Stand back and stand by but ill tell you what ill tell you what somebody has got to do something about anti fair and the left because this is not a right it is there is a levy. It kept on an edifying spectacle and which donald trump people to over his policy blind spots and his competitor to biden papered over his each the pair managed in this era of formalization t. He was a consensus and well known when i was. Did have used chief International EditorRichard Walker follow the debate for us hes with us here in studio hi richard lets pick up on one of the points we just saw there in our report President Trump when asked about White Supremacists declined the invitation to condemn them and its got a lot of attention tell us about it thats right i mean this moment is really being parents to pawn by democrats that donald trump is still in the business of dog whistle ing or even even more openly than that to far right groups. And even using this expression stand by seeming to suggest that he might want to mobilize them some point now you can certainly expect this to get a lot of airing i think in campaign ads in the weeks ahead leading up to the election the thing is its not really certain how much what impact that will have because trumps wording did manage to say state just enough on the side of ambiguity that his spokespeople love playing it down and theyre saying you know it was quite clear that what he meant was knock it off. The thing is that the members of this group the proud boys dont seem to like that theyre celebrating this and seeing it as recognition by the president of the Group Richard this was a pretty difficult debate to watch and it was so much mudslinging in interrupting insults who do you think came out on top if any well yeah well i think it is fairly clear that neither nor really landing a decisive blow me there has been a lot of outrage about trumps aggressive behavior constantly interrupting constantly haranguing biden but i think that was to be expected and its no accident i mean this was strategy what he wants to do here is come across as you know the guy who stands up you know this is his trademark but also it serves the purpose he wants to try and disorientate and distract joe biden who has a starter and who has a bit of a you know character of a kind of rambling speaker to try and throw. Im off to try and disorientate him which sometimes was effective joe biden was most effective when he was trying to come across as the reasonable guy you know his pitch is essentially you know he wants to return kind of on a stature to the presidency so he was most effective when he was really calm and just trying to play the reasonable potential president but he did allow himself to get distracted by trump quite a lot so i think between the 2 of them they both you know achieve part of what they want to achieve but entirely successful and richard another point thats getting a lot of attention is again the president casting doubt upon the result of the election calling mail in voting really vulnerable to fraud what does that what implications does that have for us Going Forward when we look at the election coming up i mean this could have really huge implications i think this moment towards the end of the debate was perhaps the most concerning for a lot of people watching whats happening in the us the moderator asked both candidates whether they would pledge to kind of calm among their supporters and pledge to recognize a result once it was certified. Because there is this big question about whether a clear result will come out on Election Night because so many people are going to be voting with mail in ballots which take a long time to get counted trump said things like the ballots are a disaster its a rigged election this is not going to end well really kind of cuing up the arguments that hes going to use potentially in the days after the election where we dont have a to result to say any mail in ballots should not be counted this and throw complete doubt of the of the election result and i think perhaps the most concerning think that he said was he said that it could be months before we know brazil which really does raise questions about a transition of power in january that is meant to take place our chief International EditorRichard Walker with us thank you very much. Now to some other stories making headlines around the world former audi c. E. O. Has appeared in a media courtroom making him the 1st person to Face Criminal Charges in germany over the diesel gate scandal stata and 3 other defendants are accused of fraud falsifying documents and false advertising belgium has a new government after almost a year and a half of the goshi ations the flemish liberal leader and former finance minister alexander to crow will leave the 7 Party Coalition as Prime Minister in 2010 postelection wrangling left belgium without a government for more than 500 days that is a world record. A majority of European Union members have approved a new rule of law tool aimed at sanctioning e. U. States that defy the blocs democratic principles and values poland and hungary opposed the rule of law checks hungarys government has come under scrutiny for its increasingly authoritarian methods but many also have their eye on poland because of its treatment of the l g b t community. Pictures like these are the reason why i bought starship ski is getting Death Threats he puts up the sign of the entrance to tell me that a socalled the free zones shining a spotlight on the difficulties gay people face in poland. The situation where we are naturally called for we are in the close at where we are at our house not showing that we are being beaten i am scared of being. Somebody who will wait for me in front of my house almost 100 local governments have declared themselves free of. Ideology these declarations are not legally binding. Rights groups say they fuel homophobia even outside the zones counter protesters have repeatedly attacked members of the algae bt community as you can see here. And have seen their fit of this fake this. Right we have spreading around. That its not just life its the people who are drawing start on to us. Polands ruling lower and Justice Party is behind much of the antigay rhetoric it claims to be protecting traditional family values here we here we have to defend ourselves against the l. G. B. People their way of life is the road to perdition it leads to the dismantling of basic social structures in which the family plays the most fundamental role. The European Union has condemned polands treatment of its bt community i want to be Crystal Clear l g b t q ive 3 zones are sure manatee free zones and they have no place in ours union in july and the e. U. Commission rejected grants to 6 polish towns that had socalled l g b t free zones. But it wants to see more concrete action. So i expect that european you know be not the union of 2 wars about something more. Going on over the years that the people are equal and theyre taking it until that equality becomes a reality in box country he will continue his fight against homophobia. And we can speak now to very short of us shes the e. U. Commissioner for values and transparency and Vice President of the commission the start of a thank you for joining us here on g. W. I want to ask you about what we just heard there from an l g b t activists in poland he said i expect that the e. U. Will not be a union of empty words today the majority of e. U. Countries backed a tool to sanction members that to flout the rule of law you also released a report on democratic gaps in the bloc how will that have helped someone like bart. Well we strongly condemn the attacks on. People who we have just now of a tree see in poland and i have to reject saying that. Underlying was very strong i have declaration that the. Free zones are that they do not have any place in our union so so indeed we already reacted by rejecting the finances to. Municipalities that are these the zones declared also there is a lot of action from other Member States and other cities who do not wants to continue that winning is the city so the pressure is from different sides but i do believe that if we deploy the instruments especially conditioning the e. U. Money by respecting the rule of law and. Other important principles we have to make some progress while these measures have not gone down with poland or hungary and i want to ask you about hungary because you were quoted as saying that hungarys Prime Minister is building an ailing democracy and a victor or about responded by saying he wants you to be fired whats your response to that. I am not going to resign its quite clear and i got the support from the president was off on the lion about i want to come back to that interview because you know i said maybe a 100 times maybe several 100 times that we have serious concerns regarding the development in hungary and so so in this interview i used a different. To say in fact the same thing so it shouldnt be a surprise for for anyone and. Our most singlet was the main message in my interview that hungary and citizens needs to have the 1st and last what its for them to have a free choice in elections and we need to make sure that in all the Member States not only in hungary that are conditions to guarantee the free and Fair Elections for the citizens of the so over in power in every member state so it was my message i have a big respect for hungary and people and i have never offended. If i want to ask you about the European Unions approach or because nothing to this point has really forced poland or hungry to change their tack on rule of law in fact hungary in poland say theyre even setting up their own rule of Law Institute to counter the e. U. And they say the European Union is using them as a punching bag so what does that mean for the European Unions path forward. Its true that we have not achieved anything because we launched several infringement procedures of each and it up in the European Court of justice and the case law and the judgments of the of the court say clearly that are that is a breach of rule of law in concrete cases in concrete legislation that it has to be repaired so. We asked as the commission the court which is the only. Authorized interpreter of the e. U. Law and the court decide it and so this is a this is a continuous process and the report which we published today is the response on the criticism that we are only focusing on poland and hungary its true we are presenting the report which is describing the situation in all the Member States and we see positive and negative trends in many of Member States and value see the negative trends on we can also start a dialogue. That the respective Member States not to get too far because then some damages are repairable im afraid and if those negative trends continue in countries Like Congress in poland what can the European Union do to put even tougher sanctions on. We have to continue what we are doing so do use all the measures are all the instruments we have in her nce. The infringements to each article 7 of which is already ongoing we have to know the new mechanism the rule of law situation and combat the situation on all the Member States but also i will not hide that i am very strong promoter of the conditionality. Of the e. U. Money the money should should go to the countries of the rule of law principle is guaranteed so obviously we have to do more because there are some and i have is im in the past that the rule for law and democracy and fundamental rights will go up dramatically everywhere in the same same way we have to take lessons well have to leave it there that argue about you commissioner for values and transparency Vice President of the commission thank you so much for joining us. Now authorities in belarus have suspended independent news outlets to you to be why for 3 months it is the countrys main independent News Organization its coverage of the governments recent crackdown following the disputed elections has gone viral the government is also making it increasingly difficult for foreign journalists to operate. Conway texas there are efforts underway in belarus to stop the cameras from filming and what that might mean for the protest movement. Weeks of protests capturing imaginations around the world colorful symbols charismatic leaders. Its often turned ugly Security Forces cracking down brutally on peaceful protests and when it did photographers and journalists who are there to report. People who tell you one thing time and time again knowing that the world is watching makes them feel safer. They show the outside attention acts as a restraint on the government. But journalists are facing increasing intimidation to photographers spent 15 days in jail for quote organizing an illegal protest they had taken pictures of a demonstration an editor who published an interview in which a victim of torture named his torture also ended up in jail and tire news outlets now stand to lose their media licenses without them their journalists could face arrest at any time. Foreign journalists like me havent so far been subjected to this kind of treatment very soon there may not be any of us left here in pillars getting a new credit taishan or extending existing papers is no longer possible theres no outright refusal just the same excuse over and over again the commission in charge they say called get together because of covert this in a country where the man in charge president Alexander Lukashenko who claims to have won the disputed election downplays the dangers of the coronavirus he has said that a visit to the sauna is the best treatment for the disease. As independent media here vanish as protesters fear a future in which there is no one left to document what the government does to its opponents. Chancellor Angela Merkel is warning off tough months to come during the winter ahead and says the people of germany need to prepare in order to avoid a 2nd nationwide coronavirus lock down she made those comments during the annual budget debate in Parliament Michael defended her handling of the crisis so far rejecting criticism from the far right opposition f. T. That her government used the pandemic as a pretext to spend taxpayers money. Michael acknowledged the difficulty of coping with coronavirus restrictions but said that it is too soon to ease up completely. This one time he didnt begin with on the woman what i miss most is the spontaneity and encounters with other people. Thats the way it is and i think we all want that spontaneity that naturalness back we all want in life as we knew it back especially our countrys young people. But we are currently putting everything that we have achieved in the past few months at risk we must not allow nationwide restrictions High Economic and emotional losses again. With a lot of focus we cannot allow a dying person in a hospital or nursing home to die all alone because their loved ones arent allowed to hold their hand to say goodbye. Im speaking here because i want to do everything i can to prevent another nationwide shutdown lets bring in our chief Political Editor michelle or because now shes at the german bundestag for us. So is germany like other e. U. Countries moving closer towards a full lockdown scenario again. Well it isnt for now but certainly there are more nuts and bolts in place as a common agreement on when more measures are needed at this particular moment is the threshold of 35. 00 infections per 100000 people per week so theres now a socalled hotspot formula in place that was agreed upon yesterday and now we hear im going to call today in an usually emotional speech appeal to germans to keep that discipline to be patient and to prepare for worse times to come once again this autumn once again vowing that she wants to avoid a nationwide shutdown but its by no means being ruled out despite the fact that is in terms of infection rates and deaths doing so much better seems to be pretty much an exception within the European Union for now while germany is halfway through its a 6 month European Union presidency as well the agenda there also is being dominated by the pandemic what did she have to say about that. And shes determined to take the lead in making this a european issue also an International Issue but there she sees this as the moment for the European Union to actually pull together she herself of course has done that policy turnaround where she after a decades long resistance from germany suddenly allowed the European Union to take on joint bet the closest germanys come to socalled a euro born scenario so far says have a listen to what she specifically had to say on europe the america we noted was the case before the pandemic but that intensified with the pandemic that multilateral cooperation is under considerable pressure in many areas. We hadnt experienced such pressure in recent decades this changes the world and if you look at history demick like this tends you find such a development. And thats why i think its very important that we resist the tendency towards renationalisation and protectionism. So its a tool of that has nothing to d