this is. from berlin tonight the economic costs of the pandemic an unprecedented blow to u.s. g.d.p. output dropping in the united states by almost 10 percent in the 2nd quarter the virus also ravaging europe's biggest economy german g.d.p. dropping by a record 10 percent the biggest decline in half a century also coming up tonight donald trump floating the idea of delaying november's presidential election claiming with no proof that mail in voting will

result in the most rigged election in u.s. history. i'm burnt coffee it's good to have you with us we begin tonight with the latest victim of the coronavirus pandemic the us economy in the 2nd quarter of this year output dropped by more than 9 percent now that is the biggest slump since record keeping began for the u.s. in 1947 it was in the 2nd quarter when efforts to stop the virus brought large parts of the u.s. economy to a standstill and unemployment tonight remaining maurice a weekly jobless claims have risen slightly suggesting that any tentative recovery will be a slow one. for. one ruiz is one of around 18000000 unemployed americans. the 56 year old accountant lost his job at

a forklift manufacturer after he contract it covert 19. with no job to go back to he's finding it harder to find work than he had expected which i can pick us up in that many people are losing their jobs because the companies they work for closed their doors in fact my company closed they said they were not selling and shuttered their warehouses. factories are closing small businesses to americans are tightening their belts and that's cause the country's gross domestic product to drop by a staggering 33 percent last quarter. but it's also worth mentioning that if the u.s. counted g.d.p. like europe does that it would have only fallen by 10 percent making germany's g.d.p. drop during the 2nd quarter slightly worse than the u.s. is. however germany has seen less unemployment. thanks in part to government backed short term work schemes it's satisfied by the g.d.p. numbers for germany in q 2 are worse than expected but let's be honest we weren't

expecting good news in terms of growth the important thing is to put the 2nd quarter behind us and look to the future so everything depends on the course of the corona pandemic. in germany infection rates are on the uptick. around 700 new infections were reported on wednesday in the u.s. the number is north of 60000. worrying numbers for one reason. and he doesn't expect the economy to get back on track soon his wife and son work part time but they barely make enough to pay the family's bills. these are difficult times in the u.s. and here in europe to talk about the economic repercussions from this pandemic i'm joined here the big table by my colleague kate ferguson from business you know we knew that the numbers were going to be bad but i think a lot of people were shocked that just how bad they were in the 2nd quarter should we be worried are worried should we be over in these numbers our record breaking for all the wrong reasons on the united states receiving the biggest contraction

since world war 2 in germany we're seeing the biggest contraction since records began in 1970 and in both cases you're seeing 3 big factors you're seeing consumer spending drop you're seeing exports fall and of course you're seeing business investment drop as well and that's exactly what you would expect from 2 economies that have been locked down for several months but given that america has been much worse affected by the coronavirus than germany these measurements are actually quite comparable and you might find that quite surprising so one of the reasons the u.s. might be slightly worst affected or not quite a spot affected as you would expect is the relative importance of something like exports so the german economy is extremely reliant on exports the united states as you might remember has always been a bug bear of donald trump that he has a trade imbalance with china and with the european union but right now that's actually to his advantage is actually not a bad thing to be buying more than you're selling right now because with economies

around the world locked and there's simply not a market for these things there's a very good point people are just. that has to do also with consumer confidence which you know the political leaders here in the u.s. and in germany want to improve what has been the difference in responses that we've seen by governments to these economic problems so in both cases there has been a pretty dramatic response so back in march to the u.s. introduced a 22. brilliant dollars stimulus package that included a $600.00 a week unemployment benefit and a somewhat indiscriminate $1200.00 payment to nearly all americans and that definitely did help stave off disaster there germany has also introduced major stimulus of over one trillion dollars it's also recently reduced vasa and that has actually really helped drive up consumer spending if you go yeah absolutely and if you go into any supermarket here in 3 big experiences well every single price tag

will show just how much consumers are are winning of small reduction so that has really helped drive up consumption here in germany but the biggest difference i think in response is come is what happens to the unemployed so in germany there's a program called quits it's done for short term work scheme and basically it allows companies to keep workers that they would otherwise have to lay off to the government to take over their salary payments that worked very well in previous crisis after the financial crisis in 2009 unthought accounts for the big difference in unemployment rates right now in germany unemployment has remained fairly low at 6 percent in the united states it's 11 but we will be watching to see if the recovery is anywhere to be filmed around the bend i don't think it is what it does we'll be talking with the kick is always the. well moments after the u.s. released the words g.d.p. numbers in its history u.s.

president down with trump suggested delaying the 2020 alexion until he says it becomes safer to vote unhindered by coronavirus related restrictions the president took to twitter to say that quote universal universal mail in voting would make the election the most inaccurate and fraudulent in history he even asked delay the election until people can properly securely and safely vote question mark question mark question mark trump is currently lagging in opinion polls and it's important to note only the u.s. congress can change the election date it is set by and wall for november 3rd eye for more now let's go to washington our correspondent all over salat good afternoon to you oliver it's not surprising that democrats do not white donald trump's idea here what about the republicans they're not too thrilled with it either are they. as vibrant even republican lawmakers oppose that idea many came out on twitter today saying that only congress can postpone the elections

and that's actually a phenomenon we've been following throughout the last week that more and more republicans are turning their back on president trump just yesterday with the troop withdrawal from from germany high ranking republicans are opposing that just a few moments ago house minority leader of the republicans kevin mccarthy said that the republican party is not backing that idea and it would be simply a violation of the constitution of the united states and we know that this is not the 1st time that donald trump has claimed that mill in voting could result in massive fraud has the ever been able to substantiate that claim. he has not i mean the only argument he's putting forward is that voting by mail is in secure but there's no hard evidence really to prove that the question of course is now why is he doing that and want to sumption is that the democrats take take the threat that is posed by the pandemic more seriously out there for more open to vote by mail and that would resolve for of course in

a higher turnout of the democrats which is not in president tom's favor and critics are saying that he is trying to postpone the election to a better moment when the economy might have improvement of exene could be developed hoping that the polls would be would improve then in his favor yeah i mean it is unprecedented for a sitting u.s. president to suggest this we've got a president who's making a claim without evidence he's making a claim that doesn't have political backing from his own party what does all of this tell us about trump's political standing right now. it's complicated as of now it looks rather unlikely to be honest that he would be reelected the republicans are turning against him biden is leading by 2 digits of course it's still a little while until the election takes place and a lot can happen but the economic data is grim you've just talked about it the g.d.p. is down by 33 percent 150000 casualties reached as a result of the coronavirus pandemic the rate of new affection is reaching record

highs so the perspective is really grim and if that doesn't change it doesn't look really good for a president trying to reelection all right a correspondent all over sellable news story for us in washington all over thank you. well here are some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world and nasa has newly launched mission to search mars for ancient life is experiencing some technical difficulties nasa says the spaceship named mars 2020 has entered safe mode where the vessel shuts down all nonessential systems and this will checks of the spacecraft showed no signs for concern a special prosecutor in switzerland has opened a criminal case against faith of president john the infantine know the charges relate to secret meetings he held with the swiss attorney general michel lauber back in 20162017 inventin no was reelected president of football's international governing body just last year former republican presidential candidate herman cain

has died after contracting who had 19 he rose to prominence in the food industry before switching to politics a co-chair of black voices for trump cain was hospitalized less than 2 weeks after attending the president's toast to oklahoma campaign rally in june cain was 74 years old. we're going to a sold out concert used to be so normal but it is now fraught with risk because of the coronavirus digital concerts help fill the gap but the yearning for a live performance is well it hasn't gone away so a group in germany has come up with a way to connect music lovers in person no facemask required a silent gains. this is how a one on one concert begins in this german monastery.

it's a moving experience for the audience. and then does mention they want to look into this person's ice for so long. and then to listen to the music it can't be compared to an orchestra or to a concert where the musician who looks so small is on b. and state and suddenly you're in a space where you say i am playing a small concert for you and then you try to give it your all one of his one tremendous i just took a i'm. getting your all in all over the monastery concerts were created by a flutist and her colleagues last year. then the pandemic hit. as the possibilities for performing suddenly changed it was obvious to us even then

that we wanted to continue with our concept and not only here in the middle of nowhere but out in the world thrilling snowball as a longer one and the idea was welcomed with open arms that often i'll often on. some 4000 concerts have been held so far. to strangers so distant yet so close. it's passed down to i don't know if the musician noticed but i was moved to tears in some parts to foist i was hushed it's beautiful to be so close and to have the eye contact at the beginning but. the concerts have raised 100000 euros in donations for freelance musicians in germany. there are even bible readings for

a party of one intimacy in a time of social distancing. he spent his entire life fighting for civil rights in the united states today congressman john lewis was mourned and celebrated at his funeral in the presence of no fewer than 3 former u.s. presidents the former icon of the civil rights movement died earlier this month at the age of 80 here are some of the impressions from today's ceremony in the 70s or baptist church in atlanta georgia. john lewis believed in the lord. he believed in humanity and he believed in america. he got into a lot of good travel along the way but let's not forget this he also developed an absolutely uncanny ability to heal troubled waters i've come here today because i like so many americans a great debt to john lewis and his forceful vision.

of freedom. lewis will be buried at the self-abuse of metairie in atlanta i bring golf for all of us here in berlin thanks for the company will see you again at the top of the hour. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news. hour carona update. 19 special next on d w. beethoven is for me. it's for. beethoven it's for. beethoven is for.

beethoven is for. beethoven is for every. beethoven 2020. the 50th anniversary here on d w. there's been a lot of rage be it about toilet paper or masks the coronavirus pandemic sometimes results in aggressive behavior. and that has even led to death cringe bus driver fatigue among your was killed by a group of teenagers after asking them to wear masks to get on his bus. uncontrollable anger seems to be on the rise in lockdown social distancing mask wearing uncertainty about jobs under future could all of that be causing

a pandemic of stress and frustration. welcome to you covered not in special here in the news i want to get joan's very relaxed in the in the to have you with us i don't know if you've observed this kind of aggression in your daily life too but the longer the pandemic lasts the more people seem to be losing their cool well i've certainly noticed more road rage when riding my bike through berlin is it just me or is there more of it my colleague james jackson went to find out. fights in a supermarket and harassment on public transport i've seen more and more videos on social media of fights happening in public and i've even seen some confrontations on the streets so i spoke to a conflict expert to find out why is this happening conflict that is all the conflicts that normally occur in everyday life are covered with an extra layer of stress this was the it was not me ability. palin's police union told us that social media doesn't tell the whole story while charges for verbal abuse of gone up 10

percent compared to last year charges 1st salts and bodily harm are actually slightly down some people sense a rise in aggression but others don't. we meet him because him and the cashier who seem this new tension. but there were also people who came in and said no i'm not wearing a mask there was one time when we said ok then you can go shopping and the person got really aggressive. that is that this is the one. she would have loved to work from home for a week or 2 as well to take a breather yeah this is. one day i was sitting at the cash register and there was a moment when i had several customers nagging me yelling at me and then a colleague came over and asked me if everything was ok and then i really just fell apart a little bit. of this is. this is. the

stress caused by the current a pandemic is affecting 50 percent of people in germany a survey found this stress reveals the rifts in our society that's one monday experience she wanted to stay anonymous because of the lockdown people always like people have to stay home and they just met and they're trying to blame one someone they're trying to find a reason why this happened and they were sick because of china because of chinese people are doing this because come from china that's why we're all in this together because of them because other asian in their eyes are sore like chinese and also included that the arch chinese people so now it's all just. all together and yeah we got blamed for that. it went so far that monday tries to hide that she's asian on the street the aggression caused by current often hits the most vulnerable experiences. let's hope that with the loosening restrictions people will be more patient with each other. of a more i'm joined by douglas fields he is

a neuroscientist and he's also the author of a book called why we snap so let me start by asking you when was the last time you snapped well i don't know about the last time but i was interested in writing this book provoked to write this book because i snapped when i was robbed and i fought to get my wallet back which is not what you should do and so i realized that that was a very dangerous response i wanted to understand if something in your environment can cause you to gage in an aggressive response or risk your life i want to understand how that worked so that's what led to my interest in the subject well i mean from europe savation because i mean it today obviously we say that people are more aggressive now than they were before the pandemic but is this actually true or is this just opposition well there's no question that the pent pandemic is causing an increase in rigor and in aggression and it seems that almost anything can cause

an aggressive response but that's not true aggression is dangerous and it risks your life and limb so it's highly controlled by brain circuitry very specific circuits the thing to understand is that aggression is controlled by the brain's threat detection mechanism and it operates quickly without conscious deliberation and this pandemic situation is pressing on the circuitry and in fact there are only 9 triggers for aggression and these are controlled by different circuits in the brain this is the new insight that we're getting from neural science into this. the subject of aggression the coded pandemic presses on several of these specific circuits that cause a person to have an aggressive response right and this is also what you write in your book about how do you describe those 9 specific trick is could you just briefly name that was which stricken sa these. yes there are scientific names for

them i created a number on it called life mort's because it makes it easier to understand rather than the scientific terminology the most obvious one is the s in life mort's for stopped that's also restraint aggression on an animal or a person who is restrained or trapped will have an aggressive response to break free of that aggression we see this in the road you know when you are held up in traffic you get angry and you're ready to fight that you know you don't become bored or tired or something else that's because being held up. trips this aggressive response to break free of the restraint obviously being sequestered during the pandemic prevented from going about our daily activities this pressing on this s. triggering and provoking an aggressive response but but it doesn't they're doing it in the same it doesn't do it in the same way to everybody i mean not everybody is losing their rags it's just a few people so what's the difference. well we all have the same circus and

we respond to the same triggers there are individual differences these are biological genetic they're also determined by a person's previous life history and experience so yes different people have different responses to the same triggers if i could mention 2 other triggers that i think are very good some insight into one that's less obvious is the trigger which is order in society social animals use aggression to maintain order in society human beings are strictly social are survivals dependent upon being part of a society and we use aggression to maintain social order all of our laws are and mechanisms of controlling behavior with aggression imprisonment capital punishment taking away resources and fines and eccentric i mean we we get angry in the summer runs a stop sign because they're breaking the rules in the cove a situation people are feeling that their rules of society their freedom to travel

associate conduct their businesses are being violated and that presses on the same triggers that cause riots right and another down the scales if i just what i just mentioned these are obviously triggers that we will have to live with until there's a vaccine or x. . 19 hopefully people find a way to deal with it better than breaking things and getting aggressive really interesting ductless failed thank you so much for your time please try not to snack too much. all right thank you very much. now then time for more of your questions now and that means i would to a science correspondent to derek williams. why his germany being so successful in fighting kovac 19. germany's case fatality rate and it's over 200000 confirmed coping $1000.00 infections is quite low and and it has one of the highest recovery rates in the

world most experts say that that's because the country got a lot of things right here in the early stages of the pandemic there was some luck involved i'd say the virus didn't strike germany massively and practically without warning like at that for example italy so so the country had a few crucial weeks to prepare and and that used them the political response to the looming pandemic which was very swift compared to other countries one of the 1st tests for the coronavirus was developed here in berlin and it began to be used widely in the country very early on it didn't hurt to have a highly respected leader making decisions that people listen to among other things those decisions helped to protect the country's elderly which which many think is the big reason behind the germany's low mortality numbers and the strong economy

and the german lack of debt has allowed a more cautious measured reopening of society and the economy so so although there's been a surge in new cases in the last couple of weeks that some experts think might signal the start of a 2nd wave i think that in general most germans would view the national response at least up until now as a success. in general have we seen a low a prevalence of the fire. you know africa. africa has seen over 850000 confirmed cases of coke at 19 so far not that's a lot but it's still just a small percentage of the more than 16 and a half 1000000 cases confirmed worldwide is that all down to the under reporting boras there's something else going on i'm not an expert on epidemiology and

certainly not for africa but reading into this i discovered a hypothesis on why the prevalence is still fairly low in africa that to me seemed plausible it said that the countries with the highest international exposure called gateway to countries have been the ones to be hit 1st and hardest countries like south africa and egypt well over half of the of the continent's reported cases so far have been from those 2 countries alone countries with fewer links abroad remained largely free of covert 19 in the initial months of the outbreak the experts thing but now that the virus has spread to every country in africa many of them expect internal domestic transmission to begin playing a much bigger role and there are worries that as it picks up speed misinformation and generally inadequate health care infrastructure could turn the continent into

the next global hot spot. and that's this edition of covidien 1000 special here on news for me of the scene and berlin as always thanks for watching and today more than ever i do stay close. to the point of strong opinions clear positions in turn. national perspectives. on the united states and china drifting towards a new cold war come with so much at stake what can be done to ensure that the world's 2 most powerful nations don't reach a point of no return find out on to the point. to the point. of the next comedy w. w's

crime fighters are back africa's most successful radio drama series continues this season the stories focus on hate speech color of prevention and sustainable charcoal production. all of a sow's are available online and of course you can share and discuss on africa's facebook page and other social media platforms. crime fighters tune in now. are they friends said wanted to be with you thank you i see here the door you wish it was the would you believe what i'm up with the glittering is new or are they enemies going to the future the heath you live 3 of which you believe in is usually what he's going to give a shit i never work for right jeff donald trump and flooding your pretty i were to

target an entry analyzes the difficult relationship between russia and the us and between their presidents how does their rivalry and their dangerous mutual admiration affect the rest of the world to some bullies trump and putin starts august 3rd on d w. relations between the superpowers china and the united states have and it's a new low mutual rivalry in the pacific is becoming more menacing with intense saber rattling on both sides u.s. naval vessels have been staging maneuvers in what they see as a response to chinese expansionism also new american sanctions against the crackdown in hong kong and sit.