the world on fire starts aug 12th on d. w. we have to invite it back. and dance with the big. this is news live from berlin are america's tech giants killing the competition the heads of apple facebook google and amazon defend their companies during a grilling by u.s. lawmakers in congress also coming up the u.s. announces a partial military withdrawal from germany a 3rd of its troops are being ordered to leave that as president trump accuses

germany of being a freeloader at nato and not paying its bills. and a giant leap in the search for life on mars nasa prepares to launch a new mission that it hopes will finally solve the riddle of the red planet. i'm told me a lot of welcome to the program is big tech too big for of america's biggest names in technology have appeared before congress to answer questions from an anti trust panel the leaders of the so-called big 4 facebook google apple and amazon defended their companies from accusations that they've become too powerful and are stifling competition. america's. on the defensive facebook's mark zuckerberg alphabets sindoor pitch. i am

a zines jeff bezos and apple's tim cook all face the virtual grilling on capitol hill lawmakers say the c.e.o.'s and their companies are abusing their position and crippling the competition many of the practices used by these companies have harmful economic effects they discourage entrepreneurship destroy jobs high costs and degrade quality simply put they have too much power what for hours these big tech c.e.o.'s addressed allegations including abuse of power data survey links and political censorship why does google steal content from honest businesses i disagree with that characterization just last week i meant that many small businesses in fact today we support 1400000 small businesses are supporting over 380 $5000000000.00 and they are economic activity amazon has nearly 7 times the market share of its closest e-commerce competitor one seller told us that and i

quote amazon continues to be the only show in town no matter how angry sellers get they have nowhere else to go so are you saying that these people aren't didn't go when they see that amazon is the only game in town. with great respect they do disagree with i believe that there are a lot of. cooking soccer bergan system their companies aren't invincible. we don't have a dominant share in any market or in any product category where we do business new companies are created all the time all over the world and history shows that if we don't keep innovating someone will replace every company here today and that change can often happen faster than you expect also on this play partisan divide on this cut to the chase big tax out to get conservatives that's not a suspicion that's not a hunch that's a fact republicans say these companies are unfairly suppressing and censoring

conservative opinions and media but democrats say big tech isn't going far enough and cracking down on misinformation and hate speech the united states has unveiled plans to withdraw nearly $12000.00 troops from germany a 3rd of its military footprint in the country president trying to justify the move saying germany hasn't been pain it's paying off for its defense taking advantage of the u.s. germany has expressed regret at the decision. the historic reduction in the number of american troops stationed in germany even more will be leaving been expected here. the u.s. secretary of defense mark asper announced the withdrawal downplaying its significance it is important to note that in nato has 71 year history the size composition and disposition of u.s. forces in europe has changed many times but u.s. president donald trump said the move is meant to send

a message to germany. afford. this thing but it's not that simple while it's true that the u.s. pays more toward the nato budget than germany the german government has promised to match u.s. contributions beginning next year at 16 percent of the total nato budget. trump often points out that germany does not meet a nato guideline that all members should spend 2 percent of their economic output on defense germany only spends 1.4 percent but that guideline refers to spending on each country's own military not directly to nato. members are now seeking answers as to how the new u.s. plan will be carried out and what it will mean for the future of european security there has been pushback from the u.s. congress and analysts say even the pentagon was reluctant to carry out trumps demand for troop withdrawal you can imagine the arguments and the discussions and disagreements that would have been going on back in washington inside the pentagon

and with the white house but at the end of the day the president says we're going to do this and so the department of defense of us ok well here's here's how we're going to do it there are about $24000.00 u.s. troops will remain in germany but some observers worry trump's costly message to its nato allies could weaken the whole alliance. in washington many may not support the withdrawal and there is also resistance at home in the u.s. all of a why is trump pushing ahead with it. well so we all know president trumps claim america 1st so he certainly does not put the allies 1st tier right now what's happening is that trump is simply concerned about the elections that are coming closer and the polls have been going down for quite some time in part as a result of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and he's trying to make it look like he's punishing germany for not raising its military spending and it's

true germany is continuing to be short of those 2 percent of the g.d.p. that the country promised to put into his defense budget experts however are saying that we've spoken to today also military experts that the u.s. is not punishing germany in fact is rather punishing itself and also nato allies and lawmakers here on capitol hill say call this a gift for russia give full kremlin in fact in the troops who are not stationed in germany to defend the country but rather for deterrence reasons and that is not given any more once the troops have been withdrawn. because in particular because also a big part of the troops is supposed to be taken home back home to the united states and the troops don't just pack up and leave you know this will take a lot of time and money to implement the pullout so is it really going to happen. well critics hope it's not because of course as you say it's

a complicated process and there are many critics even within the republican party there's a bipartisan group in congress that is led by republican lawmaker mitt romney also one of the closest allies is among this group lindsey graham and they're now trying and planning to block this withdrawal which again is a complicated process but the total withdrawal of up to $12000.00 troops would take some time anyway and the election is getting closer so it might be possible that in the end it will land on a potential president joe biden status. as we know things very much differently about the transatlantic partnership ok all of a sudden in washington thank you. now to some of those stories making news around the world. iran claims it has launched ballistic missiles from an underground base for the 1st time it's part of a series of military exercises which also included targeting

a dummy american aircraft carrier u.s. troops stationed in the region were put on alert during the drill. thousands of taken to the streets in cities across ball garia to demand the resignation of the government it's accused of corruption suppressing free speech and maintaining ties with the mafia the anti-government protests are the biggest the country has seen in years. mexico's supreme court has rejected a case which sought to decriminalize abortion in local areas the judgment means anti abortion laws in the state of veracruz will remain in place religious groups celebrates of the decision in front of the court. the boss of london's heathrow airport wants the british government to back a strict coronavirus testing regime for passengers arriving from countries like the united states john holland kay said quarantine for arrivals could be reduced to 10 days for most if they tested twice in one week. swelling

numbers of corona virus infections are forced some european governments to reimpose restrictions this comes in the middle of summer as countries reopen their tourism hubs to vacationers. in a normal year the british city of bath welcomes around $6000000.00 visitors bringing in half a 1000000000 euros this year of course things are much quieter that means british tourists are the focus at this international destination you know about and there's only 3 life function different from everything. you start to see the. hotels the social distances so all in all a feel comfortable to travel. but while domestic travelers can enjoy this year's trying. realty authours are putting the brakes on international holiday making britain rheem posed a forced quarantine on travelers from spain after reported cases there rose

dramatically on monday at london's heathrow airport they were not happy about the news will call in or double tast once on arrival the 2nd often 5 days or. people would think quarantine until they had to test to show that they didn't have the disease and then they would be allowed out only then would otherwise be carrots . to flatten the newly rising curve madrid has now made mass wearing mandatory and public residents seem happy to comply. yeah it's fine because in this way we're protected and we're more responsible that's how it should have been from the beginning they chose the recipient. belgium is also struggling with a new spiking cases the city of twerp reinstated a curfew no one is allowed outside between 11 30 pm and 6 am except for essential workers. germany is worried about imported infections so it's requiring

travellers from high risk areas to take a covert 19 test upon arrival while many were probably hoping to forget all about the corona virus during their holidays the virus has certainly not forgotten about them. the countdown is on for the launch of a new mission to mars to search for signs of life a rocket ascent to blast off from nasa mission control in cape canaveral in florida in just a few hours it'll carry perseverance a new rover that will study the martian surface like never before. diversions descend to testify to new navigation system it's an autopilot designed to work at. the best target location and steer towards it. it's supposed to make touchdowns safer and more precise. the rover is aiming for this

riverbed in the year 0 crater. perseverance well investigated surroundings with cameras and measuring devices. researchers hope the data will get the new insights into the geology and climatic history of mas but perseverance has another job too to search for signs of life. we probably won't find old d.n.a. or anything like data on mars us but we might find rocks that were formed by biological processes that's what we're expecting or at least we're hoping. this. must have said has been specially developed to search for these traces of life. it has 2 cameras which can deliver detail to color photographs in 3 d. the camera system also has an advanced zoom to help researches see tiny patterns and structures in the rock. there is our team

leader is a professor in arizona and he always puts it like this imagine you're sitting in the stands of a football stadium at the goal and you can see a fly buzzing around between the goal posts at the other end. of. the mission is also sending a small helicopter to mars. its job is to carry out autonomous test flights where it controls the whole process by itself. it's propellers have to spin 8 times as fast as on earth because the atmosphere of mars is so thin. since the 1st flight attempts it's taken engineers 5 years to get to this point. the mission's most important goal is to collect rock samples examine them and pack them ready for transport to do this perseverance is fitted with the most complex robotic system nasa has ever developed. perseverance will deposit the samples on the surface of

mars in 10 years. another rover will collect them and bring them to a launch pad iraq which will then carry them to a satellite in orbit which will finally bring the precious cargo to earth. this is live from berlin all these stories and more on our website as well as a last social media twitter instagram at debugging as i'm talking about it well thanks for your company. what secrets lie behind these walls. discover new adventures in 360 degrees. and explore fascinating world heritage sites. g.w. world heritage 368 get me out now.