you're watching the news live from berlin more news coming up for you at the top of the hour next as our special edition on the coronavirus crisis you always get the latest from our website e.w. dot com or follow us on twitter and instagram as you have your news. thanks for watching. the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and contacts the coronavirus update nineteen's. on t w. 2 children to come to it's. one giant problem and may.

be changing a few times. how will climate change affect us and our children. w dot com slash water. typically starts with the snakes. spring in europe always sponsor's stream of sniffly noses and. this season those scientists have warning of a phenomenon known as the pollen effect they've linked high pollen levels with a rising co that the researchers say many factors can affect infection rates but let's take a closer look at allergies and the coronavirus. well that.

pictures enough to get me sneezing i always yearn for spring after the long cold german winter but i don't look forward to all the allergies especially considering all the headlines going around about pollen and covert co exposure to airborne pollen and had says your susceptibility to breast or treat viral infections a study shows that could also be true for. one of the authors about that in a moment firsts this report spring is in the air for many that means time to enjoy the outdoors but for people like benediction it's spring means allergies with starts turning and i have to make happen not to touch my eyes otherwise they start to watch. early blossoms can play havoc with the news a nice hazel not in all the pollen are problematic for many benedicts main issue is with grasp on but during the pandemic he's often asking himself whether his symptoms are to do with his allergy opossum coronavirus instead.

of get caught yet and i think everyone who experiences such symptoms probably ask themselves the same question you become a kind of happy hypochondriac when my throat start stretching right through the sleep typically after i take an analogy tablet i start to worry whether this might not coronavirus and static. stuff for life time for a bit of research indeed the symptoms of many allergies are pretty similar to those of coated 1000 sore throat coughing sneezing tightness benedick booked an appointment with an allergy specialist to ask which symptoms point to a coronavirus infection. is that relatively common as a lot of smiled i think that's something you really experience without address and certainly not to the extent that you completely lose your sense of smell but it's so that would be a clear indicator that you may have a corona virus infection over the. it's you guys would suggest it's not coronavirus or as a favor what else could take the obvious. exhaustion dry cough that really persists

on all these would suggest something like a cold $1000.00 and faction list but experienced allergy sufferers know at what time of the year they tend to get sometimes. benediction it is now confident he doesn't need to be tested for corona virus but what about his allergy symptoms because of the pandemic the doctor recommends medicating early so that sneezing is kept to a minimum. no sprays for example can help with that this medicine course and handle the cortizone god is orders and shouldn't be injected or taken in a tablet form to treat allergies except in an absolute emergency because then it can really have side effects. by the time but the thing about quotas and sprays but is that the needles and then only has an effect in the nasal area of battle there are no adverse effects on the rest of the body needs to give us that need. to stop us up

a spring free of sneezes and itchy eyes and others can rest assured it's now najee and not covered so your title is director of the institute of environmental medicine and met munich and was involved in a study into exactly this topic what did you find exactly what do pollen allergies have in common with covert. then in this study we bring in new and previously unnoticed aspect into the equation of pandemic fueling it's not just about arrows olds that key drivers of a pandemic but it's rather the complexity of the arizona so we show in a large study that increased to infections are observed when up on paula and this is the result of a large study with 130 pony touring stations in 31 convert over 5 continents and really the finding is in the last spring there was

a coincidence and a correlation of the mask of to infection rates rising and pom pom concentrations and of note the lowest infection rates were observed at sites with a low concentration during the study period. so the finding behind this is that in a weakened the antiviral defense of kozel surfaces like nose and. you can imagine that it's like a pap right it shielded that pollen induce so normally we have a shield against viruses and and paul. making this leaky and this is why during points season we are more susceptible viral infection spring is already here. this is

very important to know so it's not only about pollen allergy it's beyond pollen allergies so this is an unspecific effect this has nothing to do with allergies this is something we are observing in every individual there's been criticism of this study despite it being so broad and global how great a risk is pollen for people with allergies or without allergies. so the criticism that has been there is that people are not citing that we observed a common effect of several environment defectus pollen you miti and temperature and all together was important for a variability off fictional rates and important is the following it's about the personal risks that cannot be. concluded from the study so i cannot say that

mr miller has this and that probability to get an infection due to pong so this is something we have now to investigate in further studies we know that pollen impacting on the macos are immunity and this is clear but concerning the personal risks there's nothing to to say from this study what would you say then are the actual consequences of your study. so inclusion and twats of the one hump approach the variable missing from the pen demick equation is to to really look for the whole environment impacting on in fiction right and this is why we suggest that we should really bring these environmental affect us in moderation in also predicts what a 2nd ing in the future and we need really dedicated large state skated by oh my bio monitoring studies on correct to rice patients in order to understand the

environmental impact on they spend demick you get that support because i'm going to be sneezing and getting itchy eyes for some time cloudy or title director of the institute of environmental medicine in munich thank you very much for joining us today i thank you. for today's viewer question on the corner virus it's over to alice science correspondent derrick williams. i have asked mom can i get a cool 1000 vaccine. the centers for disease control still considers as as one of the conditions that might increase the risk of severe outcomes if you come down with coke at 19 but data continues to accumulate that at least for people who have moderate forms that the disease. doesn't pose as big of a risk factor as other chronic conditions like for example diabetes when you start

looking into this topic the recommendation you read over and over again is that no matter what happens if you have asthma it's important to keep it under control by following your action plan since an asthma attack that forces you to go to an emergency room puts you at more danger of exposure to sars coby to the answer to the question of whether you should get it coated 19 back saying is is a resounding yes national asthma associations recommend people who have the auto immune condition get shots as soon as they have the opportunity in trials coated vaccines were given to subjects of many different ages among them people with chronic conditions like asthma and the hundreds of millions of shots given worldwide since have not given rise to any specific back seem related

cause for alarm for people who live with it i did find a recommendation from the british lung foundation saying that although the vaccine is not known to interact with medications if you take monoclonal antibodies for your asthma. then then you should talk to your doctor about how to time when you get your vaccines so take that into consideration but in general all of the experts that i read are saying that you should get the shot as soon as you can. through some of the other coronavirus related stories making news astra zeneca says it's coronavirus vaccine is strongly effective following its disputed u.s. study after recalculating the data from that study instead of 79 percent efficacy the follow from concluded that the vaccine is 76 percent effective in preventing

symptomatic of it and the less danish authorities have extended this the suspension of the vaccine pending further studies in correlation with blood clots. the u.s. senate has confirmed rachel levine as the 1st transgender person to hold a senior government position in the united states the president's pick as assistant health secretary levine led pennsylvania's response to the corona virus outbreak she will oversee health and human services. the tokyo lympics torch relay is under way under strict conditions to stop the spread of the coronavirus spectators were bought from the departure ceremony because of ongoing fears about the virus which forced the 2020 games to be postponed. it touches on a 121 day relay across japan before lighting the other big cauldron on july 23rd. and a new record for banksy piece game changes sofa $19400000.00 euros at christie's in

london with the proceeds going to britain's national health service it pays tribute to frontline health workers in the pandemic praising nurses as the real superheroes elusive street artist had given the peace to university hospital inside south hampton with a note saying thanks for all you're doing. and thank you for watching see you again soon. appearance was the essence. of germany's reputation in the global classroom always tom dish on. it as a reality check for the home for some time to economic value. in environmental sustainability i'm sorry should just. listen to this rain wouldn't go a man. made in germany. next w. . to the point. the pinions clear position of international

perspectives. labeling vladimir putin a killer accusing china of genocide against the weak or people the biden administration confronts russia and china become the us when that's our topic on to the point. to point. out to 60 minutes of going to dollar you up. they've been robbed of their soul that's what a people experiences when their heritage is taken from them. countless cultural riches were brutally stolen from africa and carted off to europe by colonialists. each artifact has blood on it from the wounds that have yet to heal.

what should be done with the stone north from africa. this is being hotly debated on both continents. stolen soul starts people 13 song d w. the germans are known for the 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 night bit don't 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 and in some english magazines and newspapers it means energy transition and in this case it's the monumental shift from dirty 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. what's the 1st thing that comes to your mind when you think about germany let me guess it's probably 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. realigning our economy to ensure a 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 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 for climate. 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 at risk of. everyone things we agreed but actually we're 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. 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. s. . the last 20. there which you see here right right now is the transportation sector germany is a car country we are producing a lot of cars we have especially strong. and that car lobby 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 internal combustion engines completely francis said please 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. w. and really substantially. their manufacturing but the point is that. a lot faster. 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 cut 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 to produce 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 there is a new country. around 23rd in germany doesn't match that and when are the big emitters in the south and the developing world also made by around 2040 the very hard to make. one of the world's richest countries is not actually made in the scientifically. 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 3. why on earth is germany lagging behind on this front. we have had a lot of mining in the western part of germany since the 1950 and relates to have a strong connection of the coal miners to the society also to the culture it entity but also to the political lobbying framework and that resulted still that we did not manage should to phase out coal early on so let's quickly recap germany is dangerously addicted to cars and germany just can't shake its habit. cold. germany it's not that climate frankly as

a whole world think we have to do much more related to. around 2030. entry development and in the transport area we have to do it at transportation and in the end the product. much much much much cheaper. that it's also electric cars which we need. to do but hey we've got an image to lose. his 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 medal batteries it's clear. and then there 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. much of that will remain in your body 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 create even more plastic waste. chances are you'll use half of your plastic products once and then discard them. but the plastic will stick around you and your environment for the most part not just for your lifespan but for centuries. also which we 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 jinping announced to investors in davos switzerland at the world economic forum that the chinese were set on becoming the globe's green ambassadors. 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. all the world is. this massive and bad guy 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 norful china is trying to introduce its own standards to just

a doctor 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 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 pages line 100 cases every year 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 in 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 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. here the hopes were growing faster in china than anywhere else you

know currently accounts for 13 or 14 percent of 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 so. right now commercial matters the sometimes overshadowed by the pandemic. i just want to see how you're doing after 14 days in corentin. 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 stern 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. that also applies to its dealings with the european union

and its demands for greater fanous. 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. just said the marquis tax sense and competitive disadvantage is china stresses its right to protect its industries in order to catch up with the west is it going to change i think china has its 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. will see it. become much easier frankly.

nevertheless business is flourishing for companies such as e.b.m. hobbs to tomas newman baggett is being routed for his success in china with a new posting back to gemini 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 a leg like in the united states the germans invented the social welfare system chancellor or for bismarck set up the 1st welfare state in the 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 all that my name is who was our 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 i get a pension of $321.00 euro as a month and that's why. we work hard carrying stuff up 5 floors and through 3 or 4 courtyards per house tearing out over 3 tiling the new ones mixing grout i fitted the new ovens my back and my knees 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 absolutely so i

couldn't work my leg kept getting worse and they couldn't find me a job any more of the. year of course who you know we cooked a $120.00 meals a day in the course of the week we send out about 500 liters of stuart to various social service centers since it's. here come out safely and all the people who come here are disadvantaged. people with low monthly incomes. who are struggling to get by. on leave this one died so just like. in 20193200000 elderly people in germany were considered equal or in other words system on less than 60 percent of the country's average monthly income less than 781.

so giving her. so 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 don't see one word this is as 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 of float and ensure that they can get by each month. hoover's hour and his wife elaine go grocery shopping once a week. leave become isolated because i thought that's what we're

$0.99 of over you know let's get it. all from us. the very popular governor publicly slices allow me the $0.99 in fee of my pop 400 grams because it's really tasty and we can afford it and it's a better value than any other supermarket i think i'm not. going to. have some crackers. and how to treat it. we could use a living simply north of course i'm a pensioner that. you don't need much to be happy if the girls is the most important thing.

every tuesday the couple visit the food bank there are 45 of them in the german capital 150 people are here today. for fans 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 as their soft overlords or get. as a single home on with no one should go hungry because they're too ashamed to take support and poverty among the elderly is a problem there are people whose pensions aren't enough to live on. no. money. for more food but drove to a job out of the shame to admit i need a bit of help said the nice with the the. right 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 women are an 18 percent less than men. because they work in the sect is all professions that 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 has described does all those things all of this happened to me as well i started working the beach a pre-teen and since then i had this 1000 negotiations with farias 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 lawrence frankel is a bestselling author and coach shared by since women on talked advocate for themselves more effectively and here are her through a strategist for women on how to negotiate better by jennifer 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 'd 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 what you want coming out i think work for such a long time here and i think i do

a good job i like the projects i'm working on both times they take up a lot of time for both or for the principle. of. 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 seen as 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 invalid to 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 of late if ever now that doesn't give me the right to treat that person rudely or just respectfully 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 there are personal negotiations and these could be at the workplace with 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 i do let's go negotiate. nice to have you along i've made

see you against. the be. the book.

to the point from the beginning clear position some international perspective subject. to labeling vladimir putin a killer accusing china of genocide against the league or people the biden administration concerns russia and china but the us when that's our topic on to the point. to the point rybka the being 13th supposed to go up the bastard the big. to me

a luxury the concorde the. design icon in the technological wonder. the myth surrounding the supersonic aircraft the story of this tragic. concorde the fall of a legend. in 75 minutes on t w. w's crime fighters are back africa's most successful in radio drama series continues this season the stories focus on hate speech cholera prevention and sustainable charcoal production. all of a sow's are available online and of course you can share and discuss on africa's

facebook page and other social media platforms. crime fighters tune in now. more than 1000 years ago europe witnesses a huge construction boom. with christianity firmly established there is a greater demand for houses of worship. and both religious and secular leaders are eager to display their followers so churches become palaces. the race begins who can create the tallest biggest and most beautiful structure. stone masons builders and architects compete with each other. even to projects.

this is how massive churches with towers. pierce the clouds like skyscrapers are clear. lead contests of the cathedral. on t w. this is to give you news and these are our top stories. leaders have been holding a virtual summit to discuss how to ramp up the supply of vaccines export bans are on the table after drug maker astra zeneca failed to meet delivery targets but not all members are in favor just over 10 percent of each have had at least one vaccine shot. chile has announced a full lockdown across the capital city.