this is developing news live from berlin what will it cost to save europe's economy the leaders of germany and france have a plan for a post pandemic recovery at their 1st face to face talks in months the german chancellor and french president met near berlin are hoping to win over skeptics to their multi-billion euro coronavirus rescue package also coming up. it's been called a pedophile pandemic police in germany are trying to identify tens of thousands of users involved in an online child sex abuse network. and breaking the rules on

social distancing we meet the south african minibus drivers who could end up accelerating the spread of covert my g.'s. i'm all me and use of welcome to the program we begin with the future of europe after the pandemic that was the subject today as german chancellor angela merkel and french president emmanuel mack home at a maze of palace near berlin it was their 1st face to face meeting since the pandemic hit in march the 2 leaders were eager to show they stand shoulder to shoulder on a multi 1000000000 euro plan they say is crucial to guaranteeing that use future. the greeting was distanced because of coronavirus but warm nonetheless it is not by chance that he. is the 1st foreign leader to meet with chancellor merkel since the

virus crisis began the pair spearheading a 500000000000 euro proposal for rebuilding europe's economy off to the pandemic these are 2 leaders who want to work together and be the driving force for europe. we understand that europe is not united merely because germany and france agree but when germany and france disagree it does not look so good for unity in europe so perhaps we can find agreement on many questions and make a contribution and give a positive impulse to new things in the right direction for europe's future. even as germany prepares to take over the presidency of the e.u. on the 1st of july america is more central than ever to the future of the block the french president for his part wants to be seen to be injecting his own energy and ideas into the tandem he brought with him from paris a proposal for a new environmental levy and he spoke of how european values have prevailed during

the pandemic. across europe there has been an open and transparent debate from the start i think our citizens should be aware of what that means in many other parts of the world some more severely affected by the virus the nurses the assistance of both individuals and companies has not been as massive far from it and in many places the epidemic has been synonymous with the suspension of democratic life but not here in europe but. on the. macro has been weakened by his party's poor results in local elections on sunday mankell handling of kobe it has been support even though the plan to transfer funds to struggling countries in southern europe is a huge new turn which not all in a party back but as they try to convince some reluctant members that they have the right recipe for recovery france and germany want to make sure they're pointing in

the same direction. d.w. political correspondent hons was following the talks at ms alice he sent us this assessment cooperation between germany and france is normally regarded as the engine of the european union but with a minor mark or in france and i'm going to america in germany that engine has struggled to pick up speed despite producing large volumes of high flying intentions a monarch or as a young president trying to push a hitch trying to show that he can get things moving while longer america is a seasoned politician who has learnt that pushing things through quickly is not a good idea but in the face of the corona crisis here in europe and the whole world the pressure has risen and both leaders have realized that action really is required in our anger america is starting to move has seen that the axis between paris and berlin is very important and the corporation between germany and france is picking up momentum it could well shape e.u.

policy for the next few years. and now to some of the other developments in the corona virus pandemic the world health organization says it's sending a team to china next week in an effort to search for the origin of the virus the w.h.o. also warned that the pen demick was quote speeding up the e.u. has named 14 countries whose citizens it deems safe to let in from july 1st australia canada and japan are among those countries the u.s. brazil and china are not on the safe list and china has reimposed a strict lockdown on nearly half a 1000000 people in a province surrounding beijing after an increase in cases there. german investigators are working to identify tens of thousands of online accounts involved in vast child sex abuse networks thirty's found thousands of possible suspects all tracing internet chat room activity linked to child sex abuse case in the western state of north rhine-westphalia they've already charged 7 other people as

a result and now they've revealed their researching at least 30000 digital identities from the internet based networks. reporter max merrill has been on the story for us hi max thanks for joining us here is that 30000 is a pretty massive number tell us a little bit about that yeah i mean the scale of this investigation is absolutely massive as you mentioned 30000 digital identities that the investigators are looking at not necessarily 30000 individuals basically these a leads that they're going into some people believed to have several accounts on various platforms but the scale of this investigation in germany is completely unprecedented $72.00 suspects have been identified by name so far and few have been charged as you mentioned 10 arrests overall made and so far it is believed that this is an international investigation but in the german language regions so the

north rhine-westphalia justice minister where this investigation is focused he said this problem seems to be fall bigger than previously expected in the last months a huge investigation team that has had usually around over $100.00 case workers working daily but even up to $300.00 or more caseworkers working on this and several of them have had to be signed off sick permanently many of them have had counseling to deal with what they have been dealing with this heroin called how in content which includes images and videos but also chat rooms a lot of discussion and chat rooms that are looking at coordinating and encourage. ging abuse online so massive undertaking here but how did they begin this effort well it all was triggered in october 29th seen when officers searched the flat of a suspected child abuser and they they found mountains of digital material that linked him to this wide a network several online groups of around 2000 members that they found that then

triggered this whole investigation and now they set up an investigation team with a code name bag and in may they made the 1st successful arrest and sentencing of a 27 year old former soldier who's been sentenced to 10 years and indefinite psychiatric care so a lot of perpetrators here but what do we know about the victims well very little so far i mean 44 victims have been identified according to the police and freed from the abuses one as young as 3 months old so we're talking about mainly abusers who are believed to be parents or stepparents of victims and this investigation i assume is going to continue what's coming next yet it's being ramped up to the federal level there's a federal task force being formed on wednesday with 6 total federal prosecutors involved and germany has very strong data privacy laws which is making this very complicated of course these can be waived for things like hacking or terrorism but

not yet for child abuse that's probably something that we're going to see being talked about in the coming months and a colleague of mine spoke to a spokes person from that regional justice ministry in north rhine-westphalia they expect this investigation at some point to turn international and hoping for support from other countries authorities as well as next meryl thanks for your reporting now to some of the other stories making news this hour. venezuela's president nicolas maduro has ordered the european union's ambassador to leave the country it comes hours after brussels slapped sanctions on several officials loyal to the president more than 50 countries including much of the e.u. recognize opposition leader one why though as venezuela's interim president. the u.s. aviation regulator has started test flights of boeing's troubled 737 max the plane has been grounded since last year following 2 crashes which killed more than 340

people investigating is blamed faults in the flight control system for the incidents with the test flights aiming to evaluate new upgrades. to the u.s. supreme court has upheld protections on a woman's right to abortion judges struck down a louisiana state law that sought to place restrictions on doctors who perform the procedure the ruling is seen as a blow to the trumpet ministration. now pakistan authorities are vowing to take revenge on any group found responsible for a deadly terror attack on kharaj stock exchange on monday police said at least 7 people were killed in the assault including 4 militants. from a result of. the attack was filmed by an eyewitness from across the road a little bit earlier and. another gunman was captured on closed circuit t.v. in the parking lot of corrupt stock exchange. pakistani authorities say the

4 gunmen attacked security guards with grenades but were killed before they were able to gain access to the main building where more than 1000 traders and staff were working. i just about the people in this particular but today after 10 o'clock in the morning the gunshots echoed and there was a sound of an explosive just like firecrackers it was on t.v. just it was continued for about 20 minutes. selves inside our offices for safety reasons safety for the safety visa while all the people working inside the stock exchange remained unharmed at least 3 people 2 guards and a police officer were killed in the attack police found large supplies of ammunition explosives and food on the militants they say it's possible the attackers had planned on the wrong c h. 100 a large thank god a huge disaster could have occurred which has been averted but life is back to

normal the markets are open that there's no need for any concern right now our own security police enforcement agencies together averted a huge casualty toll to date. the assault was later claimed by the baluchistan liberation army the separatists group has been responsible for a string of attacks in recent years demanding independence from pakistan for the resource rich baluchistan province. south africa is gradually relaxing its krone virus lock down restrictions but some of the countries minibus taxi driver say the rules aren't being used fast enough one union is taking action to get money back in the driver's pockets that's at the risk of both drivers and passengers health w.'s out of hand reports from cape town. for millions of commuters in south africa obeying physical distancing regulations is almost impossible public transport he is mainly comprised of minibuses known as taxis

since the beginning of the ben demick they have been allowed to operate only at 70 percent capacity but on monday the drivers largest union announced it was abandoning that limits. the way we used to because he doesn't want to be was money was always die with the koran or almost all of the dead were going to make a living yet we still are the ones are waging wars it was the world. the government has offered drivers a one off compensation amounting to $250.00 euros total of almost $70000000.00 euros but drivers say that not enough things are tough for passengers to and this minibus terminal in cape town people do regularly disinfect their hands but no one's checking distance regulations or the people wearing masks. were going to the way to go you need to go. where you keep so you can get really

into the key because life danger if you can you can see though. it's not pretty on thing that because you know it's not going to be loving you know. actually you can if you know it's very very dangerous irresponsible. say they shouldn't be packing your pictures at this time doing this and you could just see in south africa have been warning about the high risk of the spread of the virus inside those mini buses and yeah this mini bus then the drivers are divided whether it is a good idea to operate at full capacity or not. many drive us wants to stick to the regulations. for many years i would rather die with. people. because you don't know who's got the vital you have to go to your family cape town the center of the pandemic in south africa union said to hold talks with

the government over the next few days but if regulations don't change the union they'll bring public transport to a standstill. you're watching the news don't forget you can keep up to date on our web site that's t w dot com thanks for watching. and language courses. video. anytime anywhere.