crime fighters are back africa's most successful radio drama series continues this season the stories focus on hate speech prevention and sustainable production . all of us are available online and of course you can share and discuss on g.w. africa's facebook page and other social media platforms. crime fighters tune in now . a new coronavirus strange reading for britain and the world on high alert countries of barring flights from the u.k. over fears of importing the new more contagious virus variant we'll get the latest from our correspondents also coming up with the holiday business mostly canceled on retailers vive the country's 2nd hard coronavirus.

welcome to the program on a day when hopes of conquering the coronavirus been demick have seen been served a hefty blow after discovering a new apparently more contagious coronavirus strain of britain more and more countries are barring contact with the u.k. the netherlands was the 1st country to impose a slight ban on sunday morning belgium and italy followed suit later in the day germany joined on sunday but fears over importing this new virus variant are growing and so is the number of countries with precaution precautions friends are led rumania bug areas switzerland spain canada argentina peru colombia and chile have all now banned flights from britain. rushing to catch one of the last flights to britain many passengers here in madrid were hoping to make it before the midnight deadline on sunday the start of the flight ban

a lucky few who made it on time to spend christmas with their families others were not so lucky. i was really scared because they had a flight on choose day but i don't know if they're going to cancel all of them in the end so i bought the last seat on this flight to manchester right now it. is just a shame that it's up and over christmas you know this situation. we can go and see family especially over christmas time airports worldwide are now trying to accommodate the stranded passengers many truck drivers are also stranded francis barge ferries to britain and shut the eurotunnel only unaccompanied freight is allowed across the borders the ban is in effect for 48 hours from sunday night the travel ban is a major inconvenience for companies on both sides of the english channel who've

been trying to fill their warehouses for weeks out of fear of a hard breck's it come the new year let's get more of this from the. call of bosun and frankfurt and a big mass in london will you let me start with you more you countries and countries all over the world for that matter are bearing travel from the u.k. and it's not really reassuring when the u.k. transport secretary says the reality is that the new covert strain is already elsewhere. well yes other european countries are just establishing how far the virus has already spread and also what kind of risk it could pose potentially to other european countries now the u.k. government is responding this morning by holding an egypt emergency meeting cabinet ministers of ministers are discussing the u.k. government response there are several issues that are very pressing one as the issue of food security because it's not just passengers it's also lorries that come

into the country and the question is if this is going to continue for more than 48 hours what is the impact on the u.k. food supply chain with most of the fresh fruit and vegetables for example coming from the continent and then there is also the question of the coronavirus mat vaccine of possible medical shortages we know that another batch of the vaccine is expected in the next days and there have been reports that military planes are already on standby and so this is another issue that the government needs to actually look at conrad over to you in frankfurt presence or travel from the u.k. to many countries has been stopped how about the flow of goods out of britain. you know so if this is even more of a concern for people here at the stock exchange for example because flights from the u.k. to the u.k.

have already been very very low given that large parts of europe are living in a total lockdown but the transportation of goods has continued and it's very important for the manufacturers for their supply chains for their distribution now another delay here because remember they had already been a delay on transportation of freight via the channel given all the stocking up in the u.k. of companies with the perspective on the no deep breath. and bergen over to you in london all of this comes less than 2 weeks before britain leaves the e.u.'s economic structures and talks on those drugs the trade relations are deadlocked. well yes and that of course is also a concern here in london because if on top of the disruption that we're seeing through the coronavirus we would then have additional chaos at the border at the

1st of january when if there is really no deal about the future relationship with the european union so that could be very very severe and we know that in the u.k. there are worries we have the scottish leader nicolas. the government to extend that deadline but so far we haven't had any reaction from the british government on this. conrad boom in frankfurt thanks to both of you. to the united states now where after weeks of wrangling congressional leaders have reached an agreement on a $900000000000.00 stimulus package modes of the deal are expected later on monday it will be the 1st federal aid package since the cares act back in march the spite individuals and businesses struggling due to coronavirus lockdown measures the stimulus package includes $600.00 direct payments to individuals and an additional $300.00 a week in unemployment benefits here's what senate majority leader mitch mcconnell had to say more help is on the way moments ago in

consultation with our committees the 4 leaders of. the bottle of that agreement it will be another major rescue package for the american people as our citizens continue battling those coronavirus this holiday season they will be fighting alone . republican leader mitch mcconnell speaking there now for 6 days germany has been in a 2nd hard coronavirus lock down which includes all so-called nonessential shops having to close in an already difficult year the order has been a nightmare to many retailers who feel they are being deprived of their pivotal holiday business not can online sales cover some of that what is lost we asked around and germany's most luxurious shopping street. these days local residents here in dusseldorf only go out to buy groceries or perhaps pick up some flowers the

rest of the stores have shut their doors due to the lockdown shopkeeper done yell up iraq has followed suit even so she comes in almost every day and she still sells some of her sustainable clothing and other products on line chat for that's 5000 sits in an online shop so i've had an online shop since 2017. luckily i didn't have to start from scratch this year so that helped that it had a good go but that doesn't make up for the losses incurred by a lock down shot it sets up one order has arrived this morning by email the customer will pick up the perfume later online shoppers are mainly locals. almost all of the retailers and germany's most luxurious shopping street the clinic's on the end dusseldorf have closed their doors shopping centers are nearly deserted. but there is still work to be done at least for this jeweler sonya kies is designing a piece for a client the pandemics global impact has hit her business especially hard her

family shop creates custom made jewelry. i don't need unique gems which we carefully select in person as uncut stones at the mines but i can't get over there so i can't fulfill my orders now. of fooling her husband shows images from the last trip to a sri lankan mine in march. they've already cut this stone. but more are needed for the order luckily the client is patient an exception to the rule. of thumb our industry is in great distress many of us are down 30 percent. done at least was able to sell the perfume before noon the customers stopped by that's how many retailers are operating right now she's prepared should the lockdown go on for longer at least until the end of january. for more on how

the retail sector is coping with the impact of the pandemic i'm joined by boris headed he's the managing director of the cologne institute for trade research welcome to d w boris how big will the financial impact of the pen demick be for the retail sector it will be your huge impact joe currently we expecting about 50000 companies leaving the market we have sold many picks as we have never seen before in history over retailing so currently death a really difficult situation to be managed and how much of that business that's being lost ride during the holiday shopping season some of that is going towards e-commerce how much is that by your estimates. our estimation on eve online shopping is. 3 times more increase in comparison to the us before which means this year online shopping will make

a jump of about 3 years let's say and so the impact is huge and those of us who don't have any kind of digital business is also on they may have a big problem with in the near future it is for sure and the question is which way especially the small companies will cover and being digitalized i think they are and so on this is a 50 question this new law can you tell and do you see the spend demick driving traditional retail business to extend their online presence for sure i think currently we have seen as we have seen in the individual trial of before we have seen so many companies also with the support of a funding state from the fund from the state based on funding building their digital strategy and we are very hopeful that this may have an impact on the future

of retailing germany as well to profit everything. i know the cologne institute for trade research thank you for your insights thanks. and that's our show for more on that our web site as usual that's. slash business or simply follow us on social media were there on facebook and twitter for me and the entire team here thanks for watching and herself a successful the. house

for a laugh. make him from people make fun about the social economic and political problems . in mozambique we say that you have to laugh so you don't write it's how people called me think they'd liberal. as a journalist i often call called these folks in the back by the lesser local she

and i actually staff my day by checking out all those jobs finding out what people are talking about what is moving them. my father taught me how to ask uncomfortable questions about my country ends. about. that is what i keep going to say my name is madison and i work at the w. . it's center is always on the cool in december so it's the 2nd system here the father christmas of the holy land though israel and the palestinian territories are gripped by coronavirus the 2 slim santa hopes for at festivities in america.

is that because the c.e.o. on this way to work in the old city this is centers house the work place of jerusalem st nick and also it says family home it's december the busiest time of the year for santa and yet in 2020 the pandemic has changed everything it's very hard for us with this crazy situation what we have would cover 19 i try my best to have a plan a b. c. that has me as a santa trying to bring joy for jerusalem and to the word also my message is always love and happy and happiness and safety for them and joy and we say inshallah everything will be ok the palestinian christian from.