so close and personal as the pandemic below my own. diaries starts my new tricks onto w. big. news. this is t w news live from berlin and germany's government takes stock chancellor angela merkel and state premiers are reviewing the impact of the latest measures curbing the pandemic but officials are playing down hope so that any new moves to loosen the lock down also coming up german police carry out raids across the country after berlin bans all hezbollah activities and classifies the islamist group as

a terrorist organization. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program germany is to extend social distancing measures until may 10th that is according to chancellor angela merkel's chief of staff who was commenting ahead of a government meeting to review germany's coronavirus lockdown now at this moment merkel and the country's 16 regional leaders are discussing proposals on reopening schools and resuming sporting events but will not decide on any further easing of restrictions until may the 6th that is when data is expected on the impact of the 1st round of easing which saw some shops reopen from last week now the head of germany's public health institute is urging people to remain cautious he's warning that the pandemic is far from over. they want to punish me compendium it like this

can only end when 60 to 70 percent of the population has been infected then we have a chance to stop the violence with them according to our data the percentage of germans injected is still in the single digits so it's clear this is a marathon close but it's not clear how long that will be until this marathon is. well let's get more now we're joined by political correspondent thomas sparrow times what will come out of chancellor merkel's talks with germany's state premiers today. sort of this is about the next reopening phase germany already had a reopening phase a few weeks ago in which certain shops shops or bond 800 square meters were allowed to reopen in which schools were told to prepare for a gradual step by step reopening on their discussions today are about trying to find common ground on dot next steps of reopening which could include the announcement of the reopening of museums for example pox that are now closed

certain parts of closed all the reopening also of memorials and as well they sit ins on how to especially i love our religious gatherings as you said earlier it is not expected that we will have any big announcements today big announcements are expected in next week's meeting on may the 6 but it is all about today trying to find that common ground taking stock as you yourself said understanding whether the measures so far have been effected and how the government can actually implement them. and that was political correspondent thomas sparrow on germany's next steps as he mentioned the country schools are reopening but the science is not yet clear on how coronavirus affects children we'll have more on that in our coronavirus special right after the program but 1st here's a roundup of some of the latest developments in the pandemic yemen has reported its 1st 2 deaths from the corona virus the u.n. says it fears the disease could be spreading undetected in the war torn country

russia has reported its highest daily increase in infections it now has over 100000 confirmed cases south korea has reported no new domestic cases for the 1st time in 2 months and the czech republic says that the spread of the virus is contained after 8 consecutive days of fewer than $100.00 new cases. well germany has announced a ban on the iran backed hezbollah group and declared it a terrorist organization the move comes in addition to a 2013 e.u. ban on hezbollah's military faction and now includes all activities by its political way hezbollah is a shiite military and political group based in lebanon early this morning german police took action against that suspect suspected supporters in 5 german towns and cities. early morning raids with dozens of police and special forces in cities across germany police searched mosques associations and private

residences collecting evidence to be used for investigations into hezbollah's activities. we're searching for locations here in berlin annoyed following the ban on his blog i missed to find out if there's a connection between these locations on his blog the organization which is now outlaw. hezbollah doesn't have an official presence in germany but a network of associations is thought to provide financial support and deliver propaganda for the group while the group's military arm is classified as a terrorist organisation in the entire you most countries haven't banned its political wing on thursday germany moved to do just that. it said it could not tolerate hezbollah's anti israel positions these are. members of his party and nothing more than interests. is an anti semites people who not only

call into question use rails right to exist but also openly call for its destruction of. questions regarding hezbollah's operations in germany aren't new in december the bundesliga adopted a motion urging the government to outlaw all of hezbollah's activities in the country. hezbollah supporters have repeatedly brandished the group's flag and used anti israeli slogans at rallies the ban now allows oath already used to outlaw the use of hezbollah symbols at gatherings and on publications and the group's asses can now be confiscated israel and the u.s. have welcomed germany's move to completely outlaw. the no hope that other european countries will follow suit. and not give more i am joined now by hans senior director at the counter extremism project in new york in berlin and

a former security liaison at the german embassy in tehran welcome to the program and thank you for joining us how big a threat does hezbollah pose in germany. thank you for having me now you have to distinguish between the threat that has or is what i sympathize with both in germany in a terrorism sense and in a crime sense as far as terrorism is concerned attacks conducted in germany this is a fairly late can write the law latest really. operation that is what i did in germany was a 994 in them you can also the sas nations however. is what has proven time and time again that it misuses germany and german economy as a means to collect funds for itself it is heavily involved worldwide including in germany in the drug trade in arms smuggling in extortion and racket so it's terrorism and is a crime problem so that's primarily straight up with germany was that this was a massive law and order issue the why does to teach it straight right was that with

this money terror operations both towards israel but also now as you will know in syria are going to be prepared by but ok also a large order issue but i want to get back to the terrorism side of it i mean do we have any evidence that hezbollah was perhaps using germany as a base from which to plan operations well as the interior ministry said today in its decision it prepare attacks not in jail in germany not at targets but attacks where people had outside germany within germany ok how big of a role generally speaking is hezbollah playing in conflicts around the world for example in syria. well look i mean the assad regime would have not survive without its allies and he is. certainly one of the major allies that assad regime has including of course russia and iran it is

a force multiplier both for this opera seem as well as the main operations on the country obviously it is quite well known the role that hizbullah plays within lebanon where it is developing a state within a state pressuring the government to do certain things exempting it from certain a obligations his past play a major role in the crime in the drug smuggling operations in south america my organization c.p.a. has just done a study 2 years ago on cigarette smuggling of his bottom line or tips in south america to generate but given all of that is a total ban the best way to counter the threat that has military and political wing do indeed post. on this decision today you know coming on the back of the 2008 decision to ban and not television and the 2014 decision of the german government to ban one of its. charities that collective farms is very significant because it allows now the security forces to adopt

a whole toolbox of measures against the activities of is in germany because now you can get it as well with intelligence measures that you could not if you just looked at it as a pure crime problem and jack a senior director at the counter extremism project thank you. thank you. and let's have a look now at some other stories making headlines around the world u.s. officials say that a man has been arrested after opening fire on the cuban embassy in washington authorities saying that an unidentified person fired several shots in the early hours of thursday the country secret service is investigating no one was injured. there have been traffic jams of up to 30 kilometers at the border between kenya and uganda because of mandatory coronavirus testing the controls were introduced after several kenyan truck drivers tested positive drivers said that they had been waiting in the tailbacks for days and facebook has seen earnings climb amid

a growth in its user base during the pandemic the social media group earned $4900000000.00 in the january to march quarter more than double the amount a year earlier. just. finished her of unemployed in germany jumped by 300000 in april that's a 13 percent rise from march and reflects the onset of wide reaching pandemic measures in the country economists had expected a rise in jobless numbers given widespread business closures but the figure was dampened by state support for companies more than 10000000 employees in germany are registered for wage subsidies in order to remain on payroll. and pilots out of tons are ready to sacrifice up to 45 percent of their salaries for more than 2 years to help cut costs that's according to their union cockpit of the german flag carrier is struggling with the impact of the coronavirus cockpit says that the concessions are worth more than 350000000 euros and will make

a significant contribution to the viability of the company. meanwhile of tonnes it is reacting to the changes in air traffic with few passengers flights booked the airline has started to convert passenger aircraft into temporary cargo planes. the flight from lima to frankfurt took more than 13 hours the boeing 747 was the last rescue flight that looked tomsic carried out on behalf of the german government. on board flight 3 for one almost $280.00 passengers who were happy to be back on german soil it was also a special flight for the crew because of the coronavirus crisis they weren't looking forward to the end of their working day as they usually date of the again in court we will be working far less this month i just had this one flight it doesn't look like there will be much next month either we don't know how long this will last nobody does and of course we are worried. look cancer has canceled

96 percent of all passenger flights judes the international travel restrictions. and it's now trying to get at least a few planes in the air. to do this technicians remove the seats. large nets a stretch where the person just normally set this up us is now ready to transport box is impossible. and freight is piling up in shipping companies warehouses because nearly every passenger plane also carries freight and since most liners have remained on the ground that freight is going nowhere. but in front of dumping a lot of phrases flown in the bellies of planes especially on transatlantic and long haul flights right now this capacity is absent from the market 90 percent of passenger aircraft have disappeared and their cargo holds are no longer available to us that's about 50 percent of total freight capacity lockup with

a few. less capacity means rising prices sending a kilogram of freight from china to germany now costs 5 times as much as it did before the pandemic that's why these repurposed passenger jets travel between china and frank fast every day mostly carrying protective equipment to mosques similar special flights also go to munich. it's an ambivalent feeling under the circumstances it's good that we can do our part to help but of course it would be much better of the receipts on board with passengers sitting in them and if possible but all those seats have been sold as a typical for. the additional cargo flights are only providing work for a few look times for employees it's almost all flight attendants and most pilots are being furloughed and with the uncertainty over the airline's future. well now captain tom moore the british world war 2 veteran has raised millions for britain's national health service he's been promoted to the rank of honorary colonel on the

occasion of his 100th birthday captain tom gained global acclaim after completing a record breaking charity walk around his own garden thrill air force staged a fly pass of world war 2 planes over the cemetery and home in his honor.