this is v.w. news live from berlin the owner of a huge cargo ship blocking the suez canal says the aim is to free the vessel by saturday but experts warn it could take days or even weeks and hundreds of other vessels are stuck on either side waiting to pass through the track. also coming up to ethiopia as prime minister says eritrea will withdraw its troops from 2 grotty people displaced by fighting in the region have accused eritrean forces are brutal attacks on refugee camps. plus need russia's chick talk activists their support for

opposition politician alexina volley has not gone unnoticed as the kremlin tightens its grip on social media. i'm sumi so misconducts good to have you with us japanese media reporting that the owner of a huge container ship that's blocking egypt's suez canal aims to have it freed by saturday experts are however warning that it could take weeks more than 150 ships are waiting to get into what is one of the world's most important shipping routes with hundreds more headed there now a prolonged suspension of traffic in the suez will almost certainly impact global trade which has already been hit hard by the pandemic now the suez canal is a critical choke point for supply chains as a connect asia and europe and around 30 percent of the world's shipping container volume transits through this can now daily. dredging teams work through the night

to try to clear the canal bed around the $200000.00 ton ship and no wonder the stranded ever given is holding up around $10000000000.00 in trade every day it is stuck diggers tugboat dredges and a crack team of dutchman no one knows the special forces of salvage operations have been drafted in to help it's thought containers may have to be offloaded to lighten the vessel the one mistake could spell disaster. the barrier is basically in asia the sterns in in africa and the middle is in the middle of the canal and what you can do is take a lot of weight off the ends and put a lot of what they call a sagging stress on the vessel you conceivably crack the whole cause an oil spill but worse catastrophic lee fracture the vessel in half which would close the canal

for months if not years more than one $150.00 ships are caught in the traffic jam each passing day piles on the pressure for global trade route already struggling with the coronavirus pandemic a hiccup like this that affects. everyone with already scrambling to get back to normal and what have been quite strong demand traded and yeah and no one needs another delay on top of everything out front and the line just how important and how finely balanced the whole system is those involved have warned it could be weeks before the vessel is freed bad news for those stuck in the world's longest mada time tailback. let's get some analysis on the story now we can speak to lars yes and he's the c.e.o. of sea intelligence consulting which advises the shipping industry and he's joining us from copenhagen lars welcome put this into context for us how big of

a deal is this for the world's cargo companies. this is a very big deal it's a main artery everything that moves in containers between asia and europe goes through the suez canal and quite a portion of the cargo from asia to the u.s. east coast goes through the suez canal putting it in context in europe every day we receive $50000.00 complaints that have come through the suez canal that's daily. and we've seen what happened now you have ships stacked up on either side of the canal and they can't get anywhere so what can they do what are their alternatives at the moment. the alternative at the moment is to bite the bullet and save the long way around africa that is easier for the vessels that are not get caught in the queue the vessels that are just now departing north europe or asia for example some of those have already now divert it they bypassed to the mediterranean and are heading for south africa it's going to take them a week longer it's going to burn a lot more fuel but that's basically the only other viable option what about the

reason that this ship got stuck in the 1st place can gusts of wind blow such a big ship sideways because that's what the owner of the ship said happened. i have a hard time seeing that that should be the only reason if that was the only reason we should have seen this happen many times before it is a no a normal common occurrence that you have wind it's a normal common thing to move these ships through the suez canal could wind have played a part that is definitely possible but it is very likely that this has been the confluence of multiple different elements conspiring at the same time ok so the shipping industry has been very profitable in recent years and us ships have gotten bigger and bigger was this an accident waiting to happen which you say. no that's not what i would say you have had vessels of this size go through the canal for many years not just contain a vessel but also say somehow this the canal is very well designed to actually handle this of this size as well so no i would not say that this is an accident

that was waiting to happen and lars how confident are you that this can be resolved sooner rather than later for every day that has passed now my confidence sinks if this was an easy thing to pull off we should basically have been there by now so for every day that passes fortunately i'm also getting more pessimistic that this will get resolved quickly lars ansun from c intelligence consulting thank you so much. let's get a round up now of some other headlines from around the world north korea has confirmed reports that test fired a new type of guided missile according to state media the pair of weapons accurately hit a target 600 kilometers away its 1st major provocation since u.s. president joe biden took office new zealand's catholic church has formally apologized to survivors of abuse within the church cardinal john do made the apology at the while commission into abuse and care set up in 2018 by prime

minister just into ardern to confront what she called a dark chapter in the country's history. only 4000 venezuelans have fled across the border to colombia after clashes between the venezuelan military and a colombian armed group broke out over the weekend local officials say that in the shelters where the displaced people have taken refuge a humanitarian crisis is developing. in russia the kremlin has been tightening its grip on social media platforms this month the country's media watchdog threatened to block sites like twitter if they fail to remove banned content and now the video sharing platform to talk is on the kremlin's radar as well during opposition protests in support of alexina volley the site was flooded with political content and as did correspondent emily share when reports that mean scrutiny for the sites 20000000 russian users. time could be

ticking for these kicked bloggers the unlikely new enemy for the kremlin. the social network is mostly about entertainment with videos of pranks and downs. but this month at a meeting with the police russian president vladimir putin made it clear he wants the authorities to be watching anyway. unfortunately we all know what the internet is and how it is used to promote unacceptable content it's critical for you to unite with other government agencies in order to monitor the web and be more proactive in identifying people who are dragging minors into committing illegal actions but the fact that minors are being dragged into illegal on authorized street protests as well is of course a violation of the law. to talk in particular has been on the authorities radar since the return of opposition politician need to russia his arrest in january caused

a wave of opposition protests across the country and a sudden explosion of politics on tick tock. teenagers filmed themselves at schools replacing portraits of putin with portraits of not buying me. another ticket talk trend videos of teens getting ready to protest and telling their parents they might get arrested. russia's media watchdog responded by. calling on tick talk to block videos calling for unauthorized protests and last week threatened to block social networks completely if they don't comply with russian laws. but these moscow tip talkers want to keep dancing to their own tune without thinking about politics every week the bloggers meet at this so-called to talk house with their producer to consult about their accounts and collaborate with each other to stay on trend to talkers like that i need of a film 2 to 3 videos a day the 17 year old thinks the videos about politics were just

a short lived trend. there's too much politics on tech talk i went on there during the protests and there was none of the usual content in my feed it was all about politics not viney and putin who's for whom freaked me out i stayed off to talk for a few days. cygnus blog. also says she doesn't want to talk to become a political platform. talk is a social media platform for self-expression there's so much negative stuff around us already on state television and so on if that stuff is on tick talk as well then we'll just drown in all these problems something has to stay neutral. but being neutral may soon no longer be possible according to my. he's one of the owners of the p.r. agency promoting these bloggers. most bloggers

are not for point and are against him they're just doing their thing but when they're told they're freaks when they're stigmatized these bloggers start feeling they're outsiders in this country and that's what makes them feel angry at the government. for now these 2 talkers are steering clear of politics but even they know that the kremlin will be watching closely if they ever get out of step. you're watching the news still become a family in berlin share their pandemic struggles after months of spending almost every day after. death in a moment but 1st the e.u. is struggling with a 3rd wave of corona virus infections sweeping across its member states widespread vaccinations are seen as the way out of the pandemic but only about 10 percent of people in the e.u. have had at least one shot and at a virtual summit leaders struggle to overcome their differences on how to speed

things up. as wrestled over how to solve their vaccination crisis. countries are failing to distribute the job amid a shortage of doses and spikes in new cases across the continent. we agreed that we have a strong interest in working together to keep global supply chains functioning and to prepare already for the next challenge is to come in this pandemic in an area of pandemics the united states is an important and valued partner to the european union the marathon video conference was joined briefly by u.s. president joe biden in a bid to improve transatlantic relations biden's presence was welcomed america's nationalist approach to its vaccine will it was not.

we as the european union it are the parts of the world that is not only supplying itself but also exporting to others. that's in contrast to the united states and the united kingdom and the. leaders clashed over export controls frustrations are high because vaccine doses produced in the do not always stay here some countries are pushing for stricter rules on exports from the block. you know. we need to stop being naive i said the x. birth control mechanisms put in place by the european commission we must block all exports for as long as some drug companies don't respect their commitments with europeans. the only unanimous decision was that production facilities in the e.u. need to be ramped up in order to contain the covert $1000.00 crisis. ok now to some

other developments in the pandemic india has recorded its highest number of covert 1000 infections in 5 months there have been over 59000 cases in the last 24 hours argentina is stopping incoming flights from brazil mexico and she lay after rising covered $1000.00 cases were reported in those 3 countries the new instructions come into force on saturday and romanian authorities have announced that easter celebrations will go ahead despite a surge in covert 19 infections prime minister florian kids who said worshippers would be allowed to attend religious services while were suspecting health and safety rules. now passengers on flights to germany will likely have to produce a negative covert 1000 test before being allowed to board as the country struggles to contain a 3rd wave of the virus vaccination rollout has been sluggish in germany with one shot the astra zeneca recently suspended briefly over safety concerns germany is also set to list france as a high risk zone for covert 900 s.

case numbers there spiral. well german health minister ian spawn and public health officials have been speaking about the latest pandemic a pandemic developments here in germany let's bring in our chief political correspondent melinda craving for more details hi melinda the head of the infectious diseases institute here has said that not only is germany in a 3rd wave but this could be worse than the last 2 that is troubling tell us more about what was said that's right both he and the health minister warned in no uncertain terms that we are already in the midst of a 3rd wave that cannot be halted but at best tempered that said that because of the new variant of the virus which is both more infectious and more dangerous we are seeing rising numbers of cases and rising severe e.-d.

of cases in basically all age groups in the population including people of working age and also. children and young people's so they both said that this has very serious implications for the german health system and they called on all germans to essentially take every precaution at their disposal saying if you are offered a vaccine please do get vaccinated where your mask limit contact to other people and get tested more frequently and as you mentioned there is also now a new rule in place that will require all travelers to germany to get tested let's hear a little bit more from the health minister. at least not the middle kind i'm under no illusions this entry regulation alone is not the game changer for the easter period this situation is too serious for that and the infection rate in germany is too strong the numbers are rising too fast at the moment and the virus variants

make the situation especially dangerous. if it continues this way and checked we run the risk of our health care system reaching its breaking point during the course of april. so serious words there indeed from on and also from the head of the german center for disease control and yet this week we saw the government pull back from a decision that had taken at the beginning of the week to essentially extend a harder lock down over easter and the chancellor essentially giving responsibility back to the federal states and cities saying that it was up to them to develop more innovative testing strategies if they want to open up more so a somewhat chaotic and for many people confusing picture in terms of how to fight this new 3rd wave despite that somewhat chaotic picture as you said we saw the

chancellor also calling on germans to look ahead with optimism how much optimism do you think is left in germany right now. not a lot of people really are very confused and if we look at public polls that have been taken in the last few days they show that an ever smaller share of the population is saying that the measures currently in place are just about right around 31 percent think the measures are just about right 37 percent would like to see them tightened they would like to see stricter measures put into place and we're also seeing a slight uptick in the number of people who reject the current set of rules we're also seeing declining trust in the government so in fact this is very much taking a toll on people's confidence in the situation our chief political correspondent reporting for us there thank you very much.

now at the start of the pandemic germany was held up as a role model for acting swiftly to contain the virus a year later things couldn't look more different people are frustrated by a slow vaccine rollout political wrangling over coronavirus regulations and a seemingly never ending lockdown we found out how one family in berlin is coping. with the bergdorf family in berlin a year after the coronavirus pandemic began everyone is at home everyone is busy at their computer well almost everyone. leandra was struggling with his math homework the 14 year old spends up to 9 hours a day at his laptop 1st for his lessons then for homework sometimes lander has to force himself to keep up with his tasks. and look at how is what i heard my mother kind of like you just get sad and think you don't have any energy. you almost get a little depressed that's a heavy duty word depressed but it's true. just don't feel like doing anything

anymore and. his mother paula also spends her days homeschooling she's a teacher and looks forward to the day when she can finally teach inside the school again 1000 back summations could make that happen. yes then i got a message from my school yesterday that invitations for all teachers to get vaccinations are in the mail. that's very good news. and now i know i will have a vaccination appointment. that i mean germany's vaccination rollout is taking a long time so far only 10 percent of the population has been vaccinated the 1st to get the job were people over 80 and staff in hospitals and nursing homes paula bergdorf isn't allowed to just go stand in line at the vaccination center without an invitation right now she's looking forward to having rapid testing introduced at

her workplace self tests that people take at home will make the school a little safer but in germany these are still not available everywhere paula worries about losing connection to her students. when his comics you don't hear anything from them not a no don't feel like it or yes just silence. and then of course you wonder where are they wealthy. the father of the family mark has set up his home office in their bedroom he'd rather work you than take the bus and subway to work during a pandemic he considers that too risky in a europe wide comparison germany only comes in as average when it comes to working at home instead of remaining at the workplace most time 40 percent of german employees work from home mark is finding it quite a challenge to work in this environment is god's will for me it's hard for me to combine my working world and the atmosphere that normally surrounds me with working

at home with my child my dog my wife it's quite challenging at times months wonder sport is exotic. marc is trying to imagine what the future will be like after the pandemic is over he's in charge of a startup that's developing ideas for a new kind of tourism after coke at 19 all in all the bergdorf are very grateful that they've made it through the pandemic healthy so far. ethiopian prime minister abi ahmed says eritrea has agreed to withdraw its troops from the ethiopian region of to grab ahmed says ethiopia's military will take over the guarding a border areas amnesty international is accused eritrean troops of committing atrocities in the region thousands of people have been killed since fighting began last november between ethiopian government troops and the region's former ruling party the 2 griped people's liberation front which is also an enemy of eritrea.

we can get more on the story now with journalist sam olga tacho he joins us from addis ababa. can you tell us more about what he has announced here. prime minister. was just. the highlight being. which the government has been denying for a while indeed been involved in the conflict in his own description he said it was before picked their own interest again in what they would be an attack by the foreigners and he has said useful to the president of. the 4th indicating that there are 3 of us will be moving away from the field and border your council just will be taking over and it's going to be thinking about media in the us and in the work and then you can you tell us more about the timing of this why he waited until this week to admit that eritrean troops were involved.

i mean we just don't know. or need or can from parliament he hasn't been charged by the media. wasn't accessible to the media. from the beginning of the conflict until a few weeks ago so we're here to speculate why you might have or the government might have been denying that it was being denied by many on behalf of the all over the world who was present at the field so it's just an open debate. going on within the field and far from ethiopia. and samuel can you tell us what this means for the conflict in the region. there has been an accusation that has been echoed by the un agencies and the casing that there has been sexual abuse including rape that has been going on according to the prime minister. might have been the

children soldiers go there korean soldiers that have been involved but there has been a call quite investigation to be done not just by the feel that human rights commission by the u.n. agencies who are the we get the facts on the ground and look for some kind of justice because sexual abuse has been happening in the great region for a longer time we can openly confirmed that from the government side and from those from the opposition side and that's a great response and how is the country reacting to this news the submission that the that obvious made. i think many people are shocked we've been hearing this conflict. days ago there were allegations we couldn't confirm but now we really know that. have been happening you know you just have to read what the reuters reports in the last 24 hours saying there has been. you

know family members that have been forced rape their own family members so it's just we're just as shocked as human beings we are professional media personnel within ethiopia who have to leave it there journalists samuel could touch oh thank you thank you. you're watching d.w. news let's get a recap of our top story experts say it could take weeks to free a container ship blocking egypt's suez canal over 150 other vessels are waiting to pass through the shipping light. and ethiopian prime minister abu ahmed says eritrea will withdraw its troops from the ethiopian region of geographic he says if you have his military will take over guarding our border area us. coming up next a new customs union between the e.u. and turkey is supposed to expand trade but are there strings attached monica jones

has more of that with g.w. business takes you.

to the point of strong opinions clear positions international perspective such as. labeling that image putting a killer accusing china of genocide against the regular people the biden administration confronts russia and china become the us when that's our topic on to the point. to the point that. the team 60 mr von d. w.

up good use crime fighters are back africa's most successful in radio drama series continues this season for stories focus on hate speech color of prevention consisting of chocolate production. all of us owes 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 a 1000 years ago europe witnesses a huge construction boom. christianity firmly established itself. both religious and secular leaders want to display their power . to trace the games. and create the tallest biggest and the most beautiful structures. stonemasons builders

architects compete with each other. this is how massive churches are created. contest or because it. starts. on t.w. . good. it's the good old carrot and stick approach the leaders say they're ready to defend trade ties with turkey but only if the corrupt place the ball. coming up $10000000000.00 that's how much is lost in trade every day because of a mega tanker stuck in the suez canal and it could take weeks to set it free. and crisis what crisis many startups thrive during lockdown thanks to clever business ideas and generous investors.