proceed to sponsor my child to confront my medias on policies and events then put the spotlight on issues that matter most. to security question nationalisation. to not have to achieve that so much more needs to be john and i think people have to be a concrete solutions my name is on me and i will continue. facebook faces its toughest battle yet u.s. prosecutors accuse it of being a monopoly and ask the courts to break it up we'll examine what's at stake for the tech giant just how the tables turned against it. also in the show europe rushes to keep the money flowing leaders across the block out there on thursday to discuss how to cushion the blow of ongoing lock downs. and you'd never guess that air b.n.

b. was one of the hardest hit companies by the pen demick it's now poised to have the biggest i.p.o. of the year. walking the show i'm sitting beardsley in berlin it's good to have you with us u.s. regulators and top prosecutors in 46 states have joined together to file separate antitrust lawsuits against facebook they allege the company used its dominant position to crush or buy smaller competitors a significantly the suit would divest the company of its major acquisitions instagram and whatsapp the legal action follows a similar suit against google and comes amid growing bipartisan calls in the u.s. for more oversight of big tech firms. facebook's growing dominant has long been a phone in the side of the u.s. government. now citing breaches of antitrust law washington wants the company to be forced to sell off instagram and whatsapp by using its vast troves of data and money. facebook has squashed or hindered what the company perceived as potential

threats. reduce choices for consumers they stifled innovation and they degraded privacy protections for millions of americans. facebook a quiet photo sharing platform instagram in 2012 and put just messaging service whatsapp in 2014. technically so closely linked to facebook divesting would pose some serious challenges or of more on this let's bring in our financial correspondent in frankfurt chelsea delaney. fair to say that facebook facebook has faced plenty of legal and regulatory actions in its past. what makes this different right now this is a major escalation in terms of the pressure on facebook they have faced investigations in the u.s. and abroad particularly for their their use of data and their involvement and use

as a lection meddling tool in previous elections but this is the 1st time facebook has had an antitrust lawsuit brought against it by the united states and what the federal trade commission the regulator in the u.s. is seeking is really to break the company up they want facebook to divest what's up and stir crabbe and that would be a huge huge problem for facebook it's they said it's an axis central threat to them and it's been called the nuclear option by analysts and investors so it's unclear if the f.t.c. will actually get away with it with breaking the company up there are it is a quite a difficult legal argument and it's not something that's been done with tech companies like this but there they clearly are facing potential big changes to its business you know why are regulators choosing to do this now and not years earlier when facebook actually acquired these companies. and that that's been facebook's defense to this lawsuit is that the f.t.c. the u.s. regulator did approve its acquisitions of what's happened and ceramic had

a time to review these and it gave it the green light so they say it's not fair for them to come back years later and say that these acquisitions need to be divested but what we've seen is really an unprecedented amount of concern about these about companies not just facebook but google amazon really all of these big tech giants as well so we've seen bipartisan support in the u.s. and really a global front that wants to change the way these businesses are working chelsea the lady in frankfurt thank you over to europe now where 2nd round of lockdowns is set to hit public budgets companies and workers hard e.u. institutions are now taking action on both the monetary and fiscal fronts in brussels e.u. leaders are meeting over the next 2 days to try and pass a $750000000000.00 euro recovery package as part of its larger 7 year budget and frank for the european central bank is expected to announce an extension to its pandemic bond buying program ahead of the e.c.b.

christine legarde once the bank to play an assertive role in the pandemic helping free up cash across the eurozone. we demonstrated that we were there to support the economy during the 1st wave of coron of iris we will be there for the 2nd wave which is underway and which by the way europe is now beginning to to to slow down and to reduce in intensity because of the new containment measures that have been taken but which are indeed affecting the economy as we speak i mean clearly all the p.m.i. numbers and all the latest developments that we are seeing are showing that the economy is still suffering r.t.c. chief christine legarde there at the beginning of the month so what concrete steps will the bank likely take today well observers expect it to extend its 1.3 trillion euro emergency bond purchasing program and to expand it for the 2nd time potentially by

a further 600000000000 euros and the goal is to keep borrowing costs low encouraging banks to keep money flowing into the economy and some top of the european union's emergency aid package for member countries of 750000000000 euros not to mention the individual member state recovery plants. earlier i spoke to gabriele felder meyer president of the kiel institute for the world economy i asked him what the e.c.b. can hope to accomplish with this move. the use it became create a situation which allows governments to borrow very cheaply and to increase the fiscal space of it so there is a role for the u.c. indirectly to help mitigate the current situation. it's been said that fiscal policy is really key to the recovery right now as opposed to monetary policy which you just mentioned there with that in mind how critical is the 750000000000 euro recovery package that's going to be debated and hopefully passed or supporters hope

it's passed today at the e.u. council meeting. so the what is really critical is the e.u. in the sense a signal that it is able to have a budget by the beginning of next year because the wider package is at stake it's not just the 750 billions over the ordinary 7 here's a multilateral financial framework. but to be honest you know those 750000000000 is a very big size of course part in the immediate crisis reaction this money will not come soon enough even if the decision takes place these summits payouts will probably only start to happen by the middle of the coming here and so it is not something that is there to immediately fight the recession in that sense it's more important for the national government fiscal space to continue with their

national fiscal programs. as i said the european response comes today to really make a difference in the credit crisis those national fiscal programs you're speaking of they often require taking on a lot of debt germany just raise its debt ceiling for 2021 and it's facing more criticisms for borrowing how concerned are you about more borrowing in germany. i'm not overly concerned to be honest in particular not for chairman he which for the 10 years before the crises really put their financial situation in order. germany can very well leave of that to g.d.p. ratio of 80 or 90 percent and even more probably that ever is not true for all your member states not for greece let's say or it's maybe even frons where as that goes up the interest rates probably will have to rate rise and create more for you

wages between the low interest rates in germany and the higher ones in the european periphery not a problem for charity but for other e.u. member states very much so. present at the kewl institute for the world economy thank you very much now to some of the other business stories making headlines. german travel operator 2 week says it's battling record losses due to the pandemic in the most recent financial year it lost more than 3000000000 euros pushing it to the brink of insolvency 2 weeks that's receive 1000000000 euros in german government aid on top of 3000000000 already given. britain has signed a free trade deal with singapore it largely mirrors an agreement that the asian country has with the e.u. it means businesses can continue trading under the same terms after the break the transition in covering almost 1000000000000 euros of bilateral trade. and this comes as britain's economic recovery almost ground to a halt in october as lockdown measures dealt

a blow to the hospitality sector official statistics showing g.d.p. rose 0.4 percent after expanding 1 point one percent in september that's the weakest growth since output collapse in april the 1st lock down. the boeing 737 max has officially returned to commercial service brazilian airline gold has become the 1st to use the model for one of its flights since the max was grounded for 20 months following 2 deadly crashes. through air b.n. b. is set to debut in the new york stock exchange on thursday the i.p.o. for the popular home sharing platform has long been anticipated and demand for its stock is high the company is now said to be pricing initial shares at $68.00 each up from a range of $44.00 to $50.00 just days ago. 2020 is been a difficult year for air b.n. b. after the coronavirus pandemic hit in the spring travel was severely limited by the knockdowns suddenly no one was booking apartments prompting the u.s.

company to lay off a quarter of its staff. revenues shrank in the 3rd quarter to 1300000000 dollars 18 percent less than the year before but air b.n. b. slashed costs pushing up net profit in the 3rd quarter to 2 119000000 dollars the only time that air b.n. b. has ever turned a profit hewlett company was helped by the easing of travel restrictions during the summer as customers turn to apartments over hotels for holidays and business travel the company was founded in 2008 and is one of the most popular travel companies worldwide with around 7000000 listings in 220 countries still air b.n. b. is not welcome everywhere there's an increasing number of protests like here in spain they claim they're being pushed out of their neighborhoods by air b.n. b. some cities are beginning to impose stricter regulations on the home rental company

. it's going to be a strange holiday season this year for many with the pandemic closing businesses and frustrating travel plans and get togethers but at least the gifts remain untouched right oh and not check out this toy store in madrid companies there are getting into the spirit of a viral holiday season several dolls incorporating the pandemic theme this year complete with face masks for the budding scientists there's even an anti fire all black kit. or it's going to be years remember that's it for me and the business team here in berlin as always you can find out more online at www dot com slash business check is on facebook and twitter i'm seriously thanks for watching.

the coronavirus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing does the latest research say. information and contacts. virus update. on d w. this is something doris and

i as a camper jurors are dealing with any more than i killed many civilians. coming becoming my father. i was a student i wanted to build a life for myself. but suddenly life became relish. providing insights global news that matters d. w. made for mines. just how many people are dying from. as it stands more than one and a half 1000000 people have died of. the world but official figures can only tell one part of the story that's why scientists are calling for certain types of data to be used to get more reliable numbers to help us better understand mortality in

the coronavirus pandemic. first off we take you to the russian city of where the discrepancy between the official coronavirus death toll and how many more deaths there are compared to last year is too wide to ignore. with a steady stream of corona virus dead speed is of the essence that the most every morning the team from the funeral agency. comes here to collect new victims of the pandemic 29 year old toure has been working in the funeral business for 12 years but he says he's never had to bury this many bodies. but for fortune one time there was a huge line of persons standing in line outside the morgue it was only then that people started to understand the death really come to. call the relatives of the body

of. this movie in the city of is only for people who died of corona virus or had contact with an infected person the bodies have to be sealed in plastic the coffins closed. many russians feel that dead should be treated with more respect for explains. some of their relatives are often more tense than usual because their dead are handed over to them in plastic bags. to open the bags so i tell them that right away some people cry and demand that we open the bags then i have to explain that they could get infected themselves this virus is no joke. it's been difficult it. has been in the business for 7 years today he's in charge of the team of undertake has he says since the 2nd wave of corona virus there have been at least twice as many deaths in the city of funeral agencies have had

a tough time keeping up. we have work a lot more work over a 1000000 people live in the capital of the republic of. government statistics say that around 90 people in the region have died of the corona virus since the pandemic began but the official numbers also show that during that time of a force. 1000 more people died the nost year corona virus infections are spiking across russia but insist the situation is under control. the undertaker. today unicode sloth and his team are in tearing a 92 year old woman she didn't die of the coronavirus that means her relatives can say their final farewell with an open casket which is the tradition in russia. usually funerals a big family affair as in russia but the pandemic has changed that people are often

worried about getting infected and stay away. so far no one in your research team has caught covert he can only hope it will stay that way. people say if it's decided up there think she'll get run over by a street car you won't drown fate is fate if the coronavirus is of my faith it will pass me by. her with me will produce. the next day the teen prepares for 4 more funerals and his colleagues hardly have time to worry about their own health at the moment they're just too busy. loss of esther guard joins us now he's the project coordinator of. of course stands for european mortality monitoring welcome to you we've just seen a new daily record of coronavirus related deaths here in germany totaling 590 why do you think that number has gone up so sharply considering run the 2nd wave. i

think the most what we're seeing is a very widespread transmission of call it 19 in germany and in many other european countries that is now reflected also in. group mentality. but how do you think the numbers will develop further or have we already seen the peak and they're really good question so if you look at what we experienced in the 1st wave in in march in europe we saw a very rapid. increase in much energy within a few weeks and a very vetted decline after the lock downs then we saw a very quiet period during the summer in most european countries but since around september october in the in europe many countries have seen. gradually increased in transmission not only in small local areas but widespread in the country and this

is now reflecting in a gradually increasing excess mortality and you not sure yet when this will peak exactly exactly because i hope that with the increased restrictions we're now having in many countries in europe we will also see in our ethnic line again in what else but we're not sure yet can you please clarify for our viewers what exactly is meant by excess mortality. yes oh except matelot is more deaths than you would expect normally from previous years of mortality so you're you calculate the the expected everett's based on previous numbers and you can adjust for seasonal variations and then you see the difference from what you observe in the current time current week and you compare what we would you expect and that is what we define as the excess morality and under situations when you

have public health events that that excess must help so you can keep it to that event which is now 1000 and you don't have actually other public health then it's always been asians that quest name this mentality so what you see is really a true picture of the original much healthier from 1000 europe now we've borrowed a graph from the organization showing deaths in iraq from 2017 to 2020 were noticing in particular to market peaks one from a severe flu season and 2018 and one in the 1st wave of the corona virus earlier this year this means corona virus is definitely deadlier than the so doesn't it how deadly is it exactly according to data yeah certainly we see normally during the inference the season in europe we see excess mortality and the example you show is from live very bad flu season in 1718 which was quite bad

but the p.p. saw in the 1st wave could be 19 are many times higher the most healthy is is minute and higher than in the west. in fact this is the scene so is particular the group of. 65 years ago. it is it is at least $44.00 times worse than in the bad $1718.00 season and it is more than 20 times worse than the might influence of seasons so it's very significant extra mattel's he was enjoying could be 19 compared to a normal winter season. now the pandemic has gone on for the better part of a year we've all changed our behavior in a way to prevent more covert 19 deaths we're all wearing masks and social distancing has that had any impact on the number of deaths for other infectious illnesses like the flu yeah certainly we have seen

a very dramatic decline in other respects sorry infections. in france and unexamined denmark we have seen a steep decline in 1000000 jackies cases so that will last to reduce much help from those of the victims. thank you dr loss of us or guard he's the project coordinator of euro momo or european mortality monitoring we appreciate your analysis today thanks very much welcome up next our science correspondent derek williams answers one of the questions you've sent in. what is the distinction between of vaccines efficacy and its effectiveness. every branch of science has its own vocabulary and these 2 words from pharmacology have been used confusingly and often interchangeably in the last few months although they mean different things for the general public efficacy is the less familiar term it

describes how well a drug or a vaccine works in a controlled environment that's been designed to give clear answers that's because in the best of all possible worlds an independent team should be able to take an efficacy study conducted trial in the same way and reach the same results so some trials like the covert 1000 vaccine candidate trials will have some baseline parameters for example they do things like exclude test subjects with preexisting medical conditions the fundamental questions are does the candidate work in healthy people safely in the doses that we're administering and if so does it also appear to protect at least those groups of people from contracting the disease effectiveness on the other hand describes how the same vaccine will perform when

it's released into the wild if you will out there in the real world when it's given to people on a much wider scale this aspect of vaccine performance is also monitored of course after approval is granted but they did takes a lot more time to gather and to study effectiveness numbers for covert 19 back scenes will almost certainly vary from the efficacy numbers we've been hearing about lately in the news they'll be different in people in different age groups for example. and although we're optimistic that current candidates will indeed protect a high percentage of people in the general public who receive them don't forget that calculating both efficacy and and effectiveness requires a sort of statistical sleight of hand because after all you're trying to figure out

how many people didn't get a disease because they received a vaccine or or to flip that idea on its head what might have happened had they not been vaccinated and that's a pretty slippery concept. now if you have a question for derek just send an e-mail to feedback taught english at the w dot com and type expert in the subject line and thanks for watching.

them on to make. crimes are commonplace in the west country. drug lords biased legal system and corrupt politicians are responsible to. move. things around the

bias against the out family and $13.00. to the conflict teams of joe biden move to the white house next month. so with his party feet devising how the democrats really celebrated my guest this week from washington is democratic congresswoman debbie dingell is guiding the man with a vision of the struggle sympathies to show his politics and crises trump really fucking conflicts of. hunting minutes. by calling me and i'm game did you know that $700000000000.00 land animals are killed worldwide each year but it's not just the animals total suffering the school

environment if you want to know how away flicked off the crease alcohol shows strange to us as anything to listen to our podcast on the green funds. frank food can help watch international gateway to the best connection self in the road and rail. located in the heart of europe you are connected to the whole world . experience outstanding shopping and dining offers and try our services. be our guest at frankfurt airport city managed by from.

this is g w news wire from berlin and germany's coronavirus numbers take a worrying turn for the worse the head of germany's disease control agency raises the alarm as new infections hit another record high and the death toll mounts what's the next step for decision makers leading the response. also coming up still no breaks of.