this is d.w. news live from berlin munich's october fest is off germany cancels its world famous beer festival it is the latest casualty of the coronavirus crisis the varian state leaders say it's just too risky. also coming up traders say they've never seen anything like it for the 1st time in history u.s. oil prices plunged into negative territory as the coronavirus causes demand for crude to collapse. speculation grows about the health of north korean dictator kim jong il and after he fails to attend

a key state of that unconfirmed reports say he is still after undergoing heart surgery and. how are you going to help me with. musicians look for alternative ways of making money as concerts are cancelled and the live performances staged a. i'm sorry so much kind of good to have you with us the southern german state of bavaria has canceled the october fest beer festival because of the corona virus the event attracts more than $6000000.00 visitors every year and authorities feared allowing it to go ahead would lead to a spike in infections as we report the move is likely to take both the financial and emotional toll. no crowded party

tents giant mugs of beer or packed out parades. germany's biggest festival has been cancelled for the 1st time since world war 2. large events are currently banned in germany until the end of august october 1st was supposed to start on september 19th but officials say the risk of infection during the coronavirus pandemic is just too high 2. which is painful for us it's a great pity because with many things this is not a normal year and this is sadly going to be a year with the 1st. about $6000000.00 visitors flock to the october 1st every year crowding the festival grounds but also the host city munich the cancellation of the event is not only said news for the city it also means big financial losses. are fast as a value of 1500000000 euros for munich and many people profit from it it's not just

those attic tobar fest like dubuque hosts fairground workers or souvenir shops it's also hotels restaurants retail trade and taxi drivers to. people in munich now facing a year without their beloved festival. but the decision hasn't come as a shock. when vanzant it out i'm really sad but it was expected. if people come from all over the world we can't host a party like this one. if it's apologized maybe it's a great decision i have such respect for our state leadership the way they're handling things. october fest will be back again next year and then we'll enjoy it all the more. annoying are. she said so and so begins the countdown until 2021 when the next october 1st will hopefully take

place. let's speak to correspondent and heartache he's standing by for us in unity . of the mayor of new york i said this is an emotionally difficult moment to cancel the october fest why is it so emotional. well absolutely it is because you have to understand that for the city of munich and for the people who live here is much more than just another huge party it's got a really long tradition it's been around for more than 200 years and it's something that's deeply ingrained into the d.n.a. of this city and on top of that it's also shaped the image of not only munich and the very a but also to a certain degree all of germany really all around the world if you ask anyone anywhere what they associate with germany one of the 1st answers that you always get is going to be the total says so it's usually popular around the world in the city and the people here in the city of munich they're proud of that they're proud of the fact that their city is home to such

a famous and popular festival and course now they're sad that this year all those visitors from around the world can't can't come here can't take it take can take part in a cover fest and that this huge festival is not going to happen what about the economic impact of all of this i mean this is a multimillion your own business isn't it. absolutely as we heard in the report it's one between $2.13 euros that the in total says generates every year and that's not only for the businesses that are directly at the hotel the festival the beer halls breweries and the rides and everything that you always see when you see their turf as it's the whole hospitality sector as we heard the report around 1000000 people spend the night in munich during the october fest and that's for a city that only has around one and a half 1000000 people in the population so you can you can already tell that that's a huge a factor for a lot of businesses here in the hospitality sector and that of course is a sector that's already heavily affected by the program virus this year so the

cancellation of the a top offense for them is just really another blow to the guts to me it was a big blow but given the current situation with the pandemic in germany also internationally it doesn't really come as a surprise that october for sas has been canceled. no i don't think so i mean a lot of people expected is there's really no. way to go forward with this we heard in the report like all the big events in germany are canceled until the end of august there's other big events around the world like the olympics that are also canceled so that you really can't go ahead with an event like this where there's millions of people from around the world coming together party together being close to each other you can't really social distance yourself at all during your oath as force and that's not the point of the festival so then people get infected to go home to their home countries and then maybe spark more outbreaks in the last thing that you already see here in the city of munich wants to be associated with is another wave in this kind demick would be the cause for another wave of this endemic so that the only responsible decision to really make here is to cancel the

it's almost as hard as it is but a lot of people on twitter for example are already saying ok we're looking forward to the next october 1st in 2021 all right correspondent boston heartache speaking to us from munich good to talk to you now let's take a look at some other coronavirus news austria says it will allow restaurants bars and cafes as well as some schools and churches to reopen starting on the 15th of may all will be subject to safety restrictions before the end of this week italy will announce plans for the gradual loosening of its lockdown measures starting on the 4th of may but the world health organization is one that rushing to ease restrictions will increase the risk of a resurgence of the disease currently the global death toll stands at more than 171000 that's according to johns hopkins university in the u.s. now the benchmark price of crude oil is fallen to its lowest level since 2001 at

around $20.00 a barrel it comes along side problems on the u.s. oil market where the cost of american crude fell into negative territory for the 1st time on monday while prices are tumbling as shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic drive down to now and we'll discuss the impact in a moment but 1st this report. when its planes aren't flying and its roads are all but empty the u.s. can at least lay claim to one thing we certainly have plenty of oil in fact far too much of it the president tried to calm nerves after the value of u.s. crude went negative for the 1st time ever on monday at one point reaching minus $40.00 a barrel in a month or so old it would go a little bit it's a 20 $5.00 and $28.00 or so it's largely a financial squeeze and they did get squeezed with a boil traders who found themselves on monday under heavy pressure to sell off

their crude futures in the rising cost of holding the oil in the u.s. is when dealing storage facilities means keeping it is becoming too expensive. there's so little space for it left the u.s. government is planning to fill up its own reserves i think we have 75000000 gallons right now capacity that's a lot it's we've been building it up over period but that's a 75000000000 barrels. so we're going to get either ask for permission to buy it or we'll store it one way or the other it will be for the what is most needed is a return in demand brought by restart to the u.s. economy then the oil that continues to be pumped as unbroken pace can actually have enough places to go. that report from rob watts from t w business he's with us now hi rob what do negative prices mean yes this is a strange concept isn't ever syllis come up with an example if you and i were after

the 1st round to go and get ourselves a snack from a shop and we said excuse me how much is this sandwich and they said oh that's minus to your aids would be rather excited about it because it was just that what we're going to get is going to get a sandwich and also they're going to pay us the shots going to pay us to your eyes to take that sandwich off their hands so they no longer have to store it for that is what we have with us or oil prices yesterday we've reached the point now where demand is so production is continuing that basically oil produces a willing to pay people to take the oil off their hands this because you know what we call the coronavirus lockdowns all around the world and the united states planes are still on the grounds roads of basically empty factories aren't running at the same pace as they normally would and so they're not consuming the oil at the same rate as they normally would be well the demand is low why is the supply still so high you know what this is something that nations around the world have been arguing about a loss over the past few months even before corona virus outbreak because you know

well prices were falling anyway but last week we did have this agreement from opec and its allies to cut global output by 10000000 barrels a day in the u.s. we haven't seen cuts happening there yet not on the scale that we might like to see because companies don't want to for example allow their competitors to steal pos of their markets if they close down and there was a cost so sated with closing that facilities doubt and then reopening them until later date so they've done the math and they've worked out that actually lowering their output isn't in their interest this point so what does all of this mean for consumers well in the us we've seen petrol prices falling since the start of the year they fall in 2 thirds. the doubt was going to continue to go down that obviously people are driving around so much to take advantage of that outside of the united states to actually seen a suppose a knock on effect of what happened in the us yesterday with brant crude which might

be more familiar to people that's the crude oil that's pulled out of the north sea and is generally used worldwide as the sort of benchmark for what oil is worth that fell to its lowest point fall since 20011 point today it has recovered a little bit since then but that does mean the oil price is already going along direction and that means prices of petrol pumps are only going in one direction and that's down all right rob watts from the business thank you for bringing us up to date and let's get more on this now we have our financial correspondent chelsea delaney standing by at the frankfurt stock exchange hi healthy how have markets reacted to all of this turmoil in oil prices. 1st markets here in europe had sort of shrugged off these these issues with us oil as the problems this effect to the u.s. oil market it was seen as an isolated issued having to do with the lack of space specifically in oklahoma but investors are really rethinking that here in europe

today we've seen the dax fall about 3 percent and you mentioned earlier the drop in brant crude interest fallen about 20 percent so investors traders are really sounding the alarm that it's not just the u.s. it's not just oklahoma that's going to have storage problems it's really going to be the whole world that's running out of places to put all of this oil that would likely suggest oil prices are going to continue to fall and that's going to put a lot of pressure on a lot of parts of the economy of the hundreds of thousands of people that work in the oil sector the countries that really depend on oil revenue and also all of the banks and investors that have went money to these oil firms over the past few years i want to ask you about a positive piece of economic news that we heard today a d v e w economic research group released its investor confidence index for germany it suggests that investors are actually upbeat why is that. well there are

2 parts of this report the 1st is how investors feel about the economy right now that part of the survey was was deeply negative for march so investors do see a lot of issues in the economy at this point given the lockdowns however they are quite optimistic about the future of the german economies so where the economy will be and perhaps 6 months and i think that's really reflecting these measures that central banks and the german government have put in place to help businesses and workers through this so investors still recognize that we're facing a steep recession but the safety net that policymakers have put in place is likely to help the german economy weather the storm. delaney reporting from frankfurt thank you. now here's a look at some other stories making headlines around the world u.s. president donald trump says he will temporarily suspend all immigration by signing an executive order he said the action was in response to the corona virus outbreak

and to protect jobs more than 22000000 americans have applied for unemployment benefits in the past month because of pandemic lockdown. 36 people have died in floods in eastern congo authorities say some 75000 people are homeless after heavy rain storms triggered flash floods and landslides roads and bridges across the affected region also suffered severe damage. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has agreed to form an emergency unity government with his political rival any guns after 3 inconclusive elections protests were held over the weekend against netanyahu he faces trial on 3 charges of corruption but he denies any wrongdoing. now today is holocaust remembrance day in israel and the nation has been honoring the memory of the 6000000 jews murdered by the nazis.

as every year of people stood in silence and sirens rang out in towns and cities many streets were relatively empty because of israel's coronavirus lockdown ceremonies taking place in other countries also removed on line including what is known as the march of life between former concentration camps in poland israel central holocaust memorial yad vashem also found a virtual way of remembering those who were killed thousands. of years old for knowledge and one by one number the names of some of the 6000000 jews murdered by the dots east are read out so they will not be forgotten. these rails holocaust remembrance center for shame and turkish people to post tweet using the hash tag 6 remembering from home and show our names or he was 35 years old marguerite.

lived in my home. they were murdered by the nazis in 1941. that is never forget. people could also create commemorative plates. that would be projected on the entrance gate to birkenau at death camp this one says this year for the 1st time in 3 decades i won't march on the cursed tracks between auschwitz and birkenau in memory of the 6000000 killed but even in these trying circumstances we will keep the flame of memory alive. in israel a ceremony was held without a live audience messages of remembrance connecting with the current crisis. you political one of the outbreak of the coronavirus requires the world what fight against a virus no less important it shows the importance of national sovereignty unlike

during the holocaust this time we're going to fight the danger on time. songs of sorrel and stories of survival as time passes and a number of survivors decreases personal stories about this darkest of times become more and more precious. china and south korea have cast doubt on media reports that north korean leader kim jong un is greatly ill after undergoing heart surgery beijing junks closest ally said it had seen no signs indicating that the 36 year old was critically ill that sentiment was echoed by officials in seoul who monitor their volatile neighbors movements very closely speculation emerged after kim was absent from celebrations last week for the birthday of his grandfather a key event honoring north korea's founder that he never missed before. and we can

speak to journalists frank smith he joins us from seoul hi frank what do we actually know about what's happened. well you pointed out of it in that introduction a little bit it's more about what we know didn't happen kim jong un didn't attend the 108th birthday anniversary of his grandfather kim il sung on april 15th normally he would go to that he had every time previously since he was leader of north korea back in 2011 so that's important the other thing that we need to look at is the source of the information that we have here there are anonymous sources within north korea actually i should say one single source the web site. daily and kay reported initially from multiple sources that kim jong un had had surgery and the recovery was difficult and then another anonymous source in c.n.n. said that he had been incapacitated that it was

a little bit more serious it's unclear whether those came from 2 different sources inside of north korea and we do need to question the timing as kim jong il was said to have this surgery on april 12th whereas north korean media reportedly said he was observing some air force exercises on that day so it's unclear really what the situation is now especially when you have these denials from the south korean government about any sort of change in north korea's posture or their government activity today frank a lot it's unclear also because north korea is an incredibly secretive state so how reliable is any of the information coming from their. well we're all exercising in a lot of speculation especially concerning the decision making process within north korea but you know back in 2011 this old hassid the of our access into north korean governments was laid bare kim kim jong il died the leader

of north korea kim jong un's father kim jong il died it was 2 days later when you north korea announced it on their news show that we found out so they're very successful in preventing any information that they don't want to get out. all right journalist frank smith a speaking to us there from seoul thank you frank thank you so much for joining us now virgin australia the country's 2nd largest airline has gone into voluntary administration that means that administrators have been called in to restructure the airline find potential buyers and save some of the 10000 jobs at risk coronavirus travel restrictions have made virgin debt problems worse the airline had been struggling to repay around 3000000000 u.s. dollars of debt runways packed with planes going nowhere with no

one the writing has been on the wall for some time now covert 19 has claimed its 1st major casualty of the airline industry virgin australia and the chief executives face said it all. this is not just something that is inversion of strongly we know it's hurting the industry globally it is the worst i've yashin process i was saying that is true. we're not immune to that board might a very courageous decision last not to put the company into volunteered ministration into so quickly for the debt laden airline the unprecedented shutdown came at the wash time the final blow when the government refused a loan worth around 1000000000 us dollars emotional employees pleaded with the prime minister scott morrison to change his mind for those of you watching today place take a moment to ask yourself what a monopoly in the israel and skies would look like for you bob in this turmoil for

24 and a half years these people be harming. my brothers and sisters. down or could not do your job. to please let me do more. the government said it would not be allowed the airlines deep pocketed foreign shareholders among them richard branson he tweeted that this was not the end of virgin australia but i believe a new beginning it is now the job of the administrators to restructure and find new investors and get this company soaring again. well another industry that's been hit hard by the pen demick is new sick concerts and tourism been cancelled the prospects for live performances in the future also look bleak in the u.k. a platform originally used for booking artists is now offering musicians an alternative way of making money he reports from london. savannah hunted down here

ashley hope you're right there in south africa this is a special music message not for an ox here in london. a light hearted video message for some doctors composed and performed by musician tom morley. how are you going to help me with. being in musical messenger is the new day job for tom hall. in no. i fly all kinds of weddings and events all over the u.k. and europe. so it tends to be mostly my weekends completely for less work full time joke obviously in this situation they will be perspiring doc and so it's gone are the days of live gigs where tom could perform at parties and greek islands or an indian weddings. his income has vanished overnight spring and summer are usually the busiest time of the year for musicians like him but music

and theater venues across the world remain firmly shut and with nobody knowing how known this will last musicians have been coming up with a plan b. past the lies musical messages the website on calling stem with clients allowing them to earn money and to do what they enjoy most of all to perform. music is one of the u.k.'s best exports and the u.k. music industry is enormous so to see it all within the space of one a few weeks to go from beginning to almost nothing has been has been extremely difficult for everyone in the music industry we didn't want to sit more in the loss of life performance we wanted to sort of turn our heads to a solution and think what can we do right now i to help musicians and money from home. to make it service even more attractive encore donates

a small amount of its earnings on each message to the british national health service performed songs for patients suffering with current or hospital. i've even performed at someone's virtual party or. it's really good. so far several 100 messages have been sent all over the world for musicians like tom morley this means that they can now pay their rent. i'm certainly not feeling positive all the time myself at the moment. but it gives me a focus yeah great great channel positivity into every day. and to show how truly adept ability is tom gives a very special performance in german. bar. bar is there. anything is there.

they said. all right thank you for watching indeed have you news will be back at the top of the hour with more news then in the meantime head to our website n.p.r. com for all the latest good to have you with us.

imus media what has been have to follow for you just 2 of hundreds of thousands of children living in an overcrowded a few g. camps and living on thanks to football projects they can get a few hours of respite at beirut park. beirut park kids refuge in football. league.

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