martin there can be to. make up your. nature has blessed us with an amazing array of flora and fauna. and researchers around the world are committed to protecting that biodiversity replenishing vital ecosystems and the species that inhabit them means we all have to do out parts. scavengers can play an important role.

as can animal droppings small and large. what is scientists doing to counteract the dramatic loss and biodiversity that's our topic coming up. welcome to tomorrow today the science program on t.w. . this sounds of every organism have a genetic origin which is passed on to the next generation in the case of identical twins to 2 people. when individuals are produced with identical d.n.a. they are called clones 996 of the 1st successful attempt to create a genetically identical copy of a living animal dolly the sheep today researchers hope to use cloning technology to promote and preserve biodiversity. meat caught who's technically. i'd been dead for 22 years. you may have guessed it could is

a clue. and he's the 1st white horse ever successfully. which makes him quite a big deal. and he wasn't just an experiment scientists are now cloning endangered species to slow down the rate of biodiversity loss and even improve entire ecosystems. you would words just wow obviously we want to say. that we can but how exactly would that work and how realistic is it welcome to the very weird world of wild clones gene banks and bringing species back from the afterlife. cloning has been controversial around the world. with legitimate concerns about us

playing god creating and list copies of species that wipe out biodiversity. focus is the exact opposite to bring diversity back to this population of while she walski is hosses. so how is a clone which is an exact genetic or b. of another animal supposed to bring back biodiversity well bear with me. on do 2000 horses a life today have descended from only 12 wild ancestors to clone could researches use a unique gene that was frozen years ago that would have otherwise been lost from the pool and they use a domestic horse as a surrogate mother. is not the 1st endangered species to be cloned and there has even been a clone of an extinct species but with limited success. the barony in ibex was

cloned 3 years after it went extinct using an all frozen skin sample researchers impregnated over $200.00 domestic goats only 7 became pregnant one made it to term but the baby died minutes suffered was born. less than one percent of wild clones ever survive and the lack of research and access to wild animals makes the entire process especially difficult. with cut looking healthy scientists thought he would be the 1st clone to directly increase the genetic diversity of a population in the wild. and this is really cool because it's this represents a paradigm shift in conservation where we're no longer reacting to crisis but we're getting out to being preventative. that's been know that one of the scientists who cloned could and has been pushing the idea of cloning for conservation.

the idea behind it is that we can use cloning in multiple ways to help endangered species either by increasing the size of their populations or by using it strategically to maintain genetic diversity let's take a closer look at the increasing population numbers can help species recover but scientists only have a limited gene pool to choose from. but the method being use here is to add to the strength of the genetic pool by bringing back genes i would have otherwise died out this could make populations more resistant to the effects of inbreeding and disease and even make them better at adapting to climate change. biodiversity loss is an existential threat we face it puts on basic resources from pollination water and food at severe risk and coral countries are likely to be the worst hit at 1st. speed. he's numbers are in such a freefall that since the 1970 s.

species populations have declined by around 60 percent today we could be losing up to $150.00 species each day. around the world have taken notice i'm not collecting and preserving whatever genetic material they can in the labs and gene banks. i mean for many species sure i mean storing the d.n.a. is like a resort. for their. genetic. ed louis co-founded a british bank run by public universities museums and. their consortium has collected over 48000 so far. while the main cloning experiments are taking place

in the west especially the us governments around the world have ramped up their d.n.a. collection. from india to china and in the amazon where researchers collecting samples of endangered species banking on the technology to catch. at least having any information. saving any species. worth. owning is only one part of assisted reproduction which also includes artificial insemination in vitro fertilization and more recently gene editing. over thousands lose and research institutions around the world are working on assisted reproduction of wild animals including for projects devoted specifically to cloning for conservation. the release to conserve genetic

diversity is on cloning may well save some species but would cause a long term effect on conservationists say it is much more sensible to focus on protecting the biodiversity we still have how. could we ever rebuild all that you're losing now. such questions need to drive the technology that is most likely here just state. rather than trying to save single species it's better to protect entire ecosystems knowing which plants animals and ecological communities need special protection requires regular monitoring until now such monitoring could only provide a momentary snapshot of conditions in a set place and time. but a new method might soon allow us to monitor an entire ecosystem in one fell swoop.

this is the airport at the german aerospace center and often near munich a dorney a 228 is ready for takeoff. it's carrying a hyperspectral camera. ecologists hope to use the device to help identify the species of flora and fauna and their distribution in a particular ecosystem from the air. after a 90 minute flight the darn yea has reached its goal. the varian forest national park in southern germany the ecologist get to work. the hyperspectral camera registers the visible light and other electromagnetic

radiation reflected off the forest below something like a regular digital camera. but a normal digital camera has sensors that are only sensitive to visible light in 3 bands. red green and blue. the hyperspectral camera captures a much wider range dividing it into $250.00 spectral bands it collects lots of images of the same area every substance has its own pattern its spectral signature . taken from a plane or satellite hyperspectral images can already reveal how much chlorophyll or water there is in a forest canopy or whether pasts have infested the trees. but scientists want to do more international research projects in the bavarian forest is taking the next step. as you just put it does this is we want to identify the range of

species on the grounds windows and then investigate whether the reflection of sunlight on the ground could be used to identify the species that would let us mount biodiversity from space if you thought also. first the team of biologists from the netherlands france china and australia. well try to identify all the organisms living in the forest a gargantuan task they take samples of soil which is full of bacteria and other microorganisms and fun guy. snails worms spiders and many other species of animal also leave their trace in the soil in the form of d.n.a. . all of these traces will be brought to the lab where they'll be subjected to genetic analysis. within just a few months the team hopes to compile inventory of the entire ecosystem and

especially its microorganisms. the ecosystem. degrading their leader leaves the dead. there are. recycling. and. plans all the trees grow so. our prisons are really important and we can predict and see how little impact all the furries on. the scientists are also using laser scanners to study 60 distinct areas within the forest different conditions allow different species to thrive so the species will bury if there's a lot of dead what for example. if there's mainly connect or deciduous trees in. the biologists are also very interested in leaves.

just look forest canopy is also home to insects fungi and microorganisms. the mix of species living in the canopy can reveal a lot about the health of the forest and the leaves themselves are a kind of mirror of the health of the entire forest ecosystem. the chemistry of the leafs is a presentation of the condition of the tree and the tree is a presentation ecosystem everything is related to each other and by understanding those relations and standing how to change 1st locations 1st force 1st forest is porter understanding forces are now diverse a forest ecosystem is. hyperspectral imaging could help identify the chemical composition of leaves in a particular patch of forest. and be not so good at predicting individual

species but that's not our goal we want to predict the range of species in a forest and if we could do that from space identify species by their spectral fingerprint then we could map biodiversity overload stretches of land and also observe changes in that biodiversity. the health of large scale ecosystems can then be monitored from space and real time in this very in forest is an ideal testing ground although it will take another 3 years until all the data has been gathered and analyzed. greedy insatiable and cruel in many languages someone who behaves like a vulture is someone who's ruthless a true predator. that does a disservice to the savages which make a big contribution to healthy ecosystems. but in recent decades africa's

vulture popular. has fallen by some 90 percent bringing them to the brink of extinction. a kenyan conservation group has launched an initiative to protect the bird. over half of africa's 11 vote just species are teetering on the brink of extinction the environmental n.g.o.s kenya has been observing the development in east africa. it's distressing because without these scavengers dead animals would rot wherever they dropped and that could upset entire ecosystems. which is a very much important in. cleaning the environment we call them the. undertaker the clean the environment all the dead carcasses and by doing these they stop the spread of diseases diseases like. and all of that

nature kenya introduced a vulture conservation program in the muscle i'm our a nature reserve and 2014 it's a mr spread awareness of the crucial role vultures play. by this group of mice i work as nature can use vulture ambassadors they explain to villages that when a dead cow will go just poisoned with acar chemicals in order to kill predators that threaten their livestock all of the animals that feed on the carcass of poisoned and that includes a lot of vultures. so as i'd like to volunteer i want to go. for example in my location i usually go to. a flick when there is a flea. but it would be for its place and we we actually sometimes take the carcasses of those. and we've put them aside and you can. actually talk through there or not i'm not always with. support from villages and

leaders is key to the ngos campaign. the assistant chief of one village tells us that battles between humans and animals are an ongoing issue in the area. there is a lot of conflict animals are being killed by a lie. but people are also getting killed by elephants and lions. presents a serious challenge for us here to be about conflict incident. but all too often the main victims of these conflicts are vultures and that's the environmentalists message. to put an end to their agonizing deaths nature kenya also cooperates with the ranges from the mara reserve. i think the biggest challenge is they sure of reporting like. poisoning we normally don't get a lot of reports from the community because they know that it's a crime and so

a lot of this go unreported. but reporting the cases would give the conservationists a chance to save the birds. that's why keeping communication channels open is important. basically talking we discussed because we don't assume that they don't know they know something so what we do is to add to. and basically to clear this. also supported by bird life international the program is focused mainly on east africa because that's where vulture death rates are especially high the campaigns push to improve the exchange of information is now starting to yield results. we are getting reports on not human to live conflict and also responses to. what i mean and by these some voters have been saved because there is. a.

response protocol that is being followed. close off in the. incident last year an international initiative was launched with the goal of reducing vulture mortality in africa by 50 percent within the next decade. before it to work its final of the local communities are also on board. biodiversity has been in dramatic decline in recent decades. the trend that is set to continue unless urgent action is taken. there are various steps we can take to stop that development or even reverse it by completely rethinking our consumer behavior as well as supporting ecosystems. functioning ecosystems can sometimes be found in the un likeliest of places.

to keep those in wait 30 centimeters across and 2 centimeters high that's about average for a cowpat a single cow produces about 10 of these a day. so the menu is an excellent fertiliser the spots on the pasture that get plenty of cowpats are especially lush and green. but cow paths are far more than just fertilizer on this meadow in the nature reserve in southwestern germany and to mana just here and who is that and biologist have that nicko are looking for fresh samples. as we are here i never see here we've got a slightly older cow part as you can see the surface is dried out. there's a pretty good crossed when you conceive of the 1st love you're already appearing like here. because of the obvious thrive in the donkey and the prey for other bugs

and beetles. i mean. here is a clown beetle. for us is fairly small but they're also much larger species which are natural born predators guns cause they're got very big mouth parts which they use to chop up the larvae much like a butcher's knife and then eat them so this is a very complex food web that's. cowpats teeming with life the dung provides thousands of small creatures with food and shelter. before it even hits the ground i can't pack starts to attract dung flies they deposit their eggs in the fresh down. and pretty soon the 1st beetles mavin they dig tunnels for their own offspring which in turn everything by spiders and predatory beetles about 2 weeks later the worms are rife soon the

cowpat has vanished but the entire area remains a hive of activity birds and other magic creatures such as lizards dine on the insects. beetles predatory beetles birds and then birds of prey for example occupying different positions in the food web so you get a limb norma's functional complexity from one cowpat if it isn't here if the cow stays in the barn this doesn't exist. like. a single free ranging alchemy to use up to a ton of dollar amounts. that yields 20 kilos of insects which can sustain about 10 kilos of birds about 3 stokes a. 30 starlings for example. but that only happens

where ecological farming methods they used as on this protected spot of land in the midst of a nature reserve of. 40 cows live here in an area of 70 hectares of forest and says he had tens of pasture the meadow is allowed to run wild it's never mon. père. aaron but nicole wants to see what kinds of creatures they living here he uses a modified leaf blower to suck up a sample and finds more than a 100 different species. in his openness we find a lot of cicadas and bugs but there are also beetles and spiders everything that

you'll find compromise on the vegetation it's an amazing thing to see there's a diversity of species you'll no longer find on an ordinary meadow and if they get . this is an ordinary pasture not far away. the meadow was moved recently. and the biologist takes another song paul. he finds less than a dozen creatures. far fewer species and it's a catastrophe for insects and birds there's hardly anything here is a park is there. and what about the count past many farm animals are given substances to control internal parasites that affects biodiversity in the down as he seen it i know i think i don't see a single beetle or a tunnel made by one nothing at all not the one here. that. back at the meadow in the nature is

a habit nicole says the rich diversity of fountain animal life would be easy to preserve. mandiant our childhood faults and if we had just 5 percent wild beddoes or if sense of year around how should i say in germany us insect life would benefit immensely on tiny plots of land like this one insect biodiversity can be doubled or even tripled in both absolute numbers and species i've seen it here obviously because it is good faces. and all of this wouldn't be possible without cowhands. if outlet is right why are they flatter than anything major. do you have a science question you'd like us to answer. if we featured on the show you get

a little surprise as a thank you. come on just hours. for most science stories check out our website w dot com slash science or look for us on twitter. but that's all for now thanks for joining us on tomorrow today we'll be back next week with more fascinating stories from the world of science and technology until then but by.

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this is do we do is live from berlin back home and behind bars the kremlin's fiercest critics detained on his. return to moscow and hold before a makeshift court like that of all he says his treatment makes a mockery of justice also coming up even tougher coronavirus restrictions to looking increasingly likely for germany turns on america has moved up the date for a meeting with health officials as concerns grow over who knew what and more infectious strains of the virus and forced to train in their hotel rooms

preparations for just really open are in disarray as more than 70 tennis players on $120.00. thank you very much for your company we start this broadcast in russia where the kremlin's most vocal critic alexina volley has been jailed for 30 days at a hearing held at a makeshift court in a moscow police station a mystery of all he was detained immediately on were turning to russia yesterday he'd been in germany receiving treatment following a poison attack germany joined many other countries around the world in condemning of on these arrests a spokesman for a german chancellor merkel called it arbitrary. and joining us now from london is of latimer a short coffee is

a long time associate of russian opposition leader and putin foe lexan of ali he's also the executive director of the anti corruption foundation a very good evening sir you know mr nevaeh in the personally were you surprised at all by his decision to return to russia. no i wasn't surprised it is in line with his strategy that with his character for some time when he was just here right after germany and was still in coma i was thinking about telling him that she has options and she could continue to struggle in you know from outside of russia but after talking to him i understood that she is determined to go to russia and i really applaud him and that my him for this decision as you say he was determined to return to the

lion's den in his case is it fair listeners or is it foolishness i think this is true to all the he's believes. he has done nothing wrong. for all his career here has been fighting corruption graft and injustice in russia. his support among the russian population has increased tremendously despite the efforts of state propaganda to put him in the. black color and. you know provide negative care for him so far it's just natural that he returns to continue his fight and i mean what to put this in perspective for us what has been the fate of those who decided to stay in russia like mr valma

now. well i think nadal namely has carved out quite a unique position a mom crush on opposition. she for years has been the most prominent. critic of publishing your books and was employing different techniques fighting corruption but dissipating elections creating a political organization. i don't think he can be compared to that isn't it to others and we know several instances that when russian opposition politicians have been tortured and thrown in jail or like boris nemtsov alexei himself has been under tremendous pressure over the last years of his brother served 3 and a half years in jail on totally falsified charges he has been attacked several

times and we have learned recently that that attack on his life in august was not the 1st attempt to poison him and his wife was severely ill. during a previous attempt at poisoning so. he is you don't have to compare it seem to anybody he has been subject to immense pressure himself. he occupies a very unique position as you outlined there why does mr nifong the rattle the russian leadership so much. i think it's several things he can do as we say he can play on different chessboard he can organize must protest he can't build and effect different ization. he

is very he has in his fame investigations of corruption in large state owned companies and among government officials so he is quite grosso trial and he has proven that he is result is really unrivaled vladimir sure cough executive director of the anti corruption foundation thank you for speaking to us thank you. want to tell you now about some of the other stories making news around the world. more than 20 c. food trucks have parked on roads near the u.k. parliament to protest problems to get their produce to the european union while many fishermen have been unable to export to the e.u. because of the extra documentation required after gregg's it while the government has said ports brags that even problems should be resolved shortly. brazil has

kicked off its nationwide mass vaccination program against the kono virus a 54 year old nurse in sao paulo became the 1st person to receive the chinese sino back shot after it and the astra zeneca vaccine were approved for emergency use brazil's covert 1000 death toll stands at over 200 in 1000 that's 2nd only to the united states. well meanwhile here in germany chance on america is due to meet with the with the country's state premiers on tuesday to discuss tightening covert 19 restrictions beyond the month of january waldo infection rates have been proved slightly they are not declining as quickly as it was hoped for according to germany's robert costa institute december saw a spike in corona virus cases you see that line going up there and it peaked just right before the holidays the numbers then went down go into the new year january

night around that day they were was again and they now appear to be on a downward trend but the country isn't breathing a sigh of relief just yet because there are now new concerns that the new covert 900 areas are more transmissible in germany southern state have been very are certified and 95 masks are now mandatory on public transport germany now hopes that a new round of even tighter measures will bring down the stubborn spread of infections. and other bleak and wintry we can believe in the streets a mostly empty and many who do need to go out we are a mosque seems to be helping there's been a slight drop in covert 19 infections but it's not enough the government is preparing to tighten restrictions on building a site that's a good thing. i think being strict to make since and i'm hoping this will finally bring it all to an end. and honestly it'd be great if people just realize that it's not getting any better and that they should stay at home. i really hope that we

realize that we'll have to put up with these restrictions until at least the summer . the government to said to want to stop office workers from commuting and push them into working from home more that's partly because travelling on public transport poses a particularly high in fiction risk politicians and health authorities are also extremely warm read about the threat posed by covert 19 mutations which has led to a steep rise in infections in some countries so. highly infectious variants of the corona virus have been detected in germany one very into sprayed 3 great britain the other through south africa and at the moment we have further warring reports from brazil. right now the pandemic has a firm hold on germany even though the situation in hospitals and intensive care units

is showing signs of easing. u.s. president elect joe biden has promised to undo many a president donald trump's policies from his very 1st day at the white house and that has fired up some latin americans who are hoping the incoming administration will be less tough on migration thousands of migrants from central america are already gathering in guatemala for a push north towards the united states mexican border forces are on alert for their arrival. what tomatoes border guards did little chance against this current of humanity. until they fired their tear gas was. work even then resistance was futile as the crowd breached their lines. over here for

a biography we were informed just last night that elements of the 100 in modern us criminal gangs and organized crime had infiltrated the crowds. dinna canada this group of several photos in honduras and migrants are determined to reach the us now in guatemala they've been walking for weeks escaping an economy by the pandemic gang violence and hurricane they're seeking a better life in the north. where many they are also had going off to the american dream because in our country there's no jobs there's a lot of crime and you cannot make a living in our house was swept away by hurricanes. and without going it that you will see it was that i got to see it. with a new u.s. administration being sworn in this week and joe biden promising a more humane approach to immigration these travelers are hopeful. america but i

like that 1st of all find a. jop in the u.s. we think about our families and want to help those who helped us that they are going to. push families we upped their next move mexican authorities have begun deploying reinforcements to their border an agreement with the u.s. stopped them letting my current through but like so many before them the people here see no alternative but to keep going. and sports news now for you and preparations for next month's australian open tennis tournament descended into chaos with 72 players having to quarantine in their hotel rooms for 2 weeks on this after other people on their flights into australia to suppose it took over 90 media reports say a player is also now in fact it authorities in melbourne say there can be no relaxation of these strict rules but some players say they were not sufficiently

warned of their possible isolation. this is not usual preparation for a grand slam tennis tournament tunisia's only is stuck in her hotel room and has had to get creative with her training methods. over 70 players are having to quarantine for 2 weeks after sharing planes to australia with people who tested positive for covert 19 former champion of germany is among them along with kazakstan julia put in saver who has also been practicing in her room many players are upset at the restrictions but with the delayed tournament not starting until february 8 melbourne or thirties say there is no other way. don it has been a bit of bit of chatter from a number of players about the rules the rules apply to them as they applaud everybody else and are all briefed on that before the icon and that was

a condition on which like on so i went there's no special treatment you people are being traded because of our stuff and doesn't treat you specially so i need to do weight new zealand doubles player sits back says there's not even enough space to swing a racquet in his hotel room but he is trying to stay positive my plan is just to do a big workout 3 hours in the row every day which was a little bit. you know long national style and all that would be about 3 hours for the little guy. it's up same of course there's that but at least that's something these trillion open was one of the few sporting events unaffected by the coronavirus crisis last year but this year it frightens to overshadow the whole tournament with some now wondering whether it should take place at all. the top story that we're tracking for you this hour back home and behind bars the

criminals fiercest critical lexan of ali has been jailed for 30 days upon his return to moscow to the opposition leader was immediately arrested and hauled before a makeshift court family says his treatment makes a mockery of justice. that does it for me thank you so much for watching up next steven pressley with indeed everything in the business news. niko peace in germany to learn german english beneath. why not learn with him d w z e learning course because fake. the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing.

what measures are being taken. what does the latest research say. information into context. the coronavirus update the code of special monday to friday on d.w. . south africa's tourism sector calls foul after a major insurer announces that it's limiting covert related payouts to a mere 3 months of the pandemic look at the dispute surrounding insurance firm sun town. also on the show still lantis seals the deal the new car making giant the fusion of p.s.a. and fia chrysler makes its trading debut bringing together a whopping 14 different brands. and samsung's top last. returns to prison an appeals court sentencing jay widely to 30 months in

a retrial of his corruption case. global welcome to the show i'm stephen beardsley in berlin it's good to have you with us 9 months without a real stream of foreign visitors that's the limit facing south africa's critical tourism industry since the beginning of the pandemic how important is tourism where it employs 740000 people directly and almost twice as many indirectly and the government banned international tourists in late march 2020 and it prohibited terse overnights at hotels at until rather the end of july 2020 course that would affect mostly domestic tourist not the real focus there for the industry restaurants to force to close for months or restricted only to take away options now many restaurant hotel owners had signed up to sun times contingent business interruption insurance but south africa's biggest insurance company is now challenging their claims and for more on that i'm joined by reporter philip divest from your highness

bert johannesburg rather philip good to see you what is this all about when it comes the sense of not wanting to make these payments. for many companies and i believe for many insurers these policies were kind of nice to haves you know they were the kind of add on that was put on by insurance consultants for a bit of an extra profit no one actually expected them to be in force suddenly for the 1st time they being tested and the issue is that iran or a large amount of money is involved both now and into the future keep in mind you know that the initial costs may be significantly higher as locked on to continue and there's a lot of legal ease involved here there's a lot of legal interpretation involved now the businesses tell us what they experience from the sometimes side is what they call a style and grab strategy a legal strategy that says we will give only so much we will only give you a limited payout and after that you can have to fight this in court for every step of the way and that of course costs money which these businesses probably don't have how much money are we talking about in claims that they expect. a vast amount

of money unfortunately it's very hard to put and number to us they have been some calculations done especially on the regulator east side on what the potential liability can be on the regulators tell us that they are comfortable that the sometime in the industry as a whole can pay this amount of money that they won't run out of liquidity but actually been done is extremely hard there is some trading at the moment because beaches are closed a lot of accommodation establishment a feeling that restaurants are open but they can't sell liquor because booze assuming part of their revenue stream has a large impact no one can really say how long this thing will actually last and of course then we don't know how soon vaccinations will make it all hopefully go away all right phil the joining us from johannesburg thank you very much. over markets where a new auto giant made its market debut on monday but still lantus is not exactly unknown it's the fusion of car makers the chrysler and p.s.a.

and it was made official over the weekend and it's already now the world's 4th largest auto company so what to expect from this is a look. still and he says portfolio includes. opel and sits home all of which are very popular in europe and feared chrysler has added venerable u.s. brands dodgin jeep into the mix the new transatlantic automaker owns 14 grounds still mantis is now the world's 4th biggest co maker off to vote back and toyota and the wren own a son mitsubishi alliance. c carlos to virus hopes the merger will leverage synergies that will save billions of euros including reducing the many platforms its vehicles around to just a handful by joining forces stand and his hopes to make an easier shift into electro mobility. analysts 4 counts that the merger could see the closure of underused factories comest havana's is notorious for tough cost cutting measures

the official line however is that all plants will remain open. so how did the markets receive cylinders on its 1st day well our financial correspondent chelsea delaney has this look. so a lot of the stock market debut was a bit of a blockbuster shares start up trading about 3 percent at one point they were up about 5 percent and trading in paris so and masters are looking at this tie up as a really positive and a deal that gives a lot to really a shot at the future many automakers even the biggest are really struggling right now with the shift to electric vehicles and by pooling their resources of p.s.a. and chrysler should be able to be a bigger competitor in this market in the future one of the big questions though is how they will go about saving money they said they want to save about 5000000000 euros that for now they're saying they don't plan to cut jobs they don't plan to close factories and they plan to maintain all 14 brands that they have analysts

investors are a bit skeptical that'll actually be able to achieve that. are due to be financial correspondent chelsea delaney there in frankfurt over asia now where new figures show that the chinese economy grew in the 4th quarter of 2020 underlining its rapid recovery from the pandemic but the result a stronger than expected 2020 for the country with growth of 2.3 percent and china appears to be the only major economy to avoid shrinking last year as countries struggle with the impact of cope with 19 or those countries of course is the u.s. which remains in a series of trade and diplomatic dispute with china with global consequences so with the new u.s. president coming into office this week many are wondering where those disputes are headed used to w's. what comes next after america 1st 4 years of donald trump have left their mark on the international trading order torn up deals trade wars tit for tat tariffs and it's hardly been

a resulting success take the trade war with china washington slap tariffs on billions of dollars worth of chinese products a record amounts are still being spent on them while american exports have only slightly improved china's trade surplus still skyrocketed to over 75000000000 dollars exports to the u.s. are still growing. know how to deal with china is a shared question for both the e.u. and the u.s. they both want to be present in the chinese market because it's huge but they also want to get china to play by the rules that means respect in the life for property and having the same conditions for european and american companies in china as the other way around and they don't want china to have unchallenged technological dominance in the world they just haven't figured out how to achieve those ends yet together or separately put out a timer multi-lateralism has supposedly floundered china has since become

a signatory to the world's largest free trade pact the regional conference of economic partnership involves 15 countries making up close to 30 percent of world trade deal cuts as much as 90 percent of the tariffs on imports between its members within 20 years of coming into effect. now it's worth noting that the ours was 1st proposed in 2011 and that's quite a long time before the us china trade war even started so it's not as if one percent potato the other but the u.s. and that you should sit up and take note anyway are sad might not mean as much economically right now but it means that these countries have agreed on a joint economic venture it is a flora it's a building block. that these countries can and will build up right so it's kind of it's it's it's a stepping stone if you will and that is kind of the part that should for easy you

and that should for a the united states the e.u. and the u.s. have a host of issues to deal with before they can repair and eventually strengthen their relationship so that they can counter the outsized ambitions of china which i'm all other ways has cemented its international influence by signing a sweeping free trade deal with its neighbors and beyond i mean that's manageable but it is also of course a special time to live is going to use inheriting a very. you know dramatic. economic situation domestically use there for because of the pad there may be going to be further for a domestic oriented present those who really hope that the biden administration is going to our share in a new era of closer transatlantic trade relations i think they're going to have to be patient for the 1st couple years. in the golden age is hardly to be found in the time of a pandemic there is

a golden opportunity not to return to the system before donald trump but to make it better he won't make trade great again alone with allies how it can be greater than it was. there all right let's take a look at some of the other business stories making headlines. germany says the arrest of kremlin opposition figure alexina volley will not affect the north stream to pipeline project to bring russian gas to germany for the government spokesman saying berlin's position was unchanged despite what it sees as a rule of law violation of foreign traders have meanwhile dumped russia's currency sending the ruble tumbling. canadian media reporting that joe biden scrapped the planned keystone x.l. oil pipeline on his 1st day in office current plans call for the pipeline to transfer half. a 1000000 barrels of oil daily from alberta to refineries in texas president trump has been a key backer of the project. and reports say the troubled ministration has told

companies including chip maker intel that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to chinese telecommunications giant while way washington sees while way as a national security threat due to its alleged close ties to the chinese military and communist party. an appeals court in seoul has sent samsung air j. young lead back to prison in a retrial of his 27000 conviction was once again found guilty of bribery and embezzlement and said it's the 30 months in prison that his verdict could have grave consequences for the future of one of the world's leading tech companies for . 9 there was no comment from the man in question on monday leach a young was sentenced to another 2 and a half years in prison. defacto head is accused of writing a confidant of former president park a to secure political support for controversial dealing. means lawyer said his client was merely acting in his company's interest. considering the true

nature of this case which is about a company that had it for a dim right to property violated because the acting president abused her power we are disappointed by the court's decision. parky and hayes stepped down in 2017 following the corruption scandal. with found guilty and imprisonment. but after serving a fraction of his 5 year sentence he was freed again. today's verdict is untimely for samsung the company has effectively lost its strategic head making its position as leading smartphone money factor is significantly less secure yes some sun unveiled its latest models just last week it's not uncommon for south korea to take the heads of its more powerful businesses to course mostar pardoned due to their company's significance for the country's economy however the samsung heir was

arrested immediately after the verdict and was taken to a prison on the outskirts of seoul. that's it for me and the business team here in berlin to check us out a lot of dot com slash business also facebook twitter i'm seeing there's a thanks for watch. staying up to date don't miss our highlights. program online w dot com highlights. that 77 percent clapping are younger than thinks. that's me. and. you know what time it all voices. the 77 percent talk about the issue. from party to flash from housing

groups this is where. the 77 percent. this weekend oh b.t.w. . this is a show coming up today that targeted violence that's going to best and brightest. do female judges of the latest victims in a string of attacks against high profile of guns a deliberate strategy by religion groups negotiating tactics during ongoing peace talks. emergency teams are stretched to the neighbors after last week's devastating earthquake in west remember the scene look at the increasingly desperate search and rescue efforts.