there they do stay with us if you can for that so as mourner website to the view dot com you can also follow us on twitter and instagram admittedly and i'm sara kelly in berlin because so much for watching take care and 6. lol. people have to say 1st to us. trying to listen to the. reporter every weekend on d w. the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. the rate of infection been developing. measures are being taken.

what does the latest research say. information and context. coronavirus up to the code of special monday to friday on t.w. . a travel booking britain holiday makers rush to secure their plans after the u.k. government lays out a new road map to gradually relax pandemic restrictions including on foreign travel . also on the show what has the pandemic taught us about the global food supply expert about how wealthy nations have seen new vulnerabilities in the last year. and spain as shoppers defy the pandemic to hit the winter sales but it comes too late to save many smaller businesses. into the show m c. it's

good to have you with us well holiday makers in the u.k. are rushing to get their bookings in that after prime minister boris johnson announced a road map out of the coronavirus lockdown in the nation now according to the plan british tourist could be allowed to travel as early as march 17th since that announcement was made tour operators have been flooded with reservations that's a rare bit of good news for an industry that seen more dark days recently. there's more than enough room poolside at this resort in the cleary islands with tourism effectively put on hold many in the industry are struggling to get by but british beach towels could soon be poolside throughout southern europe if the british prime minister gets his way. his announcement that international travel could be allowed starting may the 17th sent a wave of fresh bookings to companies like easy jet. they're reporting a 300 percent jump in reservation suggests nations in spain portugal and greece.

the world's largest tour operator 2 we also said bookings jumped 500 percent over night. and travel fever has also group london stock markets as investors flock to to eat easyjet and other travel sector stocks. but there are still some major hurdles to be cleared before sun worshippers can hit the beach is. how local countries handle code testing and vaccination checks will tourists have to quarantine. destination countries willing to lift their travel bans at all. but for britons at least now there's a destination in sight. all right let's bring in our financial correspondent in frankfurt ashutosh. good morning brits want to travel to countries want them good morning steve yes that's the big question and all those questions that was in that story at the end. of the different countries that it covering at beijing

yeah that remains a big question because the folks who are making the bookings are actually hoping that the situation on the coral front in. the. destination is going to be equally bright as they are. looking in britain so far but that's not the case you know that the country's. crisis and this would be extra careful before they open their borders for a foreign tourist and that's going to actually be a deciding factor going forward. what is this rush mean for the struggling travel industry looks like there's a lot of pent up demand. absolutely and a pent up demand is better than lack of demand these are encouraging signs that the people about ready to pack their bags and leave for these destinations despite all the economic pains all around but it's to do and you can rejoice at would say

because they feel a thing that quotidian was across the was different there is no quality nation among governments that few takers for these vaccines certificates that the international travel body bodies have been advocating for that's going to be a problem but on a positive note. certainly. from the quarter now widest is going to need to want him on for domestic tourism and that's not necessarily of back thing because we all know that domestic terrorism accounts of 70 percent off the tourism spending all right ashutosh monday in frankfurt thanks very much well after years of progress food insecurity is on the rise and the global pandemic is only making things worse now poverty around the world has been growing again lately despite decent gains over the past decades and the pandemic has made things

worse lockdowns and poor access to health care disproportionately affect the porous those already struggling to put food on the table that here the country's most affected by food insecurity that's according to the new global food security index sudan yemen zambia malawi perhaps few surprises there given the economic and conflict situations in those countries however a much wider swath of the world's food supply could be affected by climate change and with droughts and natural disasters increasing around the world even wealthier countries european countries for example such as denmark norway and sweden are already seeing more disruptions to their future food supplies. now missing is the project leader for the global food security and she's with economic economist intelligence unit rather and she joins me from singapore proxima good to see you on the show what have we learned from a year pandemic about the global food supply thanks very much stephen it's great to

be here and thanks for having me talk about something really important i want to take a step back and quickly provide a little bit of context to the j.f.s. i know the global food security index essentially it's a measure of the dryness of food insecurity categorized by floor such as dr as affordability of the inability of quality and safety and natural resources and resilience this year we incorporated that 4th category into the main index which was previously used as an adjustment act up so as you rightly mentioned right up front we have seen that global food insecurity is on their ice and fortunately we've been doing this index since 2012 and after 7 years of consistent improvements all the way through from 2012 to 20 in 21000 we saw a slight dip and then a further deterioration in 2020 in the overall food security environment to your point what have we seen and what have we learnt from this last you know while the

main driver of food insecurity is really of decline in the 1st category of food or for you we are seeing increasing prices on cost of food but most importantly following depend demick we are seeing a loss of income really high levels of all higher levels over tea and most importantly a lack of effective and a social safety net programs of food safety net programs in particular and problem it's fair to say that that's affected both wealthier nations who traditionally have perhaps had more food security as well as porn a sense. that's exactly right so one of the key findings of the index is that this is not really a developing economy issue. out of our 113 countries in the index 66 so majority of the countries have actually seen a dip in affordability and like i said this is something because of lack of incomes and what's or social safety nets and this is across different countries and

economies so we've seen this inequality that raise not just within nations but even internally within certain not just across nations but even within a country we're seeing inequality increase and the higher risk populations of honorable groups exponentially rise as a result of the pandemic i think a lot about those the significance of school lunches in a lot of developed countries i want to ask you as long as we're talking about how wealthier nations are also affected by food vulnerability climate change you mentioned earlier being incorporated a bit more into your report this year that's also something that is likely to affect a greater swath of the globe is it fair to say that's exactly right stephen so essentially one of the indicators we look at as part of the global food security index is one called volatility in agricultural production we've seen this increase in the past few years so there's increased fluctuations or less of predictability and a lot of that has to do with rising crime climate risks like droughts or extreme weather

and again this is not just an issue for developing countries it's also something we're seeing in high income countries particularly like you mentioned sweden norway australia slovakia all of these countries have seen increased pressure on their own it on their food supply and 49 out of 113 actually seen an increase in this volatility this year. meanwhile the most vulnerable countries we saw those foreign after that we named were the biggest challenges that they face in terms of food security. yeah so one of the things we know is that inequality levels whether it's income. but in particular have always had an impact but in particular conflict is a critical driver of food insecurity again this is no surprise but we know very clearly that countries that have high levels of conflict particularly active conflict zones like yemen and saddam at the bottom of the index are actually hotbeds of food insecurity really being able to drive any sort of tech innovation

or even getting chronic food into these countries into the vulnerable populations has been and challenge and this has only been exacerbated by the pandemic and so conflict remains one of the main drivers of food insecurity in the east. i guess he's trying to countries are i'd want to leave it there for now probably missing project leader for the global food security index thank you so much thanks very much back to europe where it's winter sales season in spain and many shoppers are hitting the stores despite still high coated case numbers but not all retailers are riding the seasonal wave small stores in particular are struggling with many even shutting their doors altogether. bargain fever instead of covert lockdown winter sales are attracting thousands of people to the center of the lens here all the stores are open despite the fact that the region still has one of spain's highest infection rates. that are going on there not on i agree with how it's being handled

after all we need some distraction and if it's done responsibly and according to clear rules then i think it's all right now but if there are. intensive care units or at more than 150 percent capacity hospitals are overcrowded people don't seem to realize that they act like everything is fine. and cortez injuries europe's largest department store chain is also open the authorities only allow them to operate at 30 percent capacity but some departments are still crowded the company stresses that everything safe items of clothing for example are disinfected after each city. it's very important to us that customers feel safe shopping here. and according to department of health data if there are very few or virtually no coronavirus outbreaks in retail stores she said this but smaller stores in particular are suffering the most from the pandemic as many spaniards are

still holding back on shopping jose antonio pos store saw his sales drop by more than 50 percent so far government aid has only been available in the form of loans . now this past. government is not giving out free money which is causing companies to go even deeper into debt. that businesses for many years or even drive them into bankruptcy. for rent signs can be seen all around violence yet many store owners have shut down for good leading to the loss of more than. $50000.00 jobs throughout spain. in the clothing in fashion sector one in 5 stores is gone out of business. in a while if it's a very bad situation because in valencia smaller stores are very important for the regional economy has. made on one. even with infection rates falling it's

unclear whether the people of valencia will keep shopping one sales are over spaniards who are traditionally avid shoppers have put more money into savings than ever before. and that's it for me and the business team here in berlin as always you can find out more about these and other stories online dot com slash business it's watched. kurdistan's capital is something change small room using outdated cooling. residents and activists are fighting back against the air pollution. and the government their demands are falling on deaf ears. 3000. next on d w. in the height of climate change. for.

what's in store. for the future. can make a city. insight. enter. welcome to global street sounds and. this week we had. the capital bishkek is struggling to get a handle on at pollution. in the philippines climate change is costing a shadow over the lives of fishing families. the 1st we had to afghanistan to meet some strong women determined to hold on to their rights.