since for the present in the future, that heads filled with ideas. so get ready for the brain update. 40 to the answer to almost everything starts january 15th on d w. ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin, china effectively and it 0 covert policy. people there breathed a sigh of relief, but with heard immunity still far off. the viruses dangers remained also on the program. this blizzard is the one for the ages. certainly it is the blizzard of the

century with nearly 50 people dead. the governor of the state of new york warns that extreme weather conditions are far from over with more snow in the forecast there. and exhausted after a dangerous journey in search of a better life for injure refugees wash up on the shores of indonesia after weeks. at sea, in a rickety boat. ah, i went to go crept walk into the program. china's pandemic restrictions are set to ease further even though the country is far from her immunity, in cases appear to be soaring. beijing has announced it's ending almost 3 years and border controls on january 8th. and coven 19 is downgraded to in infectious disease . but that may put the countries old and sick populations in particular in danger.

the end of these 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 omicron variance is not as dangerous as 1st thought bunker. we'll go into funky at the moment. the pandemic response measures have entered a new phase in our country. were faced by a new situation and new challenges out in call, with pivoting from preventing infection to protecting health and preventing severe illness. um co kimball field, obey the policy changed, has been welcomed by some people at least that you rather me of course are some people prefer control measures under which boy assistive cases are isolated in a centralized way. i've only got flat at all, 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 you're looking at, i, 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, 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. what i believe i'm had. 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. and in response to developments in china, japan as announced, it will require a negative, covered 19 tests from visitors from china. those emergency measures come into

effect on friday. here in germany, piers, to be edging closer to an official and 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 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 kobe in germany. leading biologists like christian justin and intensive care physicians say the pandemic is over. the pony me lawyer. naturally the pandemic will have run its course at some point. and exclaim, i'm extremely optimistic that'll be the case after this winter. and the german justice minister believe far ologist 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, which means coalition partner and government. the s p d says it's too soon to scrap restrictions, then publish money, it's ice. the bushman is putting the onus on the states if he wants to end the measures he helped devise. the hood 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. and he paused guidance on football games. coalition partner the greens are urging caution fears. lighten yet sneak alice. there's no point in undermining our achievements by rushing to n restrictions about can even though none will need to roll back measure sensibly. so we're in a better situation. after the pandemic, germany's health minister wants to keep cove restrictions in place to continue protecting vulnerable groups. earlier i spoke to emanuel wire, he's a mac mac, you're biologist, at a research center in germany, asked him more about the pandemic here. so a key feature of upon the make is that we see these rapid and massive outbreaks of

virus which we have seen in last winter with you on our end and also to a certain extent in last summer this has been happening many countries and piece combined with a lack of widespread community, this is actually also what we observe in china right now. so this is something a period 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 the panoramic or not, but whether it has an actual burden on, 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 a lot of trucks are being made in china and luck of supply chain. this option of supply chains might also mean that we see and even more and larger lack of certain drugs you in europe, for example. and, and beyond that, of course, what we know is that every infection is specific or certain, but small risk that the new virus can emerge. which can eventual suppose a certain threat to us. 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 like for example, new immune s k, parents will emerge to see what we have seen one year ago with emergent, forming on barron in the south africa botswana. this is not the same situation as

back then. so even though there is the threat, the completely new version of source coming 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. severe winter weather has been pummeling parts of north america. 40 say nearly 50 people have died across united states in the state of new york. it's been especially hard hit. the area around buffalo and western new york has been struggling with a weather phenomenon known as lake effect snow. that's when cold air passes over the warmer waters of the great lakes, bringing the region huge amounts of snowfall. and that is what buffaloes experiencing right now. along with heavy winds, an arctic cold 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 or 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 though 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 an hour. driving back to austin 17 hours though, it was able to find a rental car. there was not many, but i was able to find one. so when 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 turn out some other news making headlines right now. coast those serve in sir minority have put up new vehicle road blocks from the north of the country, have also defied international demands to remove those placed earlier pensions between serbia and kosovo. been on the rise for weeks. serbian government accuses coast of of trampling on the rights of the serbian minority. russian president vladimir putin assigned a decree,

banning oil exports. the countries that have imposed 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 cat for russian petroleum products as they tried to limit moscow's ability to finance its war and ukraine. the ukrainian foreign minister says his government is aiming for a peace summit by the end of february. it's round the anniversary of the russian invasion of his country. the metro collabo told the associated press that ukraine wants the summit to be held at the united nations, which secretary general antonio gal tavin as a mediator. he said he doesn't see russia taking part in the summit. calibus had russia must face a war crimes tribunal before his country directly talks with moscow. the summit. what exactly might a p summit without russia look like? that is a question i asked roman gunshot ankle. he's from t w's russia desk. well,

it is still not quite clear what exactly is meant, and we can be sure that ukraine is negotiating with the united states. about such a summit for western iowa allies of ukraine will probably also participate in that summit. so in caves, eyes i would say it should be a summit or, or more support for ukraine. ukraine would like to hear about more military military support, sending more weapons to ukraine, and also about security guarantees. this is a key question for ukraine from the very beginning. on one aspect is that as far as i understand, at this point, ukraine is not ready to see russia on the negotiating table as well, who grant the ukrainian foreign minister said that the 1st russia should be punished for what it has done and showed the occupied territories and external tories, russia is absolutely not ready to do that. so it is not clear how russia could be

part of that process piece process. but what we can consider at this moment is that this might be a beginning of a over serious of negotiations. and at the end of the long process, i think it will take months, maybe even years. there could be a solution. so we're talking, i've, i'm, i would say rather about a start of a very long way. a growing number of or india refugees are making a dangerous journey by sea to reach indonesia. on monday, a vessel carrying almost 200 people landed in the northern province a day after another boat arrived. more than 700000 injured have fled their native country myanmar in the past 5 years. as the military government, their wages, a brutal campaign against them. rescued and revived after surviving a perilous journey. indonesian official said, these were a hinge migrants washed up on a beach in a wooden boat. after a week at sea,

the 39 of the refugees are being treated with a medical infusion device. and most of them, dehydration officials are trying to determine if this is the same group who were fear dead after drifting at sea for more than a month. the migrants said, i hope indonesia will offer the chance of a better life. i don't care before we do it a day earlier. another boat arrived carrying almost 60 hinges, they say they travelled not from their native country myanmar, but from as far as bangladesh in the northwest, bangladesh is where more than $700000.00 range of refugees have lived in

a crowded camp for more than 5 years. they fled a violent campaign by the me on my military, which said it was targeting rebel groups. human rights group say the ra hinge are being pressured to leave the camp. a growing number are again, up routing their lives and trusting that faith to rickety boats. and the rough c, just leave it there for now. up next though, we have a documentary looking at the new king of england, charles the 3rd dock film. stay tuned for that love more for you. of course, at the top of the hour with me, william croft, it'll be nice to see you then as it was bound, imagine so many push it out in the world. climate change to the story. this is my plan, the way from just one week. how much was going to really get.