claim but interrupted there's a sharp morning when for accept some money from the new superpower will become dependent on playing it because the face of the chinese state has a lot of money at its disposal the focus and that's how the expanding and asserting its status and position in the world is to play china's gateway to euro play starts feb 19th on d w. and china the u.s. and the united arab emirates is racing towards the red planet as not one but 3 probes are closing in on mars we want to know what exactly is there to gain out in space also coming up a fresh administration a fresh start after years of solving relations on the u.s. president trump executives at chinese telecoms from hollowing are hoping for

brighter days ahead and after germany post the heftiest drop in exports since the financial crisis what does recovery for europe's biggest economy look like. i'm chris kobach with the program the red planet is about to get a little crowded 3 separate unmanned missions to mars launched by the united states china and the united arab emirates will all reach mars this month the 1st one to enter mars orbit will be the probe later today sent by the. new air of space exploration for the gulf nation amal which means hope will spend 687 days there that's the period equivalent to one year on mars the probe will monitor weather patterns on mars and it will also help the u.a.e. establish itself as a technology hub of the future so let's take

a deeper look into space with claire jolly she's the head of the space forum at the organization for economic cooperation and development she joins me from paris welcome to d.w. clare so 3 mars missions are underway what do these countries get out of sending these probes to mars. thank you thank you very much for having me. here he said you are really looking at the economic angle. winning in space activities and definitely this nations are looking at space exploration for a number of reasons to be clear and we heard that just before and terms of science . in order to provide inspiration and that's true for nasa that's true of china and that's you also have the u.a.e. but also in terms of technology development are very important and i'm a member of technology transfers that can actually be directly adapted from some of

them are missions to other sectors and even medical imagery to come back to that later on but also i would say most importantly. in order to actually be sure case there are innovation. and there you see quite a number of countries that are forming these small club really small club that can actually conduct x. x. and i carry air missions how you organize and says that space activities are a spam thing globally what exactly are the down to earth benefits of that. well down to earth are many jobs revenues i have quite a number of startups that have been actually springing up in many parts of the world often not in what you would think of when you figure the space industry very often in the use of satellite data were its g.p.s.

signals but it's also the nation data middle of equal data that you can find now in your apps on your phone very often you have small startups that are actually creating new products and services there are records to the right from space signals and that creates really a new ecosystem that we really saw jumping over the past 8 years more or less care of the lion's share of initial investments and spans infrastructure is made by governments but there are certainly companies out there are seeking their fortunes in outer space when will this become a more attractive and potentially lucrative field of business. and we see it's already starting to be you can see in this that the lion's share of fetch it is coming from governments we're talking here about around 70. 79000000000 each year including sitting in military service budgets but at the end of the day you do

have many. companies that are building up their own services which government really as a customer to be called example would be space x. which is now even offering human space flights to international 'd space station really not as a contractor really as. a business to business service. you see quite a number of investors looking particularly not only have to be actors like space x. but looking really at some of the smaller actor that i mentioned this is really part of this digitalization of the economy where you see many opportunities particularly in companies that are doing intelligence work providing. new products new services to help in decision making based on satellite data there's so much data out there there are a lot of opportunities to actually create new products to 7 markets typically looking at what's going on on the other side of the border it's not just metering

tilt right now it's right is not intended clearly had of the or is it is a space forum thank you for talking to did over here. thank you very much for having me. recent years have been difficult for chinese telecoms from hallway former u.s. president lee repeatedly accuse the company of spying for the chinese government but also pressured allies to follow the u.s. in bedding hallway equipment but now that a new administration is all the job in washington hallways hoping for better days ahead. way is the kingpin of chinese tech but its meteoric rise has been cut short by u.s. sanctions which include a ballot for american firms to supply who walk away with technology within just one year the company has lost market share dropping from being the world's 3rd largest smartphone producer to the 5th largest company founder and chief run junk face

hopes to reverse that downward trend. and we still hope that we can by and large volumes of american materials components and equipment so that we can all benefit from china's growth. so that shows that so far u.s. president joe biden has not given any indication that that will happen the u.s. government says there is no reason to release a long range from trade restrictions. now the 2nd impeachment trial against former president trump is starting in the u.s. senate later today even though mr trump is no longer in office the shadow over the country continues to loom large now that holds true for many business owners that voted for trump and his policies and are now not sure what the new administration will mean for them like this restaurant owner we met in pennsylvania. met flinch boys on his way to one of his tool restaurants in harrisburg the hospitality

industry is the 2nd largest in pennsylvania it employed more than half a 1000000 people before the pandemic coburg 19 and its safety restrictions put a lot of financial pressure on mat and now he also has to worry about new policies and the administration we are struggling to find employees because of the government just continues to hand out money instead of put people back to work i can't afford to pay my staff $15.00 an hour i can tell you that 90 percent of my staff will be let go if the federal minimum wage goes to $15.00. for covert ops 285 people work for mats now it's down to 40. is one of them i think things are going to change because biden knows exactly what we are doing here we don't take anything away from anybody. mario is married to julio he

came to the united states 14 years ago undocumented he was already working full match when the authorities caught him. at the needle when i was in prison they helped me to get out and later they helped me with everything i needed to look at when it is. met isn't against immigration but there are limits because there's a ton of work. right now in america that americans don't want to let people have that opportunity grow that american dream and get a job what's wrong with controlling who's coming in and out of our country the 2nd wall mexico's drug cartel is going to be aiming right for this pot to bring illegal drugs into our country immigrants are the backbone of many small businesses in the united states that immigration is still a very divisive topic and not everybody of mass customers shares his strong beliefs

we do not talk politics a lot of times people can't have a difference of opinion you can't have you know a conversation with anybody where you feel like you can say i disagree with his politics without it getting ugly so i have tried to avoid it unfortunately. to gether with all those small business owners who keep fighting the policies of the new administration he is convinced biden will destroy his future and the future of his employees. by hand germany exports took a historic hit and 2020 due to the coronavirus and demick the value of german exports fell by nearly 10 per cent compared to 2019 that amount that is the 2nd biggest contraction in german post-war history global trade ground to a halt last spring as the initial outbreak of the coronavirus shut borders and

disrupted supply chains exports recovered in the 2nd half of the year but have recently been stagnating as countries institute lock down measures. let's get more on this from v.w. financial correspondent charles the delay me chelsea 2020 was a terrible year in many respects how significant has destruction exports been to the german economy as a whole. well this is very significant for germany you have to remember that germany is a very export dependent a condominium relies a lot on the manufacturing sector for overall economic growth so when we saw basically the entire trade system shut down and march and april of last year that dealt a really deep blow to the german economy we saw all trade really fall by in some cases a 3rd a half even though we did see a recovery and the german trade numbers throughout the rest of the year it was

never big enough to bring german trade back up to where it was before before the crisis so we have seen trade coming back up in part because of the growth of china because of these really strong export figures to the u.s. and china but it hasn't been enough to dig germany out of that hole so how much can companies build on this small recovery don't we. it's going to depend a lot on how the coronavirus develops so and december we saw all exports rise about 0 point one percent that's actually a bit better than economists had been hoping for so we do still see growth in the exports but if we were in maine and lockdowns if we continue to see restrictions and now of course we see quite messy roll outs of the vaccines all of that will hamper this recovery and trade if you don't your financial correspondent chose to do any breaking germany's export figures for us thank you.

and a reminder of the top story we're following for you at this hour 3 separate on manned missions to mars are a barge to reach the raf planet they've been launched by the united states china and the united arab emirates a lot along the mall probe is set to enter mars orbit within hours. and that's our show on for scorable and for more you can always side of the w dot com slash business for now thanks for watching. the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and contacts the coronavirus up to 19 special. on t w. can you hear me now or yes yes we can hear you and how the last 2

years gentlemen saw so that when we bring you i'm going to map calls and you've never had to have before surprise yourself with what is possible who is medical really what moves and all somebody who talks to people who follows along the way admirers and critics alike how is the world's most powerful woman shaping public and join us from eccles last stop if. i knew more contagious variant of the corona virus could be behind a more serious 2nd wave in south africa. the 1351 could also be the 1st mutation to be to the existing vaccine a small study shows the astra zeneca inoculation and the office limited protection against mild versions of the buriat and that's the back seen much of africa was

banking on. in a moment we'll talk to a girl just involved in that astra zeneca study and put this into context but 1st let's look at some of the other offenses driving case numbers in south africa super spreader of aids and lockdown fatigue are also being played. as the developed world gathers momentum and vaccinating its populations south africa is fighting a coronavirus mutation. that every guy has just come out of its 2nd wave of current affairs and fictions within the last period of 2020 and as a research institute are very concerned that this may or may not be related to the new strain of corner virus infection which has been found in the country. very interest been associated with a higher bar load in infected people making it more transmissible and leading to sharp spikes in infections. south africa recorded over 15000 covert deaths in the

last month and its hospitals were filled to capacity. so it wouldn't work so we have had an unexpected really strong 2nd wave in south africa it came earlier than with anticipated and it was much steeper in terms of numbers there were 2 reasons for this one was we think mass gatherings before the christmas period there were young people getting together but also that we hadn't really controlled the numbers of people for example at funerals so mass gatherings drove this partly but that coincided with the emergence of the new variant which has indeed increased transmission from one person to another so 2 things at the same time. this seems to be confirmed by researchers on the ground. we found that participants particularly in our research they have not been compliant to non-pharmaceutical interventions they would be non-compliant to travelling

restrictions particularly across provinces they've also been non-compliant to self isolation after testing positive as well as attending parties. adjourns to personal protection measures are also slipping like in my boning an inner city cultural hub in johannesburg. maybe it was somewhat what's at hand mean changes in the neck to drink in my skull that makes them ask wheat so that i had moved them last but as of in drinking the water singing it's on. the locals are beginning to tire of some of the world's strictest lockdown measures and skepticism is taking hold. there's nor koran that. doesn't exist. doesn't exist physically turn their minds not only.

while struggling entrepreneurs are taking risks in order to survive. it difficult to adhere to the rules of social distancing and knowing fully so that's a bit of a challenge but. you know i don't want to chase the last little crown that i have so i'll do all that i can just to try and keep and keep you know keep the shop open . exactly what role did recently discovered variant is playing in local infection rates remains to be seen. we are not particularly sure about what this puts this corona virus infection strain will do in terms of the medication in the back since we have this particular. week or hoping to have some very exciting information in the next few weeks which will answer some of those questions and give us some more guidance around this particular issue. but until scientists can be sure south africa needs to remain cautious as vaccine rollout has only just begun. its talk about new variants and the efficacy of vaccines with they're all

just pennies mostly joins us from the woods university at the national institute for communicable diseases she contributed to the laboratory aspects of this south african study on the astra zeneca vaccine penny what's the main takeaway from that study. the main takeaway from the astra zeneca study in south africa is that the vaccine provides little to no if it can see against what we define as mild to moderate disease and that is a setback and that as a result of that finding the south african government has for now suspended the rollout of the esters and to vaccines which was imminent and very important to note that that study was limited by the fact that it enrol people who were generally relatively young and for that reason this trial was unable to define where the astra zeneca vaccine was able to protect from severe disease from the next not just point of view and from a public health point of view that is the primary aim of vaccination is to protect people from from dying from sars could be 2 and so that is

a major unanswered question with the asters and it could china stage in the meantime though what does it mean for south africa unfortunately it means that we need to we need to start looking beyond the astra zeneca vaccine this is something that we have been doing as a country so that it has been integral involved in testing several other vaccines and we have been trials in this country for the johnson and johnson vaccine the know that extra vaccine and so we are very well placed to understand how effective those vaccines are and continue will continue to be against both the old variant in south africa but also importantly against the new variant that has been scrapped. but as for then it has back seeing has also been seen to not be effective among all the people in other countries then we have this problem with the effects on younger people infected with milder cases what's it mean for this actual vaccine and at

the end of the day. so it was all that seems we constantly work out the tradeoff between the efficacy and measured as a single number that we hear in the press and realistically high on how easy it is to roll that vaccine out in a country yesterday make a vaccine is very cost effective it's very easy to transport and so that that lack of if a casy against mild and moderate disease if offset by potential if insidious disease is balanced by that important need to be able to achieve coverage and that coverage is very important for achieving what we here call her protection so with esther zeneca and with all that scenes and this constant evaluation of all of the benefits and all of the disadvantages of a vaccine in a particular situation now this is a very it is already making its way around the world how how why should other countries be about this variant that's important to understand to 2 things this

variant that was that it didn't find 1st in south africa is not going to stay in south africa and viruses do not respect borders and in fact it has already been detected in several other countries as your beers are probably aware but i think the 2nd thing to understand is that it's not just the south african variants that is worrying us a similar variant has been detected that arose completely independently in brazil the variant detected in the u.k. has now acquired one of the new tensions that we most concerned about is point for me tension and so it's clear that the virus is independently evolving away from the small sense to phenotype so more resistant state so it's not simply a matter of being concerned about one variant we have to understand in general how the virus is evolving. just explain to me why it's me taking to the same pattern. it may take to the same pattern because in general people have

a very similar response immune response to that ours so whether you studying somebody in brazil or the u.k. or in so that africa irene systems tend to behave in a very similar manner and we actually have systems actively target what's called receptive binding to man and that happens to be exactly where these mutations are located and the fact that everybody has a very similar response that ours means that the virus we have you study it tends to have a very similar pattern in escaping from from antiquities and this is what viruses do best and this is the cat and mouse game that characterizes all our own infections of humans is an ongoing race between viral evolution and the immune system in this case but the immune response and therefore the arse parts ways are pretty similar or or just any more thank you very much for being on the show today thanks bill. time now for your questions of the ta science correspondent there. as the sars kovi to virus inevitably continues to mutate could it also mutate to

become less deadly. this is complicated but here goes the short answer is yes that could happen and we hope it will but there's no guarantee scientists used to believe that pathogens always a volved to grow less deadly because it was thought a deadly disease is an ineffective disease the reasoning was that if a pathogen kills its host especially if it kills that host quickly then it lowers its own chances of being passed on so less deadly more transmissible variants should have an evolutionary advantage right well the problem with that logic is that the rowlands can also be viewed as an advantage because the sicker the host grows the more likely they are to give their pathogen to someone else since they're shedding more of it some so we actually think there's kind of an

evolutionary tradeoff between transmissibility and virulence and there are certainly pathogens for instance the birkie loss' bacterium that have been infecting humans for thousands of years yet still kill large numbers of people to see what the future might hold for covert 19 therefore scientists that and looking at the other coronaviruses known to infect humans in particular the 4 that we think have been doing it for quite a while they only cause my old cold like symptoms interestingly that might have less to do with them and more to do with us especially with our children one theory is that repeated exposure to those other. coronaviruses and early childhood might be helping to prevent more severe cases of the sicknesses they could cause later in life the source code to does become and then down the background illness in our

society then later generations of children will be exposed to it early at an age when it rarely makes you seriously ill and that in turn should make subsequent exposures much less dangerous or at least that's the hope. there. is all and thanks for watching stay safe i'll see you again very soon but like.

the phone. call. meaning ishmael. they were defeated in the fight to keep their competitors reaping the benefits of. the fight for the top spot is in full view. kick off.

to 30 minutes on t.w. . operation vaccines our national soul efforts in healing the global fight against her own environment a large industrialized countries have secured the vaccine for themselves while poor countries are being left empty handed how can a vaccine be feely distributed to the whole world is the hard road out of the pandemic close of. 90 minutes on d w. course.

of the morning. because you know was losing love form. in those smaller smaller. ones lol hers knows. no means no love no love for the worker. doesn't know your work using the verb love. a constant. her closely. car commercials.

this is d.w. news a live from berlin myanmar police clamp down as tens of thousands to fight a protest bam a 4th straight day up to terminate a man street protest after a military coup that overthrew on songs to choose elected government protesters demands of the restoration of democracy also coming up 6 months since the

presidential election in belarus that triggered the nation's largest protest in recent history. tell d.w. how the events of.