this is deja vu news live from berlin renewing their vows france and germany prepared to sign a new pact of friendship building on times that spanned decades but will the new agreement help to overcome the many challenges facing the e.u. also on the show. the taleban launches one of its deadly deadliest attacks in months insurgents detonating a car bomb at a military base in central afghanistan killing scores of soldiers. and the world

economic forum officially opens today in switzerland where all the world leaders full coverage for me facilities and the business team here in davos. i'm brian thomas thanks so much for joining us well in the next hour france and germany will be signing a new friendship pact in the west german city of often the treaty will commit the two countries to increase cooperation on european union policies and to work towards a joint foreign and security palsy and a moment we'll be talking to our correspondents about the pact but first here's a look back at how the relationship between paris and berlin has been evolving. was never there to forgive france's president the man you're my corn is really speaking german and the german chancellor angela merkel is speaking french.

during their mutual visit to the french german youth center last summer that were clearly among friends but it wasn't always this way. shortly before the end of the second world war french soldiers moved into southern germany this after hitler had occupied and humiliated france for years german soldiers became french prisoners of war and it looked as if these tried and true enemies would always be at war with each other but the head of the french military troops was charles de gaulle and ten years later when he became president he had great plans. while at this private country residence column billet doux that please he shook hands with west germany's post-war chancellor. and in nine hundred sixty three the two of them signed the elizee treaty of german french friendship. president to go all want to do joined forces with his german partner to become a world power and eighteen years after the end of the nazis the young west german

republic wanted to return to the community of nations and to new friendships with their european democratic allies the west germans celebrated. the key to the newfound friendship with young people who were untouched by the hatred that motivated their parents the german french youth project was founded and even today it brings together more than nine million members from both countries through its exchange program the chancellor and the president planned a common political agenda in europe and the world good friends valid ages got their star and helmut schmidt found a coalition of the seven most important industrial nations in the world the g seven . in nineteen eighty-four president francois mitterrand and chancellor helmut kohl shook hands and beds are close to the graves of the first world war they wanted to show europe that the worst enemies have become closest of allies. today

germany and france continue to meet daily to discuss european policy. they even cooperate militarily on weapons programs and in conflict zones such as in mali it's an alliance that eighty years ago nobody would have thought possible. he never used michele hoffman joins us now live from auckland good morning to both of you max if i could start with you what's in the new treaty again and what will it mean for the u. . but if you read those sixteen pages of the new treaty it reminds you in many ways of the old treaty the treaty of the say because many feel they touch upon our known cultural corporation for example making sure their language skills for the other one across the borders but there are also some interesting new parts for example and hence corporation in the matters of defense and security we just heard that in that report it's extraordinary when you think back were those two nations were

a little over seventy years ago even promising military assistance to each other then also they want to enhance cooperation in the border region sometimes people living there still have problems crossing the border living on both sides of the border so removing obstacles there there will also have some funding for that and the third part that gets a lot of european politicians excited in brussels is that they have actually promised in this treaty to be on the same page european summit so coming together agreeing on a common position that would be new if this really happened and of course the attempt here is to get the french german engine started again especially important in times of drugs that ok now michel there's funding questions out there for a number of these initiatives and some german m.p.'s have been expressing concerns that it will be berlin that will wind up footing the bill for all of us. oh yeah we actually saw the gem finance minister had just go in behind us here and that is

the criticism that's the ticket coming from the far right in the f.t. part of the largest opposition basically suspecting that once again one can say germany would have to pay what is seen and essentially all say european projects of course as. being very euro skeptic indeed but there's also been criticism on the other side of the border in france nothing depends on us and not a policy. been suspecting that this would be an attempt to try and get more influence particular over those border regions the alsace region an attempt to pretend she's seen more people speak german there so a lot of suspicions around this but at the same time this is so much more than spending a pot of money on individual cross border projects it's an aim to really convert policy priorities going as far as basically unifying the market even further

taxes being made more equal and integrating the two governments to a certain degree which will now meet even more often and this goes as far as france having declared as its own policy aim to see germany get a permanent seat in the un security council which is very noteworthy indeed so this is about taking germany and france. the integration something where the e.u. is max already pointed out is having some real trouble right now all right many. more plenty more from both of our correspondents there. having live coverage of the signing of of that treaty at ten thirty that central european time in just about twenty minutes other news and an attack on a military base in central afghanistan has killed scores of people the taliban claiming responsibility there are conflicting reports about the death toll ranging

from at least sixty five to close to two hundred the violence of my dog shar that's in wardak province comes despite increased efforts by the u.s. to negotiate an end to the country's seventeen year old war. part flattened after a car loaded with explosives past three military checkpoint and detonated inside the compound and officials say several gunmen then stormed the base opening fire at soldiers before being gunned down in themselves. it was around six o'clock there was a very big explosion and i thought they had been north korea was very strong. it's the latest in what has become near daily assaults by the taliban who have been stepping up their attacks on government facilities in recent months under terror to by the harsh winter this time the taliban were able to breach the compound security barriers by using

a vehicle they had captured from the afghan military some of the injured were taken to local hospitals for treatment more serious cases were sent some fifty kilometers away to the capital capital. the government is facing accusations that it's hiding the truth death toll so as to avoid further worsening morale among afghanistan's already shattered security forces. earlier i spoke with all the latif he's a journalist in kabul about the attack he told me that despite a severity this attack is on likely to derail the u.s. initiative peace talks with the taliban the one thing is this peace process still led by the united states in the united states has made it very clear that they want out of this war at any cost at that point the other thing we have to remember is that this is not unfortunately uncommon in this war we have seen you know the government three years has been talking about trying to get peace and talk peace with the taliban and they continue their talks on the call on targets and at the

same time in two thousand and thirteen when the taleban briefly opened their office in doha they made a very clear statement they said you know we will consider peace talks at that time i mean didn't go anywhere but they said we will consider peace talks and we will keep fighting so that in essentially what we're seeing is a continuation of that war where both sides say that they want peace is going to become much more official at this point from the taliban side and yet they will continue to attack each other. for there in kabul talked to me earlier now for some of the other stories making news this hour zimbabwe's president emerson one god one arrived back in harare after breaking off and for sure he's been under growing pressure to return home after a brutal security brought crackdown authorities killed as many as twelve protesters and arrested hundreds more. there have been violent protests in the venezuelan capital caracas that after authorities arrested

a group of soldiers hoping to spark a coup against president nicolas maduro protesters took to the streets to back the demands former doro to step down. police responded with tear gas. well the international monetary fund has cut its global growth forecast for this year to three point five percent it's the second downgrade in just three months managing director christine lagarde making the ausman just before the world economic forum kicked off in davos switzerland. it points to the threat of a us china trade war the worst growth rates in china three decades and a possible no deal breaker as reasons for its warchest. or more of what's going on at the davos gathering let's cross over to w. senior business editor ben for standing by for us in davos morning ben it looks like real isn't it christine the guard there there are

a number of he konami clouds hanging over this session of davos definitely the big ones as you mentioned just that breaks it everyone's worried about that one of course that's coming very soon and then this trade war between the united states and china the top two economies who are also worried about slowing growth in their economies and everyone's worried about slowing global growth a lot of the big economic forecasters have now said that they're going to lower their full costs of growth to twenty nine thousand to around three percent so there are real concerns that these big events could really damage the global economy and i haven't even mentioned things like climate change and extreme weather events which could also cost a lot for companies and for global growth and then the guest list at davos is in many ways more notable this year for who's not on it then then who is.

exactly this is one of the problems in trying to solve all of these global problems getting world leaders to come together and there are so many no shows donald trump from the united states is staying home with his entire delegation we just had news that michael and pay you his secretary of state will be having a live video linked session here later on this afternoon in davos but also remember all my color from france is trying to deal with protests emmis among black was you mentioned as well from zimbabwe dealing with violence and it's a big question is the of us losing relevance the world economic forum or are these guys just having to deal with bigger problems back at heart and then of the leaders that are there who's going to be taking the spotlight at this davos session. looks like jay in sanaa to the new right wing president of brazil will step into the snow boots of donald trump this year and steal the spotlight he has

similarities to trump but he does have some very liberal economic policies which the davos crowd will definitely lap up ok there is sessions of this year for people like you and me regular folks. there are always regular things like yoga meditation sessions every morning to get you into the global mood if you lonely which i know there's a chronic loneliness session as well i mean you have so many people around here and i think you can get lonely and i have to bunk up with all of my colleagues because there's always so little space if there's also a session on. there are some nighttime sessions and they call doc's sensory dina's and they had to get to know more about yourself you're in complete darkness having dinner and also to recognize what blind people go through what their abilities are what they can do and basically a whole lot of sessions on disability and trying to get people with disabilities into the workplace ok ben most thanks much for bring us up to date on all of that

from davos spencers on for us there at davos on. the state of the news live from berlin don't forget in just a little bit we'll have that live signing of the new german french treaty and join us for that. time for an upgrade. our furniture grows all by. the us with no room. for design highlights you can make your super. tuesday.