today, and remember there's always a lot more news analysis and background and lots of video on our website course, p w dot com. and of course you'll find us on social media channels. all the usual ones where i'll handle is at the d. w. news. soap subscribe. to us and follow us there. if you don't already do that, i'm gabrielle 1st in berlin from me and the news team. thanks for watching. ah ah, every jenny is full of surprises. we've gone all out to give you some tim, one day in the, in the footsteps of the right people. i'm in europe. northern most count please.

ah, for a time is one still very much alive, dw channel, your guy to the central southern germany knew it recognizes where exactly it was fun and i learned a lot our culture history, all their d. w. travel extremely worth a visit. ah, a travel chaos in germany as rail and airport workers stage. the biggest strike in decades will get the latest on the disruption from our reporter in cologne. also coming up is this. the future of delivery. will introduce you to theo, a robot on the brink of becoming

a postal worker. this is dw business. i'm kate ferguson. thanks for joining me. germany's transport system is on its knees to day as workers stage the biggest walk out in decades. all long distance trains have been cancelled, and there are no flights in or out of munich and frankfurt airports, local transit, shipping routes, and part of the actual bond have also been affected by the war case. the via the union is calling for a 10 percent pay increase to keep pace with soaring inflation. germany estate rail operator, georgia bon, have called the strike groundless and unnecessary more in this not to bring in reporter christy plots and she's in the city of cologne. christy, how much disruption are you seeing? well, kate, the colonna train station, which you can see behind me, is usually catering to over 300000 passengers every single day. as you can see were

see a couple pigeons behind me, but otherwise not a lot going on here. it's been this way all morning. this is, as you said, because there are no long distance trains running today. no regional trains, local trains, or most buses are also not running here in the area and in other parts of germany as well. even just to get here, i came from bon this morning, were deutsch village offices. it's about 30 minutes away. i had to take a taxi to get here at that cost over $80.00 euros one way. so just to give you an example of the kind of inconveniences people would be facing if they do want to travel to day. and we're planning to rely on public transportation. and christine, which are the pigeons, are confused about what's going on as well. and concretely, what are the workers demanding? right, while the very unions are asking for a 10.5 percent increase in pay out within the next 12 months, this is due to the fact that inflation in germany and in other parts of the world as well. a definitely here in the euro zone has been very high for an extended

period of time. a lot of these workers are part of critical infrastructure here in germany, transportation the like we were saying, but also they're not necessarily earning quite a lot of money as well. that means that these are some of the people that are being hit, the hardest by the fact that consumer prices are up. now what they have been offered is a 5 percent increase over the next 27 months. they said this just won't do and that they are willing to go on strike longer than just to day if their needs are not met . and they're not alone in their discontent. are they? this is the latest in a wave of sykes. we're seeing in europe. are we at the beginning of a new work christmas and would you say, i mean, it's a great question to if you look around the, as you're saying, i mean we're seeing major strikes and friends. we've all seen the images and videos of things that on fire and parents are seeing real strikes in england as well. also strikes related to airlines and spain. i think it comes down to the what we're

already talking about. the fact that inflation all around the continents and also all around the globe is really hitting a lot of people hard. they're having a hard time making ends read and they're saying, hey, something needs to be done about this. so whether that's here in germany and france and other parts of the world, there are certainly some sort of movement taking place right now or whether that will escalate and turn into something larger remains to be seen. but people are certainly feeling the pinch with the high cost of living right now. all right, christie plaza and cologne. thank you so much. so we've got a picture there from christie, if i just how big of an impact the strike is happening on the grind. the box up to this auction is of course, persistently high inflation. the latest figures showing prices rose 9 percent in germany in february come by to a year before. as bringing came and soon the president of the eco institute of economic research now came. it's good to see you how big of an economic impact will this strike have? what i think was one day strike will have

a very limited impact. there will be some disruptions and some production losses, but the strike was announced beforehand. so companies could adjust to this, the impact would be limit of the key question is, will there be a longer strike later in this negotiation, or will there be a settlement without further strikes if of course, if they was a longer strike, that would have severe impact on the economy and that would, that the recovery nat treatments public spending is under strain in germany right now. how likely are employers to buy to those worker demands? well, as always, i think there will be some kind of compromise. i think the, the employer is, will given to some extent, but of course there are limits to this. so i would expect something in the order of 7 percent may be. so a wage increase, which is still below inflation,

but one which will give some relief to a private household still to the employees. now if we look at the bigger picture, your institute has a new business climate survey. today, what stands out to you? well the news is relatively good. we see an improvement in the mood. we also see this pessimism we had in the, in the past month receding. so companies are optimistic, this is because energy prices are coming down. and also because the supply bottlenecks we had in the past years are eating some watts and that helps industry. so overall it's good news. the construction sector is an exception. there we have problems, a high interest rates, high prices, but the rest of the economy is recovering. and what sectors in particular are feeling optimistic right now. claim is what it's in particular manufacturing because of the improvements in supply bottlenecks. but what we also see is,

and across the board, improvement in, in the service sector, including the private sector, hotels, restaurants, so sectors that were hit by the pandemic. they are optimistic for the coming year. okay, so some good news that came in for president of the institute. thank you so much. thank you. now to some of the other global business stories making news. and another example of industrial action. israel's largest trade union group has launched a strike across a board brought a weight of factors including help trumpet banking. it's likely to paralyze large parts of israel or ruddy, shaky economy. the strike is in support of rising protests against prime minister benjamin netanyahu to overhaul the judiciary.

north carolina based lender 1st citizens bank is set to buy all deposits on loans associated with silicon valley bank. sb be collapsed earlier this month after reports of a severe liquidity crisis prompted a bank run. us regulators such as 17 former sb be branches would open up prost citizens, outlets on monday. saudi national bank chairman on our co dairy has resigned after comments he made about credit suisse prompted a slump in the bank stock value. saudi national bank was the main shareholder of credit suisse before its sale to fellows with lender. yeah, i think there will be a point in time when china is best known tycoon jack mom has returned to china to visit a school in hung joe, that according to the soap china morning, post march, the co founder of tech joined alibaba and fintech group and vanished from public

view after criticizing state banks in 2020, his disappearance was seen as part of the state cracked on, on a private open trade is to the peace trade china. foreign ministry says that an employee of japanese from dallas farmer, detained this month, was suspected of engaging in espionage. tokyo have called for the man to be released. tensions have been growing between regional rivals, china and japan in recent month. so now whether it's the algorithms that determine what you see on your social media feeds or an uncommonly human sounding chart, boss, artificial intelligence is having a profound influence on our world developments are happening at breakneck speeds, including in the postal sector. in our next report will introduce you to theo, a robot and delivery worker in training. the delivery service of the feature

from the outside, it looks like a box on wheels. by the inside, it's a kept artificial intelligence and a lot of high tech parts. this nearly autonomous robot might soon be delivering packages in germany. it's name is teal, it's cargo by based upon this vehicle. and it's lightweight electric vehicle fully electric, and it's very similar to we're autonomy car in terms of the sensors. so it's very safe oh cameras and sensors allowed robot to detect everything in its environment, obstacles, pedestrians, anyone, traffic lights, changing it, so incapable of driving down the road on its own. except it's not lead, say, in a state where we can fully trust these systems. so we have a human intelligence on top which can then and supplement the computer intelligence with the right feedback buses,

cars or trucks can now drive nearly autonomously on german roads. so have safe, are these vehicles to other road users? ah, is, is this frequency, sir? while it is safe, because 1st of all, all the manufacturer has to show the federal motor transport authority that these vehicles meet, the safety requirements that are desired, and demanded by the low on autonomous driving. and furthermore, it is safe in operation because a control room is also required by law is consist bothered in spill stds of faster . but also the sheet sources are if tear causes an accident, it's owner is liable. t o is controlled from a distance normal fleet of drivers. one employee monitor several tiers. this reduces caused by 2 turks developer osmond rama condron still has a lot of work ahead of him. he's currently refining the prototype, not a simple task. every aspect of it is is challenging,

but also i don't find it challenging because it's very passionate. it's very be up . if it's not hard, it's her not from a few weeks ago. the prototype, travel to you, to the park safely in a box. there it took its 1st drives on public roads. the semi autonomous vehicle still needs police protection. but next year this is likely to change to yield will be allowed to drive without an escort. and a reminder of the top is a story we're following for you. this our a massive transport strike is underway in germany. rail air and shipping services are out of action as workers stage the biggest wolf coast in decades. the via d union is calling for a 10 percent pay increase to keep pace with flooring inflation. germany sustains rail operator deutsch. a bon have called the strike groundless and unnecessary

and that brings us to the end of today. so thank you so much for watching. for more you can always log on to d, w dot com slash business, and we're also on the d. don't be good news, the youtube channel. so be sure to check us out there from me on the team here in berlin, aides the bike and stick with eco african they've planted over a 100 trees in just a few weeks and on stopping any time soon. the south african activists are giving me a voice ah,

by healing the environmental rules of deforestation. eco, africa. next on t w. we've got some hot tips for your bucket list. ah, romantic corner chat. hot spot for food and some great cultural memorials to boot d w. travel off we go. ah, a hello everybody, and welcome to vis new edition of eco africa. good to have you with us. i am chris, the lamps, coming to you.