this is deja vu news live from berlin germany's record coronavirus case count prompts calls for tougher restrictions immediately. we have to decide not to go into a hard lockdown we cannot afford to wait after christmas. how soon could that decision be made. also coming up the e.u. agrees on a more ambitious goal in the fight against climate change after all night talks the bloc decides to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent this decade but

will that shift be enough to make a real difference. and gunned down in afghanistan a popular t.v. journalist dies in an attack in jalalabad she showed women that they too deserve to be part of the national conversation. i'm sumi so much going to thank you for joining us we start here in germany with the latest coronavirus numbers show a dramatic spike in new cases over the past day the country has had a new high of nearly 30000 cases and 590 people have died the highest daily total yet weeks of partial lockdown haven't slowed the spread of infection enough much tougher restrictions seem almost inevitable now with political momentum building for a harder lock down over the holidays. with only 2 weeks to go until. christmas the

looming question across germany is will a hard lock down come before or after the holidays. at its weekly briefing on wednesday germany's robert costa and sleeping russian exponential growth put into our story. the situation is especially problematic in assisted living facilities according to german authorities residents of nursing homes are at more risk than ever. currently we're seeing double the amount of outbreaks in assisted living facilities than in spring and every outbreak affects a lot of people are tough and. several german states are now considering tightening the measures already in place berlin's government is considering closing all non-essential retail before christmas the busiest period of the year winter break may be extended and schools could return to distance learning. below but i believe these 2 and a half 3 weeks will give us plenty of opportunities regarding disease control its. state leaders are now hoping to set out a coordinated plan in

a meeting with chancellor angela merkel. if you get a moment off and also a few minutes look at the ring looks likely to take place on sunday. we are very interested in getting together as quickly as possible in order to rapidly gain clarity about the path our country will follow you to open door at one point they're cute. in light of recent developments religious services over the holidays are also being scrutinized. i mean i mean these are if there is a possibility of a religious gathering endangering lives i'll be the 1st to call things off the mark on the so-called most wonderful time of the gear now marked by deep concerns a new lockdown in germany isn't a matter of if but rather when and let's get some more perspective now with dr toby escort's he is an epidemiologist and the director of the cherry tape institute of public health here in berlin good to have you back on the show 1st of all what do

you make of these numbers. the numbers are alarming as we have already discussed yesterday the numbers are high since days and weeks and we have to decide now to go into a hard lockdown now we cannot afford to wait after christmas people are seeing family members if you travel across throughout the country you see your family members members you put people at risk you put people at risk to get sick you could people at risk eventually dying we cannot afford this the numbers are far too high the hospitals are full and we know that 3 to 4 weeks after the cases that are infected now will appear in the hospitals so there is even a rise in numbers in the hospitals this is dramatically high we have to act now when we spoke yesterday the head of the robert cock institute warned that we could see exponential growth again have we already reached that point the point is not whether we see an exponential growth in a few days or tomorrow or the day after tomorrow the numbers are too high it is not

a discussion whether we see an exponential growth or not he needs to acknowledge the numbers are too high already why are we seeing such high numbers i mean what is the biggest source of transmission right now. it's a diffuse infectious. thing going on right now in germany where many things are happening often you don't even realize that you are affected and where you go and who you putting at risk so we cannot say says pacific city situation or to a specific hotspot so clusters this is a diffuse affection situation right now so we have to act and it's not possible to really plea and say people please stay home keep your distance is obviously not working if we take a look at why germany has gotten into the situation the country fared comparatively well during that 1st wave that the pandemic do you think that there was a false sense of security that has contributed to the spike that we're seeing now.

well we have to understand as you say that germany got lucky and we made it quite well through the 1st wave and then the summer months the warm weather helped as well so now obviously that was not enough we started with a light lockdown germany never had a hard lockdown where we actually are forced to stay home and now we're facing a situation where the numbers are dramatically high so we definitely have to act now and we're seeing more than sayd 500 people dying a day and yet there still hasn't been a decision made on a tough lockdown the next political meeting is supposed to happen as we heard this weekend do you think action has been taken quickly enough. and we discussing since many days we know since weeks that we facing a potential risk of having numbers the hospital or fall that the health care system is in danger and so i don't know why we're still discussing we having we have reached this point already so we need to act now to be escorted epidemiologist director of the sherry tate institute of public health thank you so much thanks for

having. well let's talk about the economic impact of all of this with stephen beardsley from business with us here in studio hi stephen you know german business groups economists they are warning about the effect that a 2nd tough lockdown would have on the economy how bad would it look well as we know it's true that german businesses are bracing for the 2nd lock down even before today it was clear that something was coming but now there's we've heard economy minister pitcher myers say something has to be done for retail it could be very bad as we know christmas is a very important time of the year for sales and many stores rely on foot traffic and that could be taken away right now we're hearing from large retail industry groups saying there should not be a generic lockdown across germany because different sectors are hits or different areas that you say are hit differently and they're saying that it could be as bad as $1000000000.00 euros per day for the entire sector if everything is closed down

and so that's significant a significant amount that's also it's significant pressure that comes on politicians we sold there with the mayor for lend saying we would like to close everything beginning december 20th well that's what 10 days from now 9 days from now and now we're hearing new urgency to begin to close things earlier so that's really going to take a toll on retail restaurants we've already seen bars they've been hit since early november and what do they get out of it they get a 2nd lockdown now so times are tough for them in terms of industry and manufacturing they've actually been able to pick up a good bit because exports have picked up the question is whether they will be able to produce through this next lock down in the same capacity whether exports will stay the same whether supply lines will stay the same and then of course unemployment is always a question that have been insolvencies a big insolvencies with a lot of unemployment what could the german government do to soften the blow if we do indeed see a 2nd tough lock down it has done well to this point actually it has helped through grants through loans by reducing the need for companies to go into insolvency what it has most recently done for restaurants and bars is it's actually guaranteed

a large portion of their sales that they would have law. lost in november since they were locked down 75 percent calculated on what they earn from the previous november that's not small and what we're seeing now is that the retail industry is now demanding the same thing they're saying if you're going to close us we want the exact same amount well that's a lot more money potentially and so we're not seeing agreement on that yet so there's a lot of pressure for more help coming there's also going to be a question about the small and medium sized businesses the family own manufacturers for example that really make up the backbone of german business they got through the 1st lock down pretty well because they had great cash reserves how are they going to fare through the next one that's going to be a question that's going to face the state do we have any idea what the german economy is going to look like after the end of this pandemic we know that of course many things are already changing some trends that have been happening anyways are speeding up when it comes to automation when it comes to home office when it comes to digital commerce but some of the things that may happen is that a lot of businesses because they've been so well so supported they may sort of be zombie businesses when they come out of this that is they don't actually have the

means to say alive except for all the state help and that means they're diverting resources and employees from other parts of the economy and that leads to an inefficient recovery another possibility is that because there's been so much state help the means more debt is taken on by germany and that means that taxes may need to be raised to help pay that back that's already in discussion more taxes of course could be a burden on businesses and so that is something that we should expect as well for the german economy stephen beardsley putting the economic impact into focus for us thank you very much. bunch of me still has a long way to head for a vaccine european regulators will meet just before the new year to decide if the biotech pfizer vaccine is ready for mass distribution but the government is already planning the task of how to deliver the vaccine across the country with some disputes arising did any of correspondent test reports. the of arena and berlin was well known for its rock concerts and techno parties now it's slated to house

one of 6 specks the nation centers and berlin so far there isn't much to see but everything is scheduled to be ready by mid december project manager but i promise convinced things were from smoothly. through this time the crosses we allow 4 minutes for each person to get in take of their coats sit down and roll up their sleeves then the vaccination team comes in they did in fact inject and put some cause on the wound the last step is the documentation that's it here the vaccinated people will then be looked after by doctors and nurses the patient doesn't have to pay their health insurance covers the costs 1st the elderly will be vaccinated then medical personnel than everyone else right now more than 300 of such backs the nation centers are being billed throughout germany the government hopes this system will simplify logistics and make it possible to vaccinate millions of people in the

shortest possible time people probably won't be able to get the jab from their family doctor until spring time before that they will have to go to the center. i think you have to wait for hours at the vaccination center thousands of people will be. if not don't care whether i get vaccinated at my family doctors or the vaccination center. also i would prefer going to our family doctor because they know about my medical history and will take any risks into account of my belief that doctors ability katzenstein agrees she was one of the 1st 1000000000 family doctors who specialized in treating culbut 9000 patients in 1000 people as part of her daily routine when it comes to cope at 19 she says she should be allowed to vaccinate and her own practice is. next a nation as a matter of trust it's important to know the patient because every patient directs

differently to unknown risks i think the general practitioner is best equipped to advise each patient in making a decision about the coronavirus vaccination she believes she and other family doctors in germany can head of the vaccination can. pain in the pendant as the him in my opinion the vaccinations and those were probably not necessary in france unvaccinated population using family doctors only by common germany. germany has opted for maximisation centers it's a bit of cuts and shine argues that the best answer is possible consultation to roads one go that's one thing as much of the population as possible as quickly as possible. let's check in now on some of the other developments in the pandemic french drugmaker sendo fi and britain's glaxo smith kline say their vaccine won't be ready until the end of 2021 interim results showed a low immune response in older adults australia has cancelled the production of its

$1000.00 dexie after some trial participants returned false positive tests for hiv and researchers say the global response to the pandemic has driven a record 7 percent drop in annual c o 2 emissions the un says it would have to continue to decline of that rate for the next decade to reach international climate colt's. well european union leaders have reached a hard fought deal to make dramatic cuts to the blocks greenhouse gas emissions after all night talks the member states agreed to reduce emissions by 55 percent by the end of this decade as head of the e.u. presidency german chancellor angela merkel welcomed the deal saying it had been worth staying up all night to clinch it the new target aims to reach net 0 emissions by 2050 e.u. council president shyly shows says it will make europe the leader in the fight against climate change well let's listen to what chancellor merkel had to say about the agreement. the green day used in kelly green deal is

a core project of ours we don't just want to impose a plan we want one that will take us into the future and that's something the commission will be paying close attention to as we are presenting our national program soon so the fact that we have now been able to commit ourselves just a day before the u.n. climate summit to a joint european reduction target of 55 percent by 2030 i consider that a very important result one worth losing a night's sleep over i don't even want to think about what would have happened if we hadn't been able to achieve such a result in the let's bring in our brussels bureau chief alexander phenomena who's following this story for us hi aleksandr what more can you tell us about the agreement that's been reached well the fact that the agreement was possible on a more ambitious targets to reduce queen. and missions is very significant

it is a big step forward this whole french president described it e.u. commission president was enough on the law and said in the press conference that this is putting europe on the right path to be carbon neutral by 2050 that this is going to give clarity to investor in this service and that this is our growth strategy in europe and as you just mentioned their leader is. acknowledge that they are looking back at very tough negotiations but until our merkel said that it was worth staying up the whole night to have this agreement and of course it is a huge success for her and the german e.u. council presidency there were some countries a member states that did object because they for example do rely upon coal energy so how did they manage to strike this compromise and convince them. so we talking here about hungry poland and czech republic who opposed to the plan saying that

they would need to more help to clean up their economies and in particular it was poland blocking this compromise or the plan until the last minute today the polish prime minister most of its key said that that there are hoping to go to get more money from them ordering these funds and i would say that what helps weaken the momentum in the end with the agreement on the budget and the e.u. could run the virus with cauvery pockets because in large amounts of this package are meant to be spends to boost the economy and to help member states so the struggling with the green transition. are brussels bureau chief alexander phenomena reporting for us thank you very much and another breakthrough to come out of that brussels summit an agreement on the e.u.'s 1.8 trillion budget includes hundreds of billions in coronavirus relief funds member

states poland and hungary initially blocked approval of that budget because it would have made it possible to stop payments to member countries that breach e.u. laws but a tough compromise brokered by germany ended the deadlock. and let's talk more about that i'm joined now by catalina bonnie's she's the vice president of the european parliament miss bonnie thank you so much for joining us here on d.w. are you satisfied with this compromise. well i'm satisfied that for the 1st time in history we have a very powerful link between the e.u. budget the financial subsidies and and the rule of law but we still have of course now we have a unilateral declaration by the council that china is well to give the impression that if we can see them but you have to bear in mind that

a unilateral decision cannot we can or are interpret differently an agreement that has been reached over ready between different partners it's as if you if you were buying a house and then after having sealed the deal you go to go to you or to your mother and say and i also got the car and the dot that doesn't change the contract you still only have the house and that is marvelous what happened here ok so that link is strong on paper but what about in practice because doesn't it allow this rule of law mechanism to be delayed while violations of the loss could continue. this is the only really serious point in this council paper that it's been all clear that the council paper that says that what the commission is going to do we will see but it says actually that the commission will not use this

mechanism until it has issued guidelines and still the european court of justice has decided on this nichols now this of course takes time but well 1st of all we have to see how the commission reacts to the ball is now and it feels and they have to act very very quickly this is all the handwriting of the 2 or one who is one of the most corrupt heads of government in the opinion and gives questions trying to fill his pockets and pockets of these care as long as possible. you said that this will take time and if you look at the reality you mention viktor orban and hungry right now hungary's already saying that's going to launch a case to a novice rule of law regulation ask the court to check whether it is in line with the u. treaties and that this could take 2 years so again can this really ever be effectively implemented. well i hope that hungary and oracle and

all whoever is going to ask they do can go to the justice to decide upon this because we need territory and then they can hide. behind any kind of propaganda or whatever because then we have a verdict by the european which is just that and it doesn't have to take us on the stats we have seen a lot of the european court of justice can act very quickly it can set its own priorities and if it is. more advanced procedure the average is only 10 months and not 2 years so we must say but after that once this has all been been cleared. then of course we have a very efficient meccans i just want to drill down on this question you are a germany's former justice minister and so if poland worked let's say tomorrow to the polish government to take a step that would then further erode judiciary independence in poland what could the european union do to combat that violation in the short term.

well in the short term i mean it is it is it it is a step that actually influences the european budget and it has to be probably we will have to interpret that also it probably has to be the new budget but as soon as they do that the european commission has the right to to actually take certain measures amongst them to freeze european means and so this is a very serious threat especially to these member states who who are great beneficiaries of european funding will have to leave it there are cut talking about a vice president of the european parliament joining us thank you so much for your insights. let's take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world argentina's

lower house of congress has passed a bill to legalize abortion thousands of pro and anti-abortion activists rallied through the night in buenos aires as lawmakers debated the legislation that has been pushed by president i'll bet the fed man this if the bill clears the senate it would make argentina the 1st major latin american nation to decriminalize abortion . hong kong media says say democracy activist jimmy lying has been charged on the controversial new security law he's accused of colluding with foreign forces and in danger ring national security law is the most high profile person yet to be charged under the new law police say see you will a face the charges in court on saturday. the trumpet ministration has allowed the execution of death row inmate brandon bernard it was the 1st federal execution during a presidential transition and 130 years and the 9th since president trump restarted federal executions after a 17 year hiatus his administration plans to run

a rush through another 4 before his term ends next month. which time magazine has named us president elect joe biden and vice president elect harris person of the year for 2020 they were picked ahead of health care workers battling the cobra 1000 pandemic the racial justice movement and president trump since 1027 time has been honoring the personal people who are most impacted the news during the calendar year. she was living the dream of many a young woman a high profile job as a t.v. anchor she knew it was a dangerous choice her own mother an outspoken advocate for women's rights in afghanistan had been gunned down 5 years before but. braved the threats and went to work and on thursday she too was shot dead in jalalabad but those who took her life could not a race the admiration of a nation. oh laura who are prayers for

a heroine hundreds came out to pay their respects to journalist my wand and her driver assassinated on their way to work. for many young women in afghanistan my one was larger than life a t.v. anchor in a country where 2 thirds of girls are barred from attending school. my one was also an advocate for women's rights and continued to speak out even after her own mother was killed for doing the same. but. then early thursday morning in this street she and her driver were ambushed by gunmen the attack was claimed by the militant group islamic state. where. my wand was a brave female journalist and. she was working for any local t.v. . but unfortunately today she was murdered by the enemies.

not only her family but all the women of our province are sad for. the. islamic state has claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks on civilians in afghanistan. as the u.s. draws down troops there and conservative militant groups resurge many worry that a life like my ones will once again become impossible. let's get a reminder now for our top story here on. germany has seen a dramatic spike in coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours a new record nearly 30000 cases was reported and another 598 people have died from pope in 1000 calls are growing for a tougher lock down drawing the holidays to curb infection. coming up next our health and wellness show in good shape looks at the human power of music

thank you for watching.

the chase. music. makes us happy. and music makes us healthy. research shows that those who see regularly live on. something and it will keep you good shape. d.w. .

the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. how has the rate of infection been developing. measures are being taken. what does the latest research search. information and context. the coronavirus update the code with special monday to friday on w. d t you know that 77 percent blockage are younger than thanks to fox. that's me and me and you. and you know what it's time all voices. on the 77 percent to talk about the issue. from politics to flash from housing boom boom boom town this is where they are. welcome to the

77 percent. this weekend on the g.w. . welcome to in good shape coming up. healthy hiking how to get the most out of the mountain trail. smile which dental bleaching method works best. and music is medicine the therapeutic effect of sweet sounds. i would welcome to it in good shape what i realize is that more and more people are wearing headphones why they are in nature but listen to this this is my music.

when i am by the sea i'm listening to the sounds of nature but i'm listening to music as well because music has a deep effect on us and our soul it makes us happy and it makes the set so let's focus today on music and on all the effects of it. we all know that feeling of listening to a familiar cheese and changes a particular sequence of notes and sounds can have a profound effect on our emotions and move us to tears of joy all sadness. but the kinds of music however might get us in the mood for dancing with an entire group of people but one of. the key is not going to heart music is a super stimulus that shifts off where you know with a range of areas working simle tenuously a long term memory for example can recognize music we've heard before and link it to previous emotional experiences. meanwhile the motor cortex is also

activated helping us to hopefully dance alltop our feet in rhythm. the limbic system determines whether or not we find the music appealing if we did the brain's reward system releases dope or mean the same homeowner so say to a drug consumption and sex whatever the trigger that makes us feel content. so far so good but wants us in music makes some people feel sad and of us happy is a mystery that has yet to be fully explained. near a scientist tom fritz has spent years looking into the impact of music on our emotions. clayton's not truly husic affects us from a very early age even in the womb because i don't think it's all there been tests involving say a mother to be who likes watching a particular t.v.

soap opera in one todd gun an obsession to see only a shower and pushed into soap and the amounts the child has been born they actually exhibit a preference for the music in that series because they're already familiar with us enjoy him for all of this. is the soothing effect of the melody from a music box or were toys suddenly to talk liz having learned that it's coming from the emotions that it triggers big spanked by something in the music itself to me. it's a question that led to a festive frets to visit the math for people and the remote daryn. terms of commentary. about of intimacy. what interested me was looking at the people they're grown up with no exposure to western music. and if they were then played say some piece of music from europe or north america with the stereotypical sound that we would call happy sad or scary would they still be able to gauge that same emotional

expression just on the i'm in design was sick. isn't and what anonymous. is experiment involved over 50 participants being played pieces of piano music it's in western culture express a basic human emotion happiness suchness off it. they were then asked to choose the photo with the appropriate emotion. and immense cases they chose correctly. scott and i. can be all kinds of factors at us just how. tired eyes of footlights one is that with certain emotions and the melody of language is often comparable between different cultures. from to nerds does work in similar fashion to languages so we also see that when we measure brain activity in here we see very similar networks

being activated and the processing of language and music it's remarkable. the suffering published in the us in 2018 showed a similar finding it appeared that individuals with higher empathy tended to experience a stronger emotional impact from music plus in their brains music also activated areas that are otherwise used for integrity in the behavior and intentions of other people so for those individuals music has a similar emotional significance to physical encounter. with their fellow human beings. if you hear a song just sing along because if you hear a song girl you will live longer and this is also true for guys in the 1996 readers scientists showed that people who sang on a regular basis may extend their lifespan up to 70 years and they live healthier

from the immune system and their culture of as good a system so those are good reasons to single. user phina and her mother are on their way to a speech therapist if you know was born with a heart defect that has delayed her development. and it's my can you pick up a b when the word being comes your subpoena. to use if you know has been in therapy with if a curse does for most of her young life. that's right but we only want to be flyaway when the word becomes ok ok as he has a few notes like many other children in those of you know finds therapy much easier with singing because it feels more like playing than exercises or therapy and whatever to appear on food.

some i don't. think of one of the most important points is that the rhythm and melody of singing activate lots of different parts of the brain such as the acoustic auditory visual and motor areas and it's really useful and child there are comments about that you really notice an improvement in their ability to concentrate and pay attention concentrates on fish. it's also very useful for vocabulary training for example watching peter by fit all. well let's go. there to thing i was meant to sing you have to remember several words and verses south america and the repetition and songs helps you practice these new words coming over to us. and it's not just young patients like us if you know who can benefit from singing. it's growing in

popularity as a therapy option offered in some hospitals. now does sing singing makes you happy i look like this we keeps you young young man fruit it really does make you feel lighter and more cheerful. the singing sessions aimed to give patients a confidence boost and help them relax in preparation for their treatment. our existing actually singing is good for all types of patient things but it's especially good for those who have breathing difficulties for months in the last month when you saying you have to take a deep breath you have to exhale for a long time and have good control of your briefing story. the professor david is especially eager to encourage lung cancer patients to try singing. off him a potential twin i often deal with patients who have

a lot of anxiety because of their tumours renzi in this ng and when they sing in a group they hear themselves and they hear the other people skip it gives them a sense of community which helps to dispel the anxiety and yeah they furnish it because they feel comforted by the experience of this collective sound it's wonderful. science also approves numerous studies have shown that singing has a positive effect on many aspects of our health. i want to know more about the healing effects of singing in music this is why our medical reporter mira call of course she's a music therapist and she promotes singing in hospitals it in the association called city hospitals. and improvising together fast shows me the different facets of music therapy. singing

for patients can also be part of who work. let's talk about singing what kind of healing powers can singing really have. actually has a lot of healing power. in our brain. exploding . thing so you have to do that to me and i like mad to be perceived. that you know a brain and. then our breathing is much better when we sing so we have this relaxation about deep breathing. their whole moans. which kicking in if we are seeing so

seen as a hormone which we have if we have. sex if we look at our newborn child and so there's a lot of going on and when we're seeing it what kind of areas can music therapy. beneficial or very successful especially good. with people who are not able to talk any more of course or like people with dementia. they can sing with and reach them and the part of the brain is not destroyed where the music in the memory of the music is padded part off and all with dying people who are not able to understand them which anymore and used to used to have an excess music and what about music and its benefits

for people who say i'm a nonmusical person i count it in no just is it equally beneficial for them music isn't our systems everywhere like we have rhythm and we have raves sound waves. like really really take the music with the rhythm and with the raves make. everybody's musical so there's no mistakes in doing some music to play or then singing just the ations and and yet it's like everybody can do it not everyone might have like a music therapist nearby can i also just use music as a home remedy and just do it myself at home. yeah of course i think a lot of people do already like that singing in the shower to wake up. seeing a traffic jam to. seeing because you have to or turning on the radio because of the

cleaning motivate yourself. yeah in a way unlikely yeah we always use it in our all day life. i mean it's not. to be their p. and to be read at their party i think you need someone who's who this was to bring you that maybe to another part a part of it or to connect with other people doing music. and then you can bring it home again do it for yourself and let's talk about the elephant of children can music be really beneficial for their successful development there's a lot of research. that it's really really important for them to have music in their early lives so they're much less bullying. much more emotional until again. there are they're better in

school not not just in music and different subjects and they learn to listen to each other of course and. then and to be equal and i think it's yeah it's a really nice thing to give them for all of their whole lives currently we're in the middle of a pandemic early on we saw some people going to their balcony making music with their neighbors or singing together. how do you can music help us through this very difficult time getting those really touching everybody in the world was really touched by bit and was music can do very it's getting really emotional and it's getting really connecting even if you're on the back on the. head and it's really. you do and it's the language of everybody like could

sing loud i love everybody. yeah i think the connection is a really important part of it because this is a problem at the moment that risk is so disconnected so lonely thank you so much for it was interesting todd. about the power of music here very rare come thank you for and writing. in good shape your weekly health show on g.w. covers many aspects of health care will look at what's new in medical treatment nutrition fitness and beauty. we talk about these topics in depth with experts and give you the chance to pose your own questions so to get in touch. up until the late 19th century teeth when rogen.