the democracy in the u.k. and many m.p.'s in this debate have really complained that there was not enough time to to scrutinize properly such an important historic and really really. deep document yeah historic being the operative word there really terry earlier today the brakes until was finally signed by the e.u. in brussels this moment has been a very long time in the making hasn't it that's right rebecca a long and very painful road you and i and here you have all watched the twists and turns as as we've wondered whether there would be a deal at all to take effect at midnight brussels time on december 31st or whether britain would go without a trade and customs deal with the e.u. now it has been signed by e.u. leaders as you mentioned and headed off to london but one thing is being overlooked in many many places and that is that the european parliament also needs to sign off on this deal just as the u.k. parliament does but they refused to be pushed into this very tight timeline and

said we're not even going to look at it until january so we may not see an approval or a vote at all by the european parliament until march that said the deal can go into effect provisionally starting january 1st because all the e.u. governments signed off on it and to the u.k. site as well but there is one more step to come out of the brics that the negotiations are not completely finished yet as much as people would like to see the end of them yeah not long road continuing big bars johnson said break that is not the in but a beginning but the road that we're talking about that isn't quite over is going to be quite bumpy for the u k. the u.k. doesn't have exactly the same benefits that it had when it was part of the european union now of course for the brits of tears for boys johnston this is worth it because he says that this gives. back to the u.k. the u.k.

is for example free to do other trade deals with other nations in the world however the u.k. is at least in the medium term losing out for example when it comes to security m.p.'s have mentioned that the u.k. doesn't have the same access to databases that are used by the u.k. authorities hundreds of thousands of time for you for example missing persons database there is a partnership but they're not members of it then the economy the deal of avoids really a disaster of food where you can manufacture is that trade with the european union however it will take its toll on the economy and many who are watching this process who have been critical of the government saying that this was never explained fully that there were going to be trades or trade offs and one had more certainty but that there are negative economic consequences that the bread city has of not explained properly and the board's johnson and of his government also have never really explained that properly my biggest mass in london and teri schultz for us in

brussels thanks to both. britain has become the 1st country in the world to authorize the coronavirus vaccine developed by astra zeneca and oxford university it's the 2nd vaccine to receive emergency authorization from the u.k. all storage fees after the biotech finds a job trial data suggest the latest vaccine is less effective but easier to store and transport wealth already say they plan to start rolling it out within days britain is struggling with a surge in virus cases that's threatening to overwhelm hospitals. i'm now joined by john campbell he's an independent health analyst an educator and joins us from colorado and the north of england dr campbell thanks for joining us this pandemic is hitting your country and so many others very hard at this time how important is this new that saying it really is but this new vaccine is the best news we've had in the pandemic it is going to change the situation entirely now in the united

kingdom we're going to start a mass rollout of this vaccine from the 4th of january we're going to be vaccinating a 1000000 people a week from that point and that certainly go to build up as the logistics and infrastructure develops and as well as that what we're going to do is we're going to give one dose of this vaccine and then wait for 3 months before we give the 2nd dose so that means an awful lot of people are going to start to get a fairly good level of the unity straightaway without waiting for the 2nd dose and of course it also means we can vaccinate many walk people so it really is going to change the situation in the united kingdom and in time in europe. but this this that same is new on oxford astra zeneca vaccine is the 2nd but it was already saved in trials that it's not as effective as the bio on text size of one is it good enough. it certainly is good enough anything over 50 percent is going to be efficacious but we had the managing director of pfizer making a press announcement just a few days ago saying the efficacy of this would just be as good as the pfizer in

the middle of oxy now we don't have the scientific data or not yet but it's looking very promising and the key seems to be in the gap between the 2 doses so giving a longer gap between the 1st and the 2nd dose seems to increase the efficacy so a lower we have efficacy figures of like 62 percent 70 percent up to 90 percent depending on the dosing regime what he says is we're found the right formula and we should be up there with the others so we are expecting high levels of africa state so yes it is good enough and we believe this vaccine is safe as well that certainly sounds promising john cavil independent health analyst thank you. thank you. germany has registered more than a 1000 coronavirus deaths in a single day for the 1st time since the pandemic began the country's public health agency says that's partly down to a delay in reporting because of the christmas holidays but new cases have remained high throughout december especially among the elderly and it's fear the number of daily deaths could climb even more in the coming weeks. record

bringing some commit or humans in germany more work than they can handle despite weeks of lockdown measures germany has registered its highest daily coronavirus death toll since the beginning of the pandemic. because it's tied to the numbers show how brutally as this virus still strikes that we're still very far away from any kind of normality. age influence. considering the situation i don't see how we can return to how things were before the lockdown as hard as it is this also applies to new year's eve so this has to be the quietest new year's eve that germany can remember and. they persist in 3 high caseload is putting enormous pressure on the health system compared to many other european countries germany experienced

a relatively low number of deaths in the spring but december has been the deadliest month of the pandemic so far. schools restaurants and many shops will remain shut until at least january 10th the restrictions are likely to be extended by chancellor angela merkel and the state premiers next week. but there is hope on the horizon. we work through what we want to do our best to fight this pandemic and to eliminate it from the world or if. you are you already. see these seniors are some of the 1st to benefit as. money gradually rolls out its vaccination campaign $60000.00 people in the country have received a jab so far but most of the population will have to wait months to be vaccinated. large new year's celebrations predicted and many cultural venues looking set to remain closed for a while yet the outdoors is taking up

a new place in people's lives helping to take the edge off of this winter's melancholy. and let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines this hour at least 16 people are reported dead and dozens more injured after a huge explosion and yemen's adan airport the blast happened shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed unity government touched down on its return from saudi arabia none of the government delegation is thought to be among the dead. new tremors have shaken central croatia a day after a powerful quake killed at least 7 people in and around the town of south of the capital zagreb rescue workers have been scouring the wreckage looking for survivors tuesday's quake was the strongest to hit the region in decades. a chinese court has sentenced 10 hong kong activists to up to 3 years in prison on charges of illegally crossing the border the group were arrested by the chinese coast guard in august

allegedly on route to the democratic island of taiwan 2 miners who were also detained and being returned to hong kong. under tina's senate has voted to legalize abortion in a landmark bill that could have repercussions across latin america argentina is the largest country in the region to make abortion legal but the catholic church plays a dominant role there and the issue has polarized society. nervous yet full of horror after decades of campaigning and setbacks these women anxiously await news from the argentinean senate. i. have to 12 hours of debate lawmakers approve a bill that will legalize abortion in argentina up to the 14th week of pregnancy. we have as you know very excited it is a historic day there's nothing more to say it is

a right and we're going for more this is just begun. there must be no mother now too excited a couple leave it i swear it's crazy. it's a victory for the women's rights movement just 2 years the war makers rejected a similar bill. until now only permitted in cases of rape or when the mother's health was at risk meeting many women to seek out dangerous illegal terminations. president alberto fernandez had made reintroducing them or one of his campaign promises giving the pro-choice movement precious momentum. that this is the 9th time a bill to legalize abortion was presented in congress over the past 15 years so it's an issue that's been on the agenda for many many years and that in the most recent years since 2018 i would say has taken

a lot of attention the anti abortion campaign hopes that argentina would keep restrictions on abortion like most of its neighbors the continent has some of the most restrictive laws in the world the catholic church remains highly influential and opposed to move. part francis who is from argentina urged against passing the bill saying that every outcast is a child of god which is you know. outside the senate activists celebrated their victory but stressed that the fight for women's rights is far from over. the european union has struck an investment deal with china after 7 years of talks he has hailed the accord as a major win for automakers and other european companies seeking to do business with beijing as it were given greater access to chinese markets and critics accuse brussels of ignoring human rights concerns and risking a rich rift with washington. we'll have more on that story in business

with ben consumed coming up after a short break stay tuned for that they're watching daytime any news i'll be back with more headlines at the top of the hour i'm rebecca races in berlin thanks for watching 'd. i'm a woman and women especially in victims of violence. take part and send us your story we are trying always to understand this new culture. you are nothing visitor nothing yet you want to become a citizen. in for migrants your platform for reliable information.

putting lipstick on a pig critics bash an historic investment pact between the e.u. and china it aims to rebalance economic ties but opponents say it misses the mark on chinese labor rights. and just when you thought it was ready for that the way to take it over to recovery a shortage of shipping containers could spoil the party. and business will let's do business the european union and china have struck a deal on a comprehensive investment agreement it comes up to 7 years of talks the e.u. hails the accord as a major win for automakers and other european companies seeking to do business with beijing the critics accuse brussels of ignoring human rights concerns and risking a rift with washington the deal still has to be finalized and ratified a process that could take several months. in the meantime is talk about this without chief international editor richard richard what's in the deal and what's been left at. well ben this deal is all about making it easier for

businesses from each side to respect it to invest in their respective areas so it's not a trade deal it's an investment deal it's about going to the country and trying to do business there so this is been a particular bug bear basically of the european side for many years as you just mentioned this deal has been in negotiations for some 7 years about the fact that european companies haven't had as fair a crack at the chinese market as their chinese counterparts here in europe and examples of that would be for example that european companies have had to set up a joint venture with a chinese company in order to do business there or that even they've been forced to transfer their technology to a chinese partner in order to do business there the e.u. is hailing this deal is stripping away many of those practices and it's certainly found a lot of supporters here in germany in the business community business associations to be coming out during the course of the day really hailing this egremont as as

a big deal but as for was not in the deal world is quite a bit an important thing is elements on investment protection now that is something that hasn't made it into the deal they're supposed to be negotiating about that over the next couple of years so they could be haggling on that front and the deal is also facing some really profound criticism on a couple of areas one is labor rights and practices within china and another is whether it's geo politically sensible to be doing this deal at this moment now we've been speaking to one prominent critic his name is reinhard booty call for he is the leading china watcher in the european parliament which will have a very important say on this deal because it has to ratify it so let's take a listen to what he had to say. whenever somebody who's negotiated a deal tell soon that this has been the best deal ever the best deal in history you should be highly suspicious and indeed the european commission is putting

lipstick on a pig here because this deal even though it has some advantages for european business is highly deficient in other. strategically important dimensions notably there has been no success in the negotiations with regard to the protection of labor rights of the chinese neighbor ross and now this seems to be a new opening for strong transatlantic relations with an incoming biden administration led by a veteran leader who respects and values a partnerships why would the e.u. rush to finalize a deal just before that happens i understand why the chinese put pressure on finalizing the deal because they are very much afraid that the e.u.

and the us would come together again and put up more efficient opposition to some of the injust practices that china represents but why would we give a hand to the chinese showing the middle finger to joe biden i think that's a strategic mistake was that richard has brussels stuffed up by moving on this without wasn't it. it's quite interesting ben because the messages coming from the e.u. on this really quite mixed now on the one hand an e.u. official speaking today said you know was really quite defensive about it saying that this is all about europe asserting its strategic of autonomy the message seeming to be it's up to us what kind of deals we do with china but on the other hand the european union has done a lot of outreach already towards the biden administration saying that they want to cooperate with it very closely including on china so it's

a little bit hard to kind of like find the coherence between those messages but whatever they're saying this is really not going to be a great start i mean biden's future national security advisor himself came out publicly recently really trying to get the europeans to hold off on this until they've really had time to consult on it and the europeans seem to have ignored that now what's going to be interesting to watch in the months ahead which is measure the early ratification of what happens when this deal goes before hein how to call for who we just saw and other critical people in the e.u. parliament that will be interesting to watch very good question richard walk of hers that. well let's get another view from hornswoggle more he's director of the european council of foreign relations a pen european think tank how would you describe its deal. i think it's business rather than critics it's a product of the trade and it's

a product of the german presidency by chancellor merkel who prioritize really. the industry issues and maybe that should be right for us mindy of the only problem is and in china everything is political nothing is purely economy so my main worry when i look at the supposed draft of the d. nobody has the final text by the way and even today is not the final text of the day or still have to be written in one run a look at i worry about what's the section make it isn't what's the very thick ation mechanism there are lots of restrictions put on by the chinese side and you know depending on me depending on the capacities of a lot of accent of the mystique you know and we know what that is in china out there we did so on arbitration mechanism in fact what passes as arbitration is often a top level review by both parties meaning the e.u.

and china and eventual difficulties which means a process that should be legal and straightforward runs the risk of being very political one way or another will tell me more about that because only. because the legal mechanism is something that is it is extremely important in this sort of investment deal when we look at examples like tech talk t.j. i while away said team me all of these chinese companies that have caused a lot of controversy and tense relations between the us and the e.u. what's going to happen. on the one hand there's nothing to prevent either the e.u. or china from performing a so-called investment screening according to their rules and therefore forbidding an investment on national security grounds or something that passes national security or because their rumps that's the positive side is that the hand of the e.u. is not hampered by the deed but what i worry about is how do you solve quire

a loss in the implementation in the implementation of actual investment you don't see a court of arbitration an international court of arbitration you see a lot of recourse again to the dumbest close of both parties and to even to a negotiation on top there is going to be a review mechanism twice a year for example about this but to me it's not a legal process and as such it's a dangerous process to manage the safety the security and the investment and that should concern investors whatever the opening looks like it is just let me quote china's ministry of commerce a spokesperson saying that the deal does give chinese companies legally binding access commitments to the european investment market. are those commitments not strong enough or not tough enough in your opinion because i mean the european investment market is relatively open to the chinese already isn't it of course it

is. what the premier is doing is confirming to the chinese companies that they have access to the european market which they always have the problem is the other way around it's above that you access of european companies to the chinese market which has always been more close in terms of investment because of the way that china entered into the world trade organisation as a developing economy with special rights. we're going to have to leave it there more director of the european council of foreign relations thank you very much for being on the show today. to a little logistical challenge that's already having wide a record conscience a worldwide shortage of shipping containers it's threatening supply chains and has seen the container price tripled this year it could also undermine europe's economic recovery from the corona crisis. as one of the

largest traders ever to steer its way into hamburg harbor on route between asia and europe it can transport around 20000 containers but at the moment this is shortage of shipping containers worldwide the coronavirus pandemic has thrown the global rotation of containers into disarray. at the same time china's export economy is running at full speed again pushing maritime shipping to the limit the price of a container from the far east to europe has almost tripled in recent months up announcer for shipping companies but german transport company lloyd has come under fire for the high prices. today it is very clear that there is more demand than there is supply and it of course results in higher prices at the moment but we should not forget that shipping has been making losses for

a very long time and we have harbored lot for example will probably our cost of capital for the 1st time in 10 years. high demand in the u.s. makes problems worse for european importers routes between asia and the west coast of the us a more lucrative for shipping companies so more ships are sent on those trips german companies could lose out in the global competition for scarce freight capacity. here criticizing the fact that what happens here is upsetting entire supply chains in europe current supply chains can't even meet the current demand and we're running the risk that the economy is recovering after the pandemic is an extreme danger will chuffed not corner extreme if you notice. it affects consumers too many products manufactured in asia could become more

expensive or unavailable for weeks in case of bikes especially even retailers are already feeling the strain of overstretched supply chains. on horde. we still don't have any delivery dates from one of our main suppliers they only see 2nd or 3rd quarter that affects us wish to talk to them about their reasons it seems they're not getting parts delivered and can't assemble their bikes. with no end to the supply crisis in sight lloyd has its entire fleet in operation and free cargo space remains a hot commodity germany's largest shipping company is predicting even higher container prices giving them even larger profits and 2020 of around 2700000000 euros. i stand business with you.

to only. the rich or not to well. what about assuring cult status. we're going. to change and thinking is changing the economy to create something that. the economics magazine in germany. next on. and on demand. language courses. video and or. wu sector.

some are celebrated some are vilified and some are ignored but regardless of how they're received whistleblowers have helped inform our picture of the world often at great personal costs to themselves speaking truth to power that's our topic today on made now here's one prominent figure whose.