angela merkel is threatening to take federal control of the nation's covid-19 response. she basically -- joining me is rosai'm struggling to recognize angela merkel. i got used to reporting on her being the stable part of europe, the rock of europe. now she seems to be all over the place. how big of a move will it be and why she decided to go down the road, to federalize what is happening in germany? stephen: --rosa: you're quite right about angela merkel's behavior being unexpected. let's not forget she is not running for reelection, she is retiring, so she can run the risk of taking unpopular decisions. germany and the last week has shown a degree of irrationality with proposing first a total lockdown within the country, preventing people from moving around within the country, but letting germans travel. there were quite a number of decisions that do not seem to make sense. she can run the risk of making unpopular decisions, making executive decisions to force upon the germans another lockdown, which is basically what is happening across europe. we have entered a new lockdown because of the third wave of