this is the double life from the european democracies get ready for a major stress test i'll take a look at brussels efforts to boost turnout in next week's european elections and to fight outside meddling in the spread of to say information also on the program. saddam's military suspends negotiations with democracy protesters following unrest in the capital some of the people who have been pushing for a transition to civilian.

welcome to the program. europe goes to the polls next week and the european union is behind a massive push to 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 the number of any piece given to each country is roughly proportional to its population so where more than 80000000 people europe's most populous country germany gets 96 i mean it pays the 8 years smallest country multi gets just 6 to represent its population of just under half a 1000000 that once elected every piece joint transnational groupings with similar political leanings at the moment there are 7 of these representing the center right socialists greens euro skeptics and others i mean pays votes on new laws than to prove the e.u.

budget they also help to choose the president of the european commission the current presidents is this man shown claude young let's take a look at the favorites to replace him they are a german conservative m.p. a man fred vega and also dutch politician of france timmermans of the european socialist but and the countdown to next week's vote the e.u. is very much on its guard after the brics it shocking because of the growing euro skepticism across the bloc and that's before we get to the decision from asian campaigns 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 its efforts may be too little too late d.w. teri schultz has this report whoever you are wherever you are you can get involved and 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 effort in ways

to prevent malicious meddling it's not like there was no warning 5 years ago the kremlin's intern. 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 u.s. 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 this information 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 rules are 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 antique troll farm with a staff of one. martin to a welcome sight martin shank debunks 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 take a closer look at the. smells for me. especially the kind of story that makes people angry or upset or. confirms people in their bias like i knew muslims this or i knew throne but that aftershock brand speak content with a big red banner on his website he also formally notifies facebook which immediately reduces the items visibility in its news feeds shank is convinced even small doses of dissent from asian can be dangerous for democracy if you can swing a few 100 foods in the certain district or in a certain state. that might tip the balance and you cannot make this coalition or that coalition because one seat has moved 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 ross. 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 and 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 are russia they are probably those the games with extensive ones but there has been a number of incidents in which other forms shown to be active around the world in trying to sow confusion and increases trust in the process and it's just very mis i can put it that way a way i think 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 where some governments are accepted that other governments might think of as interference of the won't really 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 and you see many examples of the mastic actors in the for profit all political purposes finalist he says so when you talk about domestic matters you are not talking about governments you are talking about to pressure groups or even political problems. i'm sure though he's on examples of governments doing this you unfortunately or he's going ari's yes i mean we see examples of the mystical political islam 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 it we see individual use or sometimes in good faith sharing information that is in fact false and insisting 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 that people are look making informed decisions it's in part of the importance of independent professional journalism so that everybody has access to a buyout 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 holes and help independent 3rd parties including both researchers spectators and journalists and allies and research what's actually going on in these margins. i was take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world german chancellor angela merkel has a cost speculation that she might see a top drop in the e.u.'s the standing down of the country's leader last year the chancellor gave got leadership of a center right party and said she would not see a 5th chance or. has approved a law banning head scarves in primary schools adding to existing restrictions on veils the measure balance the wearing of ideologically old religiously characterized clothing that covers the head islamic organizations threatening legal action. the u.s. state of missouri's republican led senate has passed a bill to ban abortions at 8 weeks of pregnancy legislation makes exceptions for

medical emergencies but not preggers resulting from rape or incest abortion opponents in the u.s. are open but new restrictions will not link the supreme court to overturn a historic ruling which legalized. that to sit down with the struggle for democracy has been marred by violence the ruling military council is refusing to hand power handover of power since of president obama al bashir was overthrown in prague in april after months of protests have now broken off negotiations with opposition groups about a transition to civilian rule but the protests continue we have this report from the capital concert. for as long as you can remember i met hamdan has been on the front lines of sudan struggle for democracy 1st protesting against the government in 2013 now spending months on the streets as part of the latest uprising against former president obama to share but how did has paid a high price one night in january on his way home from a demonstration he was followed by security forces.

you know some people came from behind me and started beating me with an electric but. they didn't say anything. i was hit directly in my eye. i told the officer that i had had i surgery and that i had lost my cornea he said we could kill you never mind your i lay an egg. hamdan might never see with his right eye again and the harassment continued when he was taken to a detention center by the security forces there an officer recognized him as a prominent activist that. forcibly stripped me they ripped my shirt and trousers they started saying inappropriate things and threatened to rape me i felt ashamed being in front of so many people being naked and having all these things said to you it's been a huge psychological toll. another witness to the cost of the revolution

is dr namath she helps run this field clinic at the heart of the sit in in front of the army headquarters in the days leading up to the removal of armidale bashir in april this clinic was at the front lines of the violence. there were people coming in with all kinds of gunshot wounds head wounds i were leg wins and all of the body there were just randomly shooting people even had sniper when most. doctors themselves were also targeted by al bashir is regime. national and i think this video taken on new year's eve shows for doctors being arrested by the military on the street in front of a hospital in hard to. doctor said that says it's because doctors have historically been at the forefront of organizing strikes and protests against the regime. no matter how many times doctors were attacked they stayed in the hospitals this was

very annoying for the regime that's why they tried everything they could against us and arrested us i took part in demonstrations and matches but i never did say i was a doctor it was dangerous despite the violence doctor who doesn't believe retribution is the way forward for sudan and this is the message i met him doing house for those attacking and abusing protesters. despite you torturing me i went out to protest for you too. sometimes i think about revenge. but i rather we have accountability because we protested against illegal practices so we can't turn around and do the same thing. in latest developments a deal was struck to set up a committee to investigate the targeting of protesters have to now hopes that his sacrifice and that of others won't be in vain. 2 of the biggest names in tennis

have taken to the clay courts at the italian open and rafa nadal and roger federer barely broke sweat against. the sun was shining in rome again for roger federer's 1st match at the italian open since 2016 and the world number 3 had no trouble dealing with his opponent portugal's draw. federer took the opening set 64 . this way spoke his place in the 3rd round by cruising through the 2nd set 63. i. defending champion rafa nadal had an even easier time in his opening game against france's gentlemen shakti the world number 2 stormed through the 1st set 6 love nadal ease through the 2nd set to round out the match 61 and moves one step closer

to winning his record extending 9th title you know. assisted still to come in data business africa defends its decision to join china's new silk road projects which has other european countries that want to. fuck up white. stories about the top of the good. news from africa the world join us on facebook. for. an action packed life. anything is possible as long as our coffee and his friends country are. just. kenya's refugee camp.