berlin -- phil: this is "dw news" live from berlin. the eu approves astrazeneca's vaccine as a feud between the two intensifies over delays. farms in nigeria win

compensation from oil giant shell over damage caused by oil leaks after a 13-year legal battle. i'm phil gayle. welcome to the program. the european commission has approved astrazeneca's vaccine for use across the eu. brussels signed off on the use of the vaccine in people over the age of 18. the eu is facing sour criticism for the slow pace of its vaccine rollout. astrazeneca is the third to gain approval. stricter brussels -- straight to brussels where we find correspondent teri schultz. millions in the u.k. have already received the vaccine. why has the eu been so slow look?

-- so slow? terry: that's right. the eu medical agency is not in the business of applying -- of apologizing for taking whatever time takes -- for taking whatever time it deems necessary. it was the first one they started looking to approve but it was the most complex. they simply said they are working as fast as they can to get results, and they cannot be sped up by pressure. phil: meanwhile, german and french elk officials have questioned the drug's efficacy in people over 60. what has the ema said about this age group? terry: that's right. ema did talk about this today as well. they said there seems to be some confusion about them having very little data about people aged 65 and older and confusion this data may have been negative.

they said that only 13% of patients in the information they received were elderly, and that's why they are reluctant to draw a firm conclusion about the results. they said they already do understand there is some protection provided in people of this age group, and they said they will continue to study, they will continue to receive data, and maybe come out with further results later. i also got off a press conference with astrazeneca officials who were asked the same question, and they defended their results and said that as careful as the ema is being, they would not have approved it if they truly thought this vaccine was dangerous for people of that age group. phil: thank you. that approval from the eu comes amid a bitter dispute between brussels and astrazeneca over delays to the delivery of vaccine supplies. brussels accuses the drug's manufacturer of failing to

fulfill its contractual obligations. the company says it is working hard to overcome production problems but that deal with the eu requires it to make its best efforts with no solid timeline. >> this contract is at the heart of an ongoing feud between the european commission and british-swedish phma company astrazeneca. the eu has made the contract public, but many of the crucial parts have been blacked out by astrazeneca. a scandal, say numbers of the european parliament. >> from the perspective of the european parliament, it is simply not acceptable that pharmaceutical companies would get a lot of european money when they are not willing to give access to all the information.

>> astrazeneca shocked eu states last week by announcing significant delays in vaccines to the bloc, especially since the eu has paid hundreds of millions of euros to boost astrazeneca's production. the dispute prompted the eu to intruce a scheme to monitor vaccine experts, but the eu commission emphasizes this is not an expert problem. >> we are only in a race against the virus. terry: the eu has approved the use of the vaccine, despite delays in production. phil: let's get more from david green. welcome to dw.

what do you think -- is astrazeneca in breach of its contractual obligations to the eu? david: let's start with this -- we have seen the contract, as you say, a redacted copy. it is subject to belgian law, and it is subject to the jurisdiction of the belgian courts. as an english lawyer, i can give some hints about general contractual obligations rather than belgian law. the price is being paid insofar as supply is not made, that may put astrazeneca in breach of the contract. there were quite a lot of provisions which may allow them to avoid liability and, as you

rightly said, there is a provision in this for best reasonable efforts. that is a defined term in the contract. astrazeneca and the commission have thought about what are best reasonablefforts. it is a catchall in that respect , and it would be up to the court if it came to it to determine what "best reasonable efforts" means. phil: as far as what you've seen on this redacted contract, it is not clear cut and if necessary, it could go to court? david: there's no question about it. this is a fairly complex contra. it could go either way. there may be arguments on both sides. i think the important point is there is a provision that they can go to the belgian court --

in brussels, presumably -- but that is really a last resort. with an issue of this sort, negotiation is the best way forward. courts should be regarded as the last resort for trying to sort out this sort of dispute. phil: right. the other issue aside from astrazeneca's supply contract with the eu is the company's deal with the u.k., which astrazeneca says guarantees the u.k. priority of supply. do you have an opinion there? david: well, i have not seen that in the commissin's agreement. phil: it is a separate arrangement. davi absolutely. these are entirely separate contracts. simply because i he agreed to supply one customer against another customer does not mean do not have separate obligations. in order for the u.k. to have

priority, there would have to be something in the contract, wch i have not seen -- there would have to be something in the contract to provide the u.k. priority in some fashion, but as i say, on a fairly brief read, i have not seen it. phil: we heard from an mep who was upset that the contract had been redacted. he said we pay all this money, we should see the whole thing. are there important reasons for rejecting information from a contract such as this? >> there are a lot of reasons for redaction in a contract. they are private between two parties. indeed, there may be competition reasons to keep it confidential. i would be very surprised had they published those elements of this contract, if tha should be

available to mep's and the european parliament is another point, but i'm sure it would only take place on a confidential basis. phil: that's very clear. thank you so much for joining us. david: thank you. phil: germany is to impose a travel ban on countries most affected by the new coronavirus variant. the ban comes into effect saturday and will be in place until at least february 17. germany says it is necessary to prevent a surge in new infections. >> the fear of new coronavirus mutations is real in germany. it is also one of the main concerns for german authorities. to prevent them from spreading fast in the country, the government has announced new travel restrictions. the ministry has announced a

travel ban from countries particularly affected. mutations have not hit germany as hard as other countries, but already a hospital in berlin was forced to halt admissions after several cases were found of the mutation first discovered in britain, and health officials are stressing that the situation could deteriorate. "we have to assume that if the more contagious variants continue to spread in this way, they will lead to even more cases in the future, and the situation will probably get worse. we must work together to prevent it." the travel ban is seen as a step in that direction, but there is still no idea how effective that could be. phil: let's get more from dw correspondent hon spent. the incidence has fallen below

100 residents in a seven-day period, so why impose this been now? hans: the answer to that is fear -- fear of the new mutations in the virus, the ones first detected in south africa, in great written, in brazil, and are said to be a lot more infective -- south africa, great britain, in brazil, and are said to be a lot more infective. we have seen in countries such as portugal that there have been explosions in infections. the fear these virus variants could enter germany is the reason this was impose peer there have been similar sorts of restrictions in place already for many countries for months. it is not easy to travel around the world.

this is the highest possible restriction travel from these countries into germany will be banned from saturday for two weeks or so. phil: it is interesting germany has just proposed this ban. hasn't brussels been trying to discourage that sort of unilateral action from members? hans: yes indeed. there was a motion by interior minister's, but they were not able to agree to the sorts of restrictions that germans and others had hoped for or had called for. the german interior minister, in fact, had said he would have liked to close down all airports completely, not restricted to a single country. belgian, for instance, is preventing citizens from any travel until the end of march.

in canada, there have been severe restrictions imposed -- no flights through, for instance, mexico or the caribbean are allowed at the moment, so there is a fear going around the world, and germany has decided that for the good of its own citizens, it needs to impose this much more restrictive been -- this much more restrictive ban. phil: thank you for that. american drugmaker johnson & johnson says it's single shot vaccine is more than 70% effective against the virus. the company will apply for regulatory approval next week. hungary has become the first set -- the first country to authorize china's vaccine and also broken ground allowing the russian vaccine. the united nations described 2020 as the worst year in tourism history. global losses are more than one trillion euros.

in other non-corona news, the world health organization scientists have inspected a hospital in the chinese city of wuhan, one of the first to treat coronavirus patients. a team is also scheduled to visit the market or the vaccine first appeared. bombers set off explosives outside the embassy in delhi. no injuries were reported, but investigations are under way. studies say a new policy restricts access to contraceptives that lead to more unwanted pregnancies. shell has been ordered to pay

for damages in nigeria after a 14-year legal battle. >> it looks like justice has finally been done. after 13 years of legal wrangling, the dutch appeals court is holding oil multinational shell responsible for spills from its pipelines in nigeria. "the court finds that shell nigerias responsible for damages caused by the leaks. shell nigeria is hereby ordered to pay compensation to the farmers." now these farmers could finally see some redress for the land and ponds that they lost. >> this place is a fishpond we

were able to come to fish. >> these fields are so tainted by oil that nothing much has grown here since. >> what made me angry was that that's my livelihood that they destroyed, my fishpond. >> the verdict is good news for the farmers who took the oil giant to court, but it could also help other nigerians who have suffered. the u.n discovered chemicals that could cause cancer in some drinking water in the region and babies born within a 10-kilometer radius are most likely to die before they are a month old. many more victims could now claim compensation from the world's second-largest oil company. >> up until an hour ago, people in developing countries were without any rights when confronted by multinationals such as shell, and from today on, they know they can get their

rights. >> but the amount of compensation for the farmers has yet to be determined. >> i do hope that they will actually get some compensation soon because the court has taken so long already. >> for some, it will be too late in any case. two of the claimants have already died. but the verdict helps to empower poor farmers who take on powerful global corporations. phil: the farmers' lawyer joins us. welcome to dw. have the farmers now won, or could shell still fight this? hannah: theoretically, shall uld still go to the supreme court, but that will not be that easy because the supreme court will only deal with issues of dutch law, and this case has actually been an matter of fact

and has been dealt with on the basis of nigerian law. on those issues, shell will not be able to appeal this. phil: given that the oil leak happened in nigeria, why did this court case happen in the netherlands? >> first, the oil pollution in nigeria has been gng on for decades already. it is severely difficult for the nigerian people to get justice in niger, and even if some of them may win a case on in a while, they have not been able to actually change the behavior of shell in nigeria. that was one of the reasons these poor farmers decided to go to court, hoping they could force some actual change. phil: this presumably then opens the door to more such cases? i'm guessing there were more

than just for farmers affected by this spill? >> yes, that is true. e court has ruled already that shell is liable for victims of the spills that were dealt with in this case. it is very well possible there will be more oil spill victims in nigeria who will try to seek justice in a way similar to this, which does not say that it is an easy way to get your justice from now on. of course, it has been a very long and complicated road we followed with this case. phil: to those of us not in court, it seems unarguable. there was an oil pipe, the land was polluted, it was shell's pipe- what was the company's defense? >> shell has said from the beginning that the pipeline suffered sabotage.

shell has argued that when a spill is caused by sabotage that they cannot be liable on the basis of nigerian law. phil: is this ruling now likely to mean shell and indeed other oil companies will have to change the way they work in nigeria and perhaps elsewhere? >> yes, most certainly, definitely in nigeria because we now know tt shell has not provided sufficient evidence of sabotage, and this means that shell will from now on have to do more documentation, so following an oil spill, they have to change their behavior when they e documenting an oil spill. the court has also held th

they were under duty to make sure the system was installed, and th is not only a duty for shell nigeria but also the parent company, and they must now still do so in the pipeline. there are, of course, many oil pipelines in the niger delta, and many are not up to date and are in need of repairs. phil: thank you so much for joining us. china has said it will no longer recognize british overseas passports held by many hong kong residents. passports have been in use decades and are now a legacy of the u.k.'s time as the territory's colonial ruler. when china invoked in national security law, the u.k. said it would open its doors to hong kong residents in possession of the passport, allowing them to apply to live and work in britain and eventually seek full

citizenship. earlier, we spoke with dw's reporter and asked about the impact of e regutions. phoebe: most of the hong kong citizenry actually have two passports, one of them issued by the hong kong authorities and the other a british national overseas passports. it is a legacy of colonial rule, and nearly half the population holding these passports. in reality, even the beijing and hong kong are starting to recognize british overseas passports, arrestors can still use the hong kong passports and other hong kong identification documents to depart or enter the territory, but in a broader sense, beijing is trying to send

a message to hong kong residents who are considering moving to the u.k. through the overseas passports citizenship scheme. beijing sees this as retaliatory measures to respond to the u.k.'s hong kong policy, and also to send a message to people that they may face consequences if they do so. phil: now to tennis and, yes, there is tennis being played down under in the run-up to the australian open. rafael nadal strolled onto court wearing a mask, the first since he and dozens of players were put into quarantine when they arrived in australia two weeks ago. now he ranks second in the world and played number three dominique team -- played number three dominic thiem. now to a new netflix movie, "the

dig," which recounts an archaeological find in england that changed people's understanding of history. an amateur archaeologist played by ralph fiennes excavating with a believe are viking remains on their property. >> is that what you believe, tales of buried treasure? >> my interest in archaeology began like yours, when i was scarcely old enough to hold the tools. i helped my father excavate. >> that speaks, doesn't it? the past. >> "the dig" was shot in suffolk, near the original site, but it is not just documentation of the famous archaeological discovery. plex eyed -- >> i did not know much about it, but i was taken

by the story. >> from the first men who wrote on a cave wall, we are part of somethin continuous. >> one excavation stunt terrified actress carey mulligan during filming, ensuring costar refines' safety -- costar ralph fiennes' safety when he was buried in munn. >> draed not want to use a -- ralph did not want to u a stunan, but it left me with the terrible task of making sure he did not drown in mud. >> thankfully, he survived being buried alive and the film couple can go on making archaeological history.

phil: the european medical agency has authorized astrazeneca's vaccine for distribution across the bloc. the news comes amid disputes between the eu and the pharmaceutical company overproduction delays. i will be back to take you through "the day." you can always get the latest news and information around the clock on the website, dw.com. have a good day. ♪

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news" on "france 24" and fran 24.com. >> thomas waterhouse. these are the world headlines 10:00 p.m. paris time. the third coronavirus lockdown isn't needed for now. it was announced further restrictions on the movement of people as well as fresh business closures. europe's regulator gives astrazeneca the all clear for those over the age of 18, but will that be enough to go around

officials in brussels and