see each other and the world tonight taking the temperature of transatlantic public opinion not once but twice from before and from dearie the pandemic and already there are measurable changes in perception on both sides of the atlantic u.s. power seems diminished china's appears stronger and germany's global influence healthier than ever i'm bored golf in berlin this is the day. china's government certainly hoped that germany would continue to tone down its criticism for the sake of economic relations germany is considered a reliable development partner and went down and took over the g 20 presidency not too late a strong focus on africa nicolas also seen as pulling the strings in the e.u. now the u.k. government is hoping that mantle brings have pragmatism to the cracks at

negotiating table to secure a deal with the brits many things have changed dramatically but one thing remains the same it's a respect for the german chancellor and the popularity of on the american. also coming up tonight to their training to take out terrorists and to rescue hostages germany's elite k.s. kings special commando force but one unit is being dissolved on concerns of right wing sympathizers within its ranks how prevalent is it extremism inside germany's military. and someone else said it was not meet you saying there are still jews you know you wouldn't know if it would eradicate them all time another gun that. went to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin the day with perceptions and pandemic in case you didn't notice 2020 is now half over

and i am sure you noticed how difficult the past 6 months have been for the entire world when we 1st reported about a new coronavirus in china in the 1st week of january little did we know that a regional outbreak was about to become a global killer well the pandemic is now our shared reality tonight we examined that reality from both sides of the atlantic a new survey conducted in january and again in may of public opinion in the u.s. france and here in germany it reveals changes in transatlantic perceptions from geopolitics to trade to technology from pre pandemic to mid and deming in a moment i'll speak with one of the surveys authors but 1st the european country which is seen to be stronger and better equipped to lead globally because of the

virus well that country is germany chancellor angela merkel's german. bangle america had grand plans for her final performance as european leader but then came corona since the pandemic started she's used every opportunity to stress what she's up against over the coming months depending me if the pandemic with its economic downturn is the largest challenge in europe's history the. biggest crisis in the history of the european union because it's. new but it's not an exaggeration to say that we're facing the largest economic challenge in the history of the e.u. . depending on how she navigates europe's coronavirus recovery political circles not just here in berlin will be redrafting her entry into the history books. with a no nonsense no cheerleading just get it done the response both inside germany and

across europe both for health care 'd it leadership and her economic leadership has made clear that i'll go and merkel is the leader that germany and europe needs right now not forgotten but on hold seems her old image as austerity chancellor who try to push you countries towards a common take on national budgets she also failed in pushing for a joint migration policy. in a remarkable turnaround angle americal started crossing her own red lines by allowing joint e.u. debt sending the signal that she's intent on holding europe together what ever it takes. joint appearance with french president in manama mccaw saw her sacrifice what had been a german fiscal principle for years no joint e.u. debt proposing the 1st 500000000000 of the corona recovery plan for the 1st time

germany agreed to guarantee that most benefits of the e.u. countries like italy a potential game changer. we had the impression as watchers that germany e.u. policy was paralyzed so now corona happens and the giants started to move and i think this is a very good sign. at the same time as europe struggles to stay out of the way as relations between the wild superpowers china and donald trump's america further strained by the crisis germany we don't know exactly what the world order is going to look like coming out of this will we have a cold war between the americans and chinese that is actually an open question right now and there's no question that how you respond to a crisis like that will be the most important line in the opiates you areas that are written for many political leaders around the world not just chancellor merkel

so machall final months and nice town 3 until she leaves office an all time 2021 will prove to be decisive i'm going to marcos legacy is currently being written in real time as the savior of europe all the leader who led to send back into crisis on one. and just 6 months ago no one predicted the legacy of i'm going to medical would be significantly shaped by a new coronavirus so much has changed in just the last 6 months let's bring in now brandon born brendan is manager of transatlantic relations at the bertelsmann foundation that's one of the 3 organizations responsible for the transatlantic trends 2020 surveyed for and joins me tonight from washington d.c. it's good to have you on the day branded before we talk about this this big picture i want to stay here in europe with the perception of germany for a moment in this report you write to the following that americans have

and out why our view believing the u.k. to be the most influential country in europe both before and after the pandemic where as in both germany and france germany is the clear leader germany's influence has risen across the board since january now i'm wondering is this all because germany is seen as one of the countries that acted early and decisively to contain the virus is is that the reward that we're getting now. well thank you again for having me so in terms of germany's presence on the international stage we we can see that germany really set the standard at the international level with its coronavirus response course the response of chancellor merkel and her government in terms of allocating resources coordinating between the

federal government and state governments clear messaging and a steadfast reliance on scientific expertise a bit or. now in terms of domestic support you see. her approval ratings that skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic as the approval ratings of her parliament and so it were in the mix germany was considered the most intellectual power in europe by engineers french and german respondents but since the pandemic those views have increased in some cases by double digits let me i'm a bit of on the other point in that quote americans see the u.k. as the most influential country here in europe and i'm wondering did they not factor in brags that when they were answering this survey of me france in germany consider germany to be the most influential country here in europe how do you explain this this disconnect with the us in the u.k.

. certainly when we saw those results we were shocked certainly as an american who were is on these issues day in and day out you know it appears as though the special relationship between the u.s. and u.k. influenced this 8 years. it appears to not have registered with the american public and i think moving forward once the full impact cigarettes are felt in 2021 that would certainly change but you know those results were reported 2 different times which which. i certainly can term stability results but in any case they were very surprising yeah i mean it's it isn't surprising we were talking in the newsroom that in the u.s. the byline in a very in an article or a news report on television you're more likely to see london then you are to see brussels for example your survey also looks at geopolitics globally let me show our

viewers another quote from your report you write before the pandemic there was a consensus that the united states was the most influential country globally china and the european union were nearly tied in 2nd place after the crisis the united states is still deemed most influential but china's influence has risen significantly now this is about america's disastrous pandemic policies more than it's about china's successful pandemic policies would you agree or would you say it's 5050 here. i would certainly agree and i think the united states the the response that we've seen in the united states has as really called into question the u.s. is has ition on the international stage certainly we saw that the influence of china is rising but interestingly we had a different question in the survey asked respondents to characterize that

development and and in terms of a positive or negative and overwhelmingly before or before then to make there was a near majority of each country that china's rising influence on the global stage was was considered to be a negative development and in the wake of the coronavirus those negative views had skyrocketed again by double digits with which is fascinating is interesting and of course that has to do with the virus if you looked at your calendar today you know it's july 1st we're in the 2nd half of 2020 now the 2 most important events for transatlantic taigs in this year or next year i'm going to say are november's u.s. presidential election and next year's german elections when uncle americal steps down. they have the potential to make this study that you and i are talking about completely album of day do you agree with the what do you how do you see this.

is an interesting point i think the survey results show you know it is certainly that there is consensus within the general public on a number of key issues within the transatlantic relationship. for example international trade security views of nato these are these are arguably the cornerstones of the transatlantic relationship and before the pandemic and after the pandemic those of us have not changed significantly and i think you know looking at the current administration which as you know is not exactly a champion of the transatlantic relationship. we see that the america that the administration doesn't necessarily represent the views of the american public the well looking at the figures for. nato who are supportive of nato for u.s. involvement in in the security in defense of euro looking at the transatlantic

trade agreement there are clear majority in some cases super majorities within the american populace so i think moving forward of course november is very important when it comes to whether that whether that consensus will be a catalyst for cooperation between the united states and the european union on those issues but it's certainly refreshing now in response to you under the americans departure of course her or her response to the pandemic has certainly influenced the results we've seen in regard to germany in terms of germany's influence within europe and heard our jim departure next year will surely be felt than the transatlantic community as laws on the international stage yeah it will be interesting to see what the transatlantic trends 2021 looks like when you guys put that out next year brandon born with the benjamin foundation joining us tonight from washington brandon it was good having you on the show and come back and talk

with us again thank you thank you so much. it is a question that can make generals nervous and keep defense ministers awake at night is the military serving as camouflage for far right sympathizers germany's defense minister on the great she has ordered part of the country's elite king s.k. special forces to be disbanded military investigators announced this year that they suspected 20 k. s. k. personnel of holding extreme or far right added to it but this is not a concern about the military elite by the political elite the problem begins at the start in basic training our reports on the one that a former soldier who agreed to tell us what he experienced as a soldier but only if we agreed to keep his identity secret he

enlisted in the bundeswehr in 2050 then 18 years old he was proud to serve and motivated but shortly after the 3 months basic training he tells us his view of his comrades in arms changed at him and it's someone made a joke about jews it was about long noses things like that. and someone else said it was not mate you saying there are still jews. i thought would eradicate a. lot of another guy that. another time one of the guys was telling us how he and his brother for some refugees out of a link where he lived and went after them with sticks. he was really proud of that he didn't he didn't really say that. did you. think. it's nice to look here. and to submit it to racist and right wing extremist remarks

were tolerated or at least ignored the former soldier says criticism from new recruits was not welcomed so he remained silent. a little time on that when they were under massive pressure to fit in with the others not to stand out. if you do get thrown out that's what the system is like as this is and i said this head off the fire that's a steaming dish take. one of. our article system of ignoring sentiments and active silencing of criticism in the ranks but is also what florian 5 a retired major experienced. it is against except when they know from personal experience that their superiors make them break the law and cover up crimes when they're forced into doing these things then of course they conclude that these are not isolated cases that is coming from the highest level and also reaches into the realm of politics. but i put it to. germany's opposition green

party has been tackling the issue for years so i'm calling this new study out it's a constant problem that i've been trying to tackle on the parliamentary defense committee servicemen and women complain that they can't speak out because it would damage their career. you've seen a string of whistleblowers exposing right wing extremism in the army in the end and they've been forced to leave and that's the bonus wagon gangs and the issue has repeatedly made headlines in recent years numerous cases of right wing extremists in the ranks have come to light. critics say the problem has not yet been recognized the structural and that's up to now no appropriate measures have been taken the coaling social democrats defend past reforms for. 3 years ago we brought in structural reforms to help root out extremism. while the moment still a backlog of cases moment and our awareness of the problem is not new it's always

been what it will be and the he would be a snitch annoy me because he's. confronted with the experiences of the former soldier germany's defense ministry said it condemned anti semitic xenophobia and extremist behavior of any kind by members of the army the defense minister said anyone who remained silent is part of the problem and is complicit the ministry says it will now take steps to tackle the issue. the former soldier eventually turned his back on the bundesliga now he hopes that things will finally change despite the bad experiences he has a clear vision for the german army. and often open an honest army to looks after soldiers who speak out when things are not right. an army that doesn't just get rid of soldiers who break the mold he is i and pressed as on the form that. if that happens he could even imagine going back into the army one day.

it's interesting they're hard to imagine a soldier has to remain anonymous when he wants to talk about the german military we'll talk about this i'm joined now by thomas the gold he's a journalist and author who has written extensively on the german born this very time it's good to have you on this show we know that there have been reports of k s k soldiers allegedly performing the nazi salute at a party 20 soldiers are suspected of far right ties how serious is this situation. well it's actually pretty serious it culminated in may when a soldier of the unit a sergeant major is almost certain elite found weapons ammunition and explosives which had been taken from bonus or stocks obviously and this person

was a 20 year or so with the case k. with the elite commando unit so this really held and that's why defense minister come cotton bowl decided to to do something about it and had to start some kind of structural reform with this elite unit which is disbanding part of the commando forces which is changing the instructions and similar things and it remains to be seen whether this will be successful what about the reports of missing ammunition and explosives is there any evidence that this was taken stolen for what we describe as terrorist purposes. well the problem is the ammunition and the explosives found there was a sergeant major there were clearly taken forms of understeer and he obviously is

arriving extremists so this implies there have been cases though that the lead soldiers took ammunition and explosives from a blunder on the other hand elite units commando units and i think that's not unique of the moment have them some kind of let's say different understanding when it comes to rules even concerning ammunition and explosives so it's not quite clear whether certain amount were not booked were used somewhere in deployment or and in the system it's not like we have we're talking about 62 kilograms of explosives and quite an amount. of the general inspector of the armed forces said he's rather unhappy when he sings about this amount of explosives and right wing extremists that are bad bad makes and so until the end of the year.

kamandi is set up to do an inventor e of everything this unit owns and has on stock and in the books and i just ask you before we are out of time the german defense minister has described the toxic leadership culture within germany's elite commando you know people hear that and wonder how was this allowed to develop and become toxic. well because me obviously this commander you and it was pretty much sealed off not only from the public and from other but as a unit as well they claimed that operational security the mons is certainly a mole and up to the ceiling it up and on the other hand there was no control no higher ranks who were able to control these forces to look into what was going on they were pretty much on their own and maybe this explains how this could happen

thomas vigo the we appreciate your time in your insights tonight thank you it was a. little thirty's in northwestern germany are preparing to ease the strict lockdown imposed in some districts after a qubit 19 outbreak flared at a meat processing factory there people have been ordered to stay in their homes and are banned from traveling anywhere for many of those who've seen quarantine return patience is wearing thin but testing who was healthy and who was not it remains a major challenge. these employees of the tenures meat processing plant and other residents want out about 650 people have been restricted to this block on the outskirts of found a city of 25000 in western germany they've been placed under quarantine. but this is set to change the mayor is preparing to lift the quarantine gradually but he still faces one big obstacle trying to figure out who is who and who is healthy.

there are different lists of people who are actually living there and people who should be there but probably left before the quarantine is likely headed home the look of isolation i met many in feral and in the neighboring larger city of also want out after all it's summer vacation but numerous german holiday resorts will only accept travelers from high risk locations if they tested negative for the coronavirus this temporary testing facility is being run with the help of soldiers from the german army. take about every day we test over 700 people here honestly and we've yet to see a positive test that's some good news for a change or good news but people here are still angry especially at the management of the 10 his meat plant which was ground 0 for a fresh outbreak of the pen demick in this region. so it's their fault and the meat

plant acted incredibly irresponsibly that was to put it so the police and the city need to come down hard on them. for now the city has its hands full. it has to decide who may and may not be released from quarantine that workers have to check people against lists of those who've been tested is this it's still going to take quite some time weeks maybe months but until we're done with everything by it will likely also take a long time until we finally have a vaccine or drugs to treat the illness medicament up until then local residents will have to live with lockdown restrictions. the day is almost gone the conversation continues online you can join us on twitter and remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see the.

legal expulsion mr. sharon what keeps hearing about the dollars she wants for a refugee aid organization in greece near the turkish border they can die there and we have no more migrants tell us it's very troubling. she set out to investigate. the. focus on europe. next on d.w. . thrown into china's cultural revolution. the red

chillies. to immigrants come to help build a new nation. raise to be loyal to the regime and eventually to the great helmsman mao zedong. until the persecution is an apparently was the line is to the truth for . john turned on to mount. before the minutes on d w. cold. to be.

measuring. hello and welcome to focus on europe and let's show and it's great to have you with us human rights groups are issuing warnings over the humanitarian situation at the border in the mediterranean sea some my gran's who try to make the journey by boat from turkey to the country greece tell they were illegally pushed back to turkish waters mobile phone footage like the.