deciding russia's next chapter it's the final day and final hour of voting on changes to the constitution we look at what's being offered on the public's reaction to it. i think. because the current constitution is out of date i think it is nonsense according to legal and. it's. also ahead in a busy news hour intense scrutiny on germany's huge meat processing industry after a major break among staff at the biggest shines a light on working on the living conditions for that mainly low paid migrants. rocking the boat fronts withdrawals from nature missions in the mediterranean sea

with turkey over a naval incident deep tensions within the military. from the r.t. news for in this wedding the 1st global news update with me you know. your company . is the final hour of a week of voting that's been taking place in russia and proposed changes to the country's constitution while many have already how there are say by voting online president putin declared today our national holiday to a lot of voters who had not yet gone to cast their ballots. russia's nationwide votes on amendments to its constitution has just come to a close in the capitol i will finish it in hours time there's been some

good as well people coming on its own to the streets the voice their concern over the proposed changes but millions of their say spending to come to this from the far east. so far it's helping costs across the biggest nation in the world to across the vellum and forests today correspondence courses. are saucy let's kick off with you as we were saying the poll edging towards its conclusion just a few regions left to vote any ideas so far on results. while in the russian capital polling stations have officially closed mocking of course one of the last places to wrap up voting in the country os still places to moscow's west. is still underway not is because they are and our what the high and let's not

forget of course that russia has an incredible time zones now this is the non-conventional vote from the start it was due to take place in april but was postponed due to corona virus then it became because of safety precautions this than a week long process which was stretched from the 25th of june all the way up to today the fust of july it's all people mosty beloved voting in polling stations voting at home 13 on the lie and indeed results from russia's fraud east region have started coming in and at the moment it looks with around 10 percent of its counted that 70 percent of people voted in favor of the constitutional amendments 28 percent voted against now us not quite a solid yes think god one that is very close to. independent pollsters what predicting last week but it got there are still millions of votes is still need to

be counted and they thought 100000 polling stations all across the country will probably only head fishel result on thursday morning but this pepper site has really engaged people and that's reflected in the town out around 65 percent which might not sound a lot but actually it's much higher than all the votes of the similar kind historically. have done have with us to igor some protests have been happening in moscow petersburg we know of to day what's behind our more demonstrations expected . in fact i'm not far from my colleagues in the red square is just about a kilometer and a half or away that way but behind me you pretty much can see the entire ritzy of the main protest these are the people who are on the happy with the results with the results of this vote they are saying no to the constitutional amendments and

this is this is sort of a traditional venue for the russian opposition to vent their anger out to make their feelings hurt and the judging by the looks of it and the crowd just mind it's not the beginning it's not the starting point of this protest it has been going on for a couple of hours and this is as many people as it's read in fact some people as i can see have already slowly have started to leave very very peaceful usual chants calling on blood of a policeman to go and see one and so forth some remarkable something spectacular performance by the russian police i should say because the resists the police you can see 2 of police officers just over there and some of them are scattered throughout the crowd over there but they're here right here i haven't seen a single person. taken in detention in fact just over there just behind the camera you can see there's

a police vehicle with mouthpieces with phones mounted on top of it and normally during an event like this this vehicle would be used to cool especially if it's an authorized protest like this one police would be calling on the protesters to disperse not a single cool i have through the evening they still haven't they still haven't issued one which is interesting what they have done though they have been going around the crowd and offering free mosques because well over $1000.00 hasn't gone anywhere mosques like these i got one to show you and anyone in the crowd who left home just didn't think to both of getting one day they could but this is not the only. group of activists on the red square. on the ground with trying to make. 20. 6 and this is in reference to

a year as to how long the amendments some of the amendments would allow vladimir putin to stay in power similar action in st petersburg some $100.00 people roughly as many as is here but mind a lot of there are dozens of journalists in that crowd. those activists on the red square and in st petersburg they have been briefly detained but they have already been released again no. detentions here. you have to when it comes to the what to the control around these amendments there are more than $200.00 of them but mainly people are concerned about those that would allow vladimir putin to get reelected for 2 more terms essentially without these amendments when vladimir putin. the russian press. event comes to an end you will be able to take part in the early presidential elections when you move

with the pact with the passage of the amendments that are proposed that have been put on the table right now you would be able to get reelected 2 more times until and that would potentially russia will potentially see him in power until 2036. ok let's bring in public susskind into the program are going through about how many amendments are actually on the table for the public to digest is there a sense of being concentrating perhaps on warm amendment more than the others for instance. what i think it's safe to say that there is wide consensus throughout washes that some kind of form is absolutely necessary i mean the current constitution's been in place since 1993 rushers almost unrecognizable now compared to that and people recognize that the constitution needs to constantly adapt to new and challenging realities but i don't think it was an easy decision for anyone and i think that in large part was due to the to the

all or nothing voting scheme so they were asked either to vote for or against the entire package of amendments and there were over $140.00 of them what do you do if you really support 130 of them but you really don't like more than 10 of them so i think that led to a lot of deliberation and and saw a lot of to ing and fro ing in fact let's hear from the people themselves and see what they have to say on all of these amendments. i think that it's needed because the current constitution is out of date it is in modern time and even the view is not for this new. why have i come here to vote because i'm a citizen of russia and i agree with all of them men mints in your i am not ok with their management about 0 out the presidential term absolutely do not agree with. i became familiar with all of the member. from the constitution of the man who looks the most important to manage the prevalence of russian you know over international

the head of the central election commission of said something about voting being like a meal deal you either take everything or you do not take it at all and i already do not like one dish in this meal deal so i will not take everything else i think it is nonsense according to all legal logical and ethical norms i love my country and its think everything that is being done is right i am going with the pleasure to vote and i am recommend everyone to do the same. in terms of what could swing it in the direction of yes while i think it's the package of social i'm adamant that have filed widespread appeal so i'm talking about adjusting pensions in line with inflation ensuring that minimum wage is at least at the same level as the cost of living providing fog that financial support for low income families because these are issues that impact on people's day to day lives so i think we'll have pulled 10 people to the polling stations so as we wait out this

final our polling stations let's look at some of the mole on multi-drug so indications in which people have been costing that thought in the future of this constitution or across the country. lose lose lose. lose lose lose lose lose. lose. lose. lose. lose lose. lose. lose lose lose lose. lose. lose lose. lose lose. lose lose.

and indeed russian citizens are broad all across the world have been joining long queues in front of embassies to cast their ballots regular streams of people particularly seen in. berlin and other european cities to. have their say on the possible changes to russia's constitution some of told us that even if they

currently live in russia they still have a duty to vote. so as we have been going through there's a long list of proposed changes in the package being voted on but it's just one element that's got much of the foreign media fired up. russia's parliament basically paving the way for vladimir putin to potentially stay on as russian president he's the longest serving russian leader since joseph stalin but whatever putin wants to stay in power even longer addressing lawmakers abdu words putin said he backed the amendment allowing him to seek another term in office but there are dozens of interesting thought there should also be discussed and the one that caught my eye was on children the role of children and all but often as i explicitly mentioned in one of the constitutional a market which i think is worse while reflecting the russian federation of the year

2020 is in many regards i would say in a different situation than was the country in 1903 when we compare the international circumstances but also of course the national economic and political situation the early ninety's were marked by an implosion of the sort of union marked by the communists and. it was more about being effects of the then being the russian federation that we have today i think there is a need for. meeting this new circumstances because a constitution is almost a reflection of a society and also off the circumstances of the countries in seoul the. duty of the legislature the parliament in order to respond to do snooty gensis have

given thought about online of all to myself several times it's a global debate and i must admit. very personally i'm a bit old fashioned i've think it still makes sense the day of the vault to go out to go to the ballot box so you don't dress up and say tool to discuss with your friends before and after their tool to simply make it click on yourself up.

join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you there.

just approaching 17 minutes past the hour welcome back let's start by in germany where the covert lockdowns been extended on the factory and surrounding time in the west of the country after a huge number of workers came down with infections smaller eye breaks as well in similar types of workplaces the unions it's got officials concerned over safety concerns for staff peter all of has been looking into. germany was quite rightly praised for how it handled the initial wave of coronavirus now although it's dealing with something but hops a little more tricky isolated localized spikes of covert 19 we're on our way to a meat processing plant in the city of good to slow which has been the epicenter of one of those outbreaks over $1500.00 workers tested positive at this facility the factory is currently closed down with the workforce in quarantine since corona was confirmed

a lockdown that was imposed on the local area last week has been extended by 7 days and the federal government. is calling on people to be. this is. a hard situation for many people the restrictions cause a burden in the chancel thinks all people who take the situation with patients follow the necessary restrictions they are all helping out. prevent the virus from spreading the reason for the extension of this local lockdown is 100 cases of corona in the last week detected in people that have no connection whatsoever with this meat factory the working and living conditions of staff at the other 2 are have been brought under the microscope low paid my income workers from eastern europe often living in cramped conditions where social distancing is nigh on impossible but being seen as the unfortunate catalyst for this spike people living in this area on top either workers were forced to continue in these conditions

during a pandemic. management should have been more careful these are people who came here to work they should have been tested before they were hired but when the virus was already in the factory and you don't know who has it then you cannot stop action we have guest workers from romania and sometimes they live 10 people in the same apartment they were almost for nothing and that's the problem. they are blaming the meat factory but the virus is still everywhere one of the reasons could be that people are working there in close proximity without maintaining the necessary say distance officials in berlin and local governments say this is the responsibility of business owners. the company must have civil liability through behavior where people obviously do not abide by rules corporation took an entire region hostage it is currently being about he waited very carefully whether and against which rules

the company has violated and where it can be held liable tasked with looking after work his rights are buying the german government saying they're willing to open a dialogue on improving conditions they. have been all talk no action they have already been enough in nonsense and promises who heard it all before but nothing ever happens the company operates. seeing this plant of refused all requests for comment when it comes to working conditions they cite but this isn't the only coded spike in germany right now.

this type of localized outbreak has been noticeably absent from germany's blue chip manufacturing the auto industry is back to work with the correct precautions being taken in a normal working week 30000 plagues assaulted here every day and wild low paid staff living in poor quality crime towers inc may allow for chief bratton 1st in schnitzel it also provides coronavirus with the optimum conditions to spread peter all over r.t. good to slow germany. ok another story we're closely following today friends has announced it will be temporarily suspending its role in nature shows naval

operations in the made the middle standoff between porus among crow over an incident with a turkish warship last month picking up the story charlotte dubinsky. president has been questioning the organization of nato questioning its effectiveness and its allies even questioned one of its cool principles which is article 5 this idea that if one nato members attack the others will come to eat a and he has repeated his accusations made last year and again made in the last few weeks that the organization is brain dead let me take you back to my statement. i think this is the best example of it when 2 members are confronted with the situation we are living in not denouncing it it's intolerable so what's going on here well this is to do with the latest incident between france and as you alluded to that this is an incident that place in the last weeks in the mediterranean sea

a french ship was out as part of the nato operation it wanted to verify what was on board that vessel then from says that the turkish vessel to respond so france couldn't verify that it wasn't breaking a un simple go to libya it then says that the vessel appeared not to. the french fake it 3 times with its control radio and many people say this came so we try to be close to the 2 ships firing on each other this is how serious that incident was now made to has been investigating this incident but the front stumped its feet and demanded an investigation take place now we understand that the preliminary investigation has come up until he says francis suspension part in this particular operation is sour grapes because the

investigation doesn't show what france said was actually true we have to wait for that investigation from nato that's turkey's position is. now michael has been serious with to you for a number of issues that we sleep but sickly own libya he is even talked about for mental responsibility by to be in libya for the art of the excel you 1st external interventionist in libya is turkey and i think that today does respect any of the commitments taken during the conference has strengthened its military presence in libya and has massively imported combatants from syria i think it's a historic and criminal responsibility for a country which claims to be nato member in libya hours with other conflicts it seems that these 2 supposedly nato allies and members are finding themselves on very different sides of the fence at the moment and it is not clear what this suspension all thoughts and mediterranean operation temporary it may be or not what

this means for france's role in why did they do operations what is pretty clear that france is a founding member open a talking a zation it's something it speak it wants to be heard and it wants to make sure that it is believed is helping push to the forefront. the german chancellor is showing resistance in the face of u.s. sanctions as berlin seeks to get the nord stream to gas pipeline project over the line. this missed the threat and possible effect of new measures. if you go mother nature of extraterritorial sanctions that u.s. is willing to impose doesn't comply with the legal understanding the construction process is being complicated nevertheless we still believe that the project should be completed we will continue to act in accordance with this approach of. the project going completed will deliver russian gas directly to germany through the

baltic sea since the beginning washington has been trying to stop or hinder the pipelines progress in the u.s. lawmakers impose sanctions targeting companies involved in its construction now the u.s. senators are considering tightening those barriers we heard from german m.p.'s who told us berlin will stand firm he believes on getting the project over the line. while we had a vote today not only the. hearing in the because we are with the for much and some order he was even calling for paid for retore measures i'm not a fan of sanctions and call until sanctions but i think this the circumstances should be clear. of any and and european union it's it's becoming a question off of the summer and the not only off of what project the

question of threat to germany and the summer and to you this should be decided in germany or football is decided and europe and. of course there is a dependency if you will get the gas from from russia but on the other hand russia is dependent from europe as well if they saw the look at the gas and this kind of cooperation we had during the years off the cold war and this was not a bad time for i think it's entirely dependent relation but not a threat to our european and security. ok before we go let's go to check on what else is happening today around the world starting in hong kong where over 300 people have been arrested in 24 hours following the implementation of new protest lol. i.

the demonstrations are occurring just after china passed its controversial hong kong security law the new rules those guilty of crimes such as secession collusion with foreign sources face life in prison among those detained a teenager who waving a hong kong and dependence. on the west coast of the u.s. has police being clearing the totemist own in seattle the area known as child so officers of cope with heavy weapons on protests move in before the raid protestors some of whom were armed were warned they could face arrest if they don't leave as a result of where 30 demonstrators have been detained there's only near capitol hill in the city has been occupied since june the 8th residence there have been demanding the abolition of the police following the death of george floyd. disney house reopened its doors to visitors the theme park was shut for 4 months

due to corona virus is not back up and running with safety measures in place the attractions restaurants will serve you or people while shows remain suspended. confirmed over 18000 covert cases with the death surpassing 9 it's. all right to follow us on our social networks for what is a huge day in the country's history as amendments to the nation's constitution is put to the people voting is edging towards its close so keep it close for you see the r t logo for the latest results i mean you know neal. thousands of american men and women choose to serve in their country's military decision.

every song came to a complete. the day that i was raped. you know told to shut up but they'd kill me and i see how it destroyed my life any screamed at me and he made me come in and he grabbed my arm and he raped me with his birthing area if you take into account that women don't report because of the extreme retaliation and it's probably somewhere near about half a 1000000 women have now been sexually assaulted in the us military rape is a very very traumatizing thing tat happen but i've never seen trauma like i've seen women who are veterans who have suffered military sexual trauma reporting rape is more likely to get the victim punished don't be offended and almost 10 year career or chose very invested in and i gave a sex offender who was not even put to justice or put on the registry this is simply an issue of tower and violence male sexual predators for the large part of target whoever is there to prey upon whether that's a man or woman.