exist in germany would for 10 cities see a movement on people would only be allowed to move up to maximum of 15 kilometers that's the radius they would be allowed to move in in those areas the big question mark still is whether that would automatically be implemented or whether that would require a further regional decision to go ahead with it so we're expected to see a month's tough a lockdown in due course at least until the end of january with another meeting due on the 27th the very very interesting details of all the heads of the federal states all of the same page at all is there still some disagreement. well clearly the fact that this meeting started late and that is now gone on for quite a while suggests that there are some details that need working out one of the sticking points was whether there would be exemptions made for schooling currently

the schools are largely closed in germany and we expect that to remain the case at the same time there are questions of whether there could be some exceptions made for particular as people who are was those pupils who are due to face final exams that we understand is one of the sticking points so details being worked out but this is a far cry from what we saw going into this winter of the pandemic into this 2nd wave when we saw a rather isolated chance there with only a few state premiers namely from bavaria which is also pretty hard hit at her side calling for much much tougher restrictions then were being secured then as consensus was sort of in one instance coming out and saying it simply won't be enough this will not be enough and she remained right on up point which sees in germany currently in a moment of crisis in this pandemic is the worse it has been so far. of course

we can really call it a crisis situation a desperate alarmingly high in germany where has the government strategy gone wrong so far. well the big question is was it really a government strategy there's no such thing as central decision making in the end here and it was always some wrangling between berlin and the federal states so we're seeing criticism that there seems to have been an inability to find a common much tougher course much rather relying on appealing to the public to take more responsibility that clearly that's what the number so was not enough in the end to prevent this 2nd much worse wave than the 1st 5 1 at the same time there's more and more criticism also within the governing coalition this already has an air of electioneering with elections due in september that the minister for health un spawn who is from under them ackles party failed to secure enough doses of the

vaccine that the vaccinations are just too slow to get going which is also also in part down to this federal structure so the new not being one uniform process so there's a lot of soul searching going on and there will be a crisis meeting on wednesday to decide how to ramp up the production of the vaccine and get it out there much faster. political it is an issue for us thank you media. people and instructions to stay at home another national lockdown takes effect prime minister boris johnson announced the emergency measures just yesterday as the country battles a fast spreading spreading new coronavirus variant scotland wales and northern ireland are also bringing in strict lockdowns. 5 days into the new year brits woke up with a covert hangover the. streets once bustling now all but to serve as

a new highly contagious period of the virus has wreaked havoc throughout the country forcing england into its 2nd straight lockdown since the start of the pandemic. you may only leave home for limited reasons permitted in law such as too short for essentials to work if you absolutely cannot work from home to exercise to seek medical assistance such as getting a test or to skate domestic abuse. for many to swallow but most agree there is no weather cure as england has seen a 50 percent jump in covered hospitalizations since christmas day. my view he said i think it's something that needs to be done to the reality is that unfortunately people won't take responsibility for themselves and then ultimately i suppose the central government has a responsibility to people yeah i definitely think it was the right decision today

. i just hope that everyone doesn't struggle too much with having to be indoors again so sure that the opposition is calling on the government to provide the 8 needed for those affected. by the parents will need support in the coming days because the schools are shot businesses will need support because they won't be able to operate that package needs to be put in place the soonest possible because compliance needs you know clear messaging but also support for people to make sure that they can comply in wales where patients were among the 1st to receive the u.k. 2nd approved vaccine produced by astra zeneca tough lock down measures have been in place since the 20th of december. hours before johnson's announcement scotland's 1st minister nicolas sturgeon imposed similar restrictions while northern ireland's executive is expected to follow suit. british hospitals now have more cobra 1000

patients than at the height of the pen demick in spring with resources slow and staff overwhelmed the prime minister warns the coming weeks could be the hardest yet. to not have a look at some other developments in the coronavirus pandemic the european union is negotiating with makers of the biotech pfizer vaccine to order between $50.10 additional dozes according to the reuters news agency the english premier league has announced 14 new coronavirus cases its football players and staff that's more than twice as many as lastly indonesia will begin a nationwide vaccination program on january 13th mexico has sponsored approval to the astra zeneca vaccine that makes it the 2nd they seem to get the go ahead. and after some of the other stories making headlines today a chinese court has sentenced the former head of

a state owned assets management management company to death for taking bribes lies arm in was also convicted of bigamy the court said the sums involved were in the hundreds of millions of dollars china executes more people than any other country in the world why. iran has rejected accusations that it seized the south korean tanker to pressure soul to release billions of dollars money that was frozen as part of u.s. sanctions over tehran's nuclear program iranian troops stormed the vessel in the persian gulf on monday claiming it was polluting the water. saudi arabia's crown prince has signed a deal to bring khatab back into a coalition of gulf arab allies could house leaders shake tahmima been hammered out tunney cole signed the agreement ending 3 years of isolation from its neighbors a number of gulf states cut ties with qatar 3 years ago accusing it of being too close to iran. voting has begun in 2 key runoff elections in the us state of

georgia the stakes are high the outcome will determine whether republicans or democrats have control of the senate and with it the ability to other block or advance president elect joe biden's agenda. a final pitch to voters that could reshape politics in georgia and the nation ahead of tuesday's vote democrats raphael warnock and john asaf more confident of victory. what is better this is a bit over is this is. the answer. is coming for david byrd you. both candidates also getting a late assist from the president elect joe biden's ability to implement his political agenda would be boosted by democratic victories here. the power the power

is learning in your hands unlike any time in my career one story one state can chart the course not just through the next 4 years or for next generation. democrats may also be hoping to capitalize on recent comments from donald trump on sunday audio emerged of the us president pressuring the state's top election official to alter the state's presidential election results citing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. no love lost i want to do is as i use one of on. $11780.00 loans which is one more that we have. on the eve of the runoff georgia secretary of state dismissed trump's claims once again. it's just been a big canard it's been a red herring people trying to blame shifting find excuses why they didn't turn their people out to win as

a republican i'm disappointed with those results are accurate. but trump isn't backing down the u.s. president flew to georgia to campaign for the state's republican senate candidates he once more refused to acknowledge his election defeat. i want to thank you very much georgia by the way there's no way we lost georgia this. was originally. his time in the white house may soon be ending but donald trump seemed to term and not to go quietly. did i mean as washington bureau chief in his poll is covering that story and she sent us this update. it is here in georgia where the fate of joe biden's presidency will be out to mentally decided today because it is this election that will decide who controls the senate if the republicans keep the majority it will be hard for

wyden to presume his political agenda as it is very likely that the republicans will block all of his bills to undermine the success there is a lot at stake in the southern states are no wonder that a lot of money actually more than half a $1000000000.00 has been spent on campaigning over the last 2 months the biggest challenge for both parties is to get people out to vote again after an exhausting presidential election by the end of the day it will come down to who can model weighed more people to go out and cast their ballot the polls will close at 7 local time but it is well possible that it might take days before we have the results because everybody is expecting a razor thin outcome and there is fear that we might experience violence later because the united states still has a president who is obviously not able to accept the democratic process unless he is the winner. it is poor reporting of that and that's it for me and the news team

don't go away the next up is one of the johns with coverts 9 teen special programming and more world news you can always visit our website still w dot com and do follow us on twitter and instagram as well at d w news is i'll have a lot galavis in the end i'm in the news stream and so watch. the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and context the coronavirus update 19 special. on t w. grappling hooks on. expressing feelings i am not very creative yet but i would love to be considered an artist

mandate looking for new perspectives real to him and not to be replaced with the camera doing things differently. come to a place where we reflect on society angst. people with masks a common sight now of around the world some of the masks also in at home others professionally made. and then there are the disposable masks the ones also used in hospitals they pose a huge risk to the environment because they contain plastic and often enough they end up polluting reverse and oceans. we've seen all around the world well with washing up with plastic barks and bought for them. these mosques are no.

better nor worse than the rest of the car. we can stop using mosques but we should not have to choose between saving lives or the environment so what should be done. hello welcome to the night in special. and this here is a reusable mosque we all have them here. to keep each other safe and i certainly keep this one unlike those single use ones which most of us where only once or twice and then throw away but what happens then it's time to take a closer look at an item that's become essential for our everyday life. disposable masks are everywhere on the ground in hong kong in the rivers in ukraine on the beaches of italy and california and on the streets in germany a growing problem. and then to my isp you always think it's

a paper because you look at the tissue on the surface like that but inside it's at least 50 percent plastic and the rest is cellulose or paper but half of it won't biodegrade and then there's the elastic air loops which are completely plastic you might think the clip over the nose is metal but it's also plastic so overall 70 percent of the weight of this mask is plastic and therefore not biodegradable. was they're designed to be used by medical professionals but for many they've become a standard household item a lot of masks and up in this scene because they haven't been properly disposed of used basques or considered unsuitable for recycling as they contain germs not just coronaviruses. investments in they basically made thermal treatment to get burned up in germany that means they're supposed to be disposed of as a general waste which means they'll be incinerated that's

a process which can be used to generate energy producing electricity and heat. but not all countries treat waste this way in many places masks end up in dumps where they get buried or blown into waterways scientists are working on alternatives such as but he would agree to pull cellulose from bamboo the masks need to be robust and developing them will take time. shaft naturally i know the mass create new waste which we cannot recycle these materials are definitely not compatible with the ideal of a circular economy in. time we are burdening our planet with a lingering legacy one that is likely to outlast the pandemic of life's injuries. or. for more i'm joined by mark commute dominic from the university college london where he's professor of materials and society a project lead the plastics waste innovation hub good to have you with us let's

start 1st of all you putting things into perspective how big a global problem ah single you masks single use masks in comparison to to plastic bottles and backs of force. it's a it's a very significant problem simply small so it's getting bigger so in the u.k. we did a calculation that every year it creates $124000.00 tons of single these plastic waste and recyclable that's just in the u.k. with 65000000 people now if you think that well you've got a 1000000000 people and more wearing single use mosques then you realize it's an enormous amount of the waste and it's growing every day of course i made as long as the pandemic is with us we'll probably have to wear masks but why do single use mosques need to have components that are made of plastic. is there any all the material available. well yeah i mean so it depends what you say use them as full

for the general public the masks ought to protect other people so in case that you have the virus and you don't know you have the virus but you're out and about meeting people there is to protect others and so you don't need to use plastic mask which are designed for surgery and hostile environments you can use and we the data shows very clearly that cloth masks which are made of cotton or wool are as effective for doing this. so so you can use reusable must and they don't need to be plastic right but it's i mean as you said i mean surgical masks for medical staff they should use the single use masks that contain plastic that in itself is a huge problem as well. it is and what we've done is i mean i'm not saying plastic isn't bad itself of course what we need to do is recycled plastic and so we should be designing things for recycling and what we've slept walked into in the medical

establishment and hospitals is this idea it's been so to us as a very hygienic way of making sure people are safe in hospital so everything a single use it's all incinerated off to it's and the hospitals it developed countries are all set up to do this but what this does to chris cycle of waste cycle of waste and see it to emissions which we have to wean ourselves off we can't continue like this even in hostile environments right i mean i don't know if you can answer that question it just popped into my head because i know that the european union wants to ban as single use plastic this summer that would also include face masks are they still available then do we know. i think those both those directives they only include the use foot by the public so things being sold to the public they usually have exceptions and i suspect the hospital in violence will be exceptions because the whole of the hostile environment including injections and all the packaging and bolt is all

single use so i suspect what they're talking about there is banning single use plastics so the public in terms of food packaging. what we know that the pandemic helped to temporarily at least to lowest c o 2 emissions do you think the pandemic will also all help create more awareness when it comes to plastic pollution. i think what people see with the with the disposable mosque is you see them on the ground all the time and why is that partly it's selfish people taking them off the contaminated soil and down the ground so it's partly that but it's because they're very lightweight then get blown around in the wind they end up in the seed and up in the rivers they end up in the in the countryside so yeah it's a very visible sign of our attitudes towards each other towards the environment and towards and this is that we we kind of got used to this terrible addiction to

single use plastic and the mobs really are and about it and i'm at the mob and really not a good example but yeah that's no doubt absolutely the but i mean if they sort of incentive so you know couldn't couldn't policymakers say every mask that you dispense properly we have containers put up outside supermarkets or wherever people ah let that be a feasible solution. well we looked into that very expensive solution so you could say well ok everyone to use a single use plastic mouse and we're going to put these containers everywhere and we're going to yeah we're going to monitor that and give you some incentive but that's got to be a big infrastructure you could put into place when in fact an easier solution which is the one that most governments are trying to persuade the populations to follow is a real useful months one where you yourself as a citizen have the responsibility for cleaning and for using and for and for carrying around with you and and and that that in itself i think would

change people's attitudes that is the idea of disposability whether there is it destruction or not is actually not very good for the environment rights market near dominic professor in london and said in an expert on material society plastic waste innovation thank you so much for your time i was talking to. time now for more of your questions over to a science correspondent williams. is a new variant of the virus more dangerous than the old one. viruses mutate constantly producing a never ending stream of new variants but most of the time those mutations don't change the virus much or or they even have a negative effect on its ability to propagate still every once in a while

a mutation will provide advantages like making the virus for example better invading your cells or better at replicating and them and that appears to have happened with a new variant 1st identified in the united kingdom back in september which has in just a few short months become the form detected in most new patients there that rapid expansion the experts say is them to the fact that one or more of the mutations it's accumulated make the variant more contagious it seems to spread more easily exactly how much more easily is still kind of up in the air but but does that make it more dangerous the ensor is the oath yes and no the know is if you look at things from an individual level although it looks to be a lot more contagious the fast spreading variant doesn't appear to be more virulent

so it doesn't seem to make the people who catch it any sicker than the old variant does but but seen from a population perspective the new variant is more dangerous because the fact that it's more transmissible means that of course more people will catch it and more people catching it translates into more people ending up in hospital wards and i see. you units looking forward the new variant could prove more dangerous for another reason as well which is that contagiousness is directly linked to herd immunity the more contagious a pathogen is the more people have to be vaccinated to stop its spread the good news is that experts are still cautiously optimistic that approved vaccines should prove just as effective against the new variant as they are against the old

one. there you go in there and he'll be back again tomorrow so if you have a question just send an e-mail to feed bag dot english to diddle the dot com and type experts in the subject line or you leave a comment on our you tube channel that's it for today thanks for watching stay safe .

my 1st by saying the sewing machine. where i come from women are almost by this ocean for. something as simple as learning how to write them by psychosis and. since i was a little girl i wanted to have advice i'd lost my home and it took me years to going to. finally gave up and mention buying young by savers but returned because sewing machine sewing i suppose was more apt pro-create for those than writing advice i was no. i want to meet. women back home who are bones by the unsocial

rules and inform them of old dead basic rights my name is the about of the hook and a war. this is due to every news africa on the program today schools reopened after almost a yes primary and high school children off back in the coster of but how safe are they and their teachers from school but 19 we have a report from nairobi. and president morsi in the us has won a 2nd term in office in the central african republic but will he be able to pacify the country. and will meet a former separatist fighter from cameroon who has surrendered.