administering the 1st to joe says of the biotech pfizer vaccine doctors nurses and other at risk groups are 1st in line for the shot at u.s.

death toll now surpassing a 300000 people millions are hoping that today will mark a turning point in the fight against the pandemic. a moment of hope in the u.s. most of all for frontline medical workers who are honored with receiving the 1st coronavirus vaccinations in the country this is the beginning of the end for cove it together as a community as a nation we can and this the 1st recipients seemed eager to convince others that the vaccine was safe. it's very important that when the vaccine comes that we feel confident in the science it is ok to take. advisory panels in the u.s. and the u.k. have determined that the benefits of the shot far outweigh the risks yet one in 3 people in the u.s. say they won't take it. sorry i'm not interested i will never take it over my dead body i don't think i mean for with it because i don't know one soul. that

has this know it well before. getting a vaccine to the willing poses another challenge because the country is so big and the concoction so fragile. the biotech pfizer vaccine must be kept at a chilling negative 70 degrees celsius or requiring massive amounts of dry ice. despite all this u.s. officials are preparing for the largest vaccination campaign in the country's history along with front line workers the elderly are 1st in line to get an ocular later. as coronavirus cases climb sharply u.s. authorities have set a goal of vaccinating every willing american by midway through next year. while here in germany a tougher lock down is on the way on monday german president frank walter steinmeier pleaded with the public to abide by the new restrictions as the country

struggles to fend off a surge kopek 1000 cases here to the public to make sacrifices as germany prepares for a holiday season like no other. last minute christmas shopping came early this year people are still roaming bellowing streets looking for gifts but from wednesday on the shops will have to close as germany enters a tougher lockdown while polls show around free quarters of germans backing the measure opinions on the high street are mixed. then for if everything had already closed at the beginning of november it would have been ok then maybe we could have had a normal christmas. we have to go shopping now because stores were closed from wednesday but it's understandable that stores will have to shut down. its glow if you i think it isn't good for anybody to close everything the week before christmas. most shops make their biggest earnings right now. difficult financially for

a lot of people. you know. the germans have been under partial lockdown for the past 6 weeks with bars restaurants and all the leisure facilities closed the new rules include closing schools and prohibiting alcohol consumption in public. in the face of continuously high infections and deaths germany's president appealed to the public to take responsibility. because if you don't feel we're not completely at the mercy of the virus it's up to us and we know what to do. you can perspiring celebration friends and relatives will also be happy to receive their presents at a later point. what matters now is to preserve health and to say you. mentioned leaving. germany heading into

a new food walk down this year's christmas will be far from ordinary. apologies for the technical difficulties there we do however have a new development in the case of the poisoning of russian opposition leader alexei an avanti a media investigation has a found that a group of agents from russia's security service f.s.b. had fallen of only 4 years shadowy on flights across the country alexei navalny is

still recovering in germany after collapsing on a domestic flight in russia last august doctors found he'd been poisoned with a nerve agent novacek a joint investigation by website belling cat and others the insider was one of them discovered a telecom and travel data showing the f.s.b. agents tailed lavani clued in on the last on the day last summer when almost died. and joining me for more in the studio is a reporter rebecca ritter's rebecca thanks for joining us what more do we know about the people who have been implicated in this report where you mentioned a lot of clay of we're talking about 8 people the reports has named 3 of them and they were all working for the russian domestic security agency the f.s.b. as you said now all of that either medical training the 3 that were named were medical doctors or training with chemical weapons especially with the r. and d. of that that novacek as you forgot which is in the soviet family of poisons and was

used in the poisoning of their case cripple and his daughter in the u.k. in 2018 and then of course in and around the poisoning in in august now we know that they worked out of the f.s.b. offices across the country and 3 of them have been named they were the they were alleged to have followed me to the city of tomsk back in august where he was then poison you know these are very serious charges of course what are the mechanics of this investigation what proof is there behind these allegations well you know as we know it's a joint investigation between this the building kept the message out to journalists and the russian outfit the insider as well as the. they've got a few others now they've gone and done a deep dive into the phone and flight records and have managed to map out what they alleged but we actually spoke to one of the building catch journalists he spoke to had a little earlier someone erik told him he was involved in the investigation so i let you tell a let him tell you rather in his own words the russian privacy is pretty much

non-existent without allies there and so we examined the russian debt of market telecom data and also passenger manifest for flights to look at suspicious so we looked for people who had a travel itinerary that closely matched that of all around the time he was in siberia so he flew in the one city called it was a big risk in syria and he left from another city called tomsk a week later and he's here about 300 or so kilometers from each other and so we're looking for people who want roughly the same right to marry and we're following up because we figured if your efforts be answered turning to poison an opposition figure you'll write a day or so before he does and leave a little bit afterwards and we did this we found that there were 3 people who got the same areas that only they were really surprised we looked more to these people and we notice that these people with a few of our colleagues had fallen of all they for over 30 trips 227000 troops practically every time the only one around russia because he was a presidential candidate i'm sorry 2017 these people had the exact same track what in return following the bombing and these are not just normal f.s.b. officers they're ones who have medical from chemical weapons training that matched

that of the actual incident he suffered and. now alexei navalny is still in germany after spending more than a month in hospital here in germany how has he reacted to this reports well i'm surprising he's pretty angry as you can imagine my 3 years of his life being followed around he may not be that surprised about it in the end i mean he was an officer candidate in russia but still i mean he has 3 years being followed which led to his near fatal poisoning he's not happy but it also turns out that this attack in august probably wasn't the 1st time there was an attempt to poison him at least one. that they suspect was a month prior to this truck poisoning in orvis where he and his wife travelled to claim a grad for post and we can not even their campaigning or anything his wife fell ill with similar symptoms to what he ended up having off with another truck poisoning and he was kind of this vicious at the time but couldn't really put it all together

now they suspect it probably was he's angry he spoke publicly about it and here's a little bit about what he's had to say. i know who wants to kill me i know where they live i know where they work or what i know their real name is i know their fake name extreme i have photographs of them for target yep photographs he's got the names that he's not happy and he's not going to stay quiet about it i don't think but of course moscow says there is no evidence that the valley was poisoned and there's no need to investigate it's all right rebecca red as a thank you very much for your report and. now to the all important draw for football's a champions league round of 16 the knockout stages of europe's a top of club tournaments defending a champion a buyer in munich will face off against italian club lessee 0 for his endorsement will play serbia other games include a liverpool against life stage and sister city against mention gladbach and last season's runners up her recent your mum against barcelona 1st gains of the match is

over 2 legs are due to take place in the middle of february and at the football coach who helps liverpool regis cover greatness at the turn of the century show rock with a has died that 200-2001 season assault with the a need at the club to the trouble of the league cup f.a. cup and the us a cop who also coached at the sunshine law and liam and had a short stint as france's national coach french media say when he died after heart surgery in paris he was 73 years old. don't forget you can always get news on the go just download our app from google play or from the app store that give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications for any breaking news if you are part of a new story yourself you can also use that you have

a new app to send us photos and videos of what's been happening. it's a news update as our state turns our documentary with a new insight into the catholic church during the nazi era after the vatican opened secret records on pope pius. forgets to always get more on our website d.w. dot com and clay richardson in berlin from the whole team here thanks so much for joining us. on the. new year man known for years we're going to leave you and how it all steers german chancellor we'll bring you i'm going to a magical and you've never had to have a surprise yourself with what just possible who is magical really what moves. all this up you talk to people and follow along the way maurice and critics who are joining us for michael's life stops.

hope from so so so tell to herald a new era for the catholic church. an era of transparency. now he has opened the vatican archives and given access to post the twelfth's files one of the most controversial pontiffs in history. pious the 12th remained silent as millions of jews were killed by the nazi regime. because of his silence some called him hitler's pope. for others pious the 12th was a saint who secretly saved the lives of thousands of jews finally the vatican files about past the 12 are fully accessible and can shed new light on his silence during

the holocaust the time for truth has come. rome 2nd of march 2020. on this day the documents from the papacy of pius the 12th were declassified. millions of files from 939958 kept secret in the vatican for decades. after finally accessible to researches and historians. german historian who would voice was one of the 1st to look at the documents. disposed of us i live not really made in the 1st thing that everyone naturally

associates with the vatican secret archives of the war is of course dan brown's novel some kind of a medically sealed gas cube in which archivists regulate the oxygen supply from outside he can absolute nonsense the vatican archive is not kind of like any other . obvious ones it's once again although we have actually been working regularly in the vatican archives for 20 years now on because it was of course something special of our going to because one simply has a whole range of questions i don't pops to find out what did the pope know about the mass murder of jews. when he had an infant who informed him had it if you believe what he was told him because he didn't. hope francis had announced his decision one year earlier. occasion another older less who knew. it would leave him out of the pew i'm in you my the

new queen on a citizen of indonesia then maybe just hold it up for all your feel where you reject god only based upon the monument valley. and the later nearly is director of the vatican news outlet and one of them in closest to the holy father. according to him this decision reveals francis's commitment to a transparent church. like years of abode of the very dark the church does not fear the truth because pope francis holds firm to this principle story from a big let us also consider the great scandal the struggle against abuse he has insisted that they be full transparency by the end its decision to open the archives can be seen in this light. since his

election pope francis is mission has been to restore credibility to an institution suffering from sexual and financial scandals. pope francis's choice was to open the doors of the church. there should be no more room for secrecy in the vatican. 'd even inconvenient truths have to be confronted in public. the opening of the archives was big news as pious the 12th is still

a matter of heated discussion between catholics and jews across the world. tried on from pop culture france decision to open the so-called secret files of pope pius the 12th is certainly an encouraging sign. how stalk him now for accounts build on than later one can revisit the question of a possible beatification and then jointly recognize yes this was a man who really did do all that he could to mom in their view or that he was a pope who perhaps could have done more done things differently yet should have acted leah or could have acted differently around them. and. passed the 12th reputation started to become controversial in the 1960 s. when a theater play the deputy exposed the pope silenced to initialize the holocaust.

as international protests broke out then pope called the 6th decided to make thousands of documents from the 2nd world war period public. for many historians though this collection was incomplete. and pious the 12th has remained a mystery. pious the 12th was born in $876.00 under the name genuine patchily. at the age of 23 he entered the priesthood. after rising swiftly in the curia in 1917 but chile became the pope's ambassador in munich. church historian stefan some ascii study the exchange of letters between the vatican also known as the holy sea and its representatives in germany. many of these letters were written by the future pious the 12th.

came to be very and he obviously came to a catholic state and there was welcome very joyfully and warmly as if. however the political situation was at the end of 1918 the beginning of 1901 exactly what the celli did not want. toit. in 1918 the 1st world war came to an end defeated the german empire collapsed and that made the turmoil the socialists tried to seize power the situation was particularly tense in munich with a chilly lived the socialist republic was proclaimed its direct he was directly attacked by representatives of the socialist republican unic they came to the vatican embassy and wanted to confiscate his car schlock no. you. know they keep calling this mess he knew about communism from his studies within you that communism is not compatible with catholic teachings but above all he knew

communism from this experience in munich they put a gun to my head my life was in danger and they created total chaos. in 925 cheli was transferred to berlin. in the capital you negotiated a contract on relations between. state and church with the german government the righteous concordat. was the steam puppets and guns noise suddenly it was a whole new political system it's difficult what had been a monarchy now became a republic context and in this context the relationship between church and state had to be completely reorganized noir is concerned holiday regulations universities training of priests. as it touched all areas that had to be regulated between

church and state. father completes probably one of the few living witnesses who has personal memories of a chalice time in germany as. it is still groom him i personally met the future pope pius the 12th for the 1st time when i was very young well when i was 6 or 7 years old. to me the exchanged a few words with me later i got to know him and i noticed that an aura of spirituality when i did from him that i had never seen with other people like him i dealt with other pope's 2 private audiences with all the 6 john paul the 2nd and john the 2030 owners and so on. they were all great men and important personalities and good people but i must honestly say that nobody made such an impression on me as pious the 12th. of them of g.p.s.

as live. for many years father complete advocated for the beatification of pius the 12th in the course of this process he had a unique opportunity to look at the secret documents in the vatican archive as well and i was sure in those days during the 2nd world war thousands of letters arrived at the vatican they were answered whenever possible and this made a great show of. he was not someone who made easy choices it was before making a decision people always wanted to study a problem from all sides so as not to make a mistake so he was careful and that was right that's good scorched. the process of making pies the 12th a saint was started in 1965 all that is missing to finalize it is proof of the

reckless healing as required by the regulations. pope francis has announced that the process is on hold. electros said the church in my opinion. the only time for michael. korda known. jinnah's for me. and energy and i mean i've got you know and i have on. your family you know. an even bigger obstacle to pass the 12th beatification is the control over his relationship with the nazi regime. this began in the 1930 s. back then chile was appointed state secretary the most powerful man in the vatican after the pope.

at the same time germany was witnessing the rise of the national socialist party and its leader at all for hitler. again you petroleum 1st eugénie your peccerelli knew nothing about hitler even wrote to his colleague the vatican ambassador in vienna he asked him for information about the hitler youth and he looked a certain hitler if he also never met hitter in person back then he did not see hitler as a great danger no. i still think if asked. in january 933 hitler became german chancellor. just one month later after the burning of that ice target the persecution of german jews began. in april

a jewish woman named edith stein wrote a letter to the pope that historians found in the vatican archives years ago. it is time i needed stein a jewish woman with an advanced philosophical education turned to the pope with an urgent request made an opening in the bitter. she asked him to speak out publicly and loudly against the persecution of the jews and therefore we should keep in mind that edith stein was jewish and she had converted to catholicism is from contradicts this myth we now know from by chelas notes that this letter from edith stein was actually presented to the pope these will be if they get to time to persuade me for gillick just. you. all of us who are faithful children of the church and who look at the

conditions in germany with open eyes fear the worst for the reputation of the church if this silence lasts much longer. i'm told. do i need to share and then there was a reply which is actually embarrassing. upped but shelley rode to the on chap who had presented the letter to the holy father. he had seen it and offered his encouragement and gave the papal blessing want. but our request no mention. in hardly meets. the historian at their core fences in rome is researching the relationship between jews and catholics at that time nina.