well exclusive reports are destroyed cities. in the sites of fire starts may 20 s w. this is e w news a lot of us from berlin and russia commemorates the soviet victory over nazi germany in world war 2 but this year's victory day celebrations in moscow were scaled down to a bare minimum due to the code that 19th and demick therefore suggest flyovers but the main military parade in red square has been postponed. larger than expected

demonstrations in several german cities as some people start to push back against coronavirus restrictions our political reporter will tell us what's behind the protests. and las vegas mourns one of its greats roy horn of the magician duo siegfried and roy has died at age 7519. i'm claire richardson welcome to the show russia has been celebrating victory day marking 75 years a since the defeat of nazi germany in world war 2 but this year's commemorations have been scaled back because of the coronavirus pandemic but the red square military parade and a large scale for session both postponed. russia's courageous. military

might took to the sky today far above moscow where coronavirus precautions kept the streets nearly empty this victory day. it had been planned to be an especially large celebration this year as russia marked 75 years since defeating nazi germany in world war 2. but the mass processions were off postponed by the pandemic president vladimir putin did lead to scale down ceremony at the eternal flame war memorial. but not a word about the virus instead his speech was a rallying cry to the nation. this is your view we know and firmly believe that we did we are invincible when we stand together for sport i think of us congratulations on victoria day or.

a day of pride in russia's past. but people here have plenty to grumble about corona virus infections are on the rise and the economy is shrinking. presiding over a time of national crisis putin faces plenty of challenges ahead. i'm joined now by gustav grass or senior policy fellow at the european council on foreign relations because afaik so much for joining us how important are these victory day celebrations for the national psyche and russia's collective memory. well actually if you shoots a lot on the list a made them they moved sort of at the center stage of the denationalize fry national identity thing the big 3 in the 2nd world war after many projects a cold war should be the sort of theme russianness should be about the russian exceptionalism should be about came out basically on talks or after orthodox

conservative vision or or other experiments basically the. world war 2 is the most undisputed topic and was made the center stage scene of patriotism and reeducation in a patriotic sense of russia so he says jest a major show of patriotism these anniversary celebrations that were meant to also be a show of power for president vladimir putin one he surely could have used as the country's had hired by the crown a virus how can we expect these scaled back commemorations to affect his standing. oh well on the coronavirus he tried to sort of give the response ability to the local governments quite early on in a crisis which is if something superior in russia happens a severe domestic crisis he tries to delegate this to other people and especially to many other peoples whom he can try out and then basically the fire the incompetent all them promote the more competent members of the junior greats in

government coronavirus is no exception we also have to see that in russia they are quite at the beginning of the curve for brother in the middle of the rising curve there are roughly one and a half months behind europe in the crawl hours from now it's about to get really nasty. infections are spread on the countryside and in moscow you already have quite a high rate of death is so pulling off a parade it would have poisoned basically the parade if you were to pull it off in the falls. in this situation so that's why you basically have to reach and russia is in the midst of a lockdown right now but in neighboring belarus for seeing quite a different picture there a major military parade took place in the capital let's take a look at how that went. physical distancing not in minsk. thousands of people packed together to watch the annual victory day military parade

. few people wore masks becoming infected doesn't appear to be a major concern. so in 199945 things were much worse thousands millions of people died and no one was afraid of anything coronavirus will never defeat veterans and even less so in this long suffering country. the most of them there may be fewer people this year some hope for the people have listened some are more afraid some less afraid anyway what can we do. valerie says vastly different approach to the coronavirus pandemic has caused concern and led to a strained relationship with close neighbors russia. moscow has publicly worried that the lax attitude take it by president alexander go. he has consistently dismissed the gravity of the pandemic. with the mob. in this mad disoriented world there are people

who denounce us for the time and place of the sacred events. i'd like to tell them humanely. don't rush to conclusions and to condemn. the descendants of the victory of belorussian and. for now the approach by lucas appears to be unwavering despite sharply rising infection rates in batteries and warnings from the world health organization. so as we have seen at bellerive taking a very different approach there gustava does this have the potential to drive a wedge between russia and its neighbor. i would rather see it has the potential to really destabilize belarus because as i said before day in the beginning of the to

spread of the plan them and there are one and a half months behind europe so now we have this sharp increase in the infection and if you don't go into lockdown now unpleasant or curve you will basically explode your your all your health care system and that is what is actually about to happen in belarus and. creases and infections and the spreads the amount of infected people per 100000 inhabitants is the highest in the whole post so with world you have the highest growth rates of newly infected people so. in some time from now he will probably have to reverse course but i did huge domestic toll and costs and he was a fairly popular able to cross until now economic growth he provided for some some sort of social benefits this might well erode all these benefits he had with the same population and i guess there will be a difficult time thereafter and thank you so much for that analysis.

it's like. thousands of people have protested against coronavirus restrictions in several german cities the biggest turnout was in stuttgart with 5000 participants according to the organizers the demonstration was allowed to take place after germany's constitutional court overturned an earlier ban there were also protests in munich frankfurt and berlin where police made several arrests. for more on that story and let's talk to debbie use it kate radio kate thanks for joining us kate is there a growing movement to that we're seeing taking place here. well certainly since just a few weeks ago we've seen these number of people attending these demonstrations which are often dumped as high g. demonstrations growing from just a few dozen people in the german capital to the thousands that we've seen in several german city sits a but it is worth noting of course that these people still are

a minority and that several local establishment several local businesses close to where these demonstrations have been taking place have also being holding a good sense of of counterpressure as a kind of counter protest against these demonstrations but in placards and posters in the window saying we're not going to stage we're not your background your backdrop sorry and one thing that we could be seeing here by these protesters is something that one of the leading for all ages here in germany christian to us that he's been helping deal with the pandemic here in germany he reverted few weeks ago to a prevention paradox in which people start to look around themselves and see only the situation in which they find themselves which of course here in germany relatively speaking is quite positive as far as the condemn it goes the german government has managed to get a relatively good grip on the pandemic and the number of cases and deaths compared to other countries like the u.s.

and to slee has been quite low so it could well be the case that some of these people in this there and what restrictions do people seem to object to the most. well it seems to be that people are protesting at these demonstrations against what they describe as an infringement on that right because people have been limited to the amounts of people that they could beat me say and also the economics to shut down a good many businesses have been closed temporarily if not for the long term recently but it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what unites these groups of these protesters also being known holocaust deniers and conspiracy theorists as well and answer vaccination groups who have been driven recently as well by these conspiracy theories particularly those surrounding the microsoft founder bill gates and the conspiracy theory that he is developing some kind of digital so typical that could be implanted in the human body so there's all sorts of different groups of people

here for all right across the political spectrum so it is difficult still to pinpoint exactly what unites these groups have come from a general mistrust of politicians and also of the mainstream politics and mainstream media. brady thank you very much. now for a brief look at some other stories making headlines around the world at least 6 people including 2 police officers have been killed in a shoot out during a protest in western afghanistan demonstrators were demanding economic assistance in the city of chicago after weeks of restrictions aimed at containing it 19 officials say some people opened fire a police igniting a gun battle restaurants in the northern german state of mecklenburg western pomerania have reopened after the regional government to ease restrictions it is one of several eastern states with lower infection rates than in other regions hotels will be allowed to reopen to tourists on may 18th. german

football fans have been eagerly awaiting the return of the bundesliga this month but could their hopes soon be dashed 2nd division side ado namo dresden have been ordered to send their entire squad into quarantine for 2 weeks after 2 of their players tested positive for coke at 19 it means they are unable to play their scheduled match against 10 for on may 17th 2 cologne players tested positive last week but only a day not the whole squad were told to self isolate the decision by the local health authority in dresden sets a precedent that could put resumption of play across germany into jeopardy including in the top tier. sad news from las vegas now where cove in 1000 has claimed the life of one of its best known showman roy horn of the magician duo said freedom roy has died he was 75 years old let's take a look back on his colorful life. last vegas mourns an icon

more horn dominated show business here for decades always alongside his partner secret fischbacher performing as the magician duo secret and roy originally from germany the 2 entertainers 1st met on a cruise ship they quickly became partners both on stage and in life and. then i spoke with siegfried i had a cheetah so i asked him if we could incorporate them into the show and he treats and everything is possible in a much your show. the wild cat act was born it quickly became the hallmark of secret and roy in their villain that's vegas the partners raised white tigers threatened with extinction and lions then they signed a record setting contract for a lifetime of performances they are consistently sold that show was seen by millions of people then in 2003 there and it was seriously injured by one of his

tigers during an act like this one why believe that the tiger was just trying to save him after he had suffered a stroke he battled to recover learning to talk and walk despite being paralyzed on one side of the never my name is. his partner see creed says that roy was a fighter throughout his entire life even in the end when he contracted the coronavirus horn passed away at the age of 75. you're watching t w news and thanks for watching. hey listen up. that's what video game music sounded like 30 years ago. today's tracks take the experience to another level a sense to him talk composer nobuo uematsu. featured in many.

his music is better known to give you clues farms sounds good. video game music on d w.