berlin. the economic cost of the pandemic, a blow to u.s. gdp, shaking it by 10% in the second quarter. the virus ravaging europe's biggest economy, german gdp dropping by a record 10%, the biggest decline in half a century. also coming up, donald trump floats the idea of delaying the presidential election. he claims mail-in voting will result in the most fraudulent election in u.s. history.

theerils of social media a in egypt.t. these women doing w wt peoeopleo on tiktok, have been imprisoned for three years for violating family values. >> and lift off. >> nasa laununches its newestt r -- rover, destination mars, to look for signs of ancientt life on the surface of the red planet. ♪ brent: to our viewers all around the world, welcome, we begin with the latest victim of the coronavirus pandemic, the u.s. economy. in a second quarter, output dropped by almost 10%. that translates into an annual rate of 33%.

that is the biggest slump since record keeping began in 1947. it covers the months of april to june when large parts of the economy were brought to a standstill due to pandemic lockdowns. unemployment also remains wearisome, weekly jobless claims have risen slightly, suggesting any tentative recovery will be slow. >> one drew brees is one of around 1800 on a plate americans. the 56-year-old accounted lost his job at a forklift manufacturers after he contacted covid-19. with no dot to go back to, he is finding it hard to find work that he had expected. >> many people are losing their jobs because the companies they work for closed their doors. my company they said they shatter their warehouses. >> factories are closing, small businesses too.

americans are tightening their belts and that close the dope -- all -- cost the gross domestic to drop. it is worth mentioning that if the u.s. counted gdp like europe does, it would have fallen by 10%. making germany's gdp dropped during the second quarter quarter slightly worse than the u.s.'s. germany has seen less unemployment, thanks in part to government-backed short-term work schemes. the gdp numbers for germany in q2 are worse than expected. but let's be honest, we were not expecting good news in terms of growth. the important thing is to put the second quarter behind us and look to the future. everything depends on the course of the pandemic. in germany, infection rates are on the uptake. around 700 new infections were reported on wednesday. in the u.s., the number is north of 60,000. worrying numbers for juan ruiz

and he does not expect the economy to get back on track soon. his wife and son barely make enough to pay the family's bills. >> these are not good numbers. i'm joined by an economic strategist at the university of california in berkeley. it is good to see you again. let's talk about this 10% drop in gdp. what does that mean? >> alwayss a pleasure to be with yoyou, thank you foror having m. this is the worst and fastestst decline sincnce the greatt depression. this iss turning out to be realy bad. wewe are looking a at it on a plymouth rate between 13% and 17%. the e reason for white that is d is t the united states is drdrog off as a public e economic engie and with most of europe ailing in a second wave, asia and chiha will h have to pick up the slack and whether they will have the capacity to do s so and quicklys

doubtfulul given that theyey are struruggling with their own recovery and on second waves of infections. germany is the big hope in europe. it has managed its debt more than the united states, but whether each economy can be strong enough to pull all of europe, much less the united states and parts of asia, remains to be seen. brent: let me ask you about germany. germany relies on exports and if the global economy is not doing well, that makes it almost impossible for the german ececonomy to approve. amam i seeing thatat right? >> that is right. i think the hope is china and china hahas managed the tail end of hisis first wave of virus fairly well and is starting to recover. of course, china also still is not quite out of the slump. there is a lot of uncertainty. we are also seeing other export markets such as latin america and a aica being hit by thee

virus. it is a fairly slim rail the german economy is riding on. brent: there has been talk about a v-shaped recovery but the way things are looking, i am hearing w-shaped or maybe a u shape. >> i think anynybody talking a t aa-shaped recovery has rosy glasses. this i is clearly a elongated w, basesed on our c courting onyx scenenarios research, we are seeing scecenarios where this is going to take e three years at bestst to recover for most industries a and for some economies, it will take five to seven n years and we w will see spikes o of recession, of contractioion, interspersed with periods of recovery. brent: that is a long time to be

stuck in the bathtub. as always,s, it is goodod to tak with you, thank you. >> my pleasure, thank you. brent: moments after the u.s. released those terrible gdp numbers, donald trump suggested delaying the 2020 election until he says it becomes safer to vote on hundred by the coronavirus pandemic. the president took to twitter to say, universal mail-in voting would make the election the most inaccurate and fraudulent in history. he then asked, delay the election until people can properly, securely, and safely vote? trump is lagging in opinion polls, it is important to note that only the u.s. congress can change the election date, which is set by law for november 3. let's go to washington, our

correspondent, good afternoon. it is not surprising that democrats do not like donald trump's idea. what about republicans? they are not thrilled either, are they? reporter: that's right, even republican lawmakers opposed that idea. many came out on twitter saying only congress can postpone the elections and that is a phenomenon we have been following for the last week that more republicans are turning their back on president john. yesterday with a troop withdrawal germany, high-ranking republicans are opposing that. a few moments ago, house minority leader kevin mccarthy said the republican party is not backing that idea and it would be a violation of the constitution. brent: we know this is not the first time donald trump has claimed that mail-in voting could result in massive fraud. has he ever been able to substantiate that claim? >> he has not.

the only argument he is putting forward is that voting by mail is insecure but there is no evidence to prove that. the question is why is he doing that? one assumption is that democrats take the threat that is posed by the pandemic was seriously, therefore are more open to vote by mail and that would result in a higher turnout of democrats, which is not in president trump's fail -- favor. he is trying to postpone the election to when a vaccine could be developed, hoping that the polls would improve in his favor. brent: it is unprecedented for a sitting president to suggest this. we've got a president making a claim without evidence, making a claim that does not have political backing from his own party. what does this tell us about donald trump's political standing right now? >> is complicated. it looks rather unlikely that he would be reelected, republicans

are turning against him, joe biden is leading by two digits. it is a little while until the election and a lot can happen but the economic data is grim. the gdp is down by 33%, 100 50,000 casualties as a result of the coronavirus, the rate of new infection is reaching record highs. the perspective is grim and if that does not change, it does not look good for president trump's reelection. brent: our correspondent in washington, thank you. some of the other stories making headlines around the world, the u.s. administration has agreed to withdraw homeland security agents from portland, oregon after weeks of clashes with protesters. local authorities have criticized the agents' presence. washington said the officers were neededed to prorotect fedel courts buildings. former president of candidate

herman cain has died after contracting covid-19. he rose to prominence in the food industry before switching to politics. a cochair for black voices for trump, he was hospitalized and spent two weeks s after attendig the president's campaign rally in june. he was 74 years old. tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in cities across bulgaria. they are demanding the resignation of the government and chief prosecutor, accusing them of suppressing free speech, having ties with the mafia, and refusing to fight corrupton. the rallies are bulgaria's biggest in seven years. a court in egypt has handed several young women prison sentences after they put the videos to the social media app tiktok. prosecutors alleged that they had violated family values. the acute included two prominent

influencers. human rights groups see the jailing's as part of a larger crackdown on online content, especially posted by young women. ♪ >> these v videos may look harmless, but in egygypt, they landed these women in prison. a courtt ruled that five women had violated public morals a aer putting videos like this on the video sharing app tiktok. the younung women are social mea influencers and have several million followers. prosecutors reliededn a two-year-old law that gave the government power to censor content online. >> the l legal framewowork is bd on the cybercrimime law, whihis papassed in 201818, espspeciallo articles that are relelated to olating it j jeppesen values, whwhich is a b broad article ths open to interprpretation and

problelematic sinceceunitive articlcles should be extremely specific. in thiss case,e, it is open to interpreretation andnd open to e used in targeting women anytime. >> ejections came to the defense online, calalng their p punishmt and injustice. a group started a petetition on changege.org c calling on auauthorities to s stop the crackdowown on female tiktok uss.s. amnesty y international has said freedom of expression has suffered more under the president then at any other time in the past 30 years. brent: nasa's newly launched mission to mars to search for signs of life suffered some technical difficulties after takeoff. a rocket armed with cameras, drills, anand lasersrs blasted f from florida on thursdsday. shortly after that liftoff, the spacecraft entered safe mode and shut up all nonessential systems

after the tetemperaturure readig triggered an alarm. nasa says temperatureses are bak in normal r ranges and the shshp will continue its mission to study mars like never before. >> it will test out a new navigation system. it is an autopilot designed to work out the best target location and steer towards it. it is supposed to make touchdown safer and more precise. the rover is aiming for this riverbed. perseverance will investigate its surroundings with cameras and measuring devices. researchers hope the data will give them new insights into the geology and climatic history of mars. perseverance has another job too. to search for signs of life. >> we probably won't find dna or

anything like that on mars, but we might find rocks that were formed by dialogical -- biological processes. that is what we are hoping there would -- hoping. >> it has been developed to search for these traces of life. it has two cameras, which can deliver detailed photographs in 3d. the camera sysystem also has an advanced zoom to help researchers say -- see tiny patterns in the rock. >> however team leader is a professor in arizona and he always put it like this. imagine you are sitting in a football stadium ethical and. you can see a fly between the goalposts at the other end. >> the mission is also sending a small helicopter to mars. it's job is to carry out

autonomous test flights where it controls the whole process by itself. its propellers have to spend eight times as fast as on earth because the atmosphere of mars is so thin. since the first flight attempts, it has taken engineers five years to get to this point. the both 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 bring them to a launchpad. a rocket will cacarry them to a satellllite which will l bring e precious cargo to earth. brent: let's bring in an earth scientist with imperial college london, part of the mars

mission. it is good to have e you on thee show. this is what, the fourth h u.s. mission toto mars, what isis different this time? >> this s is anmazing rover inn terms ofof the into mentation. it has new instruments to look at the landscape and analyze the chemistry. but the key differencnce to the previous robot is ththat this robot is going to drill holeses into the surface, into rococ, collllect course, place them in tubes, and leave them on the surfacace of mars for a fututure mission toto bringhem m backoo earth. both geolologists w would like o analalyze the samples of mars rocks in earth laboratories. we can do a lot on mars with rorove but we can'tt do that technical stuff we can do in laboratories. brent: the earliest we look at those mars samples would be

2031.. we've gotot a decade to weights. i wanant to talk a about what yr team i is doing. yoyou will be evaluating the camera photos. what is so interesting in the greater where the rover is supposed to land? >> it has been picked specially. is a greater f from satellite images a appears to have been an ancient lake. we can see a river feeling into the crater and at the mouth of the river by, what looks like a delta that built into this lake. this is evidence there was water, perhaps early in mars' history, 3.9 billion years ago. the legs are perfect environments for life to form and floururish and be preserved and that is the kekey. we want t to go too a place thae understatand the geology of that has a high likelihood of the samples potentially containing evidence for life. brent: i sense your optimism.

how optimistic are you that you will find signs that therere usd to be life on mars? >> we have to search. we can't tell, we have never had life, but for me as a scientist, it seems surprising that behave -- that we have life e on earth but t life did not arise on mar. we have toto search. lifefe is one question, but we have little understanding of mars' geological history. these samples will tell us, the crater h has been chosen because of a diversity of rocks. that will be able to tease out importantt details about mars' early history. it will be crucial to understanding early planet evolution n and what is importat about that is rocks of that age are not well preserved on earth because of plate tectonics. plate tectonics destroys rocks, bubut on mars, they arare priste because mars does not have a plate tectonic cycle.

by analyzing these blocks on earth, we will learn n about the early y stages of mars but earth also. brent: we hohope to talklk to yu when t those first analyses begn and when those rocks come back to earth. we appreciate your time tonight, thank you. >> thank you, goodbye. brent: you are watching dw news. still to come, former president obama beat at the funeral of john lewis. he calls him a founding father of a fuller, fairer, better america. we have that report in a moment. here is some of the other stories making headlines. a special prosecutor in switzerland has opened a case against fifa president. the charges relate to secret meetings he held with the swiss attorney general back in 2016

and 2017. he was reelected president of footballs international governing body last year. hong kong authorities have disqualified a dozen pro-democracy candidates from running in upcoming elelections. the government says they failedd to uphold the city's constitution. among those barred is joshua wong. he says the decision showed a disregard for the will of the people of hong kong. mexico's supreme court has rejected a case which sought to decriminalize abortion in local area has. the judgment meets antiabortion laws in varick years will remain in place. religious groups celebrated the decision in front of the court. going to a sold-out concert used to be normal. it is now fraught with risk because of the coronavirus. digital concerts help to fill in the gap but they yearning for

live performances has not gone away. a group in germany has come up with a way to connect music lovers in person, no face mask required. >> a silent k's -- gaze. this is how a one-on-one concert begins in this monastery. ♪ it is a moving experience for the audience. >> to look into this person's eyes for so long and then to listen to the music, it can't be compared to an orchestra or a concert where the musician looks so small. >> suddenly, you are in a space you say, i am playing a small concert for you, then you try to give it your all. >> putting your all in all over,

the monastery concerts recreated by a flutist and her colleagues last year. then the pandemic hit. ♪ >> as the possibilities for performing changed, it was obvious to us even then that we wanted to continue with our concept. not only here in the middle of nowhere, but in the world. the idf was welcomed with open arms. -- the idea was welcomed with open arms. >> 4000 concert have been held so far. -- concerts have been held so far. ♪ two strangers so distant, yet so close. ♪

>> i don't know if the musician notice but i was moved to tears in some parts. >> it is beautiful to be so close and too happy i contact at the beginning. >> the concerts have raised 100,000 euros in donations for freelance musicians in germany. there are even bible readings for a party of one. intimacy and a time of social distancing. brent: three former u.s. president spoke today in atlanta, georgia at the funeral of congressman john lewis. barack obama received a standing ovation when he condemned republican attempts at preventing people from voting. john lewis, who marched at the side of martin luther king, died two weeks ago at the age of 80. >> ♪ if i could help somebody

>> if i could help somebody as i pass along the way, then my living shall not be in vain. words which could not match john lewis' lifework any better. at his funeral, three former presidents paid tribute to the icon of the civil rights movement. one of them, barack obama. >> whether it is years from now or decades or if it takes another two centuries, john lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better america. >> just like obama, many speakers underlined john lewis' courage, which shaped the history of the u.s. john lewis was born in alabama in 1940, hee was a leader of the march in washington, which

helped end segregation in the country. he was jailed many times and attacked by state troopers. he was a champion of peaceful civil disobedience, which he called good trouble. >> he got into a lot of good trouble along the way but let's not forget, he also developed an uncanny ability to heal troubled earth. >> john lewis turned from protest to politics. he ran for congress in 1987 and stayed for 35 years until his death. representative lewis really laid to rest at a cemetery in atlanta where dr. martin luther king jr. is also buried. brent: eva minder of the t top stories at this hour, the latest figures show the coronavirus pandemic is decimating economic growth.

the u.s.s. economy slumped by 1, an annual rate of one third. the german economy also shrank by 10% in the second quarter. this is dw news from berlin. i will be back to take you through the day. tonight, the economic costs of the pandemic. we will be right back. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

i'm from twenty four .com. president donald trump pain study wants to twenty twenty presidential election postponed because postal voting could lead to fool the us president has no power to postpone an election. but france at twenty fours a caravan of gorgeous donnie will tell us exactly why. the world's economy takes that the heads as the globe comes to terms with the impact of the corona virus and the lock down the united states best the brunt. of the full with record high annual rate lososses. and coronavirus cases continue