they know that the route is not a solution. they know their flight could be fatal. going back to using not an option. i'm on and probability or stuck in the spanish border area. other young people are waiting for a chance that will probably never come. shattered dreams starts january 18th on t.w. . president trumka continues his attack on chinese tech founding the use of apps meanwhile the new york stock exchange council was the delisting of 3 of china's tech firms to try to understand the mixed signals coming from the u.s. also coming up. germany is extending its coronavirus knockdowns more restrictions

on people and businesses but 1st the german tone of instigates a quota for women in leadership positions. this law has been a matter of urgency that has occupied us for years we have clearly seen that voluntary commitment leads to a snail's pace nothing happens voluntarily but being legally bound leads to success and progress and because of that we are creating this law for more women in leadership positions. with germany's minister for families and women francisco if i speaking just a few moments ago this is deja vu business on robots in belin. now while germany itself has been led by a woman for the past 15 years that certainly hasn't been the case for the country's top companies in fact germany has lagged behind other nations when it comes to female representation at executive level in the u.s. 97 percent of the country's top firms have at least 2 women on their boards in france it's 87 percent but in germany it is way down 13 percent there have been

attempts to change that of course but a system of voluntary commitment to gender equality has failed to you results in fact the proportion of female managers on the boards of german companies actually fell last year now the government following a push by the minister for families and women francisca to fight who we just heard from is planning to force listed companies to have at least one woman on their boards one person who knows what it's like to be a woman in a position a top position indeed is yearning a kook or who served on the board of siemens before joining boston consulting group last year she's been an active and vocal advocate for this new gender quota and she joined us on the program head c.w. business thank you very much for being with us as this does this issue gets discussed in the german parliament so i mean it seems like this quote or it's

happening what about your experience with german corporate culture has made you such an advocate of it. here you said it very clearly i mean you know the perception in germany is because we have had a german female councilor chancellor for the last 15 years on the german is very progressive and that matters that actually it is not it's very conservative when it comes to the role models behavior of what man should do and live and should do and that has an impact on professional lives in germany off of them and in general and obviously also a situation that you can feel in all of the levels and also on the board and for the last 2 decades actually it's 20 years that german companies have been talking about a self commitment to bring more women into the board positions in executive positions and that faith dramatically improved but as you also said in your introduction we are clearly lacking behind which makes decisions worse we are not representing the society and we are actually not taking all of the diversity of thinking into the decisions so this is why i has always been an advocate voluntary approach getting

firms to just do this by themselves why has not worked well it's a good question right the decision making if you look a little bit into society and into social ga people very much like always favor to take the same people in there so if you have a lot of men always taking the decisions they have this tendency to always go in select ma'am and i think you need to have a coder to interrupt that to actually make everyone see that women and men can do the job equally get and then you have different pictures and different role models and then things are also slightly changing this quarter is actually and i'm going to require companies to have a at least one woman on their boards enough bit disappointed by that. i am a bit you know i mean the thing is like when you look at the last 20 years then of course i mean we i mean the women that are advocating also for that legislation favor office they hoping for more and full less compromises that as our minister

also said there were still a lot of debates in there because the conservative party at least you know some of the representations are still not in favor of that because they believe it is actually too much influence into the private sector or into the pocket sector but the thing is like it's in a very important step it is a very important signal that things can happen and it will actually show everyone who doesn't believe that they're there said enough women that are capable to go into executive positions without that any company will fail and i think that's why i hope it will be a push into the right direction but was ultimately needed surely is a change in attitudes not can you force a change in attitudes through quotas. i think you can because if you look at other countries that actually have launched code as much before and also like when you think about like what has been happening after the 2nd bull were in many industrial companies you see that through a cold up pictures change attitudes change people see what's possible and then

sometimes things become normal that 20 years ago didn't seem to be normal so i think when we can do that and we have seen countries like france like the us like sweden to actually change role model behaviors then we will see an impact and that is then not only of ups and tayshaun of men and women but it will also have an impact on all of the other societal representations that we see in germany so for example people over the migration background which are not represented either so i think that will actually have an impact on all of it and we will see and i'm very positive that thinks will change. so what's next if this doesn't have a effect beyond just getting one woman onto each board is it tighter quotas. i think let's see it was actually interesting that the debate i mean after it was actually announced that the law would actually come up there were very few in the economy in the business burke that are actually complaining about it it was more in

the bay that was going on in politics so i actually believe that also there is a societal momentum of like having understood that it is about time to change society as it is but when you look at germany in particular there is a lot of other things still in place elects them at the taxation it's called actually marital text living which is something that very few countries still have in place which is favoring marriage over for example and family splitting germany is still overall represented of like having schools that only go until mid day so it is pretty impossible for both parents to work i mean just because the societal structures are not they are and for example the next thing that we also have to push is like the parental allowance for mothers and fathers to stay home in order to get actually some money from the state should also be increased and for me here sweden house show a very good example how societal pictures can change the next step for you broader

change in a career go out i'm a board member of siemens now senior adviser on boston consulting group thanks for joining us on t.v. business thank you. now u.s. president donald trump has signed an executive order banning transactions using chinese major payment providers and we chat president trump says the order which takes effect actually after its user leave office will protect u.s. national security the announcement closely follows a decision by the new york stock exchange to cancel the day listing 3 chinese tech firms. as if trade and diplomatic relations between the u.s. and china couldn't get any foggier. the new york stock exchange had an announced it was delisting 3 communications giants china telecom china unicom and china mobile. the delisting followed an executive order from president donald trump which barred american investments and chinese firms owned or controlled by the military now the

exchange says it's changing course after talks with quote relevant regulators but today's announcement is not undoing the mounting tensions. number 2 the suppression of chinese firms has a limited impact on these chinese companies but it will harm the u.s. his own national interests and the image of that country as well as the global position of the u.s. capital market has changed. the about face from the new york stock exchange has been called bizarre by some market watchers and is leaving traders smarting from the whiplash. but the saga could continue in its statement the new york stock exchange added they will keep an eye on whether these companies can remain listed. now let's get more on this from our reporter in taipei song so so so what's the reaction been from the u.s. government to this move by the new york stock exchange. according to many

sources the n.y.s.e. could still go ahead with its listings because the u.s. treasury secretary steven loosing phone the n.y.s.e. until tuesday to tell them that they did he disagree with this issue and to change the course of the day liston's so to the 3 chinese companies is nothing but a merely political decision to use the cost of the national security to suppress chinese companies and also to them it shows that how chaotic that the chump and construction is for the last 2 weeks they have in the white house so the 3 chinese companies would hope that the biden presidency could be more predictable and even change is that of order a so that they could be strong of the certainty of the u.s. rules but in the meantime we now also have this executive order from president john bunning transactions through a chinese ups if it takes effect what sort of an impact is that going to how

well we know that. they have already have another exact order to block some u.s. transactions with chad and the u.s. and the chinese on the video optic talk it was blocked but it will blocked by the courts mainly on freedom of speech grounds but this time for apps like ali pay it would be a struggle for them to come up with a 1st amendment case that the new restriction will be very likely to take effect however since apps like ali pay overseas operations catarrh largely to chinese tourists chinese overseas nationals and business and they venture abroad and do not serve a large base of u.s. consumers so the impact would be limited ok so. thanks for joining us. time now for a quick look at some of the other business stories making the news new figures show unemployment in germany rose to 2700000 people last year that's the highest figure

since 2013 according to the federal employment agency the number of germans without a job increased by almost 430000 during 2020. german chancellor angela merkel is announcing the country's intensifying measures and fighting the spread of the corona virus a current national knock down will be extended by 3 weeks to the end of january non-essential businesses will remain closed and employees are encouraged to allow us to have to work from home. but on this let's cross to our financial correspondent in frankfurt chelsea delaney chelsea this is another blow for german businesses so it's going to hit the services side of the economy particularly hard especially things like retail stores which have already been struggling throughout the pentax the retail industry association has warned today that this extension could put about 50000 shops at risk of having to close it's also likely will hit

you know the tourism industry and bars and restaurants hospitality all of those will remain in a large part closed as well so all of this is going to put more pressure on the german economy and especially people's jobs and livelihoods chances are they frank thanks for that quick update. so for me in the business team here ben thanks a lot but joining us to visit our web site the debris dot com has missed. 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. on t w. children to come to

this. one giant trouble i'm in we're nearly in normal to see the peak year you. mean by. the change in mood in a fuel economy. how will climate change affect us and our children. learn more e.w. dot com slash water. people with masks a common sight now 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 bags and bottles in reverse some of these masks are another another addition they're no better no worse than the rest of the trash. we can stop using masks but we should not have to choose between saving lives or the in my. raiment so what should be done. hello welcome to the 19th special in berlin and this here is a reusable mask we all have them here at the w. 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 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 a 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. bottles they're designed to be used by medical professionals but for many they've become a standard household item a lot of masks end up in the scene because they haven't been properly disposed of used basques are considered unsuitable for recycling as they contain germs not just

coronaviruses. they basically mean thermal treatment to get burned up in germany that means they're supposed to be disposed of as 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 biodegradable so you those from bamboo the masks need to be robust and developing them will take time. shafts naturally i know the masks create new waste which we cannot recycle these materials are definitely not compatible with the ideal of a circular economy. we are burdening our planet make with a lingering legacy one that is likely to outlast the pandemic by centuries.

and for more i'm joined by mark commute dominic from the university college london where he's professor of materials and society and project lead the plastics waste innovation hub good to have you with us let's start 1st of all writing things into perspective how big a global problem oz single you masks single use masks in comparison to to plastic bottles and back so forth. so that it's a very significant problem simply small so it's getting bigger so in the u.k. we did a calculation that over a year it creates 124000 tons of single these plastic waste recyclable that's just in the u.k. with 65000000 people now if you think that well boy you've got a 1000000000 people and more wearing single use mosques than you realize it's an enormous amount of plastic waste and it's growing every day of course i mean 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. isn't 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 or 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 or usual mask 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 about it so 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 is single use its old sinner right to donate to its and the hospitals it developed countries are all set up to do that but what this does to criticise of white cycle of waste and see it to emissions which we have to wean ourselves off we can't continue like this even in awful 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 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 for by the public so things being

sold to the public they usually have exceptions and i suspect the hospital in virus 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 is banning single use plastics sold to 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 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 their contaminated soil them 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 seat 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 the amount the market really had to get a signal that yeah that's no doubt absolutely at the but i mean if on they sort of incentives you know couldn't couldn't policymakers say all right for every mask that you dispense properly we have containers put up outside supermarkets and wherever people are let that be a feasible solution where 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 yet 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 and are trying to persuade the populations to follow is a really useful moss one where you also 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 infrastructure or not is actually not very good for the environment rights market dominic professor and london then said in an expert on material society plastic waste innovation thank you so much for your time. to continue. time now for more of your questions over to a science correspondent williams. is the 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 both 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 dice . 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 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 do w 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 .

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this is deja vu news live from berlin the democratic party steps closer to control of the u.s. senate reverend raphael warnock wins his race on seating his republican rival george s. other runoff is also shifted in the democrats favor the party needs to win both seats to gain a majority in the senate and to add vance president elect biden suggest. also

coming up a fresh crackdown on dissent in hong kong police arrest dozens of pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers this week is the biggest operation you.