Golf its good to have you with us police here in germany launched raids against some of their fellow officers on wednesday officers suspected of trading neo nazi images in private online chat groups 29 Police Officers in the german state of north rhinewestphalia have been suspended 11 are now under criminal investigation images shared in the groups include pictures of adult hitler and nazi symbols such as swastikas and this is not the 1st time that germanys Security Forces have been at the center of a scandal involving far right extremists. By this grace and a slap in the face for germanys Police Forces thats what the interior minister in north rhinewestphalia called the discovery of czech content in which 29 Police Officers shared right wing extremist material. Including for example pictures of hitler of swastikas of imperial war flags but also many more horrible images like the fictional depiction of a refugee in the gas chamber of a concentration camp Police Officers from different cities and 34 Police Departments took part in the czech groups they were all suspended pending the results of the investigation they could face charges of inciting racial hatred a spokesman for the federal interior Ministry Said the reports are worrying. This will go to what we are hearing from north rhinewestphalia is very alarming. It is a disgrace for the police force there but of course it also has an effect on the entire Police Profession throughout germany. Its not the 1st case of far right extremism spreading within germanys police and military forces in july a former Police Officer was arrested for threatening politicians across germany referencing a neo nazi cell in his emails and in june germanys defense minister disbanded part of the armys elite commando after allegations of far right extremism within its ranks are lets put this into context to do that im joined by alexander from the Competence Center for research into right wing extremism and democracy at the university of. The program and seems like once again for right extremist ideas have been uncovered among members of germanys Security Forces in the police the interior minister of germany is shot or you. Well im always shocked when it comes to my agreement extremism but i dont that not at all surprised its not the press time that the put that Police Officers have appeared in this way we remember that many minutes. The station. And also Police Officers are distributing about spreading it might be. A few years so its not surprising at all about when its right and its not surprising do we have an idea of the size of this problem within the German Police force. One of thats. A problem we only know that there is a problem and its not a minor problem you know it is. Racism i think risen was a rip Police Brutality hes violent but the thing is theres not Much Research released and was solely the ministry of interior i dont have a great interest in doing research on this. On this topic so we dont know much about the expense of wiring risen in the police but we can what we can say is that it is problem for instance we know might mean willie is which we interview and they actually dont bother with the police because they say they are Police Officers who actually members. Are watching. And what we also. Know is that. Which. You know so we only know that being scammed we dont we. Do we have an explanation for why it seems that Police Officers in particular are so it seems acceptable to right wing extremist ideas we hear that time and time again. Well i mean. Police officers i think its. Clear but its an organization and illegal to use firearms and that. Might have oh its very fine and its down. To. The race to the experience. Theres not only. d who is john a nominee but we also know a problem with what i think extremist especially. For ok so hell in his alexander joining us tonight mr we appreciate your time your insights thank you thank you very. Far this take a look now at some of the other stories that are making headlines around the world Hurricane Sally has been downgraded to a category one storm its pummeling the Southern United States causing severe flooding in the coastal city of pensacola florida the storm is dumping huge amounts of rain on the flood coastal area and as it pushes further inland the former head of world athletics has been found guilty in a doping scandal that allowed athletes to compete after they should have been suspended a french court found that the media so listen to bribes totaling 3000000 euros from russian athletes suspected of doping was sentenced to at least 2 years in prison with 2 more years of suspended jail time he remains free pending an appeal south africas president Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a further easing of the countrys lockdown which was one of the worlds strictest borders to most countries will be opened from next month in a televised address ramaphosa told the nation we have withstood the coronavirus storm didnt. Authorities on the greek island of less books have charged 4 men with arson in connection with the fires that swept through the overcrowded maria refugee camp last week the men all migrants from afghanistan have been given 3 days to prepare their testimony. The president of the European Commission has laid out her vision for europe to tackle the Climate Crisis addressing the European Parliament today ursula fund a lions wide ranging speech also called on china to improve its human rights record and made a not so veiled attack on member state poland for its attitude towards gay people and she urged Member States to resolve the e. U. s paralysis on the issue of migration. Also love underlying ahead of a 1st arab state of the union speech waiting to unveil more ambitious climate goals for the block we need to go faster and we need to do things better the European Commission is proposing to increase the 2030 targets for Emission Reduction to at least 55 percent catching emissions and becoming climate neutral by 2050 are part of the European Green deal one of funder lines key priorities the situation taken partly due to the mounting pressure of climate activists but ramping up the instrument targets its not enough for some i expect on the lion to keep on working with her commissioners and really to put pressure on the council because we know that there are Member States who are not willing to do what we need to do when funder line took office late last year she presented a long list of projects by the code 19 pandemic slowed down many of them or brought them to hold she now said its the years 1st priority to pull each other through this that you commission chief also put a focus on human rights not only calling out chinas treatment of minorities but also criticizing your member said poland for introducing socalled free cell phones l g b t q ive 3 zones are sure manatee tree zones funder line also said the e. U. Finally has to decide in a solution on how to handle migration one of the most disputed topics among Member States i expect that the Member States will engage in the discussion so that we can really move forward and have a common plan to deal with that topic underlines commission will present a long awaited proposal for a new pact on migration on september 23rd and its her who will be judged on its outcome. Lets go to our correspondent barbara visa shes in brussels force good evening to you barbara we heard in the report that ursula fund a lion but she will face opposition especially to her Climate Policy plans is she guilty of bold yet Wishful Thinking here lots of Wishful Thinking yes and lots of them vision of course and she will face opposition was it hard to Climate Change from the usual suspects who wealthy Eastern European countries we have already heard from the Czech Republic we cant do this under no circumstances we have heard from the coal producing regions in poland and we have heard of course from the Efficacy Group for certain industry namely the german caught industries and others so we know all these people and all these arguments have been heard before were bought if she will not push the European Union within the next year to go forward to prosper and she did talk about the fire is in on the American West because she did talk about melting the lace years in so on then the battle might be lost so she knows what she is doing whether she can win this fight is yet unclear but she might have to help from germany who has the new presidency at the moment what about fires at european migrant camps the European Union remains divided when it comes to migration policy ursula from the line she says that she will present a new plan later this month but im just wondering how is it going to be different from the previous failed attempts. I forsee a horrible feeling off deja vu of course because what this will be this new attempt is just bundling all the other ideas that have been sort of pushed back and forth over the last 5 years so we will again hear about stronger border current trolls on the external borders of the e. U. We will hear about faster procedures we will hear about faster turning back and sending back migrants who have no right to stay and the whole and so on and so forth everything has been said in this and we will also hear about it again if i want to countries being able to buy themselves off if they absolutely dont want to take people in because in this plan again there will be a certain amount of redistribution bought it is again the attempt to sort of push the European Union chrestus hurdle because this has been turned out to be the most poisonous and sort of the most hostile battleground within the e. U. In them during the last 5 years and she she cant do anything else she just has to sort of try to move this fall that i did abuse but provisional with the lose tonight from brussels barbara as always thank you. As russian Opposition Leader alexina involvement continues to recover here in berlin at the hospital from a poisoning attack minister of state Germanys Foreign Ministry kneels on it is telling the w. News that he is not convinced that cancelling the nord stream to gas project would be the best way to put pressure on moscow on and spoke on this weeks conflict zone with syria kili take a look. Do you think that putin really takes your threat of meaningful sanctions meaningful consequences seriously when you have such a profitable economic project right on his doorstep well that only shows how complex our relationship is i want to be also a little provocative of my answer here because im not so sure of stopping that project last winter but which by the way its not an initiative of the German Government it is by the its an order by the German Government it is by definition of a crowded market by the terrorist government that put that aside but you know what we do something that really works. Make russia pay a price or would we also will somehow do some things that goes against our own long term interests so thats why im not so convinced i understand this is that and has always been a controversial issue but its maybe too easy just to reduce our Political Tool box on the question of whether or not we should continue nosferatu i am because all respect not convinced that this is the only answer that we should get you can see that entire interview right here in the w. Or on line. Youre watching news from berlin ill be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by the day i hope to see the. Combating the corona pandemic. Where does research stand. What are scientists learning. Background information and. Our corona update. 19 special next on d w. Sometime. Next few history for them its great stuff. Is so strong. We celebrate the 30th anniversary of unification october 3rd on d. W. China has declared victory over the coronavirus following 9 whirlwind months for 1st responders scientists and Party Officials after denying the severity of the virus and the nationally under reporting numbers beijing now says that it can keep the pandemic at bay. For normal chinese life and community are slowly edging back to normal. But chinas success is impossible for most nations to mimic so overwhelming is the communist partys grip on its population. And while the heroic narrative may resonate domestically abroad theres. Skepticism and discomfort over the blurring line between propaganda and leadership on the global stage. Chinas handling of the coronavirus separating substance from show. Low and welcome to. 19 special im Stephen Beardsley in berlin its good to have you with us a china has seen both failures and successes in its response to a pandemic began within its own borders beijings official narrative that collects those early missteps its a story line thats being firmly embraced at home Tiananmen Square in the heart of the Chinese Capital beijing the National Museum looms large. Dingly has come here with a grandchild my. The art is classic socialist real ism that honors front line workers during the pandemic my is a little shy as she poses for pictures with the heroes in the fight against the coronavirus. The theme of the exhibition. Unity is strength. Or the exhibition brought tears to my eyes i love my country and the Party Leadership. Without the communist Party Leadership this enormous challenge will not be overcome to keep that in the kins you that. The artwork leaves little room for interpretation the message is clear under communist leadership china has managed to contain the virus. Front and center and yet somehow relegated to the sidelines the nameless helpers who work themselves to exhaustion to republic and make. Even staying at home was a patriotic duty we dont know what the people in the front line had to sacrifice. Im proud that china has the pandemic under control. Chinas leadership has cast itself as the savior of the nation and as a friend in need of broad. In the global struggle against the virus we have acted with wisdom and strength. We have filled our International Duties responsibly and with transparency. In beijings great hall of the people there is no room for doubt and this is no time for admitting mistakes. The countrys foremost coronavirus expert is honored by being himself. Jong features prominently in the exhibition 2 others are simply ignored. Sounded the alarm over the coronavirus while the authorities were still denying its existence the doctor from mohan was forced to recant and forbidden to speak up again the contract of the disease and died for weeks the pandemic spread throughout the country unchecked because of the coverup. Despite being locked out of the official history lisas story is not forgot. That you have got a book which you can actually vision can show everything i think whistleblowers are pioneers and we should respect and admired them for those Unsung Heroes we should build a monument in our hearts. If you. Take it how. This will monuments are built by the communist party they expressed no criticism as the regime tolerates no just. And im joined now by news group hes a Senior Analyst with the makati or institute for china studies and berlin yes its good to have you on the show were told that life is returning to normal in china and that the numbers are vastly improved can we distinguish from afar if thats really the case well i think its fair to say that the low numbers into single or low double digits that china is reporting are ballpark and i mean there is no reason to believe that while china reports. New cases or so every day there are millions off cases somewhere hidden i think with the measures that china has developed over the last months to deal with local outbreaks and new cases coming in it is realistic that these numbers are true truthful and that you know the the pictures we see and that also the person reports are we get off normal life returning to chinese cities is real has this pandemic been more of an opportunity or a challenge for the party. I think it started as a huge challenge in many regards governance challenge in terms of information sharing between local government and Central Government a huge. Damage that the government has has taken there and public trust but the way that this has been dealt with and the effective measures going from being to the rich are enough this fire is through to really one of the best in class players in terms of the new cases now. Called the confidence of the population and we see this in surveys that are coming out now of china but also are very fired by foreign actors that there is more trust in the governments capacity to deal with this before so it started certainly as a challenge but in terms off approval the i think it is now certainly a positive for the other party state or as a domestic confidence as in polls or what about from outside looking into china has the chinese image been improved or has a worsened through its response to the coronavirus. I think overall chinas image is in a movement right now im not sure this is only due to the corona virus itself but certainly the whole crisis has triggered or is deep and a lot of the rifts that were apparent also before in terms of trade in terms of you know the whole technology 5 g. Question the american and chinese relation everything is and i will spiral and these dynamics have been catalyzed by the corona crisis so china has tried to to market its very effective approach to the to curbing the virus as you know as a system really relevant capacity so the chinese model is better suited to deal with this crisis and that is meeting opposition abroad and i think this is something that china will increasingly have to deal with that theres a lot more skepticism towards china and these attempts to market individual successes system. Into end of a system systemic competition chinas a better suit because it has a party and this will increasingly be contested also by the European Union by other foreign actors so theres a challenge here that. Is very pressing. At the same time China Remains a Global Player its has a lot of sway when it comes to large scale projects Global Projects how hard does that skepticism on behalf of western governments make it for them to work with china its inevitable they have to work with them out imagine. Yeah so the reality of it is that china is now a very important partner we can for example the climate issue we cannot address without china and at the same time theres a lot more competition going on a lot more challenges in terms of technology our peer our trade and so on and this is really. Its quite crucial to trying to deal for every one of us to deal with this and the government to the party really has to think well how do they want to frame themselves as a local player where is it is it wise to you know to to. Global standards work and they really pushed own standards and interested parties this is a very important a very big challenge for the Chinese Government to go forward and this is a new role that china seeing itself in this skepticism that china has met with is growing and this is this is really a new International Situation for china all right miss greenberg with the contour institute for chinese studies in berlin thank you very much thank you. And now its time for your questions to our science correspondent Jeff Williams for. What fact are all the masks and social distancing having on the number of influenza cases and places that have had their flu season during the 19. 1 of the scenarios causing Health Authorities to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat as as we approach the traditional beginning of the annual flu season in the Northern Hemisphere is the fear of a twin demick after all influenza is also a potentially deadly respiratory disease and the idea of of thousands of patients are tens of thousands of patients descending on hospitals with with flu or covert 19 or even possibly both at the same time it is one you dont even want to contemplate so so theyve been casting an anxious on whats been happening in countries in the Southern Hemisphere which have been through their own flu season over the last 6 months the good news is that measures aimed at containing the spread of covert 19 appear to have also had a major impact on the number of winter flu cases in the Southern Hemisphere theyve quite literally dropped off the table in countries from from new zealand to chile to south africa the w h os influenza tracking that has reported for example that that in australia there have been less than 50 confirmed cases of flu since april for comparison back in 2019 there were close 210000 during the same period so so the flu is practically disappeared there and epidemiologists are hoping that that travel restrictions and social distancing and mask wearing will have the same effects north of the equator in the coming months but but we cant count on it which is why. Health authorities in the Northern Hemisphere are doing everything they can to get as many people as possible vaccinated against the flu before winter really and truly. Our own Derek Williams there with the answers to your questions and finally the pandemic has driven many diners away from their favorite restaurants out of fear of infection well heres one possible solution automated servers this footage is from a restaurant the south korean capital seoul customers place their orders at a selfservice kiosks than pay and wait for a robot to bring their food not a single human interaction. I guess thats progress thats it from this cove in 1000 special im Stephen Beardsley in berlin outta line d. W. Dot com thanks as always for watching. The conflicts in syracuse for years for lens Foreign Policy line has been dialogue 1st keep talking no matter what kind of russian Opposition Leader alexina valmiki recovers in a probe in hospital after an apparent poisoning for a man is under increased pressure my guest this week is germanys Deputy Foreign minister deals on. Conflicts. How does a virus spread. Why do we have it and when will the country just through the time. And i weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the coronavirus or any other science topic. You should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at d. F. W. Dot com one slash 2 science. Girls life on earth one of a kind and. Coincidences. Where the improbable happen. For us were going to bring up the creation of our solar system of the planet is a bit like winning the lottery going to were going to miss. What is more unique start september 18th on d w. Im very very disappointed the fault that were with you dont exactly have them shaking in their boots its your way of trying to get that doesnt sound like you had a lot of the dialogue with russia but you need to be very clear and thats for real for years berlin Foreign Policy line has been dialogue 1st keep talking no matter what but as russian Opposition Leader alexina boning recovers and of joy