pandemic peaked in many places but not before claiming tens of thousands of lives as we bid good riddance to april many places are flattening the curb and lifting lockdowns and there may be a new treatment from an old drug tonight predictions for me there will be no vaccine probably no cure and we will need just as much patience as ever before berlin this is the day. of the fuse virus in our country it will be here for months. we have succeeded in putting the brakes on the spread of the fibers and that has to be our main focus. of the puts you want to rip it up to great is estimated at 0.76 this means that according to these calculations on average one infected person now infects less than one other question for 2 to presume. it's essential that we stay

disciplined that we keep our distance and follow hygiene rules and take computer anyone who has acute respiratory symptoms should be tested for the virus because the capacities are that they should be used. also coming up tonight police raids across the country as germany bans the islamist group hezbollah and labels it a terrorist organization members of these pati and nothing more than despicable israel hate is an anti semites people who not only call into question each rallies right to exist but also openly call for its destruction. to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin the day ending april counting what we've lost. and counting what we've saved one month ago on the last

day of march there were 857000 confirmed cases globally of covert 19 the disease caused by the new corona virus today on this last day of april that number stands at almost 3000000 250000. was without a doubt a month that belong to the pandemic to date more than 230000 people have died from the virus but there are inspiring numbers reflected in the tragic ones more than 1000000 people have fully recovered since the pandemic began may will most likely be a month in which the negatives and the positives both continue to grow however in more cities in countries around the world we are seeing increasing efforts at returning to some semblance of normality you can call them baby steps or 1st report walks us through the latest here in germany chancellor angela merkel defended

a step by step approach as she outlined details of the latest easing of her strict sins in germany following a virtual meeting with the 16 state premiers it's been the 5th i'm strongly convinced we can best walk in the interest of business but also of social contacts if we focus on taking small steps to what's allowing more contacts but if we don't have to take steps back and that's why we have to stay careful and have to hit to measures of height seen. under the new rules religious gatherings are allowed again provided hygiene and distancing requirements are met in church is 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 1000 patients again and playgrounds can reopen this week. but 2

decisions were postponed for now one should gemini's bunder sleekest soccer league resume its season with games behind closed doors and to just which requirements need to be met before schools and child cafe solicitors can reopen gradually. said it was important to get a clear idea of the impact of the fast steps to ease the lock down 2 weeks ago before deciding on the next steps and that will happen next wednesday. we'll listen to the scientists follow the data we have heard those commands ever since the pandemic began and they became more relevant as lock downs were imposed and entire economies were shut down as consensus here in germany over restrictions appears to be waning fresh appeals to people and policy makers to stay with the science listen to what the head of germany's center for disease control and prevention the robert cork institute said today this is us this virus is in our country and will be in

our country for months that's why we have to live for months in this so-called new normality where we have to make sure that the virus has this all chance as possible a spreading further. and that will continue to be the case as things stand at the moment. until we either have a vaccine that will give us the immunity we need when we are vaccinated and have a good vaccine what we have better medicines that will allow us to treat the infected better faster. my 1st guest tonight is one of the u.s. is leading epidemiologist dr jennifer horney is professor in founding director of the epidemiology program at the university of delaware she has trained rapid response teams for outbreaks including the 2009 swine flu pandemic dr warning it's good to have you on the day this is your 1st time you were happy to have you here i'd like to get your take on the ebola draw rent

a severe yesterday the top infectious disease expert in the us dr revived hopes of using the drug to treat cope with 19 take a listen to what he said although with 31 percent improvement doesn't seem like a knock out 100 percent it is a very important proof of concept because what it is proven is that a drug can block this virus so at the doctor found spoke the stock market jumped and it was easy to think that we have a new wonder medicine here against the virus maybe if you could give us a reality check please what is the reality about this medication. so i think this is a really important finding because to date we've had no pharmaceutical interventions for coping 19 so we've been relying on the type of individual and community level non-farm ical suitable interventions like social distancing at stay

at home to control transmission and so to put this in context these trials showed a recovery time reduced from about 15 days to 11 days so that's why this 30 percent improvement comes as a comparison tamiflu which are that we use a lot if you buy at all for seasonal influenza when given in the 1st 48 hours of infection it's typically reduces our recovery time by one day from the sickle 7 to 10 day course of infection so among older adults it might be a little more effective but this is important because i've got high risk groups so this reduction of about a 3rd pretty good in comparison with what we're usually expecting from an antiviral ok well from a possible treatment to a possible vaccine one day here what do you make of reports this week that researchers at oxford who were already working on a different corona virus and have now switched to the new coronavirus they hope to have the vaccine by the end of september the end of september it is that too good

to be true. god i think that it probably is if we're talking about a vaccine that would be widely available so a couple of coffee outs are not the capacity to ramp up production is going to be severely limited even if a vaccine was available by the fall it would only be available for use among highly targeted groups of high risk patients and i think we also need to consider what the uptake would be on a novel vaccine so even though the centers for disease control and prevention in the u.s. recommend seasonal flu vaccine for all americans over 6 months of age the typical population coverage is less than 50 percent even though the science is clear that reduces hospitalization and death so if we have a vaccine available how many doses will we have and what would be the accepted. and you know we hear time and time again it's all about testing testing and testing there's been presents for self korea taiwan new zealand and germany for rolling out

massive testing early on that is not the case in the united states why are we about to start the month of may with doctors across america still crying out for more tests i honestly do not know why our testing in the u.s. has been such a mess i'm not an expert in the supply chain issues that just certainly impacted the availability of the test kits and the reagent needed and i was the samples but our strategy remains an adequate because we're not getting the task down to the lower levels of public health the state and local level which is where the contact with the populations that are at high risk are so much of what's needed to move forward with the plans that we have in place now for relaxing social distancing a lot is on relatively untested diagnostic technologies in contrast to the countries you mentioned that have been more successful in rolling out mass testing

testing in the u.s. remains highly decentralized responsibility of the state. yeah ok you know the a very good point to bring out the virus calls in the pandemic now is thought to have originated in bats but u.s. intelligence has confirmed that it is investigating the possibility of the virus having leaked from a lab in china now if that were to be proven true would it have any impact on how we are reacting and dealing with this pandemic does it matter. i don't think that it is true i think that the genetic analysis is shown that pretty clearly and it far far more likely that this is traditional. from an animal to human pose i think the difference here is that opposed to keep our eyes when we had the 85 in one hand and explain it was highly inefficient transmission person to

person so the severe disease but inefficient transmission and when we had a pandemic influenza in 2009 it was a fish and a person the 1st thing transmission that the infection was not very severe and we get here with a very serious and highly transmissible and i think that this is something that we should expect to happen in crop of ours. our global world we've heard that many times from many scientists saying that we're encroaching on perhaps places we shouldn't be i know that your research focuses on the impacts of natural disasters on public health do you classify a virus jumping species as what we've got right now as causing it and then causing a pandemic do you classify that as a natural disaster or would you say that's just a natural occurrence. well i would say that it's not so much that the virus be seen but that we have a combination i mentioned before of

a disease that very easily transmitted including by people who are 8 and magic operating in this environment of extreme global connectivity a pandemic of that is that during this that our main concern at this point was that we would exceed our local capacity to respond. but i think we need to remember that even prior to 2000 line our progress for fairness and response were considering pandemic as a potential disaster we needed to prepare for the few 1008 and the u.s. . has not been rebuilt and there are these pandemic we faced with h one n one and that have not impacted the u.s. in a meaningful way you know and i think you bring a good point there that at the end of the day we pay when we don't prepare for what is coming dr jennifer a warning epidemiologist at the university of delaware dr doherty it's good to have you on the show we appreciate your time and your insights tonight thank you thank

you. well the police raids began early this morning after the decision had been made here in berlin the german government has banned the iran backed hezbollah group and at the same time declared it a terrorist organization the decision puts germany on the same page with the united states and israel the military wing of the group was banned in the european union 7 years ago hezbollah is a shiite military and political group based in lebanon on just before dawn police here in berlin and in other german cities raided properties connected to suspected hezbollah supporters. early morning riggs 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 her

and following the ban on his blog the i'm 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 these potty and nothing more than despicable israel hate is an anti semites people who not only called into question his right to exist but also openly colfer 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 authorities to outlaw the use of hezbollah symbols at gatherings and on publications and the group's acis can now be confiscated. israel and the u.s. have welcomed germany's move to completely outlaw hezbollah they no hope that other european countries will follow suit. or we have complete coverage of today's decision by germany i'm joined tonight by hong schindler he is with the counter extremism project in new york in berlin and he spent time in iran is the security liaison at the german embassy in tehran and joining me tonight from beirut in

lebanon is correspondent baso a reading to both of you gentlemen welcome but also let me start with you is based in lebanon it is in the parliament it is a force to be reckoned with in the country has there been any reaction to germany's decision. oh beyond that it's nothing today but the sound of silence i tried to have some comments from a governmental side or as well as well but that if used to do so today at the same time there was a cabinet meeting to discuss the current issues and lebanon but they didn't come across this topic as well as there was a weekly meeting for his where love and peace of luck and their gifts confidence they didn't comment at all about these issues usually such commands will be handled by his will not secretary general has on the nuts on the buck in the mud on the whole you month for the muslims you should he focus on the religious issues and

keep the political stance on to the last friday of this month which is called by has been a good day or judaism's date yeah ok so the silence there in beirut mr schindler the german foreign minister announced this decision in a tweet today and the 1st reason that he listed was hezbollah was refusal to recognize the right of israel to exist does that surprise you because that is nothing new there's nothing new in that statement. thank you very much for having me obviously as you already pointed out this decision came along and liberation even the parliamentary vote and what's the last stage in a in a very very long discussion you have to look at his fall in 2 ways at the one hand this is it terrorism and i think today's decision we have found that it is but it also is

a veritable crime network including inside germany racketeering gun running drug dealing where all of what he is or sympathizers and members of his what i think in germany to raise funds for the organization so what is the big threat to germany mr schindler is it has been the terrorist group or. the criminal gang money launderers both problem however you cannot treat that terrorist aspect of the group without declaring it a terrorist school and you cannot create a terrorist group if you just simply only get better as a crime and now that uptick life is very much gone online seeing a ramp up of online activities. as well in germany and without today's decision that with nothing that can be done with today's decision of course they can the u.s. ambassador to germany released a statement today praising germany's decision ambassador richard grinnell wrote

and we can show our viewers that germany's efforts to confront this threat especially its legal ban on any hezbollah activities on german soil are exactly what is needed throughout europe we call on all european union member states to take similar action so that from the u.s. ambassador mr schindler today's move could be seen as berlin falling into line behind washington is that what has happened. do we have any frank this is not the 1st us administration of called for jamming and told to look at his fall models now and to look and act on that european union to look at what i will close and in a way this is not a process that started with this us administration and this is not a decision that family took because of us that was racial as far as i can see. bonzo you know up until recently or very recently the german government refused to ban has been because of the group's presence in lebanon and in the lebanese parliament will germany's decision to hurt hezbollah's credibility among the

lebanese people what do you think. let me put it this way germany. is a neutral and trusty partner. in the us to kate's. not at all between hezbollah and israel in the prisoners are sure according to this at least succeeded at least 2 times to find the law is that the pows the accord as well as well these. talks as i said and you talk to the world in july 2006 germany i don't under 50 soldiers in south lebanon you ask if it's known as units that occur if you do that you ask if he considers that you should 17 along and make that mistake made shock some are because germany according to his will not it's the closest you can friend to you know and as. you know money

is also as a one off the it on commercial partners with iran you know it's interesting germany does have those ties with iran mr schindler syria has condemned germany's decision today how big of a role is hezbollah playing in conflicts around the world such as the war in syria . well i mean as i think it's figured out and all of that is definitely indispensable force multiplier for the assad regime it is supporting the training operations on the ground there with manpower pretty much from with dot so it does play a very significant role in south america as my organization the count extreme is a broad checked showed in their report 2018 is what i see very much involved in a massive amount of cigarette smuggling and commodity smuggling to find it's is exactly the genes it is involved in smuggling of drugs in north africa all of those rocks up on 4 year old nowhere so in a way you know it is

a multifaceted organization that is not just political organization is definitely a terror organization it's also a crime network and as i said if your base decision was deliberate it generationally in the very decision it will come over life but also before we run out of time let me just ask you you know lebanon is a country in turmoil you've got protests because of the economic crisis you have the the pandemic lockdowns now you've got germany banning hezbollah am i right in saying that it seems like things are going from bad to worse in lebanon. going to the financial and economy so should issues in the moment yes it does but when it comes to has a lot of christian a generous critic for hezbollah some not mention too many times. the chinese should . cycle completely different from the international law they don't deal with the

national banks they don't have money didn't come across the banking sectors and the minute so they have their own financial. or i do w. correspondent bosler giving us the latest from beirut and then there with the counter extremism project in new york and berlin to both of you gentlemen thank you . captain tom moore the british war 2 veteran who raised millions for britain's national health service has been promoted to the brink of honorary colonel on his 100th birthday the air force flew world war 2 planes over his home just north of london in his honor the fly over was supposed to be a surprise but the government had to confirm the rumors in the face of tremendous media interest. captain or should i say colonel tom is not just a celebrity in britain fans around the world have been wishing him well on this very special birthday. a flood of birthday wishes.

a self-confessed amazing outpouring of love for a great man who kept until nothing is called 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. the 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 crutch it's. right here in america and the caption 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 all that they listen oakland to get. a good enough.

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 applaud 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. and from all of us here in berlin here's wishing a very happy birthday to captain colonel tom moore will see the more.

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perception. thinking and action. willing to change attractive appearances and to fulfill easly finally see the danger of what happens when the body gets fined for clashes made in germany. 60 minutes on the. we know that this is very time for the coronavirus is changing the world changing our lives so please take care of yourself keep your distance and wash your hands and if you can't stay at home we're d.w.b. press you're free we are working tirelessly to keep you informed on all of our

platforms we're all in this together and together in the making for. stay safe everybody. stay safe stay safe increase it's facing. alone a very warm welcome indeed to focus on europe with me peter craven and we begin this week with the threat posed by russian cyber attacks on the west we're not just talking about data theft but also the spreading of what's described as industrial scale dissed information and computer experts loyal to the kremlin so-called trolls are accused of infiltrating.