birth. starts feb 11th d w. this is d w news live from berlin germany bans travel from countries hardest hit by new variants of the corona virus the government says it has no other choice to prevent a surge in new infections also coming up the european union approves the astra zeneca coronavirus vaccine as after regulators greenlight the job for all adults

this comes as a dispute heats up over and delays to vaccine delivery. and it's not quite game over yet for a game stop small investors apps have reversed their ban on buying up the stock at the end of a wild week on wall street. american evanston it's good to have you with us germany is imposing a travel ban on countries most affected by new coronavirus variance the measure came into effect just hours ago and it will remain until at least the 17th of february for lynn says the restrictions are necessary to prevent a surge in new infections. the fear of new coronavirus mutations is real in germany it's also one of the main concerns for german authorities to prevent them

from spreading fast in the country the government has now announced new travel restrictions the interior ministry has imposed an entry ban until the 17th of february for travelers from countries that are particularly affected by them brazil arland portugal south africa the u.k. and it's one teeny mutations have not hit germany as hard as other countries but already a hospital in berlin was forced to halt admissions after several cases were fond of the mutation 1st discovered in britain and health officials are stressing that the situation could deteriorate the moose and other different roles we have to assume that if the more contagious variants continue to break in this country they will lead to even more cases in the near future and the situation will probably get worse we must work together to prevent or look doesn't come to us mystical modes of thinking that. the travel ban on the scene is a step in that direction but it is still unclear how effective it could be. for

more let's bring in d.w. political correspondent tuns france hands hello t. you so we've been hearing the last couple of days that the incidence of coronavirus in germany has in fact now fallen below $100.00 per 100000 residents that's in a 7 day period for the 1st time in months so why is the government imposing this travel ban now. well the answer is fear fear of these new mutations of the virus that were discovered in brazil in south africa and in great britain we've just heard how effective halt how infectious these these variants are they are said to cause explosions of infections for instance in portugal before that in ireland but also in great britain and germany is very very scared that the success

that it has had in the last few weeks with bringing down the infection rate is endangered by these new variants that's why these travel restrictions have been imposed now but we have to say this is in addition to travel restrictions that have been in place for weeks already everyone knows how difficult international travel has been in the last couple of months and that is also the case for travels between germany and the rest of the world so these restrictions simply are on top of the restrictions that have been in existence already but they are the most severe that are possible preventing or prohibiting travel between these 2 countries between germany and these in fact 7 countries at the moment all right hynes what does this mean for people who in fact have to travel on a regular basis between germany and one of the affected countries either to do business or to visit their family members or are they barred as well. yes indeed they are very very few exceptions to this people of german origin or rather german

citizens and people who are resident in germany are a lot of travel into germany. reasons such as regular travel between countries that have been prohibited and germany are not allowed the exceptions concerned medical emergencies and emergencies in the families that just did it such as a death in the family exceptions there are also for. commercial travel for people who organize transport in other words road transports and those kind of things to keep the supply chains going but regular travel for personal or business reasons is prohibited well we should mention that this is a unilateral german ban but hasn't brussels been trying to discourage this yes indeed there have been attempts to make to get to rules that you unified across

the european union the interior ministers ministers next week to try and do that there it was not successful and so various countries in germany of in europe have been imposing their own bands germany but also francis just decided not to allow any travel outside the european union. has imposed a complete ban on tourists travel for its citizens and we also see this in other countries in canada for instance which was closed on travel to the south this week so these kind of travel bans are widespread at the moment everyone is afraid of these new variants of the virus get away as political correspondent hans franz thank you so much. well as hans just mentioned france has also announced international travel restrictions so starting sunday people arriving on non-essential travel from outside the e.u.

will be barred entry to that country the french government says it's responding to the very virus variants 1st detected in britain and south africa france is also increasing its internal restrictions non-essential shops are to close and police checks and rule breakers are being increased and nightly curfew comes into force at 6 pm. well in vaccine developments the e.u. commission has now approved astra zeneca as corona virus vaccine for use across the e.u. this comes after the european medicines agency gave the go ahead to allow inoculations for people over the age of 18 this is the 3rd vaccine to get approval from the e.u. following shots from biotech pfizer and. the e.u. is facing a storm of criticism for this slow pace of its vaccine rollout. well that e.u. approval comes amid a bitter dispute between the e.u.

and astra zeneca over delays to the delivery of vaccine supplies brussels accuses the pharmaceutical company of failing to fulfill its contractual obligations all the companies says it's working hard to overcome production problems but that its deal with the e.u. requires it to make its best efforts to supply vaccines with no clear delivery timeline and redacted copy of the contract has now been made public. this contract is at the heart of an ongoing feud between the european commission and purchased swedish pharma company astra zeneca over the lace and vixen deliveries the e.u. has made the contract pop lake but many of the crucial parts have been blacked out by astra zeneca a scandal so members of the european parliament. your. pharmaceutical

companies which groups a lot of your mom. i'm not really. it's those who all of your information last week astra zeneca shocked e.u. states by announcing significant delays in its big scene deliveries to the bloc especially because the e.u. has paid hundreds of millions of euros to. because projection and because supplies to the u.k. do not face the same shortages the dispute prompted the use it introduced a scheme to monitor vaccine experts but the e.u. commission emphasizes this is not an expert ban we are not in competition or in a race against any country the only race we are in this against this virus this comes as the block is facing criticism for its slow vaccine romo which so it is days are released that the vaccine has been recommended for use in the blog this spider difficulties with astra zeneca its 3rd vaccine to gain approval.

all to get a legal take on this we talked earlier to david greene president of the law society of england and wales and also a senior partner at the london law firm edwin co we asked him whether astra zeneca is in breach of its contractual obligations with the e.u. . the basis of the contract is supply its manufacture and supply the prices being paid for that in so far as that supply is not made that may put astra zeneca in breach of that contract but i would say there are quite a lot of provisions hidden here which may allow them to avoid liability so if there is a provision in this bill best reasonable efforts that is a defined term in the contract so that they part is that astra zeneca in the commission have thought about what our best reasonable efforts it's a it's a it's

a it's a catchall in that respect. and it would be up to the court if it came to it to determine what best reasonable efforts means. if there's no question about it turn that this is a fairly complex contract. go either way there may be arguments on both sides i think the important point is that there is a provision that they can go to the belgian court in brussels presumably but that is really a last resort there are obligations tran negotiate a settlement and with an issue of this sort negotiation is the best way forward and court should be regarded as the last resort but trying to sort out this sort of dispute let's turn now to some other news from around the world. italy's president is trying to resign disputes between party leader and find the collapse of the

government earlier this month it's hoped the squabbling factions can unite to form a new polish and prime minister giuseppe conti have resigned earlier this week. portugal's parliament has voted to legalize euthanasia the bill passed by a large majority allows assisted suicide for terminally ill patients the bill still requires the approval of the conservative president if he signs it into law portugal will become the 4th e.u. country to legalize euthanasia. and poland has seen 3 nights of protest over a near total ban on abortion terminations are now forbid except in cases of rape and incest or where the mother's life is at risk the constitutional court has backed the legislation. all this week the world of finance was turned on its head as a small traders networking on social media sites like reddit and facebook took on the plight of hedge funds big gains in the share price of

a company called game stocks have led to big profits for some and cause a huge headache for wall street giants if the classic david versus goliath battle. this is game stop a brick and mortar retailer specializing in video games it's pretty popular with gamers even though much of the market has moved to streaming a trend that will likely continue threatening to put game stop out of business just like record stores and video rental chains some big time investors on wall street have foreseen this and try to make a buck on the obvious trend hedge funds have been short selling the stock which means they have borrowed shares and sold them hoping to later buy them back i don't know what price and that's where things got out of hand and gamers and hobby investors came together to go after wall street. yemen and call them mccloughan i'm here in houston texas i'm 31 years old and i have been in the stock

market for the better part of the last 10 years and i bought game stop. earlier this week on tuesday when i saw some traction around it and the wall street that's for red. wall street bets is an online forum way users discussed their big plan to buy up as many game stop she as a possible driving up the price and hurting those hedge funds who had bet against it that plan worked and looking at an insane rally in the stock price multibillion dollar hits funds found themselves in the squeeze quickly buying back shares to cut their losses among them high profile names like melvin capital citroen capital and point $72.00 asset management wall street cried foul and warned the new investors about the danger of losing damn money in the long run it turns out they already knew. that's what it is is their regular joes versus wall street and

when i put money into it i said even if this goes to 0 and i lose everything i like being a part of it that i think that that sentiment is shared amongst a lot a lot of people. so it's not only about money it's a david versus goliath fight. they're up to date on d.w. news up next our tech 19 shipped omarion and steam from me and the entire news team in berlin thanks for watching. it's about billions. it's about how the work. is about the foundation of the new world order the new silk road. china wants to expand its influence with this trade network. putting corrupt

there's a short morning when for exception money from the.