from party to flash from housing boom boom town this is where. welcome to the 77 percent. this weekend b.t.w. . how do these know which blossom to land on for the best nectar scientists studying flower to insect communication have an electrifying answer. animal testing is very controversial how viable are the alternatives. researchers are using a fresh method to study organ tissue in a new light. welcome

to tomorrow today our. medical professionals have various ways of looking inside the bodies of their patients an x. ray machine passes radiation through the body to capture an image on film. ultrasound and on the other hand works with sound waves. and magnetic resonance imaging or m.r.i. uses magnetic fields but now there is a new method that allows doctors to see right through. this mouse can help researchers analyze all kinds of bodily functions from how blood vessels are nerve tracts run to how internal organs are constructed. it's possible because the mouse is tissue has been made transparent up to now this hadn't been possible with human tissue. but no chemist jungle from the lid big maximillian can. diversity in munich has uncovered chemicals that can render

a kidney transparent within 2 weeks. she works with genetic engineering. the team wants to understand how human organs work specifically how blood vessels nerve cells and live channels interact making them visible is the 1st step. we have to understand how they're coordinating in normal how to case and dan if we could easily also see when something is wrong when there is lack of coordination if there are some subtle supposed to be there are not there we can nor know why some diseases are cured his aim is to determine the exact location of each individual cell to do this researchers have developed a microscope that can examine the whole organ the different colors of the laser make the individual structures such as vessels or nerve cells visible. then we got

a microscope scan some days of scanning it's millions of imaging build up there is no way hooman being can on the life instead computer scientists have developed algorithms which enable an exact 3 dimensional image of the kidney to be generated from the data researchers can then study the organ cell by cell enabling them to recognize pathological changes detect cancer cells and observe the effects of medication to see if the drug in question is actually binding to the right cell the effects of the method could be far reaching my vision is that we will be able to generate organs on demand if someone needs a heart a kid and we will just take some cells maybe skin cells generate millions and billions of cells from and the same person and then create construct the organ and then transplant to the person. first attempts to produce parts of a kidney are already underway but it will take some time. the researchers are able

to produce an entire order. in 2018 german laboratories tested drugs and cosmetics on nearly 1800000 rodents a she one thighs and rabbits a nearly 30000 farm animals supporters of animal testing say the 1000 organs of humans and animals function in a similar way but worldwide 95 percent of drugs test of the excessively on animals fail in human trials good alternatives that don't involve animal suffering actually be more precise. these are miniature artificial organs parts of the modular construction system that replicates human body parts. blood lungs and liver or high quality and is using them to test new medication. use this system enables us to trigger a paradigm shift in drug development that is an organ of this organon

a chip system of means we're able to determine medication more quickly and cheaply and where it's needed to the patients within the one percent. in future this could eliminate the need to conduct so much testing on animals on average the development of a single medication currently takes 15 to 20 years that's largely because animal testing is time consuming costly and controversial and often the results can't be applied directly to humans unlike with the organ on a chip. to create these organs the researchers cultivate skin tissue cells that then infected with a virus that introduces 4 gene sequences into the skin cells and reprogram some of them these then become i.p.s. or in g. used to play stem cells through the addition of growth or different. ation fact is

they can be transformed into any kind of cell in the human body from the heart and lungs to skin and liver. this chip can combine 2 organ models you can see the organ compartments here and here they are connected by a common circulatory system the 2 little chambers here comprise the pump which functions like the human heart does mention here this lets the organs communicate with one another and exchange neurotransmitters and we can observe this interactions or god of. their researches don't reproduce the entire organ only the parts all cells which should or could respond to a certain drug. liver cells for example a cultivated unused in an organ storage container at $37.00 degrees celsius mirroring the temperature of the human body that left to grow and develop in

lifelike conditions under the microscope there is such as can see them function just like in the human body. and unlike with animals or people we can look inside the chips at any time with a microscope and see with the liver does with the medication does it tolerate the drug or is there damage mechanically on sean and then i can also see on the other organ here in the heart liver or pancreas or that these products have an effect whether they can be helpful in human illness or maybe produce side effects that's off in the industry because. the major advantage is that the substances can be tested directly on human cells so in contrast to animal testing the researches can gather reliable evidence about the effects on people. that's because test some. rats and mice can only predict where the substance is

a toxic to humans just 43 percent of the time so most medications that were tested successfully on animals fail when drug studies are then conducted on humans up to 95 percent of all drugs trial and. these 2 neuroscientists have developed another alternative to animal testing they can simulate on the computer how a medication or substance affects the conduction of stimuli in the brain. enough until the nerve cells in the brain structures that we study are also affected by alzheimer's disease and epilepsy which is why it's important to better understand the mechanisms of such diseases in these regions of the brain and computer models are quite helpful in this case the cells of fly larvae form the basis of their work biologist how men could 6 am and the structure very closely

well paid to get rich focused on the electrical characteristics then they compared them with the sounds of other animals. and here we have a worm cell that's a couple hundreds of a millimeter in length all the way to motor neurons to the motor and i want to be who not to familiar meter lungs and what have i and what was really unexpected was that although the cells are extremely difference in size and in terms of complexity and shape they all behave the same way complexity to. or informant for heightened lies the cells they analyze come from animal tests conducted and published by other scientists. for you didn't fund using for each of these little dots here i'd have had to do animal tests and that would have been impossible because we have $6000.00 cells here. with the help of

this data the scientists have been able to create a computer simulation of the brain with all its not cells and neural pathways. everyone here on computers either computer delivers a nice reproduction of the details. about the cells or so well replicated expect experts can no longer tell the difference between the real cells and the artificial wondrously known to shine. as a result the opportunities for testing a virtually endless. con man on the computer you can run through all kinds of combinations which you could never do in an experiment. to research as a noun developing computer models for human cells as well in future that could eliminate and also need the need for animal testing but clinical studies on people to. play back in berlin research is can already replicate 11 organs on

a scale of $1.00 to $100.00 thousands now they're testing how they can be networked and that supply systems fully automated using a prototype. muscles which. can do everything that happens during studies. the foot on the chips can take samples from of these chips and it minister the medication. so i can tell it to apply the drug via the skin or administer it as a tablet via the bloodstream through the intestinal barrier. and we can also try to inhale it all the different means of application you're familiar with from the pharmacy and from sprays through to shots and creams can be simulated here so my kingdom come on and that's what. the research is estimate this system will be ready for use in one to 2 years. it won't be possible to completely replace testing on. humans and animals in foreseeable future due to factors such as pain

and emotion simulation but the chances are good that it could replace up to 60 percent of all animal testing. if outlet is right why are they flat on the face of it. do you have a science question you'd like us to answer send it to us in a video text or voice mail if we answer it on the show we'll send you a little surprise as a thank you come on just ask if. you can also check us out on line at d w dot com slash science or on twitter ask d. w. underscores viands. boubacar dan from ghana asks just how closely related are we humans and chimpanzees. very closely some 98.5

percent of our d.n.a. base pairs are identical based on average findings from a range of analytical methods. and our genetic match with gorillas is just one quarter of a percentage point less than that. around the time has branched off from our common family tree other to earlier but they still share 1007 percent of that d.n.a. with us so how do we explain the huge difference between humans and apes. some primates can scale trees in the rain forest. while another species exploits other planets. the human genome contains some 3000000000 base pairs of which just 40000000 differ from those of chimpanzees but this vital difference means that certain proteins in apes have other structures and possibly other functions in the body. but for all the differences there. also many similarities using tools to eat

food with for example. chimpanzees use twigs to pry delicious ants from their nests. and chimps are emotional creatures researchers have even found similarities in the sound of their laughter and ours. they understand symbols. for example which one beats the other in a game of rock paper scissors. but chimpanzees will probably never be able to build computers although then again neither can most of us the famous primatologist jane goodall urges us to use our supposedly superior intelligence to start protecting the habitats about primate cousins and the planet as a whole. is a dental a thing that humans share more than 98 percent of their d.n.a.

with gorillas and chimpanzees might sound like a loss but when you consider that the human genome is made up of billions of d.n.a. base pairs the 2 percent difference still accounts for a lot of variation is. another example humans and paid share 90 percent of the same genes. are most popular 4 legged friend shares 84 percent of our d.n.a. . and even the brand worm has a 75 percent similarity. trains are still 50 percent of human genes also have kind of departed and then on her. both bon appetit.

how long did the terminator arnold schwarzenegger work on this legendary seemed to get it just right even then he couldn't get rid of his austrian accent a new study has revealed just how difficult that would be. the boy forgot his book. the train is moving fast. a phonetics researcher at the lewd remarks 1000000 university in munich he felt fine ish and our colleagues had 24 native german speakers read out simple english sentences. our hypothesis was that one of the reasons it's so difficult to improve on accents in foreign languages is that we can't hear our own false pronunciation as well as we hear it in others and that's what we're trying to test by asking subjects to read sentences and then write their own accent as well as the accents of evidence. but before they play the

voices back to their test subjects the researchers manipulated the voices so that it sounded as if men were speaking and. that was important to us we wanted to see how people judge themselves without knowing that they're listening to themselves. for example this recording the boy forgot his book became this one on the board. each test subject evaluated 4 of the male voices one of which was their own and the evaluation confirms the hypothesis as the result was that the test subjects did in fact evaluate their own pronunciation better than the others even though they weren't aware they were the ones speaking. why is this and what are the consequences. can go on 1st of all or most for. no you're with our own pronunciation so that's

the one we understand the best and the accent we understand the best usually sounds better to us than hat and that's the mere exposure effect which means that the speech we recognize well and that we've gotten used to is the speech we find better that's an interesting read one of the conclusions that we've reached is that it might be difficult when prove your pronunciation if you evaluate your own accent is already good enough. then you can see how you can know why you should improve it and. maybe these findings will help language students in future. here's a fun fact when dinosaurs roamed the earth there were no flowering plants just ferns and conifer. flowering plants came around 16000000 years later the 1st flower is thought to have looked rather like a water lily today we have flowers in every shape and color many of them use send

to compete for the attention of insects but they also use another method electrical signals. are drawn to flowers quite literally there's an electrifying sense of attraction between insects and flowers one of the approaches of blossom the latter is pollen jumps across and attaches itself to the fine heroes line and the bees exterior. professor don baer from the university of bristol knows all about this magical connection between plants and their pollinators if you buy from and you look at bumble bees you realise pretty soon mending randomly on the flowers they don't visit the flowers. immediately after somebody else has been written to go to the flowers that have not been visited for

a little while that's because these flowers will have generated nectar in the meantime to keep working at producing nectar and i suspect the bees number. over millions of years plants and their insect admirers have developed a win win relationship b.c. nectar and pollen in exchange for pollinating the flowers. flowers cannot afford to disappoint d.c. this is the the key the key thing here is that it will be arrives they invest all the energy and stakes so do the search flowers all have a means of saying i've. left to i have no nick tell if they cannot change color they cannot change center very quickly they cannot change the shape very quickly you cannot change the u.v. reflections which we know is also important but what can the chance so in the course of research we sort of figured out at some point that one thing that can change very quickly is the electric potential of flowers.

flowers and insects of the trickle signals to let them know whether their blossoms are full of nectar or empty. to prove this hypothesis that year over there 1st turned his attention to the flowers. we have measured the fact that flowers are negatively charged they are grounded to the to the ground to the floor to the soil which is rich in electrons and these negative challenging uses electrons if you won't form the soil will move into the flower so the flowers tend to be negative based tend to lose electrons when they fly this is one of their properties as if rice through the year they rub against the air and they will share the electrons therefore they will be positively charged. in the lab done was able to prove that bumble bees can sense of electra's static fields

with the help of his institution's own bee colonies. insects tested already reacted to tiny amounts of negative charge at feeding stations researchers had set up to simulate flowers rich in nectar. on. the sensory biologists can even listen into the communication between flower and be. it's. they connect a flower to an extremely sensitive measuring device the loudspeaker then translates the electrical charge into sound. so you can kind of consider a magic wand i guess. it's just simply a plastic world and you know when you rub your head with a balloon and you get all this electric charge building up and down and that's essentially what we do with this so you can rub it on your hat and you get a lot of electric charge building up and this is

a charge that would be similar to the charge you get from a bumblebee that's flying around so we can use this is a nice sort of mimic for bumblebee flying around the. depending on the distance of the wand the sound becomes louder or softer. the devices have now been checked now it's the bumblebees turn. on the experiment shows that as soon as it touches down the charge between the b. and the flower is equalized. so any bees flying by afterwards know that this flower has already been visited and has nothing to offer only after a time with the flower produce more nectar and regain its negative charge this is what we are after what we want to find out is how did these electric fields get created between themselves and the flower so in order to do that we need to immobilize that be put it on this it'll platform and iran's too little why use only

each side of its head to apply a tiny voltage between. the experiment takes place in an enclosed environment in a lab that's impervious to external vibrations with the help of a laser beam daniel bell can't even measure nano scale movements. he suspects that the bees hairs and antennae can react to these differences in voltage. diversions we can see here on this is a graphic representation of the data we got but it's exaggerated in empty tud so that we can see. in reality it isn't any and the little hairs that we've seen before are actually vibrating a fraction of their own so this is not motions that we can see but certainly motions of the insects can perceive scientists have still been unable to locate the sensory organs that allow the bees to perceive these tiny movements but one thing

is clear the seemingly magical attraction between bees and blossoms already know all i think this is a big gain for us to try to understand that new dimension which is hidden from us we don't detect these fields. but that hidden dimension doesn't exist between flowers and they're put in it does but it could also one of the. walls that all the prawns and all the insects also use for reception in in different ways so this is for us to explore nolen to try to see how more much more generalized perhaps this process of detecting electric fields is in the small world of insects and blooms. for obese these electrostatic fields are a vital navigation tool. they guide them straight to flowers where they can tank up on nectar ensuring a most fruitful journey. and that's all from tomorrow today thanks for watching i'm do join us again next week

for more fascinating stories from the world of science and research until then it's goodbye and take care.

the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing the. measures are being taken. what does the latest research say. information and context. coronavirus of data the code of special monday to friday.

it's kind of. clean because i want to see if germany was there maybe the last few years have been quite over earlier. and learned of the harm of when it comes to. perhaps the biggest and the new i'll be applied i'm going down the river and i'd love to be in the news there are pros in their accounts but when you feed them all together they're realizing cultures of the another way of living are you ready to meet that's ever been very right just do it. oh and. as our favorite. angus ok.d. the battle of. the usa. or 1st but as i am open to go on i'm a. little

late thank you. claire was made out of her hair has salmon and warner. and i was told when. i was told. that the medical staff. who are there my eye was. full of women are gagging for milk that gallo read them with and. what i meant was like this without. any.

of that. this is the they'll be the use of life from ballot julian assault to stay on british soil avoiding extradition to the united states is supposed to celebrate as a put this judge bet the wiki leaks. found on the grounds that an extradition would be oppressive to his mental health. also coming up britain begins of ministering a 2nd coronavirus vaccine developed by oxford university and drug maker astra zeneca as the government passed to announce new lockdown measures. and welcome to the program

a british judge has ruled that we can extend the julian assange cannot be extradited to the united states to face a spear charges the judge said extradition would be oppressive to his mental health the u.s. says it will appeal the ruling your stray and could have faced a prison sentence of up to 175 years in the united states as lawyers meanwhile applied for him to be released on bail. and no sooner had used trickled out of the court room and his supporters began celebrating and chanting. the static that after 10 years of legal fights they had some form of victory. we welcome today's decision we are relieved that mr songs will not be actually voted to the united states we share concerns about his health and his mental health we have been highlighting this for quite some time that he has been vulnerable that we have we have stated and i'll repeat today that his extradition was

a possible matter of life or death. earlier songes tame began the day with low expectations. from. his fiance had called on donald trump to pardon the father of her 2 children. to ride to the court in the back of his high security bag. inside the courtroom the judge dismissed most of assad his defense but she conceded that his mental health was such that to extradite him would be oppressive. to so many people legal battle began with a video that shocked the world classified footage of u.s. apache attack helicopters killing iraqi civilians and journalists released by a song or shape an understanding of what the past 6 years of war has been why. the u.s. accused him and wiki leaks of being enemy combatants for the past decade through

thick and fear in asuncion always maintained he was a journalist. the saga is not over yet the u.s. government said it will appeal today's decision. well we're joined now by niels meltzer he's the united nations special report on torture and has visited julian assange and prison he says the past 10 years have effectively been psychological torture for the we can leaks father mr moussa what's your take on today's ruling that. well thank you very much for having me yes clearly this document is a very important 1st step in the right direction i think it is to be celebrated that the judge has recognized that the new conditions of detention funds would be facing the us are oppressive in my view and view of many human rights organizations they would actually amount to torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment and that therefore for medical reasons also he cannot be extradited to

the u.s. so that is a very important 1st battle to the one interest in this fight and a battle that is also for the prohibition of torture and total recognition of the opposition on the other hand we have to see to recognize that most of the judgment actually goes barry far fortunately income farming and sustaining the rationale underlying the u.s. prosecution of during the fund which could be setting a precedent by which other journalists could be prosecuted and extradited to the united states for espionage charges if they were to publish secret information so why did mr thousands case in particular attraction or intention. to be called honest with you and to begin in the beginning i refused to actually get into this case because i was very much marked by the same prejudices that the broader public has been affected by through the mainstream press reporting on 'd this response for

10 years it was only when i started to actually look into pieces of evidence to see that that whole narrative that had been spread about him for so long. was not supported by evidence and that's what triggered my interest in this case and i then visited him together with a medical team in belmarsh prison and we found that he showed all the symptoms that are typical for persons that have been exposed to psychological torture for a prolonged period of time can you get into bit more detail on that he an expert in torture so then with which way has been tortured and what's your assessment of his condition right now. yes i think thank you for the question it's important to clarify that obviously modern forms of torture. cannot be compared to the kind of medieval forms of physical torture. is very much a cumulative process of destabilizing people through isolation. and really

a sion itself judicial harassment which and i mean by this judicial proceedings that are not based on law but they're being conducted for political purposes we're profit duel rights are systematically being violated and so the person is being destabilized systematically they see that in many countries in the world many regimes that try to use torture methods that don't be physical process and in the end it breaks a person and we actually have a confirmation of that precise process in the today's judgment because it confirms that julian a found mental health is so fragile today that he cannot even be extradited to the u.s. without risking his suicide and that actually confirms that his mental health has deteriorated dramatically and that's also what we have observed together with my medical p. thank you very much news method of the un special rapporteur on torture . another some of the other stories making headlines around the world today

iran says it has resumed enriching uranium up to 20 percent that goes well beyond the threshold set by the 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers the decision coincides with increasing tensions between iran and the west and is expected to complicate efforts by u.s. president elect joe biden to rescue that deal. there. schools in kenya have opened for the 1st time in 10 months the government closed them in march due to the coronavirus pandemic students had temperatures before entering their schools but there are concerns that a social distancing won't be possible in classrooms due to overcrowding and a lack of desks. the prime minister of malaysia says 100

people were killed in attacks on 2 villages on saturday islamist militants are believed to be responsible for the raids in the country's border with mali new jersey suffered repeated attacks amid an upsurge in islam as violence in the countryside held regional. 7th body has been found after the hillside collapsed in the norwegian town of dust on wednesday a search mission for 10 missing people has been underway for days after the earth gave way and several homes slid into it. the king and queen of norway also visited the site on sunday. britain's prime minister boris johnson is due to announce a new coronavirus restrictions in a televised address later today calls are growing for a return to a nationwide lockdown to combat a fast spreading new variant of the virus scotland has already announced

a tightening of measures from midnight u.k. time bad news it's the end of a day that started with a glimmer of hope after the arrival of a 2nd covert 19 vaccine. a milestone for britain as it became the 1st country to administer the oxford astra zeneca vaccine more than half a 1000000 doses have been made available for the 1st 24 hours alone it comes as britain struggles with a surge in corona virus infections including a highly contagious variant this 82 year old was 1st in the queue for the jab. she raised. to more and more into. normal. you know this for a change term. and it was a proud moment for this oxford alumnus who was next in line. is it's

wonderful and it's good to be able to tell all the people who want to hear this. their way get it quickly as quickly as you can. britain has called it a scientific triumph the shot is less expensive and is easier to store than other covert $900.00 x. scenes. but some are proceeding with caution it has yet to be approved in the e.u. and france's data for the job is insufficient you spoke with a viral just in the u.k. who said the information has not been made available. to data that media group for this vaccine is only belonging to the government that is not publicly available and according to the government is like this that if the 1st nose is given the person there is our own 70 percent of the k.c. and then if it is the 2nd those given that it will be around 80 percent efficacy. at 3 months but that is something that we haven't seen the debt as so therefore all

is in error and we don't really know how as the case years would it be particularly after the 1st dose. the european medicines agency has said it is unlikely that the astra zeneca vaccine will be approved for the e.u. in january. and the european union is being forced to defend its comparably slow roll out of a covert 19 vaccine member state status and isolations on december 27th the biotech phase of us progress has been much slower than in the united states or britain france has only vaccinated $500.00 people the european commission has vowed to speed up the rollout and is in urgent negotiations to secure more doses of the biotech pfizer faxing b p n. medicines agency is expected to make a decision on whether to approve the u.s. developed mcdermott vaccine this week. let's discuss this criticism with

our correspondent marina straws in brussels marina the german government said that the rollout was a european decision and that it was always clear there wouldn't be so many dog doses available in the beginning what does the e.u. have to say in its defense that your commission defended itself today again this they have been doing so in the last couple of days it's books that you commissioned spokesman said it's obvious that such a complex and over is always going to bring with it difficulties and your commission also said that they wanted to diversify risks at the beginning because no one could be sure which company would come out 1st which. could have been rolled out 1st so they ordered 2000000000 doses from different companies and the problem with the biotech prize of one is as we've heard before it's quite expensive comparatively and also it has to be transported at minus 70 degrees so that's why

many member states side away from buying a lot and then we also heard that the main bottleneck at the moment is the protection capacity. i want to bring in a graphic to give our viewers an overview of the current global vaccine rollout the country that administers the most doses $100.00 people israel is already vaccinated nearly 13 percent of the population that's followed by bahrain and the u.k. with united states and denmark rounding out the top 5 germany however has vaccinated less than point 3 percent of its population making it only 9 on that list. one you countries like germany so low down on that list. interesting the the c.e.o. of biotech has said that companies leave trying to boost the out good but it's not going as quick and as straightforward in europe as it is in other countries and

there are many reasons for that and one of the main reasons is that the european medical agency that is not as quick in approving vaccines as is the u.k. for example or the or the united states and the reason for that is that the u.k. and the united states for example are pushing through emergency authorization that you just want to do that because they say we want our population to really trust in the vaccines and that's why it's just takes a little bit longer and that's one reason another reason we also heard that in france for example just a couple of 100 people have been vaccinated so far so very low number what's going wrong there apparently they have not set up. centers as another country so it just takes too long and some people also say it's just a huge bureaucratic ford and the french government is not up for it at the moment. our correspondent on the streets talking to us from brussels thank you mary.

well that's it from me and the news team but don't go away on a business update with stephen beardsley is up next he'll tell you all of this coin hitting yet another all time high stakes and. emigrants. they know the police will stop god. they know that the road is not a solution. they know their flight could be fatal. but going back not an option. i'm on and gravity are stuck in the spanish border area along side other young people there waiting for

a chance that will probably never come. shattered dreams starts january 18th on t.w. . going to exhibit on monday seeing the double digit drop in value however the cryptocurrency has been on a tear over the past year breaking record after record now hovering around $30000.00 less per correspondent if the virtual money can really be worth that much . also on the show london's withdrawal from the e.u. was supposed to give a briggs goose to germany's financial look at why that hasn't happened. and in cocoa farmers pick a fight with big chocolate makers accusing them of playing games to avoid paying premiums. welcome to the show i'm stephen busy in berlin it's good to have you with us a bit coin so its biggest daily loss in almost a year on monday sustaining

a double digit fall against the us dollar at one point before recovering to about $31000.00 in midday trading in london and that loss is a mere blip in the crypto currencies manic run in recent months it reached an all time high of 34 $1000.00 just on sunday after quadrupling in value in 2020 a big has benefited from inflation fears and a growing investor base in recent years. now the market correspondent chelsea delaney has been watching the latest rise. global markets have started the year off with the attacks here in frankfurt affect an all new record high on the 1st trading day of 2021 for the momentum of 20 twentieth's certainly carrying through into this new year even though many countries are still battling to crown a virus and are facing extended lockdowns to combat the spread of the virus investors are very much focused now on the vaccine the prospect for vaccine roll

out an economic recovery that's expected to come along with that later on in the year one asset that's not doing so well today is that quiet which has fallen at one point about 50 per cent that comes just a couple days after it had it set a new. all time record one of the biggest beneficiaries of last year's market rally as it's starting to go more and more mainstream be accepted more as the payment method but of course it's known for being extremely volatile and that's not changing anytime soon. financial correspondent chelsea delaney they're from frankfurt and frankfurt is germany's financial capital and it had expected to benefit from briggs it with more london firms relocating or expanding their operations in the city to retain access to the continents those expectations haven't panned out and for many in the growing city that's also ok. from the river thames to the river mine the german world of finance hoped that frankfurt would become the e.u.'s new financial hub 4 years ago the city expected to create

$10000.00 new jobs but it's managed to make just 4000 homes in cunning seem to why it wasn't 10000 is relatively easy to explain every one expected more job migration with the british government reacted immediately making some regulatory changes so that fewer jobs had to be relocated. a lot of it missed fewer jobs than expected coming over from london and job cuts at german banks as they struggle to stay afloat dim prospects for the country's finance sector. office towers belong to the banks the tower still have the banks logos on them but if you look at the tenant mix in the building the banks are nowhere near as dominant as they used to be in the us my bond is and we think i'm a city of big law firms and recruiters and business. talk of auden that's why stefan whining was never bothered by briggs that demand for commercial property

here was already high the city launched multiple new building projects but the pandemic has had a devastating effect on many stock if you look at the strong years in $2182019.00 where we leased well over 600000 square feet you can see we're renting only half of what we had in the boom years that speaks for itself. the new offices being built will likely be sparsely populated good news for small businesses seeking cheap rent but the trend is the opposite for apartments affordable living space remains just a pipe dream with mostly luxury flats being built these days. i guess i'm dodging context can that is there a completely new phenomenon here in the past high rise buildings were considered commercial buildings more of an imposing bad truck and now we see a trend for develop. and that's more familiar in north america luxury residential towers hadn't. even though briggs it didn't bring the expected migration to

frankfurt the city's appeal remains high but so does the price of rent leaving affordable housing a scarce commodity. well 2020 may be over but the coronavirus pandemic definitely is not so much of the economic impact of that pandemic is still difficult to quantify but some forecasters are already putting together a price tag for germany take a look 212000000000 euros that's the whopping costs so far as calculated by the german institute for economic research and by the time the crisis is over this duplex that that number will grow to 391000000000 euro is approaching almost a doubling and that's assuming of course a lot that the infection numbers are brought down significantly over the next couple of months something that's not guaranteed but of course hope for with the new vaccines the earlier we spoke to marcel fracture he's head of the german

institute for economic research which published that analysis and here's what he had to say i think i'm afraid we will see bankruptcies increasing very steeply this year and the best the government can do is to stop the 2nd wave of the virus and help the economy having restarted vets' the single most important objective not just from a health perspective but also from an economic perspective all right marcel for us are there for us and the continuation of the coronavirus pandemic means the continuation of a disastrous period for the global tourism sector as well restrictions are preventing people crossing borders or for making long term travel plans for tour operators their very existence is on the line. the longest railroad connection in the world the transfer iberian railway tracks between moscow and beijing run more than 9000 kilometers tour operator danny de lay biggest prize and has always done

well financially with this special train adventure but the coronavirus pandemic has forced all bookings to be cancelled. from normally more than $10000.00 passengers per year the number has dropped to 0. and the number. of the company's headquarters in berlin no one knows when business will pick up again. and the mid-size company offers exclusive training ship tours worldwide through africa asia and south america but those are the very long distance journeys people are reluctant to book during the pandemic. isn't about what we are convinced that he people will still want to go in these once in a lifetime dream journeys they'll continue to be in demand in this respect we offer the kind of trips that people won't want to do without and that plays into our hand if i want to travel along the amazon or if i want to ride the trend siberian

railway and then i might still want to do that in truth 3 or 4 years since i thought i would a few young. but despite the optimism the travel agency is in a dire situation. overhead costs are high with no income to speak of. the company has had to shorten the hours for 80 percent of its workforce. freelancers abroad like tour guides and train crews often receive no government support but they're extremely important to the company. and you shooting inside full complete i mean these difficult times where these employees have lost all of their income we try to lend a hand where possible that you need a good site. so interested financially like when they need money for their rent in the north get up and into what we help them and try to keep them loyal to lenny day in the long term 150 health who i'm never needed to be in. business is set to pick

up again next summer the company has even taken a few bookings but one thing is certain crowded train restaurants are a thing of the past in the future use will be served in compartments so while the coronaviruses having a lasting effect on the way we travel the tourism industry is hoping that travel itself will eventually emerge from the lock down. over the china story we're following 2 months since his last public appearance speculation is intensifying over the whereabouts of chinese billionaire jack ma the alibaba found there has been off the grid since late october when he gave a speech criticizing china's regulators and state run banks was given a dressing down by officials in beijing or the i.p.o. of his financial services company and group was suspending he was also removed from a prominent role as the public face of an african talent show or. and let's take a look now at some of the other business stories making headlines. shareholders for

chrysler and france's p.s. have overwhelmingly approved the 2 automakers merger creating the world's 4th largest car company emerge firm will go by the names to lantus and be home to brands like peugeot citroen in jeep opel and dodge. opec and its partners were meeting monday to determine production levels for february some members like nigeria are expected to push for an uptick in output following last year's pandemic forced cuts others warn that more output would undercut prices with global demand for oil still weak. egypt ethiopia and sudan have resumed talks over the grand ethiopian renaissance dam following sudan's boycott of the previous round sudan and egypt are worried about water shortages from ethiopia's decades long project on the source of the nile which aims to boost power generation. was something unusual happened in november in the cocoa industry american chocolate producer hershey's cocoa purchased rather

cocoa beans from futures markets and not directly from physical sellers in ghana and ivory coast as is typical of the purchase allowed her she to avoid a special premium for cocoa harvesters set up in both countries and that's leaving a bitter taste behind for some. cocoa farming is hard work it takes around $25.00 of these pods and the cocoa beans inside to make a kilogram of chocolate farmers have to find and cut them down with out hurting the soft bark of the tree. but more and more farmers like these here in ghana are saying the price isn't worth it. is not in a future because of the price and. it's all right. over a pool so over a poised over 4 because one day it's the governors who just increase everything for us because we spent time in the. mostly side of the business but

after all get nothing. in 2019 gonna ivory coast and big chocolate reached a deal to prevent the undercutting of cocoa farmers for each tonne of chocolate which costs about $2600.00 the companies pay an additional $400.00 this helps shore up farmers income and pay for and certify sustainability programs such as preventing child labor and preserving forests when when right. well now ivory coast in gonna say that hershey's and mars are taking steps to avoid paying into the fund the 2 governments say that without the funds they will have to cancel programs both companies deny the claims and say they support the initiatives. cocoa is around 25 percent of gone as export earnings alone but the crops future remains uncertain. and that's it for me and

the business team here in berlin as always you can find out more about these and other business stories online at the w dot com slash business to join us on facebook and twitter i'm stephen beardsley and that's watching. why are people forced to hide in trucks. there are many reasons. there are many answers. and there are many stories. make up your.

job made for mines. in india greenlights to corona virus that seems for the public but was the decision to rushed that's what some critics say pointing out clinical trials has not wrapped for at least one of the constructs and being smaller has its advantages how these hometown cooks in delhi turned their limited operations into big business during the pandemic. plus you may think you know.