A german activist cleared in the saying that trial whose arrest sparked a diplomatic route between turkey and germany. Germany has backed plans to phase out coal powered by 2038 but climate activists say 18 years is too long to wait. And the mysterious case of botswanans elephants that investigation is underway into the cause of death of hundreds of animals. Welcome to the program we start in the United States where the run up to the 4th of july Independence Day weekend to seen a Record Number of new corona virus infections 55001 logged on thursday heres a look at data sharing the daily tally of new cases every day from the beginning of the u. S. Outbreak rising steadily of 1st the curve that flattens from the end of april to mid june but as knockdown mistreatments new infections shot up again. Well no startling statistics mean this weekends Independence Day celebrations are being scaled back as officials urge caution public and private gatherings Washington Bureau chief in this poll has been to ocean city in maryland to gauge the mood. For Many Americans this is the 1st time out after a month. They are hungry for fun and some. Want to celebrate this 4th of july weekend as they normally do. To keep moving on do the fireworks continue normality as much as we can moving back to normalcy is what wed like to do i think if you take the right precautions theres nothing to be scared they dont want your party to know what you enjoy yourself but you have you know how many thousands in a group on at protests how to deal with a pandemic is highly politicized some fear that the restrictions are taking away their personal freedom others just see an irresponsible actions i expect here in our community in maryland because its tore season now that these cases are going to come back as people do not socially distance or where they were. Visiting our beaches i dont think are going to do anything i think he will continue to say its a hoax and not believe in the science that is there so many cases and. This lack of guidance creates a dilemma for Business Owners between Health Concerns and remaining competitive. Brenda parker runs the in the bar and grill in the 5th generation. We want to know where im at but if they dont know where im at we can tell them where im at because its their right to wear a mask or not i dont feel safe with them around at night when im at you know that flat where im at. But yeah i would rather that where. You can make it you can make it a law that you know that we have to wear it recommend it for our safety and our health. You know you could make it where you know you get fined 500. 00 if you dont harm. The United States are facing a new record high of with 19 patients littlewood you know here at the boardwalk in ocean city maryland the majority of the people is not wearing a mask they tell us we are here to fun we want to celebrate we are done with this why was the Business Owners obviously do have a different approach they fear that after the weakened they will face a new wave which will lead to a new lock telling and that would bring them to their knees in 2 weeks time we will know whether the right steps were taken if people celebrated this unprecedented pull from to life in a responsible way of the worst fears of the next wave. To come true. Lets have a look at this with that William Schaffner who is professor of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt School of medicine joins us from city of nashville in the u. S. Welcome professor whats what do you think should americans sit this weekend celebrations out. Well i think they should go out on their fun they should go out carefully rather than in a carefree fashion i think we need to wear our man asks social distancing and avoid large groups that run and that we just heard that bothers me a great deal it sounds like our last holiday memorial day weekend where many people went out in a very careless fashion and we had many many infections as a consequence well see what happens this year im really worried however i must say ok well as a number of us cases skyrockets the president has been tweeting lets take a look at what he said he said theres a rise in coronavirus cases because our testing these are massive and so good far bigger and better than any other country this is great news he said but even better news is that death and the death rate is down also younger people who get better much easier and faster so professor im just take us through some of those claims and tell us what you think and what well start with this idea that these numbers are skyrocketed because the u. S. Is doing more tests we are doing more tests and the more you test the loreal find there are many many more people in it and we detect with the tests and thats because weve opened up and theres been a great spread of coronavirus we havent been carefully enough not by far so im not persuaded but im just and his view that its because its the younger people who quote get better much easier and faster he appears to think that this is a better news. Well younger people do have a milder case often without symptoms or very modest symptoms but they are spreaders they are contagious they bring it home to their aunt susie who has diabetes and to their grandfather tom who is older and has Heart Disease they get sick and they will be in the hospital so the young people must cooperate with everyone else so they dont spread the virus ok how is it that the richest country in the world seems to be failing so badly at keeping people safe do you see this is a failure of policy or Political Leadership or is it just what happens when free people in a democracy are allowed to choose to ignore Health Advice well its a mix of everything but most importantly we dont have a National Policy and the communications have been chaotic its no wonder that some people dont wear masks because the National Leaders many of them dont wear masks so theres a great deal of confusion we have not had a coordinated consistent National Plan its a great failure thanks for joining us professor William Schaffner from the Vanderbilt University school of medicine thank you now to some of the other stories making news around the world of peace activists of monks 25 years since the massacre at srebrenica some 8000 muslim men and boys in corona virus pandemic a limited number of participants on the on your 100 kilometer walk which retracing the steps of survivors who fled what International Courts have described as a genocide. The remains of 24 resistance fighters have been welcomed home to algeria in a solemn military ceremony the men were killed in the 19th century while fighting against French Colonial rule the schools have been kept in a french museum. France has a new Prime Minister john kass this is a center right man who was responsible for coordinating the countrys are reopening strategy after coronavirus lockdown his appointment follows the resignation of his predecessor edward phillipa and hes got. A court in turkey has opened the trial of 20 saudi nationals for their alleged roles in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the saudi consulate in istanbul 2 years ago the defendants are being tried in the absence of riyadh has rejected requests for their extradition. Meanwhile another court in istanbul has sentenced a former leader of Rights Group Amnesty International to 6 years in prison the verdict against atomic kitchell tera charges brought an end to what critics say it was a politically motivated to trial targeting opposition activists the court said since 3 other turkish defendants to prison and acquitted 7 german after easter better story was one of those who escaped a jail sentence his arrest in istanbul 3 years ago triggered a crisis in relations between germany and turkey. Lets go to where istanbul will be joined d. W. Correspondent dorian jones welcome dorian i did todays case attracted much attention. Well among human rights defenders of local and international yes they were out in force a pivotal case for human rights in turkey along with critics of the government but Mainstream Media which is pretty much under control of the president heard one and his government paid attention to this focusing more on earth one speech today weve made some powerful statements and also the Jamal Khashoggi case drew a lot of attention given the fact that the government strongly backing it media which many of the opposition do get the news as one of much of the young social media is burning with that there was outrage over the conviction of ton of college and they see this as another attempt to silence human rights defenders and it really does illustrate that turkey is a part of 2 parallel worlds exist supporting the government who get one view of whats going in turkey and opponents and critics who get another in this case is just further polarizes divide in turkey. The case was politically motivated the countrys judicial system lacks independence but several of todays defendants walked free so what does this tell us. Well the government insists the judiciary is totally independent get very angry at any accusations otherwise but critics both and specially of International Observers make the point that present heard one and his government do appoint most of the judges in turkey and its like the scene of the judiciary is under the direct control of the government but having said that we have seen recently a number of key cases where judges have ruled against the government but that in many cases has resulted in investigations of the judges and even prosecution so its a very difficult place that judges face so they do work in many cases walk specially controversial cases like this a difficult legal type and the release of 7 could be another indication of the judges tossed possibly trying to. Flex some independence there were 2 foreign nationals amongst the 11 defendants and those 7 were. 2 foreign nationals amongst the defendants who were acquitted there must be a suspicion that International Pressure played a part. What has been said that given the fact that the European Unions major leverage over turkey its membership be to turkeys membership into europe is all but over there is really little leverage that europe has over turkey given the fact turkeys geo strategic position the gate keeper for migrants trying to enter europe is also a powerful card that turkey has over europe but having said that turkey is lobbying very hard the European Union to open its stall for tourists to come into turkey particularly from germany thats the main provider of tourists into turkey and this possibly could be a gesture to berlin in its efforts to open up for German Tourists to come to turkey thank you for that door in istanbul. Lawmakers here in germany have backed plans to phase out coal as an Energy Source by 2038 the governments trying to end the countrys dependence on fossil fuels in favor of Renewable Resources like wind power but climbers activists say 18 years is too long a wait. A future without coal power the message put out loud and clear by environmental activists who draped it across the front of the German Parliament for those protesting in berlin germanys plan to abandon call in 18 years time will be too little too late they want the end of call to happen sooner to meet the targets set out in the paris climate agreements. We are protesting against the core law because it doesnt promote the call phase out because it leaves coal fired power plants on the grid and because it betrays the paris climate agreements for the this call law is a historical mistake among the Paris Agreement and it gives the companies billions in compensation without receiving anything in return or. The law is the result of 3 years of consultation a process almost as laborious as abandoning call itself the aim to reassure industry that it will still get reliable power and at the same time to persuade people in the affected regions that after inevitable job losses new opportunities will emerge more than 40000000000 euros were earmarked for projects in the collective corners of the country on top of compensation for coal plant operators. And has taught us that this really is a historic step germany is one of the 1st industrialised countries to enter both coal and Nuclear Electricity generation at the same time the way has been prepared by a commission including many different groups and parts of society this is now been turned into law and thats a great success. With Nuclear Power production also said to be abandoned by 2022 germany is setting the course for a carbon free future it hopes that other countries may also follow soon. Well this new law provides support for the transition to Renewable Energy for workers in regions like livelihoods are dependent on coal you spoke with the head of the marshall whos a fridays for future activists. So why is she protesting against it because to keep our climate goals and to be in line with 1. 00 degrees we need to exit coal at the very latest in the year 2030 so were seeing that almost a decade longer coal is being strained through this lot and were seeing also that an earlier coal exit is scientifically necessary scientifically possible and is we can finance that finance so honestly the snow was more of a calling on geisha law because coal is not its not earning very much money in germany anymore 90 percent of coal power plants couldnt cover their own costs last year coal is not a huge part of the market in germany and its not a huge part of the Energy Market either so in the 1st quarter of this year coal was only between 16 and 20 percent of the energy mix which is totally possible to phase that out very quickly and the number number of jobs depending on cold is somewhat under 30000 so compared to what we can create in a new book on what we can create in other places its really not that big of a deal. So Helena Marshall fridays for future activist well as germany takes on the European Union rotating presidency for the next 6 months german chancellor Angela Merkel will be working closely with former project European Commission president a sort of underlying something of a 1st 2 german women at the helm of the e. U. Now have to make sure the other Member States are on board with their agenda. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Commission President as well off on the line know and trust each other but its the rest of the e. U. Ok with 2 germans at the top we go to its really a question to both president s its a coincidence that 2 very powerful german women lead these negotiations about the Recovery Fund and you know each other a row is that helpful or is it a hindrance with respect to the other 26 they may be afraid of too much germany. Were talking about 2 dedicated europeans thats whats more important here but of course i cant forget my german interests. And im very pleased to women in germany there had never been a female chancellor before me europe theres never been a female Commission President and in the past 2 men of always managed with now we 2 women have to handle it and im confident that we can do it right. The list of challenges is long combating the impact of the corona crisis tops the agenda for chancellor Angela Merkel together with french president emmanuel back on she will try to push through the e. U. Recovery fund with 700 50000000000. 00 euros at a summit in 2 weeks time fund to finance through shared borrowing a majority of german voters support their chancellor and the plan according to a recent poll 59 percent of germans say they are in favor of the e. U. Taking on common debt to tackle the corona crisis only 35 percent find the plan unacceptable but the corona crisis is not the only topic on germans minds 50 percent of germans think climate protection should top the agenda during germanys e. U. Presidency 39 percent say the impact of the coronavirus needs to be tackled and only 7 percent are still concerned with the blocks future relations with the u. K. Progress on determining those future relations has been modest european Officials Say but during the corona crisis the focus has shifted as the chances rise that the u. K. Will leave the e. U. With no future deal in december a majority of germans say they want the remaining 27. 00 e. U. States to move towards even more integration. To the philippines where the government is easing some coronavirus restrictions all forms of public transport allowed to operate again including the famous g. P. S. On the streets of manila the brightly colored bus jeep hybrids known as g r back. But the notoriously packed vehicles have some new restrictions to start less than 10 percent of the countrys jeepney fleet are allowed back on the roads commuters and drivers must wear face masks and rider capacity has been slashed by half. But drivers say even with red