Mercenaries accused of attempting to disrupt next months election also. Seeking answers from nasa launches its biggest rover to the red planet in search for evidence of ancient klein. Im going to get your skill with this sport as a Swiss Special prosecutor opens a criminal case against the president jennie implant tina. Welcome to the news theres more bad news coming out of the United States with the Worlds Largest economy shrinking at the fastest pace on record in the 2nd quarter the Health Emergency turned into a Global Financial crisis saw the u. S. Economy contract by 9. 5 percent the recent rise in cope with 19 cases that has seen more businesses shut down and left millions out of work and. The 1400000 people applied for jobless benefits in the past week elsewhere germanys plunged into a record recession with its economy shrinking by 10 percent in the 2nd quarter that the pandemics wiped out nearly 10 years of Growth Company shell saw its profits fall by 82 percent just over 18000000000. 00 the pandemic has pushed down oil and gas prices and the worlds biggest plane maker has posted a net loss of 2 point 2000000000. 00 in the 1st half of the year its rival boeing announced a similar 2nd quarter loss on wednesday well the touch of butler is in paris for a song not big loss for us from the german capital be speaking to dominic cain hell have more on the countrys shrinking economy but 1st lets go over to the white house. Is our correspondent there and kimberly the booming economy is something that the president prides himself on promises the nation day in day out but it has to be a very different tone today based on these figures. These are horrific numbers theres really no way to spin this in the positive direction as you point out 2 sets of numbers giving us a snapshot of what this economy looks like and its a far cry from the job gains that this President Donald Trump built in the early days of his presidency all of those gains have been wiped out and then the gains from some of the growth that happened under barack obama as well as you mentioned the g. D. P. Plunging 32. 9 percent now softening the blow a tiny bit is the fact that they thought this would be up at 34 percent but still very bad numbers numbers that we really havent seen in terms of scale and scope since the mid 1920 s. And then you also have to put into account these jobless claims which is ticked up a little bit not as bad as we saw at the peak in march but at the same time more than 20000000 americans remain unemployed now you can point to cope and say this is the reason for all of this weve seen the contraction in personal spending whether its cars restaurants weve also seen a decline in the other areas of Health Care Spending and also when it comes to exports and investment so when you put that all together that is what is painting this very grim picture for president who is counting on a Strong Economy to help him win reelection in november but of course this all does seem to cd into what the president is tweeting what within the lets talk about the president ial election is going to cause some concern in certain political quarters. Yeah the u. S. President not only facing a horrific economy but also double digit plunging in the poll numbers next to his rival joe biden has been for days trying to discredit the election at least in terms of the mail in voting which Many Democrats support the president tweeting just now with universal mail in voting not absentee voting which is good 2020 will be the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history will be a great embarrassment to the usa to lay the election until people can properly securely and safely vote this is going to cause quite a bit of concern the suggestion of delaying an election is really remarkable and many would argue the president is doing this to stack things in his favor given the poll numbers given the economic numbers the bottom line in all of this it is the president has been discrediting the results of the election but now to be suggesting it should be postponed altogether is something that is not going to be met well not just from opposition democrats or his rival joe biden but also i expect some within the Republican Party itself im sure will let him all fall out as the day progresses for the moment given how it all White House Correspondent thank you lets cross over to john you know it all mccain is in the comp to let me really these figures from your perspective is that even germanys perspective broadly in line with what has been 4 cuts for the 2nd quarter but does it really mean the chimney house with the stalled war the news to come. Well we need to put this into perspective the 1st is that this is the worst quarterly performance for 50 years for the German Economy though that refers back to the west German Economy rather than to the east German Economy but nonetheless it is very bad news but as was alluded to this is needed this needs to be seen through the prism of what had already been predicted for the quarter and several months ago once the 2nd quarter was underway once the pandemic was really here taking hold of the economy of the country the predictions had been that they would be expected that the economy would shrink by almost 10 percent in the event its a bit more than 10 percent but not much more than that and so theres very much the sense coming from ministerial circles that they feel that theyve kept a lid on it that theyve prevented it from being much worse than they possibly imagined and indeed there are elements certain sectors in the economy that are rebounding already from the worst. Problems caused by the pandemic and the economy minister several weeks ago was talking about his hope that the economy would rebound in 2021 but obviously all of that optimism is predicated on there being no 2nd wave of corona in this country thats why over the course of the past few days and indeed over the course of the past few weeks weve seen a succession of state prime ministers of federal ministers trying to urge caution trying to urge people around the country for not doing things that might cause corona to come back and thats why we saw in the course of the last 2 days that at airports there will soon be mandatory carona tests because the fear amongst the the industries and indeed the government is that a 2nd wave of corona will be terrible for the economy they feel they weather the storm they hope they dont have to weather a 2nd one double again in berlin thank you lets go across the border to france and to paris when the doctor is standing by and of course released their figures natasha its not looking good but the impact of course could. Suffer other countries across europe. Yes some terrible figures for air bus the european plane maker a 2200000000. 00 of net losses in the 1st 6 months of this year theyve had to deliver half the amount of aircraft in the 1st half of this year that they had planned on and also in the 2nd quarter revenue tumbling by 55 percent so whatever us are saying is that they have had to cut production by 40 percent which of course have a huge impact on the company old staff across the europe who work for us and all the suppliers the whole industry that is always linked to any one company now what air bus are saying is that this is due of course to the question of virus pandemic the fact that during the lockdowns people pretty much didnt fly airlines were grounded and even after the restored restrictions have been lifted in some places Airline Travel has been severely reduced in fact air bus are saying their visibility for the future is very limited indeed they may not be forecasting in the short term because the Airline Travel industry isnt really expected to get back onto its feet at least preplanned demick levels until 20232025 thats a a long way off indeed and its something of course that will affect as i said all these industries that are connected to the european playmakers are bad news indeed out of france today with a battle in paris thank you. Greg swenson is a specialist on violence in the Virgin Marcus is also a Founding Partner of brigham mcadam a london based Investment Bank joins me now via skype from london good to have you with us on the program mr swenson global economies have taken a huge hit because of the unprecedented circumstances around covert 19 the falls were expected but the degree to which they fall that should most probably worry economists. Well i think so but you know most of the the consensus was actually higher than the number today so you know the consensus was 35000000 and a consensus on initial jobless claims is 1. 45 so both numbers came in in a little lower im not that worried about the g. D. P. Number because its a lagging indicator everyone expected it you know and and obviously it was weighted toward the 1st month of the quarter which was april the claims numbers a little more troubling but also that a perspective there is as important you know that they did tick up 800000 but the the actual employment rolls have not shrunk that much recently so the trend is still pretty good i mean the last week or 2 yes there was a little bit of a lag due to the regional or local shutdowns but i think you can expect you know the consensus of up 17 percent for q 3 is really what we should be looking at is is the recovery and not necessarily what happened 3 months ago and does the recovery depend on the sort of coverage depend on governments for example like in the u. S. And germany being able to formulate a stimulus package that would get the economy back on track pending the fact that there isnt a 2nd wave of prone to violence. Well look i think i think the stimulus is important you cant necessarily have you know Central Bank Stimulus alone you need the fiscal stimulus as well but its more relief package at least the ones that were passed earlier and earlier this year you know were important for relief what i would hope is that the government stimulus now is driven or focused on growth because really the best way to protect incomes is g. D. P. Growth and job creation we saw some good numbers coming out of the employment in the us in may and june you know you had to have 1000000 jobs created in may and 4 point 8000000 in june i dont expect well see those numbers again for july when when those are released next friday but but i think its a its a good trend and again most of these layoffs and initial claims are offset by new jobs so so the number of you know with layoffs you still have job creation and so thats a thats a very positive indicator for the u. S. Economy as for germany theyve done a good job in keeping jobs in place they really unscented and were paying companies to keep their payroll so you didnt see as much job loss in germany the question is is that sustainable you know germany has really depended on exports it so i think we have to look its you know if i can just jump in there because you talk about germany but the normal phrase that germany sees is the rest of europe gets a cold i mean how will this impact on economies that we rely on depend on German Growth to sort of in direct to help their economy especially across europe and some of the e. U. Yes great question and i you know germany is 20 percent of the e. U. Right now 20 percent of the u. G. D. P. And there is that effect from german manufacturing especially in northern italy and Eastern Europe so yes this could have some effect you know the as i said the German Economy depends on exports 47 percent of g. D. P. So their biggest trading partner is china so theyre all ability there and the 2nd largest u. S. So i think because theyre theyre dependent on exports some of this job preservation i think is vulnerable so i think you know we really have to look forward and not look at the past quarter you know its just not as important as the leading indicators and joining us from london thanks so much for joining us i hate to say thank you. But hong kong 12 opposition politicians have been disqualified from running in Septembers Legislative Council election leading prodemocracy activists joshua wong is one of those disqualified he says it shows a total disregard for the people of Hong Kong Electoral forties have asked the candidates about their views on beijings National Security law and u. S. Sanctions the move has been denounced by the opposition as a political witch hunt and for the 1st time in Hong Kong Police have used the new National Security law to crackdown on prodemocracy activists online 4 students have been arrested theyre accused of posting content that calls the hong kongs independence from china beijing imposed its controversial 4 weeks ago and chinas ambassador to the u. K. Elysia main has accused the u. K. Of being responsible for the deterioration in relations between the 2 countries lisa says that the u. K. s condemnation of hong kongs new National Security law and moves to grant people in the city a pathway to british citizenship constitute blatant interference in chinas Domestic Affairs on hong kong. They have been planted us interference from the u. K. In hong kong. We in turn are those of china including wrong accusations against the National Security more as they are change to the policy more being passed. As benjamin our tradition treaty we are this move seriously interrupted ability and prosperity are. The Chinese Embassy in london hell give us the latest reaction out of the u. K. In a moment but 1st lets cross over to pollen in the whole colon divya really the 1st arrests in hong kong using the National Security law online communication of Course Online communications that sort of tells us more tell us more about the group thats being held or was arrested. But 1st we need to point out that these are 4 very young people that were arrested overnight police went into their homes without a warrant which is now a provision under that National Security law they confiscated documents their computers and devices saying that they are investigating them for advocating home console dependence the group of 4 are between the ages of 16. 21 their leaders said to be a 19 year old who formed a word or was called a student look what they call the student localism a group or organization advocating for hong kong secession from the rest of china but they said they shut down their organization on june the 30th just hours before that National Security law was due to come into place as that law clearly states that any acts of advocating independence are secession or sedition would be penalized so they said they shut down that organization but have since advocated it overseas encourage other organizations or groups to come under one umbrella to promote independence for hong kong that is what the police are saying is the action that they are taking they have arrested them for and detaining them for now and once again this is raising a lot of concern not only because this is unprecedented many are unsure of what the legal course of action for this will be given the fact that there is a parallel judicial system now that can run along with hong kongs rule of law these young people could be sent to Mainland China to face the courts there for this and on top of that just the general questions about freedom of speech and rights in hong kong particularly now in cyberspace and online of course for the actions pending divya in september it seems though opposition candidates are being targeted. Absolutely so whats happening here is that 12 proto moxy candidates that said they were going to run for those Legislative Council elections in september have now been disqualified and the government is saying this is because they have in principle oppose that National Security law so once again this National Security law is being used as a basis to to make decisions or to impact hong kongs prodemocracy camp the opposition groups say just a few weeks ago the opposition cabinet held these primary unprecedented primary elections to consolidate their support and turnout was huge in the hundreds of thousands and the opposition camp said that it indicated that they had a very good chance of reaching a majority or winning a majority of the seats in the Legislative Council elections these Legislative Council the job this would allow them to influence bills rules in hong kong and decisions made in hong kong what they say would be unpalatable for beijing so the opposition camp says that now all these candidacies popular candidates are being disqualified just a day before their candidacy or there is no candidacy ends as of tomorrow all nominations close so that they will not be able to front any new candidates or any new people to replace them so they say that this is definitely an affront to the democratic process in hong kong and this is the governments way of ensuring that the probating establishments will still hold the upper hand in the Upcoming Elections to be a pall of the whole goal thank you lets cross over to the british capital and the challenge of standing by rory i mean what reaction from the u. K. Really to the arrests that were hearing about in hong kong and also the sideswipe really from the Chinese Ambassador in london about sort of the u. K. Interference in china as a. Well