and germany is expected to remain under covid-19 restrictions until the end of be wary. that announcement is imminent as a meeting between the chancellor and state leaders continues. and the harsh winter specter has raised dangerous heating methods and a small spanish shanty town. how madrid authorities are failing thousands of people who say they have been forgotten and left out in the cold. brent: i m brent goff. to our viewers on pbs in thepunu around the world, welcome. several members of the u.s. national guard have been withdrawn from their duties guarding the u.s. capitol in washington, d.c. this follows the vetting of the guard for links to extremist organization. 25,000 members of the guard are in the u.s. capitol ahead of the inauguration of u.s. president-elect joe biden. and republican majority leader mitch mcconnell today accused president donald trump of provoking the crowd that ransacked the u.s. capitol building on january 6. last time the senate convened,
stricter lockdown starting today all non-essential shops are closed supermarkets pharmacies as well as banks are allowed to remain open schools are shot a deal the 10th of january and companies be encouraged to allow their staff to work from home where possible chancellor angela merkel also made an appeal for people to limit their social contacts during the holidays the number of people allowed to meet indoors will remain restricted to 5 not including children under 14 and in anticipation of new year s celebrations sales of fireworks have also been banned. let s bring in chief political correspondent melinda crane he is standing by at one of burnham s most popular shopping districts linda i was also one of those people out and about yesterday trying to do some last minute shopping it was really busy consuming it s a little different out there today. absolutely eerily quiet if you know what this absolutely beloved shopping district would normally look like i m standing on germ
a labor goes in a take a top place in the boom just like after a convincing win over hoffenheim. i m going to richardson welcome to the show german chancellor angela merkel has announced a raft of tough new lockdown measures which she says are necessary to bring down spiraling numbers of newco fit in 1000 cases let s get you up to date on exactly what is set to change in germany from wednesday on a non-essential shops will have to close supermarkets pharmacies and banks are allowed to remain open schools meanwhile will be shut until the 10th of january and employers are being encouraged to allow their staff to work from home wherever possible miracle also made an appeal for people to limit their social contacts during the holidays the number of people allowed to meet indoors will remain restricted to 5 that doesn t include children under 14 and in anticipation of new year s celebrations sales of fireworks are going to be banned. well these tough new measures have set the stag
a big difference and so there is still room for discussion but the hour long acrimonious debate that has been characteristic of these meetings one is trying to avoid today there s been a lot of consultation in the last few days and one is hoping that this paper that has been agreed on will be passed more or less without much resistance part of the discussions about a hard lock down and the impact it will have on business and we issue the meeting of nickel and they state leaders will also discuss compensation. yes absolutely that will be one central point of discussion there s been an open letter today from some of the major retail chains in germany and they re warning that if a locked on is taking effect immediately before the christmas before christmas that they are going to lose their christmas business that that business is going to be pushed into the internet and they say this could be the end of high street retailing as we know it so there is a lot of stake a lot at stak
to german population and to those businesses and sectors of the economy that are going to be particularly hard but hardly affected by this exactly as you were saying there that there ll be a significant impact on business and tell us about whether and what type of compensation they ll receive. yes indeed the finance minister said that compensation is going to be paid it s going to be somewhere around 11 or $12000000000.00 euros every month if that month is a month of locked on that s huge amounts of money but at the same time we have to say this is a time that is critical for retailers especially because this is the most important time of year where they make a large and large part of their turnover the of their profit. what exactly the numbers are going to be what exactly the measures are going to be is not clear yet until now the subsidies have been based on turn over and it s turned out that that has been sometimes too generous so there s going to be a new way of calculati