this is t w news coming to you live from berlin french president of motherwell mcallen sets out a new grand plan for the e.u. he wants to shore up support for europe among ordinary people at a time of growing skepticism but he is meeting with resistance from germany also coming up the showdown escalates between russia and the u.s. over an alleged gas attack in syria u.s. accuses russia of tampering with the site moscow alleges the gas attack was staged . and his nickname is astro alex transamerica prefers the title german ambassador

to space now astronaut alexander gaston is preparing his next big step as commander of the international space station. hello i'm terry martin thanks for joining us present mcallen of france has said the eurozone the parts of the european union where the euro is the currency is an urgent need of reform i call it has been addressing the european parliament in strasbourg for the first time today setting out his vision for the future of europe he wants big changes but there's growing skepticism about the european project. acknowledge the situation at the start of his speech when he lamented the divisions that have opened up in the e.u. . i. don't think there is doubts in

a number of european countries and month off to month these doubts seeing off as cool as foundations into question the fundamental there seems to be a sort of european civil wooll national selfishness and egotism taking precedence over what unites us this accusing the french president manuel my call on their speaking to the european parliament a short while ago let's bring in our correspondent max huffman he's been covering the cause speech for us there today max this was the president's first address to the european parliament what stood out in his speech for you well one of the sentences that was rather on the strong side of what he said was i don't want to be part of a generation of sleepwalkers i want to be part of a generation that fights for democracy so a lot of that speech was dedicated to trying to display the advantages of being part of

a liberal democracy as opposed to what's happening for example in some eastern european countries where president where the prime minister for example viktor orbán is installing a different program trying to show how much europe had achieved in the past how much interested it has in finding a new project for the european union in debating something new a new project using europe and talking about europe you know it in a very open way and not trying to hide that you're part of the european union but really being proud of it what about policy initiatives in this speech max was there anything new there in terms of that or was it more of mccollum trying to soften up the parliament for the reforms he's already he's been talking about a lot. this is not the stage where he would really get into the nitty gritty details that something for different institutions right here but interesting you know terry was that he didn't talk about the project of

a european finance minister at least i didn't hear that so maybe he's trying to take a step towards germany where the chancellor is known not to be necessarily in favor of a european finance minister but he did touch upon for example the banking union that as you said earlier there was the need to reform the eurozone how does he want to do that he talked about a big scale debate all over europe said everybody needs to participate if possible that sort of is an allusion to a tour that he's starting today here in strasbourg trying to talk to people as he calls them regular people in different parts of france opening up this kind of big scale debate that's something so far that's unique to france but apparently he wants to open it up in europe to find out where there are similarities and where there are things that divide the european union to find out what a european union a new project for the european union could look like now later this week president connors going to be traveling here to berlin to talk with chancellor machall what

sort of reception do you think he's going to get oh you know for the cameras and in style and everything that there will be a display of unity that is more important than ever now that we actually have some divergence as in real topics because you know in the beginning we had sort of a honeymoon phase where both of them came together and said we are willing and in accordance to reform the european union but if you look at the policy proposals as you said earlier for example a common budget for the euro zone the germans are against it or if you look at the latest last week foreign policy the french went on an air strike to avenge an alleged chemical attack in syria by bashar al assad and the german said yeah that's a great idea but we're not going to participate. russia and the u.s. have stepped up their war of words over the alleged poison gas attack in the syrian city of duma the u.s. says moscow may be trying to remove evidence from the site to thwart an

investigation also accuses russia of delaying a visit to the site by international chemical weapons inspectors russia denies the claims and says the inspectors will be granted access to duma to morrow on monday syria allowed international journalists to visit the city. the destroyed town of duma city as a fated revolution rules up. after seven years of fighting and with the last of the rebels gone the government is trying to win back its people. meeting their most basic needs first. when the rebels left we found in that depo stuff that could satisfy too much residents for a year they were not offering as anything but only hunger and starvation and. the media may have been invited here but u.n. chemical weapons inspectors will have to wait them to wait to get near the site of

last week's a legit gas attack and which dozens were reportedly killed. an emergency meeting of the international watchdog was called to demand an explanation for the delay but ended with frustrations and hostilities running high. this was also our opportunity to austin for allies to set out our case in the organization that is designed to uphold the chemical weapons convention to make very very clear that the russians have blocked cool diplomatic channels for us there is a norm on the global because bill nations don't do interviewing these all the british officials and this is. normal little explanation by britain says that textbook russian fake news. following the weekend's u.s. led airstrikes demands for a kind ability have grown. statements of the prime minister.

which is prime minister to resign may was forced to explain why the u.k. joined the u.s. and france in attacking syria without getting parliament's prior approval. actually taken we have to because it is in national interest. it is in our national interest to prevent the use of chemical weapons in syria and to uphold and defend the global consensus that these weapons should not be used this was in them it is talkative for three hours she took one hundred forty questions though her answers fail to satisfy her opponent the governments of the parliamentary scrutiny is set to intensify on choose to use if you don't stop. let's take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world today the u.s. britain and australia have accused russia of laying the groundwork for future cyber attacks on critical infrastructure in a joint statement the government's claim russian operations involving planting

involve planting mole where on the internet routers they say russia is using the internet for political and economic espionage. as eight men go on trial in india accused of the rape and murder of an eight year old girl the supreme court has ordered protection for the victim's family and their lawyer the case has stirred controversy in india and the lawyer said she had been threatened for taking up the case. and the new york times and new yorker magazine have won a pulitzer prize for their reporting of sexual harassment allegations against bill mogul harvey weinstein the story set off the me too movement the wards were also a landmark moment for music as temporary lamar became the first rapper to win a pulitzer for his album down. european space agency astronaut alexander gal's is holding his final news conference today ahead of his next trip to the international space station in june guest is heading to the iowa says with

u.s. astronaut serina chancellor and russian cosmonaut sergei prokofiev he will be the first german commander of the station as we report will be accompanied by an unusual robot this was the view of earth from space that greeted guest on his last mission four years ago he's about to embark on his second trip to the international space station or i assess this it's and. it's a bit like coming home i spend half a year of my life out there and have very nice memories that i'll be happy to relive this with if it was at all for it on his new mission called horizons gas to be the first german commander of the i s.s. chancellor of america calls him the german ambassador to space gast uses the nickname astro alex on his last mission he conducted over one hundred scientific experiments and a space walk which is one of the greatest challenges for an astronaut.

bicycle is mistaken. you know there's risk involved certainly a bit more than taking a train not just flying for fun doing research for the greater good of humanity and for that i'm willing to take a slightly higher risk for me. again. one of the experiments guest and his colleagues will conduct involves a so-called flying brain a robot with artificial intelligence and a measure of humor. m r two d two just kidding my name is simon and i will support you. on this parabolic flight the robot is being tested in zero gravity as the first fully automatic robot with artificial intelligence simon is unique. the robot

will support alexander guest on his space mission by fulfilling routine tasks such as documenting experiments. the first subject of those experiments will be the robot itself life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react to it. that turns out to be a useful model for gast as he prepares for weightlessness in space. but i think as an astronaut if you fly to space you always have a lot of projects here and there and and you never have the time to finish them so i'm looking forward to maybe catching even more photos over sketching even more moments in weightlessness doing more science and pray and bring it back to earth for the benefit of us all. alexander guest will have just turned forty two when he takes off so he'll have plenty to celebrate in space.

football's german cup is down to crunch time as laver couzin host by minutes night in the semifinal match it's the next step on buy ins path to a treble of season ending trophies but asleep at champions need to keep their focus against labor coups and without looking ahead to next week's even bigger champions league match with real madrid. with the bundesliga title sealed on april seventh diana doing a lot more than just staying alive. they rested players in saturday's league game with much she got back but still triumphed five one now they have laid accused in their sights with triple talk sweeping the club. we have full. attention is from your pov because here we are relaxed so we we are very focused in our goals we have many many players that can play every game so we have equal to with that. dallas still injured but jerome bowen saying is expected to return again to lay the

crews inside who have won their last two bundesliga matches. they both have the ray of attacking talent and could trouble buy on given it's a one leg semifinal and they are. forward line is so stacked that stephan kissling hardly gets a game these days but he told you he's desperate to face by and before he's expected retirement in may. sure it's a semifinal against biron of all teams but we've beaten them in the german cup in the past and only lost on penalties to them a few seasons ago in the cup you write your own history and we have the tools to make our own bit of history and the largest. but that is exactly what by and coach you pint is once he's also retiring and away overlaid the queues more keep him and buy on on calls for a second travel in five years. and you're watching t.v.

news from berlin we have more at the top of the hour sumi will be with you then of course you'll find all our stories online t w dot com thanks for. that. information. means to express t.w. on facebook and twitter up to date and in touch.