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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Alex Ritson. And in the early hours of Friday, the 19th of March, these are our main stories. European nations say they will resume their use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine after it was declared safe and effective by the EU's medical regulator. President Biden has said 100 million Americans will have been vaccinated by Friday, more than a month ahead of his 100 day target. The French prime minister announced a month long covid lockdown in Paris and 15 other departments amid fears of a third wave.

Also in this podcast, the Spanish parliament has voted to legalise euthanasia, becoming the fourth European country to do so.

And this incident is really just solidifying the fact that we are afraid and also just angry and shaken up by what's happened.

Asian Americans fear for their safety after six Asian women are killed in a shooting in Atlanta. A host of European countries, including Italy, France and Germany, have announced their intention to resume using the AstraZeneca vaccine after the European Medicines Agency concluded it was safe to do so. More than 12 countries had paused using the vaccine over fears of blood clots. Dr. Sabine Strauss is head of the EMA's Risk Assessment Committee, known as Prak.

This vaccine is safe and effective in preventing covid-19, and its benefits continue to be far greater than its risks. Brooke has found no evidence of a quality or match issue. Noted that a number of thromboembolic events reported after vaccination is lower than the expected in the general population. And Froch has concluded that there was no increase in the overall risk of blood clots with this vaccine.

I spoke to our correspondent Jean McKenzie in Amsterdam, outside the headquarters of the EMA.

Well, countries always said that if they got the green light here this afternoon, they would restart vaccinating quickly. And this is as close to a green light as they think that they were going to get. We've already heard that Italy is going to start using the vaccine as also the French prime minister has come out and said he will get vaccinated with the Zeneca job himself. A couple of the smaller countries have followed, and I think we're going to see others follow to the regulations.

Even asked whether countries should start reusing the vaccine and its answer was pretty clear. We have vaccines that are safe. They are preventing deaths. We need to be using them. But Dr. Sabina Strauss did say there were still some uncertainties. Yes. I mean, they have not been able to totally rule out that there is any link, even though they haven't found one. So that is the slight note of caution that we've had. And to counteract this, what they have agreed to do, they want to do is to put a warning on the box to make patient and make doctors aware of the risks of these plots so they can spot the symptoms so that people to develop products after they have the vaccine, they know what they're looking for.

And there could be an early intervention because as they've said, you know, it's not unusual when you vaccinate this many people, millions and millions of people, that these very rare incidents are going to be reported. Now, we don't know if they're coincidental or they're linked, and therefore it's just about being alert, being aware and spotting these symptoms so they can be managed. Is this going to be enough to convince people who actually are offered the vaccine?

Because we've had reports of people being turning up on vaccination centers, being offered AstraZeneca Jabin and saying, no, some EU countries do have a problem with this vaccine. There is a hesitancy amongst some people to take it. This stems back to an earlier decision that was made by a number of the member states not to use the vaccine on older patients for a while until there was more evidence available for this age group. And that did create a slight lack of confidence amongst some people about this vaccine.

For a time, it was seen as an inferior vaccine. This pause hasn't helped that. And countries, I think, do have a lot of work now to do to convince people that this vaccine is safe, it is effective, and they should be taking it seriously.

Jean Mackenzie in Amsterdam. The AMA's decision is the latest development in what's been a troubled vaccination campaign in the European Union. Several EU countries are struggling with a fresh surge in cases, and the pace of immunizations has slowed due to supply problems, as well as nervousness among national governments about side effects. With her assessment, here's our Europe editor, Katya Adler.

It's been one misstep after another for the EU and vaccines. There's talk of flawed procurement, slow national rollout and messy vaccine politics when lives are at stake. EU countries blame Brussels. Brussels blames pharmaceutical companies in particular. And all the while, covid continues to spread on mainland Europe. Italy and Germany are now facing a pernicious third wave. Countries in central and Eastern Europe have some of the highest death rates in the world.

So what went wrong?

The EU went for an all for one and one for all approach when buying vaccines to avoid a public display of disunity amongst member states.

But one supplier after another has left the EU short of Jab's AstraZeneca. Above all, the concern about blood clots is the latest in the EU's uneasy relationship with AstraZeneca. In January, Emmanuel Makani declared its quasi ineffective and people over the age of 65. He later wrote back on that. But all this has further undermine confidence amongst populations more vaccine wary than in the UK.

The EU already lags far behind Britain and the US and its rollout overall. The bloc is one of the world's biggest vaccine suppliers, but the commission thrashed. To stop exports to vaccine producing countries that are ahead in their immunization rollouts, the EU dream may once have been about promoting an image of vaccine unity. Now, amidst promises of better deliveries from next month, it appears nervous of the future and looking for targets to blame.

Katya Adler. As Joe Biden prepared to enter the White House, he set himself an ambitious goal for tackling the covid-19 pandemic, vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office. Well, on Thursday, the president said his target would be reached well ahead of schedule.

I'm proud to announce that tomorrow, 58 days into our administration, we will have met my goal of administering 100 million shots to our fellow Americans. Mr Biden said.

2.5 million people are now being vaccinated across the US each day, and nearly two thirds of Americans aged 65 or older have received at least one job. For more on the US vaccination campaign, I spoke to our correspondent in Washington, Labu DiCicco.

I think, as you'll be well aware, in America, every state does things slightly differently. So there are some states like Alaska that are fully vaccinated, 16 per cent of its population that, according to The New York Times, is the highest rate in the country. Other states like D.C., it's not a state, it's a district, but it has struggled a bit more. Washington, D.C. and there were also lots of people who said that it was very much, you know, wealthier people were able to seek to game the system a little bit better than people that may be struggling to, for example, access Internet, et cetera.

D.C. has not yet opened up its vaccination process to everybody in the same way that Alaska has.

Labu DiCicco in Washington. The French prime minister has announced a limited month long lockdown in Paris and 15 other departments. John Casodex said the measures would not be as strict as in previous lockdowns, claiming it was a third way, which would halt the spread of the epidemic while granting people a degree of liberty. Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.

Prime Minister John Catholic for that part of France were now in what looked like a third wave of the virus in the whole of the country. There are 35000 cases a day being reported and three quarters of these are of the new British variant in the Paris region. The situation is particularly worrying, with 100 covid patients in intensive care more than at the peak of the second wave in November. Under the new lockdown, schools and universities will remain open and there'll be no limit to the time people can spend taking exercise outdoors.

But non-essential shops will be shut and travel from Paris to other regions is banned. The nationwide curfew remains in place, but will start from seven instead of 6pm when summertime comes in.

Hugh Schofield in Paris. Top officials from Washington and Beijing have arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday for their first face to face talks since Joe Biden took over. President Biden has promised to be tough with China, but to take a different tack to his predecessor, his secretary of state, who's heading the U.S. side. Anthony Blinken said he would raise issues of concern in the talks.

I said that the United States relationship with China will be competitive where it should be collaborative, where it can be adversarial, where it must be. Our discussions here and it lacks in Alaska, I suspect, will run the gamut.

Our State Department correspondent Barbara Platt. Asia is at the talks venue in Anchorage, and she told me what we can expect.

There are two pillars of his policy so far that we have been told about that differ from Mr. Trump's. One is very much a focus on rallying allies to come up with a joint strategy and a common approach to how to be a counterweight to China's what they call China's coercive diplomacy or its territorial ambitions or its human rights. The second one they've said in the past. But this is not so much about making China slowdown as about making the U.S. speed up.

And by that they mean they want to focus on the kind of competition and technological investments to help the United States be much stronger in shaping both technologies that will be critical to long term military and economic powers. And so what the Americans have said is that they're hoping for a fairly straight talk from both sides and to make clear where they're coming from.

And Barbara, I should say, because we can hear a lot of background noise, you're actually in the hotel where a lot of these talks are going on.

How significant is it that this is all happening on U.S. soil?

It is significant and the Americans have been very open about that. They've said it was extremely important for them to meet on American soil rather than in China. And, you know, it is the tradition for a secretary of state when he. Makes the big trip to Asia to stop in South Korea, Japan and China, and this time he didn't. He stopped in South Korea and Japan. So they are signaling that this is going to be a lower key affair than it might otherwise have been.

They don't want to give it too much weight in terms of what they call in America, the optics of how it looks. And they've said it's a one off. It's not the start of a new dialogue process necessarily. They're just wanting to sit down, explain themselves to the Chinese, listen to the Chinese, and use that to further shape those big principles of what they've already decided for their policy.

Briefly, issues like human rights, they matter a lot to a lot of international observers. How big a part are they going to play in these talks?

They will play a big part. And Mr. Blinken has already signaled that by announcing on his trip a new sanctions because of China's anti-democratic moves in Hong Kong. And they continually mention issues like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Changgeng, all these areas where the Americans have been quite strong in criticizing Chinese human rights and the Chinese have pushed back each time they call them their internal interests. These are their core matters to them. And they have said that there should be no interference in these internal matters.

And so I think on those issues, you will get quite a lot of tense statements. Barbara Starr in Anchorage.

Still to come, individuals can apply for what is called authorized neutral athlete status. That's a process by which they will have to meet strict anti-doping criteria. In other words, they'll have to prove they are completely clean.

Ten Russian athletes are to be allowed to compete under a neutral flag at this summer's Olympics in Tokyo.

The White House says President Biden does not regret calling his Russian counterpart a killer. Earlier, Vladimir Putin responded to Wednesday's accusation by saying it takes one to know one. Mr. Putin said the US had a shameful history from slavery to the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in the Second World War. Here's our Moscow correspondent Sarah Rainsford.

The accusation, the Kremlin says, is unprecedented. A US president calling the Russian leader a killer. The foreign ministry here has demanded an explanation, whilst Mr. Putin's spokesman calls the comments a clear sign that President Biden has no intention of repairing relations with Russia. But Vladimir Putin himself appeared to take the comments in his stride. After all, it plays to his main idea that the West is Russophobia, a hostile force. Mr. Putin said Joe Biden was simply saying his own traits in the Russian leader, and he argued that the US was a murderous state with a list of shameful chapters in its history, from slavery to the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in the Second World War.

State media here are fuming that the US president has crossed a red line with what commentators are calling a direct insult. The Kremlin spokesman told me that relations with the US now are very bad and they do seem bound to get worse. The Russian ambassador to the US has been called back to Moscow this week for discussions and more US sanctions are expected against Russia in the next few days.

Sarah Rainsford in Moscow. An independent report has cataloged widespread child sexual abuse spanning more than 40 years in Germany's largest Roman Catholic diocese, Cologne. The Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Volk, who commissioned the investigation, had earlier been heavily criticized for suppressing a report on the scandal reacting to the report. These victims of abuse said the church had lost all credibility.

It's been louder mining.

I think we no longer need any morality in today's church because the church leaders no longer have any morality.

I'm disappointed in this entire report presented to us because it does not include any moral, ethical evaluation.

How is it possible that the church, which has such high moral standards, simply ignores this? That must now happen?

Our correspondent Damien McGuinness in Berlin says the report makes shocking reading.

So this report touches on the cases of hundreds of these victims and most of them boys under the age of 14. And there are hundreds of people accused of abuse in this Cologne diocese. This is right through the 70s and 80s and 90s. It's important to clarify, though, the report focus on the abuse itself, but how the church reacted to these allegations and the chilling conclusion of this report is it high ranking bishops covered up and protected those accused of abuse.

So there are 75 cases have been found in which high ranking church officials neglected their duties.

One of them is the cardinal at the time, Cardinal Meisner, who was a very popular figure within the church. He died in 2017. He is accused of failing to follow up or report cases of abuse, keeping those allegations within the church effectively and keeping that culture of silence, which is so toxic and that has really shocked people. So this report really has confirmed what a lot of priests and indeed laypeople have suspected for years.

So what's the impact likely to be?

Well, it's really part of an ongoing process, really, I think, of what's going on within the German Catholic Church.

On the one hand, we're seeing a lot of people leaving the church. That means in Germany, you go to your local priest, you explain to them you make an appointment with the officials. It means you stop paying church tax. So it's a regulated process. We know that last year in the first few months of last year, around 6000 people in this diocese left the church. That's a very high number. And throughout Germany as a whole, people are leaving the church.

On the other hand, it's also a process of reform within the church because what we're seeing is within the Catholic Church in Germany, which is very big, very powerful and very rich. There's a massive debate from liberal Catholics, the liberal priests.

Indeed, the German Catholic Church is quite liberal in many parts of it, increasing calls for female priests, for same sex blessings. And I think what we've seen over the past few years that scandals like this also provoke a huge debate within the church and to a certain extent, hope of reform.

Damien McGuinness, Spain has passed a law to legalise euthanasia, becoming the fourth country in Europe to allow people to end their own lives in extreme circumstances. Spain's lower house of parliament approved the law with support from parties from the center and left hailed by right to die campaigners. The bill was, however, condemned by right wing parties and the Catholic Church. The measure is expected to come into force in June. Guy Hedgecoe reports from the. Read the new law states that euthanasia is legal for those who are suffering a serious or incurable illness or a grave chronic or disabling condition.

It lays out a procedure for the person wishing to die, ensuring they have several weeks to consider their decision, which experts must also review. This follows campaigning by relatives of people who have suffered long term illnesses and who wish to be able to end their lives. However, the law has faced opposition, and Spain's Catholic Church has described euthanasia as murder.

Guy Hedgecoe in Madrid, the man who's been charged over the gun rampage in and around the US city of Atlanta, insist that he was not driven by racial bigotry. Six women of Asian descent were killed in the attacks at three different massage parlors. But the murders have undoubtedly fueled fears among Asian Americans and concerns that prejudice against them is frequently underreported. Tim Franks spoke to Bianca Jyotish, the Georgia organizing manager of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum in Atlanta.

What we're seeing right now on the ground here in Georgia and here in Atlanta is that our people are fearful and we've actually been fearful for the entirety of our lives.

We've seen an increase in an uptick in heat related violence and just hate motivated incidents in our communities for the past year. And even before that, we've seen so much hate in our country that has really made us fearful of our lives. And so this incident is really just alluding to that and solidifying the fact that we are afraid and also just angry and shaken up by what's happened.

It's one thing for any type of minority group to talk about the fear that they face and the aggressions that they encounter. One thing that you sometimes hear from Asian-Americans, and I wonder if this is something that you would go along with, is that that type of prejudice is just not acknowledged in the same way that it is against other minority groups. Do you think that the case.

You know, I think there's a lot to say about the model minority myth, mainly that it is a myth. But a lot of us have actually internalized this narrative of being white adjacent, you know, but if we look at the history of our country, we're looking at 9/11. Before that, we're looking at forced sterilizations. Before that, we're looking at Japanese internment camps. So there is a long history of our people being oppressed and being marginalized and experiencing discrimination and racism in this country.

So there's definitely like a long standing amount of hate that we've been dealing with. And compared to other groups, I think we all have our own unique stories and unique identities. I think what's been really beautiful to see in this moment is actually the amount of solidarity amongst our communities and identity groups.

Right. Well, that's interesting because one thing I was reading about in the aftermath of the attacks in and around Atlanta was that Asian-Americans are divided over the best ways to curb the violence. As it put it in this piece in The New York Times, reflecting the wide ideological and generational differences within a group that encompasses dozens of ethnicities.

Do you think that that is accurate, that actually, you know, the very fact that you are a disparate group, I mean, it can be a source of strength and pride, but it can also mean that those divisions mean it's difficult to sort of campaign as one.

You know, I think that's actually the unique thing about being communities of color is that we all know what it's like to experience discrimination and prejudice and racism and in this case, misogyny and sexism as well. That's actually something that unifies us more so than divides us. And I think the real issue here is actually white supremacy, and that's really the cause of what's causing all of these issues, what's perpetuating all of this violence that's at the heart of the issue.

Bianca Jagger of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, speaking to Tim Franck's.

Organizers of the long delayed Tokyo Olympics, are working hard to make changes to the Summer Games to ensure they comply with covid-19 precautions.

But there's one change that has nothing to do with the virus. The world athletics governing body has ruled that in spite of Russia's ban from international events over doping violations, a limited number of Russian track and field athletes can compete under a neutral flag.

Sports news correspondent Alex Capstick told me more Russian athletes were allowed to compete as neutrals up until this time last year when they were banned completely following another doping scandal. This one involved leading officials from the country's athletics federation who covered up a doping violation. Those responsible have received heavy sanctions that were due people in charge. And a few weeks ago, a reinstatement plan was agreed because at one stage, the federation had reached permanent expulsion. So that paved the way, which allows the return of Russian athletes.

And it's back to the situation before the suspension in which individuals can apply for what is called authorized neutral athlete status. That's a process by which they will have to meet strict anti-doping criteria. In other words, they'll have to prove they are completely clean and their numbers will be capped at 10 for the Olympics in Tokyo.

So how do the conditions for track and field differ from other sports? Track and field is the sport that has taken the hardest line against Russia ever since the huge doping scandal began back in 2015. Only one Russian athlete was allowed to compete at the Rio Olympics in the track and field program in 2016, and that was as a neutral and that policy has continued. No Russian has competed under the country's flag since 2015. It is a bit different in other sports, although the recent ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport has banned all Russian sportsmen and women from competing under the Russian flag at international events.

The main difference is that their uniforms can be in the red, white and blue of the Russian flag and their numbers are not capped at 10 things ever going to get back to normal for Russian athletes.

And what has to happen if they are?

Well, there is a way back at the. Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier this year, the ruling was that the Olympic ban and world championship ban would remain until the end of 2022 and that as long as Russia behaves itself, then it seems that those restrictions will be lifted and Russian athletes will be allowed to compete as Russians under the country's flag, weather track and field do that. That all depends on this reinstatement process that are currently underway. They have to meet a lot of milestones.

They've got to put a lot of reforms in place and they will have to do that if those restrictions are going to be lifted.

Alex Capstick, it's been described as one of the longest and most successful international alliances in history since 1787. The Union of England and Scotland has held firm through war and poverty. But in recent years, some people north of the border have asked for a divorce. Elections in May to Scotland's devolved parliament could return a majority for the governing Scottish National Party, which wants Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom. Only seven years ago, separatists failed to win a referendum on the issue.

But since then, Brexit and the handling of the covid pandemic have radicalized some voters, especially the young. Lucy Ash has this report.

Dundee is one of those places that impresses you at very first sight. It's built on the Bank of Scotland's longest river, Abertay. And this city was once famous for processing just the kind of heavy fibre used to make rope for its marmalade factories and for publishing G jam and journalism. They used to say, well, today the city's got a new specialism. We have more computer games programmers per head of population than anywhere else in the world.

Dondi entrepreneur Chris van der Kyle runs J. Studios, renowned for developing Minecraft, the best selling video game of all time. Chris is unsatisfied by the amount of policy detail he's seen on both sides of the independence debate, but he was irritated by the unions campaigning when Scotland held its referendum in 2014.

I got really, really cheesed off as an entrepreneur. The better together message was, you can't do it. It's a scary thing. Don't take the risk. These are the worst things you can ever see at entrepreneur.

Scottish youth seems less risk averse than their parents. One opinion poll in October suggested nearly 80 per cent of under 25 year olds would support independence.

But there are some places where this kind of enthusiasm is in much shorter supply. Places like Scotland's Northern Isles, which lie in the icy North Sea up to 600 kilometres from Edinburgh. I'm flying to the Orkney Islands. 21 year old Jack Nokomis is the son of an Orkney fisherman, and we're taking refuge from the fierce wind in his dad's boat shed, many people in Scotland view Brexit as this turning its back, which I sympathise with.

But I see independence as a similar type of separation. The Orkneys are not the furthest away islands from the mainland, but they feel isolated and certainly remote from Edinburgh, the centre of Scottish politics.

So we're just crossing on a causeway to high tide.

Jack shows me the remains of a Viking settlement where archaeologists discovered a chapel for monks, some houses and even a Norse steam room. This Viking past is very much alive today. Many of the things that are seen as specifically Scottish are really so relevant.

And only in the Port of Stromness, I meet James Stockham, leader of Orkney Islands Council.

There was no historic Partons here. There was no Klans. This was quite a different place in so many ways. And Orkneys differences, if Scotland ever were to become independent, could deliver an unpleasant surprise for nationalists in the event of any further constitutional change. We had the right to self-determination ourselves. Scotland itself might have a separatist problem. Well, indeed, yes, we could remain part of the rest of the UK. We do believe we're unique and we should be looked at slightly differently.

That's just what many nationalists say about being within the U.K., for Britain and for Scotland to these are deeply uncertain times.

Lucy Ash reporting, and you can hear more on assignment here on the BBC World Service, and that's all from us for now.

But there'll be an updated version of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast, on the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BVC, Dot Seo Dot UK.

This podcast was produced by Jason Leigh and mixed by Johnny Hall. Ed is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time. Goodbye.