senators to convict the former president ford signs of the fall of mall the storm to come through on generous 6 trumps legal team will begin presenting their arguments on friday and. that's it from me and the news team don't go away kris kobach is next seen all business from school stage most of us just. got some hot tips for your bucket list. corner. spot for some. and some great cultural memorials to boot. the double trouble we go. how does a virus spread. why do we parent and when we're all. just 3 of the topics covered and. if you would like and new

information on the crawl of virus or any other science topic you should really check out our talk cast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us and. science. new beginnings in the year of the ox people in china and other parts of the world coming to the lunar new year today with the. year of the raps making way for hopefully more time also coming up it's nearly completed and a growing bone of diplomatic contention we gauge the mood in the city for the controversial on the war gas. to drive a truck. market saw for help driving cars. the latest partnership between

big tech and big although the stakes are high to do the digital rights. on the 1st of all welcome to the program what a difference a year makes during the last luring new year celebrations the chinese city of one han was under strict locked up more than 50000000 people were forbidden to leave their homes as a then mysterious virus causing respiratory illnesses was spreading this time around at some of the story people in the city where the form of iris and damage is believed to have started mark the eve of the new year in the streets but for the occasional mask things almost seem normal and mohan hasn't had a covert 19 case for months citizens have been able to engage in much of the activity that makes the lunar new year china's biggest annual economic event. for more on the start of the chinese year the ox here is our beijing correspondent.

while the numbers of infections are launching the under control in china a few recent breaks have a long view authority there is no country wide travel ban but many places have placed restrictions on quarantine requirements on new arrivals and many companies also ordering their employees to stay at home usually around this time of the year and it was see crowds doing up in toronto police station it is an estimate that trips around the country ah don't buy with them off the street. on why this means a lot of businesses that usually shut down during this season could stay open longer this year a lot of events have been cancelled like temple fayaz or the traditional ice rink on the lake behind me overall this means not spending during the festival season will be lower than usual. i hear of diplomats say that you could as early as this

month and poles travel bans and asset freezes on allies of russian president putin in response of the jailing of men domestic critic alex cena some say the european union should use north stream to as leverage as well and abandon it the nearly complete hard line would double russia's capacity for natural gas deliveries to germany and europe but of course cancelling is not everybody. in. the north stream too is ready at least the german end of the nearly 2500 kilometer long pipeline it starts here in the baltic sea town of lukeman the receiving terminal with its thick pipes and heavy safety valves has been ready to go since the summer. goodmans mayor oxus folks is concerned that despite this the russian gas pipeline might never be operational. it would give us a very bad public image if we had an investment disaster of this magnitude and the

political debate continued to be so heated i suspect that would also scare off investors we'd like to keep up with. this 150 kilometers of pipeline has become a hot topic. the section has yet to be completed on the bottom of the baltic sea. but calls for tougher sanctions against russia are getting louder. after the reported poisoning of opposition politician alex enough ali many demanded a halt to the construction of the north stream to local authorities refused to believe that construction might be stopped. can you really link the case of an avanti to a project like north stream 2. what would it be better to look at these 2 events separately especially when the facts at least according to my assessment are not yet clear enough to place the blame on russian government. the mayor is voicing the opinion of the citizens of lukeman

a seaside resort on the baltic sea because of the coronavirus there aren't enough tourists but there are also very few locals on the beach their opinion is almost unanimous and people think everything the russians do is bad that's not right and a volley is an important north stream is important to. us can we afford to waste millions billions compromises have to be made i think it must be completed in the mas dismissed because it's only one person dares to criticize russia even the long and they were historically a reliable partner as long as it benefited them for political reasons i would not continue this project. if you just pour your mission for folks all that matters is a consistent supply of energy after germany's nuclear phaseout gas will become essential he says even if it comes from russia we find russia including vladimir

putin to be a reliable partner in social and economic life in the state of mecklenburg western problem and especially here at our energy and business site i see no reason for putin or the russian government to be sidelined like that. luke mean expects russian natural gas to flow through these pipes soon. more about this with thomas o'donnell he's an energy and national affairs analyst a lecturer at the school of government here in berlin wall come to w. top most people in lipman believe russian gas will arrive there soon russia's state energy giant gazprom was behind nordstrom to believe so as well do you to. i think it's i likely. let me just make clear because there's a number of things that were said by the local citizens understand the perspective this is clearly geopolitical. 80 percent of the gas russia sends to europe

goes through ukraine today it has gone through ukraine and this was this was critical for mr putin for his market however he made the mistake of invading ukraine and now he's got a problem he can't pursue what he wants to do in ukraine this avert the country as long as the gas goes through there he'll later here interrupt his own business so he's decided to build these pipelines and the german government for its own reasons does not want to accept the security risk as they put it of the gas coming through ukraine to throw ukraine under the bus to do this project together with putin now the americans look at it purely i mean really politically this is not about american l.n.g. the opposition started to this before there was american elegy to export ok and so they're trying to stop it with very targeted sanctions the sanctions should be quite effective normally but what i see is happening is after the certification company leaves the reputable insurance companies are working surance leads and the

next thing is german companies will be sanctioned at some point what's happening is the russians are using postbox companies shady companies and for whatever reason the danish and german are going to or the agencies that regulate this are allowing them to do so ok so it's you know it depends on that if this is going to escalate the americans have asked for negotiations over this but the german side has been stalling the american said why don't we have a moratorium we don't want to sanction our allies why don't why don't we talk about this the germans are just stalin thomas the e.u. is a player in there as well is it a good idea to use north stream too as leverage to put pressure on russia over the treatment. of all. i mean if you. go along with what i said in the beginning that only wants to move this pipeline out of the roost and russia and ukraine you know what his relationship with those 2 countries are right now he wants to move it out and have it go through germany germany is doing a service i mean the german leadership at the german people but is doing

a service to mr putin so he can continue his malign activity to incorporate those countries you know like the soviet union did so yes blocking the pipeline blocks his geo strategic plans for energy for europe and you'll notice the european parliament voted by 580 to about 50 something against this pipeline so these are not just american sanctions american opposition overwhelmingly the parliament we have a different kind of e.u. the parliament will decide this but that's not how things are decided at this present moment and tell us briefly if you could regarding an asean supply as you said how much does your of need just pipeline it needs the russian gas is the distinction 40 percent of the gas that europe uses roughly comes from russia it will take a long time to get away from this geo strategic dependence we could discuss that sometime the question is will it continue to come through the pipelines that

already exist there are huge could be you know more could be sent through ukraine and the rows and poland as well or will it all be transferred into these pipelines directly to germany germany will become the hub for distribution of this russian gas in europe will become you know the sub player from from moscow ok in the book and this is this is the question is how you receive it through which place when ukraine doesn't have that transit what do you think more mr putin might do against ukraine why does he want it out of there so badly he's afraid the pipeline will get blown up if he continues his were there times at all strange him and again and international affairs analyst lecturer at her school of government summerland thank you for your thoughts. thanks for having me chris. and out to some of the other global business stories making headlines because it is closing in on its next big number of trading at over $49000.00 on friday this peak comes as companies like b.n.y. mellon massacred and tesla have warmed up to the cryptocurrency bitcoins of more

than 60 percent since the year with london outside of the you answer them has become the year's largest trading hob stock exchanges in the dutch capital were trading shares with 1200000000 euros per day in january after picking up a chunk of u.k. tour of the derivatives business making the city the number one market place in the black. and gold of the car industry now or fox lagan has announced that marco soft will provide the cloud based software for its autonomy vehicles that deepens an already existing partnership between the 2 companies and it comes as more tech giants are partnering with automakers where demand for digital software is soaring . cloud services secure data transfer and artificial intelligence on the one hand automotive know how on the other microsoft and folks fog and hope to work together to speed up the w.'s development of automated driving the software

situation at the auto giant in its 12 brands including audi say at skoda and push it has before now being chaotic with each unit doing its own thing v.w. then consolidated its software development program into one subsidiary car software org now microsoft will lend its cloud computing expertise traditional car makers are feeling the pressure not only must they contend with tesla the undisputed leader in the electric car market. but also they're facing ambitious u.s. tech giants who are hoping to carve out a slice of the automotive pie google and apple are working together on software for autonomous driving meanwhile amazon has bought a firm that produces robotic vehicles. software is playing an ever bigger role in our cars for instance in steering or onboard entertainment with increasing digitalisation the auto industry is approaching across rights. and finally

a trade in dire times in the bavarian town of long suit a confectioner has found his own way of dealing with the coronavirus crisis offering customers a jab of donuts filling customers can choose from different flavor jams and inject them freshly into baked donuts while their offerings lemon gender and passion food coconut chia. thanks watch. and they're crammed into overcrowded cells under any humane conditions. in russia thousands of nirvana supporters have been arrested so many the jails in and around moscow are bursting at the seams bombing tears are providing aid to the jailed demonstrators because the prisons are cold and flu is in short supply some concern. on.

what secrets lie behind these walls. discover new adventures in 360 degree. and explore fascinating world heritage sites. d.w. world heritage 360 getting up now. thank you. very well welcome to focus on europe with me liz show things are not calming down in russia ever since the arrest of kremlin critic alex a now volley people have been taking to the streets across.