let's bring in david lee is 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 and south africa and in great britain we've just heard how effective 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 are at hans' but 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 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 about reasons such as regular travel between countries that have been prohibited and germany are not allowed the exceptions cause certain medical emergencies and emergencies in the family such as it such as a death in the family exceptions they are all for. commercial travel for people who organize transport in other words road transport and those kind of things to keep the supply chains going but regular travel for personal or business reasons is prohibited get away as political correspondent hans franz thank you so much. the european union is pressing ahead with export controls to stem the flow of coronavirus vaccines leaving the block the you said it had no choice following a dispute with the company astra zeneca which consulate varies to member countries

in the 1st quarter of this year brussels says the pharmaceutical company is violating its contract you know while the european medical agency has given approval to astra zeneca as coronavirus vaccine it's hoped the 3rd shot will boost sluggish vaccination efforts across the block. it was a dramatic decision borne out of desperation faced with diminished deliveries of the $1000.00 vaccine the e.u. on friday an ounce controls on vaccine exports this threaten controls at the border between the republic of ireland and northern ireland keeping the border open was a key demand in the drawn out brags that negotiations and the news was greeted with disbelief in the. you know i think it's quite incredible that it's an act of aggression actually less than a month into a sleeve in the european union we see them act in this unilateral way. the move came as the world health organization expressed concern over results nationalism

it's not helpful to have in the country at this stage which in export bins are barriers did not allow for the free. movement of the necessary ingredients that will make vaccines diagnostics in other medical since the lable to all the world the e.u. swiftly wrote back making clear that that island u.k. border would remain open but control of the vaccine exports will remain in place the measure was prompted by drug maker astra zeneca which plans to delay deliveries of its vaccine to the e.u. while maintaining full deliveries to the u.k. . this is a race against the clock. because of. being delivered on. choose this we need to ensure that all advanced purchase agreements made by.

the rally has not stopped the european medicines agency from approving astra zeneca vaccine for use within the union but with the producer unwilling to significantly ramp up the block's delivery the approval is unlikely to boost an immunization campaign but is struggling to get off the ground. now to some other stories making news this hour the world health organization team investigating the origins of the corona virus has visited the hospital in the city of one where the 1st covert 1000 patients were treated as the pandemic began the mission has become politically charged as china seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in handling the early days of the break the brother and several allies of kremlin critic alexei navalny have been put under house arrest for allegedly violating coronavirus restrictions

by calling for people to join protests the court decision comes ahead of new rallies planned for sunday authorities have warned protesters they could face charges of mass unrest. italy's president sergio want that a lot has tasked a parliamentary leader to carry out further talks to try to form a new government and a better throw fico leader of the parliament's lower house has until tuesday to determine whether the parties that formed the previous ruling coalition are willing to come together again in a new government the political crisis was triggered this month when a small coalition partner with drew support of the government of prime minister just epic on t.v. . for more we can speak to journalist seem a goof to who joins us from rome hello to you seem a so how likely is it that we will see a quick formation of a governing coalition that the president is of course hoping for can we be hopeful . well that's what much to render is the hopeful for me he believes this collapse

coalition can actually be reviewed and revived which is why he's given this mandate to her a bit to fico the speaker of the lower house to try and mediate between these parties it's going to be interesting to see how fico is going to mediate within his own 5 star movement because a faction within the party has already said they're open to the idea of working with matteo renzi he's the leader of that small party that supports while a faction within the party is sent they want nothing to do with renzi so he's going to have to mediate his own party but at the same time talking to the center left democratic party and so lots of negotiation lots of the whole street thing perhaps in a lot of discussion until tuesday when he will report that but for now much to relish at least seems convinced that it is a possibility all right and what if he's wrong what if these talks do not work out

as planned or what would happen next well at the moment a lot of issues still to be resolved who could be a possible prime minister perhaps giuseppe conti a good perhaps mr fieger himself perhaps another think a technocrat but yes if they do not come up with a solution the president will then possibly go back to consultations once again to try and find some kind of new coalition and if that doesn't work all together there's the last possible option which is really the option of last resort and that is to dissolve parliament and go towards elections and of course most don't want that to happen because of course it's he is very much dealing with a pandemic right now just as other countries in the world are. indeed themis so how is all of this political uncertainty impacting italy's response to the coronavirus pandemic are they being distracted too much. exactly i think that's exactly what my

self was pointing to when you mention that each city is being severely tested in terms of economic health as well as well as a social emergencies the words he used right now with the pandemic that cases are down with respect to that peak it was back in november but daily you are still seeing hundreds of deaths now is almost 88000 deaths due to cope at 19 as well as a vaccination program that started off well enough but now is the scene delays like many of the european countries we need a government at the helm to deal with all these various issues and so that's really what not to realize hoping for in asking mr speaker to mediate and perhaps come up with a solution time is clearly not on the side of the italians in this issue. in our own way appreciate your reporting. well this week the world of finance was turned on its head as small traders networking on social media sites like reddit and

facebook took on the might of hedge funds big gains in the share price of a company called game stock have led to big profits for some and caused a huge headache for wall street giants it's a 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 games 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 column

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 the wall street. read. wall street bets is an online forum way users discuss their big plan to buy up as many game stop she has a possible driving up the price and hurting those hedge funds who had bet against it that play and 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 asset management. wall street tried fall and warned the new investors about the danger of losing in the long run it turns out they

already knew. that's what it is is their regular joes versus wall street and that's 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 and that cemented 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 i'm marrying every steen family and the entire team thanks for watching. in the light of climate change. what's in store. for the future. for the major cities. inside clear picture. to go beyond.

as we take on the world. we're all about the stories that matter to. whatever these men. may be on fire make for. the days were flying cars were a distant dream long gone today companies worldwide designing them so when will we be ready for takeoff oh a topic today on shift. boeing well start ups like germany developers across the globe want us to take off in

electrically powered flying vehicles many cities with traffic in the sky plenty of room and also but prototypes are supposed to be less harmful to the environment so when will flying cars claim the skies and when they really improve our lives here's what experts have to say. so. hard to predict cars will go mainstream. or the necessary infrastructure as well as a social acceptance. but i do believe that flying cars will eventually transform our lives. in cities like new york shanghai beijing and other places where space is scarce the

globe it leads people with money want to be able to move around quickly they create this will probably just be a solution for the mobility problems of a very small percentage of society i'm ability elite fancy speech this for the super rich that's not what i had in mind in japan planning for the rich by 2023 japanese megacities want to have commercial sky taxis that's why the government's investing in businesses like sky drive in aug 2020 the start of announce its 1st manned test flight my colleague cassandra ball got an exclusive glimpse of what happens inside the secret research center. this is japan's 1st flying car i definitely need to see this and of course. when i think of flying cars i think of back to the future. meet the robinsons and my childhood cartoon the jetson's are saif i imagine nation is now

becoming a reality. my team and i began our journey to skydives research center from tokyo before embarking on this trip we had to sign confidentiality agreements why the secrecy in strictness because the technological details and detesting location are top secret i'm allowed to say this much though we're about 300 kilometers southwest of the capital in the middle of the mountains what a thrill right now i'm standing in front of the are in the center of sky drive and the location is top secret kind of makes me feel like i'm in a james bond movie. or to. the air mobility startup was founded in 2012 and is backed up by toyota and behind these doors it's where the magic happens and here is where it's parked sky drives

prototype with 8 little rotors to be the place doesn't immediately scream high tech sadly i'm not allowed to test it without a pilot's license well at least i got to sit in it and it was awesome just time travel into the future well not literally but they could've used like it. some experts say flying cars will reduce traffic jams in urban areas lower pollution and save travel time. sky drive as one of about 80 companies worldwide there are currently working on so-called e.v.t. electric vertical takeoff and landing these flying cars run on batteries and they can land and take off from the tiniest bases had trouble already exists but is still here. our goal is to create a compact and quiet fine vehicle so that people can fly every day little bit.

currently the prototypes flight time is limited to 3 to 5 minutes but this is supposed to change soon though the developers are hoping that in only 2 years time their flying cars will be used as air taxis into or ism or for emergency medical services but there are still a number of technical obstacles left to overcome. this is called this will provide greater safety but when you increase the number of motors you have to build a bigger heavier so the goal is to figure out the right number of motors in order to assure safety but at the same time keep the aircraft as compact as possible. it's a fine balance test pilot toshio on go tells me that for this year the next milestone for the project is already in the works launching a 2 seater to fire across tokyo bay and one of these i can't even begin to imagine oh this has been quite a journey i learned

a lot about flying cars and i even got to sit a warrant but let's be clear the ultimate goal for these vehicles is autonomy's fly and until that happens there are a number of technical obstacles that we have to overcall and even more importantly these projects. depend heavily on public acceptance if you'd like to see what else because sandra bullock has been up to check out you tube channel sky drive model is made for air travel but hybrids goes step further traveling in the air and on roads sounds great there's just one huge obstacle for many of these ideas you need a runway the dutch company pell v.a. is coming close their vehicle has already been approved for wrote traffic at a top speed of 160 kilometers an hour it could turn some heads when it's propellers unfolded the pelvic turns into a gyrocopter but along with a driver's license and

a pilot's license you'll need 300000 euros in the bank. most flying car models made for traffic but work like helicopters or drones they're called even stands for electric and vital means vertical takeoff and landing and they're quite spectacular check this out. is this the mobility of the future these prototypes are electrically powered aircraft that can hover take off and land vertically they're called multi copters or evie tolls so which company will bring the 1st model to market global players like airbus and boeing have already joined the race as have startups like volvo copter from germany. to digital. technology is really very simple which allows you to build a vehicle. with muscle. cars or other edges or the

fact that they're really quiet emission free and easy for time. but so far none of these sky taxis can fly longer than about 20 minutes. for safety reasons though they need to be able to remain airborne 30 minutes longer than their longest trip. current battery technology just isn't up to that. bad weather is another obstacle e.-v. told can't fly in strong wind or heavy rain still there developers believe these flying vehicles will revolutionize mobility and sooner than we might think. governments will also have to give them the green light germany's transport ministry seems open to the idea quite interesting and see the sky taxis become a reality here in germany in 2017 we passed new regulations governing the use of

drones and unmanned aircraft the next step would be to institute regulations specifically tailored to sky taxis for the most part this will happen on the european level. so how exactly will this work perhaps sky taxis will fly set routes and use clearly defined landing spots on skyscrapers for example to handle both manned and unmanned aircraft air traffic control systems will also need to revamp so none of this will happen overnight. that still leaves a lot of open questions like the short flight time of 20 minutes and even those sky taxis won't need paved roads they will need the right infrastructure so when exactly will fly and vehicles take to the skies aerospace experts to funny but that believes it will take at least 15 years but who will be flying them leave a dock but they'll be professional pilots very highly skilled and certified. they

won't allow the passengers or people on the ground to be exposed to a higher risk than with an ordinary helicopter. over their fathers what is space infrastructure will be needed. how exactly is going to work is still open here things like whether we'll need an external agency that will set the flight routes for example or if that's something that companies because more or less themselves it's all dependent on the factors like traffic density and the infrastructure and data connections available to us and how realistic is autonomy is flying at this point in time you think of it in terms of the regulations for transporting parcels already quite rigorous you depended on the size. weight of the economy aircraft there would be a lot of rules for instance you need a flight terminations system to assure an aircraft with technical problems doesn't crash into residential areas so we're still way off from having human passengers aboard. most developers aiming for a ton of taxis even if they're still

a long way to go no pilot also saves money and space at this year's c.e.'s general motors gave us a preview this video by g.m. is still a simulation but the u.s. car maker hopes it's cadillac e.-v. toll will soon become a reality the electric and autonomous flying car is designed for short commutes in urban areas. this model has room for a single passenger but general motors is also developing a 2 seater for the 1st and last mile passengers can switch to an autonomous road cadillac. a year earlier at. korean car manufacturer presented a similar vision of the future a sky taxi that takes off and lands vertically after a test phase with a pilot this flying taxi with room for 5 passengers would eventually be autonomous

. passengers could switch to a car or transfer to a taxi flying taxis clouding the skies whether it is transport drones or sky taxis it's clear that we need to think about what the future will bring a recent survey in germany found the just 18 percent of the population could imagine commuting with flying taxis just over 50 percent willing to use sky taxis in emergencies for myself i'd be keen to test a prototype so what's your take could you imagine taking this guy takes it to work or do you think it's not safe. on you tube facebook dot com that's all for today take care.

the snow now that it's winter fun. is located over there it's the winter sports center of mean al gore. is on his way to the top coming down is easy enough because he has also come to this kind of winter wonderland snow hike through back the sky and explore some of the best the various has to offer. on d.w. . sleep . listen carefully to. the soon. to be.

discovered. the i. subscribe to. documentary to. welcome to a special edition of check in this time we head to the bavarian alps.