this is g.w. news live from berlin a new u.s. president and a new plan to combat the coronavirus joe biden signs orders increasing vaccinations and imposing test and quarantine rules for travelers and expanding mass requirements across the country but he warns the pandemic will likely get worse before it gets better. and can europe keep its borders open despite a new virus variants believed to spread more quickly so that's one of the issues leaders have been addressing any video summit of an update from brussels. also

coming up with germany's chancellor on the defensive over tough international walk down matters i'm glad mark old warns we must take the new coronavirus variants seriously. oh and by richardson welcome to the show u.s. president joe biden has unveiled his administration's covert 19 action plan and a stark contrast to his predecessor he's put mask wearing on the face of his strategy masks must soon be worn on most forms of transport travelers to the us will have to test a negative to the virus and quarantine upon arrival by can also aims to massively step up vaccinations but says the previous administration left to no clear vaccine distribution system he's warned to the pandemic a could get worse in the coming weeks. joe biden promised to take action against

the coronavirus so the 1st full day of his presidency was bound to be dominated by a get out of new told americans that help was on the way but he also had a stark warning take a few moments to thank let me be very clear things are going to continue to get worse before they get better the death toll will likely top 500000 next month the cases will continue to move. the state of the coronavirus pandemic in the us is indeed very bad over 400000 americans have died from the virus. vaccination centers such as this one in new jersey have been inundated several states have reported they are running out of vaccine despite the huge task ahead biden told americans the pandemic would eventually come to an end we will get through this we will defeat is pandemic and to

a nation waiting for action let me be clear still on this point help is on the way biden signed a raft of executive orders most of which are aimed at kickstarting his vaccine plan but it will be months before the plan will make a dent in the number of americans catching the virus and falling ill. it has not been helped by the news that the trumpet ministration had not developed any comprehensive program to get the vaccine from warehouses into people's arms. and joining us now from washington d.c. is our correspondent all of us al it's all over by then clearly has his work a cut out for him and he said he's putting science above politics what do you make of that. certainly no surprise clara you has always made clear that he will 'd put science 1st and shift to a science based approach when combating the coronavirus pandemic but it's all course a very powerful approach to leave politics aside what's concerning of course is

that this has apparently not being the case in the last 4 years what we also learned is that the trump administration did not provide a vaccine distribution plan for the incoming biden administration so they will have to start from scratch joe joe biden president biden now as science several executed orders for that matter to speed up the vaccine supply also the testing supply issued a mask mandate with the overall goal to reach 100000000 backs in ations in the 100 in the 1st 100 days of office another promise he made is transparency and anthony the leading infectious diseases expert who will remain active for president biden was also among the team and let's listen what he had to say one of the things that was very clear as recently as about 15 minutes ago when i was with the president is that one of the things that we're going to do is to be completely transparent open

and honest if things go wrong not point fingers but to correct them and to make everything we do be based on science and evidence the echoing that call for decisions made on science and evidence but do you think joe biden it can really convince all americans to play along. yeah that will be of course one of his biggest challenges as he takes office right now with just one example of wearing a mask the mask mandate and asking americans to wear a mask a that has been a political statement to wear one and the united states are very polarized after 4 years of trump many supporters of the former president do live in a parallel reality of misinformation of conspiracy theories and a lot of former trump supporters do question the legitimacy of joe biden's victory and certainly he will have to deal with that wood and mind biden of course

emphasized unity in his inaugural speech so how realistic do you think that message is going to be to actually put into action given that there's about to be an impeachment trial of former president donald trump now that will certainly be one of the points when you look back in a couple years assess the success of the biden presidency if this will be one of the important and crucial points and how do you overcome that kind of division and that divisive rhetoric is certainly the right person to do that he is in office for 50 years as a politician lawmaker a congressman he has credibility on both sides of the political aisle but of course the question is if he can appeal to the more radical side of trump's supporters that will be very tough but he certainly also offers a very different rhetoric and tone and that are that is the right prerequisite all of his knowledge in washington d.c. as always thank you so much. and getting the pandemic under control is

also the number one priority here in europe europe's leaders have held an online meeting aimed at stepping up the fight against covert 19 top of the agenda was finding new strategies to bring down infections and halt the spread of new coronavirus variance meters discussed whether to allow travel with a so-called vaccination card but there have also been calls for a tighter border controls. let's get over to our bureau in a brussels and alexandra fun at moment. one of the issues that's come up for discussion has been a whether to introduce a new and tighter border restrictions within the e.u. what did they decide about non-essential travel during this meeting. e.u. leaders agreed that it's important to keep the borders within the european union open for essential workers and for goods shipments at the same time you appear in

council president stressed in the press conference after the meeting that non-essential travel restrictions should be considered so i think it's safe to say there we are probably going to see more restrictions and temporarily imitations of non essential travel and this press conference shall michaud as well as e.u. commission president funda lyon stressed that it's actually a member states decision whether they are going to introduce more restrictions or or even close borders but the december time they also said that they would like to or they are trying to avoid the chaos that we saw in spring last year when many member states unilaterally introduced border controls and closed their borders causing a lot of disruption so now the commission wants to come up with some ideas proposals how to discourage non-essential travel and they are going to be presented next

monday now what have they decided to do about the slow pace of vaccination in europe. this was top of the agenda no doubt about that e.u. leaders many of them they had a lot of questions about transparency and delivery schedules many you member states were very angry to learn about this pfizer announcement about delays in big scene deliveries so today e.u. leaders agreed that simple to push companies producing vaccines to stand to their commitments on deliver is that those commitments have to be respected and they also said that they want vaccinations to be accelerated across the you opinion and there's also been some talk about introducing a vaccination of passes to allow people to travel did anything come out of that you leaders agreed such certificates are important as

a medical document and they want to have the common elements there so that you know you can make sure that if you get your certificate in germany it's going to be accepted in greece for example as well at the same time on the more important and interesting question whether you can use such and such to tickets to travel or to get more rides to go to concerts or to restaurants that is something that e.u. leaders wants to decide on later on. a moment in brussels thank you. and here in germany chancellor angela merkel has defended her decision to extend and tighten the national walk down she says too many people are still dying of covert 19 and she's urging germans to take the new variant seriously or face a 3rd wave of infections. some unusual january sunshine in berlin arrive for journalist questions with

a more soil message declining in fiction writes fewer people in i.c.u. who's just not good enough when still so many people are dying in germany from covert 19. today alone we have lost over 1000 people this is terrible these are not just numbers these are people who have died all alone these are families who are mourning we have to keep reminding ourselves of this. the big worry now comes in the form of variant strains of covert 19 have been isolated cases of them in germany so far they're one of the major reasons lock down measures were extended to meet february and some rules tightened a u. leaders want to stop these strains from spreading across the block but without having to close borders fungal americal says germany isn't planning to do that yet bosh so i'll be quite frank if a country with an infection rate twice as high as germany's opens all their shops

and we still have ours closed then of course there's a problem. and when it comes to vaccinations another cool for patients and enormous global demand and not enough doses has led to a slower than expected rollout in germany uncle a medical says things will improve repeating a promise that everyone in germany should be offered a vaccine by the middle of september. and now let's take a look at some of the other stories we're following around the world in china rescuers have delivered food and medicine to miners trapped underground and say they are now again in strength 22 workers were trapped following an explosion at a gold mine in eastern china one might die to from head injuries. mongolia as a prime minister has resigned after public outrage over the treatment of a coronavirus patient and her newborn baby crowds took to the streets after the woman it was moved to an infectious disease center wearing just hospital pajamas and plastic slippers at minus $25.00 degrees celsius.

a u.k. warehouse full of covert 1000 vaccines has been saved from rising floodwaters wales and parts of northern england have been battered by heavy rain and strong winds storm kristoff has delusion parts of the nation with some rivers a surging to record levels. and at least a 32 people have been killed and more than 100 others wounded in a double suicide bombing in iraq it's the 1st major attack in the capital baghdad in 3 years 2 bombers wearing explosive vests blew themselves up at a crowded market authorities believe the incident could mark the resurgence of the so-called islamic state. security forces assess the damage from the deadly suicide blast and are met with pools of blood and widespread destruction. medical workers tend to dozens of injured victims.

and we were there by the stands someone came and fell to the ground instructions complained that his stomach hurt then he pressed the detonator in his hand and it exploded immediately people were torn to pieces many died and were injured. these kinds of attacks were once common in baghdad but have been rare since the islamic state was driven out in 2017 tensions have heightened over forthcoming elections and in economic crisis no one has claimed responsibility for the bombing but authorities are presuming a terrorist link. is the welfare of the walk away and the enemy are clear. as far as i know there has been no declaration but it is likely that the terrorist organization the islamic state is behind this criminal incident. which. forces are on high alert

in case of further attacks. but as your news update at this hour next up is eddie michael with the d w news africa don't forget you can always get the latest on our web site that's a t w dot com or follow us on social media at the top you notice i reject the name brilliant i mean the whole team is crushing. what secrets lie behind us was. discover new adventures in 360 degree. and explore fascinating world heritage sites. w world heritage 360 getting up now. life on earth one of a kind and. coincidences. where

the improbable happened. before this was going to the creation of our solar system with our planet is a bit like winning the lottery there's a. lot in store for unique starts february 11th on d w. the for. this thursday to be news africa coming up on the program struggling to deal with the prime demick software guys fondling the 2nd wave of covert 9000 infections hospital software in the bronx some even having to set up a 10 style site to tackle patients also coming up the u.n. says. fighting in it you just to grab a region has caused a humanitarian crisis where food and water i shot some plastic and. with less than a 100 left in the wild these mounds and bone was in kenya are close to extinction

but conservationists are doing all they can to prevent that. i made you mike a junior you're welcome to the program in south africa take over 1000 mutation is wrecking havoc hospitals on cemeteries struggle to cope with the 2nd wave in recent weeks john is very dead like never before the number of deeding infections that's on hospital admissions has almost doubled when compared to the 1st wave i want to hospital in south africa capital of pretoria has been pushed to the extreme. reports. steve biko academy course we've done is a specialized institution that includes on the complicated medical cases it's patients usually could call cases of food by other hospitals and so it is not

normally expected to feel up however. placed it to meet and the liquid space means some patients have to be to tent outside is that number 2 that his tent the parking lot into a fully fledged case one to one with medical care and on just as there would be inside once the bed inside the building some patients take it in one out of phase 2 of the health institutions. they put in patients in tents is a decision that was not taken lightly this came not to. go to my. you keep thinking you just say thanks thing to keep you safe to keep getting back to. this thing can't just stops you from reading these things other across the country

experiencing the same question and i know it quizzing the number of beds. the government is also an activity filled with thousands set up during this test a wave that up an increase in the 1000 infections and hospitalization as authorities by surprise this surge came march 1st then we had dissipated and it became worse than we actually knew she had expected to now but of those dying from 19 has also doubled across the country putting immense pressure on the take as decision the governor's careful is very careful was when you walk out of your courtship of bodies you find a lot of 45 some experts believe there are still tough challenges ahead shabbat a monday off in this heat off this with us from cosmic woes citizens to brace for the west since that it is known about the new bloody and tied to the kind of the

wave of infections occasions argued the 2nd rave probably is going to be more severe than for it's. time for the number of people that think they can come through the number of people that the hospitalized has your list the number of people that might die from coke at 9 pm what the best bet of the fox is expected to arrive at the end of this month maybe he got to see $10.00 to $1.00 should be no money in the parking lot. aid agencies are raising concerns about the diana humanitarian situation that has resulted from the conflict in ethiopia estie graviton there are reports that civilians are dying from a lack of health care services while survivors face food and water shortages thousands of died and more than 300000 people have fled their homes since the war began in november 2020 let's talk more about this with chris senior

extend our relations office where the u.n. is in ethiopia hello chris welcome to the program now i understand you just arrived from t guy tell us more about the situation on the ground. there it's a dire situation for the people there not only the refugees but we have to be signed between the northern part. of tikrit the refugees. neglected they have no food they still have no clean water but at least they were not in the center of the comet in the northern part we still have no access so we can't really say we can you can see with our own eyes what's going on there but all the reports we are receiving from refugees and people. it's a bit disturbing hearing that you do not have access to actually help the people in need but form what you know what what age and help do the people who need it to survive. well the 1st thing is of course food and clean water

we were able to distribute it with our very important partner the world food program sued for the 2 southern kansas for some 10 thousands of your future yes but they are still at least 20000 refugees in the north and they have no food and no access to any help and we have even heard that they are eating tree bark out of desperation. all i don't even know what response to give to that and then when you say you don't have access to actually give supports what van is the government doing why is the government blocking aid 1st of all and if they are what i'm doing. well the government is a part not and superman country so what are we doing here we need to approve. of the government of course it's for us always too slow always too little this is how

rich agency is a relief agency the government did sales and needs time to to get approval of something. but we hope it's getting better and it least we have not 2 of the 4 cams fixes but of course we want to have access to all refugees because they are really in a dire situation and the differently help so considering how dire the situation is how long can this goal for for those that are suffering can do go without enough food and enough portable water. well we hope that we can provide for the 2 southern camps food in the states maybe maybe even today or tomorrow so the current workers on the way and also since they are new to the stations from the from the from the conflict we also think that the infrastructure is good enough to provide clean water very soon for the 2 southern camps but again

this year we really have to distinguish the 27 of the 2 northern cams so the situation around the city of. this is very desperate and we just have no idea when we will have access to the refugees when we can finally go. 20 seconds do you are you confident that there's light at the end of the tunnel. otherwise i would be wrong in this job but yes there is light at the end of the tunnel because it's getting better every day but it's of course to snow and for the refugees every day every hour counts ok chris moyles a senior external relations officer with the u.n. and syria and. many thanks for your insights. let's now take a look at some of our stories making headlines across the continent. ugandan opposition leader robert struggle and popularly called bobby wine has filed

a petition to the country's high court as well as econ playing to to the un for testing his de facto house arrest security forces have confined the chugh lani to his residence in the capital kampala since friday after you gunness elections which he lost to the long 7 presidents where 70. the un is calling for emergency humanitarian aid to help more than a 1000000 people in south and madagascar who are suffering the west drought in a decade this iteration has been made whereas vida coburg 1000 pandemic and there was alton lockdowns which i've driven up unemployment. and now requires travelers from brazil and portugal to undergo monday cheek over 1000 testing when i rival one of the airports this is in response to a new variant of the corona virus from sunday flights from those 2 nations on south africa will be suspended until the infection rates under control it.

to kenya now where an animal that was once found in abundance is teetering on the brink of extinction now this behind me is the mountain bengal and i'd say yes of decline of the hands of humans there are fewer than 100 left in the wild but all hope is not lost conservationists are taking the unusual step of bringing bill moves back from zeus to try to build in new wilds of elation. they are gentle but so so elusive picking their way through the undergrowth mountain bongos with their white stripes and spiral horns their forest antelopes found in the wild only in kenya and even here there are a rare sight. the fascination with that species led people to hunt it. on the truth of the. trade which we kept and read that no

one was being kept out from here and being treated to zoos particularly in the united states. beyond being hunted and captured for their horns bush meat or prized coat the mountain bongos grazing grounds have been every day in recent decades taken over further by humans and their livestock that's why with less than 100 mountain bongos left in the wild specialized breeding efforts have come to the rescue like using bongos brought back to kenya from zoos in the united states. and it's working. in the last 5 years we had more than 70 business so all population is healthy and he's the future for kenya to be able to release. as it is defined in the national strategy that national strategy also defines the need to have places to re wild the mountain

bongos that are bred and reared here new conservancy has helped but kenya like so many countries in africa and the world has far to go to ensure the recovery of one of its prize animal species. just like the mountain bungle this is where we jump out of the show. stars go to d.w. dot com slash africa or check out facebook and twitter pages we leave you with these fixes for me 3 of us city of gone where thousands this week come and read said jesus as i'm in the river jordan mark in the office christian holiday office funny also known us tim cut next time goodbye.

she called. again today in the middle of the week closed down the 1st half of the season. they broke loose and took down dog their 1st win by james. shugg last against a long bitter. bitter 1st half of the season. 16 d.w.

. passing the drama competition drive marketing numbers atmosphere fight at times intuition love money. fans crime fantasy fans and fans all. on you tube. but other week another dispiriting number of jobless claims in the us 900000 americans filing for the 1st time according to latest figures which called as the country struggles with a pandemic we'll look at the market reaction and we'll speak with former u.s. labor secretary. robert reich. is glowing welcome to the show. in berlin good to have you with us really 1000000 americans filed new applications for unemployment benefits last week as down slightly from the week before but it's still well above

the single worst week of the great recession the number of new claims wells to 1400000 when adjusted to include government funded programs for the self-employed good workers and others who don't qualify for the regular state unemployment programs the services sector has been especially hard hit during the pandemic affecting lower wage earners in particular who are lot more likely to be women and minorities. now for more on this we turn to our financial correspondent in new york ian's korda. about 900000 new claims is what we're hearing put this into perspective for us you know the numbers came in a bit better than expected but clearly there are strong recoveries that we didn't see in the labor market over the summer months has definitely stalled and there are still about 16000000 americans so who depend on benefits on a regular basis but the one thing is all this statistics the other is what's really going on in the country if i look at one of my neighbors for example he can't

afford his rent anymore so he moved out and to refurbish an r.v. from a friend and live somewhere in the hudson valley another neighbor who lives works i mean the advertising industry his salary got cut down to 40 percent he's still lucky he mentioned to me that at least i'm he still get some health insurance and his wife who is it was a musician has no work basically since last spring thaw in their hold all those stories and that definitely underscores how important and how extremely dire the situation still is and a lot of work needs to be done all right yes court in new york thank you very much . earlier today i sat down with robert reich she's former us secretary of labor under bill clinton and a professor of public policy at the university of california berkeley we talked about the future of jobs in america after the pandemic and why rush believes the u.s. needs to spend big very big to prepare for the future that's coming take

a listen professor thank you very much for joining me once again we've seen a high number of jobless claims this week is it fair to say that some jobs aren't coming back anytime soon even if we do have a vaccine recovery in the near future. absolutely there are many jobs that are simply gone forever some of them in retail some of them in other service industries some of the jobs that are gone forever are in small businesses that simply have collapsed and so it's i think a little bit of a mythology to believe that once the coronavirus is behind us the economy will suddenly bounce back to life it's going to be a rather bumpy road scenes of a lot of implications for worker training what does that mean for the stimulus packages as you've seen them propose that is the biden proposal is 1 point one trillion is that enough to contain the measures necessary. it's good for the next

6 months that is it will help tide people over and till the economy has a good chance of getting back on track but it's not a permanent solution or it's not even a long term solution to what we're now experiencing it i believe we need to reach deeper and farther and be bolder in terms of restructuring the economy creating a brand new economy in many sectors if we're talking about green technologies wind turbines and solar panels and the rest if we're talking about medical technologies the importance of changing our health care system if we're talking about education that is not just a matter of technology but about a restructuring our educational system all of that requires fundamental change and also fundamental reform and i believe the by the ministration needs to be as bold

as is possible it also requires a lot of money a lot of debt that's of course one thing that opponents are going to rally together on what do you say to those concerns. debt is not a concern and should not be a concern there's no sign of inflation we have huge amount of underutilized resources not only people but also real estate structures we have in this country the capacity to grow dramatically without igniting inflation the other point is that many of the kinds of spending that i'm suggesting are really investments in the future productivity of the country infrastructure for example or education if you don't make those investments actually you have slower growth than if you do and if you have faster growth because you made those investments that shrinks the debt as a portion of the total economy. what kind of spending could you foresee then after

this $1.00 trillion assuming that even passes which itself is of course in question if you had your druthers what kind of spending would there be or could you imagine for the next 6 months year whatever well the biggest after coronavirus the biggest goal is both infrastructure that is roads bridges everything including the energy infrastructure of the country but also education and nor missed deficiencies in education and health care now if they are big enough i'm not suggesting that the by the ministration do everything all at once but what it does do has got to be significantly big and bold to make a difference in people's lives and there is such a deficit of public investments over the last not just 4 years of donald trump but really over the last 102030 years that the public needs a great deal of help and support for business as opposed to make that investment with a trump to trump tax cuts while they were but they don't businesses you know the

the mythology i would have expected by now that american policymakers as well as policy makers the world over would understand that so called supply side economics is bunk nothing trickles down you give businesses tax cuts you give the wealthy tax cuts subsidies bailouts with the expectation mythologically that somehow all the rest of american workers are going to be better but that never happens we've seen all the way back to donald. ronald reagan and ronald reagan's huge tax cuts for business they did not spur average incomes in fact for the last 40 years in the united states the typical worker if you adjust for inflation has not had an income increase whatsoever. were there not some gains by blacks and women especially through the trump economy that came after that stimulus

were there not some gains in terms of market participation labor market suspicion yes but that was primarily because unemployment got down to around 3 and a half percent if you can get unemployment down very very low if the economy can be moved and moving at a very very very fast speed then you can see some labor market gains and wage gains for people in the bottom half it also happened in the 1990 s. when unemployment got down to 3 percent a lot of the fears the policymakers have had over the last several decades about low unemployment igniting inflation if they were justified 2 or 3 decades ago they're certainly not justified any longer. of course we're talking a lot about income inequality that's one subject that you're really caution about is there a contradiction between bringing back jobs quickly which of course is the concern as we recover from this from the spending and making sure that there are good jobs

. there is a little bit of attention obviously and that's why i am advocating a restructuring of the economy don't just bringing back old jobs because a lot of those old jobs cannot be brought back but really we thinking and re-imagining whole sectors of the economy such as energy health care and so forth but by the same token there are many things that government can do to provide wage supplements for example we have something called the earned income tax credit which is a wage supplement is kind of a reverse income tax that can be expanded we can also provide a universal basic income something that many countries are looking at the united states has not taken a terribly seriously as of yet but there should be a subsistence income available to all people because poverty is

a drag on the economy it's a drag on society and also it's a humanitarian disgrace or i'm afraid what leave it there even of us is a fascinating topic robert reich former labor secretary and professor at u.c. california at berkeley thank you very much for joining us. thank you. all right from the u.s. to a very different system cuba's communist government now for decades the nation has deeply subsidized many expenses for normal cubans regardless of their employment status but this year the government is implementing a deep financial reform that among other things reduces subsidies to many this has come as a shock. just $0.75 that's how much cubans would pay for a monthly basket filled with $19.00 basic products like meat coffee eggs and soap that was until the end of last year now the prices increased almost 10 fold and it doesn't end there. riding the city bus now costs 2 pesos

electricity and many other things have also become more expensive it's shocking. to government is increasing prices in the hope of boosting productivity and the economy 7000000 cubans are of working age but around 40 percent of them are not looking for employment getting by on what the state provides them officials hope the higher prices will motivate many people to enter the workforce where they can look forward to higher wages also only the cuban peso will remain in circulation. by eliminating these universal subsidies the government is sending a signal. if you want to be in a moderately comfortable situation you have to get a job. yeah but then. the changes come as cuba struggles with the coronavirus pandemic which has crippled the communist island spitefull tourism sector the u.s.

trump administration sanctions have also weighed on the economy with cuba's g.d.p. for last year expected to drop by 11 percent. right 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 speak up dot com slash business also facebook twitter let's watch the film. i was issued when i arrived here i slept with 6 people in a room. it was hard i was fair. i even got white hair. in the gym language and not enough face gives me and could help much mickey to interact with the thing you want to know their story my friends her fighting and reliable information for migrants. nico because in germany to learn german i lived

in the cool. why not learn with him d w z learning course plecos fake. it's about billions. it's about power. it's about the foundation of the new movie order the new silk road. china wants to expand its influence with his trade network also in europe conflicts are inevitable consequences unpredictable but in beneforti ever since the chinese investor got involved here our situation has changed again before the floor was privatized the work was much better any easier. china these promises corners rich. but in europe there's a sharp warning whoever accept money from the new superpower will become dependent on it looking a little bit of the safety the chinese state has

a lot of money that is disposal. and that's how it's expanding and asserting its status and position in the world be the physical force you know you. china's gateway to europe starts feb 19th d.w. . in black girl descended from slaves in the raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself cited for one is sort of a young poet whose words in washington went around the world. 22 year old amanda gorman is dealing with her new fame and later on arts and culture.

inspired by the night singer songwriter onus obo finds her inspiration when most of us are asleep. while she's just out of university but poet amanda gorman's books shot to number one and number 2 on amazon in the u.s. that was right after she brought many to tears with her poem we climb at the swearing in of president joe biden and by the way one of those bestsellers isn't even out yet here's more. a poet steps up to the microphone and the whole world listens is amanda gorman was the star of the inauguration stealing the show from the politicians and pop luminaries who came before her through the sheer power of her words be american is more than a pride.