A work has reportedly restarted on the controversial nord stream 2 gas pipeline in the baltic sea almost a year after u. S. Sanctions brought the german russian project to a halt u. S. Argues the pipeline is meant to isolate ukraine and divide the e. U. On saturday its ambassador to germany robin quintile repeated calls for germany to end the 1000000000. 00 project. Work is underway once again on the north stream 2 pipeline German Authorities have given the go ahead for the russian ship academic cesky to lay another 2. 6 kilometers of pipe by the end of the year but that is nowhere near enough to complete the project a total of 160 kilometers still have to be laid. Only then with the underwater pipeline be ready allowing russian state owned Company Gazprom to deliver siberian gas directly. To germany. For that the u. S. Has been watching developments with alarm late last week american lawmakers added measures against the baltic sea pipeline to the annual Defense Budget these provide for tighten sanctions against companies that certify or ensure the pipeline or that support the north stream to with products facilities or services. The text in the defense bill would grant the next u. S. President the right to suspend the sanctions but thats something few experts on either side of the atlantic expect no matter who is in the white house. And for more on this im joined now by Maria Hsia Ina shes a postdoc fellow at the center for Eastern European studies at the university of zurich and she continues to follow nordstrom to really good morning work supposedly has already continued again on the pipeline this weekend the question now is how far will it get. Good morning and thank you for having me there is no yes or no question to this its very complicated and theres through these truly as sanctions that level for the buy that ministration on the one hand it wants to keep the pressure on the pipeline to halt on the other hand it pledges to revive the transatlantic relationship that are put in them it had to brew yes administration that means that there is a thin line between not only in 1000 in the European Partners but at the same time keep in the pressure on the pipeline that the new sanctions that were issued last week gives us an indication at least. What policy shift we can expect founded by then administration and show what more calibrated sanctions on private companies at the same time exempting the european governments and governmental institutions plus a divided consultations with utopian partners at the same time maria how much more effective will those sanctions be than whats already been on the table will they have more teeth. The added sanctions will definitely make the completion of the pipeline more complicated mauritius so gas chroma will face difficulties in finding an Insurance Company and finding a company that would agree to provide any technology that still perhaps needs to be done on that at the interest. And company that would test inspect and certify the pipeline in fact the last one certificate geisha know be the weakest link in the project to find that company it will be an arduous task for gas chrome and even if it finds all of these companies that will be willing to be exposed to us sanctions and attention to lose access to the us Financial Market there are still legal challenges in the e. U. To tackle for gastro as we know these may have made this you have. A last 8 supplication and blondest that 2nd to determine and they do regulate to it to be granted an exemption a delegation from the. Role so that the north stand saga will continue perhaps for some time all right richard you know with the university of zurich thank you very much for joining us thank you thats a complicated topic for more on nordstrom to you can check out our latest indepth report examining all sides of the debate germany is in a tight spot there are those who say proceeding with the pipeline is enabling russia and others still who say not completing it is going down to the u. S. Thats a reporter jenelle dribble out and shes taking a closer look at the pipeline to find out why its become such a headache for germany you can watch the report exclusively on our you tube channel at youtube dot com slash news. And over to asia where chinas exports have been surging in november customs out to show that they were up more than 20 percent from a year earlier thats the fastest pace more than 2 and a half years analysts say the booming sales of items such as fridges toasters and microwaves across the lock down world have helped to boost chinese manufacturing at the same time imports rose just 4. 5 percent and thats led to a trade surplus for november more than 75000000000. 00 thats a global trade surplus we should say the largest ever since records began in 1981. And for more on this lets go to financial correspondent frankfurt Chelsea Delaney josie good morning we keep seeing a lot of new figures coming in from china and we keep saying well this means their economy is back on track help us put these latest numbers into perspective well what this shows is like you said well youve already been seeing chinas economy is really outlier and the Global Economy they are the bright spot theyre the only major economy expected to grow this year and thats in large part because they have been really seeing an export boom for much of this year and there are many things working in chinas favor and the 1st is that it was the 1st country to to really battle the crown a virus in the 1st to really get it under control so when many other countries were starting to shut down china was opening back up so their factory sector has a has really benefited from from really not having many restrictions in place from not being hit by coronavirus measures and several months but it also city with the composition of the items that are really in demand right now chinas been benefiting from a lot of demand for things like masks like personal protective equipment and also home tech working so thats all been really helping these export figures for china now the same time as massive trade surplus the flipside of that is that domestic consumption seems pretty weak whats going on there. This is the less bright spot of this news is that the recovery of the chinese economy has been very very lopsided so they are really benefiting from the export side but they havent been buying as much from the rest of the world that means that we likely will see this start to to ruffle the feathers of its trading partners chinas imbalanced relationship with the rest of the world has really been a big point of contention for decades now thats only gotten worse thats only gotten more entrenched throughout the coronavirus as they do see the rest of the world buying a lot from them and then not really keeping up on their side of the economy so we could definitely see that stoking more tensions over just the imbalance in the global trade relationship. The lane in frankfurt thank you. To tons of says that by the end of the end of this year rather it will have cut 29000. 00 jobs thats a 5th of its workforce the german flag carrier says its also planning to slice another 10000. 00 jobs and 2021 although demand for flights has risen somewhat towards the end of the year lockdowns worldwide mean much of its fleet remains grounded the company has received substantial state aid this year due to the end of due due to the crisis rather by the end of the 3rd quarter and recorded losses of 5600000000 euros. Over south africa where thoughts are slowly turning to the rollout of a Coronavirus Vaccine some argue to slowly vaccinating a country is a massive undertaking under any conditions but a lack of infrastructure and supplies as well security concerns could be a problem for south africa in particular. Temperatures as low as theyre so hard to ensure on the african continent as scientists rush to deliver lifesaving covert 19 vaccines around the globe there are concerns that the stringent delivery and storage requirements for some of them could prove a hurdle for developing nations in africa and beyond. Its axioms have to be stored at existing no temperatures minus 70 degrees celsius and in a developing country such as south africa it proved to be a challenge. This challenge is affecting south africas medical Logistics Sector it is scrambling to prepare for its role in what could become the not just distribution of medical supplies in global history. Delivering 2 doses of the vaccine to every single south african. Delivering under 3000000 doses of vaccines under 30 conditions that need to be delivered in and maintaining that the impeaches is going to be a huge challenge for transport Companies Like ourselves as well as for the facilities or deceiving these vaccines to be able to store it under those conditions i think is going to take a bit of planning and we need to really be a good of the game. And then theres the issue of safety Truck Drivers in south africa increasingly face dangers like sabotage and hijackings. Truckers say they fear that this situation could intensify with criminals set on getting their hands on the vaccine. See what things have not been right since they started burning trucks. And will soon have a new problem when we start distributing this vaccine. Nobody will even know were for caring vaccines or not and so they could attack all of us. It was that we were all scared. But scientists remain adamant that south africas state sponsored drug program which provides antiretrovirals to its 7700000 h. I. V. Positive citizens has prepared them well. South africa has decades of experience delivering lifesaving itll be made cations of everybody. So with the challenges we have facing with this vaccine we will make it was. Which vaccine south africa will use the how long distribution will take remains unclear Officials Say theyre aiming for around 40 percent of the nation to be vaccinated in the short to medium time. Over germanys along those reuben rivers says hes stepping down after 11 years of co running the Online Fashion retailer says the move is about giving more priority to his wifes rear and building more times his family as londo is founded in berlin in 2008 that its become europes leading Online Platform for fashion employing 14000 people. Thats it for me. Thanks for watching. Getto to parliament. Knows he was despite coming from a close family the pop star wants to become president. Challenges or god doesnt talk of the full story. Starts december 10th on the double. World set. To go beyond the obvious. That were live. As we take on the world. Were all about the stories that matter to you country. What ever it takes to running the place. W. Made for mines. Much of beirut lies in ruins rebuilding the city is a race against time i mean its not just us i think everybody in beirut feels like there has been severely injured on august 4th 2020 a huge explosion at its port rocked the city months on beirut Historic Buildings remain unprotected in the rainy season they could be damaged. So so palace is a beirut landmark perched on a hill overlooking the port its been home to marry cochrans family for 5 generations 3 story structure which dates from the 19th century the full brunt of the blast. So we are we are 450 meters in kind of. Directly in front of the blast the silo is right in front of us and no buildings in front of us theres nothing that the blast or we did so thats why we got a direct hit and thats why its all banks and was out 23. 00 centimeters. So the palace had stood 460 years survived