safety but it made that claim before germany declared budapest a risk area. this is the news up next is a documentary looking at a controversial dam purchase in turkey for getting it all the latest news and information around the clock on our website that stayed up leave dot com this morning's headlines coming up in 45 minutes from now math anyhow thanks watch. combating the pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news. hour carona update. 19 special next on d w. 5 years of conflicts or 5 years of hard hitting political. is the question if i do it in a family's life because that's what

a free press do you need. to go this is who are you concerns for not concern to him sebastian consumers kelly take you to the heart of the matter and you'll see it just to get closer to civil. conflict. waste piling up. disposable protective equipment plastic packaging. initially that been a hope that the slowdown in the world economy would be good for the planet traffic almost stopped completely. cruise ships were stranded in port and industrial pollution. but the pandemic has had negative consequences for the environment to the world was already drowning and there is a sea of plastic. but

a pandemic has made the situation worse. things mask and stay in the environment for up to 450 years it takes that long before they turn into invisible micro plastic so this issue is quite serious. as the human toll of the coronavirus mounts and the world economy struggles to adjust to the new normal the wider impact on the environment is only now starting to become apparent . the global medical emergency has presented an opportunity to check on the health of the planet as controversial new lockdown measures kick in in the capital madrid is a report from space. leon i'll be getting is pulling plastic waste from the river segura near the spanish city of alicante there's heaps of garbage everywhere.

and the limo plus the focus on the problem is that plastic is very light so it's easy swept up by the wind and flows down rivers very tense up in the sea the one i was. really honest says spain's plastic waste problem has gotten worse since march when the corona virus outbreak began. in the middle of everything's got west since the pandemic started using less disposable plastic packaging but now spanish people are buying even more plastic wrapped items because they're scared of getting infected disposable plastic perhaps a common in supermarkets of their lights an easily swept away. that endemic has led to a waste crisis now even environmentally conscious consumers feel safer buying plastic wrapped products. here 200 kilometers further south near the city of i met the spanish farmers are growing

bell peppers and melons under vast plastic sheets. some of them disposable old sheets illegally but catching the culprits is tricky. we managed to find a former farmer who was willing to talk about the problems. he was growing crops is their livelihood but images like these tarnish their image a few farmers are ruining everyone's image but i'd like to. know and his colleagues from the marine conservation organization from our study what happens to plastic waste in the sea. they take samples to have them checked for tiny plastic particles . it i mean these substances are toxic. they are poisonous chemical products that break down in the sea should not only be concerned about plastic bags floating around. the tiny

plastic particles you can only see under a microscope or even more dangerous. team have their latest sample examined at a lab. and they find yet more plastic particles. the plastic passes through the food chain through fish and ends up in your body used to him you also absorb it through our skin when we swim. we're basically contaminating yourselves. plastic waste in the sea poses a serious health risk to humans and animals alike. that's why leon i began to spend so much time cleaning up. she says the pandemic shouldn't serve as an excuse for us to produce even more garbage she says protecting the environment also keeps us hoping. that this was one of the 2 are connected in some way i mean that if we destroy the environment we also endanger our own health we are seeing this now join coronavirus pandemic that we're not thinking ahead and not protecting the

environment and not treating animals like we should that's part of. the european union wants to cut back on single use plastics but these days due to the pandemic the very opposite is happening. it takes some 500 years for these materials to decompose so they'll be with us for generations. but let's speak to young pay to share more. of the institute for applied ecology then thanks a lot for joining us so we saw in our report people are choosing plastic packaging for their food because they think it's safer given the pandemic i mean is there a danger that this pandemic is making our day to day lives less ecologically sustainable. well 1st of all thanks for having me on the show it of course you're right that people restrooms small businesses with a lot of custom interfaces use more disposables now than they used to directly

before the open denecke but there's of course also another part of the story in that is that we saw a lot and steal a lot of changes of patterns of behavior and consumption that actually moved with no sustainability starting with food in germany for example the consumption of regionally and you can logically produced food has increased during the pandemic of beneficial for the environment we saw lots of changes some ability patterns less business trips less commuting to work more home office some of those probably will be maintained after the pandemic and of course due to lock downs which is not a positive thing for the economy and for the humans but nevertheless consumption production went down and therefore also energy use raw material use and therefore it was something with stress on the environment went down so overall i would say it's more the opposite that we didn't see batons change the way that our

environmentally more destructive although disposables as probably one point where it did yes last in terms of individual behavior but by the way can we say that this pandemic has been good or bad for the environment. i think that rest still to be seen in the immediate effect as i said consumption production went down there was no at travel for some time many factories went on on leave pretty much put their people on leave didn't work and so it was like a pause for the environment for the stress on the environment in most areas and but is it it is with a pause button if you push play again and then the question is whether the situation will be different so that depends a lot on whether companies and governments will rethink their business models or their investment support and change things for example in fashion and we've

heard from some companies saying they do too resilience questions of the value chain will move away from fast fashion in faster than is nothing else than disposable fashion and therefore and it did for mental to the environment if you look at how much water cotton for example needs and a t. shirt so the question will be how many actors in the economy and from the government side will change their way of doing business here in terms of governance as they say to get economies going again what sort of things should they be bearing in mind. well 1st of all it's totally understandable that they have to look at easing the burden for particularly of the social disadvantage socially disadvantaged and that the pandemic and the lock downs bring about the same time now taking money for recovery packages they should look into where they invest and

there of course they should invest in more sustainable technologies we have a lot of transitions in the energy sector and the transport sector and the agricultural sector in the building sector we need to move to a circular economy in all of these areas it would be helpful and oriented towards the future if governments use their money to support business models of the future that means electric fields for example in the transport sector that means thinking about how to encourage me for bushing of homes and developing weren't sustainable construction materials that means to move in the average altschul sector away from quantity to quality all these are things that they should incorporate into and we cover it packages many do more so than in financial crisis about 10 years ago but still not enough if you compare how much money goes into clearly environmentally beneficial investments compared to the classical. business models that it is not

enough given the urgency that we have in all those sectors. channel from the institute for applied ecology thanks a lot for joining us and now one of your questions to our science correspondent eric williams. how hopeful is the drug interferon beat when it comes to fighting covered 19. interferons are proteins produced by the immune system play a key role in communication in the body during a viral infection they they warn cells that an invader is on the loose giving them time to to ramp up additional defenses and there's evidence that one reason covert 19 can turn so serious is that sars cove 2 seems to suppress interferon production in some way early in the infection process the immune system is correct to slay complicated in the best description of it i've heard compares

the many complex interactions between different molecules and cells 2 to a ball of spaghetti so it's hard to nail down exactly what's going on but the suspicion that interferon production is being turned off that's led researchers to look at whether giving interferons to patients there a pew to clean might lessen kopek 1980 back in july a british company testing inhaled doses of an interferon called interferon beta reported in a small scale study that giving it to early stage patients cut their chances of developing severe breathing difficulties dramatically and it significantly reduced their hospital stays the company is now in further testing with the compound other research indicates that the timing when exactly these signalling protein is

administered that that could play a very key role in how the body reacts to treatment with it so so to answer the question researchers are quite hopeful that interferon bedo will prove as a. active as as early testing indicates but but we're still waiting for more detailed results that's all from us about. the protesters founded for decades. but the elite sudan in southeastern turkey is now in operation. and the ancient city of husain cage has been flooded. only in order to meet energy demands or to crittenton the supply of water to neighboring iraq close on. next on d. w. . a female road. more

and more women in the indian state of maharashtra are becoming lawn tennis in marjah and they're taking a sustainable approach to land. for the environment i'm stephanie see. in 60 minutes on t.w. . didn't beethoven invent chairs to dig deep to do. might he be the shooting. only romance of stolen beethoven. it was course the subconscious always. the good self without the biggest

composer of all time i can't even begin to imagine a world class horn player sara willis on a musical journey of discovery. world with all 3. this week on w. a sinking city for thousands of years legal have lived in the ancient town and his son caves. thank you for really good after the water submerged house on cave the town with its people wildlife and traditions ceased to exist it just disappeared to her she made it to the town was evacuated for it was swallowed up by the waters of the river tigris the reason why tens of thousands of people lost their home it is

a huge down. it's literally like hell the earth and subdue it is you know in the sense of the wreckage of the carport. figure out so tell was called paradise garden when we visited him in january 2020 it was a paradise in ruins the route was dismantling the prefab sections of his hotel in the hope of rebuilding them elsewhere because here the river tigris was rising fast if left he said the building would be under water within a few days. or more of a bit of you know when i think about the future of my business i feel very pessimistic. a big part of me just wants to withdraw that's how i feel right now

my normal willpower and energy to do things has gone. was witnessing the destruction of his hometown. the ancient town has sunk a few was in the region once known as mesopotamia considered the cradle of civilization in just a few months most of the town in the tigris valley would be a sunken treasure like a real life atlantis residents were not consulted about the controversial dam beforehand. rivers the water is right there it's been raining and now we have snow to. see roads dogs manchu into cairo grew up in paradise garden they seemed confused

about what was happening to their home in the booth. school for 12 years fear outs hotel was open for tourists. the sun case and the surrounding land of ancient mesopotamia was inhabited for many and. numerous advanced civilizations left their mark on it this true many travelers who passed through turkey's southeast to her son cave and many came to fear out paradise garden. this was filmed in the summer of 2018 when fear rats hotels still looked like its name. he already knew then that his garden of eden would soon be lost. but he couldn't bring himself to believe that.

those who. use to move. in by the start of 2020 it had become a sad reality. here out says a sign cave in the tigris valley has been declared a world heritage site. according to the study the town fulfilled 9 of the 10 unesco world heritage criteria. it seemed predestined for the recognition. but the government in ankara had no interest in applying.

back in the mid 1990 s. the town was as yet on touched bucky ologists where in chanted with the sun case this mausoleum was built by a turkish ruler to his son after he was killed in battle in 473. the mosque and minaret on the banks of the tigris reportedly date by. back to 1409 researches found artifacts in the ground suggesting that the area was home to a number of different civilizations people are believed to have inhabited the tigris valley as far back as 12000 years ago. even in modern times many residents of hassan cave lift from farming fishing and traditional handicrafts . the town was famous for its neolithic caves carved into the rocks along the riverbank. families lived in these caves until the 1960 s.

when most moved into houses they built for themselves. the cliffs became a historical site and were placed on the preservation order in the 1980 s. . but some families continued to stay in the caves right up until the 1990 s. as they gave welcome response from the hot summer sun. no one knows how many generations found refuge in these rocks from the rain sun heat and cold. but the fate of the caves this decided when it became clear that they could pose a risk to the state's plans to flood hundreds of square kilometers of land. some of the caves go deep into the rock the concern was that if the rising river tigris flooded them the whole cliff side could collapse so 2 years were spent filling the caves with deborah and sealing them off with

a massive stone wall. a radical intervention in nature. the idea of building a dam on the tigress is nothing new politicians in far away and korea 1st considered it decades ago the river euphrates. it has a number of downs as do many of the other rivers that flow from the mountains in eastern turkey heading south but none of these projects destroyed so much land in one fell swoop as the elisa dam on the river tigris. through. the. iranians it may have shown us on care you can see how some caves back their disease or something and you can already see the beginning of the reservoir here. that isn't a river it's the reservoirs. i

thought it was he was literally like i feel the earth and subdue it you know one in the sense of directed toward the end of the sun the so often does was when you just look at it all around everything's been turned upside down blocked off. it's just brutal out it's just so thick you would lose a shy man is a conservationist he's been coming to hassan kay for more than 15 years he's stunned by what it's become for the turkish government commissioned a huge damage around 60 kilometers downriver it's still unclear what long term impact this project will have on nature here and on local residents. is that this is a when you 1st look at this is it. the mice in the trees you see a way most people would think nice. about this is that sacred but actually it's

a crime i thought when you think about what the water has covered. right here one of humanity's most historic settlements. haasan cave is now submerged it doesn't care if. you can just see a few caves poking out of the top but that's all that's left of the central caves and also the architectural structures like the old bridge pillars that were around a 1000 years old are gone. there's a boat that was the bridge for the silk road the original site road as of. this graveyard would be the next victim to go under. local residents came to see it one more time before it was engulfed by the reservoir. which it was you're. seeing this makes our soldiers burn i come from his son came we had a house and garden here and now it's all gone our youth has been lost but i'm. sure

they're going to be. the one grave there belongs to my father the other to my mother my brothers and i discussed it and decided to leave the grates here that i'm a little banished of the duty of the survival of. man met surtax blue check who spent a part of his life in germany. it's such a shame. actually it's more than a shame it's a crime against humanity for press. and the mantra that i can help you all right since being in turkey i've shown down my language it's a crime yes a crime you can say that. there was opposition to it in turkey but it didn't change anything unfortunately not. quite think that was the start of this whole thora tarion regime it started with nature. and the.

man was a key figure in mounting resistance to the dam. in 2008 he worked for the mantra that hampson foundation the german conservation great news one time he got turkish cup saying that i can to visit husain cave and draw attention to the town's plight he also organized a number of other. test initiatives. german green party politicians chambliss timea and inflate also for to save this unique cultural landscape there were repeated rallies and protests against the dam in 2018 the police used water cannons to break up one of the last 2 large protests that made me morris arrests.

last spring hassan case downfall was drawing this it has residents from the surrounding region came to the town at the weekends to see the rising water level by mid march when the spring was just beginning the waters had risen considerably the impounded river was barely flowing anymore causing garbage and greed to build up. the bridge that link test case with the dwellings on the other side of the tigris was already submerged. caused. a television broadcast from northern iraq reported live from the scene. one resident told the reporter how he was born in one of the caves in her son cave

river and i hand described the dam project as a massacre he said he didn't believe the state was that bothered about producing electricity and that it was more about driving the people away from here. for almost 30. their goal is to clear all the towns in this northern part of mesopotamia. or they're not interested in producing energy they could do that with wind or solar power. and if they would restore the historic monuments for the tourism industry they could earn 10 times what they're getting all. this area is also one of the most fertile regions in the world. they could earn money from that too. but they are determined to clear this area. but my impression increasingly is that this is all driven by security concerns.

and i hand suspicions are not unfounded. in 2006 wretched tire attended the ground breaking ceremony for the elites who down he was prime minister at the time. from the very start it was clear the dam was about more than elektra city the decision to build it was made by the national security council which includes the turkish military members of the government admitted that the dam which is 130 meters high and 1.7 kilometers long was designed in part as a safeguard against the band couldn't stand worker's party or p k k a designated terrorist dog. my station.

this reservoir that formed as a result of the dam cuts off routes used by p.k. k. militants. for decades the kurdish fighters have come from iraq crossing the mountains into turkey before there were points where the tigris the shallow enough for them to cross easily allowing them to launch attacks on turkish soil in their long running battle with ankara. the wider reservoir is designed to prevent that which held $199.00 towns and villages have had to be fully or partly evacuated for the course more than $60000.00 people have lost their homes. and it's not just the tigris that's affected the year now sue and boateng rivers that flow into the tigris from the north have also expanded making them almost impossible for the p.k. k. fighters to cross. while we were that turkish fighter jets passed over her son case i thank her a spite against the p.k. k.

has shaped life in this area for decades. you. this tree was 60 years old according to firat he says he often rested in its shade and ate the walnuts it provided. would be so green like his hometown the sun caves the trees have to die before it's time. for the creatures come into the world live and then have to die. but just imagine you speak to a friend and half an hour later you hear that he's been killed in an accident. you

hardly know how to get over it as i guess there's nothing you can do to change it but you can't point believe it either. and then the island and you know more. ference says the state never consulted the residents of her son cave or the many other towns and villages affected but that's how it's always been in turkey se he says they've always had to give way when the state turned up and tolerate the arbitrary decisions made by ankara was a. more plausible doesn't cave has been under preservation order for 35 years because of its historical significance since then we haven't been allowed to erect even a garden shed some families had 10 people living in one house because it was forbidden to put up any new buildings and now the same people who didn't allow us

to build have decided to destroy the lot and cover it with water to lift your. spirits neighbors also cut down their trees before they left would just highly sought after in this impoverished region most of the residents of her son cave have tried to take a pragmatic approach to the situation. and many are of arab or kurdish descent there in the minority in turkey and have learned to live with the poor treatment they sometimes experience at the hands of the state. on. by this point all the bridges the nearly all access roads to her son case were underwater. has done cave was left as a ghost town the residents had taken anything that could still be used from their

homes windows doors and steal. the controversial nature of the dam prompted the governments of germany switzerland and austria to withdraw credit guarantees for the project in 2009 nearly all companies from those countries subsequently quit but even that didn't change the projects course the turkish government funded the dam by itself undeterred by the opposition you. mean as if it does not before i still think it's right to stand up against projects like these and to do something is wrong even though it was always clear to me that there was a high probability our attempts to stop this would fail and was always months when you totally commit yourself to a cause like this. you have to be prepared to lose i've often asked myself whether i could have done something differently. something that might have achieved

a different result i would. but even today i have no real answer to that kind of has to go on for it. ok that's what it looked like the minaret here is gone. these were the old bridge pillars that were once part of the silk road they're over 1100 years old the minarets gone up here there was a stork's nest this. thinks that back in the 1950 s. when turkish engineers 1st considered building a dam here the goal was no doubts to produce electricity but today in the age of wind and solar power it's no longer a convincing argument he believes there are more wide reaching geo strategic interests at stake but the legal counsel leaves you damn allows the turkish authorities to control the water and to decide when and how much to let iraq out or

and i've often heard of that argument in the media and also from government representatives where they say iraq has the oil but we have the water let's see who lasts longer richard. palace security strength with all these factors seemingly involved the turkish government sees the project as a huge success the residence of her son cave at the very least divided in their opinion. they've been relocated to the other side of the tigris river to new hassan caves built from scratch in record time. but the turkish state didn't want to surrender everything to the floodwaters some of the town's historic monuments were transported to the other side of the tigris

they were set up in a museum park on the edge of new isaan caves. the turkish government says this way tourists can still come and admire some of the town's cultural treasures. observers said it looked as if her son caves organs were extracted and trying. planted the ancient structures made it to their new home intact but the soul of the old town was lost.

not everyone can afford a house in the new town residents received compensation for the loss of their homes and access to low interest loans but they all had to pay for their new house is long established his son kaye families who lived in rented accommodation were entitled to a house but they too had to buy it single people had no right to a home in the new town. both his son case was colorful and oriental in keeping with its surroundings whether that will ever be true knew his son cave is doubtful. it was full when the state began pushing residents to move applying subtle pressure now after the summer holidays the school in old has sunk a free maimed and unexpectedly shot without any prior warning parents were told

their children would have to go to school a new has son cave so they relocated bringing not only their possessions but also countless bottles of water. or you would. walk. to the local easy we had no choice the children have to go to school but there's no running water here so we brought water with us every 2nd or 3rd day we have to fetch water. almost forces the kitchen really cold. well 1st released come in and take a look we had everything painted. that it was from live in the water boiler is fitted outside. we had the molding stone ourselves but it's the ship to see. this the fish there will be 4 of us living here.

on the ship the average haasan k. family has 6 to 7 people. all so we're a small household which. isn't particularly guy in this one. bullishness of the world there is no supermarket here for a bakery. and many of the houses have no running water. when people want to take a shower they drive back to old hostile cable ship shape you know. all those who were able to get a house have now come to new hassan cave and they have running water now to tourists from a broods have largely stayed away. the new market hall office the same see the need is that there's no one to buy them. either if you can but yes which will be high up obviously we'll have to stay here now and our living conditions will be nicer than before. but it's not clear whether we'll be able to earn what we used to spot on

the street but we have nice houses and nice shops but people here live from 2 risen and we don't know whether that's going to work out any laws on their big mysteries in the class even if the tourists return reasons it doesn't have the same atmosphere here. met i hearn on the other hand supports the dam wholeheartedly he says that he too lived in the caves as a child and is grateful that those days are now over. turkish and for internists will come. they'll be able to swim in the reservoir and immediately get dressed afterwards because the water is so clean. and the water will be colder which means we'll have more fish fish don't grow to the same size in warm water the fish will be better quality. will profit from that and then the

tourists will return to. that not everyone is convinced by hans arguments at least not those who worked with it was a shy man and figure out are going to try to stop the dam. has lost a few kilos over the whole stress of seeing his home town disappear. and caro his black dog was not happy in knew his son case for out says he's now moved to the mountains with a shepherd. but his white dog much ohad to find a new friend. thank you here in song to be honest after the water covered her son cave the town with its people or the wildlife and traditions ceased to exist it's gone and now a new system is beginning here the only advantage might be that people are better

off economically for. economic value. favorite shows his friends the place where he plans to build his hotel the prefab sections from the old assange case they're waiting for. that says the new building should be ready before winter. but his paradise garden is lost forever.

to a female or rather. more and more women in the indian state of maharashtra are becoming lawn tennis in march. and we're taking a sustainable approach to land. for the environment i'm stephanie said. in 30 minutes on d w. 2 brothers exploring the lake i just want to leave this village once enclave like you don't even know what it looks like further up the river. our. brothers on a journey it seems there are many different worlds on this planet each one has its . own people coming of age in the caribbean amazon. 75 pounds on w literature invites us to see people in particular. i like to see how

some of the kids find strength growing up her. might try to. work. on youtube. this is news and these are our top stories european union foreign ministers have failed to agree a package of sanctions against leading belarus officials that's despite a personal plea from the country's main opposition leader svetlana taken off sky travel to brussels to urge the e.u. to sanction president lukashenko.