Pandemic weve got a report coming up. Then good afternoon its just turned 18th of september here in moscow for martys world news h. Q. My name is kevin owen warm welcome to the program. First Prominent Russian opposition activist election of elm is no longer in a coma we can report the german medics treating him havent given any prognosis yet nor have they presented any definitive proof or details as to what caused his illness but thats not stopped the us president from already blaming the kremlin and hinting germany should end its project with russia the big north stream to gas pipeline. But i was in support of there was the 1st one to work up you know heard of it or stream to it or truck ever when i came along i said wait a minute were protecting germany from russia right as for germany it seems to be caving into pressure on north stream to at the moment from berlin our correspondent there peter oliver next. Blong before alexina volley took a long flight from siberia to moscow and ended up here in berlin receiving treatment berlin has been under pressure to drop the north stream to gas pipeline project in the past despite threats and sanctions from the United States and criticism from some of its European Partners burleson and always viewed this economic project as a separate entity to anything else now what were starting to see is some signs of a different message coming out of the german capital weve heard from friedrich merritts who stands a very good chance of being the potential successor to under merkel when she steps down as chancellor next year he said that if he had the power right now he would issue an immediate 2 year moratorium on the gas pipeline project and in fact in the last week weve heard senior voices within the German Cabinet and some voices that speak directly for the chancellor herself saying that there is potential for least halting all stalling the project basically what it previously been on thinkable is now being talked about as potentially possible. Into tufty this is 1st and foremost an economic project we consider it to be the right thing to do i think that we should be coupled these issues and in our opinion north rim too should be completed. I think would be room through from the beginning but what is happening now it could have an impact on the projects the federal chancellor also sees it as room to rule that out germany says the future of the gas pipeline depends on how russia responds to allegations of poisoning of the leg saying a volley with a military grade nerve agent moscow says theyre willing to play ball but calm to the moment because evidence and data that germany says it has regarding the poisoning of a lot of the alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny hasnt being transferred to moscow without. That they can proceed no answer has been given to any official requests from the russian Prosecutor Generals Office or to any of their requests from our doctors nothing 0 on monday we got an update on the status of alexei in the file in the hes being taken out of the coma or the medics that kept him in for just over 2 weeks hes being weaned off breathing operators are starting to breathe on his own and we know that hes responding to visual to all the bl stimuli meantime Russias Foreign Ministry has reacted to washingtons call for berlin to ditch north stream to moscow believes europe should stand up for disown interests unless it wants to end up being americas puppet political commentator told us stopping the project is going to hurt germany its a catastrophe if this is being abolished because energy is the main cost for everything you do so if you increase the cost for your most vital product you need then you have disadvantaged in the Rural Economy so German Economy will have no chance on competing in the World Economy and thats exactly what crime once you want america 1st you want American Business to go in germany and europe will be dependent on. Possibility from poland because if the gas. Is not coming we are dependent on other routes and all the other routes are dependent on 3rd parties so we will always be able to be blackmailed by the other people and i think that is exactly what the americans with their polish partner once. A saudi court to scrap the death sentences of suspects in the killing of distant journalists come on Jamal Khashoggi 5 people were given reduced terms of 20 years jail 3 others received from 7 to 10 years a top u. N. Official islam the move. The saudi persecutor prefer md one more act today in this parody of justice but this verdicts carry no legal or moral legitimacy they came at the end of a process which was neither fair nor just or transparent in making sure g. s family said they forgave his murderers much changed a lot had cleared the way for the revised sentences under islamic law but the journalist fiance knows commented on the trials calling it a complete mockery of justice the shoji was seized in 2018 while visiting the saudi consulate in turkey reportedly to get papers for his upcoming marriage the journalist was allegedly dismembered his remains have never been found those sentenced are believed to have been part of the hit squad sent to turkey from riyadh political analyst other sons of bruno says despite the riff it make sure of the crime the west wont ensure justice. The fact that no official was tried. Actually raises many more suspicions for the World Community the opinion wont change the idea that the saudi government was behind it remains in fact if anything. Only proves it or at least goes further into that direction countries that deal with saudi arabia diplomatic and business levels wont have any technical formal reasons to hold relations so whether while Public Opinion will certainly be negative at a technical level there will be no sanctions or other penalties that will impede saudi arabia from working with other countries. To spread a mystery will try to unravel it a high profile member of the better russian opposition has been arrested on the border with ukraine over an incident where a patrol agents life was put into range and it follows claims by his supporters that Maria Kolesnikov of the oppositions Coordination Council had been kidnapped by Belarus Security offices r. T. Saskatoon it breaks down the conflicting versions of the events of the last 24 hours. Well this is a somewhat strange and confused the story on monday news came out the red collapsed because of one of the horses opposition figures and a Campaign Partner of light last who will remember was defeated at the recent president ial elections was abducted in medics snatched from the street bundled into a van by ordinary madness many will say not in the evening the police filed a missing persons report and started an official lots of people one article came out consigned to whereabouts and this includes people beyond about a russian borders germany and britain for example so they were worried they demanded answers meanwhile brussels threatened sanctions and martin added to what it says is the arbitrary detention of those critical of alex article shango it is clear the. Continued to intimidate or allow intimidation of its citizens in increasingly lawless way and crudely violate both their own domestic laws and international obligations. Well a few hours later and it doesnt seem quite as clear cut as many and because now the multitude of this story has now according to the head of the better russian authorities calexico and 2 others the southern border into ukraine are routes or. A video that about showing a car in which is claimed kolesnikov and 2 others were pulling up to the border i had to do that documents for inspection speaking to a border guard but that kind of rumor started that the 2 she was traveling with did manage to make it into great class because the didnt that she was arrested at the border something was florentines denied they say instead the class nicola never crossed the border instead that she was thrown out of the car shown up there to go to the 2 others carried on into ukraine without apparently at great speed to drive dangerously mean luck classical that is confirmed now to be at the border in good health not in need of any medical assistance but the russian authorities also say that the 2 seemingly abandoned plastic on the better russian side have been arrested in ukraine though that has not been confirmed by. People who are regular contact with the 3 say none of them responding to messages dont know i say they have no idea about whereabouts but. Theyre also claiming that none of the 3 had any intention of leaving better us if they did so it is worth noting that they would be following in the footsteps of their talented to come last who fled to lithuania month ago after the elections i when there are so many unconfirmed conflicting versions of the story its actually quite difficult to get the bottom of what actually happened perhaps time will provide some clarity. So i can tailor the British Police this is pretty gross suffering from a large rise in the riff cough and spit attacks suspects are taking advantage of fear of contamination with offices in the midlands county of leicestershire particularly complaining they cant do the job properly because of whats been happening. You know what the court may intervene ya. The rise in assaults has huge impacts on stuff both physically and mentally and it has a huge impact on communities thousands and thousands of days of policing a lost because of these assaults or the number of attacks has doubled theres been hundreds of cases in just months in leicestershire alone. Barely 100. 00 incidents in the same period last year but its not just these spit and cough attacks as gross as they are assaults generally on Law Enforcement a shooting across the board leaving stuff obviously nervous and unable to do the job as weve been saying this but a 21 percent jump in attacks on British Police during the lockdown almost 8000. 00 cases nigh on have been registered in just 3 months for a Police Officer himself peter kirk and warns that covert nineteens given suspects the whole new weapons against authorities. Has provided. Another way of people who would Assault Police by whatever method is available another d wife for them to get in into into offices. You know why i feel will be more impact if just at the moment. Its just provided them with another weapon really the issue is wider than just the spitting spitting and coughing in offices that were seeing with the covert epidemic and the problem is the decades 10 years of an anti Police Narrative by the government gleefully repeated by the media has resulted in respect and confidence in the police being severely undermined and not just to follow up we saw. The place of being criticised to every turn a symptom of a problem this country is hard to develop in for some time which is the attacks on police are growing rapidly in both number and in severity. This is Art International face check in this lunch to know how does that hard to understand proverb go its a nail when the blows nobody any good case in point tech giants are making profits out of the pandemic but now brussels wants a paid tax where across it after the break. So what weve got to do is identify the threats that we have its crazy confrontation let it be an arms race in this on off and spearing Dramatic Development only and going to exist i dont see how that strategy will be successful very critical. To sit down in. I guess the covert catastrophe has been a boon for some with home video streaming Companies Reporting a massive surge in subscribers and profit they had a net flix even admits the pandemics been a lucky break for the company in fact every major tech players vastly increased earnings in the log amazons revenue in the 2nd quarter up 40 percent making almost 90000000000. 00 from Online Shopping apples revenue increasing 11 percent to almost 60000000000. 00 meantime streaming Services Like netflix talked about just now of doubled subscribers in just 3 months but the now face a backlash from the authorities from 2021 the e. U. Is looking to introduce a digital tax european lawmakers warm tech firms should subsidize economies damaged so badly by these months of locked. It is not possible to accept the idea that those digital giants the winners of the crisis are not paying a fair amount of taxes in europe and we cant manage this problem with single digital taxation we need at least at the European Union level a general measure of economics professor Richard Wolfe believes that taxing tech giants is just the 1st step in raising rates for all big corporations. I think youve seen it already we have a history here in the United States of taxing monopolies an oligopoly these are huge businesses but it always takes pressure from below it takes a movement of working people labor unions and others to be able to get the politicians to act and my suspicion is it wont be different thats what a little take the tax the tech giants now and once they go then the question will inevitably follow why are we not doing that for other our highly monopolized and overly wealthy corporations. Israels impose curfews in 14 cities after a spike in coded 1000 cases that the new restrictions require businesses to close by 7 pm every day and ban people from venturing far from the homes in the evenings schools and colleges also have to be shut. The professional elements were and given the situation in israel the trend is liable to reverse itself at any moment with a dangerous addition of severe cases and deaths and the danger that the teams of doctors treating corona and the hospitals could collapse the initial plan had been to impose a complete lockdown in 30 cities but following pressure from local mayors it was scaled back to evenings only although with 10 more city tailored to the list theres been a steady rise in infections across the country so far this month with daily cases now reaching almost 3000 lead time protests against the governments handling of the pandemic of now and their 11th week over the weekend Police Officers were seen lifting literally protesters off the road and carrying them away as people gathered near the prime ministers official residence theyre calling for but he will quit not only because of the coronavirus thing but also will result in going long running corruption trial the head of the Immunotherapy Lab at the university explain to us why the number of covert cases in israel is on the rise now. After reopening. Schools and enabling. Places of gathering to thrive what we have seen basically is a slow rise in the number of people being infected there is a crisis of confidence in the public meaning people do not feel the need to always abide by the regulation people willing to comply is essential to prevent the further spread of the virus the 2nd thing is that there are a lot of gatherings like for example away beings at night that are taking place although they are forbidden but people are actually organizing them in places private places so its very difficult to locate them and to close them down 2nd main problem we have is of efficient trast single right now we are not able to correctly tracing every single case. Because are a lot of cases and the 2nd thing is that because we are still in we are still trying to implement our new system for tracing and that is taking too much time thats again another reason why we see a rise. As sweden struggles with growing gang crime in the Pandemic Police want to expand wiretapping now to everyone even norms suspects to detect potential going members right now we have at least 40 family based criminal networks in sweden socalled clans they have come soley for the purpose of organized crime we need a change in legislation they give theres greater opportunities to listen to encrypted phone people who are not yet involved in any criminal investigation without people who can be clearly linked to gang crime we know hope that all this telephone traffic leads to us clearing up more crimes than we would have done otherwise at the moment swedish law only allows tapping the phones of suspects facing at least 2 years in prison the proposed changes though would let Law Enforcement eavesdrop on people who are yet to be suspected of a specific crime or if it going crimes of shocks we do society and even a 12 Year Old Girl dying in a mafia crossfire recorded but citizens are divided all that said over whether wiretapping everyone is the solution. I think it is good that the police have increased opportunities to catch these criminal gangs for arranging freely in sweden today they must find new ways to try can take them to court but i think a law that says the police can why its a private interviews or else is too big a step to take there should be special reasons to eavesdrop on someone they dont see the risk for ordinary private interviewed salzberg intercepted in their private lives i do not think it affects our privacy we are already so monitored in any way with phones and other things that if this helps the police its great not good not my style i do not like it it creates a great deal of uncertainty as to what a ploy is because you do not know when they can listen where when and how so i do not like that more power a state within the state integrity is most important because you never know whats going to happen in the future. I think it is quite good that the police have greater opportunities to incept i personally do not mind it i think it can be a great tool for the police to access a large part of the population and be able to stop some crime its nothing that bothers me so mixed views their human rights expe