because justice is about the truth. and. truth detectives starts feb fifteenth on t w. this is g w news. tonight your provides a reality check for britain's renegotiation hopes the world. what this special place. in the code looks like photos from most respected without the relish. safe.

to go yet again. in search of a new deal also coming up german leaders mark thiessen of the country's first democratic constitution there in volume eastern cities named to germany's post world war one republic. and the annual event that no german movie buffs can afford to ignore the berlin film festival the. gets underway tomorrow is already lining up for this year's hottest ticket in the race to see who will win the gold and. i'm good to have you with us british prime minister to resign may she heads to brussels tomorrow to talk yet again and the storm clouds there are. gathering today

the european council president will toast vented his frustration over the broadside chaos by saying british euro skeptics deserve a place in hell it's a sign of how free to tempers and nerves have become here with europe and with just over fifty days away teresa mayes hopes of reaching a new brogues a deal when they could be due. with only fifty days to go and no solution in sight fear of a hard breaks it is growing day by day and so is the frustration in brussels watching terrorism make head towards a no deal exit. what that special place. and looks like for those who promote it breaks it without even a sketch of a plan on how to cover it's safe a provocative statement that irish prime minister leo overact are predicted would not sit well with those it was aimed at. not only in the

press their response coming out of westminster was fast and furious because. i don't recall even the president insulting members of this house members of the government and the british people in such a way. others took a step back to look at the bigger picture. her way out of this to speak her to sometimes the truth hurts. for nigel for raj the former leader of the euro skeptic you camp toasts comment as proof of why britain wanted to leave the e.u. and the first place after brek said we will be free of unelected arrogant bullies like you and run our own country sounds more like heaven to me. heaven hell somewhere in between it's up to. after meetings in belfast today the british prime minister will be back in brussels tomorrow seeking fresh concessions on the

withdrawal agreement however neither donald tusk nor european commission president john clarke are open to renegotiate the deal. where some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world aid telling one representative has said the u.s. has offered to withdraw half its troops from afghanistan by the end of april he was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with prominent afghan leaders in moscow is being seen as another step in a process aimed at resolving afghanistan's seventeen year. that in its way the military has tried to block humanitarian aid from entering the country by very caving or bridge at a key border crossing with the long view that it's way the opposition leader. says hundreds of thousands of its whalen's could die if the aid does not deliver. us president donald trump has called on americans to unite and for politicians to work together across party lines in his state of the union address he also announced

a new some but with north korean leader kim jong later this month in vietnam. a four story building has collapsed in a residential area of the egyptian city of what so we're killing three people the victims were two egyptian girls and a female german tourist who was walking past the bill at least thirteen others were injured including a german. well here in germany a leading politicians have marked the centenary of the nation's first democratic constitution at a ceremony in weimar it was in the eastern city that a national assembly founded a republic after imperial germany's calamitous defeat in war one lawmakers including german chancellor angela merkel attended a church service to commemorate be a cage. gemini's first democratic constitution was drawn up in weimar's national theatre. it was one of the most liberal and progressive ever

penned at the time. german president trying to steinmeyer have pointed to me lasting importance. in that site india we live in a time when historical achievements including the separation of powers the parliamentary system and the rule of law are being challenged and questioned even here in europe. after the first free elections in january one thousand nine hundred nineteen the national assembly met environment and created germany's first democratic legal points to chief in the so-called weimar constitution. it formalized the principles of sovereignty separation of powers and women's suffrage but the constitution also contained faith to fuse. the nation's president had considerable power and could even dissolve parliament in an emergency that was

a power greater used to destroy the young democracy despite its shortcomings today's german president praised the weimar constitution's ideals. does lupin's are hard to confirm praising today's constitution does not mean its weimar predecessor was a bad one and it's left with us and it isn't on the contrary much of what was created that lives on today. weimar's ideals of freedom and democracy the rule of law and the welfare state have not failed and even if just two it was decided to steinmeyer him so wound of complacency saying that while democracy is not meant to fail it's not guaranteed to survive. and joining me here the big tables are g. political correspondent melinda great let's start with you know the weimar republic

ending but let's let's talk about why the constitution was so progressive to begin with reformers who were involved in drafting that constitution including even people like the famous sociologist max may have are they saw the abdication of the kaiser as their moment of opportunity and they believe that a progressive constitution would have the ability to catapult germany from being an author were tarion monarchy into being a liberal progressive democracy basically leapfrogging into modernity that's one part of it the other part of it is germany was riven by social unrest and blood was flowing in the streets and there was a hope that universal suffrage the vote for everyone the proportional representation allowing small parties to be represented in parliament that that would help heal these divisions and we forget too how progressive the weimar republic was protect particularly in the first half of the one nine hundred twenty s. but then the democracy failed what lessons are there to be learned well in part it

failed because of birth defects in that original constitution just two of them worth mentioning because they are still relevant today one is that proportional representation it helped a lot of very small splinter parties get elected they had just a few seats in parliament basically very hard to govern with this very fragmented structure in parliament even more important article forty eight. it was an emergency powers article it allowed the president to override the legislature when he deemed there to be a national emergency does that sound familiar since article forty eight is getting mentioned a lot these days in connection with president trump's announcement that there's a national emergency on the border there are a big risks in calling an emergency president tended bar did that environment the result was a failure and there was a lot of talk about the the groundwork being late last night in the state of the union address for a national crisis being called we know the german president emphasized in his

speech today that even a very clever constitution could not protect democracy from failure what did he mean by that that's right he said good constitution won't override bad times and basically the one nine hundred twenty s. were a very bad time for germany they were paying crippling reparations to the victors of world war what that basically brought the german economy to its knees hyperinflation was the result that helped continue those social divisions that i mentioned earlier no less than three hundred fifty six german government politicians were assassinated over the course of the weimar republic by nationalist terrorists there were those splinter parties that i mentioned demonizing each other hateful rhetoric anti-semitism rampant all of that continued us today economic instability and inequality matter so demonization and vulgar ugly

hate speech and political discourse all of that helped to bring this very good constitution this very hopeful democracy basically down to its knees many people would say that the success that the world saw in the new world order after world war two was because the lessons of you know the weimar republic had been learned as for all right when a great as always we appreciate your insights. now the event that many fans here in berlin look forward to every year tomorrow sees the start of the berlin film festival the bellina this year seventeen films are competing for the festival's top prize the golden bear the jury will be chaired by the french movie star julie have been no show at the festival otherwise lacking in star power but that will stop the fans they're already lining up for the hottest tickets. defense i want to make to be not is such a unique event it attracts the largest audience of any film festival in the world

and anyone can get tickets here as long as i get in line enough. i read every single synopsis of every movie and made my choices but. i wasn't prepared for how difficult it is to get tickets for the knowledge. you have to fit the movies the timing but you have to fit quick because there's a lot of ticket offices and they fly very quick nearly four hundred movies will be presented and one thing is for sure it's going to be a women's ballerina francesco winner juliet in nashville leave the jury british actress charla dram going receive the honorary bear for her lifetime achievement and seven off the seventeen movies running for a golden bear were directed by women records and a milestone for an a list festival. and it's a woman who's kicking off the movie marathon danish director will open the festival

with her film the kindness of strangers in it she tells the story of a group of people who meet during a cold york winter. and the anyone sends for you. this year is barely not a set of brits women festival director due to a costly excess it's a reaction to the gender equality thanks. but tilly. of course this is partially a result of the ongoing debate. our views have expanded and we're learning to question things but i have to stress that we didn't include any films where we weren't convinced of the quality from the. german films are also well represented at. one powerful entry is by prize winning direc. hakim in the golden globe profiles in notorious serial killer. we. know.

this man will be lending the festival at some point he would be christian basie playing former u.s. vice president dick cheney the biographical finn presents him as a poet hungry politician really intelligent briefing before the president gets a sense out of the decision bush approval. or standing at betty not his main venue the red carpet is being rolled out this year it's environmentally friendly it's made of recycled fishing nets so now it's green and lemons. are some football news now you know it was almost guaranteed to serve a second term as president was no one else running in june election in france you know he's been in charge of the world football's governing body since twenty sixteen taking over in the wake of these sports worst ever corruption scandal he

will be unopposed after his only potential challenger former player in the big failed to secure the backing of at least five of the first two hundred eleven for the rich. you're watching news coming up next in d.w. business a giant railway vergers stopped in its tracks the european commission the walks a merger between germany industrial giant siemens and the french train maker alston . will be right back. to. earth. home to of species. oh we're sitting. here those are big changes and most start with small steps global interiors tell stories of create just people into innovative plunger.