chill incidence is currently 2 or 3 times as high as the incidence. we are measuring all, smithson, the u. k is facing a surge in omicron cases, and that is frustration that rapid test kits aren't available. we speak tomorrow unless none in the pharmacy is around. the light is not in the room, but the signs outside the run outside. many people need a negative test to be allowed to work. i'll gather to celebrate the start of a new you florida. i'm joined by christian lind mile spokesperson for the world health organization in geneva. mr. lind, bye thanks. ring with us. your organizations, director general, says the delta and ali cron variance of the corona virus are creating a su nami of infections. what's the worst case scenario? you're trying to avoid well, thanks for having me. what we have right now is a still existing delta variant, which seems to have higher severity in the cases. and at the same time,

an extremely quickly spreading on may, kron. it's the vast majority of cases. many countries, countries around europe have been, have been reporting, record cases, never seen in 2 years. and that combination is certainly something which could easily strain and overburden to health system as you have it. and though maybe severity might be lower and i'll make on the sheer numbers, game leads to the fact that the health hospitals, the clinics to health care workers, the system is completely overloaded. public transport is public relations. officers have to close because workers be not able to go to work because of the high infections rate. so this is a, this is really a worst case scenario and we have to be really everything to, to avoid this. only cron. it's on everyone's minds right now. reports from some countries, south africa for example,

suggested that variant with variant infections are less severe. can you confirm that? and what should we expect from on the chrome? in general, it's still too early to really firmly confirm the indications we have so far. and the early reports and early studies out of different countries indicate that yes indeed, all the con could be less severe. but many of these studies have been done in, in younger populations and student populations, which in any case should produce lower severity of cases. so we have to be careful and what we also don't know. and that's important to remember. we don't know anything about long term effects of omicron yet, so we have to be careful with this seemingly less severe on what are the crucial measures that need to be taken. now, to stop this pandemic from getting worse. what we have seen in the last 2 years

that the comprehensive package of all the measures that we have really works well that starts with your own personal protection. with using the proper hand hygiene the mouth hygiene using the mac whenever possible, necessary outside or in closed rooms avoid assemblies of people avoid crowded room. it's also in northern europe. now in europe, the northern hemisphere ventilate rooms as often as possible. all of these are traditional, simple measures that we all can get when on top of it. the vaccines do give projects, they give protection, certainly again, without the variance. and they also give protection against the, the army. so if you are offered the vaccine, please take it and if you offer the booster, it's also time to get it still in my thank you very much for talking with us. that was christian lind, bios spokesperson for the world health organization in geneva. thank you. is

a lucas mother developments in the panoramic world wide south african researchers have found a booster shot of johnson and johnson's covey. 19 vaccine is 84 percent effective at preventing hospitalization. covered 19 cases have reached a record high in the united states. however, the country's centers for disease control and prevention, se deaths and hospitalizations are comparatively low, and the ice hockey junior world championships and canada have been cancelled as due to a number of players testing positive and entire teams being ordered to isolate a jury in the u. s has found british socialite, good, glean and maxwell guilty of helping the late sex offender jeffrey epstein abuse under age girls over a period of years. after 5 days of deliberations, the new york jury found maxwell guilty on 5 counts, including recruiting and grooming abstains teenage victims. the burden could see the 60 year old spend the rest of her life in prison,

recruiting and grooming teenage victims and trafficking a minor. these are the heavy charges of which british socialite galle maxwell was found guilty by the new york jerry. the road to justice has been far too long. but today, justice has been done. no one, no matter how powerful or well connected it is above the law. delaney maxwell is the daughter of british newspaper. baron robert maxwell, in court, accuser showed evidence of maxwell's close relationship to late fine and sheer and convicted sex offender, jeffrey epstein. epstein was child and 2019 based on charges of sex trafficking miners, but he committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial. in the current court case of killing maxwell, she was found to have helped epstein systematically procure young girls some as young as 14. the charges against maxwell were brought forward by 4 victims,

but many more feel they have been served justice. this is a victory for all the victims of miss maxwell and abstain. moreover, i think this is a victory for all young children, boys, girls, women, and men who are victims of abusers like this. it will give them the needed push to step forward and to speak their truth and to hopefully get justice like these young girls have. with respect to miss maxwell, the defense as to 60 year old is being used as a scapegoat for other people's crimes. i mean, we firmly believe in glens, innocence. obviously we are very disappointed with the verdict. we have already started working on the appeal, and we are confident that she will be vindicated everyone the healthy, have a happy new year. how you doing, maxwell now stands to spend the rest of her life in prison. if she receives the

maximum possible sentence of 65 years. it's ketchup on some other stories making headlines around the world these days. the european union has service courts and international arms bargain on me on mars military regime and says it's toughening its own sanctions on the country is comes after humanitarian groups reported. the military of neon mark killed and buried 30 people last week in a village in the conflict torn chaos state. police in hong kong have formerly charged to senior editors from the online pro democracy news outlet stand news with sedition. they've been identified in court documents as former sent news chief editor chung week when and patrick lum. the announcement comes a day after authorities rated the offices of stant news. iran says it has carried out the launch of a rocket carrying 3 satellites into space, state television carried footage of the launch vehicle and take all iran says it

space program is for research purposes and does not breach the nuclear deal, which it is currently re negotiating with western powers the body of south africa as archbishop desmond to, to has been brought to a historic cape town cathedral where it will lie in state for 2 days. mourners have been streaming into saint george's cathedral to pay their final respects to the revered clary. before opening up to the public, the church conducted a private service or the family to to will be cremated in his ashes, buried on new york on new year's day inside his former parish, where he had preached against racial inequality, the anti apartheid icon and nobel peace prize laurie had died last sunday at the age of 90. for many south africans his legacy will live on. it's an honor and at least single me to be at to day to say my final goodbyes to the arch was done so

much with the scanty in terms of roundabout ation and speaking to the, to power a true leader of the soil actually quite said actually that tweeted, losing such great people in this time became yet to express our high or deep sorrow with the passing of the arch. and he was a man of great faith person that we at my it greatly approved yet. oh, i fell, struggle just yesterday to pay my very last respects to this most amazing, great man. we were just remember him for his love and his par, ice outspokenness between right and wrong. he was always the voice of the voiceless and always the voice of reason. we talked to love. you taught me how to cry. and he taught me one thing,

he talked to how to pray. a small town in southern france has been lit up in a winter blaze of color and blight. the lantern festival near the city of toulouse is one of the biggest of its kind outside china expects to welcome up to 6 100000 visitors glass filled with colored liquid, 2800 lanterns lit up by eli d's. this park is filled with imaginative illuminations. mm. oh, navy is anymore. we saw the animals in the airplane. and of course, the giant panda to nice see of what up says, richard. he, vienna, me. i like the pandas and the big tower is very beautiful too. yeah. gone to p t t then look yard shawn to dish answers. yes, there are different themes, ira travel loads and chinese art. no matter what you can learn

a lot about chinese traditions here, john, it's shawn polish and that's great. yeah, there are strong echoes of china here because everything comes from china. every single item originated there and was installed here by chinese craftsman. ah, a french businessman came up with the idea of holding a lantern festival in blan jak with you as an a. dempsey cooler, so china's lantern festival is huge. 10 times the size of this one because it's impossible not to love the lanterns and sculptures their fear. the light creations at our festival were assembled on the spot. every festival starts from scratch, everything was tailor made for us. so you're apart from the pond as of course, because a pander is always a panda bluff overdue. she sorted it, but we have a lake we can use to no luck. and we have a pagoda for the emperor, told him, and

a boat which travels down the river is a boil for the samo. ally in the flow of visitors can even get to the festival on the boat or by other means of transport. blan yaks. lantern festival runs until the end of january. ah, you're watching the w 7. next, we got business for you with rob watson. i'm terry martin from me and all of us here in berlin. thanks for watching. every journey begins with the 1st step and every language with the 1st word, polish pinnacle rico is in germany to learn german. why not learn with him?

simple online, on your mobile and free chef. d w e learning course, nikos vague. german made easy. agree. do you feel worried about the planning? me too? i'm neil. host of the on the green fence, both cost and to me it's clear. we need to change the solutions or out there. join me for a deep dive into the green transformation. for me to do for the van with wow, 020 years all the your robe as the your, as i in marks 2 decades since it's radical, new common currency. started filling up wallets, who discussed whether it's been

a monetary marvel or financial flaw. yours 1st home grown battery facility has begun production, we'll look at what sweden's new north folk giga factory means that the continent with energy for ice is still soaring across the world. well, look back on a year of power. struggle is also fuel fights. this is day to be a business on robots in fairly and welcome to the program. 19 countries, one currency. and now europe is marking 20 years of the euro. it's been a rollercoaster couple of decades for the single currency. for some, the euro has been a stabilizing factor for the continent. others say it's just driven up prices as we wait to see what the future holds for the euro. as 1st, take a look at the past. a symbol of hope and prosperity for all of europe. the 6 story high euro sculpture in front of the european central bank in frankfort.

it was germany's way of celebrating the introduction of the euro as legal tender. since then, europeans don't have to exchange notes and coins when traveling within the eurozone . companies also profited as trade within the current to union sharply increased on the eve of 2022 more than 340000000 people in 19 e. u countries use the common currency every day at its introduction. when you are a cost $1.00, us dollar and 7 cents since then it has gone up and up in 2008. it reached its old time high of almost one u. s. dollar and 60 cents. just before the start of the global financial crisis. there was also the 1st real test for the euro, a single currency for economies as different as greece and germany, a recipe for disaster. the e, you had to agree on a 1000000000 euro rescue packages to save the weaker countries of southern europe

from financial collapse. the crisis, but the euro under unprecedented pressure. speculators tried to caching on the failure of the common currency in 2012, the president of the e. c. b spoke words that would go down in history. the c, b is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro, and believe me, it will be enough to e. c. b was pushing the envelope and it worked for euro survive the financial crisis to day. a tough new test. the corona pandemic lock downs have placed a heavy burden on the national budgets of the euro countries. in 2020, they took on joint debt for the 1st time ever made critics of the euro. so this move makes financially rigor, countries

a burden on those with stronger economies. many others, however, still see the euro is the best opportunity for the european union countries to grow even closer. well, to discuss further 20 years of the euro, let's speak to maria de maps. this is deputy director of the brussels economic think tank brew go. thanks a lot for joining us on d to we business. great. have you on so 2 decades in can we say whether the euro has been a success or not? yes, of course, i think any, you know, has been there has been a big success actually. and way of thinking about this is imagine how countries small countries, but also be countries will have weathered the 2 big crisis that we've seen in the past 20 years. had they been alone? i think that's a very important thing to try and contemplate it with a thought experiment. and then you realize that the scale and the stability that the youth has brought to the continent, different degrees with different countries has actually managed to keep

a europe together. and actually whether the crisis was much less cost that it would have been otherwise. so yes, it is been and i'll try success as far as i'm concerned. but as you just mentioned, the impact of it has buried between countries. have there been winners and losers for the last 20 years? i think it's important, appreciate that not on country's joint or the euro into the you for the same reasons. i to the extent that one can have a distinction between the north to the south, and i'm very reluctant to make this type of comparison because they're never really accurate. but let's say, let's say for the sake of conversation we, we divide the continent in this 2 blocks. the northern countries are a more open country, so they're the ones we're looking for a great markets. so they're real, the prime motivation for the northern part of europe to join the you is to expand their markets both domestically domestically being in europe, but so scale also internationally, globally. and of course, the year to provide amply, 2 countries of the north countries in the south and the other hand wandered

stability. they wanted a stable currency that is going to ensure that the consumer has got predictability in terms of patchy pirate in their pockets. and they got that with the euro. so yeah, to that extent, if use of think about the motivation why every country joined, the you and all of them had something to do to win from the adjustment to there to the euro. hasn't been easy for all countries that i think is important. countries in the south founded a lot more difficult to adopt, simply because their economies are a lot more inflexible. i but i think even countries in the south, i found the stability of the year to been an upright success. it survived 2 decades, and it's got through various crises. but there is another one on the way as the, or is recovers from the pandemic. how well set is the euro to get through that? i think you'll see that a european architecture, which is absolutely essential for a good a connection. i mean, for sustaining shocks or sustaining crisis has been going,

has been moving in the right direction. compare the reaction, how europe dealt with the financial crisis and of what speed and to the reaction of the you in the current crisis to put in a crisis in 2020. and at what speed, you'll see that both of the unity of europe as well as the speed of reaction, have greatly improved. there is a thing as a serialization appreciation of the fact that a united europe can really, whether this storm so much faster. there are we important discussions in 2022 when it comes to a contextual issues. i'm thinking mostly of the fiscal path that can really help increase the resilience of the continent. and i think there is enough understanding that important steps for what need to happen. ok, maria demetrius from brewer. thank you very much for joining us on date of your business. next, it's been labor day milestone for europe. sweden's north volt has officially begun production at the continents 1st home growing battery cell production line. it's

good news for customers like volkswagen, volvo, and b, m, w, and the future plans. just 200 kilometers south of the arctic circle this factory and we'll, if they all produced its 1st battery cell this week, the location was chosen because it's near important sights of renewable energy production in northern sweden, including hydro electric power, intended to compete with the u. s electric car, joint tesla and asian producers of lithium ion batteries. the site is expected to produce enough batteries to power $1000000.00 electric vehicles every year. north vault expects to make its 1st deliveries to commercial customers. in early 2022. the company has already secured $30000000000.00 worth of orders from european carmakers, including germany's b, m, w, and folks, vargas and sweden's, volvo, with which it plants a 2nd european factory test lays due to launch its 1st factory in europe soon. and

asian rivals have significant operations in poland and hungary, but no european firm had opened a major facility until now. russian president vladimir putin is again turning up the pressure on german regulators to approve nord stream to is told a meeting of the government shown on russian stake tv, that the pipeline is now fully primed and ready to solve your it's national, natural gas supply problems. and these network regulator though, says it won't give the go ahead till no 2 nod stream to until it satisfied the swiss based operating company is complying with german law. a ones for approval may not come until the 2nd half of 2022 is cooker. and you put the rising tension over nord stream to comes at the end of an extraordinary year for the global energy sector. as chelsea delaney reports, nicole natural gas and crude oil in this year. these fossil

fuels have been in short supply. whatever you want to call it a crisis, a cruncher shortage. what's been unfolding across global energy market this year is impacting all of our lives. in almost every corner of the world, the energy needed to heat our homes or fuel or cars or power. our businesses has become drastically more expensive. it takes a long time for them to switch away from fossil fuels. in $981.00 on gas and cool account for 84 percent of total energy demand. last year that was really focused on the 1st place where we really started to see energy shortages and full this year. it was in china, china school supply couldn't keep up with the sharp bounce back in demand from its factory sector. by september, the government ordered some factories close untold coal mines to increase production with the coal shortage at home. china turn to international natural gas markets to help keep the lights on and factories running. that huge amount of

demand coming from china rippled across the global energy markets, including to those here in europe, the competition between china and europe for elegy has been building for years. but this years energy shortage is led to an all out bidding war and europe, husband losing to asia when they get cold and they do market. and then you know, europe. ready have been less, but then i mean, there's pipeline supply in no way algeria, russia, they can supply as well. but that's where, you know, moment russia has been slow to send additional gas to the u this year despite the critical shortage of stocks. some analysts believe the limited deliveries or no quinn sentence and accused moscow of exploiting europe's energy weakness. why? intern nordstrom to the 9500000000 euro natural gas pipeline. russia recently completed constructing to germany. the russians have spent a fortune under put in developing an entire new natural gas province. what happens

in europe then, as part of its climate policy cut back on natural gas consumption? indeed, many politicians do see climate policy, namely, a faster move towards renewables. as the solution, but building out that infrastructure could take years. so what about right now, for now, the government seemed to have decided the answer is more fossil fuels. china has doubled down on coal while here in the e. u. for many countries have pledged to give a call in the coming decade. idle plants are being put back on line. fossil fuel still power our lives. and until that changes, fossil fuels and the countries that produce them will continue to determine how much it costs to keep the lights on. chelsea delaney reporting now 2021 has also been a year of ups and downs for the world. shipping lanes in the sea of japan. things

have taken another bizarre turn as well. dozens of cars have become caked in ice up to half a meter thick on their way to the russian port of blood voss stock. their japanese ship expanse high winds. with temperatures minus 19 celsius waves splashed over the cars, then froze, cracking wind screens and causing all kinds of other damage in the process. muscle from in the business team here in berlin. if you want more from us, you had to our website. did we dot com slash business? you can also find asked of on the database, use youtube tunnel. and of course on facebook at d. w dot business until next time to chat with every day for us and for our planet, with global ideas is on its way to bring you more conservation.

how do we make cities greener? how can we protect animals and their habitats? what to do with all our waste. we can make a difference by choosing reforestation over deforestation recycling over disposable smarten solutions over steam set in our ways. earth is truly unique and we know that that uniqueness is what allows us to live and survive google ideas. the environmental su in global 3000 on d, w, and online. this is d w. news. asia coming up today is special. look at china's growing power this year, both at home and abroad. the man behind that drive is teaching. pinged his control over china's direction is new.