this is deja vu news live from berlin a landmark anniversary for the world's strongest military alliance nato marks of seventieth birthday as president trouble offers warm words for the alliance's leader but another rebuke for germany also coming up. the sultanate of brunei imposes the death penalty for gay sex and adultery rights groups including countries around the world like germany of all condemning the new ball.

i'm brian thomas thanks so much for being with us the west's largest and oldest military alliance nato is marking a milestone today its seventieth birthday nato was created to protect europe of course from the soviet union and the warsaw pact following their collapse nato has been redefining itself in its twenty nine member states especially germany have been under mounting pressure from washington to spend more on their militaries at a press conference with nato secretary general berg our washington bureau chief asked president trump if he plans to keep lobbying the german chancellor on berlin's military spending. i'll be talking about you have been out of cuba germany i mean germany honestly is not paying their fair share i have great respect for uncle and i have great respect for that country my father's german right was german

and born in a a very wonderful place in germany and so i have a great feeling for germany but they're not paying what they should be paying it paying close to one percent and is supposed to be paying two percent then the united states over the years got to a point where it's paid four point three percent which is very unfair and the u.s. g.d.p. especially under me because the g.d.p. is going up so much because it's four point three of a much larger g.d.p. so we're paying for a big proportion of nato which basically is protecting europe so we're protecting europe let's go straight to brussels where nato has its headquarters and interviews terry shell standing by for us good morning terry president trump there again pressing nato allies especially germany again to spend more on their militaries as nato marks and seventieth birthday can you give us a picture of its overall financial health. that's right

bryan and let me break this down a little bit because it is very confusing the spending issue that president trump talks about all the time what he really means is that he wants european allies to spend more on their own militaries because need only has a very tiny administrative budget but it's made up of the collective militaries of its twenty nine allies so the mark by which it's measured is how much countries spend of their g.d.p. on their own defense and it's true that the united states spends far more on defense than any european country some of them are spending truly only a little bit over one percent so he does have a point and that's something that nato allies wish he would just make and consider when he has forced them to spend more on defense but they would like to move on and talk about other issues and in fact that's one reason why this this event is not at the head of state level because they didn't want president trump am seeing it and talking about nothing but spending what nato would really like for this birthday is some appreciation for wrinkles and all. we were part of

the for the signing of the north atlantic treaty this seventy year old nato has faced examinations under harsh light this birthday it does have some concerns for its well being discomfort when something viral is going around occasional spikes in blood pressure should have never been allowed to happen but germany is totally controlled by russia and perhaps some self doubt that when push comes to shove its core is not as strong as it hoped two former u.s. ambassadors to nato research the biggest threat facing the alliance of seventy the transatlantic consensus the absence of strong american presidential leadership nato secretary general young stolzenberg rejects that conclusion it's just not possible to say that the united states is not committed to meet them because do not the states is increasing their military contributions to nato he points to the latest

example a new plan for the us to forward position heavy war fighting a quick meant at a police airbase that's jamie shea spent almost four decades at nato as a spokesman but also an expert in what are called emerging security challenges and while dealing with russia and its hybrid work or tactics still top the list of challenges for nato the now retired shea warns the alliance must look further afield to be fit for the future because obviously china is the rising power it's already in europe of blowing up infrastructure influencing the future of artificial intelligence technology it's going to be a massively more important factor in determining twenty first century security to russia or all googly any other country outside nature of the countries inside or shaping nato's future to the next enlargement will be to north macedonia which changed its name to settle a dispute with greece that earned an almost immediate invitation to join pending

the approval of the other twenty nine allies. they didn't waste their time they didn't drag their feet and that's remarkable for an organization of twenty nine members so i think that. it's not just our desire to join it's how need to has dealt with the challenge of enlargement the chose that this is a strong forward looking and dynamic organization scope you hopes the alliance will prove this anniversary year seventy is the new thirty. and nato likes to point out that it is still very attractive at seventy because many other countries still want to join ok terry we heard there a man from a man who knows a lot about nato jamie shea in your report he's an expert on emerging threats and he says these are posed to europe by china is being underestimated what are nato experts saying today about. well isn't that striking i mean looking at the

security environment today he says that china will be a bigger challenge than russia is right now and that nato really needs to look at this jamie shea points out that there is no formal partnership with china you have even with countries like jordan you certainly have the nato russia council so jamie says you should really get ahead of this now before there's an adversarial relationship because china is buying up a lot of ports in europe it's it's going to buys its way into a lot of public utilities that need to be at nato its disposal if there is a conflict so jamie shea says really it is the time to step up a formal partnership much like the european union is doing and he does expect that to be an issue on the agenda there in washington for us from brussels today thanks very much there. oh british prime minister theresa may is due to meet with the opposition labor leader jeremy corbett in a new push for a bracks a compromise now that's after announcing she would ask the e.u. for another delay beyond the april twelfth deadline after months of political

deadlock is theresa may indicating she wants a closer relationship with europe after all the coming days perhaps the coming hours could provide some answers. in london a potentially important shift to reason me says she wants another extension to the brig's it deadline and will seek political consensus to break months of parliamentary deadlock i'm offering to sit down with the leader of the opposition and to try to agree a plan that we would both stick to to ensure that we leave the european union and that we do so with a deal the initial reaction from the labor party leader positive but cautious. but of course i'm very happy to meet so we need to have a discussion with the prime minister we need to ensure that parliament has an opportunity to vote on proposals that prevent his crashing out of the you in the end of next week. in paris another reminder from europe of the need for britain to

decide soon the french president underlining that british interests aren't the only ones that conant. notebook clearly our priority must be for proper functioning of the european union and market. the e.u. shouldn't be held hostage to a political crisis if you want to keep them on a long term basis. lin too didn't hide its weariness with the ongoing stalemate in westminster. the result of the talks could be a renewal of article fifty but i can't comment. to be honest i don't want to comment. we have to wait and see what the view is in london. we are long past the deadline they must know that in london the two. is. the e.u. will have to agree any extension to the breaks that date france and germany are the

only skeptical voices. time to check in with some of the other stories making news today that's why the lawmakers loyal to president nicolas maduro have stripped opposition leader. of his parliamentary immunity a lot means white oak could face arrest and prosecution his opponents accuse him of inciting street violence and violating the constitution when he declared himself interim president in january. election votes in a district of istanbul are to be recounted after president that's retired ones a k party appealed the results the vote and move comes after everyone's party was defeated by the opposition c.h.p. in the initial results the c.h.p. has criticised the appeal saying a k p is trying to quote steal the will of the people. the us city of chicago has elected its first black

female and openly gay marriage for life but the future opponent by a landslide a political novice told her supporters they created a movement for change the issues of gun violence economic inequality and political corruption dominating her campaign. the former prime minister of malaysia has gone on trial for his alleged role in a massive corruption scandal. is accused of misappropriating four and a half billion dollars from a state development fund if convicted the sixty five year old could face life in prison. a law has gone into force today in the state of brunei that makes gay sex and adultery capital offenses punishable by death the country's strictly applied islamic law has sparked an international outcry with the u.n. calling it cruel and inhuman brutalize new penal code introduces death by stoning as the punishment for homosexual acts and adultery. sultan also. says he

wants to strengthen sharia law and islamic teachings. for more i'm joined now by phil robertson deputy director of human rights watch asia's division thanks for joining us this morning this new law in brunei targets homosexual acts and adultery will this country actually be seeking to enforce this law by putting people to death by stoning well that's our fear we have to believe that they will go in for us this they have said they're serious about it and you know this is a medieval kind of punishment this is something that doesn't really belong in the twenty first century it's shocking to us that. this move and we think that they should halt the implementation of this law and take it back to the drawing board and start over again ok the law also imposes harsh punishment for for other crimes as well can you fill us in on the. well certainly if you are caught.

stealing things you can face amputation of a hand or if what. you are for instance selling food in. during the holy month of ramadan you could face imprisonment and lashes there are heavy penalties there are with beings. you know included throughout this law for various different criminal offenses that it is really a very draconian rights abusing law something that we very rarely see and something that i think should be of concern to the entire world what's. a watch what's behind the move towards this. type of legislation and how it was secular what was asked. well it is a mystery only the sultan knows he is an absolute monarchy and

a dictator and he is the person who's brought this into effect we don't understand why it's been brought it this time we have to believe that somehow courting conservatives or perhaps preparing for the afterlife who knows i mean it really is only the sultan that knows these things and he's seeing a number of hollywood celebrities like george clooney and. they've been calling for a boycott of brunei hotels as a number of big california london do you think that's likely to have any impact. well i think it will have an impact on bernanke i think that it will certainly make it more of a human rights pariah in the international community this is a country that is dependent on selling oil to others it is recently said that it wants to promote tourism. clearly there are connections to the international community and i think that the kind of cars are going to have some impact but it

may take some time though roberson from human rights watch thanks very much for being with us thank you. this is live from berlin coming up next e.w. documentary looks at the new cold war we're now though from a brian thomas in the entire team thanks so much for being with us. here's what's coming up on the book going to sleep you have plenty to talk about here. it's fun to look up at all that means for the table of course. the bundesliga every weekend here on t.w. .