donald trump implied in your putin and i were to part company entry analyzes the difficult relationship between russia and the us and between their presidents how does their level reach and their dangers mutual admiration affect the rest of the world to some bullies trump and putin starts august 3rd on d w. if the pollsters are rights the tide may be turning against donald trump key battleground states that he won comfortably against hillary clinton 4 years ago are looking like they may flip but this time around he's not only facing a democrat challenge his other opponent is tiny but mighty the coronavirus trumps downplaying and mishandling of america's biggest health crisis in living memory now even has republicans promising we will vote for biden. and

this is the day. by the way you know. i have an ax roder temper dark and for probably one thing we're trying we're not put in a mansion he said oh it'll just go away no one really realized it was psychologically disturbed now you know just inventing stuff like that i don't think the general public living in phoenix arizona terrifying are not the bad part of this to recognize just how dangerous this is. also on the day he's been in power for 20 years but nearly half of that time syrian president bashar al assad has presided over a civil war that has long had global repercussions is there any chance the syrian election this weekend could solve the problem many. people's demands are the

same as they've always being but i'm not sure if they're being heard in parliament or if parliamentarians are doing their job and not enough people have simple life demands how to get their food and their daily needs met their demands haven't changed a bit yet. the less than. 4 months to go until the u.s. election pollsters say president obama trump is now losing ground even in his former republican strongholds the state of arizona hasn't supported a democratic candidate in decades but now as in many sunbelt states the latest polls show joe biden head i was on a has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic all u.s. correspondent it went out of went to find out more. in the arizona desert linda rawls is a thorn in the side of president donald trump. a white suburban woman she belongs

to the very group that helped him win in 2016 but that it's now offending him she can look back at a life dedicated to the republican party she ran for congress in 1904 but her assessment of trump is devastating. you have become worse than we could have ever imagined no one really realized that he was psychologically disturbed i don't think people realized how much he really would not follow the constitution and how much he would change the whole party from the party of freedom into a party that. worships dictators and destroys the rule of law thor decades a result no used to be a republican stronghold but it is now becoming a battleground and the spread of the coronavirus is playing a crucial role at phoenix's largest testing site every one in 4 tests is coming

back positive. voters in arizona are turning away from trump for many reasons but one can be found right here behind me at the south community college it's an hours long way to get tested here with the results coming in a week after that at best and experts say this is exactly where the united states is failing in stopping the spread of the virus. here on the outskirts. phoenix were many voted trump in 2016 people are now frustrated at the government's response to the pun demick i certainly don't think he protected the united states taking measures that he needed to take and. you know informing american public and getting guidance properly so he did a disservice to the united states has the power to make it happen but i'm seeing more of the worried about other things and then this would be should be i think they should it get this in january we get when they really knew they trap would not

put it in action he said oh it would just go away no you don't just bend it step like that. linda roll still holds republican values but she plans to vote democrat this year and she might not be the only one here in arizona. of a more on the details political picture in arizona now joined from phoenix spider mike noble his chief of research a managing partner of predictive insights and opinion polling company welcome to the day mike i was own up is traditionally a safe state for a republican candidate you've just published your latest poll on the trump biden basle what did you find or we found that when you said arizona. will climb for democrats the last time a democrat carried arizona in a presidential contest was actually bill clinton back in 1996 so arizona bennet very reliable state however right now trump is currently down 5 points to the

challenger democrat joe biden or 9 percent for joe biden already 4 percent for donald trump and with very few undecided do we know why voters deserted tom. 100 percent so trump carried arizona back into 2016 elections by 3 and a half points what's interesting about that arizona has been a long republican seat as we kind of discussed and which compared to all the other republicans that won previously he won by the smallest margin and so now we see we saw in the 2018 midterm elections what's that shift was was among suburban voters and specifically among college educated whites. ones that are higher educated college it higher voted are turning against trump but also the one that is trumped base are those that don't have a college education or high school or less so those are the big shift was the some urban demographics and. voters. report we heard from

linda rolls of the she's a lifelong republican and a desire to him is there anything. complained can do to when people talk about well i think they're stuck between a rock at our place and i'll tell you why is that member arizona is home of maverick john mccain he's a legend but also you the more moderate republican a sense we know before his passing is that he got in some tips with donald trump jumps at some disparaging things about it and so when you look at among moderate republican voters in the arab trump is essentially started to alienate that part of the base and so that is it's not a surprise to hear that but also knowing that you need to carry your voters if you're at all to win on election day but also you need people actually to go and vote in any of the action depends on people turning out people in the arizona and

so the. you know this is a yes that because when you look at the enthusiasm the want to advantage of early all the key variables in the key numbers in the race trump is not doing well however the one bright spot for his campaign was that he had about a 10 point advantage over joe biden in the museum category however with kobe hitting recently that is squander that enthusiasm gap and there's actually. 2 and then there's the coronavirus pandemic which is starting to hit states like arizona very hot right now is the vibe if the virus weren't there would things be looking better for them from. 100 percent because arizona know that not only for coronaviruses and actions you know it is that hot issue currently here in the desert and with the virus we've seen there's

a direct correlation among elected official as our governor or president when there are high spikes increases of crowbars that that is a negative impact on those elected officials approval and with it rampaging currently here in arizona you see that that has hurt on handling of the crowd of ours mike noble from predictive insides polling in phoenix arizona thank you for this in size thank you so much for. well if only if the virus was there but it is very much is and no one knows that better than our next guest garcia is a so-called traveling knows that means he's flying around the u.s. on crisis assignments to coronavirus hot spots currently working in phoenix but she was in new york when the city was hit by the in a previous interview you said and that's pretty much impressed me i've seen a lot of dennis how are you and your colleagues coping at the moment.

you know we're doing the best we can i think the number one thing is we know that in order to beat this virus we're together as a team we're beyond our capability that we were originally trained for in this wealth and we're supporting one out of the best you can. you will carry for coronavirus patients during some of the darkest hours that new york has seen how bad is it where you are now in comparison you know it's funny you ask if you would ask us just a few weeks ago i had was feeling much more optimistic i felt arizona learned from new york's and stakes had an ecstatic resources and in just asking meek we are now running low on that. understaffed we're running low on. hospital in phoenix are having to transfer patients i think even across state lines now. so i'm starting to

see a lot more similarities than differences and this might be an experiment and not york it's a pretty dark picture that you're painting they you think it's going to get worse than i was on. the plane get along we're still where it's better this point. have you been getting a sense of whether people feel they have been misled by the president's trump what sort of the feeling on the ground. you know i feel like at the beginning of this coronavirus there were a lot of unknowns. but the people that were in the best position to have truthful information were our license. and i think we should have turned to our allies nationals in the beginning trumpet live. in medium would be in a much better spot and i think it's unfortunate that there is so much conflicting information and. i think that kind of laid the foundation and wearing

a mask and social distancing now becoming a political debate with reality it's a public health issue nonpolitical issue well we heard in our report that people are saying president trump has failed in his duty to save and protect the lives of american citizens how widespread is that view in his own oh you know i've only been here for 3 weeks. most of that time has been seen from inside the walls of the hospital but i will say there is a definite dramatic culture change as far as social distancing wearing a mask i don't know about related to the prevalence of people loyal to the republican party or not but it is a stark difference from the sense of community character one another that acts in a new york city versus arizona act think of fortunately for a lot of americans they're not going to face that part troops the reality is on the

merits and they are among the lucky ones are the ones in the hospital bed or on a ventilator. do you personally you've been at the forefront of this fight against this virus do you feel that donald trump has a done a good job in handling this crisis. has he done a good job you know to be honest i haven't followed that much but i think that that we're going to mass is now turning into a little debate versus a health issue. i mean to me a major problem might be american should all come together to understand that this disease process does not discriminate young old. rich or republican democrat all access the same and and i don't know if it's necessarily

helpful at this point to point fingers you know what i think does plan in the beginning don't touch it or look like. as far as guidance or mc american people how they should protect themselves and it would all be at a much better so i. travel nurse in phoenix arizona thank you for finding the time for us on the day. to syria now where president bashar al assad is marking 20 years in power on friday parliamentary elections are scheduled for sunday but like all previous elections no real position is permitted so despite a civil war that's lasted 9 years and has major geopolitical repercussions assad looks likely to stay in power. well well if you like you. did lie the 17th 2008 just 34 years old bash. is

sworn in as president following the sudden death of his father. he quickly finds his feet meeting the great and the good road to syria this is. often accompanied by his british born wife asma. from the start of his presidency i sense bill close ties with both russia and iran strategic relations that will prove crucial to retaining power. in march 20th levon anti-government protests across much of the arab world known as the arab spring spread to syria. in the southern city of deraa demonstrators began taking to the streets after the arrest and torture of a group of teenagers protest grew while as sands military responded with greater

force. as fallon's escalated the country descended into a brutal civil war. we will win without a doubt against this conspiracy and they are now reaching the final stages of their conspiracy. attempts by the international community to force asaad to step down failed. and so 2 moves to broker a peace deal. by 2030 in the u.n. said the number of refugees fleeing syria had reached a 1000000 this was a humanitarian crisis then the regime was accused of carrying out to chemical attack near the capital damascus it took another such attack in 2017 for the u. s. to take action claiming a sense military. tonight i ordered a targeted neuters. only if you were in syria who will

be chemical. was war. but despite the reprisal asset has continued his war with the help of russian air power and iranian forces the syrian government now controls most of the country. a country that lies in tatters is led by a man who looks like he will never surrender power. well he my next guest may know as a journalist and author who has reported extensively from inside assad's area is work for the wall street journal was nominated for the pulitzer price sam is also the author of assad or how we burned the country how one family's lost a 4 power destroyed syria published last year he joins us now from detroit

welcome to the day 20 years on a country shattered how is assad still able to hold on to par. thank you very much and very quickly we just clarify a few points in your introduction i don't think it's a civil war the regime turned it into a civil war which is simply one aspect of the conflict that's number one number 2 the arab spring in the the graffiti on the walls of the children are simply the triggers for you know the fundamental underlying causes of this uprising so to go to your question i think at the moment he is propped up by iran and russia without these 2 backers of the regime would fall he tends to play and play them off against each other whenever the russians lean on him he goes to the iranians for support and helped to push back the russians and that's how he's been surviving he's also his backers don't have the money now to support him so he relies on

a network of war profiteers and businessmen that are deployed by the regime to help finance his regime and also one thing to keep in mind i mean the population is divided if you were to assume that you know there are 20000000 syrians now almost one 3rd of them live in the areas controlled by assad and the russians and the iranians another 3rd live in the northern areas controlled by turkey and other groups including a group that used to be linked to al-qaeda and also the kurds and then you have you have almost an equal number outside syria in neighboring countries like turkey and also in in germany where you are and for the for the syrians that remain in areas under regime control it's mainly fear ruled by fear through the network of. the police state apparatuses that he still controls they are much more important to

him than the army which barely exists anymore i mean what you have now are the remnants of what used to be a syrian army. i mean some sort of units almost serve like. mercenaries i mean the russians are deploying some syrian soldiers in libya the iranians and its proxies as well are using them to form militias all across the country even the ones that used to be with the army and defected are and are now north are being used by turkey as mercenaries semyonov can i interrupt you there just just very very briefly it seems now that even some of his family members have have tons against him why is he losing support. it's not so much losing support i mean he has as part of his efforts to really survive and continue you know tighten his grip on power he's consolidating power he's going after his cousin who he had you know empowered in the 1st place to be his is money man and

and his financier and because he is an economic trouble and his allies are not able to save him he has to if i can use the term shakedown people like his cousin for more money. syria is dealing with that more of them all but one that has happened it is a civil war it has as you mentioned major geopolitical with the questions that they're just looking at the refugee crisis the destabilization of the region and plenty of discord between europe turkey the us russia you've mentioned some of those things if there is such a thing as the oft quoted international community what should that community do now . yeah and again i would just take issue with you i mean it's not a civil war if he turned it into a civil war and that's only one aspect of it i think to go back to the international community or whatever is left of it i would say i think number one they have to be unified and speak with one voice about the importance of justice

and accountability holding you know war criminals accountable for their crimes including bashar al assad the process already started in germany but there needs to be much more support towards that and number 2 they have to start delegating the problem to countries like russia turkey iran israel and other regional players because this problem will come back and haunt them it's not over yet the refugees i mean what will come back again the root cause of the problem is still there which is this regime i mean most people won't go back to syria if assad is in power. tell us nothing sam dagher thank you very much for your time. a pleasure. iran now which is seeing fresh resto economic hardship police fired tear gas on demonstrators gathered in the southwestern city of baquba han on thursday according to witnesses several arrests were made videos from all the possible off the country

posted on social media also showed heavy presence of security forces the demonstrations come as iranians take to social media to protest the planned executions of 3 young men were arrested during unrest last november. and for more on that i'm not joined by see if. we've seen that iranians have taken to the streets to protest against the government but they have also been protests online that's right so on tuesday the iranian supreme court upheld the death penalty for 3 men who were accused of vandalism and arson during similar protests that happened late last year and pretty soon after that verdict that decision came out people took to the internet to voice their opposition using the hash tag do not execute now this tweet got massive traction was used over 5000000 times within one day according to twitter and that kind of thing is rare in iran where people are

afraid of punishment by authorities for any kind of activism and it's an especially exceptional in this case because prominent public figures including actors directors even sports figures team member of the iranian national team soccer team got involved so pretty exceptional just as an example let's take a look at what one actress said nazneen boneyard the. university put yourself in the shoes of america say moratti muhammad rajavi and say time g.-d. took to the streets for a better life they demanded their rights they peacefully protest that free protesters from november 21000 after forced confessions were sentenced to death the supreme court upheld the sentence and it may be carried out at any moment. so i thought he's reacted to this campaign well there have been internet outages reported across iran which is one tactic that the government often uses when there's civil unrest and that might be related to this outcry but it hasn't really

fallen on deaf ears a lot of people are saying that the supreme court listened to them because pretty soon after they issued a statement saying that the men could ask for a review of their case and they also said that they would allow lawyers to review some court documents that they had seen before now this was a trial that was based on very slim evidence mostly on just the confessions of the men after they had allegedly according to amnesty international been tortured so it's unclear what's in those court documents that the lawyers can see though does this have the potential for more on rests with what's happening now right was unclear when and if these men are going to be executed that might be postponed and it's pretty clear that activists are maintaining some kind of presence online we aren't seeing the same thing that we saw a few days ago when the verdict was announced but people are still active out there now some people have hope that the government the judiciary is listening to them

but then again after china iran executes more people than any other country in the world a lot of them are political prisoners i mean thank you thanks. and that was the day as ever the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter and don't forget to use our cash tax for me from the day team that's watch .

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this is the w. new song live from berlin the us breaks its own. record for new covert cases in a single day as the country registers more than 75000 new infections we'll hear from our correspondent in miami about an increasingly desperate situation in hospitals. also coming up european leaders seek common ground at a make or break summit in brussels they want to negotiate a 750000000000 euro package to help e.u. economies recover from the coronavirus and up pops divisions.