this is deja vu news live from berlin and criminal charges in the arctic sea largest ever oil spill more than 20000 tons of fuel leaked into waterways near the world's northernmost city russian investigators blame the mayor for the $150000000.00 disaster also coming up a moral reckoning in the u.s. over monuments to its racist past protesters pull down statues of pro-slavery civil war leaders but not all americans are ready to denounce this chapter of history.

born it during lockdown with her parents far away after weeks of separation the surrogate baby and ukraine finally meets her family but many others still face a long wait. plus the pandemic puts thailand's al offense at risk of starvation a sharp drop in tourism means hundreds of handlers have no income and no way to feed their herds they've had to hit the road to find so. i'm sumi so much going to thank you for joining us russian investigators have charged a city mayor with criminal negligence over the arctic's largest ever or oil spill they suspect the mayor of norilsk didn't do enough to contain the discharge of more than $20000.00 tons of fuel into waterways near the world's northernmost city last month investigators say that local cleanup efforts were too limited and too slow experts are now predicting. the disaster could take years to contain and cost at

least $150000000.00. let's bring in our correspondent in moscow emily showing is standing by for us hi emily good to see you how serious are these charges well they're criminal charges of course the mayor himself has not actually been taken into custody but if he is convicted of criminal negligence then he could face up to 3 months in prison but the seriousness i think of the case against him is also in the political dimension that we see here because of course this is a very high profile case in fact the russian president vladimir putin himself went on t.v. to publicly kind of admonish officials because the oil spill wasn't reported for 2 full days and the authorities weren't alerted to the fact that it had actually

taken place so it's very high profile and there have it was clear that heads would have to roll including on the political level there have already been $23.00 other detentions including the head of the plant itself do we now have a full picture about what caused this spill. well the author already is have said that their initial theory is that the concrete foundations under the oil reservoir that contain the oil basically collapsed and that that caused the spill now we don't know exactly why that happened one reason could be that the permafrost under the foundations has been melting due to global warming and actually other oil infrastructure in russia takes newer oil infrastructure takes that into consideration now when things are constructed because it's such a serious problem and the so that could have caused the collapse that the other

reason could be that perhaps the reservoir itself was just in bad condition and that caused the collapse and the spill our cleanup efforts going well this is a really serious still we spoke to greenpeace about it and they told us that it's one of the most serious spills that this region has seen in decades now the fact that putin announced the nationals' national emergency means that extra forces are on site and the author already say that cleanup operations are taking are actually being carried out around the clock but the spill has already contaminated a nearby river a nearby lake and the worry is that it could get into a bigger river and travel north into the arctic ocean as well so we'll have to wait and see whether that happens but it will take years according to authorities to

clean this disaster off correspondent and we sure when in moscow thank you. in the wake of nationwide protests pressure is building across the u.s. to take out historic statues glorifying slavery they remove all of racist symbols joins a list of reforms demanded by demonstrators in the wake of the death of george floyd but not all americans are ready to listen to the calls for change. right. walking with the burden of grief came to washington so everybody can hear my voice. brother of george floyd joining protests minutes after addressing the united states congress. when you watch your big brother who you looked up to your whole entire life. bigger boys mom i'm tired i'm tired of pain pain you feel when you watch something like that on

a george and make the necessary changes that make law enforcement the solution and not the problem. protests continue across the united states with many demonstrators now directing their anger towards controversial relics of u.s. history. statues of confederate leaders in the southern states are being toppled or beheaded these men fought for the slave holding states in america's civil war and for many they evoke a deeply racist past the highest ranking democrat nancy pelosi now pressuring for statues of these men to be removed from the holes of congress. the confederate flag is also being reevaluated to sport competition as announcing a ban on the flag at its events came after the u.s. navy put in place a similar ban. military bases with the names of confederate leaders are also in the spotlight with demands for them to be renamed. president donald trump disagrees his

press secretary read out his social media closed on the matter stuart my administration will not even consider there in naming of these magnificent and fabled military installations our history as the greatest nation in the world will not be tampered with respect our military. with protests showing no signs of slowing it seems that americans will not only have to think about reform for the future but consider a debate about how the country looks back at its past. the white house has asked japan to significantly increase its contribution to maintaining american forces the u.s. has guaranteed japan's defense since the end of world war 2 more recently the u.s. has turned its focus to asia in the face of china's growing military might it has more than $50000.00 personnel stationed at facilities across japan washington puts a price tag at some $5700000000.00 much of which is already paid for by japan the

cost sharing agreement is due to be renegotiated next year japan is already spending more on defense but on its own forces. soldiers practice landing unfitness vehicles in a picturesque bayonne japan south coast drive out in the hatch climbs the hatch and them head back to the beach it's as if they were planning to set off a new sure sometime soon. but the officer in command is not allowed to talk to us about. the body others it's important to train the soldiers one is the driver one's the helmsmen it's not always easy to make a team out of them you're pretty through arms goes around. according to its constitution japan isn't supposed to have an army and many wanted to stay that way . we don't want to pass. into fights and walls all over the world not even only america sorry that's why we're against the drills. even tokyo seems to be preparing

to enter the military world stage the defense minister recently deployed this destroyer to the gulf of amman in an interview he says as a completely harmless mission that is aware of his own power he wants to become prime minister. would you ban like to play a more active role military role on the world stage we believe sending our destroyer to the region to get enough information to secure the past safe's passage all japanese or japan related to ships are important for us so that's why we sending it we're not part of. american initiative and or european or you run union issued every it's strictly on our own isn't that risky i mean there could be some kind of coffee and you are right why should we be in it

but if everything's fine why you need to wash it in the region what we need to get the information to secure the safe passage all our tankers or other ships so we're sending them for information gathering what's wrong with it. just a recognizance mission. some people see it differently. us asian relations expert glenn fukushima for example finds the idea amusing. although i think as defense minister that's what he had to say you know just as when koizumi was asked in the diet. is it not dangerous for the soil to fence forests to be in combat zones he said well the sort of things worse is there by definition that is not a combat zone. so that was his answer. behind the scenes of u.s. japanese military relations the mood is less easy going than here american military unit station test tell me trying to aid missions with the japanese earthquakes for

example but since washington has demanded much more money from japan for u.s. troops tensions have risen considerably it is actually cheaper to have a marine stationed in japan than to have them in san diego. if we pay them no then they will become sort of motion to re and i don't think you were supposed to would like to do that. posh words especially coming from an otherwise normal japan is a possible future government leader seeking to expand his influence in a big way insiders say there is support for this in the moving policy but less so amongst the japanese people. let's check in on some other stories now the number of corona virus cases recorded in the u.s. has topped 2000000 johns hopkins university says new infections are on the rise in at least 19 states the u.s.

has more cases than any other country in the world. a far right norwegian man has been jailed for 21 years for attempting to kill worshipers in a shooting spree at a mosque and for the racially motivated murder of his chinese born stepsister the court rejected a plea from the defense to declare the perpetrator insane and unfit to stand trial lufthansa says it employs 26000 more people than needed hinting at possible job cuts the german carrier has been massively affected by the coronavirus pandemic tons of pilots have offered to take a 45 percent pay cut to help alleviate the situation. for more of the story we can speak to nikolai about is the executive director of the cabin crew union nikolai thank you for joining us so we just heard there these are very tough times for lufthansa it says it employs 26000 more people than are needed how worried are you that those jobs are going to be cut. there is

a lodging florrie's about joe cox on $26000.00 people and total is a large amount we are now looking forward to negotiating on how we could do this without any just missiles this will be hard but the cabin crew already sounds as pilots don't but we are willing to help. as long as there are no no cuts. including dismissals and we had to go shipping this the next 10 days and we are hopefully coming to a good conclusion for the company and for the people as you said the pilots have said they're offering to take a pay cut of 45 percent to help lufthansa get through this crisis could the cabin crew do the same thing. not exactly the same thing of course is the wages of cabin crew as you know it's not large enough to have a cup like this but there are things like productivity like arch i'm working like

a temporary leave willingly so these are things we could do become a range bunch of course people need a job guarantee off towards the kind of do i carts on the one side and dismissals next year on the other side that's not possible and this will be hard negotiations i want to ask you about the long term prospects for the tata are you worried that this company might not survive this crisis. i do not think so i wish transit is very much affected because long haul flights are very important full of chance on long haul flights will not be able as easy as short haul within europe for example so there will be a long crisis i think but i'm not worried about what's going to look down things are very strong and it's house employees are under threat you as an employee is that i'm willing to hold the company and we are hoping the management of top management finds out that it's better to go on with their employees or use

them against them and i'm more i'm sure this will work out and looked and it will be strong off the crisis whatever that may be. from the cabin crew union wilful thank you very much for joining us. thank you very much german chancellor angela merkel and chinese prime minister leak have held a video conference summit to discuss the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic the talks come amid continuing criticism of china's information policy following the outbreak both leaders seen here during merkel's last visit to china in september were also expected to address how business relations between the 2 countries will shape recovery efforts in the wake of the pandemic. let's bring in our chief political editor michelle o'keefe now on the story so the coronavirus and business ties were on the agenda is that what this video conference was really about. yes it was but there's also

a lot more at stake let's stick with the official readout that we've already seen and there we saw the german can't chance a call on china to make more progress when it comes to that investment deal that the e.u. and the chinese government have been hoping to forward since 2014 those were the early days of that merkel says there's not enough progress on that so that's a word of criticism at the same time the very fact that the german chancellor agreed to this video conference here will be seen and it will be used as a lot of symbolism by beijing towards the u.s. with those mounting tensions in trade relations there and the e.u. being eager not to get stuck in the middle after all devaney will hold the e.u. presidency from july on words for 6 months and here we see the german chancellor acting not just as german but also as you leader who has to try and ensure that the

european union doesn't get stuck in the middle when there is a trade war potentially once again and getting more significant between washington and beijing while china has been criticized for how it handled this pandemic the information it did indeed not release and also its clamp down on hong kong so how much is germany able to push back on these points. well that was also discussed today although we don't have an official quote there it was interesting to see the german chancellor do a very delicate balancing act also on hong kong in a major foreign policy speech 2 weeks ago she said that hong kong was an example for the very fact that when it comes to values that the e.u. is far apart from the way china sees things in the world that there should be no mistake that the e.u. is part of the west brussels itself has called what is happening in hong kong at

the moment as a violation of international law at the same time all sides need each other the united states china and the european union make up 2 thirds of world trade so what merkel has to achieve is to keep china the 2nd most important trading partner of the you as a vital partner and at the same time keeping the united states on its side a very different road to negotiate not just over the next half year or so but also over the coming year is our chief political editor and i thank you ukraine is one of the few countries in the world where surrogacy is affordable and easy to arrange but pandemic lockdowns have prevented dozens of parents from joining their newborn children the long wait has been painful for couples but potentially disastrous for their children's development some families have finally

managed to be united our correspondent nick connelly met one such family. one month and 3 days late but at least they're together. dear old us of trouble 10000 kilometers by car through continent in lockdown to finally meet their daughter. she still has to get used to us she doesn't know who we are. their daughter spent her 1st month with a carer in an apartment her parents only able to see her on a screen. you know the so sad we were crying just seeing her pictures and unable to do anything for her you just feel so helpless all you can do is wait . as their daughter's birth came and went and with no end to lock down in sight all people are and your elders could do was scour the ukrainian press with the help of a translation up on the lookout for some sign of hope neither the spanish government nor the ukrainian embassy could hold would help when they read that ukraine's human rights on boats women had promised help parents into the country

and jumped in their car to drive the 3600 kilometers from their home in madrid to kiev. first trip was a live in the dark we didn't know what we'd encounter at the borders on route they received a long hoped for permission to enter ukraine yeah i cried when we received this i didn't think a piece of paper could make this happy. but it wasn't enough. this week was not a chance and we're just 500 kilometers from kiev then they told us no we just couldn't take it anymore they were missing just one document enough for them to be turned back at the ukrainian border returning home to madrid with the only option without their baby week later they were back at the ukrainian frontier after 7000 kilometer round trip to madrid and back this time with the right documents and they were finally allowed into the country other parents have been less fortunate

separated from their children by even greater distances and still unable to enter ukraine how many babies are still without their parents no one can say with any confidence. we've lost months of our daughter's life. that's super important you know. it was actually a month or 3 days to leave the felt like a year spanish must sound strange to her she doesn't want to sleep she just wants to listen to us. and now she's i'm really sleep. well. this journey to becoming a family like any other is not yet over to register their daughter's birth in spain will probably still have to go to court in spain as in many other european countries surrogacy is illegal green zone either legal or illegal the coronavirus lock down was just the 1st of many obstacles on that path. that report from nick

connelly and he joins us now from kiev with more hi nick do you have any idea how many babies are still in limbo because of the lockdown. that's the thing assuming this has really exposed grey area in all senses surrogacy is here in ukraine it is legal but most of it is off the radar of the radars of the authorities here in ukraine the human rights woman here in ukraine yes they said that about 100 families have been in touch with her asking for special permission to enter the country but experts think that is just the tip of the iceberg of the surrogacy agencies are actually advising their clients to keep quiet and wait for travel restrictions to end yesterday there was an extraordinary event organized by one of the agencies that has decided to go for maximum publicist where they handed over children with flags and anthems played but most agencies have been keeping a whole lot more quiet i think supports remember here the couple we spoke to had missed a month that many have missed more than that if your child is born in march or

april by the time you get to ukraine 2 or 3 months it's all some chinese parents whose children are born here early have missed even more so this really is an extraordinary situation and one where there's no real. for the next few weeks to come at least and how are these babies being cared for in the meantime. well some of the pictures that went around the world of those babies together in a hotel room that is essentially a stunt that is something organized by one of the big agencies that has decided to go for maximum publicity most children are spending their time with cameras with nurses in private apartments so that is the norm that was the case for the child's family we spoke to i think is important just to really get a sense of how big this phenomena needs ukraine's government didn't even have figures about how many children were born surrogates until. they estimate about $1500.00 children born surrogates last year but we again believe that is just the beginning of the real true figures that the true figure is much higher and this is a truly global phenomenon and you have parents from argentina from saudi arabia

from china not just europe and corona virus has really exposed quite how connected ukraine and the rest of the world as long as it was business as usual we didn't really have a sense for how big this phenomenon was as the borders were closed suddenly you had families coming out going public willing to speak publicly about this in the hope of getting see their kids soon and this is really another example of how crooners really exposing how globalization works. connelly reporting for us thank you so much. there are growing concerns in thailand for the welfare of thousands of elephants the coronavirus has closed taurus sites across the country and made domesticated elephants have been left to fend for themselves some are now facing starvation desperate handlers have hit the road with their herds with no place to go but their hometowns in the hills of northern northern thailand. it's been a long slow journey for this elephant and his handler with tourists and his like

chiang mai now closed because of coronavirus they have no choice but to return home to the hills of northern thailand a wonderful site for these children and an opportunity for the elephants to enjoy their new found freedom. but these animals need food around 300 kilos of plants a day much of the vegetation around here has been cleared for crops and the handlers have no money to buy feed. but. we need help to take care of the animals it's expensive. there's also concern from local villages that the sudden influx of hundreds of elephants. and that swearing conservationists. charge that some of the elephant make it

night and roll into the properties. that would probably start what we call b.c. human conflict. before the coronavirus pandemic hit thailand was a popular destination for animal tourism but it was often unregulated and there have been numerous reports of elephant cruelty despite this the handlers known as mahmoud's maintain that tourism is by tool for the best survival. i mean up until the last we have tourists and still have jobs and then they have the more money to look off to them. there's hope that once covert 19 is under control animal welfare will improve in thailand for now both handlers and elephants are making the best of a situation that's out of their control. let's get

a recap of our top story russia has opened a criminal case against the mayor of the arctic city of no real school over his handling of a major fuel spill response team say it will take years to clean up. thank you for watching.

enter the conflict zone with tim sebastian. hong kong never means to news for long these days now it's the draft of a new security laws to be imposed by beijing to provoking controversy and protests joining me this week from hong kong is regina is a member of the city's legislative council and chair of the probate judge in new

people's party hello conflicts. be to know that 77 percent blockage are younger than fixed pot. that's me and me and you. and you know what it's time to call voices. on the 77 percent talk about the stuff. from one part of the team to flash from housing boom boom town this is where. welcome to the 77 percent. this weekend on g.w. . in the height of climate change. africa's

most of. what's in store. going to come for the future. e.w. dot com you can make a series to the multimedia insight click culture. looking detail at how beijing uses its national security laws on the mainland you don't really understand the real situation in hong kong i also. back to the situation in hong kong how one country 2 systems really operate hong kong never leaves the news for long these days now it's the draft of a new security law to be imposed by beijing that's provoking controversy and protests joining me this week from hong kong is regina if a member of the city's legislative council and chair of the probe aging new people's party will become.