lou magic corner chat hot spot for food and some great cultural memorials to boot d w, travel. all we go with this is due to the news live from berlin, china effectively, and it's 0 covert policy. people there breathed a sigh of relief, but with heard immunity still far off. the viruses dangers for me. also, on the program, taiwan responds to recent tensions with china lay extending compulsory military

service. president of the island that's claimed by beijing says the move is to combat any military aggression from china. this blizzard is the one for the ages. certainly it is the blizzard of the century. 50 people nearly 50 people dead. across united states, the governor of the state of new york ones born the extreme weather conditions are far from over with more snow in the forecast. ah, i my book rep, welcome to the program. china's pandemic restrictions are set to ease further, even though the country is far from heard immunity in cases appear to be sorry. beijing has announced it's ending almost 3 years of border controls. on january 8th, and coven 19 will get downgraded to infectious disease. but that may put the countries old and sick populations in protect no danger. the end,

the visa 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 you to funk 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. oh, jan. call with pivoting from preventing infection to protecting health and preventing severe illness. um, cooking will build, obey the policy changed, has been welcomed by some people. at least not your order. of course are some people prefer control measures only which boy incentive 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 to hear them. yeah. 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. with that, i believe i'm headed. but corona virus infections have skyrocketed since the u. turn by china's leaders at the start of december. all the 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. it's hard to judge, as china has not published, official covered 19 figures since sunday. and as a result of development in china, japan has announced that will require a negative cove in 1900 test, from visitors from china. the emergency measures come into effect on friday. here

in germany, the may be edging closer officially to an end of the pandemic. but members of the governing coalition are debating when to end the remaining cov, it restrictions. public health officials say heard immunity may be close thanks to widespread vaccination and natural immunity. the german justice minister is calling for an end to all restrictions, but the health minister has rejected the possibility of an immediate and too protective measures urging caution. other parties in the coalition government are also arguing. it is too early to scrap restrictions. earlier we spoke to miller here, biologist, a manual wheeler about the cove. it situation and asked him if he agrees with the statement made by some of his colleagues at the pandemic is over. so a key feature of up and i make is that we see these rapid and massive outbreaks of virus which we have seen in last, when to us and you all micron of our end and also to a certain extent in last summer this has been happening many come to us 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 charge to see very tough a virus and based on whether we call it pandemic 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 worrying there seem to be massive number of infections. this also means that thousands, tens of thousands of people are going to die, are experiencing disease diesel. also put extreme strain on like logistics on supply chains. so one of the things that we have to foresee years,

a lot of trucks are being made in china and lack of supply chain. this option of supply change 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 bar 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 like for example, new in u. s. k, parents will emerge gcse what we have seen one year ago with the emergence of mac on barron in the south africa botswana. this is not the same situation, us back then. so even though there is a threat that 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. why are there a molecular biologist with his input on the pandemic? thanks very much. thank you. let's turn out of some other stories making news right now. the russian president vladimir putin has signed a decree banning oil exports to countries that have imposed a price cap on its oil. the band comes into effect in february and the last 5 months. western nations have set a price cap for russia petroleum products as a aim to limit moscow's ability to finance it's for in ukraine. members, of course of those serve minority have put up new vehicle road blocks in the north of the country. they've also defied international demands to remove those place already. tensions between serbia and kosovo have been on the rise for weeks. serbian government accuses kosovo of trampling on the rights of its serbian minority. at least 56 people have been killed in violence and south sudan fighting

erupted on the weekend and young law states when members of the nor ethnic community attack members of arrival community. taiwan is announced that compulsory military service will be increased from 4 months to one year for men. the announcement comes amid increasing tensions between beijing and the self governing island president, sighing. when say that conscripts would undergo more intense training to combat any military aggression from china. it might be christmas, but there is no festive haters in the standoff between taiwan and china following height intentions between beijing, a self governing territory. when he's president signed wing announced a compulsory military service for men will be extended from 4 months to a year. she told the country the change was necessary to ensure ty, one survival will be she turned in to see i have to admit that this is an

incredibly difficult decision the way but as president, as the commander in chief, protecting the national security and insuring national interests while allowing taiwan to survive eternally and that the people can live a free and democratic life for generations to come is an unavoidable responsibility of mine. as the president. this footage, released by beijing, shows china's people's liberation army conducting military drills around taiwan on christmas day. taipei said 7 to an air false jets entered the islands as facing 24 hours. the largest incursion to date it follows a year of height intentions after us how speak nancy pelosi visit to taiwan in august. a move scene is provocative by beijing, which considers taiwan a breakaway province. all men over 18 will now have to complete a year of service,

including 8 weeks of basic training with pay for conscripts also increasing fall fold. in what i pay sees is necessary, moves to keep beijing at bay. 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, the area around buffalo and western new york has been struggling with a weather phenomenon known as lake effect, snow. as when cold air passes over the warmer waters of the great lakes, bringing the region huge amounts snowfall. and that is exactly what people around buffalo are experiencing, along with heavy winds and 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 the 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 as 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 it was able to find a rental car. there was not many, but i was able to find one. so when to start back, hanniman, i guess back in buffalo, more heavy snowfall is forecast. emergency crews are racing to free, those trapped while they still can get more on this wicked winter weather with our dw corresponded in washington stuff and simons. stuff in a not so bad were you are but this winter storm elliot. it just seems never to be ending further north in new york. what are the forecasters seeing coming up? yeah, you're right, it's, it's a mess and it's a cold mess everywhere. but focus to say now this storm which brought so much havoc and also really suffering and death to the united states is dissipating.

there will be more snow coming in the buffalo area, county or new york area, but it's going to get also warmer. and as you said in the report, as you have seen now the cruise city and county rescue crews are making really every effort, even the federal and the state government is sending national guard and any help possible to buffalo and the area there to really help people so this will be all better, but the west coast now gets a temperature drop in southern california, expected 15 to 25 degrees drop in temperatures and heavy heavy, heavy rains. that means flesh flooding. and that is, well, that 2 people died from that to a regular basis in the united states, especially in the, at the, at the west coast. and the snow up north along the west coast, washington, oregon and all those places. so bad weather all along for a while longer and of course is all coming at

a very busy christmas time peak travel season. what's the situation in the air? although gimme started, that is a totally different a mass on a totally different level. a southwest airlines is responsible for canceling 90 percent of all flights to day in numbers, 2500 flights cancelled while by southwest airlines. the next one spirited airlines cancelled 83. so you can see this airline has a big problem all over by monday night, around 5000 flights were cancelled. that is a massive amount. the problem here is not just for passengers want to go home. some are waiting for 5 days for the last 5 days to actually get where they actually actually wanted. then they turned around just wanted to go home and they are still not home. never let alone have seen their relative, so it is an absolute nightmare all over. and it's not going to get any better. at least not for southwest southwest. they said it's going to be like this

a few more days. so that bad news for travelers. stuff on simon. stay there, hunkered down in the studio in washington. our corresponding wash in d. c. thanks very much for that update. that's all for now. we're going to leave it with her looking at how access the digital world has changed 3 women's lives in asia. that's right, up after a short break of morphia top the hour, of course, with me willingly craft cnn news with with our sports. all with scoring we say they were both.