this is d.w. news live from berlin the world reaches out to beirut asked of the massive blasts that killed nearly 150 people and left 300000 homeless the french president emmanuel mccall pledges to lead to a global donor's conference to rebuild beirut but he says there must be reform in lebanon from within also coming up. taking on the u.s. gun lobby new york prosecutors are suing the national rifle association for

financial wrongdoing saying they want to break up the n.r.a. . and fast free and not optional germany is making coronavirus tests mandatory for all people entering the country from designated high risk areas new infections are increasing their highest level in 3 months. thanks for joining us french president. delivered a message to the people of beirut on thursday you're not alone help is on the way on a visit to the lebanese capital my calling pledged to spearhead a donor's conference to raise funds to rebuild the city but he also said there will be no blank checks and demanded political leaders make reforms.

as the people of beirut come together to clean up the debris from tuesday's catastrophic explosion world leaders are lining up to provide aid. french president landed in beirut addressing the anger felt by the people towards the corruption regarded as making the glass possible and that has plagued the country for decades he has also promised assistance. but what i can guarantee you is that this aid will be transparent it will go to the field and it will not go in the hands of the corrupt god. lebanon is a former french protectorate and the 2 countries still have close ties today. surrounded by crowds mccraw and listen to me outrage and pleas for help chants of revolution and the regime sounded all around. us i have here today i am going to

propose a new political pact this afternoon and i will come back by september 1st and if it has not been up t'ain't i will take responsibility for it. across and later announce the launch of an international conference in the coming days with the aim of raising funds to support the people of beirut. which is the company we are no longer able to continue this way in this situation people do not have enough money to continue what they started their country cannot take it anymore but much time since we have been fighting for 50 years in order to raise our family in these circumstances that we live in now are finished we have been working for our retirement but they finished us your good life and my. hopes rest on an international aid effort to pull together so the residents of beirut can rebuild their homes. their city and their community.

well moving to the united states where the state of new york has filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the national rifle association that's the country's most powerful gun lobby a separate lawsuit has been filed by washington d.c. as attorney general against the group's charitable arm the n.r.a. foundation new york state attorney general or 2 should james and nine's the charges at a press conference the lawsuit accuses top n.r.a. executives of corruption and diverting millions of dollars of venerate funds to finance lifestyles the n.r.a. has called the allegations a baseless attack on the right to keep and bear arms well i'm joined now by de w.'s washington bureau chief in this poll hyenas so what are the attorneys general in new york and washington d.c. aiming to achieve with these lawsuits and really what are they actually accusing

the n.r.a. are of. right so basically they want to prove that no organization is above the law they are saying that the influence of the n.r.a. has become so powerful that they kind of went unchecked over decades allowing the top management to put hundreds of thousands into their own pockets to pay for trips to africa to do safaris with their families to pay for food for cars for expensive planes so basically they really want to dissolve. so they're really going after them but what is the likelihood of such a powerful organization like they are in an array being dissolved and what would actually mean. right i mean this process will take years but it's taking place in the time the tide my shift why because

so many americans are really tired of gun violence they're tired of seeing children in schools being shot they're tired of seeing murders on the streets so in many states they really increased the laws so maybe this is really the beginning of a change is certainly a time of change in the united states and of course the n.r.a. is under so much scrutiny as the organizations leadership responded in any way you know. now they're saying that then maybe countersuing i mean they try to downplay everything obviously saying this is all politically multiway to. that it's coming that's not an accident that it's coming like 3 months less than 3 months actually before the elections that biden and the others want to destroy the 2nd

amendment which allows the american to own guns and they do get a lot of backing of the president's off united states whom the n.r.a. has actually supported from the very beginning on and donald trump himself said that they should move the operation to texas to and i quote him here to lead a beautiful life there. so certainly very interesting times at the moment. washington bureau thanks for your analysis not just some of the other stories making news around the world a gunman in the french city of surrendered to police after taking 6 people hostage at a city bank police say the 34 year old suspect was known to them before the incident and had a history of mental health issues all of the hostages being released. the governor of the u.s.

state of ohio says he has tested negative for covert 19 republican mike de wine's statement came just hours after a less accurate rapid result test showed him to be positive for the virus the testing was standard protocol ahead of a planned meeting with president trump. thousands of opposition supporters have rallied in the bed of russian capital minsk defining a crackdown by the government of president alexander lukashenko to protest came ahead of this weekend's presidential election you can go is facing his biggest challenge in years as support for the main opposition candidate. grows well here in germany amid signs of a 2nd wave of corona virus infections all star teams are making tests mandatory for travelers arriving from designated high risk areas the move comes as schools begin reopening after the summer holidays and fears that more people making trips are

spreading the virus the country's health minister against shawn says the tests are essential for public safety. from saturday onwards travel is returning from high risk areas to germany will have to have a valid corona test in their pockets or accept being tested on the ground for free . misstep a voice. i am very aware of but this infringes on the freedom of the individual but i believe it is a reasonable infringement this is about more than just an obligation for individuals who return from holiday. in my view this follows from our duty as a society to look after one another and protect each other. the list of high risk areas is updated regularly most countries around the world are on the list in the e.u. the spanish region of catalonia and its beaches as well as luxembourg are considered high risk by germany. but the belgian region of antwerp was recently also put on

the list because of rising infections that. german authorities are worried about the virus being brought back to germany but there's also a real risk of people becoming negligent and spreading the virus at home according to the minister on wednesday germany recorded more than a 1000 daily new infections the highest number in 3 months the new rules come a school holidays draw to an end in many german regions concept of physician on that aspect think the concepts are convincing convincing because they follow the goal of opening schools and kindergartens again that has definitely been one of the biggest challenges of the last months for many in germany parents and children alike. that's cools and kindergartens were closed. and from next monday peoples in germany's most populous region north rhine-westphalia will go back to school other states have already started it will

be yet another test for just how effective germany's anti corona measures really. well earlier we talked to political correspondent simon young and i asked him if germany is a victim of its early success and managed to manage the eyebright quite successfully but now seems to be losing ground in the last week or so we've seen an uptick of the robot called institute which is the main medical institute tracking this reported 1045 new cases in the last 24 hours. and so that is a sin lie with numbers in recent days and operand the area where it was lost in about. one of the reasons i think this is this measure is being taken now is because next week many schools will be opening around germany including in the most populous state north rhine-westphalia so the government's very worried about

a wave of infection being imported boy people coming in from other countries at this time in particular. the animated film dragon rider tells the tale of a fire drake a young dragon who wants to find the rim of heaven a legendary place where all dragons are safe even from humans dragon rider is one of the very few new movies hitting the big screen here in europe it's based on a children's book by an author you may have heard off. flying dragons race across the screen and daring maneuver so who came up with the story that was in town could it be a phone call is the author of global bestsellers in the fantasy genre. she started her career as an illustrator but eventually wanted to create her own stories. topic and why not write for children but adults are welcome to read my books too it makes me kind of an outcast in the world of literature or write as children

themselves are but i can live just fine with that. she's hurting more than 70 books which have sold more than 26000000 copies worldwide. humans. have. bought it the jacket is true that i have been with. the look up because i get it i'm doing this now a film adaptation of her 997 book dragon rider is being released in europe it's the story of the dragon fire drake a brownie named sorrow and a boy named ben who embark on a journey together it's a dangerous one but the dragon was determined to find out where he comes from. a good debate about the. current area from korea is satisfied with simply writing about breathtaking adventures. she leads a quiet life on a ranch in malibu fulfilling a lifelong wish of living in a secluded paradise yet she feels closely connected to her readers around the world

. if i thought in any and i was in india once and was suddenly surrounded by indians in their twenty's who asked if they could hug me and thanked me because i was part of their childhood he. can type i hear the same thing in germany but i wondered how that was possible because life in india is so different to in my books are definitely my influenced by the realities of life in germany or the united states and not in india mission in countries where life is some to. it's not that easy and people still speak much more explicitly of all those existential questions of guilt of good and evil but there's often a very profound understanding of literature it's literature for them not just entertainment often as it is for stanford to have towards. that it's a tough one to hide and whether fans are interested in dragon writers literary merits the movie offers plenty of action and humor. tights. with that. might as well you're watching news from berlin don't forget you can get

all the latest information around the clock on our website at steve w. dot com and you can also follow us on twitter and instagram well for me and the rest of the team here take care bye bye. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news. hour carona update. code 19 special next on d w. w's crime fighter are back to africa's most successful radio drama series continues this season the stories.