transformation of the polish energy in the condom. with another major obstacle out of the way it was time for uncle americal to wrap up germany's e.u. council presidency the stuffings are going to see i can tell you the german presidency was a lot of fun although we weren't able to achieve a lot of things that we planned this is all for me lost from him as a. comb 2021 portugal will be taking over. now let's bring in these excessive director of greenpeace international jennifer morgan jennifer champagne corks popping their greenpeace all these measures too little too late oh i wish we could have pop some champagne corks but they are way too little and they are too late it's never too late i guess i would say but i think if you look at the desire of the e.u. to lead and to actually forge of way forward that would address the climate emergency we needed a 65 percent target not a 55 percent target which is not up to snuff for what the scientists are calling

for but that doesn't sound that much of a difference i mean how much of a difference does this make anyway if you look at global emissions and what the e.u. has just decided to cut the levels and makes a big difference i mean i think if you look at where the e.u. is emissions are currently looking to go it's a 46 percent reduction with existing measures so that 55 percent sounds quite big it's actually just a small incremental shift of what they were already planning to do and the e.u. is important globally it's a major player in the market it's still one of the you know large greenhouse gas emitting countries but clearly we need the united states to come in we need china to come in but for that we wanted to see a real transformation and a recognition of how little time we have to have global emissions nuclear still plays an important role in the old this how does that go down with greenpeace.

we don't think that's a good idea i think nuclear has so many risks and it's so expensive and i think in a year when we know from the international renewable energy agency that 90 percent of new energy generation capacity installed around the world has been renewables and that it is cheaper than coal it is cheaper than other sources that's the way to go not as reliable though is oh it's reliable you you need to get a balance right you can get currently up to about a 70 percent mix of renewables and some days you have 100 percent renewables on the grid there's more work that needs to be done but if you were to take the money that's going to billions going into fossil fuel subsidies and put those into the questions of renewables and storage you'd have a breakthrough pretty quickly i think do you think this will do it to mom and. i think the economic damage of what's happening are the costs of the impacts of

climate change so just think about the fires that occurred in california or in australia or in siberia think about the drought and the impacts to the agricultural system the transformation for green and just world has so many benefits there needs to be support for those workers who need to transition into new fields that's the just transition that needs to occur but the economics do not add up if you don't you know how to keep these impacts in mind and the deaths and damages that are occurring around the world jennifer morgan executive director of greenpeace international thank you very much for joining us here on news thank you for a 2nd look now at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today . work has restarted on the controversial north stream 2 gas pipeline between russia and germany almost one year after u.s. sanctions brought the project to a halt the pipeline is almost complete washington says it will make europe too

dependent on russian gas berlin says it will create a secure energy supply. 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 it has been pushed by president of and on this if the bill clears the senate it would make argentina the 1st major latin american nation to decriminalize abortion. a police officer in albania who shot dead a man on tuesday for violating a coronavirus curfew has been remanded in custody shooting off the 25 year old man has triggered violent protests in the capital to rama and led to the resignation of the interior minister. for germany has set a new record for corona virus infections with nearly 30000 cases in the past 24 hours 598 people have died that's the highest daily total yet weeks of partial

lockdown haven't slowed the spread of infections 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 cock institute said it was alarmed and that it was bracing for a significant increase in case numbers. because if it's all going to situation literally to figure in the photo needing to ration 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 ish below but i believe these 2 and a half 3 weeks will give us plenty of opportunities regarding disease control. state leaders are now hoping to set out a coworker needed plan in a meeting with chancellor angela merkel. if you get a moment off and also if you miss the gathering looks likely to take place on sunday. we were very interested in getting together as quickly as possible in order to rapidly gain clarity about the path our country will follow you through your open door at one point to eat in light of recent developments religious services over the holidays are also being scrutinized. then i would if there is

a possibility of a religious gathering endangering lives i'll be the 1st to call things off. the so-called most wonderful time of the here now marked by deep concerns a new lockdown in germany isn't a matter of if but rather when. simon young joins me now simon a new high of nearly 30000 cases 590 people died one day all that despite the restrictions already imposed why are they still rising. well guess there are a number of different explanations that are being offered for the rising infection numbers one of the things is to look at where the disease has been spreading earlier in the year it was really concentrated in several hot spots and of course that made it somewhat easier to deal with now. really kovan 1000 is spread across

germany and that's putting a strain on health services to deal with also as you mentioned in the report the the disease seems to be affecting older people more back in the spring in the initial spike of course older people in care homes and old people's homes were affected but the engineering the summer it seemed to spread more to younger groups now it's back in the older population of germany's 20000 dead 13000 over 80 so it's a very worrying picture and it makes it difficult for storage is to work out their strategy but germany's interior minister jose offer made his position very clear today saying germany has wasted the advantage it managed to gain during the spring the only chance we have to get in control of the situation is a lock down but it needs to be immediate if we wait until christmas will have to

continue fighting these numbers for us of a statement how much agreement is there in berlin with this call for an immediate lockdown. well what we're seeing is a growing number of states announcing measures and pushing for tougher lock downs barden burton bag has announced that there will be courteous that's to say restrictions on people leaving their homes. from from as early as tomorrow north rhine-westphalia another logged state in the west saying that schools will tell their pupils to stay at home from monday and possibly even all non-essential retail shops will close so obviously these are very tough measures more and more states are thinking about it and there is a push for unity among the states because people say that that the public will accept such moves much more if all states move together but they're not going to

wait i think in some cases for for a meeting with the chancellor a lot of the state premiers are saying we have to push ahead now and impose tough lockdowns you know his political correspondent simon thank you so. will scrap one of its 2 official currencies in january leading to the devaluation of the remaining cuban pestle $24.00 to $1.00 u.s. dollar economists say it's a necessary if painful step in battling the socialist 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. 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 enhance in a more substantial manner. 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 is good shortages remain an issue in cuba whatever the currency the pandemic and related drop in

tourism have hit the country hard whether pacer's or dollars are in scant supply is essentially a moot point. a message from me and the news team the phenolics up is with 19 special so with so don't go away i'll be back with an update at the top. of the coronavirus 1010 minutes. past the roof infection in developing. the latest research. information and contacts around a virus update. on t w. how does a virus spread. through the town. and. if you would like to me

information. or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you . can also find us at. the holiday season is a time to celebrate and to be around loved ones but this year everything from christmas markets to family gatherings is having to be scaled back due to the covert 19 pandemic. social distancing and other restrictions have left many feeling less than festive so what should a good christmas look like. this is d w 19 special i'm joined now on as germany grapples with yet another record number

in corona virus cases it's weighing up how best to allow for merrymaking while keeping the virus from spreading and all across europe it's a similar picture people are breaking with tradition as they change their plans to accommodate restrictions take a look. here. normally we travel to madrid on christmas eve and stay for a few days this year we have to celebrate at home but we'll have entertainment from our grandson where there are children there's christmas for him learning during a radio work and we'd like to organize a big party with our friends but i don't think that's possible so family that's all there is to it we're here in this better city of servia christmas lights that you see behind the state. even know this if the administration is the right of the crowds that might come in to watch the general restrictions for christmas in spain i'm not clear yet but everybody knows this would be

a very different festive season even in my own family which is partly german and he's going to we don't know what to do yet and if we will be able to meet each other it's. not true after or so would be nicer to go to the christmas market but i think these measures are sensible and more important now next year we can catch up on our traditions again so i have no problem with the 3 of us it's difficult to usually celebrate with my husband's side and also my side together now we have to split everything up so that fewer households come together already as a pharmacy employee i always have to be very cautious not to bring the virus home and so there's no choice but to put things up this year. with my family we've all agreed to take coronavirus tests before we meet at home and if they all turn out negative we come together if not then out or in smaller groups. turn up with a gun i want to hug my family again when i'm here normally at this time of year the

place behind me would look totally different that would be lots of christmas market stands and the smell of roasted elements everywhere to get you in the mood but what i personally miss the most this december is meeting friends in the evening and drinking malls wine together the only thing that cheers me up this year is mulled wine to go see s. and merry christmas now how to strike a balance between necessary interpersonal contact and the break wired social distancing is a big question for many of us as the christmas holidays get closer here to help us understand this better is taking cruellest she is in associate professor and clinical psychologist at the australian national university thank you very much for joining us teagan now. according to research our risk perception during an encounter with a person depends on how well we know them why is it that people find it so hard to take the necessary covert precautions with the people we love and it's something

we've been looking at for a number of years in our research group and one thing that we've found is that this is consistent relationship where people much more willing to take risks with the people that they are closest to the ones that they love and that seems to be because we humans are so hardwired so use that sense of social connection we have to others the groups that we belong to and the communities that we value we use that as a cue to safety it's a signal that we can trust someone and that they're safe person for us to you know put our life in their hands and in some ways that makes a lot of sense you know if you're looking for someone to take care of your children your closest networks probably other people you can trust the most on the other hand when it comes to the spread of a contagious disease it doesn't make a lot of sense and so i think that's what we're seeing here is that out instincts to trust those that are closest to us are actually undermining our safety when it comes to. our hard or wired instincts of putting and putting us at risk

that can be quite a quite a problem but can you tell us ian how did you come to these conclusions. yeah we've been conducting a series of studies over a number of years on including before covert so we were we were interested in this over the last he is a man of few studies looking at reception but we've also looked at it since the pen demick began and one nice opportunity we had to do that was a study that we had running at the beginning of march looking at neighborhoods and people's connection to their community and the original intention was to look at people's sort of the patient and community events but when the pen demick really game stayman much we changed the purpose of wonder secular project in order to look at how this particular research question around the link between a group memberships the trust we have in others and now risk perception and what we found was that you now sample of a couple of 100 people in

a strain the stronger the people identified with their local neighborhood in their community before coated so in early march the more likely they were to trust the night is in lockdown which sounds like a great thing but the problem in this case with trusting one's neighbors was that that also predicted that they were 'd more comfortable being in close contact with those neighbors so breaching physical distancing recommendations for instance and spending time in the physical presence of the neighbors felt safe because they had that trust in their neighbors so that would be an example of one of the studies we've run looking at this link with social connection and the sense of belonging we have with others which is usually such a protective and positive thing can actually undermine our capacity to respond to a pandemic of this century. indeed and if social contact is needed to stay healthy but at the same time it puts us at risk what are we to do then. yeah it is

a bit of a catch 22 i think because i certainly wouldn't want to say that social connection isn't important i think it's one of the most important things when it comes to placing our health and indeed a mental health over the long time and it's also the case that people who are most vulnerable to kovan 1000 complications are often the same people who are vulnerable to loneliness to isolation and to poor health consequences that we say as a result of that one of the things i think that 2020 has really necessitated for all of us is to be creative about how we stay connected to one another whether that's through using virtual mains in ways that we might not have considered prior to the shia all whether it's you know choosing to get together outside or in a in a socially distance more safe way of getting together and saying our out close this contest i think we need to find compromises that allow us to say connected well taking as fewer risks as possible when it comes to that you've written that the critical role on shared identity and therefore a higher risk taking has been under recognized in public health messaging how

exactly should public health messages change in your opinion i think that there hasn't been much attention to the the difference between the risks they are willing to take with strangers on public transport out in our communities versus the risks they are willing to take within al closes networks without families and without friends and the problem with that is that we're actually very very ready to accept the risk of strangers but much less ready to recognize and accept the risk and how close is networks and in fact that's exactly exactly where the vast majority of cota transmission is happening it's happening in households it's happening at small gatherings of family and friends so i think ideally i'd like to see public health messaging really be a bit more focused on how we can reduce those risks in our closest networks and how we can celebrate important milestones like birthdays and christmas without putting the people we love into. so social does of saying protecting the people you love

thank you very much that was teagan her wish she is an associate professor and clinical psychologist at the australian national university thank you for your time and insights today thank you know. and for the final time this week our science correspondent derek williams answers one of your questions. for a 20 year old was the risk of taking a vaccine compared to not taking it. most of the questions i'm getting at the moment involve potential vaccines and this one is close to the top of the list and the experts i've read who discuss this topic make several important points and 1st of all they say you should look at the numbers that we have so far like the data showing that for tens of thousands of people in 3 big vaccine trials there's been no reported serious side effects

although there and by and that those test subjects didn't have known preexisting health problems for people who do there could be more risk involved we just heard for example about a couple of cases of people in the u.k. who had preexisting allergies having a bad reaction to one vaccine but the experts still say that the potential risks pale in comparison to the risks involved in catching the virus sure a 20 year old is a lot less likely to die from covert 19 than an 80 year old is but but some do why take that chance if we have something that medical authorities say can safely protect here which brings me to point 2 even if a young person is much less likely to die from the disease there's also a chance that a coded 1000 infection could cause long term health issues by some estimates up to a 3rd of those who recover continued to have more chronic complaints that that

doesn't seem to be age dependent so so young people have them to point number 3 getting vaccinated also. has a social aspect which is that it could potentially help protect the people around you though though that question granted is still up in the air still expectations are high that if vaccines stop people from developing fully fledged covert 19 that also help cut down on transmission and that will slow down the pandemic for all of us finally don't forget that young people who aren't in essential jobs will be pretty far down on the list for vaccination in most countries by the time most of them can get a shot we're going to have a lot more information about any potential serious side effects but but based on what we know now most experts expect those to be very rare.

do you have a question for derek just send an e-mail to feedback dot english dot com and type expert in the subject line or leave a comment on our you tube channel that's all from us thanks for watching face think especially during the holidays by for now.

every journey begins with the 1st step and every language but the 1st word published in the. code is in germany to learn german why not come with him simple online on your mobile and free to suffer from d w z learning course nikos fake german made me. cry and i'm game did you know that 17 trillion land of the most killed worldwide

shit so that we can come but it's not just beyond a little subtle suffering it's the environment we went on a journey to find ways out in the ignition if you want to know how awake lifted the priest and the whole trust changed us as we think this listen to our podcast on the green thumbs. this is deja vu news africa coming up on the program the web the 2nd wave has hit several african countries record new spikes in girl and i'm biased cases study in kenya shows far more people are going back to the figures to be felt also coming out. although the gaming industry in africa is moving.