this is d.w. news live from berlin no and inside to germany's lock down charles americal seeks to extend restrictions for another month as the number of covert cases in the country soars infection rates are past the threshold set to protect hospitals from being overwhelmed also coming up mourners in shock as they pay their last respects to tanzania's late president john bogle foully died of heart failure after weeks of illness shrouded industry. plus eastern australia battles its worst floods in

decades a relentless downpour leaves the outskirts of sydney under water and downs overflowing with no letup in sight authorities declare a natural disaster. i'm married to evanston it's good to have you with us germany is set to extend its coronavirus lockdown until mid april that's according to german media reports citing a draft plan from the chancellor e. germany is battling its 3rd wave of the corona virus the 7 day rate of infections has tipped above $100.00 per 100000 people which is the level at which experts say hospitals risk being overwhelmed authorities say variants of the virus are was driving the rising numbers chancellor angela merkel and regional leaders will meet on monday to discuss further steps. let's bring in chief political editor

michelle like us now for more on all of this so what do you expect from that meeting between merkel and state leaders on monday well formally we do expect the current lockdown to be extended here and many this talk of the 18th of april and that would be after the easter break but when we talk of a lockdown here and we're talking about something that has already been released to some degree currently said shops are open a lot of schools are open and now the incidence rate of 100 that's 100 infections but 100000 people within the space of 7 days has been hit here in germany and that would mean an emergency brake that would mean immediate reaction regionally for those shops to be closed again and the big question mark now is whether the country will actually stick to that whether all regions want to stick

to that or whether there will be exceptions particularly in view of that easter break coming up well michel a many people were planning to travel during the easter holidays but is the german government likely to type that restrictions for travelers. well at the moment people can travel although their advice to only take trips that are absolutely necessary well it's a for some debate whether a trip to new york was absolutely necessary but the of bally's stricken travel industry is put on extra flights to and favorite island in spain and the big debate here right now is whether those people sued face testing and quarantine and that is also something we expect to be the subject of consider old debate as well as how far people can travel or certainly where they can actually get a whole till room or a hotel or hold a apartment we've been devastated all within the whole country so

a lot of question marks and because it's a highly emotive issue whether people will be allowed to travel again having said that the indications are there that the wait is beginning to hit here and many. it has been more than a year since the 1st lockdown in germany due to the coronavirus what is the public make of these the latest plans to extend to the restrictions is there support for them. well actually there is support to have tougher restrictions once again only a quarter of people disagree that those quick research is should be in place although we've seen some very vocal protests here what is also there is growing dissatisfaction with the government's handling particularly of the slow vaccine rollout and also taking additional measures like testing to allow something nearing ordinary life once again and that is the showing would you look at the performance

of angola machall c.d.u. posse which is suffering badly in the polls right now also because of a corruption scandal of a certain m.p.'s but there's growing impatience with germany to actually speed up that. to have a curfew thank you so much for your reporting let's get a check now of some of the other stories making news around the world in syria at least 5 civilians have died after shells fired from government controlled areas hit a hospital in a rebel held town activists say medical staff were injured in the solution and. it comes despite a cease fire in the region backed by russia and turkey. u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin has met afghan president ashraf ghani in an unannounced visit to discuss the afghan peace process u.s. troops are due to leave afghanistan by may 1st but u.s. president joe biden has said it would be quote tough to meet that deadline. people

have been voting in the republic of congo's presidential election. so is expected to extend his 36 year hold on power the main opposition candidate is seriously ill with covert 19 and is being flown to france for medical treatment. mourners in tanzania have been paying their last respects to late president john mickel fully following the announcement of his death from heart failure on wednesday the popular leader had not been seen in public for 3 weeks fueling speculation he was being treated for the corona virus michael fully had himself downplaying to the dangers of the pandemic. they didn't believe it when they heard the news. but seeing his body lying in state the grief becomes too much. more news of tanzania's former president john mchugh fully collapse

from the agony. i managed today to pay my last respects to my late president my heart is in great pain for losing him. before he came to power most of us were going through a hard time our country was being exploited by he helped us fight against all exploitation. the popular leader's death is shrouded in mystery for 3 weeks he wasn't seen in public authorities originally denied that he was on well but then on wednesday they announced his death from a heart condition in tanzania he was known as a corruption busting man of the people but more recently his handling of the corona virus came into question his position on the pandemic range from stating it did not exist in tanzania to claiming the country had beaten the virus through prayer and

herbal remedies following the death his deputy simmias. was sworn in as president becoming the 1st woman to lead tanzania. this is the time to bury our differences as a nation to console each other and show each other love unity peace humanity and tanzanian values. body will be taken to different locations around the country before his burial in his home town of chatto on friday. now where authorities have declared a natural disaster as to rental rains continue to pummel the east of the country the downpour is causing some of the worst flooding in decades people were evacuated from near sydney as more than 30 centimeters of rain fell in the area in just over a day emergency services are warning of

a life threatening situation. in the manning river in new south wales. much of the state has been affected by dangerous flash flooding it's causing widespread damage and just threatening lives american sea services have appealed to people not to drive through the flood waters and it's not with. the risk you creating significant risk to yourself to your families and also to the 1st us who would need to come and say. record dream support most of the state some areas have reported the worst flooding in half a century and the dying poorest are showing no signs of abating. we're just inundated at the moment. and the water still rising demographic for you know a lot of you know what. yeah this is the worst i've seen it last year just after christmas it was pretty bad as well but not this bad. is going to be

a lot of people my god i get there has a lot of i want it to work the roads will be wrecked as well so it's going to test and i think a lot of people bit of a walk up. the government is offering financial assistance to people affected by the floods meteorologists are warning that this extreme weather is set to continue for several days. on this day 15 years ago twitter co-founder jack dorsey it sent the 1st ever tweet on the social media platform since then it's grown to become a place for breaking news mobilizing revolutions but also spreading misinformation reporter melanie hall is here to tell us more about 15 years of twitter melanie good to see you so why don't you just take us back firm moment to maybe remind us of twitter's beginnings what was the original concept behind twitter so the idea behind twitter was that it was going to be a place for people to share short status updates to groups of friends they do this

by sending this message to a single number using text and the reason the cut to them it was 140 characters was because back then that was the limit of a text message and since grown to 280 character maximum in this on twitter now in 2007 we saw the growth of twitter to see how it became a source of breaking news placing at the heart of made. world events now nowadays twitter now has 350000000 users that's very much towards by its major competitor facebook which has 2000000000 but twitter still very much has a very major influence these days and i mean really in this li exponential growth maybe tell us some of the highlights over these past 15 years of twitter melanie what stands out for you so very much that the 1st point where twitter really grabbed the world's attention was back in 2009 when a u.s. airways flight ditched into new york's hudson river that the very 1st images we saw

from this came from twitter when they use the n a a nearby passenger ferry took these photos now we've also seen how twitter has become a major tool for protesters revolutions in fact one example is the arab spring and actually egypt's 2011 ousting of president hosni mubarak was actually dubbed the twitter revolution now since then commentators have actually questioned how much a role to play to move mobilizing protesters because they said that when i pulled the plug on the internet for a few days a protest as was able to mobilize but where it was who really came into his own was getting that news out to the outside world we've also seen how the rise of the hash tag on in 2007 that's when a 1st used on twitter and a social movement such as me too and butterflies might have really harness the use of hashtags well it is safe to say that the last 15 years have also seen plenty of controversy at twitter all sorts of challenges what about those challenges what are

the most serious ones facing twitter twitter is very much coming to pressure to do more to police content on its side in terms of tackling harassment bullying and misinformation now indeed it's very much become a digital soapbox for politicians one of the main examples being of course former us president donald trump went to it was very much his main channel of communication but he also became indeed a main. purveyor of misinformation to the point where in 2020 twitter started putting fleiss on his tweets when he was spreading misinformation since then they've gone on to do that also for the coronavirus but of course. what the cross red line ingenue the c.e.o. when he inside his followers to storm the capital and then that led to twitter kicking him off the site. and he's never allowed to go back into the site at the time jack dorsey the c.e.o. said. it was the right decision for twitter to do this but that it was that sets a dangerous precedent basically controlling the conversation

a global conversation like. melanie hall thank you so very much great to talk to you. 2 sports now and the bundesliga has wrapped up the weekend with both parents of berlin and mind scoring surprise wins to boost their chances of voiding relegation let's have a look at all the scores herenton manage an upset over laver coups and mine is defeated hoffenheim also today freiburg beat work earlier 1st place by r n n 2nd place leipzig were both winners frankfurt down when you're in berlin dortmund and was 41 and the last place lost again ok here's a look at the standings now after a match day $26.00 with 8 games left for each club byron have held their 4 point lead at the top of the table over a life full of or is 3rd and frankford 4th then in the 2nd half because they're at the bottom heritage minds both moved to a point clear of the relegation zone. and with vast your up to date

w. news america evanston i'll be back again at the top of the hour with more news for you in the meantime don't forget you can get a lot of information on our web site just go to t.w. dot com thanks for watching. where i come from we have to fight for a free press and was born and raised in a military dictatorship with just one t.v. shadow and a few newspapers with official information as a journalist i have walked off the streets of many cantors and they have problems are always the same or do social inequality a lack of the freedom of the press. go up should look on the floor just a sign and when it comes to the fans of the humans and see the light the bulls who

come inside to put their trust in us. my name is johnny carson and i weren't a d.w.i. . surfing

means everything to me and it's almost like an escape from reality i feel super lax and super calm in the ocean and it just it's kind of afraid i'm farming. you can get angry sometimes but the feeling that i get the most is happiness and freedom. 13 for my life free from the things the connected with the water and my surfboard. costa rica's speeches by used to year round waves attracting surface from all around the world for the guys who were going to run 3 of geminis best stuff is train here it's old i can do is competitions have badly been held over the past year shortly before surfing was set to make its debby at the olympic games the

world ground to a halt 3 actually it's in name but. my name is rachel press here i live in melbourne florida and i am in fact also. going to. my name is don't grow on i was born and belong germany but now i live in portugal and i surf and there's a german flag by the germans to. my neighbors young lads there i live in public stosur ago and i search for the german olympic team. rachel prestige and dylan clune one to be the 1st german surface at the olympics. on the side of august 2016 then lives with turned around. in rio the international olympic committee decided to make surfing and in pick sport. sure free girl bernard pulled her up and very strict on her form of. siri saki surfing

beach is set to be the scene of the very 1st and then pick surfing event for germany 3 men and 3 women are currently still in the running for tickets to tokyo they live in the usa costa rica. and the canaries all of them have german citizenship but most have never actually lived in the country. most skilled surface grew up by the beach writing their 1st waves at an early. dylan clunes mother has german roots his father is south african and he lives in portugal. basically a german red alert $1.01 and i was born in brooklyn and when i was 4 years old we moved to portugal because of my dad's work i went through a german school so there's a lot of german in. the 20 year old finished school 2 years ago and has been fully focused on the sport since then. at age 24 is already something of

a veteran his family from castle but he grew up in the costa rican surfing hot spot . when he was 9 he was discovered by germany's then top. he became his mental. the 1st thing he gave me was a surfboard and all just so excited i couldn't believe it i went running. getting a surfboard from this professional surfer and news german this student who has since become the master is still a close confidant. rachael christie is from florida her mother is german the 18 year old is touted as germany's great his chum's just surfing medal. in 2018 she was junior well champion the biggest international success. she started her career representing the usa but that she faced

much tougher competition. especially surfing for germany it's really cool since i'm representing my mom's background and all my mom's family still lives and germany so i feel like i'm almost doing it for the family kind of thing the relationship with dillon helped to make the move they've been living and training together since they met at a junior competition 2 years ago he's super motivating one surfing and super helpful whatever. down and always makes me sick perhaps if. there was some difficult moments in 2020 the coronavirus pandemic brought competitive surfing to a halt rachel naomi and dylan couldn't compete an abrupt change for athletes usually on the road for up to 11 months a year the contest which would have determined olympic qualification was delayed by a year 12 months of uncertainty without knowing when things would be starting up

again. it's hard work you know i mean you know because of olympics and everything we're mostly training right now and we're still training and working out for the upcoming season. in gym hogan they have one of the most renowned coaches in the world the american has known them for several years and is in close contact with the german association reporting on their progress. today the waves are fairly small just like they're expected to be at sirica beach so they're working on technique. after 2 hours on the water they go through the session analyzing every move it's 123 because board 6 feet so that 6 feet above the lip the so they call tell har. feedback from because sometimes i can be doubting something he does and we kind of you know get to the middle of the we're all working on something different next time we go on the water we definitely

think about what we've got to work on and. hopefully. probably working on something else or there were a girl right now in the next session jim hogan has the surface go through competition conditions he's evaluating that tactics choice of way. dylan is up against lay on rachel is facing australian pro michela green. who are. for the biggest wave where the most radical new for closest to me occur the breaking part of the way with each maneuver getting better and better with more . power inflow. under time pressure the athletes have to choose their way and decide what moves they can pull off failed attempts will cost them valuable time in the competition. jim says that the 1st wave will set them up for the competition in his test run he awards double points for the 1st wave at the

end rachel and dylan. and then added up it was 17.6 just 17.30 that's about as close as you're going to get that was a good. new boards have a arrived from his. 3 boards each suited to a different type of wave. he uses around 30 year. so the best feeling to get your boards because these will be your motors basically for the next qantas and the 1st thing i check when i get a board is is the likeness you know and also i look at the rocker it has fear that goes through the nose and also there is a there is kind of a noise you want to look for which is not very hollow you look for. springing noise and. they're really good. each feature is the gemini calas

surface receive funding as part of the alien pick program. there's the elop thing our career towards olympics you know you have a lot of support from them and we are we have coach a psychologist sports psychologist so there are definitely helping us to do the olympic dream. and now that we have access to all of this suddenly our our surfing is just going beyond yeah we're having a lot of chances of winning contests and stuff so we'll see how the qualifications will be. the gentleman surface who wants someone ridiculed have significantly closed the gap to the world's elite they've snapped up a few victories in the world qualifying series which is comparable to formula 2 in my just sports. great told the press t v just won her final you need to let me in there a moment goes well rachel bruce is not going to be one of the good. bringing

a lot to the table and the german team is one of the strongest teams right now the rule book was there in the evening dylan and leon can showcase just how strong they are in playa they're taking part in a local contest so now we've got the night surfing and looks like it's going to be really fun small waves though this is something new that's coming into the industry so it's actually pretty interesting. so follow on has only competed in daylight surfing on to the floodlights is a brand new challenge mom the t.v. initially struggles with. is very challenging but also a little scary and i could see much you know these lights actually help much but it's funny you know it's something new to me to surface at night and we see all the next the next wrestler conscious goes. dylan is also adjusting to the conditions

the competition is fierce several top surface i currently training in costa rica and they using this opportunity to test their mettle. dylan makes it to the crucial final stage. leyland's journey ends in the sand maze but the policy goes on deep into the night. from bomb. costa rica took old cologne at the end in pink base lay on rachel and dylan meet their national team colleagues 9 athletes representing a country that they're fairly unfamiliar with that the german sports and elin picks museum they receive a crash course in gem and sports history. you know it's just the rights to unfasten you know being the whole team here i feel like we have built up such a good team spirit and we all get along with each other so it's like a little family. national team coach llewellyn whitaker is outlining the next steps

leading up to the games. in may the last stops will be filled if things go to plan . and rachel have set that sights. the olympics are just the best of the best athlete so it's going to be really hard to make good on when i give it everything i've got and i think i can make it it's the most amazing thing ever i feel like i actually have a really good possibility of making it and that's what it pumps me up and legs i'm going to. be are a part of the olympic history. we're part of something bigger than just surfing.

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