this is t.v. news coming to you live from berlin as germany heads into a 3rd wave of the credit pandemic a return to a tighter lockdown looks likely chancellor merkel seeks to toughen restrictions has covered cases soar that could deal of fatal blow to many small businesses already on the verge of going bust also coming up southeast australia battles its worst flooding in decades following days of torrential rains there were authorities say dozens of towns are cut off with more bad weather on the way and we have soccer

action from germany's top flight put this league how to put it all together for a big win over labor crews and boosting the team's hopes of avoiding relegation. hello i'm terry martin good to have you with us europe's biggest economy is poised to further tighten its walk down restrictions german chancellor going to meeting with reasonal leaders later today to discuss the path forward that's amid growing evidence that germany in a in germany the 3rd wave of the coronavirus is beginning the country has registered almost 8000 new daily cases in the also a steep rise in cases was brought under control by a 2nd lockdown but since some restrictions were eased at the start of march there has been another spike scientists fear cases. could jump to

a new high the exponential rise in cases comes amid growing protests against current restrictions thousands of people rallied in germany and elsewhere in europe over the weekend police say some 20000 people demonstrated in the german city of caso making it one of the largest rallies of its kind so far in germany this year scuffles broke out between some of the protesters and police resorted to using batons pepper spray and water cannon to disperse the crowds. police tweeted that there had been repeated attacks by protesters against emergency service workers. our political correspondent thomas farrow joins us now thomas protests against corona virus measures and a worrying rise in infections here in germany as the chancellor meets state premiers again what measures are they looking at. it is indeed terry

a worrying rise german officials now talking over an exponential increase in cases stressing that the situation at least could be even worse than it was at the end of last year that all has to do at least in part with these more contagious coronavirus variants like the very end the 117 which was 1st found in the u.k. and is now becoming more prevail and here in germany and this situation has actually changed the plans that the german government and regional leaders have they were actually focusing on reopening that in fact the last meeting that they had had focused on a reopening plan which included what they described as an emergency brake designed precisely to pull back some of those reopening steps if the numbers got too high that threshold was 100 cases per 100000 inhabitants in a space of 7 days germany is now above that threshold which basically means that

authorities if they follow their own rules will be pulling that emergency brake today going effectively back to tighter restrictions here in germany that could in practice for example mean that some shops and establishment would have to close again. to most people in germany or understandably frustrated with the slow roll out of vaccines is there any sign that vaccine situation is going to speedo. there is frustration terry there's uncertainty as well you saw some of those people protesting at the weekend in german cities they are described at least by some us coronavirus skeptics and although they are a minority here in germany if you look overall at how germans feel about restrictions you will see that many are actually divided about germany's knock down our own 48 percent say that measures are appropriate with the rest divided between those who believe that they go too far or that they don't go far enough if you look

at the situation regarding the vaccine rollout the picture there is very clear and very different a vast majority actually believe that the government has not handled on rollout well they say it's gone badly very badly and what this means essentially is that pressure is growing on officials to increase and improve that vaccination rollout one of the elements that they've been using to do so is by including g.p.s. or family doctors in the whole process that's something that's due to start in april and even though this may not speed up things immediately it will help in 2 other areas one to give this rollout some sort of flexibility and b. that's at least what officials hope to improve trust in the german population when it comes to the coronavirus vaccine so this gives you an idea a very general idea of the situation here when we talk about the lockdown on the one hand and the vaccination rollout on the other and just briefly tell us if you can the german health minister is facing scrutiny over her controversial facemask

contract tell us a little bit about the. it's about a deal that was agreed on by the german ministry of health on a company with in which the husband of the german health minister actually works although both the company and the german health ministry have denied any wrong doing this adds up to an already very difficult problem for conservatives and against spawn the health minister is part of those conservatives also related to the mosque procurement in pots so it's such only a very difficult time for the german health minister and it's also suddenly a very difficult time for germany's conservatives thomas thank you very much that was our political correspondent tony sparrow now the u.s. city of miami in florida has imposed a nighttime curfew after crowds of party revelers ignored social distancing rules restrictions are likely to remain in place until after easter the city is one of america's tourist hot spots especially for students.

thousands of people flock to miami for spring break over here this march they are the targets of an emergency contact ound. huge crowds have brought chaos and disorder in parts of the city including south beach and miami beach. people like you know i don't know i don't know if anybody learned from last year's experience we did in a sense that we know younger people are going to not wear masks i'm hoping they did but i think a lot of younger people are feeling like they want to get out and go crazy and we're trying to let them know don't do that don't come here to do that. because she's from 18 the evening and till 6 in the morning aims to put a stop to the hard partying that has seen restaurants trashed and ugly street fighting. business has have mixed feelings on the side and down.

those doing a they'd be about as i enjoy the beach and you know it's a good vibe but they want to shut it down to 8 o'clock people go somewhere else and take their money somewhere else so it is what it is where people live i think it is a good idea even though it's fine out here like we want to be out here now and i think it's a good idea for everyone should be like you know i get in there all my life he's a cat i mean he kind of sucks at same time there's been so much fun out here and you know like ok got the warm weather here at the beach it's nice to see the tourism is florida's highest history lost his spring break was one of the 1st major casualties of the pandemic and they chose the coast as america went into knock down a year on even stricter measures are in place true mind resinous that the pandemic

. from from a. take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today a member of parliament from ungrammatical c.d.u. party has died after collapsing on a flight back to germany from cuba colleen's tense was 53 the cause of death is unclear the tabloid is reporting that she was not traveling on business and recently been caught up in a lobbying scandal involving. a group of 8 hong kong pro-democracy activists released from jail in china have been detained on their return home they were arrested at sea last year on charges of illegal border crossing it's believed they were trying to flee to taiwan to escape prosecution for their involvement an anti-government protests in hong kong. and scientists say a volcanic eruption in iceland could go on for several weeks hundreds of sightseers of fall to the volcano south of the capital reykjavik tens of thousands of small

tremors rocked the area for several weeks before the volcano began erupting. australia is set to evacuate thousands more people from sydney's suburbs in the worst flooding in decades heavy rains have swelled rivers across new south wales state causing widespread damage emergency services fear that more than 50000 people could be displaced as forecasts show more rain is on the way. and let's get the latest from roger maynard a journalist in sydney and roger what's the situation on the ground there at the moment. well it's been described as a once in a century flood in front of the new south wales coast and a once in 50 years here in sydney and it's not over yet the other book us as they go to more days are going to come as 2 major weather systems collide right evan yourself well it's here in sydney thousands of people are being evacuated from those in the little twist nature of the city where floodwaters are said to be pious

and the last catastrophic flood way back in 1961 the war again with dam which supplies most of sydney's water out has been overflowing for the past couple of days the same thing about 450 giga liters of water up into a low lying land and nearby river systems and just to illustrate well that means $450.00 giggling does is almost the equivalent of the entire contents of sydney harbor so that's a lot of water and if it's a bet it needs even worse up the coast or whether busways of land under water and booms are being ripped from their foundations and we're seeing pictures of that flooding you know thousands of people evacuated tens of thousands dozens of regions declared disaster zones how are emergency services coping. well the emergency services a working around the clock to cope with this crisis they have thousands of calls

for help as you can imagine are they the government over to send in the troops to up provide much needed assistance because it's done only the people who have been affected we've got huge amounts of livestock trapped in floodwater on farmland crops fruits vegetables they've also gone underwater will mean a shortage in the slums and meanwhile the of the homes continue to be driven by these floods the schools have been closed and hundreds of people hope so if i had to be rescued sure i'll just every a year ago that same state there suffered a drought water was rationed there are massive bushfires now this illusion what what do people there make of all this well i ask is used to natural disasters i should say you know it was the that the drought in the bush fires this year is the floods and you have to say it's been a terrible time in the past few days and particularly with with the floods the

leader of the greens party the tragic weather events as a grim look into australia's future with bigger fires and worse floods to come this is not normally said and he called on the federal government to declare a climate a mood and see as for the real underlying cause with the heavy rain is partly the result of the line you know weather sets which traditionally hits the east east of monster in a seaboard every few years but clearly this rainfall is far worse than we've seen for many a year roger thank you very much for bringing us up to date there that was journalist roger maynard in sydney. but asli a football now a big day for a couple of teams clinging to hopes of escape from relegation both to billin and mines posts that upsets the how to pull off the biggest surprise of victory over labor coups. at the berlin coach paul dyer day knew he had to win or lose this one

and it would slowly become mission impossible for his team to survive in the big league so i had to push forward like seldom before totally overwhelming labor cruzan right from the start and that paid off they scored in the 4th minute with a rocket of a goal courtesy of de ovide zite point with an excellent set up by midfield dynamo matteo gun and dirty look at one meal for hair down. the berliners kept pouring it on and in the 26 minute one back what looked like a lost ball to set up much criticised brazilian striker. and he smelled goal. to neil for hair to and coutinho was back on the scoreboard after more than a 1000 minutes of play without a goal. and it wasn't over yet just 7 minutes later colombian john cordova made it 3 no. and that's how it ended with no goals in the 2nd half. really for hair but they also know they have

a long road ahead and laver cousens have some work to do also. up next we've got a documentary for you butan change comes to the happy country i'm terry martin has got more few coming up at the top of the next hour thanks for watching. me pushes us right now from the climb a tree because the story faces my placing when i'm just one week. can really guess. we still have time to ask i'm doing. plus this.