50 ships are caught in the traffic jam each passing day piles on the pressure for global trade routes already struggling with the coronavirus pandemic a hick up like. everyone with a ready scrambling for 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 and. just how important and how 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. for more on this extraordinary story i'm now joined by captain john conrad he's a licensed captain of the world's larger ships an author and founder of the shipping website captain dot com mr conrad welcome to you from the captain's perspective tell me how could it come to this. right piece ships have

gone an incredibly a large over just the last 10 years so in the last 10 years they've gone from about 10000 container ships to 20000 container ships but as the size has increased the international maritime organization the u.n. on that does maritime in one day and they have not increased the crew size and they have not put new requirements for technology on the ship so you have significantly bigger ships and the same size crew the same technology really the same tug boats and equipments and navigating the ships and it's not just the length i mean this ship is about 60 meters longer than the biggest aircraft carriers in the world but it's also the weight with a doubling of the number of containers on board. these ships weigh 2 to 300 percent more than the ships a 10 years ago and again we're using 1020 year old technology aboard can't gusts of

wind really blows such a massive ship sideways as the owner of the ship says. absolutely as you stack these containers up higher than you know you're a big steel wall where all the wind pushes against these containers an incredible rate the average speed of transit through the can now is 8 knots the ship was going 30 knots and we believe it was going faster to try to provide the momentum in inertia to overcome those gusts of wind but as you know driving fast down a narrow passageway on the autobahn or during construction the faster you go the more careful you have to be especially when that wind comes in can easily push a ship like this or some of the new cruise ships they give those all those cabins that are stacked storeys high that's another ship that can be used and we only have

about 30 seconds i want to get this last question in which is the race to remove the blockage is proving extremely challenging how long do you think it will take to dislodge the ever given well there's a there's a lot of hope that next week in the higher high tide they can get some fuel out and they can do what they're calling a back twist where they can corkscrew it out backwards after digging and dredging both ends if that doesn't work they have to bring in fuel barges take out the fuel and then somewhere in the world they have to find gigantic cranes on barges tall enough to reach those containers and start removing the weight so they can float it up higher but again as dr mark adriano said there is a risk of whole track these ship was not designed and every time the tide comes in and out it's like bending a piece of metal it's doing micro cracks in the hall and you do that enough time and they could crack and that would take weeks at least if i have to stop if their

captain john conrad really appreciate your time thank you very much thank you. around up now of other stories making news around the world at least 32 people have been killed and dozens injured after 2 passenger trains collided in southern egypt the crash in the province of so hard cause 3 carriages to flip over it's the latest in a series of deadly train wrecks in egypt many of which have been blamed on poor maintenance . officials in bangladesh say at least 4 people have been shot dead during clashes between police and demonstrators many are protesting a visit to bangladesh by indian prime minister narendra modi to celebrate the country's 50th anniversary of independence critics in bangladesh accuse modi of stoking anti muslim sentiment in india. military has warned that protesters are at risk of being shot in the head activists against the coup have called for

a huge show of defiance on the country's armed forces day on saturday at least 320 people have been killed since the military took power on february 1st. and british prime minister boris johnson has condemned china after it sanctioned several british politicians and organizations the measures came in response to criticism by london of china's treatment of its weaker muslim minority beijing said sanctions imposed by the u.k. e.u. us in canada were based on quote lies and deceit information. german health officials are warning that the 3rd wave of covert 19 currently gripping the country could prove deadlier than the previous 2 they're urging the public to limit social contact over the easter holiday to slow the spread of the virus or than 21000 new cases were reported on friday the head of germany's disease control center says the highly contagious u.k.

variant is now the dominant strain of the virus in the country. we are facing some very difficult weeks we are at the beginning of this 3rd wave and it's triggered by the variant b. $17.00 which we know is even more contagious an even more dangerous and therefore it's even more difficult to contain. that a very clear signals that this wave could be worse than the 1st 2 waves our chief political correspondent melinda crane is following this story for us melinda greetings why such a strong message from the head of germany's disease control center now. because the situation is indeed very serious here as the health minister put it this is like the last stage in a very long marathon people are tired and yet this stage could be by far the most painful so both he and the head of the center for disease control were

encouraging germans to do everything in their power to bend the curve with the head of the center for disease control warning that otherwise we could see the number of new daily infections rise as high as 100000 cases per day just to put that in perspective we currently have about 22000 new cases a day and at its very highest point the 2nd wave was producing around a little over 30000 cases a day in december so very grave implications especially for the country's health system and therefore this appeal by both speakers today to absolutely take every precaution possible to flatten the curve a never ending long night here melinda are we seeing so many new cases because testing is now free and readily available or of people more seriously ill

this is definitely not simply a statistical phenomenon mr beeler the head of the center for disease control said that in fact they are seeing increasingly serious cases of the new variant in populations that worth formerly thought not to be all that vulnerable so working age people young people children and again that has very serious implications for intensive care units across the country yesterday chancellor merkel called upon germans to be more optimistic how realistic is that. it's difficult to the fact is there's been so much back and forth on how to deal with this pandemic with state federal state and federal government authorities putting into place one plan then seeming to revise it at the beginning of the week this week they were talking about a hard extended lockdown over easter that has now been rescinded and it's unclear

exactly what is supposed to be put in its place and if you look at the surveys people are frustrated both with the politicians we're seeing poll numbers fall for chancellor merkel's christian democratic party and if they are also frustrated by the inconsistency on the corona restrictions interesting lee enough a declining share see the current restrictions as just about right appropriate but it's not like they all want them to be lifted in fact 36 percent of those answering such surveys say they'd like to see stricter rules put into place so there's definitely confusion fatigue and frustration here. chief political correspondent melinda crane melinda as always many many things that grim outlook for germany comes as pressure grows on the european commission to step up the distribution of vaccines after virtual summit on thursday evening

leaders announced they'd be implementing stricter controls on vaccines leaving the block there's been growing acrimony between the u.k. and the e.u. over vaccine supplies the u.k. reports were than 40 percent of its population has had a 1st jab that's compared with just 10 percent here in the e.u. . here's a look at some of the other developments in the pandemic. the european medicines agency has given approval to 3 new vaccine manufacturing plants the sites in germany the netherlands and switzerland will boost european production of the biotech pfizer astra zeneca and modern or vaccines kenya has put its capital nairobi and nearby counties into partial lockdown amid a 3rd wave of infections that has seen case numbers rise to their highest levels yet and an institute in the brazilian city of self says it's developed its own vaccine that is quote 100 percent brazilian expects to start using the vaccine in

july. well whether we remember them or not we all spend part of owsley ping hours dreaming now scientists in brazil think octopus's due to researchers observed an octopus sweeping the bottom of its changed color while its muscles twitched and . this led the observers to conclude that octopuses may go through a state similar to the rapid eye movement rem phase of sleep which was thought to be unique to mammals and birds now if octopus is to dream it just leaves the question what are they dreaming about. watching the news here's a reminder of our top story at this hour operators have failed in their latest bid to refloat the massive cargo ship stuck in the suez canal experts say dislodging the ship could take weeks blockages forcing many vessels through. around africa.

up next it's 19 special program today's topic the psychological toll the pandemic is taking on. more news as always at the top of the hour i'm michael stay with. the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing. the latest research say. information and contacts. on. what's going on here. house of your own printer. computer games that.

my dog needs electricity. takes place. delivers facts and shows what the future holds. for living in the digital world shift. on d. w. . the coated crisis has taken a psychological toll on all of us but teens are especially hard hit instead of going to class and hanging out with friends teenagers have been banished to a life of screens so the chewed and uncertainty. school closures and social distancing have cut them off from their support networks the risk of developing anxiety and depression is higher. psychologists say the needs of teens are often

overseen when it comes to covert restrictions. i mean physical and thanks for joining us the struggle continues covert hasn't gone away it's one way valve after the next and lockdowns become part of life for many of us but that doesn't make it any easier teen mental health services are overwhelmed in countries like belgium. rosebush had reports. long months of locked up and have been a vattel for many young people. teenagers in acute mental distress come to them in hospital for psychiatric care often after traumatic events or suicide attempts among the residents is this 17 year old we're calling alexandra covert it was an extra kind of it was the one thing. to have a. high risk. kind of

isolated from my family. of stable most of. my parents alexandra is not alone in struggling to cope with covert but she's one of those fortunate enough to access this hospital's help director sophie marceau says new admission requests for troubled teens have skyrocketed since january. mass thinks that's due to exhaustion exam stress and dashed hopes for a return to normality. although makeshift rooms were added there are no places left and no even the waiting list is closed. can you choose between a societal 15 year old and suicidal 16 year old it's impossible with a doctor must believes authorities could save lives by prioritising teens as society reopens the best and prove we need to create spaces for play for joy and

for conversation and so all young people can once again be part of the social fabric of life something so crucial for teenagers. if not there's a real risk their mental health will keep deteriorating and i'm truly afraid to say it rates increase what it feels like we're at the edge of for the tsunami and actually need to build flood defenses. as the young people living here or build up their emotional defenses to reenter the outside world alexandra hopes sharing her story will give strength to other teens who are suffering. we're all struggling with this situation. the fact that we're all still here and we're all still fighting against is something very positive and something that will make him grow and will be able to look after and say wow i've ones through these tough times i made. her priority is getting better as soon as she

can which could open the door for another young person who needs help. because it's a really is an associate professor in psychology of the car alinsky institute and. one year into this pandemic you are afraid the number of teens with mental health problems will keep rising. well yes i am and our study was conducted over 20 in me last year and already then we could see quite severe effects on both children and their parents and i think it's important to notice that although we examine the effects of homeschooling i think that this was certainly not limited to just effects on the academics but also on mental health issues so how has harmed schooling affect the mental health of children and parents based on your studies. our study included about 7000 ratings from parents on the effects of that on their own life and on their

children's and data was collected in 7 different european countries and about 25 to 35 percent of the parents reported negative impacts see the negative effects like i would say on their child's life and as many as 35 to 55 of the parents supported negative effect on themselves. and with regard to their effects on the children i think that a lot of. children had really large problems carrying out home schooling they were really large demands on them and doing a lot of studies and they at that increased their you know mental health problems and parents also reported a lot of worrying and a lot of stress because they had to carry out most of the home schooling where the children yeah well apart from the extra what the extra the added stress what about positives for new studies i know i had a bit of a hard time at school when of mind skipping the buses and long walk to school as

well. well that is true and actually that the transportation issue he says is something that a lot of parents are actually talking about that it saves time that they don't have to travel to school especially for the older children which they might have a longer time to get to school and back and that time can of course we set spent on for example exercise and family time so a lot of the people or not a lot but some of the other families are reporting you know more family time they do things together and they have lunch together but that's of course dependent on if the parents are also at home working where as we do have also a sub study on or a subgroup of children with mental health problems who are actually bullied in school and don't have a good social relationships with their peers and they are of course also happy to be at home so some of those kinds of positive effects can also be seen but i

should be careful and say that this is really a subgroup of people reporting the positive effects you said you talked to thousands of families what were the most significant differences between countries . well i think the largest differences between countries were actually in how homeschooling was carried out. and that of course also had effects on the negative and positive effects so in general we saw that a lot of the home schooling was carried out studies or in contact with the parent and very little homeschooling was carried out as online teaching but this really vary between countries and in the u.k. and germany for example about 5 percent of the time was spent online teaching whereas the corresponding numbers were about 25 to 30 percent in sweden and italy so this was really had a huge effect of course on that these families. this also resulted in that large

difference with differences with regard to how much schooling that the children actually did in u.k. for example quite a lot of the children only got about one or 2 hours of schooling each day and this was of course you know huge difference compared to the children in for example sweden they had a lot of online teaching so briefly what's the best way to educate kids in a pandemic. well i think that we do need to do more online teaching especially i mean even for younger children i think it's doable we have seen that some schools have been managing on like teaching for for young children as well and i think it's it's really not possible for parents to do to take such a large responsibility in the homeschooling if we should have funded well functioning system. i also think it's important to take into account the new

technologies that we have that we can use to make this school teaching more adaptable and actually be adapted to the needs of the individual students but this of course requires that we have you know each student needs to have their own computer they need to have a good internet connection and they need to have a quite place to sit and do their home schooling and this is of course not it's a reality for a lot of children in europe today not always a given these are terrelle thank you very much for being on the show today thank you. and for the last time this week kid is derek williams with another about fuel questions. have we seen any impact on babies born from covert positive mothers. i was really surprised just how complex this answer turned out to be and just how many issues are involved the 1st is the

breakdown of access in many places during the pandemic to 2 routine prenatal care for expecting mothers now that's definitely having a big impact on child health though the one that's hard to quantify the good news the experts say is that babies born to mothers infected with sars code to actually very rarely get severely ill themselves and studies show that in general the virus appears not to cross the placenta however they also show that pregnant women who catch covert 19 are at more risk of developing severe forms of the disease and and this is key that an infection during pregnancy likely contributes to a higher risk of giving birth pre-term one estimate says 1000 in the mother mix pre-term delivery is 3 times more likely and that's something that

unquestionably has a negative impact on newborns and previous face a whole range of unique medical and development issues many of which can be mitigated by a simple yet vital measure which is skin to skin contact with parents that's also known as as kangaroo mother care the problem is because of the pandemic babies are being separated from their infected mothers at alarming rates. as of late to protect the child's health but according to the w.h.o. that's doing actually a lot more damage than good in a report published last week it said the practice was putting newborn lives at risk and in a big way and encouraged hospitals to allow mothers and babies to share rooms even if the mother has an active covert 1000 infection because although it seems

counter-intuitive kangaroo mother care will generally help the infant much more than a coping $1000.00 infection would hurt it. thank you derek thank you for watching and stay safe as he has been set up by.

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