Suspected russian mercenaries are detained in baton rouge accused of trying to disrupt an upcoming vote. And we have major sports news stories today including criminal proceedings in switzerland against the fee for president a deadline for russia to avoid exclusion from takes and Saudi Arabian investors out of their bid to buy Newcastle United after months of premier league scrutiny. That it swept across the United States killing tens of thousands of people and now the devastating effects of coronavirus on the economy is becoming clear the United States is just recorded at shoppers downturn since the 940 s. And admitted all president dollar trump is floating the idea of pushing back novembers election is often talks of the economys strength but between april and june. Its shrunk at the fastest pace on record that is down 9 and a half percent in the past week another 1400000 people applying for jobless benefits his response to the pandemic is expected to be a key election issue the us has the highest death toll in the world at more than 150000 he is now asking whether the vote should be postponed tweeting that mail in ballots used because of the pandemic could lead to fraud again well speak with the white house cross what it can be helped at in just a moment but 1st to new york and Gabriel Elizondo gave the numbers that were talking about theyre pretty broad and how we describe them but what have you been seeing what parts of the economy do you think are hurting the most. Well there is pretty much all sectors of the economy are hurting badly here in the United States but some more so than others too ism travel the Service Sectors retail manufacturing just to name a few that have been that have taken particularly hard hits what essentially is going on here are 2 Things Congress in april pumped trillions of dollars into the u. S. Economy when the u. S. Economy shut down in march the thinking by congress at the time was that come july the u. S. Economy would be rebounding and rebounding very quickly from the coronavirus pandemic and from the shutdown in march that simply hasnt happened for a host of reasons but primarily because. Many states says weve been reporting have now been recall osing their economies again as theres been a spikes in coronavirus cases and deaths throughout the United States so that has really suppressed any sort of economic rebound that economists some economists anyway and many lawmakers in washington had expected to see so instead of seeing a rebound were actually seeing a continuing of the slide of the economy also youre seeing that people that have not been laid off that still do have their jobs just arent spending money so that consumers are are not buying things theyre not traveling and thats why youre seeing this trickle down effect to Tourism Travel everything is just simply depressed right now in the u. S. And just on an. Anecdotal note even here in new york city which was the epicenter of the corner virus pandemic for many months now things are pretty much contained in new york when it comes to chronic virus but still this city is still very empty and still very shutdown in many aspects of midtown manhattan many of the big high rises that usually have to 3000 offer. Workers in a are still for all intents and purposes empty just to give you an idea the office that im in right now where our bureau is at just as an aside here theres many other Office Companies that have offices in this building bout 1500. 00 people usually are in this building right now i would say less than 50 so it just gives you an idea of how all throughout the u. S. The economy is still really struggling or i gave thanks very much for your room is on the new york lets spin i was with the white house in one house when it can be home to standing by the turtle figures that can believe in just as these figures would be released but the interim the president has been trying to get everybody to talk about Something Else yeah there is the suggestion that the president may have put out an scindia retreat in order to detract from some of those negative economic numbers so there have shifted up in the news cycle if you will but theres no question that many people had very strong reactions to the president s tweet ill read it for you with universal mail in voting not absentee voting which is good 2020 will be the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history be a great embarrassment to the us a delay the election until people can properly securely and safely vote as you mentioned the suggestion that perhaps there would be a need for mail in voting due to cope with 19 is one that republicans and this president pushed back on repeatedly citing the potential for fraud but the suggestion of delaying the election is one that many people feel is just a bridge too far especially with the 95. 00 days to go until the u. S. Election relatively close with this countrys always prided itself on is sort of that peaceful transfer of power to so have the president suggest not only has he has in the past that he may not accept the results but now also the potential to delay is certainly causing Many Americans consternation then what about within the administration itself how much traction will you get on this. Well the administration so far has been quiet but i can tell you that thats not the case for members of his own Republican Party in fact one top ally senator Lindsey Graham has said that he doesnt think delaying the elections are a good idea another one says this is really just for press attention but its not going to get me a true sort of traction but the really the most profound response that weve heard has come from Mitch Mcconnell whos the Top Republican head of the u. S. Senate he says never in the history of the country through wars depressions in the civil war have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time well find a way to do that again this november 3rd but the concern in all of this is what the president has done to set the table if you will for his supporters to not accept the result of the election and thats what has many members of congress concerned about or it could be thanks very much for the answer thats coming to d. C. Lets take this on further we can speak to cliff until someone whos a professor of lore and philosophy at the university of pennsylvania in philadelphia clay good to have you here 1st up can he do this kind he changed the thing to the election. So its important to understand that the president has no power over the date of the election that is set by federal statute and it would have to be changed by congress in order to change the date of the election 2nd of all this is part of an organized attack on the idea of mail in vote in were in the middle of a worldwide pandemic and right now the United States is harder hit than any other country it is critical that we make sure that every american has the option to vote and the only way to do that safely right now is to give people the option of mail in voting now there is no evidence that mail in voting increases the risk of fraud the state of washington has successfully been using mail in ballots since 2005 other states have increased their use of mail in voting in recent years and there simply is no evidence that that increases the risk of fraud there were always problems with any method of voting we were all remember the story of the hanging chads back in the president ial election in 2000 and there have been problems with online voting so every method of voting has some risks but mail in voting no more than any other risk that you think we can so theres something of a bomb going efforts within the administration to discredit 1000000 votes he was we heard from the attorney general the other day who say much the same thing. Correct there is indeed that effort and i think that the attorney general and the president are or clearly showing that effort showing that theres an organized effort to cast doubt on the results of the election to make people question the results of the election if it does not go President Trumps way and possibly to get people not to vote by mail when they have the right to because they will be afraid that their votes wont be properly counted now there are some complications with mail in voting one complication that will have to face is that it takes longer to count mail and votes and so we could be waiting the results for the results of the election a little bit longer than usual but instead of trying to cast doubt on this as a safe and effective method of voting the president the attorney general and other republicans who have been attacking this in the court system and trying to get the courts to go along with their concerns about mail and voting are depriving americans of the right to vote and weakening our democracy the president himself noted some time ago that if everyone in america were to vote no republican would ever be elected again and that really shows you the agenda here which is the right to suppress the vote and if he is as can be heard at suggested in. Conversation with me that may be some say that hes trying to set the table for his supporters not to accept the results of the election hold dangerous is going down that path going to be. Thats very dangerous weve already seen that the president s tweets and his remarks to his supporters have produced have contributed to the production of violence in this country. Inciting people to ignore governors of orders or to fight against governors orders that are intended to keep us safe to have people Wearing Masks and social distancing has been very dangerous to the country and has increased the amount of covert all across the country and this could be very similar we have already seen that right wing agitators have contributed to some of the violence that has occurred in demonstrations so this really puts us on a path to see violence in the streets following the election it is an extremely dangerous path for the president to be going down and very important that everyone prepare the country for the possibility that donald trump will not win the next election and that there needs to be a peaceful transition of power the president should be the 1st to be on board with that as his predecessor pres president obama was when he turned over his office to President Trump and greeted him warmly and try to help the transition try to help people accept the transition which was a very difficult one for many people who get a perspective a cliff and a stone thanks very much to thank you thanks for having me. Now europes biggest economy has officially plunged into recession nearly a decade of growth in germany has been wiped out by the pandemic its economy shrinking more than 10 percent in the past few months when it came is in berlin. This is the worst quarterly performance for 50 years for the the German Economy that refers back to the west German Economy rather than to the east German Economy but nonetheless it is very bad news but as was alluded to this is needed this needs to be seeing through the prism of what had already been predicted for the quarter and several months ago once the 2nd quarter was underway once the pandemic was really here taking hold of the economy of the country the predictions had been that they would be expected that the economy would shrink by almost 10 percent in the event its a bit more than 10 percent but not much more than that and so theres very much the sense coming from ministerial circles that they feel that theyve kept a lid on it that theyve prevented it from being much worse than they possibly imagined and indeed there are elements certain sectors in the economy thats are rebounding already from the worst. Problems caused by the pandemic and the economy minister several weeks ago was talking about his hope that the economy would rebound in 2021 but obviously all of that optimism is predicated on there being no 2nd wave of corona in this country thats why over the course of the past few days and indeed over the course of the past few weeks weve seen a succession of state Prime Ministers of federal ministers trying to urge caution trying to urge people around the country for not doing things that might cause corona to come back. But most of this news are getting a look at why you see children who survive the terror of isaac. Control face Health Crisis years after being free. Will is there anyone else that nasa launches its biggest regular to the red planet to search for evidence of aging. And the head of well football facing Big Questions swiss prosecutors open a criminal inquiry into feet for president giani if in fact you know its come up later in sport. Now the head of the World Health Organization says the countries must learn to live with coronavirus director general said people cannot afford to let their guard down and warned that young people may be driving many of the new spikes we have stated before and we will say it again young people out of not invincible young people can be infected young people can die and young people can transmit the virus to others thats why young people might stick the same precautions to protect themselves and protect others as everyone else where the w. H. O. Also says that latin america is still in a big fight to control the spread of the disease a rise in unemployment and more extreme poverty has been predicted there and in the caribbean and as a result of the pending u. N. Economic commission for the region says its economy could shrink more than 9 percent this year on top of that 44000000 people are expected to be without work and that is more than double last years number the Commission Warns this will drive millions more into poverty lets speak today and hes following developments across the region for us from one is there isnt daniel theres rampant poverty in the region already this is only going to compound a very serious problem already. You know thats certainly the case and when you look at those statistics break them down a little bit i mean theyre talking about that minus doctrine of 9 percent in the Gross Domestic Product across the region translates according to these latest figures into 45000000 more people falling below the poverty line taking the figure up to 230000000 people right across the region thats not some that 30 percent 37 percent sorry of the of the of the whole population the large number of those falling into extreme poverty as well very grim figures being released by the the Economic Committee for latin america and the caribbean. Pretty much every every country in the region although one of these figures a grim one thing. The other thing they also talk about is the growth in the rate of inequality in the region the rich getting richer and as weve heard the poor getting much poorer so a small number of the already rich doing very very well out of this crisis millions of people are falling below the poverty line higher on Employment Rights across the region and of course numbers rampant too across the region how does that sort of tie in with whats happening in terms of. The economy. Where youve got the economies governments all over the region talking about a return to some kind of normality trying to get people back to work because they simply cant afford not to have people in work but of course what that does is exacerbate the pandemic situation i think illustrating that today was the president of brazil diables noddle having spent the last 3 weeks recovering from corbett was back at work opening a Water Treatment plant in the northeast of the country on the same day it was announced his wife michelle has tested positive for coverage 19 along with one of his ministers the minister of technology and science is the 5th. Of the brazilian minister his government to test positive for the virus we had record figure on wednesday number of dead in 24 hours and now its 1600 in brazil record numbers in argentina in bolivia the same time. Numbers of ministers of policemen and Health Workers also succumbing to the pandemic so while ministers governments are urging people back to work the figures the numbers of people being infected by 19 continue to rise dramatically and we havent reached the peak yet so many countries predicting that peak will come sometime in august. Thanks very much indeed for that update. British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson says the pandemic is slowly being brought under control but hes warning people to keep up Safety Measures or risk another way numbers of deaths so well well done but i have to tell you that were looking at a resurgence of the virus in some other European Countries you can see whats been happening in the United States and so it is absolutely vital as a country that we continue to keep our focus and discipline and that we dont delude ourselves that somehow were out of the woods or that this is all over because it isnt all over a car bomb in eastern afghanistan has killed at least 8 people and injured more than 30 others the explosion happened in the city in Logar Province it comes after tuesdays announcement by the taliban to hold a cease fire during. The taliban has denied involvement. Now russia is denying trying to destabilize better use the head of its upcoming election after 30 of its citizens were detained in minsk. President Alexander Lucas shanker has accused the men of being at mercenaries sent by moscow to incite riots being investigated for working with lucretia an