we shed light on the opaque world who's behind benefits. and why are they a threat to us all to ah ah, this is d, w. news live from berlin. another independent voice in hong kong is silence. the website stand new says it's closing down after being graded earlier today. police made arrests and confiscated documents and other assets. also coming up cobra cases, hit new records across europe, france reports one of the world's highest one day tallies since the start of the

pandemic. this as regions from europe to stray leah face a sudden surge of the army of con, very. and the western us in the grip of winter days of heavy snowfall in record breaking colder, disrupting life. even in normally, balmy southern california. ah, a warm welcome to of yours around the world, a michael. ok. one of hong kong, the last independent news outlets says it's folding after being rated earlier today, hong kong police search the offices of stan, news, arresting, 7 and removing assets and evidence. it's the latest blow to the chinese territories shrinking free press. oh,

it's becoming a familiar site on the streets of hong kong. after several staff members from the pro democracy media outlet stunned news were arrested. over $200.00 police were seen entering the website's headquarters. saying in a statement, they were authorized to search and sees relevant journalistic materials. both the current and former editors of the publication were among those detained as well as the pop star. turn democracy activist. denise, whoa, an ex board member at stunned news. oh, see, i got a deputy assignment direct to ronson. john was questioned, but not arrested. over when he released this footage of police turning up at his home, why by the authorities can be heard demanding. he stopped filming lies. oh no,

i'm speaking early this year. his prophetic words have now been realised in what many c as a further erosion of the free press in hong kong. i think that the situation and a message is clear to from the government that making reports and during uncovering story will have some criminal law results. you may be charged that you may be lima, that your freedom, whatever. so it's not easy to say that i'm not afraid of the situation. the rate on stand news is the latest move. in a spate of crackdowns and beijing's opaque national security law. in june, hong kong largest pro democracy paper, the apple daily was also rated and forced to close. it's founded jimmy ly was recently sentenced to 13 months in jail. with stunned news gone,

and more journalists detained. it seems press freedom in hong kong, may finally be over. for more on this. so let's bring in. phoebe kong in hong kong of phoebe does the closure of stan news come as a surprise at this point. well on just hours after the arrest on the management and also on the editor in chief of staff news, stanos, mute, news, media. the non profit making news organization has announced that it was shut down immediately and also to dismiss all his employees are immediately i'm so that happened just are hours after a police arrest and a in is a farewell statement issued on the a social media platforms had sat, it will also remove his wrap site and is social media outperforms and accounts from online. so we're expecting that the news materials and the reports that we've seen

on before, that they will soon be gone like a by the time that they remove all the websites of the us. now news. and also in the statement they sat that they, i express gratitude to his readers that i'm the 7 year old non profit making news organizations out. and it's separated. hong kong are under the independence. editorial principal and stripes to save. got haul cause core values including democracy, freedom or human rights, are rule of law and justice and it is time to say goodbye to his readers. so phoebe, did anyone see this coming? oh all ok, this is a quite a indeed is a huge blow to the general estate industry because our stanos is a leading pro democracy media so far the fall line, the closure of apple. daddy santos is indeed one of the biggest many a platform that like is very popular among the pro democracy support us and he's

his like own a huge reader base. but on the other hand, that was a saw of $61.00, meet in hong kong dollars, s as frozen by the national police, depart national security department of the police force that it is kind of expected among observers and challenges that this is this is that the filaments are dependent that we are expecting that they will no longer be able to operate without the fonts that they can make yourself. in today's a press conference or police declared their actions and matters. they were rest of journalists and the seizure of items from their offices were based on evidence. what more can you tell us? oh, well, the evidence that the police mentioned are basically some reports are written by our reporters. and also our commentaries are contributed by bloggers and commentators. so on those are those least they,

they didn't least out. all of the articles are involved in this case, but they did give some examples involving are some are reports, a commentaries relating to the 2019 and he got her into a test that they think is our seditious, our publications doubt. a war inside hatred against the government and or did dish dish re our system or the police force that could on like our conspired to our lay of publish our so called additions publications. so maybe we'll have to wait for more details when the case is brought to court, or like exactly what kind of evidence and what kind of articles are they are police are accusing the defendants. but basically, the authority is saying that these kind of these are middle workers are making use of their are our mid positions. and our duty is to pursue political purposes and endanger national security. and they were continued to invest the case to case that they are not ruling out, that maybe there are more people are from the industry and the news organization

will be arrested in the future. that's a phoebe kong in hong kong again, many thanks. phoebe. let's get a round up of some. the other headlines now more than a 100 towns and cities in brazil's northeastern state of maya, have declared a state of emergency due to massive flooding. weeks of heavy rain has killed at least 20 people and injured hundreds more meteorologist say it's the most rain by year has received in over 32 years. authorities in chile had declared an emergency in the southern region of santiago's forest fire spread. tens of thousands of hector's forest and farm lands have been destroyed. truly has recorded nearly 50 forest fire so far this year. dozens of them still ongoing. and members of jordan's parliament have traded blows during a debate about gender equality and changes to the constitution. the altercation began when deputies discuss adding the female noun to amendments,

the guaranteed equal rights for all citizens. no one were seriously injured. france has announced a record number of new crone of irish infections. authorities counted just under 880000 new cases in 24 hours. it's the highest the country has seen and is one of the highest totals of any nation in the pandemic. the government has already announced new measures aimed at slowing down the spread. those include limiting the size of gatherings of people and the mandatory wearing of mass outdoors. many countries have seen record case numbers driven by the american variant. that includes australia, a country that so far mannered shoe avoid the worst of the pandemic. on wednesday, australia reported a record 16500 new infractions over 24 hour period. most of those in the state of new south wales health officials, there or warning the sudden outbreak is overwhelming testing facilities. roger

maynard is a journalist in sydney in the state of new south wales. he has more on what's driving this rise in infections. well, the slate is crisis is the result of a perfect storm of factors was sent to the caseload. here in new south was a song to sent me a record high. the total number of cases reported today was 11200 and the state and was almost double yesterday's. figure out much the blame is being leveled at state governments for the hazard approach to dealing with kobe and a lot of mixed messaging that's led to enormous cues here, to drive through testing stations in sydney, where cause of being banged up to kilometers. and people have to wait for hours to be seen afterwards of many event to wait for 3 or 4 days for the results to come with the danger of the bar spreading further. in the meantime, now of the problem has been caused by the christmas holiday period and p. c. r

testing stations, and labs being understaffed. the other factor was being the demand from holiday makers who back to obtain a, a p c on tests for permission to enter queensland, which has only added to the pressure on testing facilities over to the middle east health officials in gaza. said there, bracing for difficult days after detecting the icon variant. earlier this week, the palestinian territory has only limited testing capacity and a vaccination rate of under 30 percent and gases dense population makes containing any new outbreaks. a huge challenge. the 1st wave of the pandemic hit gas in the summer of 2020 patient started arriving at this hospital in southern gaza in august . doctor usa valeca is now as worried as he was back then. the 1st cases of the army con variance have now been detected in garza and the hull. we are very afraid of this new wave and the new variance. we're afraid it will overwhelm us. there are

50 intensive care beds in his hospital. more than in many others, but the covert ward is lacking in key supplies. there is very little protective equipment, not even an 95 mass for the staff, but the patients are happy to get treatment here. thank you dr. many. thanks. armine's mother is being treated here. she's 80 years old and unvaccinated. the oxygen levels in abroad have dropped again. i mean is not afraid of catching cove it from his mother. he's been double jabbed. and madame a horse, whenever i go into her room, i disinfect my hands. i'm not afraid and they wash the floor every few hours. they're trying their best. but many in garza believe that despite their best efforts, omicron will not be able to be contained, including the ruling hamis party. they say that without international aid for their health care system, it could end in disaster. in garza,

the former health minister is warning that is now a race against time, a race. the can hardly be one. american professional football is mourning. the loss of john madden, the hall of fame coach, was a legend in the sport. and one of his most exuberant voices madden one. the super bowl is coach with the oakland raiders in 1977, then became one of america's best known t. v announcers. the 3rd act of his career was attaching his name to one of the best selling sports video games of all time. matt and nfl severe weather in the western united states has brought days of record cold and heavy snowfall to several states in the region. winter storm warnings extend from seattle and the pacific northwest down to the mexican border. forecasters expect the wintry conditions to continue. ah, this is a snow research fuel station,

but at the moment, research isn't possible here. the power generator is out in december, around 5 meters of snow fell in california, sierra nevada mountains. a new record even southern california has turned into a winter wonderland with freezing temperatures. a rare occurrence or he came out here to enjoy some snow. it's actually their 1st time being in the snow. the onset of winter in the western united states has not only brought lots of snow but also record cold in many places. like here in seattle, which saw the coldest temperature on record earlier this week. for many drivers, the snow mainly causes major problems. roads are closed. cars and trucks are stuck in a large o global paired lump ever jug legit. dentist. how much is this gonna cost him ordered in our dorm on the massive amount of snow in the theater in nevada is

actually a blessing for california. the accumulated snow in the mountains will provide water and spring in summer for the fields in the plains, which have been suffering from severe drowned. but the record snow fall in the western u. s. is just one extreme. the southern and eastern parts of the country are currently experiencing mild and even summer like weather. with the record breaking temperatures here too. oh, dontrael ms. up next with a feature on legendary hotels. i'm michael, located in berlin. you're watching d. w. take your time for an experiment about time. it can be measured precisely and yet each person experiences it differently as if there are different forms of time.