proud of it was to be a steal worker like his grandparents and his parents. this is his business to come here for life. well, the witness and loses globalization. where do we stand? starts january 5th on d, w. ah ah, this is dw news that live from berlin. china effectively ends it's 0 coven policy. people there breathed a sigh of relief, but with heard immunity still far off. the viruses dangers remained. also on the program, tensions rise on the korean peninsula. south korea's military apologizes. for

failing to shoot down north korean drones that crossed its border, the country president says he will speed up plans for a specialized unit to monitor drone threats. and this blizzard is the one for the ages. certainly it is the blizzard of the century with at least 50 people debit governor of new york, want warns the extreme weather conditions are far from over there with more snow in the forecast. ah, i'm way bluecross. welcome to the program. china's pandemic restrictions are set to ease further, even though the country is a far cry from heard immunity encased appear to be soaring. that may put the country's old and sick populations in particular danger. the end of these are restrictions for chinese wanting to travel abroad has sparked

a surge in flight bookings from china, people there has spent 3 years putting up with travel restrictions locked downs, mass testing, and other tough measures. the sudden lifting of these has caught people by surprise . the official reason the army con variance is not as dangerous as 1st thought. bunker. we'll go into fungal at the moment. the pandemic response measures have entered a new phase in our country. we're faced by a new situation and new challenges, boating call, with pivoting from preventing infection to protecting health and preventing severe illness. so hooking will build, obey the policy changed, has been welcomed by some people, at least whether you rather me of course are some people prefer control measures like which boy ulcerative cases are isolated in a centralized way. not only got flattered or so we know anyone outside is clear what, what we need now is heard immunity. so the government is quite right to do what is

doing under the current circumstances. what i think mentality is very important. there's no need to worry about it too much. if the government is allowing things to open up again, then that means it can't be that bad, right? if the virus is highly infectious in everyone's life is in danger. the government wouldn't be easing up. or yet, i believe on the head. but corona virus infections have skyrocketed since the u turn by china's leaders at the start of december. older people have been hard hit as vaccination rates among them are low, many hospitals overstretched. and it's estimated that coven 19, who claim a 1000000 lives in the coming months. the exact scale of the outbreak is hard to judge, as china has not published, official covered 19 figures. since sunday. germany appears to be edging closer to an official ends to the coven. 19 pandemic, public health officials say heard immunity may be near thanks to widespread vaccination and natural immunity. the development has sparked

a new debate among lawmakers in germany, about remaining rules, intensive care units across germany are full, but not with covey patients. increasingly, it's other pathogens that are making people sick. experts say there's now broad immunity against cove it in germany, leading biologists like christian justin and intensive care physicians say the pandemic is over the pony me, lloyd. naturally, the pandemic will have run its course at some point and exclaim, and i am extremely optimistic that'll be the case after this winter. and the german justice minister believe biologist, christian trust and is a very cautious scientist. marco bushman is calling for an end to all cove. it protection measures. masks are still mandatory on the national railway. individual states set the rule for local public transport. bushman coalition partner in government, the s p d says it's too soon to scrap restrictions, then hopeless money. it's nice to boseman is putting the onus on the states. if he

wants to end the measures he helped devise. he is arguing that if there's no more mutations in the next 4 months, we'll be transitioning to a phase where individuals decide on how to protect themselves. deposit items on football games, coalition partner the greens are urging caution design and yet nicholas is no point in undermining our achievements by rushing to when restrictions of us can even gone on. we'll need to roll back measure sensibly. so we're in a better situation. after the pandemic lim yonge team. germany's health minister wants to keep coven restrictions in place to continue protecting vulnerable groups . let's get more and where we stand with this pandemic exactly, with the manual wineries in molecular biologist with the max dell book center in germany. it's done research on the corona virus. welcome to deutsch avella. dr. wyler, would you agree we heard in that report? would you agree with the statement by some of your colleagues that the pandemic is over at least here? so a key feature of

a panoramic is that we cds rapid and massive outbreaks of virus which we have seen in last winter with you on the chrome barron and also to a certain extent in last summer this has been happening many countries. and this combined with a lack of widespread community, this is actually also what we observe in china right now. so this is something appear that is going to an end. and in so far, it's justified to foresee an end of the pandemic soon. however, what i would like to emphasize that we should not charged the very top of iris and based on whether we call it panoramic or not, but whether it has an actual burden on how systems and you know, moving over to china. it's finally opening up. does that pose certain dangers? so basically with the situation in china as far as we can touch it from here, a quite boring, there seem to be massive number of infections to solve means. thousands,

tens of thousands of people are going to die or experience severe disease. these will also put extreme strain on like logistics on supply chains. so one of the things that we have to force he is that a lot of trucks are being made in china. and luck of supply chain, this option of supply chain might also mean that we see and even more large, a lack of certain drugs you in europe for example. and, and beyond that, of course, what we know is that every infection is specific where certain, but small risk that the new or in can emerge. which can eventual suppose a certain threat to us. and this is not something that generally speaking, expected at the moment because there is not so much immunity around in china at the moment. so it's not so likely that for some new immune s k, parents will emerge. this is what we are seen one year ago with the emergence of mac on baron in the south african botswana. this is not the same situation as back

then. so even though there is a threat that completely new version of source coding to can emerge from china right now. this is not being generally considered as a major issue. we're going to leave it there for now a manual wyler. they're a molecular biologist with his input on the pandemic. thanks very much. thank you. turning out over some news making headlines right now. russian president vladimir putin has signed a decree banning oil exports to countries that have imposed a price cap on russian oil. the band comes into effect in february 2023 and will last for 5 months. western nations have set a price cap for russian petroleum products as they try to limit moscow's ability to finance its war in ukraine. cause of both serve but minority have put up new vehicle roadblocks in the north of the country and also define from

national demands to remove those placed earlier tensions between serbian coast has been on the rise for weeks. the serbian government accuses coast of of trampling on the rights of the serbian minority. a former iran football captain has slammed the iranian regime for preventing his family members from leaving the country. of the dies, wife and daughter were arrested monday on board of flight. that was re routed away from due by iranian officials, have said, di and his family shown support for anti government protest. taiwan president has announced an extension of mandatory military service from 4 months to one year. citing when is said taiwan needs to prepare in response to the growing threat from china. beijing considers tiwana breakaway province and as bout to re re unify it with the mainland with force if necessary. south korea's military has apologize for failing to shoot down any of the north korean

drones that crossed its border. it was the 1st such incident 5 years and re serious questions about sold air defenses in response to countries. presidents as he is accelerating plans to create a specialized unit to deal with thrones as tensions on the crane print filler. are on the rice. on the hunts, south korean helicopters scoured the sky, the signs of north korean drones. authorities here say 5 crossed over the border on monday with one flying close to the capital. so now the military has been forced to say, sorry, after failing to shoot them down, connectivity thing up, we'll look at them on what are you day human yo to with. our military's lack of preparedness has caused great concern year, what he put on target with the military will thoroughly check each troops detection and strike assets against the enemy's drone provocation on global poverty data and

actively employed detection devices at home to spot drones earlier talk and aggressively deploy strike assets commentator would all 3 pug isamena south korea's president yoon suk hee. all who has vowed to take a hard line on the north has used that moment to fast forward. his plans telling a cabinet meeting in the military training on readiness has been insufficient for years. a chinaman, coconut, true, your. we have a plan to greet a military drone unit test with monitoring key military facilities and north korea who is socially dominant or j will advance the establishment of the drum unit as soon as possible. archer, children up language will also introduce state of the art stealth drone stung and bolster or surveillance capabilities. amps, young child ala cushion meter across the border, emp young yang lead a kim john own,

is capping the year by meeting with key members of his ruling party, where he's hailed the countries growing economic and military power. the north, his fire, the record number of missiles in 2022, with his latest drone incidence. adding to growing concerns across the region. severe winter weather has been pummeling parts of north america. authority say nearly 50 people have died across united states in the state of new york. it's been especially hard hit. there above all, the western city of buffalo, which has a meteorological purely art peculiarity due to the proximity to the great lakes. it's a phenomenon called lake effect snow. that's where cold air moves across parts of warmer lake water, heavy and long lasting snow falls all there for the result. and that is what has happened now in combination with arctic temperatures and strong winds. it's making

everything simply worse. as city paralyzed by a mega storm buffalo new york is at the epi center of the blizzard, battering north america. people are stranded in their vehicles, in homes as snow pummels the region. the governor of new york gave a sobering assessment of this situation. we have then to a lot of wars together. and this blizzard is the one for the ages. certainly it is the blizzard of the century, and we are here to can talk about our, our collect, our collaborative approach to dealing with this crisis that it is a crisis. thousands of homes are without power, and a driving ban has been issued. the governor warned that the worst is not yet over and as much as we can see, the skies right now, we know that the storm is coming back. so anyone to declare is victory and says it's over. it is way to really to say president joe biden approved an emergency

declaration for new york, offering the full force of the federal government to support the state. thousands of flights have been canceled across the us, leaving many families scrambling to find a way to get home than our driving back to austin 17 hours so was able to find a rental car. there was not many, but i was able to find one that went to start back here in a minute. i guess back in buffalo, more heavy snowfall is forecast. emergency crews are racing to free. those trapped while they still can not for any animals and people to winter is a good excuse to hibernate. stay home, keep warm. but that is not the case for giant pandas. in fact, the colder it gets, the more active they become, their fur provides a natural protection against the cold. so they don't feel it as much here at the

kindling giant pander research center and central china. they certainly appear to be rolling in. it could certainly use a layer of fir myself, but don't have it kept stay warm here in the studio. that's all for now. you know, we use asia is up next. a stay tuned for that. of course. now is at the latest at d, w dot com and on social media, instagram, twitter as you w news. of course, a lot more for you right here at t w at the top of the hour. i'm lane with roughed actual stories that people the world over information. they provide the opinions they want to express d, w on facebook and twitter.