this is deja vu news live from berlin the german chancellor says she will work to the last minute to prevent a no deal brax paula back old visiting ireland the e.u. state most vulnerable to possible breck's of disruptions the country's prime minister says we have to be ready for all outcomes also coming up. fears of carnage as militia troops reach the outskirts of the libyan capital tripoli a regional warlord is preparing to drive out the internationally backed government . and toxic air cutting lives short in asia

a new study shows children born in india china and other countries across the region are at risk of deadly diseases linked to air pollution. i'm brian thomas thanks so much for joining us a flexible twelve month delay to bret's it that is the proposal european council president on all toast is reportedly ready to offer along that if it helps break the deadline over the terms of britain's departure this plan would allow britain to leave the bloc sooner if its parliament approved withdrawal deal the british prime minister agreed with the new british lawmakers after jack to that agreement those three times between may's ruling conservatives and the opposition labor party are set to continue in a bid to break this impasse britain is due to leave the block on the twelfth of

april. let's get more now on the latest developments with the masses joining us from brussels good morning again we have you council president donald tusk making a very tempting offer there giving britain a flexible nose a key word twelve month extension on do we have any idea on how the extension might work look the european council in brussels gave britain two options one to pass the deal and then leave on the twenty second of may all to ask for a longer extension and leave today in a week and so i'm not too surprised that it's making that offer yes flexible is an interesting term here because we'll have to see how that technically would have to work out but let's remember viewers donald tusk is the person basically who sets the dates for you counsels he has no deciding power in brussels and so it is up to

state leaders to agree to any sort of offer like this ok has no decision making power none the less secure does this mention does this indicate a new willingness in brussels to compromise with london there are some leaders who are more patient than others and that goes for the institution as well the chief negotiator said the problem with a flexible extension is it would mean the u.k. participates in the european elections that goes for any longer extension and then just after the election they make key decisions as they have any piece in the european parliament and then they just leaf and that is a concern many europeans share ok what about conditions do we know about any possible conditions with this offer. i asked two weeks ago a key diplomat here in brussels if he can think of any condition under which his country would rule out an extension and he said look frankly i can't think of any

and i think that goes for a lot of your member states yes they will have to be a unilateral decision by all your member states to give the u.k. an extension but the e.u. wants to be the last one to be blamed for it heartbreaks it so i think that there is there what there is potentially a huge consensus to give the u.k. more time if they want to and if they want to participate in the european elections guert matters for us in brussels very important development today thanks very much . also topping the agenda in ireland where german chancellor angela merkel held top level talks yesterday there are concerns that a no deal outcome could have dire consequences especially for the delicate peace process in northern ireland. a warm welcome at a family house with german chancellor angela merkel dublin says she has been a strong and unwavering to and i have on and throughout the great surprise has now called in the irish prime minister leo varadkar held

a round table talks on what could happen if the person leaves the e.u. without a deal the focus was on the border between northern ireland and the republic of ireland. merkel drew on her own past experience with borders in her support of home . presently come from a country that was separated by a wall for many years. thirty four years i lived behind the iron curtain and. i know what it means when walls fall and when borders disappear. and so i'm aware of the need to do all we can to uphold the peaceful coexistence here for which so many lives were sacrificed. to these in this fleeting this is. the irish borders separates northern ireland which is part of the u.k. from the republic of ireland which will remain

a member of the you brics it at the moment there is no physical border between the two the absence of a hard border is essential part of the nine hundred ninety eight good friday peace agreements between the republic of ireland and the u.k. which ended decades of fine and. prime minister varadkar laid out audience priority is. good. we have their selves for all i comes. with that in mind we discussed planning european and domestic level for no do you think you think that we can work together i mean start to put objectives protecting the good friday agreement on which pieces are and is based on also protecting the intact. in the european single market in the close and see it in. the common follow it debates with fifteen people from both sides of the buddha about the impact a new deal scenario would have on the lives she didn't give us any indication of

what openly might be set up but she certainly took away the importance of the course in june in a single market across the aisle divide into economies east to west as well as north of. the two leaders will consider further brics it defendants head of a special european council summit next week. to talk more about we're joined now by correspondent arthur sullivan in dublin good morning arthur how did michael's visit go down where you are. overall i would say that from an irish perspective because it went quite well so the i would says small degree of trepidation on the other side before she can that possibly she was coming to give clear instructions as to what i would need to say regarding the border in the event of an odious brags that according to senior sources at the event during the round table discussions both with the group from the border community and also with the teacher quickly overheard her america made no direct demands are made no

specific requests about the border so that was the man thing she didn't say that it needed to be absolutely secured in the event of an o.t. drags it shouldn't say that ireland or the irish government needed to come out and be much clearer about exactly what they were going to do in the event of an order of directors what she did was she came out of the press conference with leo varadkar and she spoke and i would say somewhat restrained terms in terms of the solidarity with art and she was clear that germany was done environment but she wasn't quite as ardent as with say a french president a minute in the chrome was when he met the teacher a few days ago but i think the most interesting thing she said was that when asked how the integrity of the single market would be maintained why this keeping the border opened in the event of an order to break this she didn't give any clear direction she simply said we must find a way i'm not quite sure how we do it but we simply have to find a solution so from an irish sect of it went quite well because she didn't come out with any specific demands ok a lot of leeway there then for dublin but at the same

time are there dublin has been criticized for fair failing to prepare fully for a worst case scenario how will dublin manage to keep the border with northern ireland open in the event of a no deal brock's. well that is the sixteen billion euro question and it's news that figure because that's roughly speaking the volume of trade that goes between art and the u.k. as a whole but a large section of that go and across the border that is really at this stage a very hard question to answer because the. those two ideas and those two m's are simply it seems incompatible how can you uphold the integrity of the single market why is having a completely open border if the u.k. is as there would be in a no direction and a completely different customs and tariffs ranchman a w t o scenario so there's been very solutions have been suggested one of them would be that for a period northern ireland remains in the u.k. would agree in a short term sense for the northern german in a customs union of sorts with the e.u.

but that obviously raises the hackles of brigadiers and the unionist community and it's also not quite clear that function or even if that would be allowed under a w t o rules if the new show would allow that so it's a really difficult question to answer and at the moment no clear solution has been found ours are sold in force and doubling our thanks very much for some of the other stories making news at this hour wiki leaks says its founder julian assange is to be expelled from the ecuadorian embassy in london the whistleblower website tweeted that ecuador has an agreement with the u.k. where a song just arrests a senior ecuadoran official has denied that the song's been holed up in the embassy since two thousand and twelve to avoid extradition to sweden on allegations of rape . u.s. aviation giant boeing has revealed that the company's grounded seven thirty seven max airliners are suffering from an additional software problem regulators say it

must be fixed before the aircraft can be cleared to fly again the problem relates to software affecting the flaps and other flight control hardware. amazon owner jeff bezos and his wife mackenzie have agreed on the biggest divorce settlement in history she will receive twenty five percent of the online retailer shares now you've got about thirty five billion dollars the deal maker the third richest woman in the world will base those will remain the world's richest man. crowd. a new zealand court has ordered the suspect in the christ church mosque shootings to undergo a psychiatric evaluation that will determine whether he's fit to face trial on fifty counts of murder and thirty nine counts of attempted. well is to turkey now where officials are recounting votes in that country's

largest city istanbul after president bunch of type area wants a key party demanded results be checked the main opposition narrowly won the city in municipal elections held last weekend but they k.p. is protesting istanbul holds special significance for the turkish president is where his rise to power began as did abuse jolyon reports. the bags in this gym contain thousands of ballots cast in sunday's local elections in istanbul. mahmoud tenet a politician with the opposition c.h.p. has spent days here to keep a watchful eye on that. argument why do we wait here and keep watch to prevent the ones party from replacing the voting bugs because it's done before they have a lengthy record of this we have a sole purpose of securing people's rights and making sure no one has cheated we will not allow anyone to do this. for president of add one last weekend's election

was one of his heaviest setbacks in his islamic group to take a county want to majority of votes nationwide but according to initial results the opposition has won key urban centers including the capital ankara and istanbul a city of more than fifteen million. billboards like this one have gone up in istanbul since election night president adlon and his candidate for mayor been only give thanking the public for their votes but actually they're facing defeat here and if confirmed this would be a stunning setback for add on himself who gained power after being mayor of istanbul in the one nine hundred ninety s. . preliminary results in istanbul give the opposition candidate for me mamu and their own leaders about twenty five thousand votes. now alleges irregularities in miscounting it has pushed through a recount of the votes in several districts. pro-government turkish media described

the opposition's unexpected success in drastic terms they likened the election to a coup blamed foreign powers for meddling in turkey's internal affairs. of the a key pieces such accusations are exaggerated but he also emphasizes the boat was not a blow for the president to let's not forget that this election was our local elections therefore ensure britain does resolves as a general election or almost like a referendum on president would be wrong but even if you do that the. party has got fifty two percent the popular vote in this country but so we have lost some cities. everything but maybe a few cities will be a humbling point for us. but voters say the results and the signal to president add one quest to find an answer to turkey's economic crisis. the

a.k.p. deserve this result i support the party but it was dishonest with the people feel so this is what they get that. this gives me hope it's yours people finally woke up and took a stand to let him park in the light reading on their videos the. k.p. didn't lose that much the politicians understood they made some mistakes now they're speaking in a different tone and showing more respect to. the opposition hopes its election victory will soon be officially confirmed its candidate extremely momo who has already changed his title on twitter to mayor of istanbul. meanwhile his fellow party member mahmoud tonight will keep an eye on the ballots and money to the recount as long as it takes in libya forces loyal to a powerful militia leader average the outskirts of tripoli that's the seat of the

country's u.n. backed government events of last by general khalifa haftar marks an escalation in the power struggle that's been raging since the overthrow moammar gadhafi in two thousand and eleven. the libyan national army advancing westwards they say they want to liberate the country from what they call terrorists and mercenaries they're making rapid progress since launching their offensive on wednesday they've already captured a town close to the capital tripoli now the troops are trying to reach their ultimate goal in the capital itself the plan was announced in an audio recording posted on the militias facebook page by their leader. are you are. heroes the time has come it is time to advance as you have always done with a firm step towards tripoli and to. peacefully. u.n. secretary general antonio terrace is calling for

a dialogue he is in tripoli trying to mediate between huffed r.-s. administration in the east of the country and the un backed government in tripoli i want to make a very strong appeal. and. for all these any movements to stop there is no military solution for any problem in the world and that he's not the solution for the problems in libya the streets in tripoli are still calm but that could change if huffed arce forces push into the city. now to a problem plaguing more and more urban areas air pollution and its impact on our health so alarming numbers have just been released on average a child born today will have its life shortened by twenty months due to toxic air and that's according to the global effects institute in our latest report the state of global air now when you break things down region by region you can see how asia

stands out in south asia today's children will lose an average of thirty months of their lives that's a little bit lower in east asia that figure stands at twenty three months now this is so five times higher than the situation in north america where western europe pollution now is a bigger killer in asia than malaria or road accidents it's almost as bad as smoking there's a closer look. donning a face mask part of the morning routine for many school kids in delhi where toxic smog and the city for much of the year. some days twenty times above the w h o's recommended limit for dangerous fine particles in the air. india is home to fourteen of the world's most polluted cities exposure to air pollution cuts the life expectancy of kids there by two and a half years by increasing their risk of chronic heart and lung disease among other

illnesses. delis toxic air hit home for one mother when her young son fell ill i also said that my son was falling sick a lot with the pollution you know he was getting a lot of these allergic. and it said that they might see that we realize that there the problem is really alarming. in china the entire population breeds air that exceeds the w h o's safety standard. toxic air accounted for one point two million deaths in china in two thousand and seventeen. air pollution has dropped in recent years due to government efforts to curb emissions. but this time lapse in beijing shows the blankets of smog that worry many parents. i fear the doctor says she's sick because of small and she was in the hospital for six days because of this i just picked her up. to the north and mongolia's

capital long but tar a reliance on coal for heating has turned the air hazardous families are making hard choices. this mother makes a three hour round trip each week to see her daughter who now lives with her grandparents in the countryside under doctor's orders after two bouts of pneumonia i mean as a mune system couldn't cope with the city air. i think she got sick because of the smoke. we were surrounded by and. now she has in fresh air she hasn't gotten sick. she will get a sniffle here and there but there usually passes easily. there exodus a stark warning for the future of much of asia's urban areas choking on turkey air . our south-east asia correspondent boston harvey joins us now from bangkok one

of those hard hit cities good morning boston why is the air quality so very bad where you are today in the thai capital well it's a at the moment it's especially bad in the north of the country really and the reason for that is that there are forest fires raging in that area and that it's a certain degree that's a problem that this region faces every year really in the dry season so in the winter months because that's the time when farmers are burning their crops and when they're when they're when they're setting fires in the forest to clear land for agriculture and that comes on top of the other reasons that people especially in urban areas are facing the other reasons for pollution which is of course traffic and increased industry and coal fired power plants and construction sites but at the moment the reason why it's so particularly bad in the north of the country are these forest fires and that's those are fires that are not only burning in thailand

but also in the neighboring countries like me and mar and like like like laos and that's what's making that situation so bad there at the moment and also because of the fact that it's been a particularly dry dry season. no matter how bad the air is people have to go about their their everyday lives how's that affecting people in the region. well the government is telling them to wear masks and to stay inside if they can and to limit their outdoor activities and especially now in the north of thailand for example some universities have canceled classes when the air was really bad here in bangkok at the beginning of the year schools school was canceled for for several days but people are getting more and more upset about this and about the fact that the government doesn't seem to be able to get a grip on this and so you can see out on social media how people are venting their

anger at the government really there's calls for right now the provincial governor of a child my which is in the north of the country to step down and people want to elect their own governor because they feel like they've been neglected by the central government in bangkok and because that central government is the one appointing the the provincial governors in thailand so they're saying they want to elect their own government governor to have more accountability ok so politics or politics is one thing people are doing what what else is being done to scale back it's a serious threat to public health briefly if you could well look they've been trying to fight these forest fires but with with limited success really and at the moment that they've been trying is that they've been trying to crack down on crop burning and on the people who are setting these fires there's other things that they have done like spraying the air with water even trying to seed clouds to make it rain all futile attempts haven't really hasn't really

improved the situation much at all so right now i think the only thing that can be done at this moment is to wait for the rains to set in boston harbor exams are very much from bangkok. we have some sports now and for decades baseball players from the baseball crazy country of cuba have been defecting to the united states in hopes of signing a lucrative professional contract but the days of risking everything in undertaking potentially dangerous ocean journeys are over the cuban baseball federation has announced its first list of players that are authorized to sign contracts with major league baseball. it's a historic agreement that's a homerun for both sides the cuban baseball league has struggled to turn a profit and only pays players a basic wage of fifty u.s. dollars a month players like yasiel puig defective in subsequently signed a contract worth millions with major league baseball in the u.s. now teams in the states will pay their q.b.

counterparts a release fee for each player to be signed providing a huge windfall for cuban baseball cuba's top tier tell it has now been shortlisted for teams in the u.s. . if that were world will see that this agreement is a reality in this case there are thirty four player i think cuber is a baseball quarry those who don't see themselves on this list do not despair will have no less in the future this is an agreement that should last forever. locals in havana seem pleased about the venture and are looking forward to seeing more of their heroes on the biggest stage. also and it's a great step there's a ton of talented and we can do well and do things for this country there's no longer any need to go via regular routes it's great for cuban baseball to rise again as it deserves to with the best in the world there are strings attached to being on the coveted list however both baseball federations are working together to showcase cuban talent in the u.s.

potentially strengthening relations between the two countries in the process. man and women are competing against each other in a professional golf tournament for the very first time at the jordan mixed open this week has been and wife kylie henry from scotland are among the players in the red sea resort of the total prize cash for the landmark event about four hundred thousand dollars. if you are modern our top stories at this hour. has visited our land the e.u. state most vulnerable to any possible threats and disruptions. she says she'll be working close to the last minute to avoid a possible no deal wrecks. and forces loyal to a powerful libyan warlord have reached the outskirts of tripoli that's the scene of the country's u.s. backed government bid asked by khalifa hostlers fighters marks

a sharp escalation in this country on the gulf coast. this is deja vu news live from berlin coming up our international talk show quadriga this week looking at the challenges facing nato brian thomas for the entire team thanks rick.

quadriga international talk show four journalists discuss the topic of the week as nato mohsin seventieth anniversary we are school fugitives the military alliance how in the age of trump. and we spoke germany trouble in the international security and defense are enough coal plants or more coming up and patricia to join us.

quadriga next on d w. e take good personally un with all the wonderful people in stories that make the game so special. for all true fans. pick up more than football online you know that seventy seven percent clapping are younger than thinks of hot. that's me and me and you. think you know what time of course is one hundred. seventy seven percent talk about the issue up. front part of the flash from housing boom boom

boom town this is where. local good seventy seven percent. starts give you six g.w. . a lot of very warm welcome indeed to quadriga coming to you from the cost of well they've been the focus it is all the. later i was being offered lunch at treaty organization which this week is marking its seventieth anniversary and seven decades of peace and prosperity however the celebrations in washington and clouded by grave concerns about the future of the military its u.s. presidents donald trump and nato.