ah, hey there, i'm david and this is climate change, exit sex. happiness in 3 books. this is the book for you. you'll get smarter for free. do you know when you book on user? mm. ah ah, this is dw news live from earlier is nuclear energy green? a proposal from the european commission could see some atomic power plants labeled environmentally friendly, making them targets for green investment. don't all member states back to plan.

also coming up. a mysterious person crosses south korea's heavily fortified border into north korea. look at how they did it and what's behind this possible defection? ah, i'm nick spicer. welcome to the program. the european commission says it wants to label some nuclear and gas energy projects as green investments. nuclear power plants do not admit greenhouse gases and they could count as environment, pardon me, environmentally friendly. if there are detailed plans for disposing of radioactive waste safely, the proposal comes just a day after germany shut down 3 of its 6 nuclear power plants for good. and the german government environment minister steph lumpkin is calling it a mistake. it's like a welcome gift at the start of france's

e u. presidency. the european commission plans to classify investment in natural gas and nuclear energy as climate friendly, under certain conditions. to that end, a draft law was sent to e u member states. shortly before the new year. the commission believes gas and nuclear power could help smooth the transition into a future based primarily on renewables. france, poland, and the czech republic have been campaigning for more than a year to have nuclear power classified as sustainable. it's no secret that france needs investors to fund renovations to its existing 56 reactors and to finance new ones. the so called e u taxonomy is a classification system designed to establish a list of environmentally sustainable activities worthy of investment. mr. companies will be obliged to report not only their financial status,

but their sustainability too. but the debate over nuclear powers. when credentials has split, the you, germany's economy and climate protection minister, horbeth hardback had strong words of criticism for the new bill. the course one vice receipt of the commission knows what it's doing and in my opinion, it's doing the wrong thing is not a question of forbidding francis use of nuclear power. the french can do that, but this is about creating a financial investment market and declaring it green, sustainable, and ecological valuable. and that's fraudulent labeling. it comes from austria and luxembourg have already threatened to sue the block if it declares nuclear power sustainable. and for more in this, i'm joined by our correspondence back xander in brussels. max us, what's the motivation for the commission proposal to, to label nuclear power? green energy. right, so nick, it's probably did not come as

a surprise that this proposal was brought out on, on new year's eve. i well everybody was distracted. that being said, i'm the you. a commission came up with his plan to become climate neutral by, by 2050 and for, for this to, to be able to achieve this of phasing out of fossil fuels will be necessary, as well as that the transition to, to clean energy such as solar energy for example, and that cannot be done overnight, obviously. so nuclear energy kind of is seen as a compromise here. it has relatively to, to no emissions. but at the same time, it's extremely at hazardous, as we've seen in the, over the past decades in journal bill in ukraine, or if in 2011 and in japan and fukushima when and when something goes wrong in a nuclear reactors can be extremely, it can be detrimental to the environment than the people living around these nuclear power plants. so critics are now saying that the commission is actually in order to achieve this compromise, to get everybody on board for it to,

for climbing the tragedy by using bite, by utilizing a nuclear power is attempting to green wash. and at the same time is also a putting the reputation of the entire you taxonomy system at risk. and, you know, the critics who are speaking of greenwashing in, in, in their formulation are where in europe is a pretty big fault line within the e. u, as is there between various member states. that's right. i mean, probably not as much as you would think of with a issue that seems extremely controversial. here we have the main main players here at germany and france. the 2 biggest and most influential u member states, a germany itself as against nuclear power is facing out nuclear power in germany by the end of 2022. but the german chancellor will or shelter taking more of it seems to be taking more of a conciliatory approach on some other members of the german government are bit more outspoken like robot harbor who just are heard and in the, in the report. but france or the other side is the main driver of

a boosting nuclear power. with, with it within the block of the country itself is more than 50 nuclear power plants and they're continuing to building power plants that need money for, for investments, for reform, for, for maintenance, preferably sustainable money and france is not alone. the majority of u. member states have nuclear power plants and they want to continue to operate them. polling for example, is one good example, a country that's heavily dependent on coal and has to phase out is cool, is now looking for at nuclear energy and saying if you take a quick quote from us, at least have give us nuclear energy. so there's really just a small number of you countries that are actually really resisting at this move by the yeah, i sounds like no easy answers in any case. thanks so much max. and for that insight, south korea's military says an unidentified person has crossed the border into north korea. the army detected the person in the demilitarized zone and surveillance equipment later showed that the person had gone into north korea. the

border region between the 2 countries contains millions of land mice and is one of the most heavily armed places in the world. and for more of this, we can bring in tranq smith, a journalist in sol, capital of south korea. frank, how can someone cross this border, which is as i was just saying, one of the most heavily defended in the world? well, it's very difficult. you can't just walk up to the d, m z here in south korea. there's a line of civilian control before you get to the dmc, with guard posts and checkpoints and fencing. and then you have to go through that and then usually a couple of kilometers later. there is more guard posts in the dmc for real so this person had to make it quite a deliberate, you know, endeavor to get into north korean. we don't have any sort of confirmation that he made it there. there are, as you mentioned, land mind something like 2000000 land mines scattered across this area of otherwise

wilderness that, that person would after traverse to get to north korea. and then the north korean guards, you know, have, you know, according to reports, been instructed to, to shoot on site. anybody trying to get in to north korea from the outside, especially with the onset of, of covey at 19. and so, you know, it is again, a very deliberate and difficult endeavor to make it to north korea from the south sounds how to get into this dmc, or demilitarized zone and, and survive with minds. it sounds incredible. do we do we know how or why the south korean border guards didn't notice this until several hours later while they're conducting an investigation into this, in the preliminary report suggested there was monitoring equipment that found out that saw this were recorded. this person breaking through some fencing at 6 40 pm on saturday evening 3 hours before there was some human intelligence and

intervention to go in and look for this person. so that's certainly going to be a point that the south korean officials and government are going to be looking into, you know, it, it reminds one of the challenges facing south korea, the south korean military, it as a mandatory military service. the, the spot that the soldiers are doing their mandatory military service don't want to go is along the dmc. it's a very stressful area to control and between border and stress. and it's a difficult deployment certainly. okay, thanks for that. i update on an incredible story. frank smith reported from soul and we turned to sports now where more corona virus chaos is threatening. the german boonies sleeva and the already beleaguered english premier league or meadow serum g w sports. welcome mark i. let's talk about buyer munich. first. lead

leaders. how many cases to that? well, it says he 5 in total, it's manual lawyer, the captain and goalkeeper. he was going back from the mold eaves. kinsey common was coming back from dubai. we have content to lee, so he was back in his native friends for the holiday period with omar richards, the english defend, and also the assistant coach dino top nevada. now the wonders eager has been on a 3 week break. it starts again on friday when by and a due to face. mentioned. glad back. we don't exactly know how many of these players will be out. we assume all of them, but we don't know what states are at with infection and quarantine, obviously by and do have a big squads at the moment. the game isn't in doubt, but they've moved the start of training back to to morrow from today. and yet a little bit of chaos now in the but these aren't, these aren't the 1st by our cases, right? no, indeed. i mean, before we had the coach hewley now, guzman, he missed 2 weeks of the season, had to do his coaching from home. obviously the most famous cases, you're sure kimmy and he didn't want to get vaccinated. he then got the virus and

the actually had a long problem because of corona virus and we don't know if he's going to be fit for friday. we don't know if this is sort of a long covered situation or not. so there's big problems at best buy and, and in the bundles they go wildly. i mean, what is interesting is that these cases are people flying back from holiday? yeah, and i think some buying funds will be saying, was it really a good idea to let these players go off to, you know, wide extremities across the globe when maybe they're sharing planes. we random people and oversee, i think last year, most of the infections were within the club and i would say that's how to stop. but now we've got a new element to it. and we've not really heard from many other bundles. they get teams are they got lots of positive cases flying back as well. could we start to see postponements that we've seen in english premier league? the one is exactly as a new boss from tomorrow. the 1st woman to lead the bone as they could do now to hoffman. and she's gonna have quite a busy in tray. and briefly you mentioned the english premier league my and goes to

liverpool coach. you're going clock. just testing positive are, is livable even to be able to complete the see. it's going to be a tricky one. i mean the grass, as we know the game against chelsea is happening today. despite positive cases. i think they might have to stop playing games during champions league weeks. which way for hate or even push it into june. we don't have a woke up in june this year, so there's a chance. ok w's mark meadows and we w sports. thanks so much. let's check the latest news on the pandemic now. germany has reported more than 12500 new corona virus cases in the last 24 hours. that's over 2400 more than a week ago. actual figures may in fact be higher as over the holidays, people get tested less frequently. england says new restrictions on socializing and events will only be introduced as a last resort. northern ireland, scotland and wales have all rolled out new rules limiting gatherings as the on a chronic, very fuels, a nationwide search. and here in europe where the epidemic is currently at its

worst, we've passed the milestone of $100000000.00 cases identified since the virus emerged in december 2019 more than a 3rd of the total cases worldwide. in russia, the new year marks the beginning of a holiday season with christmas coming out a week later. and people have been celebrating without major corona virus restrictions. despite a surgeon case numbers, there are plenty of public attractions to keep the mood positive, including spectacular light installations around moscow. a 17 meter high globe outside moscow state circus. workers put it together weeks ago in the snow and cold . just one of the many light installations that adorned the city in this dark winter season, just like the new year's decorations, offer a breath of fresh air fire right now. and when new corona virus waves keep coming and people are just tired of it,

have resorted. newkirk repeated. this group more than 4000 light shows and building decorations will be on display in the coming weeks. transforming the city into a winter fairy tale. christmas hasn't come here yet. russians celebrated on the 7th of january, despite soaring infection numbers, no restrictions on indoor social gatherings have been announced. that the city's biggest skating rink few seem to follow mask or social distancing rules. who wants to let the corona virus spoil their holiday fun? to watch. hola, chain. of course we want a change. we all know what the situation is, neither, but we're trying to find some happiness. this isn't one major attraction. the christmas tree at red square machine. you know, great atmosphere. there's that great feeling of a new year. lots of people come here lose you pretty early. the lights and decorations will stay up until easter

a welcome distraction and you're watching dw news. here's a reminder, the top story we're following for you. proposal from the european commission could see some nuclear power and natural gas plants labeled as environmentally friendly, making them targets for green investment. not all member states back to plant and that's all for now coming up. next is how technology is driving fashion in our tech show shift sales with us for that. i'm the advisor, thanks for watching. with these places in europe or smashing all the records, stepped into a bold adventure. it's the treasure map.