ah, discover the world around you. subscribe to d w documentary on youtube. ah ah, this is dw news coming to live from berlin. people around the world begin bringing in the new year. sydney, australia is among the 1st to welcome 2022. drawing thousands of revelers to watch

its famous fireworks despite record numbers of covered 19 cases. also coming up, germany's new chancellor gives his 1st new year's address hold up. shorts urges the public to stand together and get vaccinated. ah hello, i'm terry martin. thanks for joining us. countries around the world had begun ringing in the new year. the 1st to kick off 2022 were the pacific islands of samoa and kerry batty with new zealand. following one hour later, auckland opted for a lights display projected on to city landmarks. while in australia, a spectacular fireworks display lit up the sky over sydney harbour bridge celebrations there went ahead this year despite soaring corona virus case numbers.

and north korea has welcomed in the new year as well with an open air show in the capitol shown yet well here in germany, there are still a few hours left of 2021 and the new german chancellor has recorded his 1st urged all germans to stand together in the fight against covered 19 and to get vaccinated . other than tackling the pandemic, the german liter. so the biggest challenge for the upcoming year was to lay the foundations for germany's future development. i think one small change is that today i am the one speaking to you on new year's eve as your federal chancellor. things are different this year. after 16 years of new year's addresses by angle america, germany's new head of government rose to the task for the 1st time. chancellor shall send out the challenges faced by the country in 2021. acknowledging the hardships that have been endeared, such as december's flirts in western germany,

and praising the resilience people have shown, especially during the pandemic monte bagley's day, some people complained that our society is divided. i'd like to take this opportunity to make it very clear that in fact the opposite is true. our country is standing together by what i see everywhere as tremendous, solidarity, and incredible spurts of helping others. and people coming together and mutual support. in order to cab copied 19 infections of shots appeared once again to people to get vaccinated. if isn't that the, we know that those who are not yet vaccinated are at particular risk of becoming infected and suffering from long and severe illness. for this reason, i would like to urge you once more to get vaccinated for the new government fascination efforts have already heed their 1st milestone with 13000000 vaccines administered since the end of november. and further,

$13000000.00 doses planned by the end of january allow shield so, so took the opportunity to emphasize coalitions goes on climates. mr. ma, within 25 years, we want germany to become climate neutral. and to achieve this, we will move forward with the greatest transformation our economy is seen in more than a century. in this period we will achieve independence from coal, oil and gas. and he reminded listeners of one of his social democratic party's key election promises. and the pay is also a matter of respect. that's why in 2022 will be taking a major step in increasing the legal minimum wage to 12 years per hour. shall says, says new year's address phone with optimism. it was a declaration of good faith. but he also called on people to play the part in forming the future 15. i'm the grid, the beginning of the new decade, a new era as dawning, lawyer and era that will be successful if we actively shape it. because we can make a difference if we remain determined and take out the fight into our own hands than

the one in the spring in chief political editor, mikella crooked here. mikaela. tell us why this annual address matters for the new chancellor. well, 1st of all, it is 1st address mocking the beginning of the new era, the post macro era, and it's the only scheduled direct address to the people of any german chancellor. uncle mac deposits from that once when she addressed people directly here in germany over the cove at 19 pandemic. right at the beginning. and all of sold, many felt missed an opportunity by not doing that just after or in the midst of the transition to the new government. so this is a direct address to ordinary germans and he, clearly he's calling on people not to let themselves be divided. well, we saw a couple about takes from the, from the speech just a moment ago in our, in our package. but you've seen the whole thing. are there any surprises in the

speech? mikaela? did we learn anything new about chancellor shelves as priorities or no huge surprises. but what i think is notable is that not only the spend less to studs on just cobit 19 and the internal challenges, but he calls on people not to let the nation be divided at the same time we've heard from the president of german parliament batted bossy from his own s p, the party who calls on people to bridge those divisions. now this is more than just semantics. clearly, there seems to be a strategy of the incoming government to call on that unity. and to simply not address those divisions that are clearly tangible and that too much to avoid them from becoming ever deeper. and the only concrete policy change we've really heard from all that. so it is that he is determined to see the german minimum wage rise within the coming year. 212 euros is just over 9 years at this very moment in time

. so it's very much nitty gritty domestic stuff with just pretty much the bottom 3rd of the speech really reserved for international issues, which he clearly also sees as important as he wants to see on that agenda. wanted to ask you about foreign policy in the speech. was there any mention of china or the tensions with russia on europe's eastern plank? it's getting a lot of attention lately. well, there was mention particularly of the conflict with ukraine, but he didn't address it directly and this is very much all actual. it's the social democrat s p d party. his party is traditionally one could say more understanding of russia than the conservatives were. and when it comes to concrete issues, he says that violations of orders are not acceptable. he stresses the close trans atlantic ties, but he didn't,

doesn't go into what that will translate into when it comes to concrete policy night like the know stream to pipeline. so criticize both by the united states and the u, that direct link between germany and russia and china. we are still to learn where this new sold government will stand both on a boy course of officials like the united states over those paging olympics. but also on the question whether germany would also refuse to import goods that are produced in tiny regions, whether we minority is suppressed and in camps. so he still owes some concrete policy answers. at the same time, you sending a clear message that's germany. europe is in for drastic change. first and foremost, oh, climate neutrality. mckayla. thank you very much. archie, political editor, mckayla kutner. you can watch the new year's address by the german chancellor in its entirety. by the way. that's coming up at 7 p. m. central european time right

here on d w. now tens of thousands of presidents in the u. s. state of colorado have been forced to evacuate due to are quickly spreading wildfires. the flames swept through residential areas near the city of denver, burning hundreds of homes of shopping complex and a hotel authorities say, these are the worst fires the state has ever seen. ah, fake smoke fills the air outside as the fire approaches at this diner in superior town, just outside denver, colorado panicked families tried to get out with strong winds of finding the fire dine as rushed to their cause, hoping to out race the fast moving blaze. gusts of a 100110 miles an hour can and have moved this fire down a football field in

a matter of seconds. very little time to get out of very little time to even get the most important parts of your life. and yes, it'll be a difficult process for colorado families who are different direction to affected, to rebuild their lives. before the fi is consumed, nearly 600 homes, tens of thousands of residents in 2 towns. north of denver were evacuated. officials believe power lines down by strong winds could have caused the initial sparks and grasslands dried by an extreme drought. offered the conditions for the wild fires to grow out of control. testing even the most seasoned emergency crews. we've actually had though, duffy sure some firefighters in areas that had to pull out cuz we just got overrun . so there was

a lot of brave stuff corner to popular as the fi is continue into the night. the weather service is full, costing a much needed snow full later on friday, snow that residents will be hoping can help dampen these flames. sketch up on some of the other stories making headlines around the world today. germany is shutting down 3 of its 6 remaining nuclear power plants. today, the last 3 stations will be switched off one year from now. germany began phasing out nuclear power under under le merkel after the reactor accident in fukushima. the u. s. president joe biden, and his russian counterpart vladimir putin had discussed russia's troop, build up near the ukrainian border. biden demanded at d escalation and threatened russia with new sanctions, but putin worn such measures would cause a complete disruptor of ties. despite their differences, both sides agree that progress was made only call people in south africa or

streaming into cape towns cathedral for a 2nd day to pay their respects to. archbishop desmond tutu anglican clerics carried his coffin into saint george's cathedral, where the former nobel peace laurie at once railed against apartheid to 2 died last sunday. at the age of 90 and some and uplifting news on the pandemic from south africa. government officials say it's possible that the country it may be passed the peak of the army kron variant which was 1st attacked their last month. it was feared sick patients would overwhelm the health care system. but that didn't happen instead, hospitalization, rates decreased despite the more contagious nature of omicron. now ahead of the new year, south africans are feeling hopeful. this was the epicenter of only crone, but infections have dropped. and residents of gutting province

a basking in the relief as our local health care workers, me grown woe at m, i at prominent health care level definitely for the average patient cause as much milder sometimes than even delta. if i look at my own personal experience out of a 110 patients, we had to admit it from 3 to 4 patients. i'm not very severely you. the probability of landing in a hospital with only chron is 80 percent lower than the delta infections. experts say the reason is threefold. a great many people in south africa already have some immunity against the virus due to past infections. secondly, the new variant is wico. and thirdly, vaccines have helped. almost 40 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. patients who nevertheless need hospitalization or not severely sick.

very often they took off listen, we monitor just how many needed oxygen or ethan. i see you via chemical cause and that's what he has seen. it's sophia, whose is when noted in those with on cranberry some south africans wonder if, oh, micron is a blessing in disguise. those who fall sick are not too sick and the infection act as natural boosters. though 2021 was filled with problems and challenges. the year also brought us many uplifting moments of hope, creativity and joy. before we go and we have this look back at some of the good news we reported on over the last 12 months. i'm terry martin. thanks for watching . ah,

mm hm. with welcome to the dark side where intelligence agencies are pulling the strings. there was.