There thanks for joining us here with your global news update this is r. T. International. Lets start with the latest figures on the covert 900 pandemic there are now more than 2400000 confirmed cases worldwide around 165000 people have lost their lives the majority of those coming in europe and the United States and 629000 people have recovered from the virus. Lets turn 1st this hour to germany which is starting to lift its month long lockdown after declaring the corona Virus Outbreak under control the economy minister has sworn that the measures could be reinstated if the situation deteriorates starting monday shops in some regions are allowed to open the schools and restaurants they remain closed meanwhile in berlin the restrictions that caused widespread frustration with some people even taking to the streets lets go live now to the german capital of course for peter oliver is in city there for us peters takes through and how are people been reacting to the containment measures. Well if we get what you mentioned just before you came to me there peter admire the economy minister saying essentially if we stick to social distancing if we stick to some of the measures that have been that are going to remain in place then germany can avoid essentially a 2nd lockdown that vote in that type of message isnt washing with song what we saw on saturday here in berlin was a demonstration against the measures that have been put in place against the social distancing thats been demanded by the authorities it started very small it then rose to around 20250 people the police ended up having to try and disperse that they were there with. With loudspeakers telling people they needed to disperse most people did some have to be taken away by the authorities heres what some of those who were demonstrating said they were there for. Without a year im here to stand up for my fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution and when the right to demonstrate is taken away and we cannot raise our voices against injustice that makes us take to the streets those of you just the spread of the virus isnt that bad the measures that have been introduced arent reasonably good still our politicians go down the same route and say look down remains in place perhaps right until they have a vaccine the monitoring app is voluntary but well see how it goes. Well germany has received a lot of praise for how its handled the coded crisis from monday what were seeing is in ease to some of those restrictions shops that are under 800 square meters some shops that is anyway are allowed to start gradually re opening they will be limits on the number of people that are allowed in theres also going to be hygiene measures that are having to be taken as well their schools were looking out before that make out the moment although that is under a pretty much constant review what we have heard though is that this wont be a National Rollout of these type of lifting of restrictions in fact the state of bavaria there minister there head of government in the local government there marcus ordered the minister Prime Minister the Prime Minister of the state i beg your pardon mr president i got there in the end has said that they may well delay the opening of schools in bavaria what we have seen though is the message from the government essentially being that once these restrictions are lifted or east that people still need to remember that this isnt an immediate return to how things were over wise we could go straight back to square one here in germany. Skip kind of got on to the city in fits there are new guarantees of infection could keep and now there are also risks and when we take the small steps towards opening up we must keep an eye on the impacts and more the means for Health Systems and almost as. Well currently germany is looking at around 150000 confirmed cases of covert 19 with around 5000 people having sunday died so far those numbers but they have theyre far lower than other countries of comparable size and comparable socioeconomic background in europe and around the world one of the things thats been put down to is the number of hospitals in germany the amounts of equipment that those working in hospitals are had access to and the amount of testing thats being done while germany can look so far at what theyve done is quite a success when it comes to keeping citizens healthy and that does change a little when we start looking towards the economy now there are talks of potentially a 10 percent contraction for the 2nd quarter of 2020 thats still not confirmed of course we dont know how its going to pan out or Left Shoulder to use the finance minister here in germany has said that the economy could well recover if it can kick on a little bit in the 2nd half of the year however he is also talking about potentially increasing tax bills for high earners thats something thats being dismissed by Peter Altmire his coalition com raid if you will from the other side of the coalition here in germany who said that in no circumstances should taxes be raised on anybody peter outlier essentially saying that times are hard and we must be prepared for them. The. German economy is in a more serious situation than anything weve seen since the war including any financial crisis not only are companies suffering losses theyre fighting for survival our hope is that with the help that weve provided we will be able to get through the toughest period of the pandemic so that we can avoid job losses and bankruptcies. Well the latest from the World Health Organization is saying that those countries that are starting to lift restrictions or ease restrictions that they shouldnt think of this as the beginning of the end this is just the beginning of the next chapter in fact thats pretty much something that angle a miracle said earlier this month when she spoke to the german citizens on t. V. She said this isnt going to be over for a long time yet really until we have a vaccine that works against this virus so not the beginning of the end but the beginning perhaps of the next chapter of dealing with covert 1000 here in germany peter many thanks peter all of the bring is right up to date with the situation there in germany thank you. Now weve also spoken with neurosurgeon dr mohammad reuss who believes that most European Countries are ready to lift their lockdowns. I dont think the majority of countries in europe of peaks regarding the spread of the infection of course we should continue being disciplined in every single country in order to be able to achieve positive results all over europe the most important thing in our life is health and only then follows the economy and other things however every single case should be looked at individually if the infection rate continues to decrease we can slowly carefully start launching the economy step by step of course it makes sense to take necessary precautionary measures in those states that are affected the most for example in bavaria the Movement Restrictions have been extended taking into account the infection rate there it makes total sense to me. The french government is facing some tough questions as to why they allowed last months local elections to go ahead despite the pandemic time several elderly regional officials including taleb as contracted the virus and passed away at a council official in a suburb of paris is now accusing the government of putting people at risk. My chief of staff caught the virus 69 and was taken to hospital for 10 days because of the contagion that most likely took place on new simple election day the government is responsible putting so many people in so many cities at risk with restaurants and all Leisure Facilities be close shortly before election day is something i can hardly understand why did they send us to vote just days before the national lockdown. The 1st round of local elections was held on march the 15th about 7 weeks after the 1st covert 19 case was detected in france by that time schools and restaurants had already been closed this part of containment measures the 2nd round was later postponed and as yet no new date has been announced one micron has admitted that allowing the vote to go ahead back in march was the wrong decision. If the science counselor told me that keeping municipal elections would endanger french Peoples Health i would not have kept them i take full responsibility for the decision i had no one the country the thing that there was manipulation that people could say i found an excuse not to organize them. Again believes that the safety rules on election day were widely disregard it. About children certain illegal some of the polling stations had no medical gloves there was sanitized the job the rules were often ignored there were a lot of people particularly during the vote count 2 people sitting on each side of the table when they should be just one social distancing was less than a meter that led to a lot of stuff constructing the virus in vineyard still sent and across the country and we also learned to protect ourselves we felt that we were at risk of being the 1st to contract with. The u. S. Death toll from covert 19 has surged by almost 2000 in the past 24 hours to reach 40000 it is by far the highest figure in the world however despite the increasing mortality rate of the virus the political fallout is gaining pace with people sharply divided on the president s handling of the crisis after went after state governors and city mayors over the measures they took to come back over 90 hundreds of people poured into the streets to protest against the government handling of the pandemic the same time many expressed their support for the president and demanded an end to the law. Jacqueline verger explains. All americans just like everyone else in the world are facing an indiscriminate and powerful enemy is invisible enemy is tough and its march and its a vicious but true to form the only thing uniting people in the us is disagreeing on how to handle this threat trump and co have a task force churning out daily briefings which people either love or hate depends on who you ask and the country split about 5050. 00 when it comes to the administrations overall handling of the outbreak will come as little surprise to many that those numbers fall pretty neatly along party lines you know while all the top brass in d. C. Keep repeating that this is no time for politics and name calling before doing just that lives are at stake this is not a time for name calling or playing politics i want to remind everyone. Here in our Nations Capital especially in congress that this is not the time for politics endless partisan investigations have already done extraordinary damage to our country in recent years by clashes are confined to capitol hill in new york city the place hit hardest by the pandemic doctors nurses and ordinary citizens have been protesting against trumps policies is completely incompetent at his job he tries to pretend like its a 1980 s. Border when its not you do not gamble with peoples lives that is morally bankrupt all of these things that lead to more deficit here and more illnesses and more economic damage if it wasnt for the truck thats raising or it wouldnt be anywhere near this track so for many of the president s not done enough but on the other side of that coin are the hundreds of people protesting in states like nevada wisconsin and minnesota calling for an end to stay at home orders and giving trump a gold star already when he said were standing we have right now Larry Birkhead according responsibility for iraq and i need him to tell us how to take a life right right right right into our very much rather. Than using our Constitutional Rights and we are falling under a dictatorship and thats not carousing trump being trump he want to head and tweeted out a rallying cry of a liberation from lockdowns and a number of those states that had already seen protests and that led to a slew of criticism that the president is fanning the flames of unrest in his own country not that they needed any help trump defended himself saying particular states have gone too far and then threw in some comments about the 2nd amendment for good measure because a gun debate was what this pandemic was really missing but i think some things are too tough and if you look at some of the states you just mentioned it its too tough not only relative to this but what theyve done in virginia with respect to the 2nd amendment is just a horrible thing they do a horrible thing the governor and all that on. He further ruffled the feathers of a number of governors who are already pushing back against trump they have an american president to encourage people to violate the law i cant remember any time during my time in america where we have seen such a thing this is a such as schizophrenia the president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do which is very powerful he does not have total a 3rd his proclamation is that he would be king thats what a king is a king has told us some already that statement cannot state a tweet coming from our president to liberate virginia i would just simply say that as the governor of the commonwealth of virginia along with his staff is fighting a biological war i do not have time to involve myself in twitter wars so everyone continues to become even more diehard and their opinions like the government should be handling it but without taking away our freedoms theres on the federal aid being sent to states that need it but how dare you cut back on help to Foreign Countries we should all stay inside and less we dont want to send out free money but not before times name is on it and then theres those carefree floridians who couldnt care less about any of that as long as they can finally hit the beach again which they did in massive crowds the 2nd they were reopened so much for social distancing guys it seems to have become political because of the contradiction you know any time president takes a certain course of action the political left wants to basically stand opposed to it in that creates and festers you know these sort of divisions in america well i hope that it does in time to unite the nation it will be nice to finally see that but unfortunately i think the United States without a point right now because of their so much of a mis direction in so much Bad Information this disseminated by the mainstream media. It is going to be next to impossible to ever really have 6 a clue that united in that way i think that the 2 party system is really polarized of the country in terms of politics and its going to take a long series of political moderate coming out in taking power before we ever really see a united hold for all america. For the pandemic is gathering pace over in brazil the death toll there now approaching 2 and a half 1000 that is the highest figure in latin america and the president s handling of the outbreak has proved highly controversial but over the weekend major cities saw protests in support of sonora and against local curfews last week while sonera sacked his Health Minister for demanding tougher lockdown measures the president himself has resisted any form of shutdown and repeatedly downplayed the dangers of the virus mean that all containment measures have happened at a local level the firing of the Health Minister has prompted a mixed reaction among brazilians. Working to care for them so i see this is an ordinary process in government the Health Minister was out of step with the policies being led by the president and i think he got caught up in all the hype as a minister he has to be accountable for results and the same goes for anyone in Public Office or things just dont work theres a couple of young we still trust the outgoing Health Minister and we hope that the new minister can build on what hes done. When you look at the situation the government is in now its going to be difficult to change anything or make any progress i dont see that this move will make any difference because of all the corruption in the government most narrow said ministration is corrupt. In the brazilian city of man hours hospitals have been overloaded with curve in 1000 patients videos have been posted online and broadcast on national t. V. Showing dead bodies in hospital wards along side living patients who are fighting for their survival and those images of cause widespread shock and anger but despite the rising death toll in brazil president wilson r. O. Says that the country must push to reopen its economy. I know life is priceless but the economy and employment but you must return to normal full brazilian journalists but ill do my says that for example so now i was prioritizing the interests of big business of a public health. Also led to ease subordinate to the financial movies weve had to put into the things the beginning those groups i guess still show isolation because they dont want i do to top. Off all of his that count visions measures both or not also makes what counts and believe that criticizing social isolation hes going to be helped by new who had fear to get without the job and income he wants to think this is a good candidate with the current fires Francis Collins self is not worried about peoples lives hes not worried about going to go to hell. Because they sang with us here on our table back with more stories after this short break. When else still seems wrong. Why dont yall just dont call. Me lol yet to see palin just come out again and in detroit because betrayal. When something you find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. The world is driven by dream shaped by. The day or sinks. We ask. Hokum back a team of researchers led by Cambridge University geneticist is claiming that the covert 19 outbreak did not start in the chinese city of willpower and as is widely believed the scientists analyze the r. N. A. Of the Novel Coronavirus and traced its mutations they found 3 distinct variants of covert 19 the final one being its final human efficient form we spoke with the geneticists behind the research we have identified 3 major variants of the corona virus and the original type according to a comparison with the bats corona virus is the 8 time that is found in china at moderate frequencies but surprisingly not at High Frequency and where be the major type and then you have a c. Type which then occurs outside china mainly so the 8 hope is more common at the early stage of the outbreak in other parts of china but not not in hand which was a bit of a surprise to us. Since the virus appeared various conspiracy theories have been promoted online and in the media a popular version is that the corona virus was produced in a lab an institute of allergy on trump and self recently said the idea quote makes sense to months of accusations the lab has broken its silence and responded to the claims. Of people who carry out viral studies we clearly know what kind of research is going on in the institute and how the institute manages viruses and samples there is no way this virus came from us i think the picture up to now is that the fish market in all the wildlife market in was the source of the pandemic and this is based on the observation of the 1st 42 patients i think nearly half had had contact with this fish market but its not the earliest patients i think our results could be taken to imply that we might have to look further than for the source of the very so for the outside in china that would be where i would look for the start of the spread. Of the corona virus lockdowns force millions of people around the world to stay at home might keep them safe from fiction but there are other risks that they have to deal with theres nicaea and excellence. With billions of people around the world is now in some kind of looked down there is growing concern that the psychological toll of such measures could prompt a new Global Crisis a Mental Health one if we see it coming and we start thinking about it earlier and we start thinking about how well you can tackle that most effectively weve got a very good chances of mitigating and this is. A huge Health Crisis that reaches to the hands impacts not just on physical health as weve heard so much of recent weeks but also i think Mental Health in the weeks and months to come psychologists now say that people are increasingly seeking support to ask Coronavirus Forces them to stay home theres probably been about a 50 percent increase in the number of people looking for talking terror since the since carting started in ireland anyway and its because people are at home and people are people have time to think people are worried about the future well because of covert people are worried about their jobs their relationships you know people are worried about the world is going to be like after this is ended for some the impact has been stronger than for others laura has been living with agra phobia for almost 5 years and her lowest point even the thought of stepping outside of her front door would trigger an exam is he attack she has managed to overcome her fears over the years but with the order for people to stay indoors lauras now facing losing much if not all of her progress the avoidance behavior as they can creep up on you if you dont keep on top of them so because now im not able to go out and practice going in states market going out so we are going to like i cant keep doing those things so i am quite worried and i already know that i have started to feel anxious about the thought of going out and so im worried that im going to slip back into they behave. Where i just dont feel comfortable going out social distancing has been highlighted is vital to halt the spread of covert 90 but for those with Mental Health issues from depression to conditions like anorexia its exacerbating an already stressful scenario in the u. K. A spike in the number of Mental Health incidents including suicides were reported to police in the 1st 2 weeks of lockdown and its warned this trend could continue well in the states one of the countrys largest suicide crisis hotlines saw a 75. 00 fold increase in calls in the past month the prospects that the reaction to the corona virus could be as deadly as the disease itself paints a grim forecast and the distress is made worse by the uncertainty of how long the lockdown will last its difficult that we dont howl and point because ultimately people know when something is going to stop if you think of a prisoner you know seders you were on sort rooms or on naval ships or people who were at the space station they know when its going to be over for them they know when their end point is you know if they know when or when whole uses of course that are available to you have a routine use exercise when you can you know speak to people through social media and i dont know really just take this is not Richard Energy to stay low safe and you know just wait it out i suppose. Lets quickly bring you some other world news in brief starting with the details of a gunman who disguised himself as a Police Officer killing 16 people in canada is the countrys worst ever mass shooting the massacre occurred in a small town in nova scotia on sunday police have arrested and charged a 51 year old male suspect the motive remains unclear. Elsewhere israelis of the rally against Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu while observing social distancing. Under criminal indictments in 3 Corruption Cases 2000 activists and facemask stood at least 2 metres apart and called for his resignation accuse the Prime Minister of using the pandemic and the law down to strengthen his power. And finally italy has reached the 433 deaths from over 1000 in just the past 24 hours the country has europes highest death toll but figures have been in steady decline for several weeks and officials believe that the outbreak has picked some italian cities the start of the plan for life after the lockdown then this is considering whether to permanently restrict visitor numbers to enable the city to be better maintained ok thanks for staying with r. T. As we could be right up to date with everything relating to the corona virus pandemic Information Available on our website r. T. Dot com our social Media Channels and of course our live broadcast from the state is right here in moscow as well as london and washington stay informed stay with r. T. Join me every thursday on the Alex Sullivan chill and ill be speaking to get a feel of the world the politics sports business im show business ill see you then. Below and welcome the crossed off were all things are considered on purely about kobe 19 pandemic not only sees much of the world in lockdown but it is also devastated economies dependent make has been painful recovering from it maybe even more painful is it all asians fault. Stopping the pandemic im joined by my guest in moscow is a political analyst and editor at interest me internet media project and in london across the alps enemy curious he is a writer on Legal Affairs as well as the editor in chief of the duran dot com regiment cross uprose in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i was appreciated all right lets go to alexander mackerras 1st in london as the United States and britain to. Deal with this pandemic here i happen to have noticed that there is a very interesting ways of explaining why things have gone wrong and its fake