this is dw news from berlin, you'll find more on our website. that's d, w dot com. ah, rich countries are suddenly in a world of shortages, the cost of living crisis is broad, increased food and fuel costs, forcing more and more people to choose between heating and eating. a pandemic didn't help, of course. and now even baby formula is in such short supply in the u. s. president biden has invoked emergency powers to try and get it back on the shells. i'm fil gail in berlin and this is the day. ah, i know parents all across the country are worried about finding the infant formula to feed the babies. and i started to see that there was a formula shortage. i was telling my husband as a parent, as grandparents. i know just how stressful that is. i said,

how do we go and find this one because this is a crisis today looking what they call the defense production act. the image is empty. shelf desperate parents are heartbreaking. i'm also announcing operation fly formula. all of this that we go to buy formula. everything is best to be able to speed up the imported formula. these are baby, you know, they got to eat. also coming up, war in the world's bread basket is threatening a global food supply crisis. we find out what ukraine is doing to keep experts of grain going, despite the russian blockade. pretty much all of the corn that's coming in to the board on sunday is from ukraine at the moment. this vote is headed from here though to raw saddam. but many of the vessels go to north africa on the mid least, and they're a real fears of an increase in food shortages and famine. if supply bottlenecks arise. oh, welcome to the day

a u. s. president joe biden's facing mounting political pressure over a shortage of baby formula. the supply chain disruption began when the largest formula manufacturing plant in the u. s. had to close because of safety concerns. now the president has invoked the defense production act to revive domestic supplies and to allay the fears of worried parents. while americans got used to certain products missing from supermarket shelves during the pandemic. the shortage of this product could potentially be life threatening baby formula. a nightmare, especially for mothers who are unable to breastfeed. blake blake junior, and i started to see that there was a formula sorted. so i was telling my husband, i said, honey, we gotta go and find this one. because this is a crisis you thought everything's going to be all right. you know, all of a sudden we go to buy formula, everything is gone. it all started in february when top us manufacturer abbott

laboratories had to close their plant and michigan after recalling formulas. babies became sick with bacterial infections. after consuming the products, at least 2 infants died to battle. the shortage u. s. president joe biden invoke the defense production act. it requires suppliers of formula manufacturers to fulfill their orders before delivering to other customers. he also authorized special flights to import supplies from overseas are directed the department of defense and the department of health and human services to send aircraft planes overseas to pick up in from formula that meets us health and safety standards. so he can get on the store shelves faster. the shortage has sparked a search of interest at milk banks. mothers are increasingly coming here to feed their children with donated milk from other women. we were able to come here and get as many houses we needed to keep her fed and keep her growing on this task. and

cod just wasn't any available. so it's been pretty scary to. she realized that he might not be able to teach her baby. great. so it's a public health crisis that could easily turn into a political crisis for the by the administration or the u. s. president will be hoping his executive action will end the shortage and prevent further political fallout. oh, well start on that question where the amber phillips, who's been covering this story for the washington post to welcome to d w. how was this playing politically for the president? it, well there was just a hearing today where the head of the agency that supposed to be monitoring baby formula and, and inspecting that plant in michigan that have those potential safety, bacterial infection problems. told congress we're investigating. we're working on this every day. but the, that person was blasted by both members of congress,

democrats and republicans saying you had a whistle blower report about this from october. you know, at least one member of congress that i told you about an infant death in my community in september, in the, at the f. d. a didn't jump in to try to investigate this plan until december. in between that time, infants were hospitalized and died. and this is all exacerbated the food, the shortage of infant formula. so the point i'm trying to make here is that this government agency here in america has some tough questions to answer about why they didn't act sooner on this. and why didn't foresee a crisis coming if this major plant america major manufacturer, she had to pull formula from the shelf, so the biden ministration more broadly, has yet to answer questions about that. i think right now they're just focused in crisis mode, right? arguably much later all mothers in the same boat on this or that geographical or

social differences. yes, a note about those questions. all mothers are in their same boat. it is very difficult, no matter your social economic level to find formula. however, there have been researchers who say it's more difficult for lower income women, and that's because a lot of them are lying coupons from the government to buy formula. they can only buy specific formula. so congress today just passed a bill that will change that and allow them to buy whatever they see on the shelves at rural areas. you also have reports and mothers driving hundreds him miles to a food bank where they hear that there's formula. and then it also affects women who don't have time resources or child care to take off to go to 8 different target, big box stores here in america to find formula. and you hinted it at the source. but the crux of this problem, it just seem odd that the closure of one factory can cause all this disruption.

yeah, there are 4 major formula manufacturers in the u. s. the united states does not if ever import formula, although that's changing now with this crisis as, as the military actually rushes to try to get formula from abroad over here to the u. s. and, and in addition, as i said, low income women in particular have to buy a certain formula in the government, restrict, salmon. there's no flexibility in times of crisis or natural disaster, our supply chain issues. and so these are all very systemic problems that i think the broader community here in america didn't think about until all of a sudden you heard the pain in that mother's voice moms can't feed there or they're scared. they can't. and doctors of course are warning against them, making up your own baby formula. the so called home my kids are just out of the formula stage, but i know from my mom community here here where i live in america. that when you

call your pediatrician and say, what do i do? there are no other options other than to go to the store and look for formula and, and deal with the rations and deal with the lines and deal with the time off work. there are no other options as you just said, doctor said, don't make your own formula don't when you're trad off this before there want. don't try giving them cow's milk alone figure out a way to get formula. it's. it's like it's one thing after another, but with co written we have the cost of living crisis in inflation close to a full 2 year high and people struggling to afford food shelter and even fuel is not a good look for democrats and we're going to talk about this politically and of course, president biden and his party are trying to keep control of congress and whatever governor's mansions and legit state legislatures, they still have control of november's mid term elections. it is not a good look when republicans can say, look in america in 2022. where's the baby formula,

especially when it points the timeline, as we know right now, it's still early in the story, points to the administration not responding quickly enough to this crisis or foreseeing it at the very least. so good briefly then. but the but factory has not been cleared to restart on between vasa, the president's crisis measures. what is it predicted bit by the formidable be back on michelle's we're hearing a broad range, which is frustrating for moms and dads trying to find formula. it could be weeks to even months ahead of this agency, the f d. a told congress that the really hard part is going to be distributing formula to rural areas in particular. so those people who really need it could be the last to get it. i wish you well, thank you so much for joining us in explaining that to us on the phillips from the washington post. thank you. ah. and today the situation ukraine reminds us of the dark is days of european

history. and i must say that during dark times, it is great to be among close friends. lo assess wins prime minister magdalena anderson, a speaking in the rose garden of the white house in washington, along with finland's, present at sallie and near me. sto, she just held talks with us president joe biden about the 2 nordic countries, applications to join, native president bites and he welcomed bits to join their lives in the u. s. would be supporting them in the process, hasn't her name is still a said finland was open to discuss and turkish concerns about their applications. we also said helsinki was prepared to commit to turkey. security. turkish government has said that it will oppose members for sweden and finland over perceived support for the current will. here in germany,

chancellor, olaf sholtes is pledged to supply more weapons to ukraine. it to work quickly to make you are an independent of russian energy. it was addressing german lawmakers ahead of an extraordinary european council meeting. later this month to discuss the war. now, chancellor sholtes and russian president vladimir putin was making a mistake if he thought peace could be imposed on you crate by force. no emerg locked, quoting putin still believes that he can bomb his way into dictation the piece of it, but he's wrong of yes, he was wrong in judging the unity of the ukrainians. ok, now under the termination of our alliances, johnson, russia will not dictate a piece because the ukrainians won't accept it and we won't accept it in the accepted on via of that session of the bundles toggle. so saw german lawmakers decide that former chancellor gerhard schroeder will lose some of his special privileges as a former leader. again,

schroeder has been heavily criticized for his business and political ties with russia. european parliament is also called for sanctions against the former chancellor, left office in 2005 and immediately went to work for version state energy companies, including a gas problem and rosin f o u n. secretary general antonio terrace has expressed a hopes of reaching a deal with moscow to allow millions of tons of grain to leave. ukrainian ports creates one of the world's leading producers of grain. but the war has hampered exports of by the black sea, and is exacerbating the global food security price crisis. now the remaining port of con, stanza has become a vital hub for grain shipments. dw jack paris reports on the challenges facing this. ukrainian cone would never have been here at the port of konstanz, or before russia's invasion. it would have been shipped out of the now closed port of odessa 250 kilometers up the black sea coast. it's good for business for the

operators here, but there are concerns about capacity ah dixie. we lenient problems that one of them will go hidden. done. we get many over the, me and one in the, in green one go green and in many school with you. but of course, you're not moving on the region. what was this vessel leaves? port 210000 tons of ukrainian corn will be shipped out since the start of april. but that's just one percent of the 20000000 tons of grain that needs to be shifted in the next 3 months before these ukranian fields harvested to avoid major bottlenecks. which could cause it to rot. pretty much all of the corn is coming in to the puerto con thunder is from ukraine. at the moment. this boat is headed from here, though, to rotterdam. but many of the vessels go to north africa and the middle east,

and there are real fears of an increase in food shortages and famine. if supply bottlenecks arise, the port authority says it's doing everything it can. we don't have other choice. what are if i i skimming and the here hedrick where? it's very easy to scream, i don't, i cannot do nothing. i cannot, this is showcase is hard time. everybody, this is a special situation and everybody must accommodate. with this situation, french solution konstanz a port has another problem though. 700 of these wagons lay rusting on the ports under used train lines held in judicial limbo, following legal battles between state and private entities. the countries transport minister says a new 40000000 euro projects will renovate no 15 romanian train lines before the end of the year. partly to make switching wheels to accommodate trains arriving from the east, which used wide tracks for 30 or 40 years. this,

the tracks wore a ban. so now we invested in gallery, in order to, to modernize this line, the soviet type of 4 lines, and to come directly in the hell harbor. this really is a graveyard of these old cargo carriages right now. were few 100 meters away from the ports of can stanza, and the plan is that this won't only support with the ukrainian shipments that are coming in, but also that it will help rejuvenate this area for the future. but in the short term, europe's approaching summer will only me more grains coming in and with no end to the war in sight pressure on the infrastructure. hearing cassandra, the only that the pi along or ministers from the jew 7 group of leading industrial nations and meeting here in germany to discuss the impact of the war in ukraine on

the global economy. and they're paying particular attention to the risk to food supply chains like a grain. a d, w 's are benjamin alvarez gruber caught up with canadas development minister who's been attending the talks. and he asked her hodges to sing, said jan. what the g sam's doing to alleviate food supply bottlenecks? mister, such an g 7 development ministers have been meeting here and billing. what did you mean take away of this meeting? first of all, i always want to say thank you to minister shoals for hosting us here. dave, for a very important g 7 meeting with putin's war against ukraine right now is exasperating on the food security situation around the world. so we focused on a lot on the food security for the, for the developing world, and how the g 7 would like money partners are going to come together and how the leadership that shoals as personally shown on this topic, is going to be very important to galvanize the support so we can deal with the immediate food security crisis,

but also for the medium in the long term as well. just have ministers agreed on creating a coalition for food security. what is this coalition about lucas coalition is about where we're going to work with the world bank to as a coordinated body, to bring together stakeholders from government, private sector, multilateral organizations. all come together including scientists, to be able to all come together, coordinator work. and we, we use the word coordination kind of quite a bit. but in this case here, if there's an urgency for it, if we coordinate or work with all the efforts that are currently taking place, we can create greater efficiency. allows us to analyze where the actual needs are, where we can get the best food production. but more importantly, rather than inventing anything new, we're talking about working with existing stakeholders, current initiatives, especially with the african development bank and the african union as well. how would you define the relationship between d 7 and african countries when it comes to tack on this crisis?

first of all, we have a really good relationship minister heart with here from senegal, who i personally know as well, passionately represented the african nations at all at our meetings. and today we had many ministers from the for different african countries. and also the union on to talk about what they're doing, what their concerns are as well. but i also want to highlight, this is not what they don't want is just about to handle. there are some very innovative work taking place in africa. we need to enhance that so that they can become self sufficient are when it comes to food as well. or we also need to take a look at other crisis around around the world with us, whether it's bangladesh or through hunger. and we also need, we're in yemen as well, and let's not forget the crisis in the middle east and syria. mr. so john canada's development minutes. so thank you so much for this interview. i think the w investigation has review of how collaboration between scientists in europe

and china might be having unintended consequences. together with partners from 6 other countries, d. w has been working on the china science investigation. for months. the teams have been probing the extent to which european researchers have cooperated with china's national university of defense technology. and if we feel some startling findings, they come to julio to, from about that to see this is a promotional video for one of china's top universities to meet you see my, who show or enter the journey of strengthening the military. and below that, some pads of building a wild class family. the videos for the national university of defense technology will n u d t. a place it's deeply integrated with the chinese military. it's all part of what's called military civil fusion, as practiced by china's ruling communist party, military civil fusion or m c. f is enormously important because it essentially

inserts the military into all aspects of the economy and vice versa. ok, so why are we talking about this? well, the new d t and other chinese universities like it have been getting help in their mission . from right here in europe, d. w in its partners in china's science investigation for been investigating links between these institutions and european universities. and we've discovered a huge array of connections including almost $3000.00 scientific publications, co authored by both sides. someone highly sensitive subject. german researches have worked on more than 230 papers with the n u d t. so this is a big trove of papers. we looked at a lot of them and a lot of them seem quite a lot. yes. but we also find some papers that might have a dual use application, so that means they could be useful civilian,

but also for military purposes. one quite interesting example is a study that looks at how you contract groups of people and china of causes the surveillance state that might have an interest in tracking. for example, a certain ethnic group like the week is. so you can see this is an interesting example that could have civilian but also more the fairies, the military application research on dual use technologies is meant to be carefully regulated. so we talk to the head of one major funding body to alicia. that was, and the must emphasize that the german research foundation doesn't fund any research with military relevance that is excluded from funding for the home. and yet, as our investigation shows questionable, research projects have been happening yet no problem. so he asked the junior minister, responsible, why the government isn't preventing that. he pointed to germany's constitution,

well, it's a $1000.00 in germany. we guarantee academic freedoms or research buddies and scientists decide for themselves. we can't do that centrally from belinda and we don't want to be mom. now there's no evidence at this point that laws have been broken. but both the european union and germany have declared china to be a systemic rival. and authoritarian state. there's pushing for a very different kind of world. china expert didi kirsten tac. low says doing the kind of sensitive scientific research with china the we've uncovered is deeply complacent. there's a saying don't bite the hand that feeds you and i would actually turn it around and say, don't feed the hand, the bytes you the national university of defense technology is clear what it's trying to achieve. we dedicate our lives to the modernization of the national defense. so the question is, do your opinion universities really want to help?

let's take a closer look at this with that now me comrade from d. w is investigative to welcome naomi. so we are there in the report, no indication of anything, illegal, a going all. and if you recognize it pretty much any technology can be used for military purposes. people are bound to ask why any of this matters? right, and we're not saying that we should cap all corporations with china entirely, obviously need to cooperate with china, particularly when it comes to important topics like climate change research. but what we're saying is that may be aware, you know, showing a picture that there's a lot of research going on in very sensitive fields with china's elite military universities. so one study that we looked at basically identifies how to track groups of people. so you can imagine a direct application, namely you can track certain ethnic groups if you want. so we're just raising the question whether in fields that have potential military applications or direct collaboration with research is from a military,

from china's top military institute. honest, essentially what you're wants to do and we saw in your report that certainly far as germany is concerned, this is very much a hands off approach. totally, absolutely. and it's quite interesting because there were researches or journalists part of this research where it's completely different in denmark, for example, it's changed completely within the last 2 years. there's been a reverse where denmark used to be very open. now a lot more thorough background checks, particularly when you look at you will use the technology. so technologies that can be used for civilian military purposes. universities are starting to conduct more background checks to check what exactly they're doing and what potential applications might be. so that the purity of, of academic research is one thing, but as you say, if you were we was what was research projects with this military university? is that okay? yes. go ahead. he just seems why do universities wants to collaborate with them at

all? well, i mean, this is china's top institute, obviously it has a lot of money and it has very qualified research. is that come with a lot of money. i mean, we have to remember that out of university than europe, a pretty cas strapped. so who would turn down a top research it with a lot of money, but there's also another aspect which is that in china, you have access to lot of data that you can't access in, in europe because of se, privacy concerns. now, china is a surveillance state. they have loads of data and to conduct good research. you need as much data as you can guess. it's very attractive to work with this university which has the data that you maybe can't get hold of here and has money. ok, now me, i come up from d w 's investigative investigative team. thank you so much on the day's almost done, but the conversation continues on lying. you'll find us on twitter, either us dw news or follow me at phil gail, i'm good with

with with a scheme but then she went back again and we hi. lucretia has been rescuing women and children from embattled mary and he's risky. he's life. how a ukrainian entrepreneur became

a huge focus on europe. next, on d. w is the end of the pandemic in site. we show what it could look like will return to normal. and we visit those who are finding it difficult with successes in our weekly coven 19 special with 19 special in 60 minutes on d. w. o. oh, hello guys. this is the 77 percent. the platform for

africa. you beat issues and share idea. ah, you know, or this channel, we are not afraid to happen. delicate topic africans population is growing fast. and young people clearly have the solution. the future belongs to the 77 percent every weekend on d w. ah, this is focus on europe. i'm laura babel allah, welcome to the program. we begin our show to day in ukraine where there is no let up in the.