this is d w news live from berlin spain prepares to go on lockdown after a large spike in the number of coronavirus inspections infections the streets are empty and shops are closed as the government is poised to order spaniards across the country to stay home unless it's essential. for meanwhile china's quarantine appears to have paid off the country begins to come out of hibernation as the number of new coronavirus cases drops to a handful. and it may be time to say goodbye to plastic scientists turn to

biological materials to make things like headphones. i'm married to evanston it's good to have you with us. across europe borders are closing and businesses are shutting their doors as people get ready to wait out the coronavirus pandemic at home italy is still the worst hit country in europe but spain is now also preparing to announce tight new restrictions on movement across the nation that's after 1500 new cases were reported in spain just between friday and saturday. madrid has turned into a ghost town instead of the usual traffic jams motorists have an easy drive through the capital the regional government has ordered the closure of bars and retail establishment only pharmacies grocery stores and newsstands can remain open many

residents have fled the city to go to the countryside or the coast those still in madrid are trying to get by as best as they can. no steam we put up with but i'm not so worried but i'm still thinking about the situation now we have to be brave and stick together. been emotionally it's time to show that we are a civilized country and comply with health regulations the most conservative going see and this gradually everyone is realizing that this virus spreads extremely fast . year several regions have already introduced strict measures authorities in catalonia sealed off for communities on thursday after the number of infections suddenly surged now the entire country is set to follow suit. well as we just heard spain is expected to announce a lockdown affecting the entire nation and for more let's bring in developing a correspondent dan charles who is in the city of seville hello to you again for

that so tell us exactly what these restrictions would mean for people on a day to day basis. well it's basically. the whole country of spain very similar to what we've seen in the last days and in italy it will come in several stages the main stage come into effect on monday morning and then nobody will be allowed to say anymore except for supermarkets pharmacies medical doctors and similar cities but with immediate effect all bars are closed all restaurants are closed and public life basically already is coming to a standstill well now we know that about half of spain's coronavirus cases are in the capital madrid why have authorities decided to introduce and nationwide

lockdown now. i think there are several reasons 1st of all. new cases are not only in madrid about they are also a lot of cases in other regions of the country now and another reason is that they have been room us for sunday snow that they could come. down of the entire city of ny did it and already the schools and universities has been closing in much of it so a lot of people in my village have started to leave the country and have started to go home or started to go to to other regions so there's the sia that they're taking the virus with them. now do these new restrictions also affect forests war is still in spain. there is a lot of uncertainty around the church still what we know is that most tourists

have left the city and most other cities and spain on the right and a lot of other tourists have canceled it so there are not so many tourists left in the country those ones that are left from my from my point of view and from what i can see on the streets they are still quite relaxed but of course there's a lot of uncertainty because a lot of airlines have also started to choke and so the connections already in the morning this has become obvious well we are still waiting for a spain's prime minister to actually and nouns these lockdown measures officially and he was supposed to speak several hours ago do you know what's behind the delay . yes indeed she was supposed to address the public much earlier from what i have been gearing is that she is still meeting with the ministers behind closed doors because. he is also trying to set up

a very conspiracy and sort of economic program. together with the other measures to make sure that people don't panic and that economy keeps going as much as possible and another reason of course is that from the constitutionally point of view it is a very big thing in spain as you know it's a very regionalized country with a lot of autonomy in the regions so it basically means that all the power will be centralized in much of it and that is very exceptional space. if you have shots reporting from the spanish city of seville we thank you very much. well here's a quick look now at some of the latest corona virus developments around the world japan's prime minister shinzo abbay says he expects the tokyo a live big games to go ahead as planned and he said he had not discussed postponing or canceling the event during talks with the u.s.

president donald trump earlier this week trump suggested japan should consider postponing the games because of the spread of the coronavirus. in france yellow vest protesters have taken to the streets of paris in defiance of a ban on large gatherings the ban was introduced to halt the spread of infection police moved in to break up the protest paris has shut down its tourist attractions and schools across the country are being closed. poland's plan to impose a 14 day quarantine on its citizens returning from abroad has triggered a scramble by many to cross the border by midnight on saturday the country is also shutting its borders to foreign travelers without residency permits international trains and flights will be suspended. authorities here in germany have announced a series of measures to slow down the spread of the coronavirus outbreak including closing schools and suspending the country's top flight football league growing

numbers of people are stockpiling food and goods like disinfectant and toilet paper of over 4000 people have been infected in germany so far and 8 have died. chancellor angela merkel has called on germans to observe restrictions and to stand in solidarity with one another to protect vulnerable groups from contracting the coronavirus. has been following that advice reporting today from home in berlin so hello to you william are people where you aren't taking all of these suggestions seriously. well i certainly am i am home today working from home not because i'm sick not because i'm in quarantine but because that is the prevailing public health wisdom that all those who don't need to go out should not be going out unfortunately we have the technology to have the best of both worlds to continue working and also stay at home keeping people safe

not just people people at home safe but other people around us being safe here i was out earlier life in this neighborhood of berlin seem to be mostly business as usual maybe a bit quieter than normal but it was a beautiful day today so many people are out the weekend farmer's market was quite crowded crowded and even more crowded than has been the last few weeks the only big difference i saw was the stands putting out samples were either covering up those samples or just not putting them out at all so people seem to be out certainly no panic which is good but also the flip side that people should be taking the recommendations of social distancing very seriously again not just to protect them but to protect more people around them who may be more vulnerable than the average person because while the average person might not have any problems people who are older people with health conditions definitely have bigger a bigger problem i spoke to one woman earlier who social media posts have gotten a lot of traction it's jodie edinburg she's a canadian woman living in florida suffering from medical

a medical condition that would make her own a very dangerous for her and she's been posting on her social media channels begging people to remember the people who are in a worse situation than the average person who for whom corona might not be such a big deal well and what have bound these add to risk people here in germany how are germans helping those neighbors. well the outpouring of support has really been very rapid and very spontaneous just in the last few days as these restrictions have been coming into force we've seen for example notes of berlin a popular web site that posts usually funny notes that people find all around the city posting notes of people giving up on streets and windows inside buildings saying i'm here to help my neighbors i'm here to help people in need in my neighborhood if people can't go out for ever reason if they shouldn't be going out that's in the real world also online. who is looking at posts in my research today

a shop a grocery store in hamburg they are saying that they're happy to organize packets of food and food deliveries to people i spoke with the woman who runs the shop there she said that the response has been overwhelming neighbors of their store saying that they're happy to help if they have a bike for example if they're able to carry more groceries to certainly connect that store with people in the area who are in need all right doubly as william no glue crabbed reporting in berlin thank you very much let's turn our attention now to some of the other stories making headlines this hour a barrage of rockets has hit a base housing u.s. and other coalition troops north of baghdad officials say at least 3 coalition troops and 2 iraqi soldiers were wounded no group has claimed responsibility camp tonge well it's already the target of an attack this week that killed 2 americans

and one british soldier. bill gates says step down from microsoft's board of directors to focus on philanthropy gates co-founded microsoft in 1975 and was its c.e.o. until 2000 the billionaire plans to spend more time on his foundation tackling issues like global health and education. climate activists have been taking aim at plastic it's made from fossil fuels and is a major source of pollution in the seas but it's also extremely versatile and can be shaped and molded into any number of products so what can replace it scientists in finland think they may have an answer and it could be music to environmentalists years. the term bio based economy has been a catchphrase for decades now but products have remained few and far between especially in the area of electronics at the v t t technical research center in finland the scientists decided to demonstrate how

far the field has come with the sort of biotech headphones unlike plastic the materials and them were sourced not from fossil resources but from living organisms . using our by reactors we can produce lots of different molecules polymers. platform kerry of course we can make for example saying that expire say look or buy a plastic precursors or you've been buyable of various. headphones prototype is made from 6 different biotech materials they include a bio plastic produced by yeast but other substitute made from a fungus and a bios and thetic sound transmission element derived from that synthetic spider silk the researchers designed the headphones to try to raise awareness for greener production processes. we thought it was a great opportunity to combine tea for materials no one had done it before actually

to bring all these different microbes into the development of electronic device. of course the electrical components inside the bio based headphones still have to be made of conventional materials but as we work on ways to leave all the oil in the ground replacing most of the plastic in products like this with bio engineered alternatives is at least a small step towards a more sustainable future. and you're up to date on d.w. news stay tuned for shift living in the digital age exploring research into autonomous robots in japan but now we leave you with some heartwarming moments from italy people there are confined to their homes because of the coronavirus lockdown but entire neighborhoods are raising their voices to fill the empty streets with singing have a listen. to

. talk to you. it. is the human race to destroy it so. we are ruining the basic elements of our systems. work using too much noise and. water to slow.