this is home massive churches with towers that pierce the clouds like skyscrapers are creeping. contest of the cathedral. people 12th on d. w. . the germans are known for their humor it's their efficiency and organizational skills that is so impressive i think they secretly dream of the sound of documents being stamped stapled and filed away the bureaucracy here is a nightmare and get me started it's because the germans love to plan everything and they usually do a good job of it but they don't always achieve what they want to achieve any

quicker in some cases like the current vaccination rollout their absolute disaster is discussing it discussing everything trying to please everyone and just like the somewhat myth of german efficiency there are lots of other areas where the reputation doesn't quite match the reality germany is considered a pioneer in the fight against climate change at least that's the image you leave in stumble across the word any given in some english magazines and newspapers it means energy transition and in this case it's the monumental shift from josie and potentially dangerous power sources to renewables applaudable but if you look behind the success stories you'll quickly discover a few dirty secrets as they say old habits die hard is over caught. what's the 1st thing that comes to your mind when you think about germany let me guess it's going to be sausages football and of course lots and lots of

beer. well i guess there's a bit of truth in every stereotype but it's actually one more thing that a lot of people associate with germany. reassigning our economy to ensure their c o 2 emissions germany is often seen as a leader in the fight against climate change but do we actually live up to our image. that's what's really and i'm going to tell you why. and you don't have to take just my word for it. this is bill hare top climate scientist i have sat in the eighty's of the last century with politics with recycling systems with energy efficiency programs and this is cloudy i can fit she's one of germany's leading environmental economists.

so by the sounds of it we should be absolute superstars on all things green and indeed we want to go pretty much carbon free by 2050 but climate sockets are kind of like new year's resolutions just because you say you're going to work out more doesn't mean you're actually going to do it right now we're in fairly good shape but that's only because the coronavirus pandemic has pushed down emissions once things go back to normal we're going to be off track again. germany risk of. everyone things we agree but actually we keeping. secrets over here and something tells me you're going to guess what the 1st one is. what can i say we're in love with cars. and we always have been but most of them so. will run on these or gasoline and that means they pump out lots and lots of greenhouse gases

it's hard to believe but transportation sector emissions in germany are the same today as they were in 1990. 7. the last 20. which you see here right right now is actually on the transportation sector germany is a car country we are producing a lot of cars we have especially strong. and that car lot b. has always been close buddies with the most powerful politicians abandoning combustion engines and going the electric that's costly and risky but it needs to happen if we have to lower emissions. other countries have already set specific dates for when they want to phase out and total combustion engines completely francis said aiming to have them banned by 2040 the u.k. by 2035 at norway already by 2025 and what about germany. concrete ban it's not will not happen and it's not happening in germany because of because of the car lobby to be fair though we're not entirely stuck in the past the

government has plans to set up more charging stations and there are subsidies for people who buy electric cars things are changing just very slowly. through the. w. and really. their manufacturing point is. past. and what also needs to accelerate a lot faster is climate friendly public transport it's like a national pastime here to complain about trains being late overcrowded and expensive and that's because they often. can you believe germany invested in building about 60 kilometers of brand new highways and 2019 and just 6 kilometers of train tracks so i can't addiction is one big reason why. we're lagging behind our climate ambitions and then there's a 2nd even dirtier secret. they're still around

100 active coal power plants in germany different a 3rd of the country's electricity but compared to other energy sources there are massive c o 2 emitters the good news is that we're shutting all of them down the bad news not until 2038 that's 80 years later than experts say is needed to meet the paris climate goals. just have a guess when this plan started operating was 10 years ago or maybe 5 years ago now it was in may 2020 it sends a very bad signal to the rest of the world the o.e.c.d. countries are. around 202030 germany doesn't match that and we know that big emitters in the south and the developing world also need to phase out by around 2040 it's a very hard case to make. one of the world's richest countries is not actually made in the scientifically to find time travel to get out of the market. italy is

planning to phase out cold by 2025 and france by 2022 well they rely on nuclear energy and sweden with its relatively small population is already coal free. why on earth is germany lagging behind on this front. we have had a lot of mining in the western part of germany since 1950 and that relates to have a strong connection of the coal miners to the society also to the cultural it entity but also to the political lobbying our framework and that resulted still that we did not manage share to phase out coal early absolutes quickly recap germany is dangerously addicted to costs and germany just can't shake its habit. burning. coal. dust germany it's not that climate frankly as

a whole world i think we have to do much more related to. 2030. and in the transport area we have to do the transportation and the broader. system much more attractive much more cheaper and less. friendly. that it's also electric cars which we need. to do but hey we've got an image to lose. well it's not just germany's image that's at stake it's the nation's future 2 thirds of german surveyed say protecting the environment is paramount you can see it in the way they love to sort their rubbish their reputed for being recycling world champions you've got a bit of a plastic one of the paper metal batteries. clear. and then is

for the stuff you do the other bins but if you put any of the other rubbish in there you're in big trouble of course sorting out the plastic from everything else is a great thing and the germans banned plastic bags at supermarkets he is ago but actually using less plastic and other sixes would be even better. did you know that you live in a world full of plastic. bits in the water you drink and even the air you breathe and the food you eat is full of tiny plastic particles. every week you ingest up to 5 grams of micro plastics about the equivalent of a credit card. that much of that will remain in your body with as yet unknown effects on your health. a 3rd of all the plastic produced goes into the packaging that you buy. if you're

a german you generate an average 38 kilograms of waste from plastic packaging every year that's more than a european average of 24 kilograms and no matter where you live the richer you are the more ways to generate if you buy things online you'll create even more plastic waste. chances are you'll use half of your plastic products only once and then discard them. but the plastic will stick around in you and your environment for the most part not just for your lifespan but for centuries. well so that you would know a little dirty secret germany used to ship a sizable contingent of its plastic waste to china beijing put a stop to that not all that long ago it was a rather time that she jumping and outs to investors in davos switzerland at the world economic forum that the chinese were set on becoming the globe's green ambassadors did they want to clean up their act they also wanted to become leaders

in take out official intelligence and robotics well they've already achieved that they still love the germans for their cars and industrial machines for how much longer. the issue all along is the. massive and dagger runs the chinese operations of e.b.m. pops to a german manufacturer of electric motors and fans his task is to grow the business but how does that work we hear a lot about unfair constraints on foreign firms in china. or this is it shanghai factory e.b.m. pabst has been selling fans in china since the mid 1990 s. sales have been growing continuously even during the pandemic but things have got a little difficult lately because beijing has unveiled some new industry standards you know office who is trying to introduce its own standards used to just to dock

european or american ones but now china wants to assume a greater leadership role with a. different industry standards lead to higher costs for companies operating in more than one jurisdiction the european commission has indicated it sees no need to change established international standards. china is germany's most important trading partner and in terms of goods europe's as well thousands of european firms operate there and china may be promising a more level playing field but the european union chamber of commerce in china still has a long list of complaints position paper of european chambre $430.00 pages line 100 cases every year only a small part of that gets resolved. laborous process and put it together and this all of the companies operating already china a lot of companies would like to do more business china not able to do so the

symmetry between the openness of europe and china is quite quiet when you watch. while foreign firms are allowed to bid for state contracts they rarely actually. when out against chinese competitors. chinese state owned enterprises are often at an advantage thanks to generous subsidies enabling them to offer lower prices that applies to bands outside china as well. and in the digital economy the fastest growing market foreign players have little to no access. e.b.m. pabst tests the noise levels of its products. with very quiet fans it aims to win over chinese consumers an increasingly important market for the german company. you're seeing here the hooks were growing faster in china than anywhere else. currently accounts for 13 or 14 percent of our total revenue and the figure

is set to rise a lot further. we're aiming to increase that share to 30 percent of isaac and. right now commercial matters are sometimes overshadowed by the pandemic. i just want to see how you're doing after 14 days in quarantine. imagine it's tough being holed up in a little hotel room for 14 days well. we're doing ok we're not in the cern i'm going for a cup of coffee. there's a nice change from being stuck in one room all in all i coped pretty well. china is a key driver of the global economy and knows how to use its growing economic might to further its interests. but also applies to its dealings with the european union

and its demands for greater fairness. we are standing on 27 feet and so it's always very easy for china in order to cause dissonance and. rifts within the european decision making process. for example 70 plus one. countries from the eastern european bloc as well as 5 that i actually not your members and china sit together in order to discuss business something i guess brussels doesn't really like. to speed said the monkey to access and competitive disadvantages china stresses its right to protect its industries in order to catch up with the west is it going to change i think china's own pace and i think the kind of control they want to maintain over their economy will only let us have a small portion of the whole game so it's a serious problem but the market. and i don't see it. becoming much easier frankly

. nevertheless business is flourishing for companies such as e.b.m. pops to tomas newman baggett is being routed for his success in china with a new posting back to germany as global sales director. one thing i often complain about is how socially minded the germans up it can get in the way of ambitious people some of the rules go against you for wanting to get ahead in life your career or in how you invest but if anything goes wrong in life and to fix your health in particular which will happen at some stage it's not going to cost you an arm and leg like in the united states the germans invented the social welfare system chancellor or for bismarck set up the 1st welfare state in a modern industrial society with social welfare legislation that was back in 18 eighties imperial germany the system still going strong.

and i was one of the along with my name is who i'm 66 years old i trained as a stove fitter and i worked for 20 years. but now i'm retired and living in poverty so i get a pension of $321.00 euros a month. we work hard carrying stuff up 5 floors and through 3 or 4 courtyards per house tearing out of them's retiling the new ones mixing grout i fitted the new ovens my back and my needs are totally destroyed no one takes that into account. i was in a bad car accident in 2013. screws and 2 plates in my right leg i bought something

so i couldn't work my leg kept getting worse and they couldn't find me a job anymore. you could $120.00 meals a day in the course of the week we send out about 500 liters of stew to various social service centers since let's just. leave. it. here come out to a list. of people who come here are disadvantaged. people with low monthly incomes. who are struggling to get by. so just like. in 20193200000 elderly people in germany were considered equal or in other words assisting on less than 60 percent of the country's average monthly income less than 781. so having her on her for so

long or they might have been on low wages when they were working might have been jobless for long stretches most likely in the early nineties after reunification they might have switched jobs frequently these are all reasons for poverty in later life so i was on board this is absolute i'm sorry it's a sad indictment of a country like germany that these food banks have almost become institutionalized. tell us we're now part of the system these services have become vital to keep poor people afloat and ensure that they can get by each month. hoover's hour and his wife elaine go grocery shopping once a week. need a commodity that we can't afford doesn't give them but worry $0.99 let's go to.

a model. or provide. them a pop with of course publicly surprise the salami $0.99 in fee and i pop 400 grams because it's really tasty and we can afford it and it's a better value than in other supermarkets i'm not. going through the cakes to have some crackers. and how to treat it. well how we could use a living simply you know it's because i'm a pensioner that. you don't need much to be happy if god tells you is the most important thing.

and. every tuesday the couple visit the food bank there are 45 of them in the german capital 150 people here today they have been here for 5 to the food banks been here for more than 15 years it's for people who need help who are on welfare benefits and can't quite make ends meet it's good the support exists in every society there are people who fall through the net you know because there's afterwards a gift. i wish to go home on with my no one should go hungry because they're too ashamed to take support poverty among the elderly is a problem there are people whose pensions aren't enough to live on. no one even. wanted to. remove food with doctors all about the shame to admit i need a bit of help from the niece of the from. my i'm not ashamed to i'm used to it i mean love outweighs poverty i mean i love poverty. from

reducing the gap between rich and poor to pay divide between men and women in germany with an 18 percent less than men. because they work insect is all professions the pay less but that's not the only reason the way women negotiate can also have a big impact. for years women have said gee when i negotiate like a man i'm described as too greedy or undescribed is pushy or aggressive and you know finally studies are bearing this out that when a woman does negotiate like a man she is described as all those things all of this happened to me as well i started working in beach a pre-teen and since then i've had a 1000 negotiations with fergus bosses and all of them were men. and women often see they go she a should as confrontation as opposed to negotiation and so they need to

understand without using the tools that are designed for women they can go in constantly to negotiations and get the things that they want dr laura's frankel is the best selling author and coach by since women don't talk to advocate for the more effectively here are her 3 strategies for women on how to negotiate better benefits and gulping in what you want coming out too often what happens for women is they say they want something different it may be more money or it may be a different office or you know it could be any number of things that they want maybe i want to have more perks like men as well don't leave it up to the person you're negotiating with to guess what you want you need to be crystal clear going in what you want coming out i think work for such a long time here and i think i'm doing good so i like the projects i'm working on

both sides they take up a lot of time for both the problems of love. and just get more money women are great at building relationships they're not so great at capitalizing on them men don't have to capitalize on relationships necessarily because when they go in and negotiate. just seeing is good negotiators going in we somehow need to get an upper hand through positive good strong professional relationships and affectionate truth when i have a personal contact that i can use to open doors it doesn't have to mean that i'm being unprofessional my work would still be elitist critically however my personal connections could help me to become noticed in the 1st place understand that there are different kinds of negotiations there are transactional and personal

negotiations now transactional ones are ones where it's simply one thing in exchange for another right it's money in exchange for a service or for a product so an example here might be if i go out to negotiate for a car i think i'm not going to see that car dealer again for at least a couple years hopefully if ever now that doesn't give me the right to treat that person rudely or disrespectfully but it does give me more latitude in going in to negotiate from a very strong transactional position but of course don't forget that their personal negotiations and these could be at the workplace was superiors for example or they could be was your spouse or your significant other that's where you're going to depend on the relationship that's when you're really going to see how do i create a win win because at their best personal negotiations are when wins do you feel more empowered now i do go negotiate. nice to have you along i made

you against.

every journey begins with the 1st step and every language the 1st word i look up koch is in germany. why not i'm listening. to stuff it's simple on your mobile and free. music learning course called street journal made me see. the

fight against the corona virus pandemic. how has the rate of infection been developing. measures are being taken. what does the latest research say. information and context. the coronavirus of data the coded special monday to friday on w o. l and if we. as our favorite. angus ok being on the back of an effect on. the u.s.'s well have now gone 1st but i have i am going to go up the.

ladder. thank you. i am. now i am a parent who has family and dinner. and i have a cold when. i was told. that the my that i for. sure there may i was. full of women and gals almost that that i will never end them with and. when i am a. fish i am.

this is you don't really use the life for a girl and many of culpa germany's chancellor apologizes and backtracks over easter lockdown plans clerical overturns a decision to send the country into a 5 day coronavirus pandemic shutdown she now says the plans were a quote mistake also coming up we are building alliances u.s. secretary of state says howells that nato partners that america will no longer look to go it alone with a growing share of threats from china and russia but he still has some tough words

for germany. thank you so much for your company everyone german chancellor angela merkel has canceled plans for a stricter pandemic shutdown over the easter break following an unexpected crisis meeting with state leaders while the chancellor said the hastily drawn up plans were her own mistake well this comes just a day after leaders had announced a 5 day hard lockdown starting april 1st which would have shocked most shops and church services but there was criticism and confusion over how the measures would be implemented that was also anger and domestic holidays being restricted while some international trips were still allowed. a sick alyssa now to check summer speaking at a press conference. moments ago i just was star struck by the idea of an easter

shutdown was proposed with the best of intentions because we urgently need to slow down and reverse the 3rd wave of the pandemic they're not fighting nevertheless this proposal was a mistake and there were good reasons for making it but it was not possible to implement it properly at such short notice that. i feel was a mistake must be acknowledged as such and above all it must be corrected as soon as possible. place one of at the same time i'm well aware that this entire situation is causing added uncertainty. but all i deeply regret this and i ask all citizens to forgive me. the chasseur they're speaking earlier today the chief political editor michela kirchner is tracking that story for you mikaela the chancellor there expressing i made a call how much pushback has there been to these measures. well there

was a real firework of pushback after she came up with this idea late in the night in the night from monday to tuesday as we've done this we're waiting for some kind of outcome there was an hour's long break and then she came up with the idea of this deep lockdown as a wave breaker that was the idea over the easter holidays and extending the period where people don't go to work don't meet top she hadn't even consulted with the churches although this included church services on the most important day for christians in the year so there was a considerable amount of pushback and also many questions being raised in terms of political style there now we have miracle bitwise actually within the space of just over half an hour she issued that statement that we saw there then she went into parliament for tonsils question time and got significant pushback that was also asked ok what is she going to do now will she now try and push for other measures

and then the chances saying well no she would now rely on what is called an emergency 1 brake here which is supposed to kick in once the incidence rate hits $100.00 within the space of 7 days 210-0000 habitants it's doing that pretty much across the country right now so there's video question mark was this wave break and needed yes or no and there's more uncertainty after this. now obviously we are in an election year here in germany what fallout will there be for her party the c.d.u. . well actually you know a couple of months of september. almost half a year that's a very long time politics anyway and it certainly is an eternity in terms of a pandemic but no question i'm going to machall c.d.u. party has been feeling the pain of about management of this crisis over the recent weeks added to that there was

a corruption scandal within her own party over some m.p.'s who stepped down taking cash for basically setting up mosques deals here in germany and the big question is really will posse be able to bounce back from this and come across as the party that doesn't administer a crisis but really solves one and this is pretty much the low power points that i'm going back is hitting him personally but also a conservative led government then again let those vaccines arrive in force the economy bounce back and we might be in a different situation again but no doubt. leadership that star that light is is fading somewhat over this apology do you have you chief political editor. reporting thank you for that let's get more on these remarkable turn of events dr who were young is the general secretary of the german society of medical

intensive and emergency a medicine doctor good to have you with us no strict 5 day a lockdown what would you prescribe. ok that's a very difficult question i can tell you that weeks ago before the last conference of chancellor merkel with the m.p. and prime ministers of germany we told them and we said clearly and stated that the lockdown should be hold on until end of march they decided in another way they pronounced new measures of incidents raise coming from 35 to 50 now 200 and some countries like britain of also said 200 as a measure and we we frightened that the incidence of the infection rates goes up and that happened and now we have the decision on monday to

tuesday this clear kept on locked on throughout the east the days and now going back to the last step and we would prescribe that in face of the lower rates of vaccines and face of british would turn to be 117 with a higher infection rates and major danger for people getting the cover one thing there is we would say go on with a lockdown and try to keep infection rates low doc to just illustrate for us make it very clear what are you seeing how are i see you here in germany dealing with the surge in new cases. you see for the moment 2 we now see for about 10 days each day the rates of ice you're covered 19 patients rises

per day about $5200.00 if this goes on. more velocity then we will end up in 10 days we have over 4020 days where 5000 that is the way we don't want to go the health coverage is in intensive care madsen and emerge as the mets and they did a great job the last 12 months they didn't they handled 2 big ways the big wave now around christmas and in january and they the resilience of the have to work is quite endangered the so we hope to keep load on the takeaways and keeping down those x. rays will keep covert night and patients from the severe cause of the disease in the intensive care units that's the only solution at this moment that's a nation will take place in may and june and then we hopefully getting in the

very smooth calm sea maybe in the summertime. now what would you tell people who say the cure is worse than the pandemic the cost of isolation the cost of law down the damage city economy is just too steep we just have to open it up. if the population in the people in germany would say that and i think not all of them are telling the same as if they would say that they would decide to vote for politicians of politicizing this have to decide what to do with the medical persons review of the physicians are not the one to get the decision i would say if you want to open up everything. you have the risk that infection rates goes steve up and the end you will have and in thousands of people we saw that in december we had per game above

thousands $1100.00 people and that is the price you have to pay if this is except this should tell everybody and they should tell the all splitters to say it is for us it's a very high burden to see people dying in the i.c.u. from cope with 19 and knowing that you can prevent the death of each person and i think that should everybody think it over who who wants to get away from this lockdown dr johnson's thank you so much for speaking with speaking to us and thank you for your service thank you. next after years of combative relations between the united states and nato washington's new top diplomat says america wants to strengthen its alliances speaking at a nato summit in brussels secretary of state antony blinken called on member stuff hold together to meet the challenges facing the transatlantic partnership ali set

the united states sees china as a threat to their collective security take a listen to what else he had to say the united states won't force our allies into a us or them choice with china. there's no question that beijing's course of behavior threatens our collective security and prosperity and that it is actively working to undercut the rules of the international system and the values we and our allies share but that doesn't mean that countries can't work with china where possible for example on shelley's like climate change and health security we know that our allies have complex relationships with china that won't always align perfectly but we need to navigate these challenges together. after her sponsorship is standing by at the nato h.q. in brussels where did you make of the speech. highly well this was definitely a speech designed as an antidote to the trump years secretary blinken didn't say

the word trump once but i will have to for purposes of comparison and his main purpose here was to reassure allies who had been so unsettled by all the things that president trumpeted to denigrate the alliance he said the u.s. needs alliances we know that we know that europe needs the same thing so we're going to renew our relationship we're going to work together as you heard in that sound bite he said that is it's beijing and moscow who are real challenges so we need to be on the same side and get back to simply working together putting our resources together and then these things won't be as much of a problem it was definitely something absolutely designed to reassure the european allies and i think he was successful at that will tell us i mean were they reassured by his assurances that while america is back now. you know secretary blinken said openly that he's been getting questions about you

say america's back but for how long and he was trying to reassure them that this is not going to be you know a temporary thing that we are really back for good and while he presumably gave these messages to allies in the private meetings and in the nato sessions i'm sure some of them were watching just to hear of anything new came out of this speech and there were a couple of things i heard that i think germany in particular will be happy to hear one of them was this view on china now the trumpet ministration did make a call to meetings to european allies about their relationship with china they said for example at one point that they would cut off intelligence sharing if european governments didn't cut off huawei components from their 5 g. systems the other thing that will be very welcome in berlin is that secretary blinken said that while it's great that all allies are spending more on their militaries aiming toward this 2 percent target that was such a focus of president trump he said it's time to take a more holistic look at burden sharing in nato this is something that germany has been asking for for years because while it doesn't spend as much as nato would like

on its military as a. component of g.d.p. it does provide a lot of other security for nato provides a lot of other resources and it says hey could you look at the whole picture this is something that secretary blinken specifically mentioned in the speech and i think that was aimed directly at berlin paris elsewhere porting from brussels thank you very much. now it's been a year since the tokyo olympics were delayed by the pandemic the torch relay is finally set to restart the olympic flame began his journey at the beginning of last march at mount olympus in greece well the torch arrived in japan just a week later a fast track to light since then and will now travel through the host nations starting near the nuclear disaster site if that she's not around 10000 runners will be involved the games are set to begin. you're watching every news here's a reminder of our top story this hour german chancellor angela merkel has

unexpectedly canceled plans for aig stricter lockdown over mr merkel held a crisis meeting with state leaders following criticism over the plans for a 5 day shutdown she now says the plans were not practical. to. stick around stephen bradley is up next with your business headlines of my last moment at the top of the half. the amount of cost is increasing every year many income working on. holiday destinations and drowning in toxic my.