oh, i wasn't oh, maybe a fellow half way across the globe. australians of also facing christmas with their micron cases here, have sold to new records peeled by the variant residence, doing their best to keep safe. we had our mom, we've done the rapid end in testing, so we're big things we can and sang as much as we can say like this. and i think that's really, really. but with m a kron already racing santa claus around the world. many seem set for another unmarried christmas. we've asked some of the w correspondence around the world to tell us how the surgeon, army con cases is being dealt with. so here are the views from spain, poland, to france, and china. well, looking at the high figure of new infections, a lot of people would probably unfortunately spend christmas and satisfies a lesson or even with covet symptoms. whenever you look at you hear about

people being tested, positive, even in my own family, that i've been some positive cases. recently, the rest of the spaniards. so they will probably be quite confused because they got a lot of mixed messages from, from the government and from the authorities to there have been some restrictions, for example, concerning the number of people in the restaurants. but to be honest, this have been really soft in comparison to other countries. and even experts who give advice to the government said they are not being taken seriously by the government. and the government doesn't hear what they say. so to be honest they, there has not been much being made to make the situation better. and remember, there are a little bit more than the house of the people in poland fully vaccinated. so which means whole lot are not. and a lot have of course, very difficult christmas time. now here, the government, of course,

is under pressure to react to these rising numbers. next week, a present mccolan government of holding a special cabinet meeting, mainly to discuss tightening restrictions on unvaccinated people who are estimated to be at about 6000000 in funds this morning. the bridge health regulator said that was to do this, could be administered as early as 3 months after the full course of flexion and this week, france also opened up vaccinations to children, each between the 5 and 11. so i think francis strategy so far has really to be to bet on expanded booster and vaccine coverage along with restrictions it put in place and hope that this will be enough to tackle the new variant and make it more manageable. on the chromebook, a game changer, researchers and hong kong said that even 3 shots of the domestic chinese look scenes don't offer enough protection against army current. so of course they are developing new of, exceeds but so far the authorities here have not approved any foreign vaccines. for example, pfizer, madonna, that is not available to the population here. and yet it's basically really bad

news because for the foreseeable future, china will not open up its bought us and that could last, at least for another year, possibly even longer. let's take a look at some more developments in the pandemic will start in the united states and the u. s. will lift travel restrictions on 8 southern african countries that had imposed to try and stop the spread of only con, the travel band will end on new year's eve. britton's reported to record 122000 new infections on friday. a model of estimates suggest that one in 10 londoners had the virus by the start of this week. and the spiritual leader of the world's orthodox christians, bartholomew the 1st as tested, positive for coven. 19 the stumbled based of patriarchy said, the 181 year old showed mild symptoms. in bangladesh, they started on. people are dead and 70 injured. after an over crowded ferry caught fire when the passengers, including children,

are still missing. incident happened on a river near jello. carty 2250 kilometer south the capital darker. the ferry was close to its destination when the blade broke out. sleeping travellers woke to a fiery nightmare. the fairy turned into a floating inferno. terrified passengers leaped overboard to escape, some drowning in the frigid waters. most of the victims were trapped inside the burning boat plugged along, it happened because if she a negligence, the fairy with coveting curtains, all the heat from explosion was trapped inside. and he made everything burn. i was travelling with my father, my sister, and my 6 month old nephew, when the fire broke out, i gave the baby to a man. he was trying to say that, but now we can't find them. please let us know if you learn of their whereabouts.

how many hundreds of the injured were taken to hospitals. many passengers are still on accounted for. authorities said the fairy may have been carrying more than twice as many people as allowed. it took fire crews several hours to extinguish the blaze. by daylight bodies were retrieved from the charred hole to investigations or running into the cause of the accident. portal of the day, the engine had been running for about an hour while on fire. later the fire probably spread from the engine to the oil tank and it stopped with a loud bang of his spot where we are standing right now, begun this river. river fairies are a common mode of transporting angry dash and a frequent source of tragedy. this is the 4th deadly fairy accident. in less than a year. small a store is making headlines around the world at this hour,

2 more monuments commemorate pro democracy protestors killed in beijing's chairman square. in 1989 have been removed from 2 more hong kong universities. university authorities removed a 6 metre high statue, the goddess of democracy. at the symbol of the democracy movement and a wall sculpture. both cited legal reasons of korean president moon j in has pardoned his disgraced predecessor park. good. hey, for the sake of national harmony was park has been in prison since 2070 after receiving a 22 year sentence. the crimes, including taking bribes from some so and other conglomerates to be released from jail next week. a white, a former american police officer, came potter, has been found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the death of dante wright . a young black man was pot claim she confused

a hand gun with her taser when she shot and killed mister right. in february, hundreds of women have been protesting in sudan following allegations. that security forces with sexually assault and attacked at least a dozen women and girls. several western countries of condemned troops use or sexual violence as a weapon and demanded an independent investigation of the ocean viking, a rescue boat from the n g o s arrest somebody to runny has been given a safe place of safety on christmas eve. currently in the central mediterranean, it will now be allowed to disembark, 114 migrants who rescued last week. this has been a one of the deadliest to years with people using irregular route to reach in europe through the central mediterranean. i've been more than 1500 deaths on this route since january at the highest figure since 2070

or we can cross directly to the ocean viking and talk to rebecca m. she's a midwife leaves the on board medical tape for s o. s mary to remy. i'm the international red cross. welcome to d w. how long have you been that i stuck on board now? do you feel about her being allowed to diss and boxing? i so we have been on the boards now. the old days, the survivors feeling amongst the survivors, knowing that we've been assigned to destination. understandably, a nice belief, something that is shared amongst particularly knowing me and that, that won't fall on mental and physical well being, stanford, etc, for so long. and where did you find them and what sort of state were they when you came across them? so the survivors that we have on board a rescue that was conducted off the close the baby and the libyan section rescue. they were in a rabbit boat. many of them please me,

exhausted when they come in. i can't vote by on my medical team, my medication i you talk about the survivors, of course sir. we're there many losses so we were incredibly fortunate that we didn't have any losses amongst our rescue. but obviously the tragic news this week coming from the central and sharing this of over 200 and that's on that roof. and under what, what sort of stories have been telling you about so about what they're getting away from or what they're trying to get to. so amongst our survivors, we have many unaccompanied minors, women, and we've actually got 4 children according to new ones that kings went under one month old throughout all of them, they have incredibly harrowing stories of violence and abuse. many of them have been arbitrarily detained in libya, sometimes more than once. and to the point that they saw no other option than

risking death rather than stay in libya. we have peace vall, that was shots attempting to escape mothers that when we send in front of their children, i know you've been on several motions on the ocean. viking, in that time, has it changed your mind about why you do the work or whether you should do it? honestly it's, it's reinforced why i do this. and these are people's mothers, brothers, sisters, children that are escaping from absolute masonry fixed in situation and heretic histories to them, and we are reaching out to them to rescue them. that being said, it is essential that a european search and rescue operation is reinstated urgently. because we have not, there aren't enough boats, a rendering assistance to those, to these people, to the point that we've seen what's happened in the past few weeks. we also need

a predictable, unsustainable method for disembarkation to be established because it's unacceptable that people who have been through so much, but then stranded at see the days and weeks for this to happen with the inevitable total on both of physical and mental health. as to what is the future now and for about the people who made it to you? i will be do some balked i looks like we can. you're still here route. i looks like we've lost the connection to rebecca. am in the ocean by kerry. all right, well will it be bad but thank you so much for joining us. celebrations to market christmas. have begun in the city of bethlehem and the west bank. so i'll leave you now with some sites and sounds of a traditional christmas parade on manger square in front of the church, of the nativity in bethlehem. more headlines for you at the top of the have a good day. ah

hm. with with

the landscape. a reflection of a turbulent history. the cities, the mosaic of different people and languages. iran's mountains reveal unparalleled beauty. the scenery is magnificent, but people are warm in our position as actually a special look at a special country. iran from above starts december 27th on d. w. a. ah, is europe's energy crisis shackle to its political crisis with russia. a spike in natural gas prices this week, and russia's frustrations over the certification of a new gas pipeline with germany. have both sides,

claiming the other is playing politics. we'll take a closer look also on the show. semiconductors are in short, supply around the world that has automakers rethinking their sourcing, especially as a new crone of ours varian threatens more supply chain problems. hello, welcome to the show. i'm seen beardsley in berlin or supply chain issues have plague businesses for months. now, microchips are among the items most desperately needed and among those hardest to find, especially for automakers. even basic car models need at least 50 semiconductors. they control everything from gps to air conditioning even rear view mirrors, and as not to mention safety and comfort features that you might find in more upscale cars. according to one estimate, 11000000 fewer cars were to be built in 2021 due to supply chain bottlenecks. and that sums up to around $210000000000.00 in missed sales. now the vast majority of

semiconductors are made in asia. that makes the u. s. and europe strongly dependent upon imports to get those ships. and so now many automakers are exploring partnerships which ship producers to make their own semiconductors. some experts, however say it's too little too late. they blamed the industry for t shirts are short term planning, and lack of investment of more that i'm joined by reggie biz was his executive director and asia pacific chief economist at i h s. market where she could have you on the show. is it fair to say that these automakers were perhaps short sighted by not really securing their necessary supplies to somebody is an absolute vital component. i think what we've seen during the pandemic is something quite exceptional. and it's brought out these supply chain vulnerabilities for older mater makers that hadn't been there in that kind of form before. i mean, what we've seen is lost production in 2021 of millions of order units. and

that's meant that demand has been much greater than the ability to supply. so we're seeing a new kind of problem for the auto industry that they haven't seen in a similar way before. so i think they're reacting to that and of course it will take time and whether it's through their concept of building their own semiconductors plants, which is obviously a highly complicated area for them to move into. or another possibility which is being suggested by companies like intel, is that they will build factories specifically for the order industry to help alleviate some of those concerns about disruptions. and i think at a government level, we're also seeing a lot of action to try to reduce that vulnerability of supply chains. reduce the supply from asia in the u. s. for example, the u. s. government's pushing ahead with a chip act that's going to put in about $50000000000.00 us dollars to help ship

makers, billboard facilities in the u. s. and in the e. u. a very similar projects underway to try to boost the production of chips within the e. u. m to about 20 percent of total requirements. so these kind of actions are signaling that both companies and governments are trying to reduce know supply chain vulnerabilities. and he won the league concern if i may interrupt them. so you just mentioned asia there. we've seen that china has just locked down an entire city sheehan, of 13000000 people. it's shown how seriously it's going to go against any sort of outbreak. china, of course, a major manufacturer for many, many companies. these supply problems are going to continue. is that fair to say? well, i think even leaving aside the situation in china, which obviously is very concerning and has a lot of potential implications for supply chains. if this were to spread more

widely, that even even leaving that aside, this backlog in areas like semiconductor supply is still going to continue in to 2022, even if the situation of dependent might improves through the year. so i think we are looking at a 2022 with continuing problems in the auto sector. and if on top of all of that depend them, it creates new waves and use plots. roxanne's. then clearly the risk is that you have a whole new set of disruptions to supply chains, not only for semiconductors, but potentially for many of the areas of manufacturing that are critical for industry as well. so we are very much looking at those downside risks for the 2022 outlook if this oh, micron very. and turns out to be a big disruptor. i want to leave it. there are cheap as was with i just market. thank you very much. thank you. speaking of supply crunches,

wholesale gas prices in europe briefly spike this week after a russian pipeline began reversing its supply to germany. a russian president vladimir putin now says the move is not political, although it does can side with right coincide rather with rising tensions between moscow in the west. the europe was already facing a winter of high gas prices due to lower supplies. some now fear that tensions with russia are going to make things worse. guess from the jamara pipeline usually flows from here in siberia to germany, but flows had been falling since saturday. on tuesday, the gas stopped and began to flow back in the other direction. the more than 2000 kilometer long jamara pipeline links natural gas fields in siberia with poland and germany via bella ross. it's one of the major routes for russian gas to europe. some west on politicians and industry experts have accused russian president vladimir putin, of withholding deliveries to europe and met political tensions over ukraine and not

stream to something that he denied during his annual news conference for the world to him. with by them they lie all the time. they mix everything up. gas from supplies, all are requesting gas volumes, under current contracts. and not only that, not that it's also increasing the volume or are we me issue of the contract? spokespeople for our w. e and uni power, which among gas prompts, biggest gas by us and germany set the russian company was still meeting delivery obligations by measurements show that gas volumes flowing through the m r pipeline have been reversed. some western politicians believe protein wants to put pressure on not string to it's another pipeline which is set to deliver gas from russia through the baltic sea, directly to germany. germany has not approved the pipeline yet. some experts believe the kremlin is deliberately reducing flows to drive up gas prices in europe, and speed up the approval process. experts warn that consumers in western europe

need to brace for even higher prices. more cold weather in europe over the coming months. it's going to drive up demand and i'm joined now by his lawyer side. he's director of energy climate and resources at the raise your group. that's a political risk consultancy, and thanks for coming on the show. you know, russia says that it's meeting its obligations here at the same time, some in europe are crying foul. can you help us understand what is going on? it's thanks for letting me know. so one of the main problems is, of course, one size that we're meeting all the obligations. the other side is saying we're not having enough gas. so what's happening is gas is meeting probably it's minimum annual obligation, so they have long term contracts with customers in the u. and they are meeting that, but they're not sending any further gas. so if you want to have received more gas because it's cold, for instance, or you're a customer who doesn't fully contract its annual gas supply,

then it's hard to get that guess because i'm really isn't sending more gas in. it absolutely has to the moment the question is, of course, whether gas form isn't sending the gas because it can't or because it doesn't want to that we're not entirely sure sure of. we don't really know where the gas form is sending all the gas. it can with it is actually withholding that, and that is sort of the mystery here in europe programs, of course, the gas market is tight. we do need more gas and energy is coming from a markets around the world by shipping to europe, but it would be good if it came from us from russia or so. europe says the pollutants playing politics here put and says the same thing that the you is playing politics with north stream to. is he not correct there? well, i mean, no, seem to, and it's, but it says the notes from 110 years ago. they are highly political projects. you are linking to major consumer producer blocks together with the physical pipeline infrastructure. it is political by nature and this politics when it goes well,

it's good, it's a big producer, consumer and it improves politics. but of course, when politics get sour, as they are now between russian europe and the west general over ukraine, for instance, which of course, is the gas trans, it routed traditionally, it was. then if things get complicated and that is the issue now, yes, both sides are playing politics. however, the approval process that has been put on hold is a commercial one. and this is important to keep in mind that the approval process with a bonus next are going to, in germany, is a commercial process. and all stream to gas from has to comply with the european market rules and in its current form, it doesn't. so that is a separate process, but then of course there is politics that the german government, the americans, brussels, they have become skeptical about the political liability of this pipeline. not just its commercial liability. or i think last time with your age group. thank you very much. thank you. and let's go now to some of the other global business

stories making headlines. united airlines and delta have cancelled more than $200.00 christmas eve flights. they say the spread of the new oma tron variant is taking a toll on flight crews and ground personnel. the airlines are trying to reboot travelers as soon as possible. tick tock has surpassed google as the world's most popular website. that's according to cloud farrah tech, from the tracks online activities. more than 1000000000 users sign onto scroll, tick tock, monthly, mostly children and teenagers. tick tock was launched in 2016 by china's bite dance . intel has apologized for angering the chinese government after called on suppliers to avoid goods and services in the sheen john region. the united states, the european union and other countries, have accused china of a brutal crack down on the muslim, weaker minority and the use of force labor camps there. and

finally tis the season when many indulged their sweet tooth, especially chocolate. and especially here in germany, it turns out that germans eat an average of 9 kilos of chocolate per year. that's about 90 traditional sized chocolate bars and back puts the country squarely in 1st place globally for chocolate consumption. close 2nd, the swiss. a christmas is the main season for chocolate. germany's chocolate ears have sold 160000000 chocolate centers this year loan. all right, that's it for me and the dw business team will be back in a little bit with more headlines. the meantime fun is online. he to be dot com slash business from seam. beardsley, thanks for watching. ah

ah, with ah ah ah! so the old man from the far noise on christmas eve, he brings presence to children all over the world. ah, really

a closer look at his life. tell us a different story. this is the true story of santa claus. ah! in some 5 minutes. d. w. ah! what secrets lie behind these walls? discover new adventures in 360 degrees. and explore fascinating world heritage sites. d w world heritage 360. get the out now. ah. this is did under news asia, i'm british manager. as 2021 comes to a close. we're taking a look back at some of the biggest stories of the europe. for me, none was bigger than seeing my own country india struggling to breathe in the us.

devastating bout with gilbert 19 that took away people i knew.