but. this is a doubly newsline from violation of european democracy get ready for of may just stress test take a look at brussels efforts to push to try to take next week's european elections and to fight outside meddling on the spread of this information also on the program . u.s. president donald trump declares a national emergency bans businesses with foreign telecoms pose

a risk to national security directive to snag any specific company but is believed to be targeting chinese tech giant. i'm phil gale welcome to the program. europe goes to the polls next week and the european union is behind a massive push to be encourage people to vote 400000000 people in 28 countries will have a chance to choose their representatives at the european parliament for the next 5 years so let's take a look at how it works but ever of any pace given to each country is roughly proportional to its population with more than 80000000 people europe's most populous country germany gets $96.00 the e.u. smallest country i'm older gets just a 6 to represent its population of less than half a 1000000 now once elected and b.p.h.

join the transnational groups with similar political leanings at the moment there are 7 of these representing the center right socialist greens euro skeptics and others i mean peace votes are new laws and to prove the budget they also help choose the president of the european commission the current president is a vis claudie younger the favorites or replace him of these men here 1st of all there's the german conservative m.e.p. manfred vega and as well there is the dutch politician france timmermans of the european socialists but in the countdown to next week's vote the e.u. is very much on its guard after the bracks it shock and because of growing euro skepticism across the block and that's before we even get to the idea of disinflation this information campaign the campaigns are trying to influence voters with lies and half truths last year the e.u. commission set up a task force to deal with this threat but critics say that its efforts may be too

little too late the w.'s teri schultz has this. whoever you are wherever you are you can get involved european union institutions have poured enormous resources in to get out the vote campaign but have they invested enough in stay out of the vote efforts in ways to prevent malicious meddling it's not like there was no warning 5 years ago the kremlin's internet research agency in st petersburg was revealed estimated to spend more than a $1000000.00 a month pumping out anti western spin 3 years ago us elections were the target of that russian troll farm yet the european commission waited until just 6 months before the european parliament elections to launch its action plan against dissin from a nation we should have been doing much more kalinski spent 3 years in the european commission's struck on task force a communications unit created in 2015 to counter russian efforts to smear the e.u.

now with an independent think tank kalinski says brussels is way behind expecting that we will solve the problem in the last 2 months before the elections or even in the last month of the elections when the russians have been working on it for the past 5 years i think it's very naive facebook google and twitter have a role in the commission's plan pressed to better verify users' identities and remove fake accounts faster and to make clear who's paying for advertising and content facebook has just opened its own war room in dublin to target in authentic activity ahead of elections let's go in or from the e.u. is external action service says there has been progress it's not as much as we would have liked to but we have seen in terms of transparency things are really moving and i think the platforms understood that they also need to take a much closer look at what is happening there but not everyone is counting on bureaucrats and big tech to lead the battle out in the quiet flemish countryside is

what you might call an ant a troll farm with a staff of one. today welcome to insight martin shanking debugs false online stories on his own website lead stories dot com and also as part of fact check e u a collaboration of european media outlets working to keep the record straight ahead of the elections anything that looks suspicious that we take a closer look at that. smells funny. especially the kind of story that makes people angry or upset or. firms people in their bias like i knew a muslim of this or a neutron but that aftershock brand speak content with a big red banner on his website he also formally notifies dece book which immediately reduces the items visibility in its news feeds shank is convinced even small doses of disinter mation can be dangerous for democracy if you can swing

a few 100 foods in a certain district or in a certain state. that might the balance and you cannot make this coalition or that coalition because of one seed move. so it will undoubtedly have an influence with so much at stake across $28.00 countries experts say we're likely to see intense dissin from asian campaigns right up until the final votes are cast. dr rasmussen nielsen is from the reuters institute for the study of journalism at the university of oxford he also advises the e.u. commission on this information welcome to you we hear a lot these days about to descend from asian russian troll farms is it just russia doing this. no not at all i mean i think it's very clear that there are a number of information operations russia they are probably the most that games the most extensive ones but there has been

a number of incidents in which other forums they shown to be active around the world in trying to sow confusion and increases folks in the political process and if it's just vegan if i can put it that way away at it as well as the west that it . i think it's clear that the line between information operations and sometimes a bit hot to draw on and there are probably instances in which western governments are accepted ways that other governments might think of as interference i think what we need to keep in mind is that the majority of misinformation and sometimes it is a nation are either mistaken or. from international actors and this will be the case of old europe as well during the elections we see many examples of domestic actors you know for profitable political purposes finalist yes it is so when you talk about the domestic matters you are not talking about governments you are talking about the pressure groups or even political campaigns. i'm sure though is

on examples of governments doing this soon fortune he's going ari's yes i mean we see examples of the mystical political him as a political parties and politicians for storms of various forms of misinformation we see a well organized and highly motivated often very partisan activist groups trying to exploit sanctions decided by who flame these tensions and we see what is probably the hardest parts of we see individual use or sometimes in good faith sharing information that is in fact polls and is being so how should we the public can decide who's telling us the truth how can we tell. there's no simple way really i mean i think we have to start. in building strong institutions and ensuring that everybody has reliable sources they can they can trust so this isn't part of media

literacy either people are look make informed decisions it's in part of the importance of independent professional journalism so that everybody has access to a bias range of different sources of credible and trustworthy information and then it's about ways in which you can only companies like facebook or google need to do much much more to help people see the origins and problems of the information advertising come across and help independent 3rd parties including both researchers spectators and journalists analyze and research what's actually going on in these margins you talk about the need for a wide range of credible sources we hear a lot of complaints. from people with unpopular views or perhaps fringe views about the fact that the mainstream media doesn't tell us the whole truth do they have a point. i mean different journalists will cover the same stories in different ways this is the way in which journalism is always to process and opposable was the

community's theo their views on represented some of these are issues they are french others i think we need to recognise that groups in society marginalized by the establishment and some of these people perhaps have reasons he isn't set with the way in which journalists have dealt with some of the issues and this is not just a little more ice age an extreme political view is that if you many other issues to . women are presented. for senate and there are many racial admission already it's not enough over senate and journalism so you will never get a single provider as a private but that's why it's important we have a diverse news media that cover a wide range of different stories from requiring to give them points of view and bursts that range differences in society good job or defense for joining us dr russell supply snails and from the lords is that institute for the study of journalism. thank you. well despite the threat of descent from asian on the best efforts to counter it and to get us to vote more than half of europeans fear

the euro will collapse within a generation that's according to a new poll out today w. digital reporter us soccer is here to talk us through the steps welcome this all sounds very dramatic it does now this is a poll by the european council on council on foreign relations there and in an independent think tank. they say that the poll shows that more than half of the people asked fear that the european union will cease to exist in the next 10 to 20 years now we can see here on the screen slovakia and france they they lead the way but even here in germany 50 percent of people expect that the e.u. will be gone by the year 2040 now of the 14 countries that were in the poll only denmark sweden and spain which you can see there at the bottom. the they predicted less than half addicted to the union would be gone in 20 years now the survey also

found that. 3 out of 10 people thought a war between e.u. countries was realistic poland and france leading that statistic. and the sentiment was much higher among people planning to vote for far right parties like someone else in ireland france or the of one of the of the dutch law here in this country and surprisingly a lot of young people also feared for the european peace in france and netherlands 4 out of 10 young people's were afraid that conflict conflict could break out and now people also were also given a bunch of words to choose from to express how they felt about life now many europeans that they felt optimistic but in france for example most people said they were afraid in hungary and greece the most. commonly chosen word was stressed so some quite depressing results no to say that nobody asked nobody asked us in

britain a bit shocked what is behind all this pessimism well there's a paradox when it comes to. people's feelings towards european union their statistics show that the e.u. has not been this popular since 1903 now much of that should be a reaction to the uncertainty around rex it for example but on the other hand many people are experiencing faltering prosperity they distrust the political system they have face of a security all of these things could lead to a pessimistic view of the bloc now the european council council on foreign relations who conducted this survey they concluded that it must be up to the pro european politicians to break this paradox. by mobilizing the millions of citizens approach citizens who don't actually go to the polls now from that you could conclude that they are indeed blaming the pessimism on the far right on the

populists so we'll have to wait and see 7 days for just over a week from now when the elections take place if this silent majority indeed can be mobilized and if that will have an effect on how people see the future of europe who will have brought lead i'm certain that they also thank you. now here in germany us small radical far right party has been staging marches that invoke the country's nazi past called the veg-o. the 3rd way that fielding counted it's in the european parliamentary elections they don't your reporter ruth krauss has been to a town where the extremist group has found followers despite calls for it to be about. this is planned on in eastern germany and the office of the political party due to vehicle or 3rd path. they sell secondhand clothing here for germans only the party cast itself as being a party of the people the german people the party also shares information here on

its program it wants to see the german borders shift back to where they were before the 2nd world war and cut right through the middle of poland they say german women should have more children and immigration should be stopped. by a deal germany is a place where politicians have the final say and they always have germans we support closing the borders and we believe this foreign infiltration cannot continue. again and again the 3rd path has marched through plow and most recently at the beginning of may there marches are reminiscent of hitler's 3rd the torches flags and drums. party has polarized the people of. torches to our uniforms it was creepy i find it

a bit frightening. some of their ideas you can't fault. it's horrible that they've set up base here and the people indulge them. whether groups are allowed to demonstrate here is up to the local district office if demonstrators wear uniforms or if there's the threat of violence then a rally can be banned but so far authorities haven't acted. local authorities have often been accused of not using the full extent of the law against far right groups many say they downplay the threat they pose or turn a blind eye to marches are repeatedly allowed. because it's on those with friends it's about rights and the rule of law and i think it's important the playing field both legally and judicially is extended as far as possible through some terms and i would like to see more courage from local authorities political scientist says just restricting the neo nazi demonstrations is not enough he's calling for

a complete ban on the party. even though they are a small group i think they need to be banned because they audiology and the orientation is fundamentally the same as national socialism. but that's still far off because it's difficult to do so under german law so the 3rd path party is running in next week's european elections. they don't have political courage correspondent thomas fire could tell us more welcome thomas how big a force is this party and indeed others like it is essentially it is not a bigger force according at least to germany's domestic intelligence agency they have constantly monitored this party they have published reports on the policy and they describe it as far right extremist small party but domestic intelligence agency says for instance that he has

a presence in 5 german federal states including the capital that they haven't been able to absolutely very far they have a presence in other parts of germany although that is that is indeed possible but for now they have said that the presence has been verified in 5 german states and they describe the party as being a small one and how active and powerful the moves to try and ban it. well there called we saw one in our report to try and ban this party but under german constitution it is very difficult to ban a political party and we've seen cases in the past that have taken a very long time to try and ban parties so what did local authorities are focusing on now after the criticism that they received after the protests that we saw in our report is to basically try and what they describe as use all legal possibilities against neo nazi demonstrations and discussing also with other instances that are

local and maybe regional level to try and see what exactly can be done and what exactly can't be done because as i say legally this is a very difficult problem for german authorities i mean both parties on the left claim there is a relationship between those extremist groups on the far right to which they are germany's main opposition party what does the f.t.c. there is no clear line when it comes to the a if the relationship 2 parties that are described in the way we just saw about this way the a if he has cause and b. trying to distance itself on the 100 from groups like the plague nida on the other hand some leaders of the f.t. have been seen marching alongside groups like as we saw for example in the city of came later so there is no consistent clear line from the a.f.p. there are those who say that the benefits from groups like these there are others who say that by pushing the even more to the far right that actually becomes

a problem for a party that has as you said become germany's main opposition party under these extremist. eastern german a phenomenon a rural phenomenon or are they everywhere. well as i said before phil there in 5 german states and that includes berlin it also includes bavaria in the south of the country and it includes obviously part of the east of the country as we saw in our report so it can just be described as a phenomenon on the east of the country or in the south of the country but it is a phenomenon as we saw for example in the case of plough and that seems to work best as far as they are concerned when it comes to smaller towns like the case of plough in terms of political correspondent thank you. now is take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world austrian lawmakers have approved a law banning head scarves in primary schools adding to our exists adding to

existing restrictions on violence the measure bans the wearing of ideologically religiously characterized clothing but comes the head islamic organizations are threatening legal action. german chancellor angela merkel has speculation that she might seek a top job in the e.u. after standing down as germany's leader last year she gave up the leadership of a center right party and said she wouldn't seek a 5th term os chancellor. clashes have broken out in indian controlled kashmir a day after a gun battle between security forces and separatists killed 5 people in the town of paul walker residents of the funeral of one of the dead rebels confronted internships with stones and barricades. china has been criticizing an order signed by u.s. president to donald trump which places strict regulations on businesses with foreign telecoms the white house says the measure is not directed at any specific

country or company but the move is widely seen as targeting the chinese telecoms giant huawei beijing says it will protect the company. the u.s. government has long viewed the chinese company as an espionage threat and has sought to keep while way from playing a major role on the u.s. telecommunications infrastructure market. this new move is likely to prevent it from supplying the equipment being used to set up cutting edge 5 g. networks donald trump's decision has come at a key moment in negotiations with the chinese government about future trade relations between the countries where having a little wobble with china because we've been treated very unfairly for many many decades for actually a long time. here. bill had a long time ago it was now. the executive order makes it easier for the u.s. government to directly regulate foreign telecoms which could theoretically exploit

back doors and systems to pose a threat to communications and national security in addition the u.s. is a place to walk away and 70 associated companies on a blacklist firms on it have to be granted licenses from the u.s. commerce department to use components made by u.s. firms in their technology the restrictions will come into force in the next few days however one way executives are taking the pressure from washington him stride . our business in the united states is not that big due to our global operations any change in one country has little impact on our global business. in the face of the possible challenges of cyber security in the future huawei is a positive contribution not a destructive force someone itself will know what we are looking forward to the

future willing to continue to invest more from innovation to cooperation as usual but i want to. but for now it seems while way won't be cooperating with many of its american partners i should women be ordained as priests because i think churches ban on female clergy is a controversial issue pope francis has indicated that he's unwilling to change the policy but a young fellow student with priestly ambitions in switzerland has decided to take on the vatican and she's getting a lot of support from other catholic women. from above the swiss town of brain garden west of jury looks tranquil but the situation on the ground is anything but . this theologian is taking on the roman catholic church over its ban on female clergy. a piece of i'm bound i want to become a catholic priest i feel it's my calling and since i was a teenager i felt

a fire within me and my heart and my whole body i should be standing at the altar and be there for people to serve them and call it but because i'm a woman i'm not allowed to stuff that latin is right if all the. german is 28 she study catholic theology in switzerland where she now lives she's given a number of sermons at the st nikolaus church and brame garden even though that's not really permitted the parish priest there says women need to take the initiative . long as women hold back there won't be any progress fulfillment the church i don't think men will simply make way for them for. thousands of women post comments on strobes blog to inspire her to keep fighting she's also written lots of letters to the vatican the answers are always friendly but firm thank you for your commitment but the priesthood is reserved for men. open

just because i'm a women i can't go to the bishop and tell him i have a calling to review my case and if you consider my calling genuine then meet me a priest that's not an option you have is from god and in her spare time likes to box so she's learned how to focus closely on her opponent and not back down. to think of the catholic church is bigger than me it's quite a sparring partner but i'm no also though and i have lots of women and men all over the world on my site who are pushing for reforms in the church who want to give it a cake and wake it up cool market and boy strauss certainly won't be poor. her punches even if her opponents of this far bigger than she is. take a look at the top story here i base our campaigning hospital iraq has entered its final stretch for yet a new parliamentary election set to begin next week as growing concern that the block is unprepared for foreign just information campaigns aimed at discarding votes are. coming up next on data news

a show christian goes from pakistan to bring madoff to manage china with the promise of husbands who share their religion and can offer them a good life but the reality turns out to be very different. on taiwan's parliament will vote tomorrow on legalizing same sex sex marriage which a couple nervously awaiting the outcome. from said was going to 100 of those stories i'm told in just a myth. sure

a big idea but what's become of it and what will it look like tomorrow. d w gets ready for an in-depth look at the european elections asking the questions that matter. for european voters hopes for the parliament what challenges lie ahead

from way too long because the sins of the people in power have gotten away with not doing anything to fight the kind of crisis. help move the european election affect the rest of the. expert discussion. is over for its voters 1st champions g.w. as it all is in the european elections on may 26th on. film something tyson and pius came to jurors are dealing with and even at that they killed many civilians. come including my father says i was a student because i wanted to build a life for myself like these totally but suddenly life became knowledge and saw. providing cites global news that matters w.

for mines. i'm not laughing out of the well i guess sometimes i am but mostly i'm nothing when for me the german thinks even for german culture of looking out the stereotype the question that is in the future of the country guy not the time. needed to prepare for this drama there you go it's cold out there you know i'm rachel join me to meet the germans on the w. . post. this is d w news asia coming up today bride trafficking christian girls and women from pockets on married off to men in china the brats are told their future grooms are also christian and well off but the reality is very different also coming out taiwan on edge parliament will vote tomorrow on legislation to legalize same sex

marriage but how old will marriage equality in taiwan actually feet we'll look ahead to the big decision. and harry endeavor.