this is the dublin years line from leonard french president emanuel macro itself isolating after testing positive for 19 there are also concerns about his contacts following a recent interview summit some european leaders in their restricting them movements after meetings with the french president also on the program germany's daily coverage infection rate to tops 30000 for the 1st time hospital cases are also skyrocketing we report from a hospital where young and previously healthy patients of battling to stand up. 10 years ago today chile's ian st francis setting himself alight sparking a wave of uprisings and rebellions against repressive regimes so what has changed

since the arab spring. time for welcome to the program. french president emmanuel macro is self isolating after testing positive for coverage 19 spanish prime minister petra sanchez is to quarantine for a week after meeting mr macro in paris many of the e.u. leaders are also restricting their movements the french president had contact with an array of high ranking politicians at events in recent days including a huge summit in brussels last week. to get more from correspondent better read get banned riegert who's in brussels welcome bat so what's being said about where president macro contracted the virus. the is a palace in paris and many politicians all are over your banal checking that can

and does and try to figure out who met whom when there was quite a lot of context that emanuel knuckle head over the recent days in europe he met for example the spanish prime minister the party's prime minister and the head of the european council in paris all 3 gentlemen are now in sort of isolation and there was even sort of that doesn't use summit a week ago where he also made of cause all european leaders up a couple of them also now in south of the solution although the authorities say this is not really necessary because it's highly unlikely that not clear what's already contagious a week ago the german chancellor will also attended the e.u. summit tested negative for cover at 19 and she wished in not to wish him a speedy recovery from lynn there's also some concern about his personal life his family his wife back home is already 67 years old she's also of course

a contact person and of a risk group right so we can take a look at some pictures of the most recent e.u. summit and we can say that that off ice mass being woman there's also a lot of touching and heads being linked together as quiet words have you leaders been letting that guards down. but this is this is really hard to tell we were not in the room journalists are not allowed on the premises when the leaders meet for covert reasons as it seems there were already very in moscow and keeping their distance as good as possible there were some brief encounters like you would have in a shop or in a public transport they had dinner together but at this dinner they were sitting very wide apart so it's hard to tell if this may be a cause of the contagion or not. but all in all the officious insist that protocols and hygiene rules here too that every european meeting. now we have

a clutch of leaders self isolating and working from home how is that likely to affect the conduct of a you business many of them say they just work from home office they are not if they have not fallen ill they have no symptoms and also in monaco is working from home in the elysee palace maintains although he has to cancel some trips he wanted to go to lebanon next week that will not take place now and you have to wait and see how that works we had the prime minister of the united kingdom boris johnson who really severely fell in and he was not working for a couple of days but as of now nothing has really changed brussels keeps up working and maintains business as usual thank you for that bad ringgit in brussels. germany's daily covered infection rate is hitting new record stopping $30000.00 in a single 24 hour period the health minister says a u.

member states planned to roll out a vaccination program on the 27th of december but as the number of hospital cases in germany skyrockets a leading doctor has told the dublin fears that the coming weeks will see more medics making decisions about who gets lifesaving treatment and who doesn't is a look at the dire situation in one german hospital. a new couvade patient has a drive by ambulance to try birds university hospital he's traveling in a special isolation pod so none of the transport team gets infected the patient is only in his forty's he's transferred to viviane it's what's months intensive care unit with 5 members of a team she turns him on his stomach the prone position is an important therapy for seriously ill covert patients the team make sure the patient is well padded as he will lie like this for several hours afterwards the inflammation sits at the back of the lungs and a lot of fluid collects there the lungs can't heal if we lie on them the whole time

by turning patients on to their stomachs their lungs get air and heal. once a day the team turns each patient on to their front and back again it's a big effort. but printing and being put on a ventilator is not sufficient for many critically ill patients some need to be connected to an artificial lung to keep them alive. it pumps the patient's blood into a machine where carbon dioxide is extracted and oxygen added. to the blood is then pumped back into the patient's body. for patients who are this ill there aren't many options left this is the last trump card we've got. my therapeutic options are so boring we get x. again and the artificial along but that only gives us more time it belongs have to

heal on their own up. in the hospital pharmacy there's no wonder drug against the coronavirus ram disappear one of the great hopes at the start of the pandemic has yielded disappointing results as have many other drugs. medics of the virus for nearly a year now but the odds of surviving a severe case haven't improved much you know it's like every 2nd person on a ventilator dies behind each of those numbers is a human being much. in the 2nd wave many young and healthy people have also been infected but that's no guarantee for a milder course of the illness. and you can go to this is a young man 45 years old with a severe case of coma is a prime example that a young healthy person without any notable preexisting medical conditions can be brought to the brink of death by this fire. in the intensive care units really

are at that limit and we have to be clear about that there might still be some spare beds that every day there's fewer and patients like here for a long time for weeks or even months and that means beds don't free up quickly. at the moment they can still fight for every single patients life here but the time off to christmas could turn into the intensive care teams was a nightmare. well let's get more on this from d.w. correspondent hans sprogs welcome hans as we've seen the dire situation in one hospital give us a why the picture across germany. as in one hospital today that reported that a small tree was overflowing and that it now had to store bodies in refrigerated containers there's also been some alarm about reports from eastern saxony that's in the far east of germany on the border of the czech republic and poland that's the area where the infections are highest in germany at the moment is pretty remote the

hospitals are small the facilities are limited and in that area there are already reports that doctors have to decide whether somebody who is seriously ill can be given survival be given additional treatment so that they might possibly survive or that there might be other patients that have a better chance of survival that also involves transporting people that i was seriously ill for hundreds of kilometers because in this remote areas there is no additional resource available so on paper and germany there are still over $4000.00 intensive care beds that are free and about 11000 in the emergency hospitals that have been set up in exhibition holes and such like areas but transporting people to those places is not always possible so the situation really is getting more and more critical than german hospitals right but i guess the imminent arrival of a vaccine will help lighten the burden. yes it will but it's not hospital staff that are 1st in line to get this vaccination 1st and people that are threatened

most seriously by the disease people in care institutions in old age homes and so on 2nd in line to hospital soft but even if the old people get vaccinated 1st that will eventually be a relief to the hospitals because those people will most likely not end up in hospital still vaccination is going to start within about a week or so so there is some relief on the horizon at the moment ok thank you for that political correspondent husband. i will take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world the king of sweden says his country has failed in its handling of the coronavirus pandemic king called ghost stuff from his role is largely ceremonial a made the red criticism during an annual television appearance sweden's pandemic policy has left measures largely voluntary on have been blamed for the high death toll amongst the elderly. because of arbitration for sport has upheld doping

sanctions banning russian athletes from competing at major international events under the russian flag the ruling rejected an appeal from russia but did reduce the ban from 4 years to. russian president vladimir putin has accused the united states of starting a new arms race in his annual news conference are facing hundreds of journalists mr putin said by washington's refusal to extend the new start treaty limiting nuclear armaments and forced russia to respond by developing new hypersonic weapons. 10 years ago today a tunisian street vendor set himself alight in front of his local town hall is desperate act was in protest at official corruption and sparked a wave of uprisings and armed rebellions against repressive regimes in the region became known as the arab spring but while some of the protests did talk hold some longtime dictators they also led to a number of civil wars that are still going on. this man let the spark that

left scorch marks across the entire hour bridgend on december 17th 2010 mohamed bouazizi says some cell phone fire to protest official corruption in tunisia he died from his injuries a few weeks later but by then his story of desperation had inspired a nationwide outpouring of rage. and soon afterwards the arab spring protests took down their 1st high profile political target. tunis is veteran also a crowd xeni ben ali fled to saudi arabia with only a few family members and close aides in tow. the antigovernment protests multiplied rapidly be on chin izzie as borders with anger over repressive regimes economic hardship and political failure spilling onto the streets social

media was used to spread the words an organize and few of our countries were left untouched by the vast some of the biggest upheaval was experienced in egypt where decades long ruler hosni mubarak was overthrown setting the stage for a power struggle eventually won by the military. and libya syria and yemen became embroiled in for truck to conflicts which are still taking a huge humanitarian toll today. lou international community also played a role in this upheaval in the arab world in the middle east analyst with the global public policy institute he says western countries prioritize their own interests over the humanitarian issues that sparked the results we should definitely look at the western democracies and how they have. developed and since 2000 as they have often. publicly claimed and stated that they support the ideas of

these are evolutionary protest movements right and 1st and foremost the united european union and its member states and the united states have actually put their interest in stability in the region over the protection of human rights and the demands of the protesters for the most part at least the basic assumption underlying this is that did autocrats of the region will provide stability and but that is fundamentally flawed in my opinion as long as citizens and most arab how trieste experienced this high levels of inequality the repression and injustice that has actually sparked the protests 10 years ago. and these are actually the very basis of the author of harry and who was in those countries they do not contribute use of ability in the region quite the opposite. that's it you're up to date i'll have more for you at the top of the our. business update in just a moment with.

the. current monarch. oh. god. this. secret. starts december 25th. ah the. one i subscribe to do you know what your books your favorite writers like to see myself as a kid sky in the strange grown up world. on your. back

in business africa's most populous nation is set to reopen its borders to trade for the 1st time in over a year of the trying to stamp out smuggling. one of a kind gets the boot south africa's think 3 pronged electrical plug finally goes into retirement international travelers will be happy. and lithium ion batteries are the heartbeat of electric vehicles china holds the biggest market share europe wants to catch up prices on. a let's do business muhammadu buhari is backing down after 16 months the nigerian president is reopening the borders to africa's biggest. economy neighboring countries were shocked when he unexpectedly close the borders to trade saying the time had come to crush contraband but since

then a lot of livelihoods have suffered prices for staples in domestic markets have surged a jury of relies on imports to feed a booming population of 200000000 people the closure was also criticized for violating commercial and freedom of movement treaties and with the government having now ratified the african free trade zone to be launched next month analysts say that deadline forced biharis heth's. south africa is trying to become a little more global by changing its unique electrical plug and socket from a thick 3 pin triangle to a sleek x. agonal affair that accommodates european style soup in blocks it's only taken over a decade and could actually take even longer with this unusual sockets to be a thing of the past too many clouds too we need things happening in this kitchen i'd love to maybe start maybe by installing this card in the kitchen 1st. south

africa's quirky standard triangular 3 pin plug is slowly being phased out by authorities. to learn from africa we don't need country to use these plugs oh if only glass is an important thing to come with these plugs would need. the flow this is a very typical for african work and more recently. drawn from. all new construction sites are now required to install the new plugs and sockets featuring a sleeker 3 pin design. my house is really old and comes with all of these old and sockets and i'd like to comply with the legislation and get these 3 pence sockets changed to the new ones. south africa introduced new legislation modernizing the country's plug and socket regime making the local market more accessible to international manufacturers. this is

a kind of an effort to standardize reduce costs and have something that is more widely usable around the world which will also accommodate importers but at the same time standardize on a particular plug and socket design which will be of benefit to the consumer instead of having a whole variety of plugs and sockets that are not compatible. but sales have been slow. though is that you just many south africans ignore the new legislation while the country still contends with regular rolling blackouts we spoke of we're going to look this winter budget on a console the socket is when it's got a new one and the old and with the power outages and said if you get that they call no cheating this is pointless. and then there is the stark reality of electrical inequality in south africa. only 85 percent of the entire population has access to electricity in spite of electricians working with authorities to get people onto the grid.

but we have a massive problem with you know connections but in a place like this. with things they don't even have the proper infrastructure the only opportunity you have to get electricity is to collect illegally even if you want to do it legally you can't. so while africa's most developed economy has the sights set on new plug and socket standards the country might need to get its basic electricity needs sorted 1st. and returning to our top story on nigeria opening its borders for the 1st time in over a year after trying to stamp out smuggling we have always interests with us from nigeria's commercial capital a budget. always so is there any evidence to show the closures to actually stop smuggling. no there is no if you dance a. small clean small continues in nigeria because we still have most of the

teams that are binding get in touch rice you get cars that had been small going from say may from the general public and i doubt parts of the country kept getting damn and i rest. through nigeria. so this must be a massive barrus but i mean his plans down more harm than good no not only has he failed to stop smuggling he's also destroyed the livelihoods of border communities of a lot of businesses in important export and then also increased prices for many people at home. that is a very good question and i commend on that last analysis going on even when they closed it ties not yet gone much for nigerians its pay should be up not while more

people are pushed into by t. because even lie on business is weaker than a boss me general public can mail room and i doubt countries and in the republic so too many nigerians put to the government dancin no we have succeeded in making nigerians to rely on what they are producing to eat what the food booze nigeria has produced so much rice in the last 23 yes and the. box many people into finally. from what i understand the battle the import of rice and poultry and other bad products remains doesn't that also go against algeria is treaties with the rest of africa. of course it does is it against the course protocol which allows movement of downside to seize that was why then it was of nigeria on that it was to the government several times to see this is against the course protocol and it's been a can't

a free country that prepared that dream and which is about to be launched in the next one month but the government kept i know we cannot allow what is going to destroy our economy and didn't lem's free trade. ductless like there was a lot of jubilation yesterday been in the board back to see me in my gut. people celebrate and. that kid of what. we can continue with our business what i'm sure does countries will continue i do teaching because nigeria signed these protocol at the moon with these countries and you need to abide by. thank you very much for coming on the show tonight. u.s. dollar plunged on thursday to a new true and a half year low against other major currencies the euro hit $1.23 in asian trading before we could bring some of its losses china's you want also moved higher against

the dollar to levels not reached since june 28th in analysts expect the greenback to weaken even further in the coming days. the strength of the euro is a double edged sword for europe on the one hand it points to the fact that investors are quite confident that the european economy will recover even as many countries here are heading into our now and new lockdowns to combat the coronavirus on the other hand it raises the risk of deflation in europe that's been a big concern as the euro strengthens that means imports are getting cheaper at the same time it will also raise pressure on european exports whose products are going to get more expensive for europe's trading partners the european industrial sector and export in sector has been one of the one bright spots in the economy the strength of the euro is not going to be welcomed by many of these acts supporters and export dependent economies electric car sales are expected to soar in the coming years same for the lithium ion batteries the consultancy mckinsey says

annual global demand for batteries is 282 hours in a decade it will be almost 10 times that amount so who dominates production so far it's been china. in sweetens forest something is taking shape which many say is decisive for the economic future of europe politically my own battery plant startup north pole plans large scale battery production here to supply european automotive giants like fox of argument b.m.w. found a peter carlson used to be tesla's purchasing director now he's taking on asia's powerful competitors. in a very real way it's definitely a challenge i mean we're we're fighting against these lords large corporations. we do it with very very strong skills and with speed and that you know my experience from from my days at tesla is that you come a long way if you have the right people and you work with a sense of urgency and it's certainly urgent europe of all places home to the

world's largest car makers there's barely any automobile battery production and the battery makes up a 3rd of a car's value the e.u. has been asleep at the wheel now it's responding with billions of euros in economic development aid 3 years ago but 3 production system in europe was nonexistent and i think it was very clear that people are very sore now not import only the batteries about the fee want to change the course they will very soon be importing electric cars so it would be really a danger for the whole european car industry. not fold once mass production here to begin in 2021 and a further plant is in the planning stage other companies are also lining up for a piece of the action the e.u.'s to be self-sufficient in battery production in 5 years time we are 'd in the me that this transformation or revolution the way he

you like to look at it then it's very very exciting and it's also exciting to see europe taking a leading role here where china has been kind of dominant up to now but that europe is really taking a lead a position. from battery importer to export or in only a few years when ambitious goal right now the sector is still very much a lot of work in progress. on late spain's 1st faced mass take hopes to transform facemask into a must have christmas gift just in time for the festive season it now boasts a line of special christmas designs in total the office $600.00 different models with prices ranging from 8 to 9000 euros are all made in a workshop new boss of the owners believe even after the pandemic face must remain a popular accessory just like in asia. otherwise they'll go out of business doing business with you.

done.

by dusty brutes muddy tires and drums we deliver urgent lifesaving boxes we give our everything to reach those who need us the most every box feeding their futures. boxes for the hope of lifesaving food and or some a small down roads with no names we feel asleep deliver relentless in our promise to make every delivery special. not just next day but every day. thousands of children are still waiting for their delivery sponsor a box today so together we can deliver features.

this is deducted news asia coming up today 15 years old and already seeking asylum . for all rise of hong kong pro-democracy activist who sought asylum in the u.k. but how open are countries to providing a safe sanctuary to those fleeing beijing's heavy handedness in hong kong. and a filipino family that was on their way up then the pandemic hit now they can't even afford to eat what options do they and millions more like them have.