this is the the view news live from berlin economic growth in europe's biggest economy plunges by more than 10 percent germany is seeing the worst economic contraction in the country's modern history wiping out 10 years' worth of growth. and washington slashes u.s. military presence in germany the decision to cut its troops in the country by a 3rd comes after president trump repeatedly said berlin was delinquent on its defense spending. and a giant leap towards finding signs of life on mars nasa gets set to launch

a new mission to the rover and the helicopter to reveal more about the red planet's just. as welcome to the program germany is officially in a deep recession with the economy contracting by 10 point one percent in the 2nd quarter it is the sharpest fall of the country's modern history figures cover the period during which the country was in its most restrictive lockdown phase closed borders shut down shops and production all the thousands of companies dealt a severe blow to small businesses and many export dependent industries injurious largest economy. and now to some of the other stories making news around the world at this hour u.s. lawmakers have accused apple facebook google and amazon of using harmful practices

to stifle their competitors see also protect giants were testifying at an antitrust earing may gain a congressional panel as well weighing whether to regulate the company's more heavily. u.s. administration has agreed to gradually withdraw federal police from the city of portland oregon after weeks of clashes with the testers local authorities have criticised the agency's presence saying made matters worse washington said the offices were needed to protect federal court buildings. tens of thousands of people have again taken to the streets in cities across bug area protesters are demanding the resignation of the government and the chief prosecutor choosing them off suppressing free speech maintaining ties with a mafia and refusing to fight corruption leveled areas largest and to government protests in 7 years. chinese telecoms giant while way become the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones to the market research company cannot

canalis while they overtook its main rival some song in the 2nd quarter of its year on lists china's early recovery from the coronavirus reinvigorated while its domestic market where it sells more than 70 percent of its forms. the countdown is on for the launch of a new mission to mars to search for signs of life assassin 5 rocket is set to blast off from cape canaveral florida later today it will carry perseverance that's nasa's new rover that will help scientists study the martian surface like never before. diversions descend to testify to a new navigation system it's an autopilot designed to work at the best target like ation and steer towards it. it's supposed to make touchdown and safe

and more precise. the rover is aiming for this riverbed in the year 0 crater. perseverance were investigated surroundings with cameras and measuring devices. researchers hope the data will give 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 a biological process is that's what we're expecting or at least we're hoping. this. must cam 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 research to see tiny patterns

and structures in the uk. 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 end 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 driver will collect them and bring them to a launch pad to iraq which will then carry them to a satellite in orbit which will finally bring the precious. excitement is growing mission control let's bring in mitchell say he is a program scientists with the mosque 2020 exploration program at nasa headquarters in washington and joins us now from them which have been rovers on mars before what is the big difference of. the very big difference is that we've finally designed instruments to really look in detail at the rock record to see on the level of microorganisms which is what we think life might be the kind of life that might have existed on mars so we'll be finally be able to see things in the detail that we need really to tease apart whether this landing site in these rocks where he was

habitable and whether it left behind evidence that life might have been there. if you indeed find microbial life on mas what kind of impact will that half why should i care. well so we really don't understand how life started on earth and so just finding another example of life somewhere beyond earth will be a really big deal because it will tell us that there is something fundamental about life that it sort of wants to start to be clear we're looking for evidence in the ancient rock record on mars that life might have left behind that posits we're not looking for current life on mars but we do see that mars and earth are similar geologically and so this would mean if we find evidence for life on mars this would mean that there are a set of conditions that could be sort of universal that allow life and in fact sort of make life form but if we're looking into the future this seems to be

a race to moscow right now why is it so important for us to learn something about a planet that view and i would have so much trouble to live on. well so one of the things that makes it hard to live on is that has a very thin atmosphere so it's not able to trap heat from the sun to keep it warm one of the things that we know about life on earth is that wherever there is liquid water within certain limits of temperature for example we find things alive in that water here on earth and so we can take lessons from studying mars that help us understand what conditions are necessary for life and what can happen to a planet when conditions and environmental factors change. so one of the questions that is on everybody's mind of course all the time when do you think that the 1st human mission to moscow will be on its way. we're working on sending people back to the moon 1st sort of as

a base for getting to mars eventually and we're planning to do that by the middle of the coming decade and so after that we'll probably you know it'll take a little while for us to scale things up to being able to get out to mars so it'll probably be a few a couple decades further down the road and forward to that one thank you very much mitch shelton who program scientists at nasa thank you you're watching news still to come was this month denied asylum in germany because he couldn't prove he's gay takes a closer look at the asylum process for people who are in jail. now returning to our top story german economic growth has dropped by 10 percent let's go straight to our financial correspondent charles the delay in the in frankfurt for more details of what have been the reactions on the market chelsea.

also shock i mean this is a historic decline for the german economy it's the biggest drop quarterly drop since they began collecting this data in the 1970 s. and it's also about twice as big as any contraction we've seen on a quarterly basis so it really is it's pretty mind blowing to see decline of this magnitude of course people were braced for a really steep contraction in this quarter because obviously the economy was basically ground to a halt in these 3 months but it's still pretty shocking to see and it also wipes away about 10 years of economic growth for germany in this one quarter basically the entire post financial crisis recovery has been a race and that's a pretty steep hole for germany to now climb out of so the 10 percent drop refers to the 2nd quarter which is now behind us look downs have been eased what's the picture right now well the german economy is recovering so we likely

won't see a decline like this anytime again soon and the in the current quarter the 3rd quarter the 4th quarter we likely will see. the economy of return to growth. this is really being reflected in data already as well we're seeing auto makers for example report sales are picking up again we're seeing service sector activity or rising again so there are signs that a recovery is underway but there still are a lot of risks including the potential for a 2nd wave of infections and even even if that doesn't happen it will take years for germany to recover from an economic blow like this compared to other industrialized countries you compared to other current countries in europe germany whether this economic storm so. germany is doing much better than

most of your app so today we saw reports from belgium their economy contract at 12 percent tomorrow are expected to see france and italy report 15 percent decline so germany was very aggressive and very fast in passing stimulus measures and that did cushion some of the blow from the crowd a virus that's a lenny in frankfurt thank you. the united states has unveiled plans to withdraw nearly 12000 troops from germany lots of its military footprint in the country defense officials say the cup is in line with addressing new threats from china and russia president trump has tied the reduction to germany's reluctance to spend more on its military. a historic reduction in the number of american troops stationed in germany even more will be leaving than expected. the u.s. secretary of defense mark esper announced the withdrawal downplaying its significance it is important to note that in nato 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 where the 4th. leg trump often points out that germany does not meet a nato guideline that all members should spend 2 percent of their economic output on the fence germany only spends 1.4 percent but that guideline refers to spending on each country's own military not directly to nato medo 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 justice ok well here's here's how we're going to do it there are about 24000 u.s. troops will remain in germany but some observers worry trump's costly message to its nato allies could weaken the whole alliance. let's bring in our political correspondent on the sparrow thomas one of the reactions to his role here in germany. we heard from the german government in particular from the german foreign and defense ministries they said they take note of the decision they're going to further discuss how that is going to be implemented but they also stressed in a brief statement that those plans by the united states and north to get finalized so they could see changes other politicians for example members of parliament have been very critical of their decision they see on the 100 decision as weakening the bilateral relations bilateral relations are already strained between the united states and germany and they also see at the same time that this is the wrong signal

that this could weaken on the 180 by that it could also weaken the united states as well in particular the united states security. can you tell us why are american troops here in germany anyway. well they are obviously a remnant or a legacy of the cold war they're seen as a very important element of the postwar international order numbers were big in the past in fact since the fall of the berlin wall those numbers have decreased by germany is still the country with the largest number of u.s. troops in europe and that's why it is so important it's not only about paying to protect germany these troops here in germany pay a very important role for the united states and for the security of the united states and if you look for example of the composition you will clearly see that the ramstein base for example is seen as a very important hub for u.s. operations in the middle east or in africa you will see that they that is largest

military hospital outside of continental united states you will feel there are commands here like the european command the africa command they play a very important role in the way the united states engages military around the world it seems so you say that because a former commander of u.s. troops in europe has told t w that the withdrawal hurts us overseas capabilities more than it hurts european security what does that mean what it means exactly that means that for the united states the presence here in germany and by the way the presence in other european countries it's essential so where are some people in washington may see the presence as only helping european countries it actually plays a very significant role in the way the united states engages with the rest of the world the fact that for example those commands here in germany the fact that you have the ramstein air base they have the fact that you have that military hospital with many soldiers have been treated who have come back from iraq from afghanistan this means that when the united states takes those troops away with throwing

withdraws those 12000 soldiers that also affects them negatively but again this is only the way some people view it in the united states the government has presented this in a different light by saying that they strengthens nato and also offer security to the united states allies talk about the critics some of them of said the main beneficiary of this withdrawal is the kremlin do you agree. well there are those who clearly say that because they say that this actually is a symbolic move that it shows us this engagement that it reduces the capability that it shows how it fights against allies or it refuses alliances but there are other views in this that say that germany still has a very important military presence in the front when it comes to the united states or 24000 soldiers will still remain here so this will still play a very important role when it comes to that key relationship to russia thomas for our political correspondent thank you race religion or politics there are many reasons that drive asylum seekers to germany in most cases

it's possible to prove religious or racial discrimination but it's much harder to prove your sexual orientation w.'s jol doll roy met 2 refugees from the same country and one is allowed to stay and the other faces deportation because how do you actually prove that you get. 2 similar stories 2 very different outcomes 2 i said marcia both left jamaica escaping homophobic persecution in a small town in western germany these 2 friends are taking steps towards a new life but only one can stay both say they've been attacked in jamaica a country where same sex into course is illegal and which rights groups call one of the most dangerous places l g b t people. i got was when i was in because

the reporter and i didn't get. both one from the police because. it. means the guy from me who are the right in on a bike and he said. all 3. or 3 the next that we see you we're going to me sure that you are in jamaica because i'm openly lesbian been an activist since jimmy i am known so certain places it's not safe for me i went to i remember i went to dinner. in sovereign plaza with a friend and that's where we were basically stalled and with glass bottles and stones in seeking asylum they faced the same court on the same day the judge accepted marsh's story she can stay. by to watch case was rejected because city could live safely in jamaica he takes

a call from his caseworker there is no good news he's to be deported i didn't come to germany because i want to come here because i'm running from my life and for them to thin all your theory go back i think on thier thought that actually feel about it and most of the time i think about it i given up because i don't i don't think my thought of going back to jamaica not even in a body bag are something i don't feel myself going back. i can go back there. their diverging outcomes reflect the findings of a study of l.g.b. t. asylum seekers in europe academics from the university of sussex found that a 3rd of applicants felt their stated sexual orientation was disbelieved and 40

percent told they face no persecution at home. german migration or thora to say their staff are trained to treat l g b t claimants sensitively and that the differing outcomes may depend on how each applicant tells their story. this assumes. the asylum procedure is a special procedure in itself where it always depends on the individual case and as individual nuances can always be different one cannot make sweeping statements on this. case why it is trying to keep a positive outlook his already learned german and wants to train as a care worker he's hoping for an intervention to allow him to stay in germany close to his friend marcia and far away from his fears of life in jamaica.

joined now from frankfurt but often into hell she's a researcher at the university of sussex in the u.k. and has written a report into the asylum seekers in the u.k. and germany why do you think whites claim has been rejected while martians wasn't. that's a very good question thank you and so i'll just shortly we've worked for 4 years that has brought checked and looking at and so she claims across europe and we have identified this as one of the main issues minstrels claims that there is often an inconsistency in decision making so we have to scale soft white and not also in the same country both have experience persecution and in one case the claimant's accept and the other case it is not and we have to remember quite settings are very terrifying settings so you have to tell your story in front of the chaps you have to talk about a very intimate aspects of your life there is an interpreter in the room so you

can't you know the flow of your story might be stopped because you have to stop after a couple of sentences and. it happened to translate so it's not a very comfortable setting it's quite hearing i think last between 20 and the 20 and 30 minutes and then just time he couldn't convince the judge stat you has a well founded fear of persecution which is the basis of the refugee convention that's what you have to demonstrate. the reason given was that it's safe for him to go back and relocate to the north of jamaica and to a tourist area where it's actually not affordable for most people to lift that and there's also the question whether it will be safe for gay person to live there because as you reported south who has widespread in jamaica it's very dangerous and i would be very concerned about why it's nice now if he was deported back to jamaica because in your study you say there was

a culture of disbelief among migration authority star i mean how do you actually prove you're gay for example or to one of those civil servants. exactly in our style you spoke to one in 200 sign of claimants as you know i have signed claimants and this was always mentioned as also to those people who have refused you know that's a little joint use of you have refused and most were very desperate have a saying i don't know what else can i do to prove my sexuality and maybe any person who's listening now could ask themselves how do you prove your sexuality so it's it's it's very difficult and it was in terms of the culture of just believe i think often the system make us start with the premise that the person is not telling the truth instead of the other way round actually start from there what they're saying is true and i think our participants have made a series of short terms that i call it i am what i say i am and i think that's what

our participants would say they i if you how article. but critics say claiming to be gay or lesbian is just an easy way to ask for asylum asylum do they have a point to appreciate if you. know they don't that's not the point at all because as i said with more and 200 people are monitored and people participate in our study and they could definitely sense not easy to win a claim on sexuality and gender identity crowns it is very very difficult and there is a kind of disbelief how do you prove that you are gay and if you're coming from a country why does so much shame and stigma around over 70. a 70 countries in the worst and criminalize homosexuality if you want to form one of these countries oh do you feel about talking about your sexuality does very difficult even for as you continue. and even the dead would be even more difficult for heterosexual people to fake it so to say so now it's not it's not definitely not now. thank you very

much you're welcome thank you miles. and to tennis now world number one ash body has announced that she will not be traveling to new york to compete in the upcoming u.s. open due to concerns over the coronavirus panda we told him and is set to stop at friday and will be played behind closed doors but he has announced that she will not be taking part citing signal significant risks due to hold it 19 the australian will decide of the later date whether or not to defend her french open title and that competition gets under way in september. you're watching t w news here's a reminder of top stories we're following for you the german economy has contracted by a record 10 point one percent in the 2nd quarter the number is higher than expected and this is a shop a stroll in the country's modern history session has been measured from the on time

. that's it from me other news team from i'll have an update for you at the top of the hour make sure you follow us on twitter and instagram at. this from the m gallop 1st thanks for watching.

the. carians cutting off. money for new year's day of course their government sink into the swamp the corruption of. oligarchy graft themselves privileges while gone for saddam cers oppress the citizens. now there are daily demonstrations and the

demands from your government of the focus on europe. the 60 minutes on d w. how does a virus spread. why do we panic and when will all this. computer through the topics covered in the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you like and the information on the front of my wrist or any other science topics you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at dot com look for it slash science. are they friends so long to be with you session to discuss here going forward do you wish it was limiting your beliefs on a month with the finished musician or are they enemies when you still see most of the huge steel in the building if you wished you could go in but he's using the water he's going to go give a shit i never work for i just donald trump funding you're promoting our 2 part

documentary analyzes the difficult relationship between russia and the west and between their presidents how does the rise. and they're dangerous mutual admiration for the rest of the world to some bullies driven putin starts august 3rd on d w. the biggest drop in modern german history germany's g.d.p. shrank by a 10 during the last quarter has coronavirus the economy to shut down. german lawmakers are demanding a full inquiry into what happened why it caught after grilling cabinet ministers over the scandal. and continues to lose altitude as the european plane maker made a net loss 1000000000 euros during q.