northern lights within the arctic circle starts december 21st on w. . this is day w. news live from berlin a rare appeal from germany's president as the country heads for a new lock down with covert 1000 number still rising on potash i might add tells germans they must delay christmas shopping and cut back on social contacts if they want to save lives also coming up bringing some like to the end of a very dark holiday traditions that are helping jews celebrate hanukkah despite the

pandemic. and john le carre the real life spy whose name became synonymous with the cold war espionage novel dies at 89. i'm simply so misconduct that you could join us germany is set to return to a tighter lockdown starting wednesday to try to curb rising coded 19 infection rates schools and kindergartens as well as non-essential shops and services will close private social gatherings will also be restricted health departments reported more than 16000 new infections on sunday that's a 4000 more than a week ago fatalities related to cope with 19 rose by 188 in a statement german president time potash time are called on people to take the lockdown siri. visit your daughter's d.m.v.

it was nice to have we are not at the most of the virus it's up to us and we know what to do. you can postpone celebrations friends and relatives will also be happy to receive their presents at a later point. what matters now is to preserve health and to save lives. our most important goals must be to bring down infection numbers as quickly as possible and then keep them at a level. of need we can move forward so let's get more on the story now we have our political correspondent standing by for us hi nina good to see you we saw the german president there addressing the nation appealing to people what did you make of what he sat. now 1st of all you have to know that of course technically speaking from phyto steinmeier is the number one here in germany from the process. but he doesn't interfere in daily politics but

whenever he does address the nation you can tell that he feels that it's an important crossroads that has been reached so it's important for him to speak to again and to tell them why certain measures are unavoidable now that have been implemented by the government and by the state premiers and this was also the case today when he addressed and said that he could understand everybody who felt some sort of corona fatigue and many people don't know what the future will bring and that they've had enough essentially but he also said you know we need to pull through this together and it's up to each and every one of us to do whatever we can to protect the most vulnerable and at the moment he said it is unavoidable that we have to implement strict measures and avoidable you know because if you look at the numbers right now there are 4000 cases more compared to last monday 41 more deaths compared to the previous monday is the health system at this point at its limits.

anglo-american in the press conference on sunday where she explained the latest measures said about the health system was extremely burdened and that we have to bring down infection numbers as quickly as possible so that we can avoid a situation where the whole system collapses and if you look at the situation in hospitals in germany there are still thousands of intensive care unit beds free nationwide but of course some hospitals are ready reporting that they're exceeding their capacity and it's not possible to trace contacts so people don't know where they caught the virus and this is a situation where the virus has spiraled out of control so it's vital and said to bring down the numbers also give the staff in hospitals a bit of breathing time because of course they have worked excessively and under extreme pressure for months now and many of them are worn out while all of this means that with christmas just days away non-essential shops will have to close

starting on wednesday let's take a look now at what that will mean. the hunt for stuffing fillers in a burley and toy store the owners have been planning all year for the christmas rush which will now be abruptly cut short. yet they are cutting us off right now when we have the biggest sales of the whole year. of course that makes me angry actually. it's part of a new more strict coronavirus lockdown announced by chancellor angela merkel amid surging infection numbers. and now due to christmas shopping the number of social contacts has risen considerably that means we must implement these measures they will have a broad impact on many many people we are aware of that. across germany it has become clear in recent weeks the lottery restrictions imposed at the start of

november have not been sufficient to control the pandemic more and more people are dying with the virus and hospitals are approaching the limit of their intensive care capacity. we have many deaths to mourn. all watching the statistics. and we know that the health system is very heavily burdened. and al job was always to avoid overburdening the health system. retail shops will suffer missing out on the most lucrative days of the year in the lead up to christmas and they are only being given 2 days' notice but the government is once again mobilizing billions to soften the blow. if it comes to a complete closure for a whole month we expect to spend just over $11000000000.00 euros for that month. that shows that this is a very generous support package. and i want to say that i think it's absolutely

justified it does if you're absolutely sure. it will be a reluctantly quite holiday season in germany but the hope is it will be also true for the health care system. you know and you know we heard it there that that 1st partial lockdown didn't bring down numbers as hope so why should people believe that this tougher lockdown is going to be affect it. well what we saw throughout the all to him was a patchwork of measures it really depended on where you were in the country which rules apply and it was not a system that was coherent and many people questioned the measures and asked whether this was a sustainable strategy and uncle americal in fact called for a much much more rigorous approach very early on but the state premiers insisted that they needed to have exceptions from the rule in their own states here in

germany there are 16 federal states and of course this is now something where angle america was proven right she said we need to have a strategy where people can understand the measures and the current partial lockdown has not been effective and many people are saying this is not sustainable so it needs to be addressed again on the 5th of january when the next crisis meeting will take place that you can have crisis meetings every few weeks and then essentially close shops and tell people to stay at home and then have to compensate them for it this is just not fiscally sustainable our political correspondent reporting for us here in berlin you know good to talk to you. not some other developments in the pandemic german pharmaceutical company cure back has begun the final phase of clinical trials for its coronavirus vaccine and

a study that will include more than 35000 participants in europe and south america ireland's prime minister says the country might need to re impose restrictions after infection surged amid the reopening of the economy new zealand has announced plans for a travel bubble with australia meaning that starting early next year travellers between both nations will no longer need to quarantine upon arrival. south korea is ramping up its coronavirus testing efforts after reporting its highest deadly number of infections since the start of the pandemic 1030 new cases on sunday a big worry for a country that for months was held up as a success story although south korea is only seeing a fraction of the number of cases that some european countries and the u.s. are reporting health authorities are already taking decisive action. dozens of covert 900 testing sites are opening up in south korea's capital and anyone can

turn up and get a free test before now people had to pay if they tested negative. seoul and its surrounding districts are coronavirus hotspots more than 2 thirds of the country's new infections have been recorded here and that's making the president. it's a very serious and marriage and see situation. back is against the wall. this is a crucial moment to devote all our virus control capabilities and administer to stopping the coronavirus. south korea is no testing 4 times as many people a day than it was in error the october sunday saw the country's highest daily number of new infections since the pandemic began and its caseload is expected to surge again this week there's growing unease and frustration among the public.

i have no idea where people are getting infected and they don't even know themselves we all need to do everything we can to prevent this virus from spreading even more. but with no. i had to take the subway today although i am worried that i might have been exposed to the risk of infection. i think i'm going to head home as soon as possible. it seems like the virus is out of control it will be a huge problem for the economy if the government imposes the highest level of social distancing this should be handled very quickly before that really happens. to them and. the highest level of social distancing would essentially mean a lot dying for south korea 4th largest economy authorities are hoping to have and that there are. of the curb approach to testing the country back on track and that spite against qubit 19. let's check in now on some other stories making news

around the world police have shot and killed the gunman on the steps of new york's st john the divine cathedral shortly after a christmas carol concert attendants were leaving at the end of the event when the masked man opened fire no one else was wounded the gunman's motive remains unclear . the u.s. has formally removed sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism the move opens up the african nation to financial assistance that could help its struggling economy washington placed tough sanctions on sudan in 1903 on the grounds that president omar al bashir was harboring militant groups including al qaeda. farmers in india are staging a day long hunger strike as protests intensify against government reforms to the agriculture sector unions say the laws will hurt their earnings and only benefits big corporations the government insists the measures will attract investment and boost the farmers' income several rounds of talks between the 2 sides has failed.

and iran's foreign ministry has summoned the envoys of germany and france after the european union condemned the execution of an opposition journalist iran described it as an unacceptable interference in its domestic affairs. was hanged on saturday over his role in protests 3 years ago. but that comes as reporters without borders has released its annual report on journalists who have been detained are missing or held hostage worldwide 387 journalists are in detention globally just 2 fewer than last year the biggest jailers are china saudi arabia and egypt but the study also cited an unprecedented crackdown in ballots which is seen months of unrest since its disputed election there were port noted a pandemic. a fact where countries use the coronavirus pandemic to increase control over the media. for more that we can speak now to christian nearer he's the

executive director of reporters without borders here in germany christiane good to have you with us 1st of all i have to ask you about the prominent iranian journalist. he was executed on saturday and that provoked an international outcry what kind of diplomatic response would you like to see. i mean 1st of all i mean it was really i mean we were shocked this report of the board is about hopes this execution because we were expecting this and we even had word un human rights commission. list recently said about as possible it's a huge and i was happy actually that we at least had. some diplomatic reactions at an ambassador is paranoid a prominent conference an economic european conference in tehran has been canceled or the purpose of patient of european ambassador is at the concert but i think this is definitely not enough because we have existing sanctions regime of the european

union and we have a knowledge based targeted sanctions regime and i see and i think he is aware of who is the mastermind behind this execution and we need individuals and she would be against those people who are as possible causes cry if we look at other worrying developments your report also highlights china on your list 177 down on that list and last week a reporter for bloomberg was arrested in beijing on suspicion of endangering national security kristen can you tell us any more about that case. yeah i mean case unfortunately fits into a recent paper that actually not in the chinese journalists who are working and independently for chinese media but as well 'd chinese journalists are cooperators who cooperate and where for the rest and beyond i groom are at risk and

actually nobody is really safe anymore in china and so this is why we are really really worried about his recent arrest and of course we demand you need to release but i'm starting point at least granting axes to do in order to mexico to make your treatment for her but it's forced me a pattern that everybody who's working independently is as risk and christian i want to ask you as well about something else report mentions a pandemic effect where countries are using the coronavirus crisis as an excuse to repress journalists what does this mean. i mean what we as most of these all in here actually according to our data are all data which of course almost exhausted but if we seize it we really just use all fall increase in a particular area rest of journalists during the 1st 3 rounds up to called 900 spread around the world through the 3 months we count from our children 8 and from

the start a ferry to the end of november to say 20 we saw lava terrorists a little river is a certain price to send off the press freedom violations lot glue and do we see that actually in. college 19 and it is used as an excuse to support for a 3 because those countries and so there was governments who arrested journalists actually where their website will always were enemies of press freedom ok christian mair executive director of reporters without borders germany thank you very much thank you. time for football now and the all important draw for the champions league round of 16 the knockout stages of europe's top club tournaments that defending champs munich will face off against italia and club lots. darkman will play sylvia other match ups include shall see against atletico madrid liverpool

play like sake a match esther city match up against mention and to last season's runners up. plate barcelona and the 1st games of the 2 leg matchups are set for mid february. and that means that all for fun the sake of teams that made it to the champions league this season have progressed to the knockout stages and some consider that a shock because the bundesliga has been referred to as a farmers' league meaning the competition level except that the very top is of lesser quality than other leaks at this season beyond the regular contenders fired and dortmund 2 other clubs have already shown their worth. a lot of buy. and rb life seek. one looking to return to their glory days of the 1970 s. . the other looking to prove their historic run last season wasn't a fluke. blonde by having reached the knockout stages of europe's top club

competition since 1977 nearly 10 years before the oldest player in their current roster was born blood bought into that drought by picking up points against reality drink and the luck number one into the all time title list in their final group stage match there was joy in defeat after learning they had advanced. on one story made it through and my team deserves a lot of respect and pride for that matter much of i'm very proud of the guys rb leipsic who 1st earned promotion to the bundesliga in 2016 maybe to the champions league semifinal slask season and they did it without the services of t.-mo vanna which made you the nagual is mine look even more impressive at the helm in a tough group that included last season's finalists p.s.g. leipzig needed a win last week against manchester united in their final group stage match in order

to advance in the bulls stampeded through. that sort of an isolation to my team for getting to the next stage that was a big win for us after the experience last year in the knockout phase in the last. we're burning to get there again and they did it 2 years ago no bundesliga sides even made it through to the champions league quarter finals last season 2 teams reach the final for him the bundesliga repeat that success in shaky farmers only once and for all. the british spy writer john they cover a has died at the age of 89 after catching pneumonia the novelist saw a number of as books turned into films including tinker tailor soldier spy and the spy who came in from the cold. whose real name was david cornwell found some of his the inspiration for his thrillers while working for the british secret service.

let's get more on his legacy now with scott roxboro from culture hi scott you are in bonn right now which is germany's former capital and like ira had actually a special connection to that city tell us about that yes hi yeah joe mccarthy was stationed here as a spy. undercover at the british embassy and they have a great connection to the city of course he set one of his famous novels a small town in germany here in bonn and look harry with a close connections to germany and even to the german language and he studied german and he gave that trade on to one of his most famous characters george smiley and various of his novels even the fact that a few years ago he received the good medal for contributions to the german language and for international cooperation so i think it's particularly appropriate that speaking about john le carre from from this town in ball on where he had which he had great affection for how would you describe his literary legacy. you know i

think margaret atwood put it best when she said. carrie's works are key to understanding the 2nd half of the 20th century i mean he basically gave an alternative history to the of the cold war in terms of narrative he instead of looking at the the victors of the cold war of the world war 2 as being the great heroes and the moral heroes of the 2nd half of the 20th century he questioned their moral actions and he really looked at the gap between the lofty rhetoric that came out of the 2nd world war with britain and america talking about freedom and democracy and looked at sort of the the grubber reality of what these powers did in their espionage efforts throughout the throughout the decades and he was wildly successful in doing so it's got i mean what do you think was that secret behind all

of a success. i think was a combination it was that he knew his stuff i mean he knew spycraft the new book the details of dead drops and honey traps they put that all into into his books but then even as important i think was the fact that he understood motivation and he understood what drill drove people to be spies and drove them to take these actions and as i say i think he understood this gap between the the lofty rhetoric of freedom and democracy that was professed by by these espionage pete players and the often quite nasty morally ambiguous reality of people driven by jealousy of greed and ambition it was truly a maze of writer scott roxboro from date of you culture on the passing of british spy writer john thank you scott. full of the current virus spend democrats left its mark on almost every part of public life for many for going to traditional family

get togethers during festive holidays has been one of the biggest sacrifices but while covert restrictions mean the jewish festival of hanukkah will certainly be different this year tanya kramer found out that it doesn't mean have to mean missing out altogether. it's the time of the year for this special treat so jenny donetsk the baker yousif who now fia and his team in tel aviv are making the traditional fried treat welcome to the reclaim festival o'connor because they are in great demand. now that what's important is the feeling that i get enough leverage when they see the suv going to. let me know when i was here and they said how do you new one feeling this is very special now and i'm here is your coronaviruses going it reminds us to put it behind us and today optimistically. where that jelly or chocolate filled of beacon the comfort food does just fine in the midst of the pandemic the dome that is only sold during also known as the

festival of lights. the holiday commemorates the rededication of the 2nd temple in jerusalem more than 2000 years ago and then your roberts miraculously stays in line for 89. today there's no miracle inside the corona virus infection rate has gone up again the government warns that restrictions could be tied to your budget that nighttime curfew during the holiday was canceled for no leave i understand that the curfew was to come so that it was on again right now it seems even if you're going to happen it doesn't matter we celebrate at home with our families are never there have no idea how what's different this time is that because and celebrate together with a whole family but we're still trying to enjoy the holidays. as much as possible but it is still sort of going to your church and we still like that daniel said it about. in the evening it's time for the candle lighting and this ultra orthodox

rob is on his way to light the fire new key in the square and. he's dressed as a trader the 4 sided spinning top as of late has to drink during the holiday. the essence of congo is to bring the right from darkness and thank god we have a lot of darkness now because everybody's down everybody feels a little bit to be at home to be i can go where i want there's no air power because there's no restaurants so everything is really big shanked so i have to do it to find my ino happiness i can do is to knit last week a 1st small batch of vaccines against a corner virus has arrived in israel. next emissions are expected to start by the end of december at last prospects for light at the end of the tunnel.

now in italy mt etna has erupted providing a spectacular night show of explosions and spewing ash the lava glow could be seen from the nearby city of kut tania authorities have not reported any danger to the villages and towns on the mountain slopes and even though volcanic ash clouds can disrupt flights attorneys airport is operating as. coming up next our environment show eco india.

eco india. how can the country's economy grow harmony with its people and the violent when there are doing worse look at the bigger picture india a country that faces many challenges and those people are striving to create a sustainable future clever projects from europe and to india eco friendly up.

next on of g.w. . bush global media for joining us. 11th. hour of constructive journalism. 3 for the news. media part of the problem and he wants to present them. aspiring rather than gratifying. the media reinventing itself to join our. lives i. think is this for him it's.

a fantasy. to see as. i. see. it starts december 25th. ah. the field of science has been helping humans understand the world and has need our lives easier from prehistoric inventions modern communication technology watch me also use science to give back to me by studying the manual sources of energy by

building satellites that help us. by turning waste into view of the candidates to me just a few want to be sure we introduce you to some people and projects who are using scientific inquiry to help the alone welcome to equal india. our 1st stop today is a rural maharashtra investor and this region is one of the worst places in the country to be a farmer distant in droughts and green for many a farmer who give up farming and become an industrial. but if scientific data accurately predict weather patterns and provide farmers with information they could still have a short and their primary life and organization in the region is helping farmers best exactly.

a look at a smartphone tells farmer. all he needs to know. now is the ideal time to fertilize his fields he also knows which fertilizer to use and in which quantity the 40 year old resident of shifu village uses the farm precise app which especially developed for farmers in the indian state of maharashtra the app improves by making cultivation and livestock farming easier to organize. when speed and direction the sounds of the birds and when they make these sounds my final generations used to use these as indicators to identify climate patterns will it end tomorrow we live in the day after will it rain at all this is how our elders used to predict the weather when and of years later we got the information via the radio then

through the television after that to newspapers our farming practices would be entirely based on that most of the time these estimates were incorrect. and if you're not among them if they were going to get on the. the mainstream weather forecasts call the entire regions but local weather conditions can be. completely different. climate change is also making the weather increasingly unpredictable. dime and again droughts and floods lead to harvest failures in recent years. the watershed trust look for ways to help these farmers and to combat poverty in rural regions the result was farm precise and easy to operate after which functions even with only a weak signal. release. in strong automotive weather

stations in the program this one has to make a community of it and rio grande local you would hope using baking observation from. shared with the community as their technology are the ones. we started getting online on an hourly basis. or put it. down the daily information about the. forecasts and shared with the community. the farm precise up office 5 day weather forecasts and up to date information for good field management all in simple language and easy to use. resist the weather whether we used to use any 14 pesticide that we could get our hands on. but with the farm precise if i don't have enough information about a particular fertilizer or pesticide i can just take

a photograph of the crop and post it on the chrissy some mud for them in the hour. within an hour we do see feedback and advice about what we should do or if we should use a particular substance in a particular proportion i do particular time of day. in 2014 farmers in the state of maharashtra. were hit by weather related losses totaling. 900000000 euros. since then the app hasn't only provided assistance for planting fertilization and harvesting crops. the farmers can also find the latest market prices and work out the best time to sell their produce as a result pascoe mostly has to use his losses and he's even turning a profit now. mino should mostly also lives in the region and use the app to dent a whole farm as well. she says barely a top of all women here on

a smartphone she shares her knowledge and wants to motivate other women to take advantage of the available to. clarify what i mean by the language climate change is making farming more and more difficult and we need technology to help us with this i started a self-help group for 15 women and i encourage them to use this because i've learnt a lot from it and they and their families can learn a lot from it they're starting to appreciate it and see its benefits. from precise developers see over 3500 farmers now use their free app which is so far still only available in hindi. that number could easily rise when the watershed organization trust puts the app online in another t.v. languages. now we may or may not know it but a lot of the use in our life come from fossil fuels this undoubtedly is

a detriment to the bobbit plastics in the ocean or mountains of bio degradable least scientists have been looking for substitutes gong to be strict and sometimes they've been successful we met a professor in germany who seemingly magical kings. in a working substitute for. this building is getting added thermal insulation and damp roofing from polystyrene every year over 10000000 tons of the synthetic material are turned into everything from facade cladding to disposable bowls and cups and packaging. but one extremely useful the downside of the material is that it is essentially non-biodegradable and takes centuries to break down and as it does it releases miniscule particles into the ground and our water supplies. this man has

a plan to replace the plastic pollutant since 2008. poor and his team have been looking into an environmentally friendly alternative pop corn. similar to polystyrene phone. it consists of a mass of cavities filled with air. can see them when you piece of popcorn and examine it under the microscope. that's what makes it so light. like the market researcher and his team have already used popcorn to create kitchen furniture they're showing manufacturers the range of potential applications for popcorn the 1st step is to turn it into a massive granules all the same size the original maize is grown in germany well that is land intensive on the plus side the material will help to reduce fossil fuel consumption. and you can read it and it tastes

a lot like popcorn except there's no sugar or chocolate of course so the taste is a bit boring. the granules have been pressed together to form sheets panels with plum proceeding providing the bonding agent as opposed to synthetic chemicals this makes the material compostable and even suitable as animal fodder. the team are pioneers in the field. but they also use a horse egg to compare the thermal conductivity of polystyrene phone to that of popcorn and then measure the heat that penetrates through to the back in the case of polystyrene foam this is a reads $28.00 degrees celsius while the popcorn board is even better at absorbing the heat here the reading is under $25.00 degrees. you could use it in particular in areas of. buildings with insulation from the heat

or cold. houses with the panels in the walls or on the facades. or you can also use them as insulation for solid building. the. material also performs better in the flammability test the polystyrene burns up at a frightening speed immediately beginning to melt and release toxic gases. subjected to the same flame the panel of popcorn barely catches fire. in this case the damage was limited to the. grandson being singed. kalim patch is the design in the teens. she started experimenting with popcorn 2 and

a half years ago and as now many affected have 1st pieces of furniture with the revolutionary material. and we might soon be seeing child sized chairs and tables like these replacing their plastic counterparts. when they cannot once children have grown out of the furniture. they can be shredded and recycled to create another new material in movement and after being replanted can in turn be made into new items on to be done i object to the house have a state. the research team is working with a number of partners in the packaging and construction industries who realize the potential and a reason the poor is happy to pass on the fruits of years of research on the material. or he hopes to see environmentally friendly products made from public corn replacing polystyrene foam on

a large scale and the sooner the better. the 1st popcorn packaging is due to go on the market in the fall of 2021 and will hopefully help to reduce the world's growing mountains of plastic waste. fossil fuels cause harm to our planet yes we all agree to that but to grow means on a large scale as an alternative to plastics would need a large area also for thailand which would otherwise be used for inable crops in the real world how feasible are environmentally friendly substitutes let's ask specialist researchers in germany to find out what. the seeds of the rape seed found healed food oil and as meal feed for livestock.

michel kitchenette has developed a means to combat weans that space. it's eco friendly and could replace the plastic foil and toxic chemicals standardly used to protect crops. bozeman here compared to a standard total herbicides such as cline for sea or plastic mulch for oil a natural material that inhibits reed growth would be preferable. to. a maze is a staple food in much of the world and it's also the source of ethyl alcohol used as a bio fuel for cars and trucks it's said to be less damaging to the environment than regular gas so maize and rapeseed it too important natural resources. at the campus of the technical university of new nick a team of scientists want to determine under what conditions use of these resources is truly sustainable. the broom kittinger has developed contains rake seat

starch and other naturally occurring substances. it can be sprayed on the ground around crops such as vines to inhibit the growth of we. it's an alternative to the plastic mulch foil much used in farms around the world before oil helps maintain moisture in the soil and prevent weed. most of which is made from conventional plastic which is made from petroleum. catching his spray on alternative has considerable advantages. some of those conflicts it's made entirely of naturally occurring raw materials most are renewables and are sealed to me true. and what about may versa tiled yielding oil food feed and biofuel materials made from expanded corn might eventually replace palestine and insulation and packaging that would reduce c

o 2 emissions is that enough to make a natural result sustainable. it is not just about emitting less. we also consider social criteria fair remuneration in the respective countries. regarding the agricultural context where does the maize come from from a land that is biologically high value with a lot of biodiversity or fields where old growth forests or rain forests used to be . a further criterion for sustainability is where the materials can be recycled most conventional plastics company p.t. from say bottles can be used. but much too much plastic waste and stop littering the environment slowly crumbling into ever smaller fragments. michael plastics can be found in the soil just about everywhere.