this is d. w. years live from germany prepares to ease its lockdown a little more as chancellor merkel says museums galleries places of worship and children's playground sought to reopen under certain conditions and major events remain banned until the end of august also on the program police in germany carry out raids across the country after. all has activities and classify see islamist group as a terrorist organization. and no ghost games a survey commissioned by p.w. shows majority of germans are against the bundesliga season visioning in may behind

closed doors. until cale welcome to the program germany's chancellor has announced a further easing of the coronavirus lockdown after consulting with regional leaders and going to back will set museums galleries places of worship and children's playgrounds would be allowed to reopen but major events such as professional football matches remain bad until the end of august and the chance award that the easing of restrictions could be reversed if the rate of covering 1000 infection increased again. chancellor angela merkel defended a step by step approach as she outlined details of the latest easing of restrictions in germany following a virtual meeting with the 16 state premiers it's been the 1st time strongly convinced we can best work in the interest of business but also of social contacts

if we focus on taking small steps towards allowing more contacts but if we don't have to take steps back and that's why we have to stay care for and have to adhere to measures of hygiene. under the new rules religious gatherings are allowed again provided hygiene and distancing requirements are met in churches synagogues and mosques visits to zoos museums and memorials will also be possible again under the same requirements intensive care units and hospitals will start receiving non covert 1000 patients again and playgrounds can reopen as early as this week. but 2 decisions were postponed for now one should germany's blunder sleeker soccer league resume its season with games behind closed doors and to just which requirements need to be met before schools and child care facilities can reopen

gradually. said it was important to get a clear idea of the impact of the 1st steps to ease the lockdown 2 weeks ago before deciding on the next steps and that will happen next wednesday. and more from a political correspondent hansbrough welcome hans what do today's decisions tell us . i think the major message from what was from what was decided today is that america and her colleagues in the region and germany are very very careful of have decided once again to her on the side of caution to try and be very very careful about what kind of easing of restrictions they are law so that they avoid the virus spreading more quickly again within german and sort of german society. decisions that were announced today the easing of restrictions on religious services on playgrounds on museums on zoos those kind of institutions these are

institutions that the politicians consider not to be crucial not to be of huge impact to society as a whole so easing restrictions in those areas was a very small step very careful step and one step where they don't expect a major impact on the number of infections in germany and give us a sense of the balancing act the chance of the regional leaders have to perform with these decisions. well obviously there is a huge amount of pressure on politicians on the government to ease restrictions there are literally millions of people in germany that are not turning money at the moment they are followers of companies that are threatened with theirs their existence as threatened because they're not earning money so the pressure from business especially from industry is enormous obviously there's also quite a lot of pressure from people in general who are getting restless after so many weeks of not being able to move freely even within germany under this kind of

pressure the balancing act is to try and find some sort of easing to try and find steps that will relieve the pressure to some extent without giving the virus enough leave way to reemerge in a measure way within society and as i've said in this situation the politicians at the moment are earning on the side of caution of being very very careful about what steps they are taking but what can also get a sense that within the regions in germany there are quite substantial differences between the regional leaders and the central government some people in the regions would like to. ease the locked on much much more quickly and there is an attempt by and of america and some of our colleagues to try and overcome these differences to keep the lid on these kind of differences and to move forward in a unified manner. d.w. political correspondent hans brown thank you. has around up of some of the latest developments and the pandemic russia's prime minister says he's

tested positive for corona virus this has confirmed cases in the country rise to about 100000 yemen's reported its 1st 2 deaths the u.n. says he fears the disease could be spreading undetected in the water on the country south korea's reported no new domestic cases for the 1st time in 2 months the czech republic says the spread the virus has been contained after 8 consecutive days of fewer than 100 new cases. now for a brief look at some other stories making news around the world u.s. officials say a man has been arrested after opening fire on the cuban embassy in washington with r.t. say someone fired several shots in the early hours of thursday no one was injured in the country's secret service is investigating the. south koreans are in celebrating the borders birthday worshippers at a temple in seoul lit candles and incense and prayed on the lanterns and he offered prayers for people affected by the coronavirus held up signs encouraging social

distancing. india is mourning the death of actor ritchie kapoor a bollywood icon whose career spanned half a century he died from leukemia on thursday aged $67.00 his passing comes just a day after another indian film legend if uncommon died in mumbai age 53. germany has banned me around back hezbollah group and declared it a terrorist organization the moves in addition to a 2013 e.u. baton on hezbollah's military faction and now includes all activities by its political wing has been a military and political group based in lebanon where this morning the police in germany took action against suspected supporters in 5 towns and cities. early morning raid 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 noid current following the ban on his blog the aim is to find out if there's a connection between these locations and hezbollah 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 immediately that these are party members of his party and nothing more than despicable israel haters an anti semites people who not only called into question israel's 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 n.t. 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 in the us have welcomed germany's move to completely outlaw hezbollah the no hope that other european countries will follow suit. have been declared champions of the french football league for the 2920 season bringing the clubs that title tally to 9 yesterday had a 12 point lead over 2nd place must say when the season was halted in march the

decision follows from french president eduardo filipe the professional football and other sports could not resume until september because of coronavirus restrictions germany's ponderously still hopes to finish the season. well as the job or football they go waits to hear about restart decision a survey commissioned by d.w. sport is captures a rapidly changing mood when it comes to the return of put to sleep that much as jonathan craig is here to tell us more welcome jonathan so what question did the survey ask when i was a straightforward yes or no question fell over the wording that we should to bring this league season contin. in may with so-called ghost games that match is behind closed doors and the answer to that question suggests really is fading because a majority of people 49 percent you can see that according to a survey and now with the season resuming in may now why is that so significant will is a big shift from 3 weeks ago when the identical question was asked back when the

majority were for resign now supported by nearly 20 percent remember the bonus league wants to resume as soon as possible so it can get the t.v. revenue flowing into that and has come up plans with ways it thinks can say it can safely restart the season that would involve things like testing players and restricting access inside the stadium i think decision makers are likely to take public sentiment into account well support among politicians in germany has been largely positive for example this week we had the 16 states sports ministers gave their blessing to the bonus league as plans on the condition of course that they can guarantee the safety and welfare of the players and coaches now fisher was had been hoping to hear a bit more from chancellor angela merkel today as we know that decision now has been pushed until next week so really the earliest the bundesliga could be looking to resume is may the 16th i think what's particularly sensitive from a political point of view is this idea of testing the players why should healthy

footballers get tested when people with symptoms are struggling to get their hands on test i think a bonus league officials would also be a bit wary of what's been happening inside football in europe of course the dutch and french governments have pulled the plug on their seasons resuming by banning math gatherings so that will be a worry chancellor met coal is also slightly concerned about easing the lockdown so of course what message would it give off if football is playing when other people dying still from the virus infesting leigh she was today in her press conference is it true these reports that the french government has been lobbying germany. off the seas and she denied that jonathan. thank you jill. captain tom moore the british world war 2 veteran who raised millions for britain's national health service has been promoted to the rank of americano in his 100th birthday the royal air force flew world war 2 planes are he's home just north of

london in his honor the fly past was supposed to be a surprise but the government had to confirm the rumors in the face of immense media interest cotton tom is not just a celebrity in britain fans around the world have been wishing him well on this very special day. a flood of birthday wishes. is the most amazing outpouring of love for a great man who kept until nothing is caught the hearts of everybody in this country and this is what it looks like really we've we've had 125000 cards in the last week and a bit. there's centenarian being celebrated as captain tom moore he's famously completed 100 laps of his garden with the help of his walking frame and in doing so raised more than 27000000 pounds to support britain's national health service during the coronavirus outbreak crutchfield it's. right here in america

and captain tom's aim was to raise just a 1000 pounds with his charity walk but his humble mission became an unexpected hit as people tuned in from across the globe to watch his progress online. if you believe that they will be so kind to get. to the nothing. having raised more donations than any charity walk in history he's even earned himself a spot in the guinness book of world records. while politicians athletes and stars are jumping at the opportunity to plot the captain's initiative his donations have already enabled the opening of a brand new $500.00 bed hospital facility in yorkshire leaving little doubt that there is nothing a 100 year old with a strong sense of solidarity and a sturdy walking frame can do have a bath a couple tops this is dave w

a news we'll have more at the top of the al in the meantime of course there's always the web site the w dot com you can follow us on twitter and instagram as well at c.w. news i'm going to. come bearing the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news in. our corona update. that 90.