d.w. . this is deja vu news live from berlin the u.s. plays down speculation it's heading for war with iran. u.s. secretary of state mike pompei o says america is not seeking conflict although the u.s. would respond if its interests were attacked he touched on the issue of talks with russian leaders also coming up. ukrainian women becoming surrogate mothers to make ends meet they are in thousands of euros to carry babies for couples in western europe including from germany.

i'm brian thomas a warm welcome to the show u.s. secretary of state mike pompei oh has played down the prospects of an immediate conflict with iran tensions between iran and the u.s. have of course attends a fide over the past week with the u.s. sending warships and aircraft to the gulf it also says that iran may be behind the alleged sabotage attacks on shipping in the region upon pale was circumspect of talks in russia after an intensive round of shuttle diplomacy. dorman and mike pompei was on a mission a mission that didn't go quite the way he planned pompei has been on the road for the past week rallying support for washington's iran policy last wednesday he abruptly pulled out of a scheduled meeting with germany's chancellor angela merkel instead he met iraqi

leaders and warned them that iran's threat to american interests in the region was growing he then postponed a trip to russia to share iran intelligence with european leaders in brussels but they didn't offer him their backing. opinion inside the states of the european union site that's for the technician to do all we can as i said with eastern and to implement it for our part of the nuclear agreement as long as it makes compliance next stop sochi in the russian black sea resort pompei i met president vladimir putin and foreign minister sergei lavrov but again he got very little. the producers we didn't support it and we consider it a mistake that the u.s. exit did the iran nuclear deal. we hope to find a political solution to the situation in iran and will try to assist so that the situation doesn't turn into

a military scenario. where you're mr markey in recent days the u.s. has considerably increased its military presence in the persian gulf but pump a 0 denies that the trumpet ministration is preparing for war we're looking for iran to be a book a normal country and that's our ask and we have applied pressure to the leadership of the islamic republic of iran to achieve that we we fundamentally do not see a war with iran iran's leadership also denies it's heading for conflict now pump a.o. has returned to washington on his european tour allies and rivals alike warned him against war. but let's get some analysis now as sasha loman america expert at the german institute for international security affairs welcome to the show thanks for joining us having is this the start of a deescalation in the gulf well i feel no these processes hardly controllable and

it's a huge potential for missed perceptions so steps on both sides are perceived to be offensive even if they essentially meant to be defensive do you think it's reassuring tehran nonetheless that butt out there talking to people talking to russia talking to the e.u. well i think it's kind of reassuring that he's so far unsuccessful unsuccessful to garner support for the so-called my small precious strategy but at the same time the u.s. is deploying new military assets in the region and i think that's highly unstable ising for also the reigning leadership what do you think about this shuttle diplomacy on behalf is it a one off effort or do you think america will be keeping up the pressure for this maximum. pressure strategy that that you just mentioned well basically pay was trying to garner some of them see from allies in europe but also from partners of the remaining parties among the chase if you a but he must not be successful necessarily because the u.s. can and has not backed sanctions unilaterally and they are pressuring to run

regardless of what the others do and their efforts at trying to save the deal so far have also been proven not successful at all ok well the administration in washington believes that the sanctions will strengthen the opposition on her mind the regime of the mallos could they though wind up strengthening the hard liners in iran. sure i mean those are the 2 theories and it looks like as the 2nd theory that it's strengthening the hard liners to so-called rally round the flag theory is actually what's happening on the ground into russia ok as part of that rally around the flag theory in tehran we've seen a deployment of iranian assets in the gulf as well putting the the elite units of the republican guard what are the iranians doing off for their side now to to strengthen their position in the gulf militarily well they're trying to put pressure on the u.s. at the same time because they cannot match up militarily on the scale with the u.s.

navy in the persian gulf so what they're doing is that they are trying to somehow retaliate asymmetrically and that's why they're the ploy some as it so called proxies in the region and this also heightens the potential for escalation because of the proximity between u.s. forces in syria. and iraq and these ukrainian backed forces just this morning we have reports coming in from iran that iran has indicated the country has already stopped some of its commitments under the nuclear deal what impact do you think that could have well those faily small steps and they are also only pertaining to these areas that the u.s. reimposed sanctions on so these are actually steps which indicate that the iranian leadership is still interested in maintaining the deal and we will see the so-called ultimatum to the europeans to 60 days what they will do afterwards because it's not really likely that the europeans can actually deliver economic

benefits to iran because u.s. sanctions are prohibiting european companies even in europe to follow e.u. law and with the economic threats and pressures increase you know all of the military threats and pressures increasing as well what needs to be done right now to cool the situation off to get in effect of the escalation well as a. these processes are hardly controllable and what needs to be done is there needs to be an actor that might be able to deescalate the situation but in this kind of environment it's really hard to actually send signals of the escalation because the potential for misperception is so huge so i think this is kind of what's really dangerous about this whole situation that there's hardly a kind of space for for deescalation ok briefly if you could who should be the into look cute or you just mentioned could it be the europeans well prefer play the europeans but so far they are really cautious and kind of. getting the united states to really accept that they want to maintain the deal and kind of put some

put some money where their mouth is such a loman america expert at the german institute for international security 1st thanks for coming in this morning's. and we have this related news just coming in the u.s. state department has ordered non-emergency staff to leave iraq that includes a number of staff at the u.s. embassy in the capital of that country baghdad preview on some of the other stories making the news at this hour the u.s. senate or the senate rather in the u.s. state of alabama as passed a near total ban on abortion or the majority of $25.00 to $6.00 alabama senators voting to make performing an abortion at any stage of a pregnancy a crime punishable by life in prison is now up to the state's governor to sign that ban into law. extreme san francisco's board of supervisors has banned police and other municipal authorities from using facial recognition technology this makes it the 1st u.s.

city to do so but the ban does not apply to private businesses and federally controlled facilities like the city's airport ports. technologies used to identify people from video footage were still photos. british prime minister theresa may says she will put her breck's a deal to parliament in the 1st week of june it will be the 4th time the house of commons has voted on the agreement with the new. lawmakers from the probe rex a faction of her conservative party have already said they will vote against. the wife of the former president of interpol has been granted asylum in france chinese national grace manning reported her husband home way missing last year after he traveled to china days later interpol said maying had resigned from his post and this month chinese prosecutors have charged him with abuse of power and taking bribes. while hate crimes often motivated by

religious or anti foreigner sentiment are on the rise here in germany new figures show hate crimes increasing 20 percent last year and that includes anticipated crimes the government says the far right is to blame. demonstrators buttoning a self-made israeli flag an attack against a jewish restaurant. and same bull these are signs of a worrying problem in germany and one that is growing according to new figures released by the interior ministry. anti semitic crimes have increased considerably by 19.6 percent in the last year. majority and this finding is important for the evaluation of these offenses namely 89 point one percent can be attributed to groups on the right wing of the political spectrum.

parties described as far right such as alternative for germany have been accused of downplaying germany's nazi past on normalizing hate politics something that they reject. german chancellor angela merkel's government meanwhile has vowed to fight the rising problem of anti-semitism but officials have added that given japanese troubled history fighting anti-semitism is not only a challenge for authorities but for society as a whole. to crane now where the country's desperate economic state and weak rule of law have led to a boom in women becoming paid for surrogate mothers practice is of course outlawed in an increasing number of countries and ukraine is among a shrinking group of nations where infertile couples from places like western europe can hire women willing to carry implanted embryos the processes the set with ethical issues all clinics profit from the desperation of charles couples and from

the plight of poor women alike. whenever the baby moves i speak to it at night when i read my children stories it's for the baby to. cause. the talia is 8 months pregnant it's a girl but it's not hers the tahlia is a surrogate the baby's parents live in germany and. it's such a happy moment when you hold your baby in your arms for the 1st time i'll be happy for them. to tell his own children only with her for the day for the final months of the pregnancy she's moved to be closer to the clinic in the heart you know talia took the decision to become a surrogate to help family finances so that her kids would have it better she tells us her partner earns just 200 euros a month working full time. this clinic on the outskirts of hard to

attract childless couples from around the world among them the german couple whose daughter natalia is carrying they were unwilling to be interviewed even anonymously the fear of being recognized is just too great. it's a different story with this woman from germany we're calling her and she's in her early forty's and has 6 failed attempts to get pregnant by idea behind her adoption wasn't something she has been willing to consider so so we could see an exile donation was the only option remaining. a procedure that's illegal in germany ana says that is pure hypocrisy. surrogacy is illegal in germany but you see celebrities and those who can afford it doing it all the same it's when you get back to germany that social services treat you like a criminal. surrogacy is big business and one that's growing

in this clinic in how to give couples pay upwards of 30000 euros for a package think ludes the surrogacy and egg cell donation there are no official statistics but inside is estimate that many hundreds of children are born to surrogates every year in ukraine. it's a month since we last met natalia now she's back with her partner and children the child she carried for the past 9 months has been with its new german family since it was born. there all the day it was a bit confusing emotionally after the baby was born on the one hand you understand that it's not your baby but you still want to know everything about it you've carried that child for 9 months but i wouldn't call it a maternal instinct you feel very clearly that it's not yours. the baby's new parents say they want to stay in touch with the talia but what does natalia take

from it would she do it again for now she won't rule it out but one thing is clear the demand is there and it's growing. this is the interview news live from berlin i'm brian thomas for the entire news team thanks so much for joining us. from. europe the big idea. but what's become of it. will it look like tomorrow. looking for a better future isn't enough europe requires our culture sufficiently. good questions 2019 may 26th on g.w. .