well you. this is. from berlin no progress in ending the u.s. government showdown a fuming u.s. president donald trump tells the democrats you're all crazy but they have been taken over by the people that don't care if that's. human trafficking is wrong. i'll tell you what. the president's frustration on view for all to see as he left for the mexican

border to whip up support for his border wall also coming up is that it seems sugarcoating the past just months after greece emerged from its bailout german chancellor angela merkel says yes those were tough times but they strengthened the european spirit. i'm good to have you with us u.s. president donald trump has just arrived at the border with mexico as he continues to campaign to get money to fund a border wall there. congress which is now partly controlled by the democrats are in a face all over more than five billion dollars that he wants for the project all that face off has led to a partial government shutdown with eight hundred thousand workers likely not to get paid this coming friday as he left for the border trump accuse the democrats of not

carry about the crime that he says migrants bring into the united states. in mcallen texas for gestures from both sides of the argument staged rallies ahead of trump's arrival his supporters are calling for the wall to be built while opponents are decrying it as an idea built on fear when joining us now from macallan texas at the border is correspondent. good evening to you all xander you you were at a protest there. protests and what exactly are they talking about the. people i talked to the protesters told me that they were born and raised here in the valley allen and if you can see behind me you see opponents on one side of the street and strong supporter of on the other side and potence off the wall told me that they live in this community and it is

a safe community and therefore there is no crisis at the border and therefore they don't need a wall and they also think that a wall is not going to be effective to protect the community here but of course when you look at the albert site of the three and talks to trump supporters they will tell you that they want to support the president because he's determined to keep them safe so that's what people are saying who have. come to this area for today's event but what about the locals the people who live there do they want to see a border wall built. you know i have been to the border region here a couple of times and i spoke to many people to people who lived here for decades to border patrol agents and not all of them even if they. would tell you that a border is really needed what is needed here more personnel that's what they tell you and better technology to protect the border and as i said even trump supporters

will tell you well we don't need necessarily the border to be built here. and the u.s. president he continues to say that he's still considering declaring a national emergency to break the standoff over funding. the question remains alexandra is there a national emergency. you know when you talk to people here they would tell you no there is no a national emergency how whatever we have to say that and at that moment it seems like this is the only face to face saving way to reopen the government because the republicans and the democrats don't seem to be able to agree on this issue so that could be the only way to reopen the government that could be good because then he can show that he is determined to feel he is contained from is if he declares and national emergency here that would mean that this decision will be challenge in

courts so that wall won't need deal it's very clear and once the fonts in a very quick way however it could be good because that would be an issue he can come pain on in twenty twenty and the government shutdown continues this coming saturday will make it the longest shutdown in u.s. history our correspondent alex hunter phenomena at the us mexico border tonight alexandra thank you. where u.s. secretary of state has delivered a resulting rebuke to the obama administration's mideast policies was touring capitals in the middle east to brief allies after president donald trump announced that he will pull u.s. troops out of syria now speaking today at the american university in the egyptian capital houston trumps predecessor of being naive and timid when confronted with the challenges posed by the arab spring uprisings that shook the middle east political order back in two thousand and eleven. said that obama's policies had

diminished america's role in the region and harmed its longtime ally. these last witness convulsions from tunis to tehran as old systems crumble and new ones struggled to emerge that's happened here to. and at this critical moment america your long time friend was absent too much. all right i'm joined now at the big table by barry he is with the german institute for international and security affairs you know it's good to see you again so we've got this major middle east policy speech delivered today by mr peo what did you make of it well mr pump aoe already obviously wants to do two things he wants to reassure allies in the region the states that he would call the moderate states israel egypt saudi arabia and some others that the united

states is there to stay although it is withdrawing troops troops from syria and secondly he wants to build this alliance for a single purpose that is to exert met maximum pressure as he said several months ago on iran in his speech today pompei or was emphatic that the u.s. is not retreating from the middle east but at the same time he said the syria withdrawal is still going to happen so there is contradicting each other it is contradicting of course but the united states is present in other countries in the region it is present in turkey in iraq in jordan all over the gulf so the united states is there and he and states in the region now know that they are there to stay and possibly that to stay in order to confront iran. i think that this speech was was kind of frightening because there is something looming on the horizon and

that is at least a military complained by the israelis in syria you know speaking of iran mr pompei and he had a lot to say about iran today none of it was good take a listen. let's turn to iran the president has reversed our willful blindness to the danger of the regime and withdrew from the failed nuclear deal with its false promises the us we imposed sanctions should never have been lifted when parked on a new pressure campaign to cut off the revenues the regime uses to spread terror and destruction throughout the world in syria the united states will use diplomacy and work with our partners to expel every last iranian and work through the un let process to bring peace and stability to the long suffering syrian people. so you've got mr trump there saying that the u.s. is going to drive iran completely out of syria despite the u.s. troop withdrawal and he's also saying that he wants to end iranian influence in

lebanon how realistic is this this is only going to happen. as a result of a major war and do you think that he is he is he prepping the world for for a military conflict i don't know it's very hard to interpret what is going on in the trunk administration remember when john bolton might compare got the jobs in april american media speculated the boy or talk called it a war cabinet these are the most politicians that you can find in washington concerning iran and i am positive that we will see major military action by the israelis in syria in the coming years and perhaps the united states will join then after this speech i wouldn't rule out a large a military action against iran in the coming two years out well let's hope this time. you're wrong. as always we appreciate your insights thank you.

well here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world in belgium the trial of a french national accused of fatally shooting four people at a jewish museum in brussels back in twenty fourteen has opened amid high security the attack was the first in a series of terrorist incidents in europe attributed to the so-called islamic state . australian foreign minister marie spain says there's no time frame for when australia will decide on an asylum request by a saudi woman now. alcove new is in thailand after she fled her home country out of fear that her family might kill her the u.n. says that she qualifies as a refugee a funeral service for five teenage girls killed last week in a fire has been held in poland officials joined relatives and friends for the emotional ceremony the girls were celebrating a birthday at

a recreational is ski side but were trapped inside when the fire. were german chancellor angela merkel is in greece for talks with prime minister alexis tsipras and other officials there it's the chancellor's first visit since twenty fourteen and it comes just four months after greece emerged from its final bailout package now ahead of the formal talks with the press merkel highlighted the improvement of greece's finances relations between the two countries have calmed since miracles previous visits which were overshadowed by angry rallies merkel is widely blamed degrees for the old stereotype that the country has lived through for much of the past decade. or more on this now i'm joined by the w.c. political editor mcculloch listeners she is in athens forests this evening good evening to you mikhail and so we've got alexis tsipras and they used to lock horns we

remember we talked about that many times how was their meeting today. well they used a lot particularly just before lexus to press was elected prime minister twenty fifty and just after that but what then happened is that he came around to actually standing in for the very austerity package that he was so against ahead of his own election what we now sold today and i still see is demonstrated hominy here i'm standing here just outside parliament go five years ago you knew we couldn't have been here if we did without demonstrations and some of them violent taking place behind me the police did what an awful lot areas of the city but normal life is under way once again both sides certainly see eye to eye on migration we cut both from alexis tsipras and i'm going to mouth off a cool really for more solidarity over that issue and really what both sides want to see in the headlines is that germany and greece want to move on want to move

ahead just with the small size sentence which. i'm going to maqbool here today in the press conference that she said also that the reform process wasn't over yet bearing in mind that there are elections this year with the opposition calling for a complete change of policy and they're not looking that's unlikely to get into government so today was a celebration of what greece has achieved with the still uncertain future. it's interesting to see all those smalling faces there were those two leaders we haven't seen in a very long time and we know that many greeks are still feeling the effects of those years of austerity measures what do the greek people what do they think about this visit. yes we spoke to a lot of people on the streets here and that range from people noting that we were a german camera team saying rather rude words about i'm going to go to a youth

a couple young people who were saying well the situation still is very difficult and indeed it is very high youth unemployment in greece at the same time there is economic growth once again and that's also what some people have told us here that they are more hopeful looking into the future at the same time there's a big issue that i'm going to machall and both alexis feel strongly on resolving and that's the name issue over macedonia there's a greek region with that name there's also a country with that name and their vote still to take place both in the greek but also in the former yugoslav republic of macedonia parliaments on whether they can agree on this and you could tell here that i'm going to merkel was pushing too hard on that particular issue because she knows that her policy advice doesn't really go down that terribly well in greece so both kind of resorted to demonstrating that they want to be pro european also pointing towards those european elections coming

up in may. in the greek capital thank you. you're watching the w. news live from berlin. with more world news followed by the day i hope to see you this. letter we were. when we were. eighty percent of americans at some point in our lives will experience hardship listening. audience.