when it comes to the fans and the humans and senior microphones who have inside with their trust in us. my name is johnny carson and i work in. the room. this is due to abuse africa on the program today closed for business zimbabwe's informal sector has been forced into a prolonged closure as the government tries to control the spread of covert 19 in the country small business owners say their industries. southern africa is sick to begin vaccinating its health workers often the 1st 1000000 covert 900 facts and doses arrived in the country. africa's biggest pirate has just released a new song with

a timely message they'll be joining me to talk about it. with. hello i'm christine one it's good to have your company zimbabwe is going to be one of the 1st countries to receive vaccine aid from china and the chinese ambassador to zimbabwe made the announcement in a tweet where he said the vaccines will be received quote soon close quote now the news comes as the zimbabwean government extended its lockdown because office and called the 19 infections and deaths 2 thirds of the country's 1200 fatalities all from january alone now the extent of lockdown includes a 12 curfew and the closure of all non-essential businesses now subways informal workforce makes up about 85 percent of the country's total workforce the extended

lockdown is a nother big blow to work as most of them who are self employed news privilege has this report. everson cecava is a motor vehicle spears dealer in downtown had already but he's now struggling to provide for his family he can't open his shop jus to look down at restrictions his only source of income has been lost to father of 2 he can now only visit his shop from time to time checking for any possible break ins. we are in distress we survive from these shops and actually there's no other job he says running a show producer and what have you mostly now with a lot of damage we're helpless. and. the usually busy downtown harare will remain closed for another 2 weeks the

government extended the lockdown which began in early january and now expected and need february there are strict national logged on has seen many businesses shutting down the government was forced that to impose a 30 day lockdown because of a spike in 1000 cases only essential services like your hospitals pharmacies and supermarkets are being allowed to operate the majority of citizens are not formally employed most survive on street trading a lot done just means a total struggle zimbabwe's economy was in a crisis even before $1000.00 struck yes over hyperinflation acute shortages of foreign exchange and power outages have brought down the country. if you say you know dani's bikies ok. but where can you get food

if you're going to. love your young and ripping your energy but don't is putting us down. to see it is necessary to keep the country under lock down to law seeking in fiction cases and deaths. for government ministers have died in the past fortnight . citizens like it will soon check out the plan now hoping for vaccines that could slow down virus cases where they need to fully open up again. south africa's president says the country has passed the peak of its 2nd coronavirus infection wave but that the virus it remains a major problem on monday south africa received the 1st 1000000 doses of the astra zeneca vaccine the vaccines will be given to the country's health workers over the next 3 months a further 12000000 doses secured through the deputy chose kovacs initiative are

expected in march. this looks like a state visit by foreign dignitary. to guest of honor south africa's 1st batch of the national semiconductor scene produced in india. president cyril ramaphosa and top officials will compete at our tumble international airport. later in an address to the nation the president struck a cautiously optimistic note. of these vaccines contains the promise that we can turn the tide on this disease. that has caused so much devastation and hardship in our country and across the world. though in fiction rates are steadily declining south africa has been hard hit not least

because of the new more transmissible variant. the contrie has had the highest number of infections and the highest death toll on the continent nearly 45000 have lost their lives. the 1st doses will be given to health workers stretched to their limits doctors and nurses have in particular been badly affected they have criticised the government of being too slow in securing the vaccines. but many south africans are also skeptical about getting the job so the president reach out to them to. nobody will be forced to take this vaccine i want to repeat nobody will be forced to take this vaccine. the arrival of the 1st vaccines provides a glimmer of hope but there's still no date yet for when the wider national rollout

will begin. till then the government will keep testing as many as possible and hope by the end of the year to an ocular 2 thirds south africans. that was south africa's a youth choir and i'm delighted to say that i'm joined by the manager and one of the vocalists to talk more about is the artistic director of the choir and sending eventually is one of the climate is out welcome. so excited to have you on the program so many people remember your choir at that went viral after a performance on season 14 of america's got talent we've now just been listening to a new song and ralph maybe you could just tell us a little bit about that the missile just really can't get vaccinated what was your motivation in putting this song together yeah i think i mean we feel that if we

want to get the world back to any sense of normality we have to embrace that's a nation that's a very powerful tool so the only tool to knock over. probably the most important one this point and we need to do a lot to encourage people to accept the vaccine and to go and didn't encourage their families to do it you know. because being like the rest of the world and thousands of people have died and most loved ones and i've been saying i'm also like to point out when we make this video you know all the choruses are regularly tested it's almost like a sports team. with a lead many singers artists at least once a month. and you know all coated particles are observed but we just want to do something cool so they fray hsieh just positive about the vaccine yeah send it out why did we're hearing that there's a lot of skepticism in south africa about the vaccine i wondered if if some of the people that you knew. about being vaccinated and some of the reasons that they're

giving for that. yeah i think you plead innocent on the still used up people that are in the community it's every week it's a week. and that's why we need to point that. thing and it's not the 1st time doing such p.d.'s who started. to be taking part in this issue and you know once you're in the explaining that we need to ensure that people change their minds they don't spread false rumors because they know that people get that i come across dentist get sick about this that they just saw it on the phone to hear it from someone else it's just a rumor right they don't wrangle what does the buck run i guess. we don't have too much time here but ralph just quickly i mean i imagine you had loads coming your way before the pandemic just all of you guys been affected by the pandemic yeah it's been crazy and we were booked almost every day we had 7 international tours

quite a few tours to germany we were going to collaboration with pizza muff i eventually released a song with him towards the end of last year. but yeah i mean it's had a devastating effect on our touring but it's also been an opportunity for us to enter the virtual space and we've been doing the last 3 concerts to companies and home and people who private functions around the world right here from limpopo south africa so in that sense it's been a wonderful opportunity to raise expand on primetime and spread the word right assented i wonder how you have been affected by all of this right and then just how you're coping with it we're all having to adjust to this life in the pandemic what are your civilian some of your coping mechanisms. when you know having this amazing plan out since we can bet our rehearsal space to the official deployment studio in our own space in limpopo so now we can people around the world but it's

been very difficult and you know as christians we are genuine the money that we get from the shows but now being able to perform from our own visual studio all over the world then that has kept us going and we also used an old i think we need rice right and that is sending a much older thank you so much guys for for that great to have you on and i am so will be done saying to the tear off their facts and they say it. thank you very much sense i mean. to cut.

it. and that is a point i'll be sure to check out our other stories on dot com forward slash africa we're also on facebook and on twitter today will need new with pictures often go for news clients doing what they do so well inspiring as we'll see you next time.

to come. on. like dusty boots muddy ties and drugs we deliver urgent lifesaving boxes we give everything to reach those who need us the most every box feeding their futures. boxes with our hope of life saving fruit and there's so much more down roads with no names we've been asleep can never remember this you know promise to make every did every special. not just next day but every day.

thousands of children still waiting for their delivery sponsor books today so together. delivered his. welcome to news from the world of arts and culture a renowned photographer has documented different aspects of life joining the corona pandemic in pictures more in a minute also coming up today. the former artistic director of the barely knowledge dieter khosla brought the stars to berlin and has written a book about his time running the film festival. and british figurative sculptor jethro crap has a new commission can you guess who it is. daniel

biscoe is a well known photojournalist here in germany who has documented many significant world events in a long and distinguished career but he says he has never experienced anything like the current corona pandemic so for the last year he's traveled up and down this country documenting different aspects of the pandemic in a photo diary which he posts on instagram. snapshots of a nation behind the mask people keeping their distance people who are unsettled and learning to adapt germany under the coronavirus from a variance of bellin from hamburg to saxony in a photo diary that began on march 15th 2020. 5 never seen anything like it i photographed difficult situations in russia in yugoslavia but i've never seen

anything like this in germany. this is daniel biskup the renowned photographer has been on the road for almost a year posting a new picture on instagram every day at the start during the 1st lockdown there were seen such as this cheerful cashier in. a thank you to doctors and nurses. masts being sold on the streets and school classes moved to the gym. of how much from 10 all of a sudden nothing works anymore i can take pictures but people who play music they can only post on twitter or live stream but i don't think that's very satisfying. when summer came things changed again with more or less distancing being observed a new normal. and we drink and keyboard a measure encountered by chance on the road in eastern germany increasingly

photographs frustrated angry people protests and conspiracy theories abound. the voters as a rule they're just there. observing closely and listening is this script secret the photographer makes visible the devastating impact of the i'm busy us it creates closeness even when distance is the top priority. january 13th 2021 is day 299 biscuit shoot at the kermit story i'm in mind a difficult moment even for the season for talk of hundreds of coffins piled up furnace is operating at the limit staff working around the clock in 3 shifts the town in saxony has become a covert 9 hotspot despite the titan 2 stricture. this is a great tragedy hundreds of people who died here in the last few days waiting for

their last journey into. daniel biscuit keeps working but how much longer is it really that we know day 1000 corona get lost no one will miss you the message on a shuttered cinema but when will that day come. indeed normally this city berlin is fully full. sorry. sorry sorry. ok yet. normally sorry indeed normally this city berlin is full of hollywood stars right now for the barely knowledge the berlin film festival the festival is a moment but the man who ran it for nearly 2 decades due to caustic has written a book about his experiences conflict made it the world's biggest public festival

for film goes but also brought the hollywood stars here in abundance making the berlin other truly international we met up with him to talk about the book but also about the future of cinema and its chances of survival in this age of streaming and social media. we met up with de to caustic at berlin's famous super last cinema for decades it was one of the burden on its favorite premier venues now it's in and in for slumber due to the pandemic since the festival director about downton 2019 he's had time to go write his memoirs since this is now a world for me i've never had this book in my hands before you brought the 1st copy and this is also the barely known a palate. dieter costly was a familiar figure in his trademark red scarf and black hat welcoming movie and showbiz legends to the red carpet for almost 2 decades his entertaining book

explains how he lured the rolling stones to berlin with the film shine a light how he won meryl streep cash jury present and manage to present superstar shah rukh khan to adoring fans today he's thinking about the future of cinema. is 1st thing is that we see cinema it's now fulfilling its social function as a meeting place quite differently again due to the dawn of the streaming age you have to get preschool kids to physically go to the cinema once a week on a regular basis so that these kids the next generation get used to seeing a movie on the big screen with other people in a space that we call a cinema. caustic wants to make cinema attractive to young people that even includes ecological alternatives to popcorn. film production he says also needs to

become more climate friendly with measures like sustainable catering using recyclables and less travel not just plain ability doesn't just mean using recyclable coffee cups sustainable. he is also about something quite concrete there are 17 u.n. goals which include justice and education. as festival director cosmic embraced education as a mission at the berkeley known a talent campus young filmmakers from around the world exchange ideas with seasoned professionals under his direction the festival also addressed global issues and challenges such as human rights political oppression climate change and migration the festival was political in line with his thinking that films can change the world. because i witnessed this for myself it was the golden bear for asthma secret that was the film about srebrenica in bosnia the

siege of sarajevo and the mass rapes that followed it i remember when yasmin spaniel she was on stage she said this will help us to track down the 2 war criminals kara chits and mandy each and they were found and the abused women were recognized as victims. for a kind. during his 1st full 10 year marriage the tricky balancing act of presenting both art house cinema and entertainment now despite the twin threats of the coronavirus pandemic and streaming data caustic is sure that cinema will survive. incidentally the festival has been split into this year due to the pandemic the awards will form part of the industry event from march the 1st the 5th and has just been announced the main public festival is now planned for june the 9th to the 20.

british artists jethro crap specializes in making detailed wax representation of famous people sometimes as realistic and true to life as possible but sometimes. as a music caricature each figure can take months from start to finish and crabbe says it all starts with getting the shape of the head right before he can begin to form the features most recently he's been commissioned to do the new man in the white house. high ranking politician all in scope subjects for a crime studio sorry hills area of southeast inc. new u.s. president joe biden is being moved for a feature wax figure in the presence of former british prime minister winston churchill whose likeness is also in the world. the figure was commissioned by the national presidential wax museum in the us state of south dakota jethro crop has

been working on the clay model for 4 weeks but it will take another 3 or 4 months before it becomes a finished watchword. crap studied sculpture and began his career at madame tussaud . for the legendary london watch museum fashioned lifelike sculptures of many famous people. such as former beatle paul mccartney actress fan bing bing and compose a live event beethoven. or interests me about. it as that everyone is completely individual and capturing water is someone that makes them. accountable western medicines have experience. jethro crop mainly works using photos of the people in sculpting it's rare that he works with large models he focuses more on physical characteristics than

personality traits. once he's completed his play model his team helps with the next steps 1st they make a silicon motor strength and the fiberglass for the heads a special wax mixture is poured into the silicon mold. the hair is inserted strand by strand several layers of oil paint creates an authentic skin tone but here for us talk show host oprah winfrey. crab left madame tussaud after 8 years and went into business for himself making caricature of figures like french president emanuel mccraw entrepreneur must and members of the british royal family created for the satirical show spitting image. just concerned about the weight of his picks from. the falls talking about walking. jethro cram things joe biden is characterized by his dazzling white teeth and eye symmetrical smile which

gives his face a slightly longer side appearance but is that enough for a good caricature of a router a caricature a sculpture of biden i warming his head as i was sort of. possibilities and. news from the music world now and shock rocker marilyn manson has been dropped by his record label after allegations of abuse by a former girlfriend evan rachel wood she dated manson from 2007 when she was just 19 years old and they were briefing gaijin 2010 on monday she posted on instagram that he groomed her as a teenager and abused her for years since that instagram post at least 4 other women of share their own allegations against manson accusing him of sexual assault and psychological abuse manson known for his controversial stage shows has denied

the allegations saying quote the claims are horrible distortions of reality. and you can keep up to date with more culture news on our website at d.w. dot com slash culture also check out our you tube channels books and d.-w. classical music it's all for this edition of ops and culture.

kick off. ghost town atmosphere means listless clay shaw from the. looks of guns and elemental is flying sensible. non-stop. excitement in the final match to. see guts to go. 90 minutes on d w. children to come to. one giant problem and maneuver it in no limit to see the picture you. need a chance to live a few times to get it. how will climate change affect us and our children. w dot com slash water. it's about billions.

it's about power. it's about the foundation of the new world order of the silk road. china wants to expand its influence with this trade network and so are other conflicts are inevitable the consequences unpredictable the commit the shaking of the chinese state has a lot of money at its disposal good looking and that's how it's expanding and asserting its status and position in the world to be fair to the obama losing china is promising its partners rich profits but in europe there's a sharp warning you can never accept money from the new super power will be coming to an end to. china's gateway to europe. starts feb 19th on.

planes. this is the. russian opposition leader. sentenced to a court in moscow finds he did violate the terms of his probation while in germany recovering from a near fatal attack his supporters are calling for fresh protests in the russian capital also on the program good news in the fight against the scientists say russia. is safe and effective against printing that's according to research published in the british medical journal the lancet.

of the program we start with breaking news from moscow where a court has agreed to imprison opposition leader alexei navalny for several years he was detained last month for violating the terms of his probation after returning from germany where he'd been recovering from a near fatal poisoning which he blames on the kremlin russian authorities say he violated the terms of a suspended sentence while he was recovering by failing to check in with hundreds of family supporters have been arrested outside the courthouse. straight to moscow that will rejoin d.w. correspondent i welcome your tell us more. well phil this verdict comes as no surprise everyone everyone expected it prosecutors said mr neville knew broke the terms of his probation deliberately for

fraud case he was charged with in 2014 you mentioned it. now one of only has to be jailed apparently in a prison camp for 2 hours. to get into account the time that not only had already a sort of under house arrest politically the verdict makes sense that didn't change their course because if they had been let off that means that the mass protests had an effect on the kremlin and supporters and graham and critics would have cheered and volley and other kremlin critics see the verdict as a bit to silence of the kremlin opponent and it during the hearing not only gave a fiery speech and called in which he sharply attacked to the kremlin and to the russian justice he blamed the chip the charges against him on russian president vladimir putin this is how it works they can present one but he said as a myth as it means to intimidate millions of people not only. said let's have

a look and listen to me today in a moscow district court. i hope people don't take this court hearing as a sign that they should get even more scared all of these offices and this cage it's not a show of strength it shows their weakness weak and very you cannot jail thousands or even millions of people. in your even case has sparked massive anti-government protests and hundreds of arrests across the country how has the kremlin been reacting to this trial. well the kremlin spokesman to me trip to scoff was asked today if president got me putin is watching the trial today discovered sad to know all the president has better things to do he is preparing for a meeting with the russian teachers who are educating and your generation their story just meanwhile have been accusing the volley of inciting young people and

even children to protest there was also a reaction to today's trial from the russian foreign ministry the ministry spokeswoman a complaint that the several western and european diplomats was present at the trial and she sat that is an attempt to put pressure on the court and meddle in the internal affairs of russia but that's not true it's perfectly normal practice is send the diplomats are often at trials and have been in the past as well so what sort of impact is this sentence likely to have well on the one hand there is a lot of political explosiveness of behind the current current protests right now in russia if you look at the police who are totally over reacting it almost looks like they are siege to a fortressed this shows that the kremlin has gone on the defensive but the masses on the streets feel along the counter kohls and political change in russia

a change of power here what is more important in this country is when there is infighting within the political elite in president's inner circle within the secret services and to the upper ranks of the military at the moment as though there is no such wobbling we can compare the current demonstrations with a mass protest in some a 2019 before the election of the moscow city parliament those protests haven't changed anything politically in this country you're rachet or thank you for that. better news from russia from russia the country's sputnik giving covered the vaccine is around 92 percent effective that's according to a new study just published in the british medical journal the lancet the findings are based on data from a trial involving nearly 20000 people researchers also found no serious side effects associated with it use the russian vaccine consists of 2 common cold viruses that have been modified to carry the corona virus 5 protein it can be

stored at up to 8 degrees celcius making it easy to transport them they found take a pfizer vaccine. jones is the professor of iranian jihad the university of reading who were reviewed the russian clinical data for the lancet and joins us now welcome to the w. this sounds like great news. yes i think it is good news it's day numbers involved slightly over 20000 actually in the trial was big enough to be sure of the outcome and the fact it was general protection and crossed all age groups and there were no serious side effects it is all all good for the vaccine i think it adds another dimension to those that are currently licensed for use occur around the world and clearly it adds small manufacturing base to the to the available covert vaccines and what about its efficacy against the variance that are now circulating. well

formally that hasn't been tested but the tests that have been done on on variance so far would indicate that most of the vaccine responses that have been looked at cost still able to inhibit the variance sequences you know whether that is 100 percent protection or whether the protection is reduced some water is not yet clear but i think the protection level that we would expect would still be enough to say to me that severe disease was prevented from my money that's the most important aspect of any of these vaccines and that's been a lot of skepticism generally outside scientific circles i suppose about the sport of a fax ancient that skepticism and now i think so i think the full phase 3 trial is published at the same time as the outcome of the trial the show if you will is there for everybody to see is being conducted in a far as i can see to an international standard and i think the results fully

validated its use going forward that you describe the russian trial group though as very white so does this mean that countries with more ethnically diverse populations need to approach it with caution. caution may be overstating it i think there's no reason to think that the vaccine wouldn't be generally useful in all populations but it is a fact that the particular ethnic mix here was rather narrow it was white russians in the main and so if there is an issue about immunity in other populations that formally that's not addressed here. i don't think we would expect to see major differences but it's certainly something that this trial can also trust directly we're talking to you a bit of good news on a doctor a professor in jones and the university of reading. it was more stories making headlines around the world a captain told the british centenarian who raised millions for the u.k.

is that national health service by walking laps in his backyard has died covered 19 it's almost campaign went viral last year and raised more than 30000000 pounds 34000000 euros. we have most new military government to sell its 1st cabinet meeting since seizing power the country's top general described monday's coup as inevitable the u.n. security council is holding an emergency session to discuss the events which have been condemned by governments around the world. announcer of control wildfires destroyed dozens of homes close to the city of perth in western australia of horses and told people living in the area to be ratified the place themselves as it's now too dangerous to leave. rock music legend marilyn manson has been dropped by he direct quote mabel amid allegations of sexual abuse actress evan rachel wood cusanus munson whose real name is brad warner of grooming her as

a teenager and subjecting her to abuse for years and said denies the accusations. airspace money factor air buses what a contract to build 3 new service modules for the rippin space agency the modules are part of an international project they'll serve as the propulsion component for nasa as manned orion spacecraft this comes as the european space agency announced its ambitious plans for future space travel including the possibility of sending astronauts to the moon and beyond let's take a closer look at this project with the european space agency's director general yonder verna welcome to the w sending astronauts back to the moon looks very exciting i'm hugely expensive will it help us solve problems we're experiencing here on earth. first of all i don't want that we sent astronauts back to the moon we want to send them forward to as a moon because this time it's in a totally different manner it's not in competition virtue of competition in the

cold war but it's in geopolitical cooperation and yes exploration is very helpful for humans on their wrists because through exploration of you discovered for instance the climate change on earth it was not just come out on us we have developed a lot of new technologies for instance solar panels which i use now a nurse here and there but they were developed for it in space. and you see a lot of other things like it so we can think about autonomous actions in space we need that right now we need it also on the fuel cell it's for medicine many medicine medical experiments and investigations were done in space so space is good for human kind and be calculated it one euro invested in space an exploration if spec about 3 year us in return ok sounds very positive although it will tell you i'm still waiting for my own personal jet pack the author of his mission is the

next step in the effort to get astronauts to. let's hear from a german astro alexander guest with a prediction. i do not have any doubt that you and i have a real terms of one day seeing humans and amongst them europeans walk on mars. so why do we want to go to mass. first of all. young he can say that i'm old i'm not so sure that i will observe it because to go to a moon and back takes about one week so you can do it in a sum of occasion to go to mass and pick takes about 2 years to use you you cannot say us and we have a problem and you come back within a couple of days and therefore it will take a long time but why are we going there why are humans going on the mount everest why are we investigate and that deep sea why are we going to the north pole to the telephone obviously there is something in our d.n.a. . your city is the strongest driver we have and inspiration which comes out of the

city as a societal impact after the apollo many many people started to really to study math physics engineering because it was inspiring and i think this social inspiration for motivation to do something for the future that is the strongest driver ok that's about all sounds very positive i'm mentioned this is a co-operative venture but now we know that lots of come countries are competing in space for things like defense and communications and of course mineral extraction is likely to lead to conflict in the future i hope not for easy it's a simple european space agency has in its convention a sentence which says explicitly exclusively peaceful purposes and this is what we have doing and i hope that the geo political positive aspect of space will when we have together in the international space station's risk russian citizen americans

japanese risk canadians and europeans or so sometimes on earth we have some issues so obviously this space activities. approach over troubled water as simon and garfunkel would say all right we're talking to you nice to get i musical referencing the. director general of the european space agency thank you. thank you but a lot of sports this year as ice hockey world championships will take place so early in the. reagan the decision comes 2 weeks after brother bruce was removed co-host a because of the country's political situation deadlock and slovenia bid to replace by the wrist but the sport's governing body decides to keep the event in one city as it's likely to be safer in terms of covering 90. as it you're up to date. more world news of the top. we'll take you through the day

business news and just about every day. happiness fears for every human penises are very different from primates we have a totally ridiculous sized view of nature. and this is climate change. how cretinous in these books you get smarter for free you know where your books. at 26. because i want. to make the last few years have been quite.

a minute of the time but when it comes to. the new i'm going down the river and i love to be an even better person there are that when you feel the giving. away of never say you ready to meet the dr and then join me right. a glimmer of hope for shops and restaurants in europe more countries they are loosening lockdowns look around the continent what measures are disappearing and why not everyone is on board. also on the show farmers in kenya look to the skies with trepidation new locust swarms have moved into the country devouring everything in their paths. and russia opens up hundreds of jobs to women who meet some of those who have taken advantage of the change. or welcome to the show. it's good to

have you with us the case for lockdowns is often crystal clear to virus experts for governments it's more difficult across europe for example case numbers are falling but still high and new coronavirus variants are worrying but people and businesses suffer under strict measures and that's why the current lockdown easing across the continents are drawing mixed emotions. cool if line you feel they sting here's one excited girl and many other austrians are happy to as their government loosens cope with 19 restrictions. but looked on how to use the good news the lockdown in austria was effective but we are miles away from the ideal scenario of a weekly incidence of 50 which corresponds to some $700.00 new infections per day instead of over a 1000 we are currently counting. therefore today all we can do is to

take some cautious steps and only combined with intensive safety measures. even see here. for. the safety measures include restrictions on how many customers can be in a store and mandatory masks that's ok for those who lost money when stores and restaurants were closed for months as this shop owner testifies. and as i'm looking forward to having customers again and social contacts we've missed that when no one was here. other european countries are opening up too albeit slowly in italy restaurants and bars are serving lunch again and people can't even eat in. in vatican city the museums are open once again. in greece for now it's only schools that open up not businesses yet the british isles

ma'am has strapped lockdown measures altogether the island however is off limits for nonresidents with travel restricted the spread of the virus can be far more easily here it's a different story of course on the continent and many are worried that restrictions are being dropped too soon but then again some controlled steps to open up the economy might still be better than business is taking matters into their own hands like some restaurants in france and hungary that opened up despite an ongoing ban and the threat of fines. now of the consequences of some of those lockdowns from last year new figures showing the eurozone economy fell 0.7 percent in the final quarter of 2020 this dip in economic activity within the 19 countries currency zone is all or than expected but it follows a 12 and a half percent increase in the g.d.p. in the 3rd quarter the swing downwards of the last 3 months of last year coincides

with stricter kovan 1000 lockdowns across europe. so where do these news figures put europe's recovery here's our financial correspondent conrad boos of. the new lockdown started in october which had a very negative effect on the services sector so it was the manufacturers of the eurozone which prevented g.d.p. from falling more steeply still the overall number for the whole year 2020 is nothing to be happy about over the whole year the euro zone's economy contracted 6.8 percent predictions for this year of course are very difficult there's only one prediction which is a relatively sure thing our economy at the end of this year 2021 is likely not to be where it was before the pandemic. he'll be financial correspondent who's in there time now for a look at some of the other business stories making headlines. top french football league one has failed to sell its t.v.

rights for 2021 to 2024 plunging it into a pit potential financial crisis the league's governing body says bids received so far have not been deemed high enough to last betting round in 2018 brought in over a 1000000000 euros. zeman is energy plans to cut nearly 8000 jobs by 2025 as it prepares for the shift to renewables the company also said it officially received a lawsuit from general electric in the u.s. for allegedly stealing trade secrets in order to rig bids for gas turbine contracts worth more than a $1000000000.00 a month after the case became public. residents in the nigerian city of my dewberry are still struggling with power outages a week after jihadist attack on a power grid daily business has been disrupted for hundreds of thousands of people living in the city water supplies are dwindling and many are relying on generators . staying in africa rainfall is normally a blessing for farmers but not lately in east africa and the middle east since

$21000.00 the rains in both regions have brought forth not just crops but swarms of desert locusts ready to devour those crops now kenya is getting hit again with little into the plague incite. a last ditch effort to save the harvest from a swarm of locusts. all in vain. scenes like this are a recurring nightmare for farmers in kenya this footage was taken by an aid worker who tells us that pesticides aren't an option in the fight against the locusts mazed and the. race now i just. it's just slated to be harvested. from the street. or the like. danger to human life. it doesn't. and kenya is not alone several east african countries are struggling with

a plague of locusts each one contains millions of insects last year they devoured tonnes of crops which were destined for the dinner plate and the market stall. were and for more on this i'm joined by keith cressman he's f.a.o. senior loka locust forecasting officer and he joins me from rome keith good to see you we spoke in november about this very situation around this region what's changed between now and then. well basically it was changes at the locus now have shifted prum one breeding area to a potentially 2nd breeding area so at the end of 2020 they were present in east africa scuse me eastern ethiopia and central somalia where there is tremendous breeding and that formed new swarms new adult swarms and those swarms then migrated southwards and they invaded kenya at the end of the year as well as southern ethiopia so that's where the swarms are now in northern kenya central kenya and may

in the southern southwestern ethiopia so that's where the swarms are now this has been a problem for more than a year what has this region these regions that are been affected what have they learned how is the response change on the ground from what you've seen well if you think you know one year ago when when kenya was 1st invaded after you know 70 years of calmness they now have a full year of experience some under their belt they have all of the at the necessary equipment the sprayers the vehicles there's more than $28.00 aircraft operating in the region and the teams now are trained so you know a year ago they didn't have any of this so a country like any is much much better prepared they can undertake the necessary surveys to find the locus and then the aerial control operations and the ground control operations to treat those infestations that they found the same can be said about somalia northern somalia in particular as well as ethiopia.

does one defeat locusts or do you just survive them. no no $11.00 does defeat locusts eventually but it takes time is not something that's done you know in a week in a month and we're talking here not just protecting crops or pastures but actually to reduce the locus populations themselves the numbers but this requires aircraft aerial control operations and you know as we as we heard in your earlier piece you know you cannot always spray chemical pesticides on crops especially when they're ready to be harvested there is a waiting period but you know fortunately there's bio pesticide so bio pesticides are perfectly safe so this is an option when needed for acute cressman he's senior f.a.o. forecasting locust forecasting officer joins us from rome thank you so much thank you well this year russia has opened up hundreds of so-called

dangerous jobs to women from 456 job titles they were once limited just to men there are now 100 of those and that's creating new career paths for women including one newly trained subway driver take a look. at the how much this moscow separate chain if you know is breaking along how barrier. dall glic is a train driver for the moscow metro a job she is only now allowed to have after working here for nearly 20 years driving trains or trucks working as bricklayers or carpenters these are jobs that have been off limits to women and russia since 2000 that changed on january 1st when a new law went into force removing 356 rolls from the list of banned jobs ahead of the new rules told equant there was 6 months training in preparation for her new role. i'm looking from outside of the train if there's

any damage if anything is detached. she says some of her male coworkers were skeptical at 1st. and the beginning i felt some vigilance from my male colleagues but now there's only support and assistance catarina drives a cargo truck in russia she says it's been hard to break into the male dominated industry people often don't take her seriously. you know but it was kind of a submissive and i've been invited to job interviews just to see if it's true and if i'm not joking that i want to drive a car go truck. many considered it a praying asked me miss did you get the wrong door do you know this is about a big goods vehicle and they refused to hire me. because i believe in you know. she's hopeful that better job opportunities will now open up for her like driving

a bigger vehicle perhaps a similar trailer truck but while the law may have changed she fears attitudes will take longer to catch up. and finally before we let you go here's another example of how the world is adapting to the coronavirus crisis in tunisia hotels have mostly remained empty as the pandemic has kept tourists away one luxury hotel has now been voted into a nursing home around 40 elderly patients are now spending their old age in the seaside accommodation with the requisite physical therapy and entertainment activities. all right here's a reminder of the top story we're following. glimmer of hope for shops and restaurants in europe as more countries loosen lockdowns with falling kovan 1000 cases numbers but concerns remain within occupations moving slowly across the

continent to new variants threatening faster spread of the bars. that's. and that's it for me and the business team here blunt as always to check us out online dot com slash business for more on these business stories and others also facebook and twitter i'm seeing bears which is joining us. to go off. thomas for me it's listless clay fall from the. looks of guns fundamentalist flights sensible. non-stop excitement in the final match to. 60 minutes on d w. in the height of climate change. for cars.

what's in store. for the future to. come for the megacity to give insight could enter. the for. this is t.v. news africa on the program today close to full business zimbabwe is in full 6 that has been forced into a prolonged closure as the government tries to control the spread of covert nineteen's the country's small business owners say they're in districts. that some african state to begin vaccinating its health like is often the 1st 1000000 call that 19 vets and doses of arrived in the country. africa's figures.