beethoven is for. the top of his 43. beethoven 2020 the 250th anniversary year on d. you. do coronavirus cases soar in germany raising the likelihood of wider more serious lockdowns across the nation with major consequences for businesses and employees look at what it might mean for europe's largest economy. also on the show as breaks in trade talks go on without agreement britain's farmers wonder whether they'll still be in business 3 weeks from now. and cuba gets rid of convertible currency telling everyone to use the peso even as its value plummets lower welcome to the

show and see beauty in berlin. or christmas lock down a worst case scenario becoming more likely in germany as the pandemic remains unchecked a recent restrictions on public gatherings that the government called a limited lockdown have not led to a decrease in coping 1000 cases with the number of new infections reaching almost $30000.00 on friday bringing the current number of total cases in the nation to nearly $1300000.00 brylin is now looking at more restrictions which are likely to further slow its economic recovery after a steep drop in the 2nd quarter germany's gross domestic product recovered strongly in the 3rd quarter growing by 8.4 percent now official projections for the 4th quarter were for a fall of merely one percent but even that might be too optimistic now as any new complete lockdown across the nation is almost certain to have devastating effects on the entire economy. now for more on this let's bring in our financial correspondent in frankfurt chelsea delaney. what has the lock down looked like to

disappoint on german streets and how is that likely to change. well so far in particular the retail sector has been doing ok here in frankfurt we have one of the biggest and busiest shopping streets and germany called the sile and it's been pretty much packed every single day but other parts of the economy and other parts of the retail sector have been ahead a lot harder things like small businesses small shops places that don't have much of an online presence department stores all of those have have really seen sales not recover since lockdown this is often measures were lifted and this summer and since then we have seen you know obviously online sales really booming here as well but of course if we do see a stricter lock down if we have to see businesses and shops close thought will be

really a devastating blow for many businesses especially these smaller shops and the department stores that have been hit so hard they were really counting on a very busy shopping holiday shopping season so one of the proposals now is to shut shop starting before christmas previously they had been looking to shut them after so that would be really a big problem for a lot of retailers here in germany right a very important critical time of year for retailers chelsea delaney there in frankfurt thank you. now for the broader picture let's bring cars in but just to converse for i n g in germany cars and looking at the german economy as a whole what kind of a setback would more intensive lockdowns bring. it would clearly push the economy further and contractions that we currently have a very tricky situation with the economy on the one hand side we have the manufacturing sector and the construction sector which started the 4th quarter extremely well exports as well so this industrial backbone is finally working again

on the other hand side we have services retail consumption which could be will suffer from the lock down so which means the contraction of before i would have expected media would have a one percent contraction and the 4th quarter will be will be more severe it still will be nothing compared to the contraction we saw in the 2nd quarter. our businesses and industries reaching their limits in any sense or are they in a position to tough it out for a little bit longer. i agree depends on which sector looking at if you look at the industry the industry is benefiting right now from from strong demand out of asia. they they will survive for a long a while even if we were to get a strip to lock down smaller businesses at retail businesses hotels culture. movie theaters they will to suffer and for them the christmas season is

extremely important when you look at the fact that also we expect it's a significant increase of bankruptcies in 2021 obviously the longer and the stricter any lochbaum lasts and will become the higher the likelihood of even more of bankruptcies next year and also a higher likelihood of off an increase of unemployment through germany's small and medium sized businesses often family owned called the middle studs you know they're seen as the backbone of the german economy and it seems like they survived the 1st lock down pretty well due to big cash reserves they've eaten through that in part i would imagine how do they look for a 2nd locked down period. obviously cash reserves have been diminished have probably and for some cases even evaporated. and the longer this is new look go last the current i think we're already talking about the christmas period so this is still manageable don't forget that very often also

the small companies send their employees into into a long christmas break so this is not going to be by the problematic part will be if it lasts longer than 3rd or 10th of general and then cash cash buffers are gone the demand is not around so this is a big risk for the recovery of the german economy in 2021 or a car suggest the chief economist that i and you germany think very much now we go to some of the other business stories making headlines. france is on a fee and britain's glaxo smith kline say that they're coping $1000.00 vaccines will not be ready until the end of next year this after interim results showed a low immune response and elderly people were the most at risk from corona virus. a u.s. regulatory panel has endorsed the buy on tech pfizer kovan $1000.00 vaccine setting up a formal approval by the agency as a whole the millions of doses are expected to be shipped across the country as

early as friday assuming a green light is the 1st western coated 1000 vaccines receive emergency use approval and has been approved already in the u.k. and bahrain and canada. it was the biggest i.p.o. of the year and it turned out to be even bigger than expected shares of the vacation rental company air b.n. b. more than doubling during the technology giant's long awaited market debut of values the company now at around $100000000000.00. or britain is set to leave the european union's trading roles at the end of the month and yet as negotiations go on no one knows what will replace them among those worst affected by the uncertainty are british farmers. these fields have been cultivated by monte andres family for 5 generations the farm of 18 right rex it he hopes to reclaim the freedom and independence of pre e.u. days wanted to take things back into his own hands just like boris johnson promised

but now with bricks it looming he says he feels abandoned by his government. well it's like driving into a fog with no law it's just me. i don't know i don't really don't know if you. could look at something of tell me what to do and i'll do it but there is no to think of just a lot of talk on the television but there's no what do we do. andrew's dream was for britain to become an independent trading power again after break sets . but independent still requires structure a framework. will there be trade agreements or not if you go to stand what it's doing at the moment it doesn't so we're on our own we'll go back to the wall again . but don't worry we'll you know we're we're resilient people and we know will come

through it. like i'm sorry no more. we trauma andrew brown forced to stay in the e.u. with its common agricultural standards. these are higher than those in the us the country boris johnson wants to close a trade deal with. a trade deal that could spell ruin for farmers like him. the way they treat their animals i think is absolutely appalling that they're saying they won't allow low standards food into the u.k. that is produced at lower standards than ours but they refused to put that into into law yet such a law would grant protection to british farmers brown and others like him simply can't compete with the low costs every industrial farming but so far only has

a vague promises and you guarantee that imports will have to be at the same standard that we grow yes absolutely there's no point in having only environmental and high animal welfare standards if you want to be undercut and ultimately if you have high standards here and then you allow food in from elsewhere you're not really contributing to animal welfare or higher environmental standards you're simply offshoring those low standards and that's wrong but with rex it less than 3 weeks away and actual long guaranteeing this has still not been passed. cuba will scrap one of its 2 official currencies in january meetings the devaluation of the remaining cuban peso at $24.00 to $1.00 u.s. dollars economists say it's a necessary if painful step and battling the country's economic woes but many fear speculation and inflation. cubans will soon have to get used to paying with just one kind of money the peso the communist government says doing away with the

convertible equivalent is about improving fairness. though it's already been said that this reform is not a magic solution to all the problems that are present in our economy however it will enable the creation of conditions necessary to end fans in a more substantial manner. they must. in normal shops people will only be able to use the peso doing away with the convertible peso which was pegged to the dollar but because the cuban government desperately needs hard currency a number of new dollar stores now offer household and other imported goods in exchange for dollars or euros this means fewer goods like these in other stores so retailers could theoretically increase their prices for scarce goods but shopkeepers are being warned not to stoke inflation. we

will not tolerate speculative pricing because it clashes with our coronavirus measures those not complying will face severe punishment. good short pictures from a in an issue in cuba whatever the currency the pandemic and related drop in tourism have hit the country hard whether pesos or dollars are in scant supply is essentially a moot point. and that's it for me and the business team here in berlin for more on these and other business stories you can check us out at the dot com slash business also facebook and twitter. is watch.

the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection in developing what does the latest research say. information and context the coronavirus update 19 settled. on t.w. . how does a virus spread. why do we panic and when will. just 3 of the topics that we couldn't read your blog is called spectrum if you would like

any information on the crown of irish or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you go your podcast can also find us at. science. millions of people are at risk of hunger because of the kovac 19 pandemic even in the u.s. and europe more and more individuals are relying on handouts just to get by as the coronavirus crisis hits their livelihoods have to come to these places or the my door says can eat is what saves me. going to found them while the disease doesn't discriminate the way it impacts disadvantaged. berfield societies inequalities.

this is the w.'s covert 19 special i'm joined on the pandemic has erased years of economic progress in many countries like instead the country is in its worst recession in more than 80 years and that's weighing most heavily on its people seemingly endless queues for food in madrid working class district off by your cash some people have been regulus at this food bank at a church for years but others are near. the been damaged has brought them here some are too shamed they hide from the camera so others speak for them. to give up that people here have been waiting to get minimum state subsidies for ages. and that people who apply for furlough in march and still haven't been paid. by one of europe's worst coronavirus outbreaks of spain's economy has been left chanted people know incomes migrants and casual workers have suffered the most

maria worked as a headdress or for the past 17 years that was until the pandemic as she her husband and their 5 children have hit rock bottom up almost as no not made of money before but we always had food there never in our lives did we imagine we'd end up like this. movie i was entitle to ply for late payments but she has had to wait too long for the money to come through. is that a lot for me i should think about the families we don't have food please don't forget us that the system is at a standstill and house situation is very bad i'm one month one month the government says it will extend the furlough scheme it has rolled out a basic income program but the process of getting benefits is highly bureaucratic and lengthy. and even with the money food to donations remain essential demand is soaring many people awful in through the cracks and have little to no financial aid

the spanish food bank federation's latest figures showed just how many people now depend on their help. it was almost nobody made up on the 1st part of the pandemic we had $1000000.00 beneficiaries. the now we're looking at 1000000 890000 you know me don't you think the whole in the moment the reality of the informal and the me. is a warehouse on the outskirts of madrid supplies 70000 kilos of food every day that's mainly paid for by government and e.u. aid these schemes have been extended and a recent can painful donations should ensure that the warehouse doesn't run out of store back at the church rather than santa needs more volunteers to fill the many trolleys and reduce waiting times they go from empty to full within seconds before they get to the waiting hungry. they've done some days during the economic i thought i'd make it home because there were but i was working at the speed of

a person who had aged 40 years of age but that doesn't stop him. one fool truly contains food supplies for a month including treats that families cannot now afford. over at all only when the children see the cocoa or chocolates they are very happy to have them but i think that because i can only buy the essentials for one thing that i must set ourselves. to condemn it has hit spain's already battered economy hard it's unlikely it will recover quickly enough so people may have to rely on food handouts from time to come. now as we saw in the report there the coronavirus pandemic has pushed many around the world into economic hardship now we want to look at the link between the coronavirus and social inequality. here to help shed light on that is nico dragon no he is a professor from the institute of medical sociology at heinrich heine

a university in design darth welcome to you now your research has focused on how social phenomenon like poverty affect one on a biological level what has the coronavirus taught you about kovi 19 and existing economic divides it shows us that. the corrupt demick has social inequalities mentioned when we look at the epidemic launch good date we see that poor people or poor countries oh poor area us says' high of. infections and we also performed some studies unsymmetrical disease and sound that group people have a higher is to have this. cause of the disease when getting infected it so we clearly see

a social gradient in the current condemning so basically we're looking at a situation where if you're poor you're already more at risk for the virus and if you do get the virus you may face even more economic pain is there a health policy answer to that kind of a vicious circle. so. that's hard to answer because 'd this is a structural problem we see it has and that quality is. the only. disease we studied so we see it in cut us killer diseases we see it in psychological disease and it's always there and we haven't found a proper response yet i guess it's quite important to notice that and saying strategically how can we handle this problem in the acute pandemic in the situation we are into now but we need

a long term strategy to reduce hats inequalities in all diseases in the long run but again these are law existing inequalities antiscience how much a strategic handling that you speak of how would that look like in practical terms . so i guess and the w.h.o. hats on ization gave us some good advice as there's a strategy called townson all policy is that means that the country should employ manned. ideas and strategies to improve pallets and all the policies and in particular to sing about how it's inequalities in discotheques for instance when you look at educational policy it's all right tex policies where the root of the inequalities lie you should consider that and you

need to implement this kind of sinking at this kind of strategy in all the policy years he's which shaped the social determinants of habits so there are some ideas but we need to implement them. can you give us any examples of strategies that one can employ in order to integrate the social component and fighting the pandemic what 'd seems to be promising and in my view is to focus on area neighborhoods because they. have to participation of the people who are mostly affected and you can change settings for instance in germany we observed that the ring discussed ways to put demick many structures which help poor people who were closest so.

they started to find your ways for instance online counseling or it worked was it was there they opened certain facilities only for for children from disadvantaged families and i guess this focus on area as neighborhoods and local communities. can be one chance to react quickly in the moment thank you very much nico giordano there for us he is a professor from the institute of medical sociology at university and goes on to thank you very much for your insights thank you. and now we come to that part of the show devoted to one of your son in questions about the coronavirus our science correspondent derek williams has an answer for you. after you receive a vaccination for kevin 19 can you still transmit the virus to it that's. the short

answer to this is that we still don't know at the moment but it's an issue that both drug developers and health care authorities have on their radar trials appear to have shown 90 percent or higher efficacy with at least 3 candidates so far that means that after tens of thousands of test subjects were given either the vaccine can do that or a placebo 9 out of 10 people who later caught coke at 19 were those who had been given the placebo and importantly at least with one candidate vaccinated subjects who who subsequently caught the disease they only had mild symptoms that indicates that vaccines can have positive effects even if they don't prevent infection completely and that really touches on the crux of this question we somehow have the idea that it's all or nothing with vaccines i mean either they protect you or they

don't right well wrong it's actually better to think about it more like a sliding scale remember in trials around one in 10 people who contract it coben 1000 later had actually received the vaccine and they might well have been infectious maybe others were as well and that's known to help powerful the immune responses and whether or not it can provide what doctors call sterilizing immunity which is whether the body can wipe out the virus before it really starts to replicate if a vaccine does. and prevent the virus from replicating but just neutralizes or or mitigates the effects of the disease then at least some backs needed people could in theory i'm still spread it out how many and how often we don't know yet but experts are hopeful we'll have

a better idea in the next few months. now if you have a question for derek just send an e-mail to feedback taught english at the dot com and expert in the subject line or leave a comment on our youtube channel thanks for watching.

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it makes us happy. and music makes us healthy. research shows that those who see regularly live. so sing and it will keep you good should. 90 minutes on w. . the power of words. where i come from i never saw the sun where it needs to. have gone up in brazil the sun was always a man since the portuguese word for sun it's masculine when i moved to germany as a 10 year old i wanted to come to it on t.v. that would change how i see the world because in german the sun was feminine.

see me now with the side of a good listener so i read upon a tale instead of a deep voice exterminate guy seemed absolutely incredible. i realized how language shakes the thinking how definitions are not only a mental image just put our whole perception of the world. is inside save my life and was one of the reasons i became a journalist i'm a storyteller and i use my words to help with intercultural understanding my name is the enemy and i work to tell people.

this is g.w. news live from berlin the e.u. agrees on more ambitious goals in the fight against climate change after all night talks the bloc decides to catch greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent this decade but will that shift be enough to make a real difference. also coming up germany's repertoire on a virus case count prompts calls for.