i'm not. sure the dawn of islam this is an exclusive d.w. report starting april twenty first. this is you know we news live from berlin access granted international weapons inspectors enter the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in syria after days of waiting and diplomatic wrangling syrian state media says international experts are now in dubai but accusations are rife that key evidence may have been removed and the site tampered with also coming up

a rallying cry for french presence in mind when mccall makes the case for a democratic europe in an emotionally charged address to the european parliament urges europeans to reject populism and defend democracy plus he's known as astro alex but chancellor merkel the first to call him germany's ambassador to space on our astronaut alexander gary sick is preparing his next big step as commander of the international space station. a way of iraq thanks for your company everyone syrian state media say international weapons inspectors have now entered the town of duma the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack the inspectors have been in damascus is saturday but until now russia and syria have birth them access to do must citing security concerns all

this although journalists were allowed in all that prompted the u.s. to accuse syria and its ally russia of attempting to cover up evidence of the alleged attack. the destroyed town of de mary's west syria's ill fated revolutionaries out now after seven years of fighting with the last of the rebels gone damascus is trying to win back its people meeting their most basic needs first . when the rebels left we found in the depo stuff that could satisfy duma's residents for a year they were not offering as anything but only hunger and starvation and. the media made it here before u.n. chemical weapons inspectors only on tuesday ten days after the alleged poison gas attack but they allowed to get near the site where dozens were reportedly killed a day earlier an emergency meeting of the international watchdog at the hague was

cool to demand an explanation for the delay but ended with frustrations and hostilities running high this was also our opportunity for us and for allies to settle a case in the organization that is designed to uphold the chemical weapons convention to make very very clear that the russians have blocked diplomatic channels for us. russia accuses the u.k. of faking these pictures of the alleged attacks which show you victims apparently suffering and struggling for breath. all the little bits of. missiles. but britain says that's textbook russian fake news. well as relations between russia and the west hit rock bottom german chancellor angela merkel has spoken by phone with russia's vladimir putin the two leaders agreed that only

a political process could end the conflict in syria that miracle made it clear that a telephone conversation alone would not be enough to get relations back on track. i had a phone call with russian president vladimir putin yes i think we'll meet sometime soon but we didn't say today today. i think that the number of issues that we have from ukraine and gas supplies to the big big issue of syria require us to mate face to face in the foreseeable future. it's. just they're speaking earlier what should the european union look like in the future in a landmark speech french president in my michael today pitched his vision for the e.u. speaking to lawmakers in the european parliament as taz work he made an emotionally charged case against the rise of populism in europe urging europeans to defend

their democracy mccall said the e.u. was failing to address the fears and concerns of its citizens and that change is long overdue. don't think there is doubt in a number of european countries and month to month these doubts seeing others call our foundations into question the fundamental there seems to be a sort of european civil war national selfishness and egotism taking precedence over what unites us. and max hoffman has been following president my current speech in strasbourg for us max is this first i'm a con to the rescue. well used to be like that layla at least a year ago when he got elected and many felt that he rescued friends from the right wing populist of money in lieu pen but those days at least on the european level are gone and that's because he has much more resistance here at the european

parliament in strasbourg than he has at home because at home he has a majority and here he does not and one of the well let's say leading parliamentarians here basically said off the record that the manner in mccall had met reality european reality so what he's trying to do is still you know advertise for his vision of reform for example in the euro zone but support isn't well as thorough as he might wish it to be so are we it does that mean that we're witnessing a political confrontation happening within the e.u. about what the future of the bloc should look like max we've seen that confrontation going on well probably for years now it's usually not about the euro zone but more about what to do about migration between the east in the west we saw we've seen this rift emerge ever since the migration crisis in two thousand and fifteen now the most interesting part here is do we have

a rift between germany and france because without the german french engine all those big project that mccrone was talking about here in strasburg will be difficult to fulfil so far michael and they are trying to show their unity but if you look at the policies for example for the euro zone reform they're not on the same page now we're going to talk in a minute a little bit more about the franco a german that relationship but first i want to ask you with these classic fault lines emerging as you've just referenced especially now with the reelection of prime minister orbán in hungary challenging the e.u. consensus what is the willingness of member states to take on democratically elected populace. it seems like the willing this is everywhere except of course in the countries that have right wing or populist governments and there are quite a lot of them nowadays the question really is in the context upon touchdown on this year how do you tackle it some try to copy the tactics of the populace try to

imitate them be harder than the hardliners in the populace parties for example against immigrants but my call once a different path he says we should be very open and positive about the european union about solidarity for example in the migration crisis be unapologetic about that because the european union stands for a liberal democracy and for its values and he feels like that's the way he won the election and friends of basically what he's trying to do is give the rest of the european union a dose of the medicine that he invented himself now max before i let you go on thursday president michel heads to berlanti meet which chancellor angela merkel what's the status of the franco german relationships that that is meant to drive reform in europe. they seemed like the dream team just only a couple of months ago. and the possible situation you know both shook hands even hugged and showed their unity and that was important because in the past of the

past years the german french relationship wasn't that good but if you look at what's at stake we're talking about you know a reform of the euro zone we're not talking about reinventing the european union if you compare that with the challenges that for example for me to all the french president back then and he will call the german chancellor back then had this is much smaller and given that they're having a whole lot of trouble agreeing on something just to give you an example. call always said he wanted a european finance minister for the eurozone at least and he wanted to own budget for the euro zone and the german government is having an awfully hard time to endorse that actually is probably not going to happen well european union is always about compromise but we don't see that compromise emerging yet maybe it will on thursday right max hofmann reporting from strasburg thank you very much. well here in germany the chairman of the german parliamentary a foreign affairs committee and an ally of chance on the american has reiterated the urgency for france and germany

to work together on european unity. to underline that we are determined to achieve results on a range of issues that we see that there is a window of opportunity but this window is going to close the year because next year we will have european elections so we will have to come to results and that in in our times of arctic globalization. an unraveling of liberal order everywhere partly within europe that it is really of an historical importance that france and germany come together and try to turn things to the better. i want to tell you now about some of the other stories making news around the world. eight men are set to go on trial in india for the rape

and murder of an eight year old girl well now 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. japan's prime minister shinzo abbay has gone to washington where he said he wanted to find common ground of u.s. president all trump on how to deal with north korea's nuclear challenge tokyo fears trump my me too many concessions and his planned meeting with the north korean leader kim jong un next month. demonstrators have clashed with police in the armenian capital caravan for the fifth day they don't want former president sherry's sarkozy ana to be elected prime minister which members of parliament are expected to do today the protesters say he has been in power for too long and that recent constitutional changes given too much power as prime minister. of

european space agency astronaut alexander garrett state is preparing for his next trip to the international space station in june i guess there will be the first german commander of the station he's heading to the i s s with a u.s. astronaut and a russian cosmonaut the current will also be accompanied by a rather 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 a bit like coming home i've spent half a year of my life out there and have very nice memories that i'll be happy to remove this is with the vehicles that will fall. on his new mission called horizons gas to be the first german commander of the i assess chancellor of the medical 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. on a bicycle is mistaken with his friends and 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. one of the experiments a 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 any catching even more photos of earth catching even more moments in weightlessness doing more science 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. aster alex

our right before i let you go and remind you of the world's headlines right now. syrian state media says international weapons inspectors have entered the town of do not the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack the u.s. accuses syria of delaying inspectors access to the site to remove evidence fresh residents in me were not caught has outlined his vision for europe in a stirring speech to the european parliament his plans include ambitious plans to reform the euro zone and leave iraq as he got a top of the hour. there's been the germany is a strong country. that we have achieved so much we can do this and it's something him to resign we must overcome it's. going where it's uncomfortable global news that matters w made form.