Network in the philippines ordered to shut down after a lengthy dispute with the president we go to. Say that one of the toughest coronavirus lockdowns in asia is to be eased even further hong kong chief executive carrie lamb says cinemas and bars can reopen later this week while secondary schools will restart later this month a lockdown was imposed in march and there have been no new domestic infections for 2 weeks elsewhere the u. K. Still in the grip of the pandemic it now has the highest number of deaths in europe and russia has reported more than 10000 new factions for the 3rd day in a row well why more than a quarter of a 1000000 people have died this is the john hopkins coronavirus chack tracker and it says there are more than 3600000 confirmed cases across the globe katrina you has more now from beijing. The government and kerry lamb said that they were very confident that hong kong had stabilized its corona Virus Outbreak enough to be able to ease some of those very strict measures that have been in place for weeks so starting from this friday groups of up to 8 people will be able to gather in public and theyll be able to eat together for example in restaurants previously that maximum group number was for also some key venue some key businesses will finally be able to reopen that includes jims as cinemas in theaters some balls as well as beauty parlors and finally they also announce some opening dates for schools which many families have been looking forward to so starting from may 27th older High School Kids will be able to attend school but they wont be all at once Younger High School students as well as primary School Students will be able to resume classes from the beginning of june and now this follows weeks of corn a virus cases in hong kong dwindling in fact in the last 16 days there have been 0 new local infections the have been some imported cases but there have been very few in the Single Digits if any on some days and it also follows months of real real economic battering that hong kong has seen the the economy in hong kong declined in its 1st quarter this year by about 9 percent compared to last year so the government is very keen to get the economy going again but its not quite out of the woods yet the government said that theyre going to give every hong kong that is in the reusable mask that theyre expected to wear when theyre out and about and some businesses including night clubs karaoke clubs as well as saunas and bath houses will remain closed for at least another 2 weeks. But britain has ever taken its only with the highest number of coronavirus dead in europe newly released government statistics show the total is more than 32000. 00 general is in london and says the because countries follow different criteria to calculate the death toll the benefit is dont tell the full story. The numbers by direct compassion dont tell us all that much what they do though is fuel questions which are being asked here almost every day of the government now or quite why this country appears to have been so ill prepared for this epidemic having had a good couple of weeks to look at with horror at the time of course what was happening in italy a country that had far less time to prepare and also a wider questions about quite why western countries in general in europe and in the United States were far less prepared or appear to be than Asian Countries take south korea for instance after all of this only recording just in excess of 250 deaths from coronavirus so they feel all the questions they dont necessarily provide very much of where voters the British Public are looking and listening all the time to pronouncements from government in the Daily Briefing and elsewhere from scientists and so on about when and it might be appropriate to start listing the lockdown thats been in place in this country and others theyre looking of course at the reproductive rate of the infections from cocoa covered 1000 looking for that to remain below one this famous are figure the number of people that carries with corona virus in fact it is currently below one but not sufficiently below want to give them much wiggle room but theres an enormous amount of pressure from industry for business on the government to restart the economy the war is that if you go too far down the road in terms of saving lives you end up going too far down the road in terms of being able to save the economy and that ultimately that causes more problems than it helps down the lines for more than a week russia has been top of the list the nearer the number of new daily infections we heard from some younger person whos the head of the Doctors Defense League in moscow and he said the Russian Health system has suffered setbacks in recent years. Would get like calls from. Doctors from different see cheers from different parts of russia and everywhere we have a lot of problems then not a lot. Of hospitals there not a large enough. Doctor us we dont have enough mites and we dont have enough equipment actually all these is a result of the reforms in. Performed in russia in the past 5 or. 8 years its called lack of team is ation during this oh yes the last many hospitals like even in. Moscow that will last about one half of our hospitals and we dont have these for now if the situation been happened like 10 or 20 years ago it was it would be much easier to resolve this problem or to the United States where President Donald Trump is making his 1st major trip away from washington since the start of the corona Virus Outbreak a trump is heading to a factory and started making mosques thats in arizona hell be accompanied by a large group of advisors and security staff and what he suggests is a return to normal travel about trumps view on easing the lockdown as of old with new comment by the nations top Infectious Disease expert lets get more on this lets go to our White House Correspondent kimberly how could and came in a bit of a difference of opinion going on here not only on the long term but also on the china lab theory. Yeah Dr Anthony Fauci who is a very prominent Public Health official of course on the current virus taskforce has essentially contradicted the words of the president of the view of the president for a 2nd time publicly he has stated that he does not believe or he has not seen any Scientific Evidence that this virus was artificially or deliberately manipulated in a lab what hes saying is that he has seen the sequencing of the virus and he says it is involved in nature now what dr prachi has not stated is whether or not he believes that well in fact he has stated this what he says is that with regard to whether it was found in nature naturally brought to a lab and then escaped in some way he said he does not personally believe this but he has not spoken directly to the evidence that the president claims to have seen that this is the case now the u. S. President said this in late april this is been followed up by the secretary of state is very clear this has become a narrative of this administration the problem with this evidence is its classified so were never going to see it but certainly having a top Public Health official like dr anthony found shes speaking out has cast doubt on the narrative that we are hearing from the trumpet ministration and of course kimberly the brunt dropped to the spot is the only go you know very Serious Business of cases and fatalities. Yeah cases and fake tallit is and 100 percent of the reason that the us president has sort of been pushing this narrative that this is something that originated in a lab and has since escaped just because hes faced with a depressed economy trying to reopen it but that is becoming more challenging with these new numbers that we are seeing the numbers according to u. S. Government models indicate that there could be as 70 percent increase in the number of deaths from what were seeing now to june 1st so in other words what were expecting is up to 3000 deaths a day in terms of infections up to 200000 a day so this is a significant rise a significant challenge for this is ministration focused on trying to reopen the economy pushing the states to do that and faced with very significant infection levels in the future. Or it can leave there from a reporter from the white house i think you well south korea is using long time restrictions with Sports Leagues getting underway again the baseball season is up and running off to being to spend much but its rough ride reports from it will be some time before its business as usual the final warm up for the long awaited start of the delayed baseball season local incheon favorites s. K. Y. Evans take on visitors and why eagles but conspicuously absent from the stuns that fans instead many of the seats occupied by printed versions of spectators while real fans could only watch on t. V. Or online through a club stream that combines the action in the park with the cheering in homes. When you dont need to look out you know something if we are hoping to deliver some of the atmosphere of the stadium to the fans at home so they feel as though they are here at the games. Theyre also joined by potentially millions of baseball fans around the world as the 3rd ranked baseball playing nation after the u. S. And japan south koreas live games are in big demand in a world starved of live sports action. We welcome the increased attention on korean baseball its great to promote it and its all thanks to our citizens for getting us to this stage south koreas success so far in defeating the coronavirus is also allowing the football k. League to start its season later this week but again without fans in another sport for which large cheering crowds seem indispensable so crowds are important because there they are part of what we expect when we go to see a game or when we watch a game the noise the tension the drama the anxiety the happiness the emotion this is this is not driven by empty stadiums this is driven by full stadiums south koreas baseball teams hope to start adding the essential fan ingredient soon even when the fans are finally allowed back in there will still be a long time before we see pack stands again their numbers will increase only gradually with empty seats between them and for now their silent stand ins will have to do and when they do return theyll find previously unheard of precautions for the players such as low hugging and no spitting the way baseball is played and the way its watched is turning into a very different game robert bride aljazeera incheon south korea and to celebrate childrens day during the pandemic south koreas leading couples which to the Popular Video game minecraft. Do your job on monday it was you go to. Yes thats president in his wife. He offered a virtual view of the blue house palace instead of the traditional guided to use in their mind craft characters a frank kids for being patient with School Closures reminding them to wear masks and wash their hands social distancing rules are set to be further relaxed wednesday and some businesses will be allowed to remain. Still ahead here on a sinking feeling we talk to struggling to stay afloat with one of pakistans most popular tourist. Hello there the rain and the cloud clearing eventually away from the Korean Peninsula as it does that or this mass you can see here is on its way towards central areas of japan says a heavy downpour on wednesday osaka no say cooled a few 24 celsius sunny feeling cooler into tokyo some heavier downpours say a wet a day with lower temperature and then the rain is on its way through northern sections of china so this will certainly lower the temperature into beijing by thursday just 20 degrees celsius with the clouds and that rain and then very widespread i was afraid 3 will central areas as well eventually that will push towards shanghai but the south coast remains driver failing failing for a humid with a high the 33 in hong kong plenty of rain very widespread of course across much of indonesia weve been watching this disturbance here is actually pulling away from sumatra and java even if it does develop into a Tropical Cyclone it doesnt pose any threat to land but certainly plenty of rain across areas of sumatra and job as it goes through wednesday and on into thursday and you can see here some heavy rain developing through the gulf of thailand and then india its really been the north in the northeast where weve seen the heaviest rain the the downpours the thunderstorms bangladesh seeing the worst of us on wednesday and then through thursday edition and more showers into coastal carolina. As the world fights the corona pandemic were learning more about this every day its a new think you can join our global community. How. To fight. Your question can i just ask you this is directly whats coming on on you tube as youre saying im concerned about the frontline. Keeping you up to date and weve seen countries beaten back and beaten back successfully the street on 00. 0. 00. 0. 0 a reminder of our top stories this hour and one of the toughest coronavirus lockdowns in asia. On kongs chief executive carrie lamb says schools can reopen later this month over some businesses cinemas and bars. U. K. Death toll from corona virus is the highest in europe thats according to newly released data from the office for National Statistics shows a number of fatalities reached 30002 weeks ago. Libyas internationally recognized government has launched an offensive to capture an air base controlled by the warlord of the for after he has been used to launch air strikes on Government Forces and they recently seized control of major cities along the western coastline and rejected have to school for a ceasefire during the holy month of ramadan. Our correspondent dr dr wyatt is in libyas capital and he says the tripoli government is trying to cut off have to supply lines. Half the us forces are still besieged inside a with. The most care in the west of libya for have to his forces especially after they lost civil strategic cities in the worst of the country only a few weeks ago the Government Military sources say that the arctic switch or they have been rather exit taiji heavy fire by artillery rockets with the forces loyal to the warlord flee for have to and also they say that the now have full control of the area above. Thank you spotty to the fish drawings that have been controlling the air. Over and will to ebays giving get the Government Forces that chance to cut all supplies lines coming to have his forces from the south now their Government Forces say that they lost. They lost a number of fighters in this battle for a water but they say that they can now. Attack. From civil axes especially direction close to the tunisian border. All right lets move on to smother news in the philippines leading broadcaster has been ordered to shut down Telecoms Authority says c. B. S. License expired the president. Has regularly criticized the network opposition groups accuse him of talking to independent media. Is in the capital manila has details of. The season deceased order according to the National GalleryCommunication Commission is immediately executor and thats something that the department of justice secretary also said however based on local interviews with the commissioners of n t c it remains to be seen how exactly he is going to implement that whether theyre going to need the help of Law Enforcement to come in and actually literally physically stop the network from airing the letter was received officially this afternoon a. B. A c. B. And continues to air today and this is a complete turnaround from what he said a few months ago that it may issue a provisional authority to e. B. s pending its approval of the extension of its franchise in congress now the spokesperson of president of the go that there do over the past few months of said that the president has nothing to do with this although last year the president himself threatened that he will shut down a. B. S. E b. N. Because of the Networks Failure to air his president ial campaign ads in 2016 now this is seen as a major blow to press freedom according to rights experts here they see this is the time when the biggest Media Network in the country with substations across the country is needed for information dissemination of the current pandemic and the situation in the country now despite denials from the Philippine Government experts also say that this is seen as an impervious curtailment of press freedom and also spawned by political retribution of this government. Iran continues to be the coronavirus hotspot of the middle east but is joining global efforts to find covert 19 scientists are working on developing testing kits it could be ready for export within months it comes as there are all growing signs of recovery in iran they only deaths falling to their lowest level in weeks and has this report. In laboratories like this all over the world scientists are trying to answer the same questions how can covert 1000 be stopped is there a cure when will this Global Crisis be over at the Pasteur Institute into one iranian experts are working with chinese colleagues to try and improve testing for the virus something that has been a challenge since the early days of the outbreak so im coming here for just to have a 10 to. Condense on training on how to use the test because you would seem all right dot here but it has to if you please stop im sorry our interview with the visiting expert was cut short by security i mean i mean you know the government here has been criticized for responding too slowly to the pandemic and it seems officials and remain sensitive about anything related to its coronavirus response. Set up in 1920 the campus into herat is named for french scientist Louis Pasteur a 19th century pioneer of modern medicine this institute runs dozens of labs and employs hundreds of staff across the country the government Hopes Research and development here will enable iran to export diagnostic kits and medical equipment this facility is nearly 100 years old and one of the largest of its kind in the middle east for years scientists in these kinds of labs have been fighting all manner of diseases Infectious Diseases and now their priority the inescapable priority for these men and women is to try to find a way to fight covert 19 why is the virus more severe in some patients does it mutate and can survivors develop immunity. Answers to these questions and the discovery of a vaccine in a place named after a pioneer in the field would be an Outstanding Achievement and the head of the institute made it clear that is the ambition. Were working on producing the Technical Knowledge for a vaccine and focusing on medicine and treatment to see which medicine could be a good candidate for curing the disease but on the day of our visit irans president was more guarded in an address to his cabinet house and rouhani was clear there have been no breakthroughs social distancing is the best policy and everyones in this for the long haul. But i know about face on the assumption that the us i mean unfortunately remained these people for some time and nobody knew of or can predict when this epidemic and days weeks or months you have to observe has protocols of continuing Work Production and activities. Comes to corona people have to be general there is no treatment no medication or vaccine for it so the fundamental thing is to be careful about ourselves while finding a cure is the end goal testing is also important last month the revolutionary guards unveiled a handheld device they said was capable of detecting an infected person from 100 meters away but its effectiveness was criticized and Irans Health Ministry did not approve it for use with no easy fixes scientists to carry on with their research how to end the pandemic remains an open question and they intend to find the answer. To her. As the number of new cases begins to drop in some countries cutter is still recording hundreds of new infections every day it now has the 2nd highest number of cases in the arab world despite having a relatively small population aljazeera cultures Public Health minister dr Hanan Mohammed al quadea about the criticism over lock downs in Migrant Worker area. Because when you start of the law looking down that area particularly thats where International Rights organizations were pretty much concerned. Saying that basically the Migrant Workers are at particular risk of exposure to corona virus because of the lack of a dick with water sanitation and that those areas are notoriously overcrowded i think the point about dense population is true everywhere so in every city where there is dense population the risk of the coronavirus spreading is higher so you saw that in the capitals where there is very high death population even new york its a very densely populated area so when you have dense populations then you have a higher risk and you need to take very strong Public Health measures and thats what we did what kind of indicators would be enough for us to say were starting to flatten the curve the fact that we are not picking as aggressively. As we could have is because we have flattened the curve so very early on we put in place social distancing measures including closing down some of the businesses that we know are very close contact between individuals 20 percent of our workforce are working from their offices and 80 percent are working online so by putting in place all these social distancing measures we have actually flattened the curve. And you can watch the full interview with thought to have an mohammed al quadea on drugs or 1630 g. M. T. On thursday to israel now and the leaders of local councils in arab terms of going on strike the demanding compensation for revenue lost as a result of the pandemic are a force which has more now from table. This is a National Problem across israel local governments have had a huge shortfall in what they would usually expect to take in in terms of local taxes because of the businesses shuttering under the coronavirus restrictions but leaders of palestinian israeli minister parties such as this one say that they arent being compensated to the same extent under a Government Program as big or jewish majority areas in israel is an 800000000. 00 Compensation Scheme from the interior ministry but areas such as this one say theyre only getting in total some 30000000. 00 of that and they say thats just not enough but that the attilla be billeted talked about this is why we ask them to deal with the arab sector that lacks resources hundreds of thousands of people are under the poverty line therefore we ask them to increase funding to cover 25 percent of our losses germany in one sense these palestinian israeli areas of israel are victims of a mathematical logic that the biggest economies the biggest cities the majority jewish theyre the ones that have had the biggest tax losses and are therefore getting the biggest compensation payments from the government but the palestinian israeli mayors and Council Leaders say that its evidence of a longer term problem of their areas that had chronic underinvestment in their economies over many years and that is one reason why there is a higher level of poverty and that they require high levels of support as a result the Israeli Interior Ministry tells us that it does ignore leads that the compensation offered so far doesnt solve the problems for towns such as this one that they are offering other means of support and that they are looking in to further Financial Assistance as israel starts to ease itself from its coronavirus restrictions buying a beer or whisky in indias capital state has just become a lot more expensive a 70 percent alcohol time student delhi to try and turn large crowds queuing outside shops please use batons to disperse crowds on monday indians rush to buy their favorite to pull off to the government is. Virus restrictions allowed shops to reopen for 6 weeks. In pakistan hundreds of bateman plying their trade in lakeside Tourist Spots are struggling to make ends meet while the government is considering partially lifting virus restrictions in some areas parks and recreational areas on part of the plan as more than 4 legged hitcher waited in the himalayan for taters and less than 50 kilometers from islamabad is a favorite kurdish bar attracting thousands of tourists from around the country and from nearby area but as you can see hundreds of boards are now parked idle and a worker then owners of the boat how worried about the future when doing something which will then there are over 250. 00 boats here and theyre on fire because this is the season but there are no customers and we may find ourselves out of fertile. Buggers can render into a state of logs down on the 14th of march all public and recreational places work clothes and that means that people who defended on these boards are now worried about their future which colombia we dont know what to do an important these are hard times and if discretion is prolonged i will have to find an alternative to. The ministry of planning estimate said anything from 14 to 18000000 people melu day jobs and a fair days debt ridden extended and for a long log down the Unemployment Rate or go higher although the government is now easing some great strictures drill out the movement of it dont feel good and life are slowly coming back as far as the markets are concerned but plaited such a days i likely to remain shocked. A little nudge in the direction of our website aljazeera dot com is to transfer all the stories that were covering right there of course plus plenty of comment and analysis of this around a little. So this is our desire these are the top stories and one of the toughest coronavirus lockdowns in asia will be eased even further on combs chief executive carla schools kind of reopen later this month along with some businesses cinemas and because britain has overtaken its lead with the highest number of coronavirus that in europe uni released government statistics show the total surprise us is 32000. 00 and the National Health service says the outbreak has passed its peak russia has reported more than 10000 new cases for the 3rd consecutive day that raises the total number of confirmed infections to iran 155000 total trump is due to head to arizona shortly for a visit to a factory making medical masks its one of the president s 1st trip from washington since the start of the virus crisis and it comes faces the possibility of a large spike in infections a White House Correspondent can be how could this more the numbers according to u. S. Government models indicate that there could be as 70 percent increase in the number of deaths from what were seeing now to june 1st so in other words what were expecting is up to 3000 deaths a day in the terms of infections up to 200000 a day so this is a significant rise a significant challenge for this is ministration focused on trying to reopen the economy pushing the states to do that and faced with very significant infection levels in the future. Libyas internationally recognized government has launched an offensive to capture an air base controlled by warlord 100 for half the. Has been used to launch airstrikes on Government Forces they recently seize control of major cities along the western coastline and rejected have to school for a ceasefire in the holy month of ramadan. A leading broadcaster in the philippines has been ordered to shut down the Telecoms Authority says a. B. S. C. B. S. License has expired president roderigo to turkey has regularly criticized the network opposition groups accuse him of targeting independent media. South korea is restarting its professional Sports League with the corona virus infection rate slows down the government is allowing outdoor sport starting with the hugely popular Baseball League at france cannot attend. Those headlines got more news here on our desire right after the street africa throughout history behind has come together in our darkest moments this is a moment for pretty much the opposite where retreat from the world could actually save every generation has its moment this one is ours ringback. Time under the strain on. The new recruits this is. Just this is pleasant evening. 90. 8 just didnt care about what needs well aids. And jumping. Which no. How are you im adamant and im a editor