i believe these 2 and a half 3 weeks will give us plenty of opportunities regarding disease control. state leaders are now hoping to set out a co-working a good plan in a meeting with chancellor angela merkel. if you get a moment of fun also if you miss the gathering looks likely to take place on sunday . we are very interested in getting together as quickly as possible in order to rapidly gain clarity about the path our country will follow used to open door at one point acute in light of recent developments religious services over the holidays are also being scrutinized. then i would if there is a possibility of a religious gathering endangering lives i'll be the 1st to call things off. the so-called most wonderful time of the here now marked by deep concerns a new lockdown in germany isn't

a matter of if but rather when did of use julia so delhi is following the story for us hi julie a let's talk about these numbers nearly 30000 new cases and 598 people have died in one day why are these numbers continuing to rise. well the lockdown that we've seen them place in germany over the last 6 weeks a partial lockdown appears not to have worked it was meant to bring down cases significantly before the christmas period so there are some restrictions could be loosened then people could enjoy the festivities with a bit more freedom but it clearly didn't go far enough in bringing numbers down the numbers are actually going up again now we've seen in other countries in europe for example ireland that stricter lockdown for a limited period of time was able to do just that to bring the numbers down and stop the virus and its tracks here in germany when the decision was taken. over 6 weeks ago there was no political consensus between the federal government and the

state governments to tougher lockdown and that's how we saw the compromise of the partial lockdown that didn't really work well for a look at what the german interior ministry is saying he's made his position very clear here lou if we can bring in the quote he said germany has wasted the advantage it managed to gauge during the spring the only chance we have to get into control of the situation is a lockdown but it needs to be immediate if we wait until christmas will have to continue fighting these numbers for months those words from the interior minister who will for how much agreement is there behind his call for an immediate lockdown . we see more and more voices in germany's political landscape calling for tougher measures and we have seen also state premiers who were hesitant to go ahead with tougher restrictions now call for an immediate lockdown now we will see over the weekend probably the next few days

a meeting between german chancellor angela merkel and the 16 state premiers to try to find a common nationwide approach to the issue and find common rules we don't know exactly what they will be it we're looking at probably school break a longer school break for students until january 10th will probably see the closure of a non-essential shops we don't know the timing yet we don't know when the lockdown will come into place and what exactly will look it will look like. julia so delhi reporting thank you and let's get some more perspective now with dr toby escorts he is an epidemiologist and the director of the charity tate institute of public health here in berlin good to have you back on the show 1st of all what do you make of these numbers the numbers are alarming as we have already discussed yesterday the numbers are higher since days and weeks and we have to decide now to go into a hard lockdown now we cannot afford to wait after christmas people are seeing

family members if you travel across the country you see your family members members you put people at risk you put people at risk to get sick you put people at risk eventually dying we cannot afford this the numbers are far too high the hospitals are for and we know that 3 to 4 weeks after the cases that are infected now will appear in the hospital so there is even the rise in numbers in the hospitals this is dramatically high we have to act now when we spoke yesterday the head of the robert cock institute warned that we could see exponential growth again have we already reached that point. the point is not whether we see an exponential growth in a few days or tomorrow or the day after tomorrow the numbers are too high it's not a discussion whether we've seen exponential growth or not we need to acknowledge the numbers are too high already why are we seeing such high numbers and what is the biggest source of transmission right now it's

a diffuse infectious. thing going on right now in germany where many things are happening often you don't even realize that you are affected and where you go and who you putting at risk so we cannot say specific situation or they are specific hotspots or clusters this is a diffuse affection situation right now so we have to act and it's not possible to really plea and say people please stay home keep your distance is obviously not working if we take a look at why germany has gotten into the situation the country fared comparatively well during that 1st wave that the pandemic do you think that there was a false sense of security that has contributed to the spike that we're seeing now well we have to understand as you say that germany got lucky and we made it quite well through the 1st wave and then the summer months the warm weather helped as well so now obviously that was not enough we started with a light lockdown germany never had

a hard lockdown where we actually are forced to stay home and now we're facing a situation where the numbers are dramatically high so we definitely have to act now and we're seeing more than siva 100 people dying a day and yet there's still hasn't been a decision made on a lockdown the next political meeting is supposed to happen as we heard this weekend do you think action has been taken quickly enough. and we discussing since many days we know since weeks we're facing a potential risk of having numbers the hospital or fall that the health care system is in danger and so i don't know why we're still discussing we having we have reached this point already so we need to act now. to be escort epidemiologist director of the sherry tate institute of public health thank you so much thanks for having me and germany still has a long way to head for a vaccine european regulators will need just before the new year to decide if the biotech pfizer vaccine is ready for mass distribution but the government is already

planning the task of how to deliver the vaccine across the country with some disputes arising d.w. correspondent tessa reports. the everynight in berlin was well known for its rock concerts and techno parties now its latest to house one of 6 specks the nation centers and berlin so far there isn't much to see but everything is scheduled to be ready by mid december project manager poem is convinced things were from smoothly. through this time the process we allow 4 minutes for each person to get in take of their coats sit down and roll up their sleeves then the vaccination team comes in they disinfect inject and put in some calls a new wound the last step is the documentation that's it here the vaccinated people will then be looked after by doctors and nurses the patient doesn't have to pay their health insurance covers the costs 1st the elderly will be vaccinated then

medical personnel than everyone else right now more than 300 of such vaccination centers are being built throughout germany the government hopes this system will simplify logistics and make it possible to vaccinate millions of people in the shortest possible time people probably won't be able to get the jab from their family doctor until spring time before that they will have to go to the center. i think will have to wait for hours at the vaccination center thousands of people will be. if not don't care whether i get vaccinated at my family doctor or the vaccination center. also i would prefer going to our family doctor because they know about my medical history and will take any risks into account not my belief that doctors ability katzenstein agrees she was one of the 1st berlin family doctors who specialized in treating covert 9000 patients xom 1000 people as part of

her daily routine when it comes to cope at 19 she says she should be allowed to vaccinate and her own practice is. xa nation is a matter of trust it's important to know the patient because every patient directs differently to unknown risks i think the general practitioner is best equipped to advise each patient in making a decision about the peron of hours like the nation she believes she and other family doctors in germany can head of the vaccination campaign in the pendant i thought you can put in my opinion the vaccinations and those were probably not necessary if france can vaccinate its population using family doctors only why can't germany. germany has opted to mix a nation sentence it's a bit katzenstein argues that the best answer is possible consultation to roads one go next and maintain as much of the population as possible as quickly as possible.

let's take a look at some other developments in the pandemic french drugmaker send elfie and britain's glaxo smith kline say their vaccine won't be ready until the end of 2021 interim results show a low immune response in older adults australia has cancelled the production of its own covert $1000.00 vaccine after some trial participants returned false positive results for hiv and researchers say the global response to the pandemic has driven a record to 7 percent drop in annual c o 2 emissions the us says they'd have to continue to decline at that rate for the next decade to reach international climate goals. and now to some other stories making news around the world germany is lifting a ban on deportations to syria for the 1st time in 8 years despite the ongoing conflict in the war torn country the decision means that syrian nationals convicted

of a crime or deemed a security risk could face deportation starting january 1st. hong kong. media say democracy activist jimmy lie has been charged under the controversial new security law he's accused of colluding with foreign forces and in danger a national security law is the most high profile person yet to be charged under the new law police say he will face the charges in court on saturday. the trump administration has allowed the execution of death row inmate brandon bernard it was the 1st federal execution during a presidential transition in 130 years and the 9th since president trump restarted federal executions after a 17 year hiatus his administration plans to rush through another 4 before his term ends next month. european union leaders have reached a hard fought deal to make dramatic cuts to the block's greenhouse gas emissions

after all night talks the member states agreed to reduce emissions by 55 percent by the end of the decade as head of the e.u. presidency german chancellor angela merkel welcomed the deal saying it had been worth staying up all night to clinch it the new target aims to reach net 0 emissions by 2015 you counsel president shouted michelle says that will make europe the leader in the fight against climate change and let's listen in to what chancellor merkel had to say about the agreement. the green do you in cali green deal is a core project of ours we don't just want to impose a plan we want one that will take us into the future and that's something the commission will be paying close attention to me as we are presenting our national program soon so the fact that we have now been able to commit ourselves just a day before the u.n. climate summit to a joint european reduction target of 55 percent by 2030 i consider that

a very important result one worth losing a night's sleep over i don't even want to think about what would have happened if we hadn't been able to achieve such a result in the let's bring in our brussels bureau chief alexander phenomena who's following this story for us hi alexandra what more can you tell us about the agreement that's been reached well the fact that the agreement was possible on a more ambitious targets to reduce queen. and missions very significant it is a big step forward this whole french president described it e.u. commission president was enough on the law and said in the press conference that this is putting europe on the right path to be carbon neutral by 2050 that this is going to give clarity to investor investors and that this is our growth strategy in europe and as you just mentioned their leader is. acknowledge that they are

looking back at very tough negotiations but merkel said that it was worth staying up the whole night to have this agreement and of course it is a huge success for her and the german e.u. council presidency there were some countries a member states that did object because they for example do rely upon coal energy so how did they manage to strike this compromise and convince them. so we talking here about hungry poland and czech republic who are opposed to the plan saying that they would need to more help to clean up their economies and in particular it was poland blocking this compromise or the plan until the last minute today the polish prime minister said that that there are hoping to go to get more money from them ordering these funds and i would say that what helps weaken the momentum in the end was the agreement on the budget and the e.u.

coronavirus with cauvery package because in large amounts of this package are meant to be spends to boost the economy and to help member states so the struggling with the green transition. are brussels bureau chief alexander phenomena reporting for us thank you very much. and another breakthrough to come out of that brussels summit an agreement on the e.u.'s $1.00 trillion euro budget 80 includes hundreds of billions in coronavirus relief funds member states poland and hungary initially blocked approval of the budget because it would have made it possible to stop payments to member countries that breach the laws but a tough compromise brokered by germany ended the deadlock. and let's talk more about that i'm joined now by catalina bonnet she's the vice president of the european parliament miss bonnie thank you so much for joining us here on d.w.

are you satisfied with this compromise. well i'm satisfied that for the 1st time in history we have a very powerful link between the e.u. budget the financial subsidies and and the rule of law but we still have of course now we have a unilateral declaration by the council that china is well to give the impression that if we can see them but you have to bear in mind that a unilateral decision cannot we can our interpret differently an agreement that has been reached between different partners it's as if you if you were buying a house and then after adding sealed the deal you go you go to you or to your mother and say and i also got the car and the dot that doesn't change the contract

you still only have the house and that is marvelous what happened here ok so that link is strong on paper but what about in practice because doesn't it allow this rule of law mechanism to be delayed while violations of the loss could continue. this is the only really serious point in this council paper that it's been all clear that the council paper that says that what the commission is going to do we will see but it says actually the commission will not use this mechanism until it has issued guidelines and still the european court of justice has decided on its nichols now this of course takes time but well 1st of all we have to see if how the commission reacts to the ball is now live fields and they have to act very very quickly this is all the handwriting of the 2 or one who is one of the most corrupt heads of government in the in the opinion and he has

questions trying to fill his pockets and pockets so it's clear as long as possible . you said that this will take time and if you look at the reality you mention viktor orban and hungry right now hungary's already saying that's going to launch a case to a novice rule of law regulation ask the court to check whether it is in line with the u. treaties and that it's probably could take 2 years so again can this really ever be effectively implemented. well i hope that hungary and or poland or whoever is going to ask the court of justice to decide upon this because we need territory and then they can hide. behind any kind of propaganda or or whatever because then we have a verdict by the european which is just and it doesn't have to take us on this that we have seen a lot of the you could have just as can act very quickly it can set its own

priorities and if it is. more advanced procedure the average is only 10 months and not 2 years so we will see but after that once this has all been been cleared. then of course we have a very efficient meccans i just want to drill down on this question you are a germany's former justice minister and so if poland were let's say tomorrow to the polish government to take a step that would then further erode judiciary independence in poland what could the european union do to combat that violation in the short term. well in the short term i mean if it if it if it is a step that actually influences the european budget and it has to be probably we will have to interpret that also it probably has to be the new budget but as soon as they do that the european commission has the right to to actually

take certain measures amongst them to freeze european means and so this is a very serious threat especially to these member states who who are great beneficiaries of european funding will have to leave it there cut talking about the vice president of the european parliament joining us thank you so much for your insights . and we recorded that interview with cutting in a little bit earlier in the day we should say that she's a member of the social democrats ok let's get some more headlines now from around the world cuba has announced a long awaited monetary reform due to take effect on january 1st the country will eliminate its dual currency system in a bid to attract foreign investment that will light the spark inflation but the government has promised significant wage increases to cushion the impact.

argentina's lower house of congress has passed a bill to legalize abortion thousands of pro and anti abortion activists rallied through the night and put aside as lawmakers debated the legislation it has been pushed by president of the fernandez if the built there is the senate it would make argentina the 1st major latin american nation to decriminalize abortion. time magazine has named us president elect joe biden and vice president elect harris person of the year for 2020 they were picked ahead of health care workers battling the cobra 1000 ad to make other racial justice movement and president trump since $1027.00 times has been honoring the person or people who most impacted the news during the calendar year now she was the living a living the dream of many a young woman a high profile job as a t.v. anchor she knew it was a dangerous choice her own mother an outspoken advocate for women's rights in afghanistan had been gunned down 5 years ago but i want to brave the threats and

went to work and on thursday she too was shot dead in july but those who took her life could not a race the admiration of a nation. oh laura who are prayers for a heroine hundreds came out to pay their respects to journalists. and her driver assassinated on their way to work. for many young women in afghanistan my one was larger than life a t.v. anchor in a country where 2 thirds of girls are barred from attending school. my one was also an advocate for women's rights and continued to speak out even after her own mother was killed for doing the same. but. then early thursday morning in this street she and her driver were ambushed by gunmen the attack was claimed by the militant group islamic state. where. my

wand was a brave female journalist and. she was working for any local t.v. . but unfortunately today she was murdered by the enemies but even to be not only her family but all the women of our province for. the. islamic state has claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks on civilians in afghanistan. as the u.s. draws down troops there and conservative militant groups a resurgent many worry that a life like my ones will once again become impossible. coming up next on news asia china says it's developed the world's most powerful quantum computer bush leaves an earlier machine in its dust will explore its huge implications. and to help we plant their country's last forests pakistanis are

turning to a scheme called the world and. melissa china's top stories coming right up on. the flames.

were all set to go beyond the obvious. that. as we take on the world. we're all about the stories that matter to you and about me feel something behind me i'm going to see what ever it takes to not running not me know how much sleep make me run up but w.

. made for mines. in the far north. beyond the inhabitable world. it's lonely barren. and breathtakingly beautiful the arctic a powerful expanse of bitter cold. and the sound of global warming. may take a journey around the north pole. profiteers and talk with people experiencing the changing environment of the ice disappears earlier and it keeps retreating take a shares the last years have been smelting roughly. measured hard to

shift. our future depends on what happens here in one of the most fragile ecosystems on earth. northern lights by the arctic circle starts december 21st on w. . here the washington news asia coming out today we'll take a closer look at china's latest scientific breakthrough this time in quantum computing the fastest calculations made using beams of laser light and ones which would be impossible for classical computers to run. plus to help replace their country's lost forest pakistani's join a campaign called throw and grow.