embryon. beethoven 2020. 150th anniversary year on d. w. . this is d.w. news live from berlin the trumpet ministration hits out at the international criminal court u.s. president approves sanctions on any court officials investigating you and u.s. troops and the secretary of state warns the i.c.c. to stop alleged u.s. war crimes in afghanistan also coming up criminal charges in the optics largest ever all spill more than 20000 tons of fuel leaked into waterways near the world's

most northerly city greenpeace compares the spillage to the exxon valdez disaster 3 decades ago in alaska. plus thailand's elephants at risk of starvation a sharp drop in tourism means hundreds of handlers have no income and no way to feed their animals. until the allotted welcome u.s. president donald trump has authorized sanctions against international criminal court staff investigating possible war u.s. war crimes in afghanistan in retaliation for the probe the administration will block assets of court employees and put visa restrictions on them and their families a count of corruption investigation into the i.c.c. is also in the works secretary of state mike compare has lashed out at the court

questioning its credibility. we cannot we will not stand by as our people are threatened by kangaroo court and indeed i have a message to many close allies around the world your people could be next especially those from nato countries who fought terrorism in afghanistan right alongside of us were also gravely concerned about the threat the court poses to israel i.c.c. is already threatening israel with an investigation of so-called war crimes committed by its forces and personnel in the west bank and in the gaza strip. the reporter stacey bivins joins me now with more on the story one of these potential war crimes of the the i.c.c. is planning to investigate well let's take a look back to this all stems from a tear in your probe into possible war crimes in afghanistan ranging from 20032014 the court believes that there is enough evidence to

support the idea that u.s. that the u.s. military. tortured people at secret sites operated by the cia we should also note that they are looking into the taliban and afghan forces through the same period of time but what they really believe that there is enough to pursue more investigation into the u.s. as roll into what happened in afghanistan so what exactly is the trumpet ministration then questioning. the work of the i.c.c. well the short answer is the united states doesn't really like interference from other bodies expression international bodies this is what trump is this is what he's built his presidency on and the latest act of this is withdraw from the w h o but they also claim that there is corruption with and the i.c.c. and attorney general bill barr with absolutely no evidence said that russia and

other adversaries have infiltrated the international criminal court and are using it for its own agenda so they say that it's not trustworthy so how is the i.c.c. then responding to the research is asians right while they're saying that these are they call this the sanctions threats and coersion meant to interfere with the rule of law and undermine the courts ability to bring accountability for mass atrocities and they're not the only ones speaking out there's various international bodies that are talking the european union's foreign policy chief says that he has deep concern. and and that the court must be respected and supported by all nations but this is something that the trump administration says that they don't feel comfortable doing we should also note that part of the reason why the top administration says that it doesn't want to go along with this is that it is capable of punishing its own military members if in fact they've done something wrong but donald trump has released 3 people who were found guilty of these

atrocities of some atrocities so there's a little bit of doubt as to how dedicated to the court trying to ministration actually is don't do reporters to survive and thank you. now let's take a brief look at some other stories making headlines. the world health organization ones the spread of the corona virus is accelerating in africa he says cases doubled to more than 200000 over the last 18 days south africa is the hardest hit country accounting for a quarter of all cases. protesters have set fire to lebanon central bank as the country's currency plunge to a new record low demonstrators took to the streets in several cities to voice there and lebanon is experiencing its worst economic turmoil in decades a crisis made worse by the corona virus and demick. the death toll from the sinking

of a migrant boat off the coast of tunisia has risen to almost 50 after authorities discovered more bodies the boat set out at the weekend aiming to reach italy but capsized near the city of facts 53 people off thought to have been on board. germany plans to investigate racism in its police forces a study will look at the use of racial profiling which is supposed to be banned under german law and protesters across the world have highlighted police racism following the killing of george floyd in the us. us president donald trump has suffered a setback after another sign of tension between the white house and the pentagon top general mark milley publicly apologize for taking part in trump's photo op last week in washington at a church that had been set on fire during protests calling his participation a mistake the visit to place moments after troops and the police had cleared the

area by violently ejecting protesters workers have now started removing the fencing put up around the white house after the incident a barrier that turned into an artistic protest space. a symbol of a movement it has become a place to gather to decorate to support the fight for racial equality for the. days protesters left messages and works of art on the barrier a fence separating the people from the president's. vision here. that they say there were going to be a border with a record that. the police are right. with this everything there is a 3rd of it good to look at this is really a beautiful thing born from ugly scenes on june 1st president trump ordered lafayette square to be cleared. police national guard and military moved in.

using batons tear gas and pepper balls. the reason trump wanted to walk from the white house and stand outside st john's church in hand for a photo op. in protest the mare of washington renamed the area black lives matter plaza today the fences bear fearing the president would order it to be taken down demonstrators moved the works of art across the street. piece of history that needs to be preserved. correspondent in washington stephan simons took a look at the efforts to save what black lab not to activists see as an important piece of history as the fence the president of the united states had installed a few days ago here around the white house is now dismantle all the artwork all the posters which were pushed against the attached to the fence right away by

protesters now right here. and this display of protest art if you will the protesters say has to be protected that's why they took it over the fence that's why they installed it here and now they're lobbying for the protection of all of this you see here for the future they think and say this is history and needs to be protected. financial markets around the world took a nosedive on thursday as fears of the economic toll of a coronavirus pandemic returned in new york the dow jones industrial average shed almost 7 percent after a fed chair general impala said on wednesday it could take years for the u.s. job market to recover adding to investors concerns was a spurt in fresh virus infections in the u.s. after 5 weeks of declines. the world's most northerly says he has been charged with criminal negligence. tens of thousands of tonnes of diesel fuel

have leaked into local was always around or else investigators say the man failed to react quickly enough environmentalist comparing the spillage to the exxon valdez disaster in alaska in 1989. heading out into a sea of diesel oil it's obvious that the water here is utterly polluted. cleanup crews have been working for days here in siberia their top priorities are to catch the oil slick with barriers and to pump as much as possible out of the water. but nobody thinks it will be easy. but. it is foolish to say or think that nothing will perish and when that happened will go away without a trace of our workers saw dead donkey today i myself saw

a dead muskrat if a bird lands on few for muskrat swims in fuel it is definitively condemned to death but. more than 20000 tons of fuel oil spilled from a power plant here in the city of norris the facility is said to have been poorly maintained. the water in neighboring lakes was affected. it didn't have to get this bad for days after the spill authorities did nothing until russian president vladimir putin got involved. why did government agencies only find out about this 2 days after the fact are we going to learn about emergency situations from social networks do you have a problem or something. that got things going hundreds of cleanup workers were sent to the region managers at the power plant were. did and an investigation was launched against the mayor of the city of no risk who doesn't either when you'll

stumble the investigation found that the mayor being aware of the amount of fuel spilled from the tank did not take proper measures to respond to the emergency and to deal with its consequences. the mayor is looking at a possible 6 months in prison but the environmental damage is expected to be around for years. there are growing concerns in thailand about the welfare of thousands of elephants the coronavirus emergency has closed tourist sites and many domesticated elephants have been left to fend for themselves some facing starvation desperate hunters have hit the road with their herds with no place to go but their home in the hills of northern thailand it's been alone the slow journey for this elephant and his handler with tourist sentence 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 then you 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 obviously. there's also concern from local villages that the sudden influx of hundreds of elephants. and that swearing conservationists. that some of the elephant make it. into the farming properties balmy air would probably stop what we call e.c. human called place. before the coronavirus pandemic hit thailand was

a popular destination for animal tourism but it was often on regulated 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 not until we have tourists and still have jobs then there'd be more money to look 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 on making the best of a situation that's out of their control. don't forget you can always get news on the go just download from google play or from the app store and that'll give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications

for any breaking news and if you're part of a news story you can also use the d w app to send us photos and videos of what's happening. you're watching news from berlin members can keep up to date with all the stories and more on our website. as well as on twitter and instagram at news we're back on the top of the op with a news summary now coming up next our dog film beyond the music the byron boy saeed academy. a middle. not complete 2nd season of only. the planet on the brink of disaster we did a long in-depth interview with experts about one question how to change. the

incentive.