>> this is dw news, from berlin. the first major omicron travel restriction inside europe. france is banning all essential -- non-essential travel to and from prison. is -- from britain. germany's new chancellor says he is committed to protecting ukraine's borders but what

exactly does that mean? more expensive food, more expensive fuel and less consumer demand. inflation is hitting people hard and the european central bank has begun winding down pandemic support. the latest spider-man adventure hits the big screen to rave reviews. will spider-man really be the hero to bring audiences back into the cinemas? i'm brent goff. to all of you around the world, welcome. the omicron coronavirus variant is spreading across europe like never before. the u.k. has just reported another record number of daily infections. more than 88,000 new cases this

thursday. france has responded by banning non-essential travel to and from the u.k.. travelers arriving in france from the u.k. will have to self-isolate for several days or provide negative tests after 48 hours of isolation. charlotte has the latest from london. >> festive cheer on the streets of london. once again ringing hollow. shouts and hospitality may all be open. the christmas parties still allowed to go ahead as planned but covid is casting a dark shadow over the days ahead. experts warned that the omicron title wave is coming at a phenomenal pace. >> we know that it reproduces very fast. a week ago we said it reproduces every two or three days or three times a week.

two weeks, 64 times as many. three weeks, 512 times as many. it is coming at us like an express train. >> the u.k. is reporting record covid cases with omicron now the dominant variant here in london. resisting calls for further restrictions. the government is focusing on its booster campaign, resulting in lengthy cues from vaccine sites across the country. >> the omicron is growing so rapidly. >> so many have gotten covid again. clearly, omicron is spreading quickly. >> i live with my mother and father. >> i want to ideally get it done before i go and see relatives. i can't feel my toes but it is

ok. it is ok. correct the government is throwing the doors open to every analyst and inland to get boosted by the year. early data suggests the third vaccine is key to combating omicron. >> this is a massive undertaking for the health service. they are being asked for another major vaccine pushed to prevent hospitals like this one from being overwhelmed. there are concerns it won't be enough as people here line-up for their boosters. there are already people in hospital. hospitalizations are climbing and one person is confirmed to have died with omicron. it is not yet clear how severe the variant is. the sheer number of cases alone could prove overwhelming. in the shadows of this vaccine center, a reminder of what is at stake. a memorial wall can -- commemorating the tens of thousands of lies -- lives lost to covid.

this weary nation is now facing the threat of another worrying winter to come. >> for more now, i am joined by an expert in the mathematical modeling epidemics and a member of the independent sage group of scientists. dr. yates, it is good to have you on the program. let's talk just about numbers here. yesterday, we saw a record high, 78 thousand new cases in the u.k.. today we have a new record high, 88,000. is this new variant, omicron out of control in the u.k.? >> i don't think there is any other word for it. it is doubly every two or three days. we would continue to see them although we are a little bit concerned that our tasking ever

structure might be reaching its capacity. i don't think there is any other way of describing this. >> would you say this rate of increase we are seeing is all because of omicron or is the alta variant no longer a factor? -- delta viant's no longer a factor? >> omicron has definitely become the dominant variant in london as of a few days ago. this was found across the rest of england as well. >> we know that the u.k. prime minister want everyone to be vaccinated and boosted by the end of this month. that is about a million shots per day between now and the end of the year. even if the end is reachable. can this be booed out of the

omicron variant? >> we have not reached a million a day yet. unfortunately, it takes two or three weeks to get the best protection. over the next few weeks, the boosters will not make a huge difference. i hope the booster will provide some protection against their infection. it should hopefully reduce transmission. whether our not it would be enough to do that remains to be seen. >> talk to me as a modeler. if we were to go back in time, we would never predict that we would be in the situation right now at the end of this year. what needs to be done as we go into january? >> the modeling in the u.k. is

very uncertain at the moment. there are a lot of things we did not know about omicron diseases, how efficient the boosters will be. i think some of the most optimistic scenarios us adjusting we might see in the region of 2.5 thousand hospitalizations per day. in the worst-case scenarios, low efficiency and high escape, we might be seeing twice as many hospitalizations per day as we have been seeing in january of 2021. th is similar to the severity of delta. brent: based on what we know right now, it looks like omicron does not cause as severe a disease as the delta variant

causes. correct? >> i think it is still too early to say that. there are a lot of confounding factors. it is not certain whether it is more or less severe. as a scientist, we tend to use the precautionary principle that says we plan for the worst but we hope for the best. in my opinion, we need to be doing more to translate this. brent: dr. yates, a member of the independent sage group of scientists, we appreciate your time tonight. we hope for the best as we join you. thank you. germany's new health minister says people may need another booster shot early next year. he says with a vaccine that has been tweaked to cope with the

omicron variant. many germans are waiting for their first booster shot. the campaign will have to speed up quickly. >> we have reserved a large tranche of biontech pfizer vaccine which we will buy. for the most part, this will be vaccines already adapted to the omicron variant. i expect we will see some of these 80 million doses in the first few months of next year. >> that was the new german health minister there. and now to olaf scholz. he is tackling his first major foreign policy challenge. this is amid growing concerns over russia's military buildup with ukraine. the ukrainian president is calling on the european union to slap even more sanctions on russia. the kremlin insists the troops

are inside its own territory. crites as we gather for the last time this year, looming large -- >> as we gather for one last time this year, thousands of russian troops are still amassed at the borders of ukraine, fueling fears they are preparing to invade. making his debut at the summit, germany's new chancellor had this message. >> we have to emphasize that the integrity of borders is one of the key foundations. together, we will do everything to make sure we keep this integrity. >> a soft and diplomatic tone from the german leader but some of his peers want a tougher stance. namely, a commitment that nordstrom too, the major gas pipeline project between russia and germany would be included in potential sanctions were pressure to make a move into ukraine. >> it is very clear that putin

is trying to use nordstrom as -- nord stream as blackmail. there already is existing gas infrastructure to supply europe with all of the gas that we need via ukraine. >> outside the venue, another threat is looming. it had been hoped that with high vaccination rates, the pandemic would be over. now the situation has changed dramatically. europe is bracing for a difficult winter. it is inspected that omicron would be the new demo and it -- dominant variant here. the time he could not be worse and now there are real fears of a health crisis. they need to nail down the details of a unified approach. the estonian prime minister has that come down to three things. >> how to move on with the booster doses so that the people

would get protection from the omicron variant. second, we should agree on the validity. it is unified across the european union. third, we need to agree with unified travel. >> as european union leaders put their heads together once again, the challenges are mounting. brent: they are mounting. let's go to arbor of azle in brussels. good evening to you. we heard in that report that eu leaders are putting their heads together again. are they coming out with any success when it comes to a common plan for dealing with omicron? >> they are still talking in the building behind me but it is not very likely.

they have come up with dire warnings, saying that every european country should put up goat hospitals. they should knocked down christmas. everybody should stay at and not need anybody. they should really push rooster vaccinations all over europe as quickly as they can and by the way, also try to vaccinate the people who have so far resisted vaccination. will they do all of this? it is not very likely. countries are still somehow trying to mitigate the investigation for their own citizens and then some are being tougher. italy, greece, portugal. even if you want to enter the country, you have to take an extra cpr test.

brent: the other big challenge is russia. the military buildup on the board of ukraine. are we getting a picture of how europe plans to deal with that? >> it looks relatively unified but what is behind the scene is something else. the formula they have found is that russia would invade ukraine, there would be massive consequences. sanctions are looming.

so far, the eu is hoping for a diplomatic solution. they are really in a bind here and they can send a message about what is being heard. >> this is the first european summit with the president of german chancellor olaf scholz. it is the first big summit without angela merkel. >> angela merkel was eighth famous for her rhetoric leech challenge speech patterns. olaf scholz is really trying to be the continuity candidate.

he delivers a similar type of speaking. people may be wondering if this is -- he will probably need a little bit of time to find his feet on the european stage. >> we will be talking to you if he shows up in a pantsuit. you are watching dw news. still to come, spider-man is back. can his web rescue movie theaters? that story is coming up in just a moment. let's look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. young children have been found among a number of migrants rescued from the english channel by the u.k. border force. they were brought to the port of dover. tensions between britain and france have grown over an increase in these. last month, 31 people drowned.

lawyers have opened the defense of ghislaine maxwell. she is accused of grooming underaged girls for jeffrey epstein. epstein committed suicide in prison before his trial started. maxwell has pled not guilty. this volcano is in the palme. it has been silent for a third day running. that is raising hopes that the three month long corruptions are coming to an end. rivers of molten rock have ruined homes and businesses including the island upon banana plantations. rising prices have become a major problem as economies rebound from the depth of the pandemic. in germany, some have seen their heating bills double in the past year. vices are also surging for fuel

and food. >> three euros and $.99 for the head of cauliflower. other produce is more expensive from a year ago. food prices have risen by 4.5% in the past year. something that this berlin greengrocer has noticed. >> people e hesita. that is understandable because everyone is suffering financially. people are leaving things off their shopping list. across the way at this, she has had to raise your prices. many things she needs have become more expensive. >> the cooking oil has increased. she earned a little extra by selling hats.

she has begun going to a food bank. >> this way i pay a fraction my groceries. fuel prices have risen even more sharply. the causes include both the pandemic and a new carbon emissions tax. the european central bank believes the inflation search is temporary and due to the effects of the pandemic, they expect inflation will be lower next year. >> with prices and the pandemic, you need a booster. i agree with you there. the european central bank, they are trying to do something about inflation. >> one of the key ways in which you can tackle inflation is

control of interest rates and to raise them. that makes it less attractive to oil money. more attractive to save money. prices don't rise as much because you don't have this demand and supply issue that leads to inflation. but they are not ready to increase interest rates just yet. there -- they are not going any higher than that. i have spoken to an expert about this. he insists they are taking this too slowly. they can see themselves increasing at all. although it is forecasting inflation of over 3%. that is still well above its target but it is not doing nothing to tackle inflation.

it is going to be phasing out its massive pandemic purchasing. the economic similar is is worth 1.8 5 trillion euros. that should do something to stop the outreach. >> how does the european central bank approach compared to other central banks? i'm thinking of the bank and the federal reserve bank. >> we heard from the bank of england. that is a big deal. they have actually announced that they will increase rates right now. it does not sound like a big deal. when you consider they have not raised interest rates at all for the past three years, that is something that is remarkable and it has surprised investors today. we have been living in an era of

falling rates. one of the things behind that is inflation is worse in the u.k. then it is here. we have also heard from the federal reserve and the united states central bank right there. they are also not increasing rates yet. they are seeming a bit more radical on this. >> people want to know that prices are going to come down. >> they probably will eventually but we can't say they will not be more inflation through the first few months of 2022. we still have people spending. we have demand rising. >> people are getting out and about more. they want to buy stuff because of this pent up demand over the past couple of years. but the supply chains can't keep

up. producers can make this stuff up as much as -- as fast as it is being sold. we are not out of the inflation woods yet. brent: we have to get through the holiday season and all that. as always, thank you. some sports news now, outbreaks of covid-19 at some football clubs that have because the english premier league to postpone half of the matches this coming weekend. the league announced that saturday's game between manchester united and brighton will not take place as scheduled after a rash of positive tests at united. the league postponed for more of the weekend's games including everton versus leicester. so far, the league has rejected calls to suspend the season. the newest release from marvel studios hits theaters around the

world this week. i am talking about spider-man, no way home. it is the last of the current trilogy. it has premier to rave reviews. they hope that it breaks pandemic boss office -- box office records and brings audiences back into theaters. >> spider-man, no way home starts with peter parker enlisting the help of dr. strange to cast a spell to make everyone forget his true identity revealed at the end of the last film. >> be careful what you wish for, parker. >> hello, peter. >> villains from different spider-man universes arrive, including characters from different versions of the franchise. will of the reprises his role as green goblin. the villain in the original film from 2002.

>> it is nice to revisit sometimes. it is basically picking up where i left off. >> this is the climax of the trilogy starring tom holland as the superhero. it set up the next stage of the marvel cinematic universe and has already received glowing reviews. >> we worked so hard on this film. for this to be the collection or the combination of our franchise, for it to be so well received is awesome. >> boxffice analyst are pinning their hopes on a successful opening weekend. >> watch out for that web. you're watching dw news. here is a quick look of the top stories we are following for

you. britain has reported yet another high number of daily covid-19 infections, the highest since the start of the pandemic. health authorities say the omicron variant is behind the surge. eu leaders our meeting to discuss a unifying sponsor. olaf scholz is in brussels for his wrist eu summit. leaders from the eu are considering sanctions over its military buildup and the ukrainian border. after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. tonight, the pandemic and pressure, these two use crises. i will ask, right after the break.

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>> welcome back to the newsroom in paris. the french government announces new measures for travel between france and the u.k. with concerns over the rapidly spreading variant of covid. i'm its it could be dominant in europe within weeks, leaders are discussing how best to tackle the containment threat. in brussels, leaders are warning of consequences in the event russia invades ukraine. 100,000 russian troops are amassed on the border.