this is g.w. newsline from berkeley and criminal charges and the arctics of the 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 in southeast are also coming up to a moral reckoning in the u.s. over monuments to its racist past protesters pull down statues or pro-slavery civil war leaders but not all americans are ready to denounce this chapter of history. german air carrier the town's out warns of massive and job cuts despite receiving

9000000000 euros in a pandemic bail out we hear from the union leader. plus the pandemic puts thailand's allison sat risk of starvation a sharp drop in tourism means hundreds of handlers have no income and no way to feed their ferd's they've had to hit the road to find food and. i'm serious almost comical as you could join us the mayor of the world's northernmost city has been charged with criminal negligence over a massive oil spill in siberia last month tens of thousands of tons of diesel fuel have leaked into local waterways around the city of norilsk investigators say the mayor failed to react quickly enough which turned the spill from accident into the russian arctics worst oil spill and living memory. environmentalists are

calling it the worst disaster in the region in living memory. more than 20 tons of fuel have leaked into rivers and waterways in russia's arctic north turning large expanses of water red. the pollution is already damaging ecosystems and wildlife. it's foolish to say or think that nothing will perish and that what happened will go away without a trace all workers or dead donkey of today i myself saw a dead muskrat if a bird lands on fuel or if a muskrat swims in fuel it is definitely condemned to death which is in. this bill took place after a fuel tank belonging to a power plant collapsed in the city of norilsk. a number of workers that have already been detained now the local mayor has been accused of criminal negligence for failing to react to the impending disaster

a coordinated response. who did us lead when your study investigation found that the met norilsk affirmation being aware of the amount of fuel spilled on the time who did not take proper measures to respond to the emergency and to eliminate the consequences. the men may have to go to prison if found guilty investigators think the incident happened because the company failed to carry out repairs on machinery belonging to the plant some reports suggest equipment became unstable because permafrost in the area is melting officials say the situation on the ground is beginning to stabilize but that's a full cleanup will take years. to use emily sure when is in moscow following the story for us hi emily how serious are these charges. well there are serious i mean there are criminal charges of criminal negligence that's what the mayor is being accused of and he hasn't been taking in custody so far but if he's found guilty he could face

a prison sentence and this also has i think the fact that he was that he's been accused of criminal negligence also has a political significance a symbolic significance it was clear when this happened that kind of heads would have to roll including on the political level especially after a bloody mere putin went on t.v. to publish publicly admonish officials for keeping this accident kind of quiet for 2 days he he was really angry and showed that very clearly and actually other officials have from the plant itself as all have also been detained including the head of the plant and tell us more about how badly this area of russia's arctic north has been affected by this. well we've been speaking to greenpeace in recent days and they really have been emphasizing

that this is a huge disaster one of the biggest in the region in living memory in recent history the the subsoil of the region has been polluted a nearby river has been polluted freshwater lake has been polluted which is one of the main sources of water for the region and there is concern that the bigger river as well could be polluted that flows into the arctic ocean so that could of course have catastrophic consequences now in a real 6 the city is often known as russia's most polluted city the no real skin ical factory is based there they're behind this accident and they've been behind accidents in the past before and authours are saying that this particular accident could take years to clean out. and reporting there from moscow thank you in the wake of nationwide protests pressure is building across the u.s.

to take down historic statues glorifying slavery they were move 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. with the burden of grief. to washington so everybody can board. brother of george floyd joining protests minutes after addressing the united states congress. when you watch your big brother who do live your whole entire you lie da da big a boy's mom. i'm tired i'm tired of my pay you feel when you watch something like on a charge and make the necessary changes then 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 halls of congress. the confederate flag is also being reevaluated to sport competition as announcing a ban on the flag at its events it 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 retained. president donald trump disagrees his press secretary read out his social media post on the matter restored my administration will not even consider the renaming of these magnificent and fabled

military installations our history as the greatest nation in the world will not be tampered with respect our military by 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. now to some other stories from around the world amazon is banning police use of its facial recognition program for the next year the technology has been shown to misidentify people with darker skin and that move comes amid growing calls for police reform in the wake of the killing of george floyd. 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 and has just received a multibillion euro rescue package from the german government to stay afloat meanwhile the tons of pilots have offered to take a 45 percent pay cut to help alleviate the situation and protect jobs. for more on the story we can speak to. is the executive director of the cabin crew union. 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 logical results cox on trying to $6000.00 people on social is a large amount we are now looking forward to negotiating on how we could do this without any dismissals this will be hard but cabin crew always the challenge as the pilots don't but we are willing to help. as long as there are no no. including dismissals and we had negotiated 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 afterwards we kind of do a cart's 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 a lot of times it is very much affected because the long haul flights are very important full of chance on long haul flights will not be able as easy as short whole within europe for example so there will be a long crisis i think but i'm not worried about what's going to look 10 times a very strong and it has employees 130000 employees that are willing to help the company and we are hoping the management of top management finds out that it's

better to go on with their employees for years and then against them and i'm all i'm sure this will work out which kind of color will be strong after the crisis whenever that may be. nice in the cabin crew union will follow thank you very much for joining us. it's thank you very much. you're watching news still to come on our show she was born it during lockdown with her parents far away after weeks of separation this surrogate baby in ukraine finally meets her family. but 1st 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

the 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 bay on japan south coast drive out open the hatch climbs the hatch imam head back to the beach it's as if they were planning to set off a new sure sometime soon and perhaps they are but the officer in command is not allowed to talk to us about botched. it's important to train the soldiers one is the dr no one's the huntsman 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 pan to fire to most all over the world it was even america's sorry that's why we're against the drills. even so took you seems to be preparing to end to the military world stage the defense minister recently deployed this destroyer to the gulf of amman in an interview he says is a completely harmless mission. 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 or japanese or japan related ships are important for us so that's why we sending it we're not part of. american initiative nor 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 cause 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 we're tankers or other ships so we're sending them for information gathering what's wrong with that. just on a constant mission. some people see it differently. us asian relations expert glenn fukushima for example finds the idea amazing. 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 if the so defense forces there by definition that is not a combat zone. that was his answer. behind the scenes of u.s.

japanese military relations and it is less easy going then here american military units stationed has still made 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. so if we pay them no then they will become sort of mercenary and i don't think you are so forces that 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. german chancellor angela merkel and chinese prime minister lee kay chong have held

a video conference summit to discuss the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic those talks come amid continuing criticism of china's information policy following the outbreak of both leaders that seen here during mackerels 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 penda mick. 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 cancer chancellor 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. 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 e.u. 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 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 the made to e.u. 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 machall 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 thank you ukraine is one of the few countries in the world where surrogacy is affordable and easy to arrange but 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. and your old us of trouble 10000 kilometers by car through continent in lockdown to finally meet their daughter. moment. she still has to get used to us she doesn't know who we are. their daughter spent her 1st month with

a care at 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 while you can do is wait. as their daughter's birth came and went and with no end to lockdown in sight or people are injured 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 help when they read that ukraine's human rights on the woman had promised to help parents into the country and jumped in their car to drive the 3600 kilometers from their home in madrid to kiev. and the 1st trip was a leave 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 he received this i

didn't think a piece of paper could make this happy. but it wasn't enough and he was not the czechs and were 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 a 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 but you can greater distances and still unable to enter ukraine how many babies are still without their parents no one can say with any confidence. you know we've lost months of our daughter's life. super important. 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 only sleep. with. 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 really o'grady's are now the legal illegal immigrant of ours locked down which is the 1st of many obstacles on that path. there are growing concerns in thailand for the welfare of thousands of elephants the coronavirus pandemic has closed tourist sites across the country and many 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 home towns and the hills in the north of the country it's been

a long slow journey for this elephant and his handler with tory's scent is like chiang mai now closed because of corona virus 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 venue 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 and. 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

loose at night and rolled into the folly of properties balmy air would probably stop what we call e.c. human elephant called place. 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 my tool for the best survival. i mean. we have tourists and still have jobs then that the more money took off to them. there's hope that once coded 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. before we go we have some rare video for you of what's thought to be the world's largest green turtle colony tens of thousands of turtles have been filmed nesting on an island near the great barrier reef for the 1st time researchers are using drones to count the green turtles on rayna island the world's biggest colony of the endangered species and they've discovered that they've been underestimating numbers by more than 50 percent. let's get a quick recap of our top stories russia has opened a criminal case against the mayor of the arctic city of no risk over his handling of a major fuel spill response team say it will take years to clean up. and protesters in the u.s. a pull down several statues glorifying historical figures who backed slavery the u.s. navy and car racing company nascar have now banned the confederate flag but president

trump has refused to consider renaming military bases bearing the name of confederate leaders. thanks for watching to that we were back at the top of the hour.

choosing that 1st job my son may. be could have an effect on your entire career. what should people starting a new profession look out for me which mistakes and pitfalls should they avoid. my 1st day at a new job tips for a path to success. made in germany. next on t w. n 2 the conflict zone mr jim sebastian. hong

kong never leads to news for a long lease days now it's a draft of a new security law to be imposed by beijing for local controversy and protests joining me this week from long ago is regina a member of the city's legislative council and chair of the fro breaking new people's party hello conflict zone. in 60 minutes from d.w. . oh. my god. mongoloids is. for the russians so. steep. for so many different suppliers. are. awfully small

but come straight from the heart. of. the russian internet attorney today starts june 18th d.w. . do you remember your 1st job mine was in a small town plumbing office where i kept the books every day after school they put me in the service truck the summer before college which was filthy work.