from berlin. the u.s. and germany announced plans to deliver armored fighting vehicles to ukraine. the german-made marder and u.s. built bradley fighting vehicles could soon be on their way to the front lines. we will look at the difference they could make. also coming up, russian president vladimir putin quarters a temporary christmas cease-fire in ukraine.

kyiv dismisses the proposal as a proxy. in the u.s. there is no end in sight to a historic political deadlock. republican congressman kevin mccarthy appears to lose an eighth vote to become speaker of the house of representatives. it comes despite concessions to far right lawmakers. pope benedict xvi is laid to res t at a funeral ceremony resided over by pope francis. the first time into centuries a sitting pope has conducted such rites for his predecessor. ♪ i am nicole frolich. welcome to the program. we start with some breaking news. germany and the u.s. say they are prepared to send armored vehicles to ukraine. berlin will send marder infantry

fighting vehicles at a patriot missile system to help ukraine in its defense against russia's invasion. the u.s. is sending bradley fighting vehicles. germany has been under mounting pressure to deliver battle tanks long-sought by kyiv, especially after france agreed to supply light tanks to ukraine yesterday. dw correspondent catherine lankes has more on this. germany has long been reluctant to provide armored vehicles to ukraine. why the change of heart now? catherine: germany has long said it does not want a single move, no unilateral decision when it comes to delivering heavy weapons to ukraine. to -- so it asked for close coordination with nato partners, and said it feared potential provocation of russia if western made battle tanks are sent to

the fight in ukraine. germany has also always been saying we are already a very strong supporter of ukraine. they have sent howitzers, air defense systems and antiaircraft guns, but so far no battle tanks that were western made. until france had a change of heart and decided to send let battle tanks, which -- light battle tanks, which germany has now done as well. there was a call with olaf scholz and joe biden after which it was announced both countries would be sending heavy weapons likely marder -- like the marder to ukraine. nicole: what kind of equipment are we talking about here? catherine: so, one of the two weapons that are being discussed is the marder, and the marder, you have to imagine it is some sort of light tank. so, officially it's not a battle

tank per definition, but it's used as one. it's used on the front lines. officially it is called an infantry fighting vehicle and it has a cannon and machine guns, and it will hold nine soldiers. ukraine hopes it will make a definitive change on the battlefield for its fight. the patriot missile air defense system will also be sent. germany will support the u.s., that has already sent, or announced that they will send patriots. it's a machine to protect, basically, against aircrafts, long-range drones, and cruise missiles. so it is not nothing that will come to ukraine. nicole: catherine lankes, thank you so much. meanwhile, russian president

vladimir putin ordered a 36 hour cease-fire on the ukrainian frontline that would take place from january 6 to january 7 to coincide with the russian orthodox christmas. the kremlin says putin made the decision after an appeal from the head of the russian orthodox church, patriarch kiril. ukraine has dismissed russia's declaration as hypocrisy and propaganda. our correspondents roman goncharenko and killian bayer gave me some analysis on this earlier. i asked what we know so far and what the cease-fire ordered by putin could look like. killian: well, president putin talked to his defense minister and instructed him to implement the request made by patriarch kiril. so who is patriarch kiril? patriarch kiril is the head of the russian orthodox church. he is the spiritual leader in russia, and also a man who blesses russian troops before he goes into combat and says if they die in combat, they will be

washed free of their sins. president vladimir putin is saying that he would like to have this cease-fire over orthodox christmas so people can go to mass. basically what he is implying is people can go to mass without having to fear for their lives, and fear of dying, really. nicole: officials in kyiv were quick to dismiss the move as i progress he. what more can you tell us about how this announcement is and received in ukraine? -- has been received in ukraine? roman: so far there has been only negative reaction. the advisors of the presidential administration called it propaganda, hypocrisy, and a trap. the head of the ukrainian national security council was very, very critical. he also spoke of hypocrisy, and he recalled that patriarch kiril , the russian patriarch, was blessing russian soldiers who

are killing ukrainians. and he said ukrainians would continue fighting. experts also say russia only needs a small pause to regroup forces, and recall that in april last year, president zelenskyy suggested to russia an easter cease-fire, or easter truce. putin rejected it, and the u.n. secretary general also suggested a truce at that time, and the russian ambassador said a truce would only mean ukrainian forces would regroup, so russia rejected it. rush it was thinking it was winning in ukraine. now, probably not. nicole: u.s. president biden says he thinks this is putin trying to find some oxygen. why do you think putin ordered the cease-fire now? killian: well, i mean, we need to look at how the war has gone for russia. first the assault on kyiv didn't work. then in the summer we saw the

russian army really performing very, very poorly. the next big, very embarrassing defeat after annexing kherson, they had to leave. and most recently we had the strike that is interesting because it was very far behind russian lines. it was a base full of russian soldiers struck by ukrainian rockets. and what we are hearing is that the ukrainians, they are implementing, shaping operations. what does this mean? it means they are striking logistical targets in the back of the russian lines, targeting munition depots. we are hearing from crimea that there are explosions there every night. in light of this, it seems plausible the russians might need a pasta bring equipment back to the front lines, bring food back to the front lines. so it is a plausible explanation. nicole: any idea on how this

will play out? roman: well, some on the russian side are already painting that there will be no complete cease-fire. some media reported the head of the so-called donetsk region was saying there would be no cease-fire, just for people who believe in god, the christians, so that they have time to pray or visit the church during mass in a cathedral. so he said if there was not any fighting, russian troops would retaliate. he also said, and i think the fighting might subside a bit, maybe not so intense, but there will be no complete stop of that. here in kyiv, people expect an escalation. because russia will probably try

to hit ukrainian cities with rockets and drones again as what they call retaliation for ukrainian shelling, where dozens of russian soldiers have been killed. and russian president putin in his new year's address, he made it very clear russia wants to continue the war, not stop it. nicole: roman goncharenko and killian bayer, thank you both. to the u.s. now, where republican politician kevin mccarthy has failed for an eighth time to win enough support to become speaker of the house. it is one of the most important jobs in u.s. politics. there has been no sign of progress in mccarthy's showdown with a group of hardline members of his own party blocking his election, despite him offering various concessions. mccarthy is the first candidate in a century who has had to face multiple ballots. the chamber cannot move to any other business until a speaker is chosen. and sitting tight watching all of this unfold is dw washington

bureau chief ines pohl. she joins me now for more. round after round, mccarthy does not seem to be making any progress. how long can this go on? ines: well, theoretically there is no limit. you just said the record was nine votes 100 years ago under the current kind of rules. but they can actually, as we say in america, go on until the cows come home. but what we're hearing is many republicans are getting frustrated to be held hostage by only these 20 or so members of the so-called freedom caucus, especially as we see that mccarthy is not able to gain any ground here. he's offered so much of the rebellions, but they are not willing to move to his side. so he basically had given everything.

so the pressure is raising for mccarthy to accept the reality that he is obviously not able to convince the so-called rebels. nicole: he has put a lot on the table, though. give us a couple of examples of what mccarthy has offered this group of right-wing republicans who are blocking his election. ines: right. he promised, for example, very important committees. those, for example, who determine the rules of the house. and that's important also for an international audience. because if there would be members of the far right in these crucial committees, it would be much harder, for example, to vote for substantial support for ukraine. so this is not only something which matters for the united states, this is really something which matters for the rest of the world. he also agreed on the so-called

one number motion to vacate. that means that only one member of the house is needed to start a vote to oust the current speaker. and we are seeing where this leads to, with this little majority. so there's a lot he already offered, but again, the right-wing members of this freedom caucus are not willing to move any, any step forward into the direction of mccarthy. nicole: and we are sitting tight, as i said, and watching it all happen. these historic days and nights in washington. thank you so much for giving us the latest, ines pohl. here's a look at some more stories making headlines around the world today. demonstrators in peru have blocked roads in another day of protests over the ousting of former president pedro pous-tio. protesters are calling for his replacement president to resign. the demonstrations died down

over the holiday but restarted wednesday. jailed nobel peace prize laureate ales bialiatski has gone on trial in belarus. he and two others face charges of money smuggling. the men face up to 12 years in jail. bialiatski cofounded a human rights group which shared the 2022 nobel prize with rights groups from russia and ukraine. germany has joined a growing list of countries to impose mandatory covid tests on travelers from china which is facing a surge in infections. the eu recommended all member states follow the policy starting monday. china on the other hand is that the travel restrictions are discriminatory. health experts are concerned about how quickly another new covid variant is spreading around the world. the omicron subvariant xbb.1.5 is currently spreading rapidly in the united states. official data last week showed

it accounted for over 40% of cases. scientists say it is the most contagious version of covid-19 yet. the world health organization says it has been detected in 28 other countries, mainly in europe. the subvariant was first discovered in october. earlier, dw spoke to dr. deepti gurdasani, an expert on epidemiology and health. we asked if we should be worried about this new variant. deepti: we should be worried. laboratory data suggests this is a variant that does not escape immunity very well. but it's also able to infect cells better. so it binds more closely to the part of the cell, allowing the virus to enter more. which means it is also likely to be more transmissible. we are already seeing the impacts in the cases where it is spreading. in new york, where this strain is already dominant, we are

seeing it associated with a higher rate of hospitalizations. what is really concerning his this is now spreading in many other parts of the u.s., in parts of europe, in the u.k., in canada, and will very likely become dominant across europe in a few weeks time. nicole: are drug gangs threatening the rule of law and the netherlands? many dutch have been asking that question after a string of drug mafia murders including that of an claimed investor get of journalist. dw's jade mcglynn reports from the hague. dr. mcglynn: a dutch coffee shop where it is -- jack: businesses like this one can spend up to three of meal and -- it's technically illegal for them to purchase so much but it is never prosecuted. that legal gray area is coming under increasing scrutiny following the 2021 murder of a dutch investigative journalist.

he was part of a team supporting a witness in a case against a drug kingpin. >> also, the client. it was a huge blow. and we had to look for new balance, and to hold onto each other to be able to continue. jack: these lawyers have spent more than two years under round-the-clock protection of defending a key witness in the trial of a man accused of ordering a string of murders, including the former lawyer, and the brother of the main witness against him. the trial against two other men accused of a related murder has descended into a mess. it is now headed to retrial after a judge left the proceedings and a deluge of new evidence was submitted. >> what i say is we should just legally man up against

situations like this. learn from what is going on here and make changes in the law so it becomes less of a problem. jack: the theory is mafia intimidation might be winning. journalists remain committed, though. >> my colleagues are really adamant in writing about organized crime and revealing what is happening in the country and how dangerous it is and how important it is to fight organized crime. but we are all more careful. we are all more aware of the dangers and we are more careful. we look over our shoulder. jack: with the port of rotterdam thought to be the main entry point of cocaine into europe, the netherlands is under pressure from other eu countries. the multitude of court cases around his criminal gangs rumbles on but there is a national discussion about what is being done politically. many of those questions are being directed here to the ministry of justice, asking

exactly what is changing to prevent these kind of crimes in the future. the dutch government sent dw a statement saying it is taking unprecedented action and is investing an additional 700 million euros in the coming years to fight organized crime. >> i personally think this country is not riddled with gang violence or anything like that. it is not like the italian mafia. but it is starting to be a big problem. >> everyone turns to the netherlands as a prime problem of legalization of drugs and how we should push forward to legalize marijuana and other drugs. and i don't know. truly open your eyes of the reality behind it and how the netherlands has become. jack: the mafia gang has also been threatening people in belgium and generally -- and germany. rooting out their influence is significant for the whole of europe.

nicole: new year's eve has become a pretty rowdy night in berlin after the last years but after dozens of police and firefighters were injured in deliberate attacks involving fireworks, there is increasing debate about who is to blame. the city's mayor is calling for a summit on how to deal with youth violence, but the german interior minister suggested failures in integration in migrants could be responsible. reporter: riot-like scenes in the heart of berlin. the ushering in of the new year escalated into street violence in many cities across germany. as usual, berlin was one of the main hotspots. but the intensity of this year's violence was described by police as far worse than in previous years. police officers were among those attacked during the night, along with firefighters and other members of the emergency services. one firefighter had to be hospitalized. many others were injured. in berlin, 145 were arrested in

connection with the riots. of those detained, 45 at german should a ship -- had german citizenship. in a tweet, germany's interior minister said, we have a problem in major german city with some young men with an immigrant background who despise our state, committing acts of violence, and it is very difficult to reach them with immigration programs. it's at odds with an otherwise cautious approach by the german government. >> the core of the debate about what happened on new year's eve, about the so-called immigration background, or a demand for a ban on firecrackers. what it is about as much more fundamental. this is about an attack on the rule of law. reporter: other members of the governing coalition have w arned against jumping to conclusions. >> we've never seen a phenomenon

like this before, at least not to this extent. and so of course i have a problem with a response like it's partly adjust -- a just description to say only those with an immigrant background attacked. reporter: reyna -- residents are not surprised violence flared up in your neighborhood. >> this part of berlin in the worst. i'm speechless. it is the same every year. they burn trash cans, set cars on fire, or smash bus stops. >> some do it because they hate the police. some because they think it is fun. most are angry because of covid. for some people, it's in their nature. i'm not into it because it is a waste of money. but if they want to use fireworks, let them. my friends are into it.

and it's nice to let the -- hit the fan now and then. it is kind of normal for berlin. reporter: berlin's mayor has called a summit against youth violence. it is a first attempt to find a solution to a recurring problem. nicole: here is some other news we are covering for you today. aid agencies say hospitals in kabul are overcome with cases of pneumonia. doctors are having trouble treating patients due to a lack of drugs and health workers. the british national weather service has confirmed 2022 was the hottest year on record in the u.k. they reported the average temperature for the year was 10 degrees celsius, adding that human induced climate change was responsible. e-commerce giant amazon says it is cutting more than 18,000 jobs, citing current economic

uncertainty and rapid hiring from the pandemic. some terminations will take place in europe according to amazon, which announced 10,000 job cuts in november. the mother of gio reyna has revealed she reported the national team's coach for a historic incident of domestic abuse. he's under investigation by the u.s. football federation after revealing his shameful behavior towards is now-wife. the incident exposed a rift plaguing the u.s. team at the recent u.s. cup, where reyna, one of the star players, only had a limited role. reporter: they have known each other for decades, but the family friendship became a family feud during football's most important tournament. >> obviously this is not a positive time for soccer in this country and for our men's national team. it is a tough time for the

families involved. i am just hopeful that we can find resolution to this quickly. reporter: at its heart is gio reyna, the dortmund midfielder. before the world cup had rediscovered his form after a series of injuries, but once in qatar he did not start a single game for the u.s. the coach rasied concerns over reyna's attitude. he told a leadership conference last month he made a player apologized for his conduct. the story took a twist on tuesday when he admitted, seemingly out of the blue, to kicking his wife when she was 18. because during the world cup, an individual contacted u.s. soccer saying they had information about me that would take me down. the final twist came late on wednesday. gio's mom said she was the one who contacted u.s. soccer about

his past after his comments at the conference. she said it was especially unfair that kherson was quote, still being dragged -- that her son was quote, still being dragged through the mud. claudio reyna, gio's dad, also revealed he had been in touch with officials about his son's lack of game time. both reyna parents denied any threats or blackmail. his job as coach is under review pending the outcome of an investigation. >> when it comes to our head coaching position that we have right now, greg, until the investigation and the review takes place, is still under consideration for the head coach job. reporter: two families synonymous with u.s. soccer, their futures with the national team now uncertain. nicole: a quick reminder of the top stories were following. the u.s. and germany have announced plans to deliver armored vehicles to ukraine.

the german-made marder and u.s. built bradley fighting vehicles could soon be on their way to the front lines. the decision follows a move by france to equip ukraine with light tanks. and russia's president vladimir putin says he is ordered a 36 hour unilateral cease-fire in ukraine to mark the russian orthodox christmas. kyiv has dismissed the announcement as hypocrisy and repeated its demand for russian troops to leave occupied areas of ukraine. and that is all from the news for now, but stay with us. after a short break, i will be back to take you through "the day." hope to see you there. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit icap.org]

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>> it is 10:00 p.m. in the french capital. hear the stories making world headlines. the voting continues on the floor of u.s. congress. republicans remain deadlocked over who should be speaker of the house. kevin mccarthy has failed to gain the votes he needed despite making new concessions to hard right members of his party. our correspondent is standing by with an update. ukraine rejects a call from vladimir putin for a 36 hour cease-fire to observe the russian orthodox christmas. kyiv execute -- accuses the

russian president of hypocrisy and using propaganda f picked -- as putin tells his soldiers to lay down their arms midday on friday. a coalition of airlines is slamming a new recommendation from the eu, encouraging member countries to ask passengers from china for a negative covid test. germany and sweden have joined france, spain, and italy, putting testing requirements in place. ♪ >> thank you for joining us on france 24. the humiliation continues for kevin mccarthy of california. he has lost a seventh and eighth vote for the speakership of the u.s. house of representatives. blocked by a hard right faction of his own party, now a ninth vote is underway. without a speaker, the chamber is deadlocked and cannot function and cannot even swear

its newly elected members. . the republicans have a slim majority and mccarthy can only afford to lose four votes. there are 20 hard right members voting against him. let's cross to our washington correspondent. what is astonishing is that mccarthy has agreed to more demands from these far right members, and he still has not gained any votes. reporter: there has not been any change in the overall vote tally. the votes keep changing figures but not the actual numbers. still, those 20 republicans opposed to kevin mccarthy who have been voting for alternatively for byron donalds. there is another figure, kevin hearne, there is one member who has been voting for the former president, donald trump. the idea is that it does not matter who they vote for. the point is they are not voting for kevin mccarthy. as he said, there have been

quite some negotiations, concessions from the mccarthy camp, to try to get these republicans on board. or at least some of them. the idea was that the mccarthy camp was pretty confident that even if they were not getting the majority right away, that they may have convinced at least a couple or maybe a handful of those 20 republicans. so far, that has not been the case. we are now in round nine of voting. that means the house of representatives, the 118th congress has tied with that congress back in 1923 100 years ago, which is the last time there was a floor fight. nine rounds there. but after the ninth round, there was a speaker elected. right now in this ninth round, it looks like kevin mccarthy is not going to get a majority, and nobody else will. so we will not have a speaker of the house after the ninth round.

monte: we could beat the record from 1923. i know there is no telling how long all of this could drag. i will not ask you that. in the meantime, no other business in the house can proceed without a speaker. there are some real consequences to this, aren't there? kethevane: exactly. this could drag on for hours, for days, but even for possibly weeks. that. does have actual consequences as we have said many times, without a speaker of the house, nothing else can go forward. the members cannot be sworn in. that has in itself some consequences. that means they can't vote. . the only vote they can take is voting on the speaker. until they are sworn in, there cannot be any legislation, and starting with the house rules, those rules that govern the way the house functions, you can't bring any legislation to the house rules. and one little quirk, this is

why we are seeing all of these images, these close-ups of members on the house floor talking to each other, arguing with each other, because there are no rules guiding what the cameras can and cannot do. that is one quirk of the house rules not being voted. another thing that is concrete issue -- a concrete issue is that there is growing concern about hiring staff and paying that staff because this congress is not technically rlly in session or has been come forward. finally, there are national security consequences. these members not sworn in do not have securitclearance a cannotit on these national security meetings. monte: interesting to see how this plays out. some real consequences here. our washington correspondent kethevane gorjestani, keep us posted on what happens. as they ko's continues in congress, president biden has

announced a policy on immigration that includes a crackdown on people seeking refuge at the u.s.-mexican border. it would allow some 30,000 migrants from cuba, nicaragua, venezuela, and haiti to legally apply for entry to the u.s. each month. in addition, the administration plans to expand the use of policy title 42. policies used during the pandemic allowed for the immediate expulsion of people in -- illegally crossing the border. pres. biden:pres. biden: the message is this, if you are trying to leave cuba, nicaragua, or haiti, or have agreed to begin a journey to america, do not just show up at the border. stay where you are and apply legally from there. monte: the ukrainian officials are using the words hypocrisy and propaganda, in response to a call from vladimir putin for 36 hour cease-fire. the russian president has ordered his military to lay down its arms from midday friday until midnight saturday to

observe the russian orthodox christmas. it would be the first pause in fighting during the 11 month old war. olivia be so has the story. olivia: on the eve of orthodox christmas, vladimir putin has ordered his military to observe a cease-fire. >> taking into consideration the appeal, the president instructs the minister of defense of the russian federation to impose a cease-fire regime along the entire line of contact in ukraine from midnight on six january until midnight on seven january. olivia: the order for a 36 hour truce follows an appeal from the head of the russian orthodox church on thursday morning. putin asked ukraine to reciprocate, but kyiv immediately rejected the request, scribing it as hypocrisy. a stance shared by many ukrainians. >> i think this is utter hypocrisy. on the 31st of december, there

was no peace. we were under so much bombing for new year's eve. it is just hypocrisy on putin's side. olivia: the move comes a few days after a large numr of russian troops were killed in a ukrainian strike in the city on new year's day. analysts believe the truce could help russia avoid another major loss of life on another important holiday. it could also, as president joe biden expressed, buy the kremlin time to find some oxygen. pres. biden: i'm reluctant to respond to anything putin says. . i found it interesting. he was ready to bomb hospitals and nurseries and churches. on the 25th and new year's. i mean, i thi he is trying to find some oxygen. olivia: analysts have said the cease-fire could be used as a tool to demonize ukraine.

as the ukrainians have dismissed the proposal, moscow could claim kyiv does not respect religious believers, and has no desire for peace. monte: for more on this story, we are joined by director at the eurasian democracy initiative. thank you for joining us on france to four. what is putin trying to accomplish by calling for this cease-fire, and do you think it will be successful from a strategic point of view? peter: just like your correspondent said, she put it quite perceptively, vladimir putin is trying to win a narrative after a string of losses in ukraine, after a really bad public relations disaster, that this whole war in ukraine has been. he is trying to propose this narrative of russia as the peacemaker, which ukrainians are not buying. we have the president of russia saying time after time on his

claims of cease-fire. right now, i will cite to a personal example. one hour ago, i was interviewed on al jazeera arabic, and the other speaker was a russian praganda hack, let's put it bluntly. he went on this tirade, saying the russians are the true keepers of the orthodox faith, and they are with all of the dy of christian believers. and if ukrainians don't, take this offer they will be standing against all of us ukrainians. my retort to that was, it is great he remembered you, where you christians when you were killing and murdering pooch and destroying ukrainian cities? a very sad and pathetic spectacle. vladimir putin cajoling and manipulating us, and threatening. while he is offering the cease-fire, the former president has -- saying we will destroy you if you keep supporting ukraine, which is a nasty

regime. this is a multipronged gain. but don't be full by what vladimir putin is saying. and let me add quickly, ukrainians celebrated christmas on the 25th of the -- of december with the rest of europe. russians are really going to be alone with his holiday which fewer and fewer ukrainians will recognize as their holiday. monte: an advisor to ukraine's minister of internal affairs saying the cease-fire order represents a sign putin and his army are getting weaker. do you agree? peter: yes, i agree, judgg by the pattern of missile launches at ukraine and the increasing reliance on iranian roads, which are also increasingly ineffective as ukrainians have learned to shoot them with 100% rate. vladimir putin is begging to try to come up with some sort of

viable strategy as to how to proceed in ukraine. there is a serio position on our part that putin is not being able to produce as many long-range missiles as he has been wasting in ukraine. now they are seriously talking about a second mobilization, and mobilize several hundred thousand russians. in the big question hangs over the army, how are you going to equip them, how will you send them into battle, with what clothing? russia is at a dead end. monte: having said that, this comes after the deadliest strikes so far against russian soldiers. 89 killed in a strike by kyiv. when you take a step back and assess where we stand in this war, what do you think about russia's position? peter: like i said, very critical. very critical. they cannot afford, even with the propaganda working overdrive

to convince russians that not several hundred died in kyiv, as bad as it was, it was only 89. they are lying. the true situation does not change just because they are trying to spin it endlessly. putin cannot afford this continuation at the rate it is going. and the west is really now waking up, finally, to the reality of -- [no audio] monte: i think we are having audio problems. we want to thank peter zalmayev, director of the eurasian democracy initiative for joining us on france 24. coalition of airlines is slamming new recommendations from the eu, encouraging member countries to ask passengers from china for a negative covid test. cases are searching in china, let health officials say the potential for imported infections in europe is low. that is because the variant

prevalent in china is circulating here, and many people in the eu are vaccinated. china has not been forthcoming with credible numbers on covid infections and deaths. with all of that in mind, germany and sweden joined france,pain, and italy, putting testing requirements in place. elana desousa has more. reporter: these passengers have just landed in paris. they needed a negative covid-19 test before boarding their flight, and are tested once again upon arrival in france. the latest measure from paris comes after a search in coronavirus infections in china. >> 40 minutes. i think it is a little long. >> everyone. i think so. yeah. because i also -- many local guys are also doing the test. reporter: france is among the few countries in europe to require a covid-19 test at departure and arrival.

and not everyone is impressed. >> i did the first time in china, and i come here and do the net date -- and do an extra time. i think we can trust the result in chinese hospital. >> i think it is a way to protect the french, so it's fine. >> its policy that we follow. >> and it's ok for you? >> yeah. we have two. reporter: the aim of testing for covid-19 on arrival is to limit the number of infections in france and detect any eventual new variants coming out of china. monte: it is time for a look at the day's top business news with brian quinn. we are starting with the latest round of job cuts in the tech sector as amazon announces more than 18,000 layoffs. brian: back in november, the company announced layoffs that were estimated around 10,000 jobs, in a blog post on wednesday, the ceo said that number will nearly double with

most cats hitting amazon stores, units, and its hr division. the company has seen its sales slow with customers stuck less at home during their online shopping, is decades high inflation curbs their spending habits. excluding its cloud computing business, amazon posted an operating loss of $2.9 billion last quarter. the company is far from alone in downsizing recently in the tech sector. meta announced 11,000 job cuts recently. elon musk fired half of its workforce when he took over earlier this week. salesforce said it would cut 10% of its staff. the government is seeking to protect small businesses that have been slammed by skyrocketing energy prices in the wake of russia's's invasion of ukraine. on thursday, it -- emmanuel macron said small businesses will be able to renegotiate their contracts with suppliers starting this month.

our correspondent has the details. reporter: it is a sigh of relief for this parisien restaurant owner. sebastian has found out small businesses will be able to renegotiate some of their electricity contracts. it is welcome news for the entire profession. >> the energy costs are relatively high, whether it be for gas or electricity. . skyrocketing bills can cause serious difficulties for businesses. reporter: the announcement was made by the president himself. emmanuel macron has called on energy providers t immediately renegotiate contracts with small businesses when tariffs are accepted. >> this crisis affects everyone. you must absorb some price increases because we don't produce its energy. it is not acceptable for people to make very large profits at a time and taxpayers money is being used to help the smallest to resist. we will put everyone back on an even keel. reporter: the renegotiations

will concern small businesses with less than 10 employees, whose contracts exceeds 280 euros a megawatt hour. this farmer contract has gone up to 420 euros a megawatt hour, a cost that is simply unsustainable. france's central bank has registered 41,000 business failures for 2022, which is up by 48% compared to the previous year. a trend that could accelerate if energy bills keep increasing. there is a glimmer of hope. though european natural gas prices remain high for both consumers and industry, they have now fallen well below their levels before the start of the war in ukraine, after peaking in august. monte: turning to the markets, european indexes ended the day mixed with stronger-than-expected retail figures helping to boost the ftse 100 in london. the dax and frankfurt closed in the red as investors digested the latest signals from the u.s. federal reserve wednesday.

high interest rates are likely to stay for some time. over on wall street, markets lost ground as the latest u.s. jobs data thursday showed continued strong hiring, suggesting the fed will continue to raise rates in a bid to bring down inflation. tesla shares closed down 3% amid a slowdown in vehicle deliveries for december. shares and retailer bed, bath & beyond thinking 30% as the company warns of cryptic, after losing -- warns of bankruptcy after losing money in the third quarter. ftx was not the first crypto firm to collapse spectacularly over the past year, and it is not the last two result in legal trouble for its founder. thursday, new york attorney general unveiled a civil suit for fraud against alex mission ski, the founder of celsius network. it was a cryptocurrency lending platform that paid depositors interest as high as 17%.

prosecutors say he was using those posits for risky investments while concealing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. celsius filed for bankruptcy in july. court records shows it owes more than $4 billion to its customers. a tough time for crypto overall in the wake of the ftx collapse. we are seeing a lot of layoffs and losses. monte: sounds like a familiar story. brian quinn, thanks so much. this time for truth or fake, are fact checking segment. i'm joined by our correspondent. after new year's riots and attacks on emergency services in berlin, there were calls for a national bet on fireworks. you have been looking into online claims those rights are linked to migrant gangs. >> on new year's eve in berlin, german authorities received up to 38 separate incidents of violence after dozens of the police, emergency responders, and firefighters were attacked

with fireworks. 140 five people were arrested in connection with this violence. the main three ethnicities of people arrested was german, afghan, and syrian. this is important because social media was a light at the time of with videos from the night. content shared this week has taken a slightly more racially charged turn, with people accusing migrant gangs of having been involved or behind the attacks on new year's eve. this video was very popular on the internet. it is a little difficult to discern exactly what is going on. we can see rocks, potentially rocks or unidentifiable objects are being thrown into the ambulance. it is difficult to discern a particular language in the background, it is full of screaming and shouting. but this user did share this video amongst many others. in this person has said, if you import kolkata, you will become calcutta.

that is quite racially charged, shots fired toward south asian people or migrants in general. this person has also tagged it -- this is the german interior minister, saying you are responsible. putting blame on them for the immigration coming into germany, and blaming these attacks on them. i did reverse image search, and i can confirm that this -- that i found this video existing elsewhere. this is the same video found on twitter, but it is dated november 2019. so it is very unlikely it is the same video filled in berlin new year's eve. in order to dig deeper and confirm the virility of that, i found the same video up to -- uploaded on youtube. this is the youtube account of the hong kong free press. it is stated november 2019. yes, this video is definitely

not linked to violence in berlin. monte: certainly misleading. this was not the only video you found circulating clementon, to show new year's eve chaos in berlin. vedika: it certainly was not. there were other videos. one in particular, this user here has gone as far as to attach this video, let's keep in mind there is over 66,000 views on the video, and 84k on his post. this user has gone as far as to claim the migrant gangs involved in this violence are not just using fireworks for the attacks, but also using firearms. let's take a look at the video in question. again, it is difficult to discern exactly what is going on. we can see there is a lot of smoke and smog. we can see people very excitedly shooting pistols. later on in the video, we can see the explosion of fireworks and pyrotechnic.

this video was attributed to the streets in berlin. that is an interesting fact. i felt like it was necessary to do a reverse image search of certain keyframes in this video. the oldest online accounts i could find was this website, a polish website. the same video was uploaded, dated sixth of january, 2020. so it is looking more and more likely this was not filmed in berlin new year's eve. the interesting fact was that this polish site attributed this video to having its roots in berlin. whilst i cannot understand the context of this video based on how little it occurred on the internet, i decided to do a deep dive into the location. using keyframes from the same video, i was able to look at these. these are shots from that video. we can see the road sign that gives the street name, we can see the u, the transit system.

using magic from google maps, we were able to match these up. we can see that is the street sign, exactly south and the right -- in the right place, and google maps maps did confirm that this video was shot on herrmann strada in berlin. we do know it was filmed in berlin but we do not know the context or the date. as for those claims of using firearms, whenever that video was shot, and spoke to a ballistic expert to find out more, and this is what he told me. he said we don't see any live ammunition weapons, and he said what we see are blank once that are mounted with rocket, fireworks, and pyrotechnic effects. these are in that video, and it was not actually live ammunition, it was firework pistols. overall, there is little context on this video. what we know is it was not filmed new year's eve. monte: great detective work. thanks a lot. that is it for now.

we will be back with more world news here on france 24. ♪ >> princess islands off the coast of incidental. the outcome of the a kb being in power for 20 years is in a video. there are those who are suffering from inflation. those who disagree with president erdogan's immigration policy. >> [speaking foreign language] >> and then there are those who always supported him. >> [speaking foreign language] >> for the president, how the young vote will be decisive in the june 2023 elections. "revisited" on france 24 and

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01/05/23 01/05/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> this is a toxic environment. the international community has to speak with one voice in rejecting this extremism and ejecting those terrorists and those relevance of fascist in the israeli government. amy: the united nations security