and one determined to build something human for the next generation. as the lamb in series of global three thousand on t.w. and online. this is the to be a news live from berlin eastern ghouta retaken the russian military says the syrian government is now in full control of the former rebel stronghold near damascus and that includes the site of an alleged chemical gas attack the u.s. has threatened a military response in syria for that attack also coming up. the number of

executions carried out last year around the world fell compared to the year before that's according to a new amnesty report on capital punishment. and a last ditch push today in italy to form a new government after last month's inconclusive elections our reporter went to rome to ask alterations there why it's so hard to come up with a deal. i'm brian thomas thanks so much for being with us russia says the syrian military has now taken complete control of eastern ghouta that's the last rebel stronghold near the capital and that includes the town of doom of the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack over the weekend the trumpet ministration has threatened to respond saying all options are on the table will cost our correspondents for more on the international dispute over that alleged attack first we have this report.

a rare moment of celebration for syrians at least government supporters they took to the streets of duma after rebels who had controlled the city left yet the victorious military action included a suspected poison gas attack the attack for which u.s. president donald trump has vowed retaliation but the white house later appeared to roll back on his threat to launch missiles the president has not laid out a timetable and still leaving a number of other options on the table and we're still considering a number of those and a final decision on that front hasn't been made. that's in contrast to the president's earlier incendiary tweets including russia vows to shoot down missiles fired at syria get ready russia because they will be coming you should be partners with a gas killing an animal who kills his people and enjoys it u.s. warships left port on wednesday to move within striking range of syria.

russia said it's keeping a close eye on the fleet and the kremlin hit out a trump's handling of the situation. we do not participate in twitter diplomacy we support a serious approach we still believe that it is important not to take any steps that may harm the already fragile situation in syria we are also still convinced that the excuse regarding the use of chemical weapons in duma is made up and cannot be used as an argument for military action russia has moved fast to establish itself in duma this amateur video purportedly shows russian police investigating near the site of the alleged chemical attack moscow says it and the regime are ready to allow a probe but only one which shouldn't assign blame. our correspondents claire richardson standing by in washington and in moscow our bureau chief good morning to both of

you. if we could start with you russia is saying the alleged chemical attack is a fake and cannot be used as a reason for any kind of attack and if also all that. well russia has been constantly denying any chemical attack took place and moscow has invited investigators from the organization for that prohibit of chemical weapons to probe to the scene where that attack allegedly took place syria over the last week and to moscow also had to send its own investigators who found it bolted leonor that ends for any use of chemical weapons since yesterday russian military police military police is acting on the ground in the syrian city of what we just seed seen it in the report where the alleged chemical attack took place russian ministry of defense insists the situation in duma remains stabilized for the last few five days allegedly if there are there to guarantee law and all the however we

see a clear attempt by the russians to downplay the situation as much as possible by the way even russian state run broadcasters since yesterday reduced the antti western rhetoric significantly ok and this new information that we have russian personnel on the ground in duma certainly is a new and important factor right now a close go to you know the white house spokeswoman sara huckabee sanders is saying there's no tying table right now for action in syria is the white house backing off of its previous comments. well her comments are quite troubling given that trumps earlier tweets promising military strikes on syria and the fact that the white house is now saying that all options remain on the table suggests that trump was on twitter promising military action before anything had actually been decided now it's unclear not only what his long term plan is for syria but even in the short term what he really sees as a solution in the region if you remember it was just earlier this month that he was

saying he would like to withdraw all two thousand u.s. troops who are in syria that was against the advice of his military advisers who are wary of another situation like afghanistan or iraq who want to stay there and make sure that the islamic state cannot get another foothold in the region before backing out but this directly contradicts what he was saying earlier this month and so it's unclear from his words alone and from what the white house is saying what kind of action we're going to see. you were mentioning there that goes dialing back the rhetoric how might russia though respond to any possible american military action. well brian russian law make us a warrant already of the united states is that moscow would concede and asked dr take on syria as a war crime that could trigger a direct military clash between the two form a call to walk countries i think sikandar a senior russian lawmaker for example set russia would engage its washington in the

mediterranean sea to protect russian assets in syria in addition to ground based air defense systems that russia has in the region the top russian military officer general stuff chief value to get us in off war until last month that russia would strike back against both missiles and their carriers three weeks ago i myself was embedded on one of the largest u.s. aircraft carriers on the u.s.s. theodore roosevelt there were more than five thousand people on board so kind of small town in the middle of the persian gulf if russians attack such an aircraft carrier americans can face huge implications. the stakes are very high right now are clear back to you the president has been linking the tensions with moscow to the probe into alleged russian meddling during the last presidential election what you've been saying. that's right he's been blaming what he's been calling a bad blood with russia on the russia investigation that's being led by special

counsel robert muller and the thing that originally made trump's tweets about syria is so usual for the president the fact that he called aside an animal that he pin the blame squarely on russia is that he has been very reluctant to criticize putin himself directly this even as the u.s. administration has taken steps against russia in response to a series of what it sees as missteps it's expelled russian diplomats that it's a sex to be spies it's levied new sanctions on people who thinks are in putin's inner circle but donald trump himself has been criticized on both sides of the aisle for being largely quiet and this is a big departure for him to come out directly and criticize russia on something like this suspected chlorine gas attack clare richardson for us in washington and you're a shadow for us in moscow thanks to both of you this morning. so how does germany figure in all of this we're joined now from our parliamentary studios here in berlin by peter bio he's the german government's new coordinator for transatlantic

cooperation advisor to chance remark on u.s. german relations with the bar thanks so much for being with us today your job is maintaining good relations between germany and the u.s. at a time when an american president derives another head of state in this case for charles as a gas killing animal how are you going to advise chancellor macko on conducting talks with president trump. well first of all the united states remain the most important partner of germany and europe as a whole on the other side of the atlantic go to international on a global scale that is the one fact on the other hand we see in the in the past a development that concerns us that brings a change to how we communicated across the atlantic are asking pair to form a time so we were facing new challenges we see that europe and germany have to take over more responsibility by they say itself to care about or know about their

own security issues and but having said that the current situation that we're facing on my hope is that before any strike after the gas attacks in duma which for me are a fact and can be answered that there will be diplomatic talks also including the word security council ok and now talking about taking on bigger responsibility do you support the idea of significant u.s. military action in syria well again i mean this can only be the ultimate ratio but the fact is as well that some in two main berrien act as we have seen the killing of a lot of people including women and children and do month syria needs an answer the assad regime as well as russia who are they protective of power there they have to understand this ok now how would that affect nato and germany would would germany

join in. i don't see this now i think. we won't take an active role there but you might know this one of our ships has already been deployed say an accompanying ship of the does u.s. destroyer in the mid to rainy and but more than that i don't think we will see an active role by germany here ok now how do you view the possibility that a u.s. strike could lead to a direct confrontation with russia. well the stakes are high and dangerous out there again first i hope we won't see anything like that that this will not be necessary first being a second thing is you know from the language from the rhetoric that we see from putin that he's backing baking op the little bit so i don't think that there was see you strong escalation on the other hand you see that the eruption of basser to

the lebanon he has used quite tough rhetoric that one or two days before said you know we will down anything that comes from the u.s. side and its allies and so this is something that worries me and others as well. peter buyer german government's new coordinator for trans a lot of cooperation visor to the chancellor on u.s. german relations thanks very much for being with us thank you very much. airlines around the world are on high alert following the u.s. president on of trump's threat of a strike on syria several carriers have started rerouting scheduled flights as a result of tensions frogs with air france being the first one to announce the measures the allen has modified its schedules for destinations close to syria including flights to beirut and tell of the meanwhile of tons of says it has avoided flying lisa miniature rainy and for some time as

a precautionary measure. well tensions mount around serious talks in china have suffered of the don't from stress let's bring in danielle cope with standing by at the frankfurt stock exchange danny what's the mood with investors that. he has a good heart good to see you investors are still very reluctant and nervous not just in asia where all the major indices were and the red but also here in europe in general during the last weeks i guess we can even say amman's the market was very volatile and with every geopolitical decision or announcement we usually see the shares here on the trading floor dropping after last night when it was announced by the spokeswoman of donald trump that so far at least that's the official version there are no concrete plans for an air strike on syria investors have calmed down a little bit again this was happening after they were very nervous with his tweets also saying that relations with russia have never been as bad not even during the

cold war so far during the trading day we have not seen big losses were even at some time here in the class. v.w. is getting a new c.e.o. but that's not all it looks like the supervisory board is moving its regular session from tomorrow to why the hurry suddenly what are you hearing yeah exactly this was the schedule originally for two more now we're hurtling hurrying that this will be taking place at five pm this afternoon that could last for many hours investors will be waiting for the answers how a possible new volkswagen company could look like the new appointment of how to bet these s. and c. all seems to be a done deal he is not not just going to be the c.e.o. but will also keep his position as a brand chief and most likely the company will be going through the biggest reform since a long time it seems that the company could be split up into different groups or divisions one group could be volkswagen see it and scold us for the big car brands

the other sport cars and the other one called mercial vehicles and we're learning that the commercial vehicle division could even become a public listing public possibly here as a friend for stock exchange. in frankfurt thank you very much for this update. now to the u.s. where minutes from the federal reserve's latest u.s. latest policy meeting in march were released last night and showed the country's central bankers in broad agreement stronger growth in the u.s. means the fed can and should raise rates more aggressively in the next three years two more increases are expected within this year making it a total of three so far and markets are looking for clues that a fourth one might be on the cards but the fed has two big unknowns complicating policymaking the impact of domestic tax cuts and by how much they'll spur growth and the effect of ongoing trade tensions with china.

russia's ruble is falling fast against the u.s. dollar as tensions mount between the two countries washington's new sanctions against russian businessmen and their companies along with sharply escalating diplomatic crisis in syria have seen the ruble plunge to just over fifteen u.s. cents that's a level last seen eighteen months ago since news of the sanctions last friday russia's currency has plunged by about twelve percent. the sanctions washington announced on friday against russia are already beginning to be felt on the streets of moscow the ruble seems to be losing value by the hour the us said the sanctions are in response to charges of russian meddling in u.s. elections and other ongoing issues but the russian prime minister continues to say they are really designed to give the u.s. an unfair advantage that. u.s. administration decision on sanctions is an attempt to fight us through unfair

competition to limit our development to create tensions on the economy and the currency and fun markets. for the time being though the plummeting euro is a more acute problem that's because every day russians know that a weak ruble means trouble is just around the corner because. the sanctions will have negative consequences and the growing exchange rate of the dollar and the euro is a first indication that our economy will experience a drop of president in the week which is bad as the rhetoric heats up over the conflict in syria where russia and the u.s. support opposite sides the ruble continues to slide. the use of the death penalty is declining bots there's a catch there is certainly the human rights organization annecy international says the number of reported judicial executions around the world fell during twenty

seventeen but the group is also warning that the true number of people put to death is not known some countries treat execution numbers as a state secret china for example and as is often the case in china and in a handful of other nations executing its citizens capital punishment is often very public. in iran responsible for carrying out small then hoff of the well it's not executions last year that's according to amnesty international's latest think is in dozens of those cases that meant public execution in iran drug trafficking and blasphemy are among those crimes punishable by death. at least five people were executed in iran for acts committed when they were still under eighteen. and that just four countries were responsible for eighty four percent of all recorded executions last year iran saudi arabia iraq and pakistan but the country

suspected of being the world's leading executioner is china. it's thought to have put thousands to death last year more than the rest of the world put together the because data on the death penalty that is a state secrets exactly how many is a matter of speculation. but not counting china twenty seven thousand so the total number of executions worldwide fall by four percent from the previous year. m misty international says that reaffirms a global trend towards abolition of the death penalty last year a further two countries guinea and mongolia joined the one hundred four who have now abolished capital punishment for a second year in a row the us did not feature among the top five global execution is slipping from positions seven to eight this is due in part to ongoing legal challenges of the use of lethal injection. but as litigation in several states progress is that because

the executions resume. look at some of the other stories making the news the. start of three days of national mourning after a military plane crash that killed two hundred fifty seven people. the russian built transporter went down shortly after takeoff wednesday killing mainly soldiers and their family members the accident is the worst disaster in algeria sistering authorities of started an investigation. sirens have sounded across israel as that country came to a standstill for holocaust remembrance day by minister netanyahu attending a ceremony to remember the millions of jews killed by nazi germany during world war two further ceremonies will also be held at the site of the auschwitz concentration camp in poland later today. we're tearing down to get only where there's a last ditch bit underway to form

a new government for that country an inconclusive election last month saw a surge in support for right wing and anti establishment parties but they are refusing to work together for now and least and if there's no breakthrough the country may have to resort to new elections. contentious politics in rome are as old as the piazza navona billed nearly two thousand years ago the visual splendor of this popular square gives no hint of italy's latest political crisis. more than a month after the country's parliament three elections there's still no new government. behind me a lot today quickly nala the presidential palace where currently the leaders of the three strongest parties a negotiating over italy's future but the search for a new government has rarely been more difficult there are deep political divisions between all the different actors. but generally go in

the first time senator with a populist five star movement is keen on bridging that was divisions with five star topping the vote at over thirty percent go in is ready to head a government but there's no cohen. insite. our leader and we do you mind your can only make offers to the other parties but you cannot answer or decide for them. i think the party took a democratic win and the liberal party should both justify why they don't want to sit down with us and help resolve italy's crisis. a coalition with the right wing populist leader party seemed likely after the election both party leaders are euro skeptics who want to clamp down on migration. but their relations have gone cold legal politicians like john mark. karr candid about their frustration.

i think the leader of the five star party does not understand politics very well when he says he's willing to go either with us or with the democratic party it's clear he has no idea what our party stands for. this is like going to a football match and supporting both teams. for. any. center left party to democratic or or democratic party was the election loser and that's why one of its leaders under the chain is for a one remaining in the opposition he has no intention of helping form then you can tell your government. about these are. worried about these government. programs.

to take a look at south of the election they receive a lot of votes they have their responsibility to. for the future of the country. italy is facing a long political deadlock which could ultimately result in new elections that's however a scenario that none of the parties want at least that they can currently agree on . now how much data does facebook collect on users and on non-users it is a question asked in both the senate and the house but c.e.o. mark zuckerberg sidestepped the direct answer he did though acknowledge his company collects data from users even when they're not on facebook his testimony has raised calls for government regulation. for a second day mark zuckerberg faced the cameras and sat through hours of questioning

from u.s. lawmakers accused of compromising the private data of tens of millions of facebook users he repeated his apology from a day earlier. it's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well and that goes for fake news foreign interference in elections and hate speech as well as developers and data privacy it was my mistake and i'm sorry. zuckerberg gave repeated assurances that he would allocate more facebook staff to help improve data protection but he appeared evasive in response to committee members questions is yes or no if you could will you make the commitment to change all the user to changing all the user default settings to minimize to the greatest extent possible the collection and use of users to congressman this is a complex issue that i think is deserves more than a one word and well again that's disappointing to me because i think you should

make that commitment. while making numerous promises on improving data security second bridge still managed to mange think on specifics legislative and sports now another remarkable night of football in the quarter finals of the champions league the big drama came in spain where it was you ventus managed to come back from three goals down to tie the aggregate score against real madrid extra time was on the cards until the spaniards were awarded a controversy all stoppage time penalty even diskeeper g.g. befall was sent off for his foul mouth protests were naldo stepped up and made no mistake from the spot sending ryall through four three on aggregate loss of a listen now to a very disappointed befall after his dreams of ending his career on a major high were ruined. what should i could have said anything to the referee and he should have had the sensibility to pick give me shit. because what he did is to

commits a crime against sportsmanship. and that's why i said the woods i had to say money. if we knew what he did it would be a by minute also reaching the champions league sami's but there was much less drama there and there no little home dog and severe the result gave them a two one aggregate victory putting them into friday's draw for the last four european football's premier competition. let's get your monitor now the top story we're following for you today russia's military says the syrian government has now taken full control of the rebel stronghold in eastern guta that's including the town of duma last was the site of a suspected chemical attack over the weekend the u.s. has threatened a military response to that alleged attack. we have more on these and other stories that our web site you have you dot com for now though for me brian thomas and the entire team here thanks for being with us.

to. the. center of the conflict zone my guest this week here in kiev is a stateless he's a former president of georgia a former regional governor in ukraine i'm hanging over him multiple allegations of criminal activity and he's mikail saakashvili once the dawning of the west for spearheading the rose revolution in georgia that has you know made too many enemies

and run out of running for the for. the for. landmark catholic architecture. and one of the world's cultural treasures. a neverending construction site. magnet for tourists and it cologne cathedral joining us as we get. the history of this imposing house of worship. in cologne cathedral. what does a football loving country. will tell you our german soccer made it back to the top. special. football made in germany. would it be fighting for decades to be taken seriously

in the world of war here's what's coming up. this superhero on a mission to chat. smart smart talks smart stage and legend isn't buying no means may sound boring creasing dangerous stuff that. makes . my guest this week here in kiev is stateless he's a former president of georgia a former regional governor in ukraine and hanging over him multiple allegations of criminal activity and a three year prison sentence for abuse of power he's. really once the darling of the west for spearheading the rose revolution in georgia in two thousand and three

but has he now made too many enemies and run out of road.