a t w's crime fighters are back africa's most successful radio drama series, continues them all episodes are available online. and of course, you can share and discuss on d, w, africa's facebook page, and other social media platforms, crime fighters, tune in now, with this is the w news live from burly europe braces for a wave of army kron infections. francis, one of many countries debating further corona virus measures across the continent.

it's fear new case numbers would, could spike following holiday travel and gatherings. also coming up hong kong rights activist is given a 2nd to jail sentence for organizing a vigil to remember victims of china's gentlemen square massacre in 1989. it's the latest blow to free expression in the territory. plus we made an unconventional entrepreneur breaking down stereotypes. with american belgian mother of 5 launch is a multi lingual internet channel to share, have favorite recipes, and glimpses of her daily life and hopes to dispel prejudice. ah

got off as well come to the program. and we start in europe, which was already the epicenter of the corona virus pandemic. the continent is bracing for another even bigger wave of new infections due to the mo, contagious ami chrome variant, which is quickly becoming dominant. it's fair to the number of new cases will climb to new records. as more testing is done following holiday travel and gatherings, francis parliament is debating on whether to limit access to more public spaces and allow entry only to vaccinated people. each country is grappling with a way forward rome days away from tougher restrictions. italy is one of so many european countries, again, faced with and braced for increased hardship in the form of regulated movement, tougher economic times and overflowing intensive care units. the director of this room hospital says for a month we have been systematically full my the,

i mean the be any stark contrast to last summer and fall in rome. when infections were down, restrictions were relaxed, italy was reopening, and business was on the upswing. such was the case across much of europe as countries took a breath in hopes, the worst might be over then came winter and the spread of m a crown in southern europe. and in the north, like italy, denmark's reopening was brief. now it is breaking caseload records with the highest ratio of infections per $100000.00 inhabitants in the world are the artifact. it every, it's certainly worrying that we're seeing a continued high level of infection. and we're now seeing this more infectious. i'm a chron has taken over. officials maintain extensive testing has pushed denmark's case numbers higher than countries that do less testing and less vaccinating countries like romania where a 5th wave appears eminent,

especially after gatherings during the holidays. this in a country that has next to last in europe when it comes to vaccination rates. that means it's near the bottom in what is now the global epicenter of the pandemic. let's talk about this with martin mckee is a professor of european public health at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. professor mckee, omicron is spreading fast with hardly any talk of severe disease or even death. the varian seems mercifully mild governments overreacting with re introducing strict measures. i don't think that they are on did certainly milder than they delta variant. but i wouldn't say that it's actually a disease that you can just dismiss as being trivial. we certainly are seeing quite a number of people being in the hospital not to anything like the same extent as before. also some worrying data from a number of countries that children are being admitted and some of them are getting

seriously ill. but the other thing that we need to remember with this is that we've tended to think of this as a primarily research disease. and that of course has been a major part of the presentation. but this is of ours that can affect many different parts of the body and were particularly worried about the long term consequences. what we call long covert. we still don't know anything really much about the extent to which humor crone will be driving a problems without as we go forward. so i think we need to be really very cautious . so the example of denmark shows that a pi vaccination right against an affection with ami chrome is not really sufficient. does the response of european countries to high infection rights have to be boost, boost, boost i and over a 100 other people wrote an open letter in the british medical journal that was published yesterday. that argued very strongly for a vaccine last policy. vaccines are going to be very important, omicron can evade this. the existing seems to some extent,

we almost certainly will need newer vaccines going forward. but the vaccines are still providing a degree of protection against the crowns. and of course, they are protective against the other barriers that are circulating, but they're not enough on their own. and i think we're seeing that in the countries that are very highly vaccinated, like portugal in spain, for example, where you're seeing rising cases despite great progress with the vaccine. so that means that we need those multi layered approach, which has vaccines, which has testing and which has measures to reduce the transmission. we need to just keep coming back to the fundamental point about this virus. it is spread primarily through the airborne method, means that it's transmitted in places where people come together. it includes indoor spaces where there are large numbers of people. and that's where the risks lie and we need to minimize those risks. but there are no media reports about a new very and that was detected in france and has been traced back to cameroon. do health care systems already need to prepare for the next mutation and can they well,

health systems do definitely need to prepare for the next new mutation. but whether or not we need to be too worried about this one is another question. it does seem that though there is some localized spreads in it, spread in parts of france at the minute omicron don't seem to be competing it, but that doesn't mean that we can be complacent with the french authorities or monitoring this very closely. but i, if i was, if i had to guess and one obviously is very careful about speculating here. i think this may not be the one that we need to be worried about. but there are certainly there certainly potential for oma chrome to recombine with delta. and for other variants to come about. so we really all, i think across europe, all countries need to greatly increase their sequencing capacity. so we have the ability to attack these early because not every country can do that to the same extent. professor martin mckee, from the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. thank you very much. thank

you. am i, we're on the subject. here are some more of the latest developments in the pandemic . australian is reporting a record number of new infections and hospitalizations. the country has now passed a total of half a 1000000 cases in the u. s. on the crone is spreading rapidly among young people. regulators have now authorized booster shots with a biotech fires a vaccine for children aged 12 to 15. and here in germany, more than 20000 people have taken to the streets nationwide to protest against restrictions there, especially angry about a possible new compulsory vaccination law that's being considered by the government in hong kong, a cold hoss convicted the prominent lawyer and human rights activists of and citing an authorized assembly charl hung so was sentenced to 15 months in prison for organizing a vigil for the victims of china's gentlemen gentlemen square massacre. in 1989, she was arrested a day before the anniversary of the killings allows jew uncle media type. when

jimmy law has already been jail for 13 months for joining that vigil. little earlier, i'll start hong kong correspondence. phoebe. com to sell us more about showing too much how house tony is one of the key that goes on in the command. the ration campaign, hong kong, which was very iconic, because these campaign has a basically distinguish home from the rest of china. hong kong used to be one of the remaining places on chinese soil to legally commemorate the tenement crackdown which will remain as a political to pull in china. and now it seems that this all has gone. yes. did i? because one of phoebe cong they're reporting from hong kong. now let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world of almost silicon valley start up star has been found guilty of defrauding investors.

elizabeth holmes built up the paper. fortune worth billions, she claim to blood testing technology develop. but her company thoroughness could revolutionize health care homes now faces up to 20 years in j, yeoman's hootie rebels have seized a cargo ship in the red sea. hoot is our back by iran and say they have taken over military hardware. the vessel is registered in the united arab emirates, which is fighting the hoot is in 1st, the ship is carrying medical equipment. i do, madame de la. these railey army says 2 of its pilots have been killed in a helicopter crash over the mediterranean sea. the aircraft went down during a training flight to cert. crew member was rescued. training missions have been suspended in turkey, inflation has hit its highest level in 19 years. prices in december rose 36 percent year on year. weak turkish lira has pushed the cost of food and fuel sharply higher

. critics blame president recipe type arrow on for pressuring. the central bank to cut interest rates, which caused the slump and the currencies value fall turkeys. lira is plummeting in value, and price is a soaring official figures. put inflation at 36 percent independent economists say in reality it's 80 percent or more prices arising so fast that many people and now having to make do with far less than they used to do some of them. yeah, it's a terrible situation. however, you look at it, it's terrible. people can only buy one or 2 pieces of fruit. now, we used to buy one or to kilo's. now we're just buying individual paces on a, the solicitor, president rich of type ode one has promised to bring inflation back under control. angelic day. heard in this and we're sad that our citizens are having to face the situation. but in all of turkey's history, we have the government that has done the most to fight inflation tardy in the and

so, so now i'm luke was either leave it on. the lever has lost more than 40 percent of its value against the west dollar, but adorned says turkeys becoming more competitive. low wages and cheap production or increasing exports. he claims for those struggling on may get salaries. it's poor consolation migrants here in europe often face difficulties and frigid as when they tried to find a job that's especially true for some muslim women. bout d. w met one woman of moroccan origin, living in belgium, who didn't let setbacks in the conventional job market stopper. instead, she took matters into her own hands, lights, camera, cook, who did any buffering around her kitchen in brussels, marianne lucy and shares her recipes with hundreds of thousands of followers world white. the belgian moroccan mother of 5 is no a successful businesswoman,

but she had to build her own career letter language. they sometimes people here don't think of this a different backgrounds as really belgian ecologist marion married at 16 and soon had children. but she wanted more from life, take a marcellus actually. i started looking for work, but every door i knocked on was slammed in my face that they would simply ask me, are you willing to take or feel he jammed by thought as. what's that got to do with anything? what. what matters is what's in my head, not what's on it. is the g a doll at it? discouraged, she stayed at home until one day, an aunt asked miriam to film for her how to cook a favorite dish, lazy and had a brain wave in thought. launch a huge of channels. nation you. marion began uploading simple moroccan inspired cooking videos in french 4 years ago. i don't know. her creations have become a thriving enterprise. she's launched 3 more channels in other languages, so my legal arabic and that will be comb. anna did my, the,

the berber language revision leaking, said chapter genie. i'm hindi or as well as sharing recipes. miriam shears insights into her home life to bust stereotypes about muslim women in belgium on up mom, single people seeing us as women who are subservient to their relationships. bless my husband and i are equals when it comes to attacking the household. chores school, the cooking, taking care of the kids in life, electrical, despite her reams of fans. miriam still faces islam of phobia. online when i have been caught a terrorist islamist sullivan, i have to say that breaks my heart echo. it's in times like that. she says that the family feels more important than ever. miriam is grateful. her sister simila it steadfast supporter, despite initial doubts. in the beginning, i was not so comfortable with the fact that she opened a doors to the walled moth with time. i change my opinion. people can see that, yeah, we are happy we are have having

a normal library is nothing special in how live. in fact, miriam still has big plans for her businesses and her outreach efforts. but for to day, it's a rap and for us to you, what she w news here is a reminder. the top story we're following for you. european countries are debasing tough. a koran of ours measures due to the only con variance. it's feared a new infection. numbers could search as more testing is done following holiday travels and gatherings and that's it from me on the news team for now. don't go away. them. our documentary series doc filled is up next, this time looking at and more importantly, listening to the language of waves about elders in berlin and so mm and what.