Solutions. No cheering france but major professional sport is back south koreas baseball is finally get to start the season. Because it t. V. Network in the philippines ordered to shut down after a lengthy dispute with the president we go to turkey. Now and santa how much snow have all the sporting clytie the n. F. L. Cancels its games in london in mexico city for the coming season because of the global pandemic. So that one of the toughest coronavirus lockdowns in asia is to be eased even further hong kong chief executive kerry lamb says cinemas and bars can reopen later this week or secondary schools will restart later this month a lockdown was imposed in march there have been no new domestic infections for 2 weeks elsewhere though the u. K. Is 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 infections for the 3rd day in a row worldwide more than a quarter of a 1000000 people have died this is the. Hopkins University Track eye you can see the number of deaths and there you have the total number of cases around the world 3600000 confirmed cases around the globe all right well get more on the situation in the u. K. From general whos in london but 1st country to you has more on what measures hong kong is relaxing. 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 cinemas and tears has 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 was 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 citizen 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 and thats the situation hong kong lets get the view from United Kingdom and german hold joins us from london to those figures out today putting u. K. Deaths the highest in europe a lower me statistics on there but you have to be careful how you read the. Yeah its quite difficult to draw these direct comparisons between countries as you say it appears now that the u. K. Has death toll has surged ahead of italys making it the worst affected country in europe but there are factors that affect countries differently the u. K. Has a higher population italy has an older population there are differences in the way these tallies a calculated it was only last week that the official u. K. Death toll looked beyond merely hospital deaths and started looking at deaths in the Community Deaths in care homes as well it isnt clear whether the italian figures and to what extent take into account suspected deaths in the way that the onus numbers do so if the numbers by direct comparison 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 and where violence is raw its a very high number whether the British Public know a canal for light at the end of the tunnel. Well 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 lifting the lockdown that speed in place in this country and others there looking of course at the reproductive rate of the infections from cocoa covered 19 looking for that to remain below one this famous our figure the number of people that carriers with corona virus infect 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 line so theyre looking for a light at the end of the tunnel it isnt clear to answer your question quite where that light lies we will know in a few days time when the government gives an idea of how we will start to gradually lift the lockdown if not necessarily when our agenda thanks very much jane hall there in london for more than a week now russia has been top of the list in europe the number of new daily infections some young galperin is the head of the Doctors Defense League in moscow and he says the Russian Health system has suffered setbacks in recent years. I would get like calls from. Doctors from different cities from different parts of russia and everywhere we have a lot of problems there not a lot. Of hospitals there not. Enough. Doctors we dont have enough medicine we dont have enough equipment actually all these is a result of the reforms been. Performed in russia in the past 5. 8 years it cold like optimisation during this her ear then been lost money hospitals like even in. Moscow that will last about one half of our hospitals and we dont have these for know if the situation being happened like 10 or 20 years ago it was it would be much easier to resolve this problem. South korea is further easing lockdown restrictions with sports leagues getting underway again the baseball season is up and running after being perspire and in march but as robert pride reports from engine 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. Vns take on visitors and why eagles but conspicuously absent from the stands their 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. Pinion to look. 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 game. 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. But 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 force. Stadiums south koreas baseball teams hope to start adding the essential fan name gradient soon even when the fans are finally allowed back in itll still be a long time before we see pakistans 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 no hugging and no spitting the way baseball is played and the way its watched is turning into a very different game Robert Bright aljazeera incheon south korea. Plenty more still ahead on the news hour after fleeing violence half a 1000000 vulnerable refugees in kenya conference another battle. Plus research by scientists in chile to sniff out the symptoms of corona virus. And this describes swimming champion is fighting back santa will explain how he spoke. To libya where the internationally recognized government has launched an offensive to capture an air base controlled by the warlord only for half. Has been used to launch airstrikes on Government Forces they recently seize control of major cities along the western coast and rejected have to call for a cease fire during the holy month of ramadan and lets go live now to our correspondent mark would otherwise had whos in tripoli and tell us whats happening now at the airbase. Well nic half the us forces are still besieged it inside a with. A word as you know the most to throw. In the worst of libya for have to has forces especially after they lost civil 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 get 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. Thanks party to the fish drawings that have been controlling the air. Over and will to ebay is 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 the direction close to the tunisian border. How strategic is this and what were capturing from the Libyan National army actually me. Well if it falls to the Government Forces it means that have to those forces have lost. The last Strategic Air base in the west of the country air base is very strategic because its 1st of all its basically an exclusively built or accommodated for crafts it has been used by have to his forces to launch a morality drawn to target the Government Forces locations in southern tripoli it has been a quip very well equipped it was built as you know nic by the American Contractors in 1942 and its very strong in there its very well equipped it has several facilities inside it and it can accommodate about 8000. 00 military individuals so the Government Forces say the are very keen to continue their battle for a what year and if it falls to the Government Forces it means that have to those forces have lost the last Strategic Air base in the west of the country or a moment well leave it there. Reporting from tripoli lets move to some other news in the philippines leaving broadcaster has been ordered to shut down the telecoms all 30 says that a. B. S. License has expired a president roderigo to turkey has regularly criticized the network opposition groups accuse him of targeting independent media. If you will and theyre going to is in the capital manila and has the details. The seasoned deceased order according to the National Telecommunications 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 d of the go that theyre due for 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. A c. B. S. 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 would substations across the country is needed for information dissemination of the current pandemic and the situation in the country now the spy 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 to iran which continues to be the coronavirus hold support of the middle east but its joining global efforts to fund covert 19 scientists are working on developing testing kits that could be ready for export within months it comes as there are growing signs of recovery in iran with daily deaths falling to the lowest level in weeks and as robbie 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. Just to have a 10 to. Condense on training and know how to use a test because you would seem all right out here for the testing would you please stop im sorry our interview with a visiting expert was cut short by security i mean i mean you know about the government here has been criticised 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 customer 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 code 19 why is the virus more severe in some patients does it mutate and can survivors develop immunity. Answers to these questions in 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. We are 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 god. 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 be days weeks or months you have to have the house protocols of continuing Work Production and activities. Of course on all 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 own well as the number of new cases begins to drop in some countries qatar is still recording hundreds of new infections every day and now has the 2nd highest number of cases in the arab world despite having a relatively small population. As a Public Health minister that is thought to one on 100 of quality he says that most other countries havent tested