this is d.w. doos a line from berlin one week before voters here in europe choose a new parliament democracy preparing for a major stress test tonight we'll take a look at brussels efforts to boost turnout in next week's european elections and to fight outside meddling and the spread of deceit information also coming up almost trump unveils and immigration overhaul the u.s. president wants more skilled migrants and the reformed green card system but his plan faces an uphill battle in congress and

a nervous wait for time ones l g b t community parliament will vote tomorrow on same sex marriage if approved the time one would become the 1st asian state to support same sex marriage and the chinese are decided artist ai wei wei signs off from germany with the biggest show of his work ever seen in europe we'll take you. off it's good to have you with us 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 the chance to choose their representatives at the european parliament for the next 5 years here's how it works here's a primer the number of m.p.'s given to each. 3 is roughly proportional to the

population of the country with a population of more than 80000000 people germany is the largest it gets 96 seats the smallest country malta gets just 6 to represent its population of less than half a 1000000 once elected m.e.p. is joining trans national groups with similar political leanings at the moment there are 7 of those they represent the center right there's the socialist the greens the euro skeptics in the peace vote on new laws they approve the e.u. budget they also help choose the president of the european commission that's a very important position the current president is this man john called now the favorites to replace him are the german conservative m.e.p. munford vapor and meant on your right there is the dutch politician france timmerman of the european socialist now in the countdown to next week's vote the

european union is on guard you have to remember there's been breck's and there's also growing euro skepticism across the e.u. and that's before we get to the dissin 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 he doesn't use teri schultz explains to every you wherever you can get involved and european union institutions have poured enormous resources into get out the vote campaign but have 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 as to me to disband 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 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 to 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 use 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 ant a troll farm with a staff of one. martin to a welcome sight martin shankly 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 that. smells funny. especially the kind of story that makes people angry or upset or. firms people in. they're biased like i knew

muslims this or i knew trumped up after shanked brands fake content with a big red banner on his website he also formally notifies facebook which immediately reduces the items visibility in its news leads shank is convinced even small doses of disinformation can be dangerous for democracy if you can swing a few 100 photos in a certain district or in a certain state. that might tip the balance and you cannot make this coalition or that coalition because one theater with 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. so what does the does information look like we're here to as my colleague or reporter or i'll soccer was good to see you so the kind of go through give us the

information on this information give some examples so a 1st example is from germany it's a facebook post that purports to be an e.u. election and for germany's christian democrats now we see a picture of a muslim family and the caption underneath it reads to strengthen families for a better germany now is actually really easy to figure out that this is indeed fake simply by right clicking the picture doing a reverse google image search you'll find that this is taken from 2017 article from the u.s. where a family was suing an airline for discrimination so this is you know completes a complete lie. we've seen a lot of examples like this across the e.u. recently trying to push this narrative of the islamist sation off europe and this of course speaks to

a lot of people who who support the right thing for us is. similar to what we saw in the 2016 u.s. presidential elections we've seen this information here in europe and if you trace back and find its source you find that it's coming from russia. it's true russia keeps popping up but that's not to say that there aren't of the foreign actors and also very important a lot of domestic ones too but reasons analysis shows that close to hof of the evacuation some 240000000 people have been exposed to some form of russian back dissin from asia and it's huge and it's not necessarily just fake accounts the kremlin back outlet sputnik for example is playing a key role in trying to influence elections that we have an example is from march this year it's targeting latvian votes as and they also claims that there is no need or no points for latvian vs to take part in the u.

elections because it doesn't benefit them in any way the fact is that. a lot to receive substantially more money from the e.u. than they contribute some 44 times more in fact and so you could argue that it's definitely in the interest of latvians to take part in the election and facebook also have to deal with fake accounts re posting this clones and these are some of the some of the examples that of the hundreds of posts that facebook has taken down this year and basically they will reproach stuff like this information claiming to be an independent news outlets or an organization while in fact they are linked to sputnik directly so there is we can see that there is and i'm here to suppress voter turnout undermine trust in the east in the e.u. and ultimately disrupt democracy and it means these 240000000 people they have to

be aware of what they're reading in you know platforms like facebook they have to be gatekeepers big gatekeepers oh thank you very much. well here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world german chancellor angela merkel has quassia speculation that she might seek a top job in the european union after she steps down as chairman he's chancellor last year she gave up the leadership of the center right party her center right party and she said that she would not seek a 5th term and chance austrian lawmakers have approved a law banning head scarves in primary schools adding to existing restrictions on veils the measure and the wearing of ideologically or religious league characterized clothing that covers the head islamic organizations are threatening legal action brazil's indigenous chief only met. as met with french president. in paris he's visiting europe to highlight the threat

to the amazon rain forest he hopes to raise 1000000 euros to protect the zynga reserve which is home to many of brazil's tribal peoples. well here in germany a small radical far right party has been staging marches that evoke the country's nazi past called the derivative they were the 3rd way their fielding candidates in the european parliamentary elections w reporter ruth krausen has been to a town where the extremist group has found followers despite calls for it to be banned. this is plowman in eastern germany and the office of the political party due to vague 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. my ideal 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 reich 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. it's horrible

that they've set up 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 is the threat of violence then it 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 the marches are repeatedly allowed. because 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 though sometimes 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 they 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. pull in a political correspondent. good evening tom as you know this really is is an issue about history remembering history and also free speech all that coming together here how big of a force is this party really. i would say essentially not very big and i would say so because if you look at reports by germany's domestic intelligence agency they have been monitoring this group very closely and they produce reports every now and then about their activities they describe it as a far right extremist small party and if you look at different reports you will see

that about 100 soldiers between 10500 depending on the sources that you look they will you will have the number of members of this group but it's in the hundreds they say so it doesn't seem to be a very big party it is however a party that i well i we've just seen in our report has created a lot of headlines because of its style on the content as well on dot content is precisely the reason why german authorities are monitoring it very coast is there any serious effort to begin the 3rd way. well there have been proposals to try and ban it we also saw it in a report brant but banning a party in germany is a very difficult and a very lengthy process as well so when you talk to authorities in saxony for example or in other parts of germany where this group has a presence what they have said is that they're going to use all legal possibilities i've gained neo nazi demonstration of they're going to discuss this issue with

other authorities as well again because banning such a party is extremely difficult and lengthy but authorities have indeed faced a lot of criticism in recent times in particular for allowing these kinds of demonstrations so it is a very controversial issue here in germany and one that i am absolutely sure will continue to be debated to what extent can a party that has these kinds of rallies be allowed to take them or whether they should be banned completely oh they shouldn't remove the parties on the left in this country claim that there is a relationship between extremist groups and the far right of the party which is now germany's main opposition party what does the a.f.d.c. to their. well the f.d.a. hasn't shown a very clear line when it comes not only to they spotty but in general to those reported links between the parties or groups described as far right or as extremist

we saw that for example in the recent protests in the a if he had indeed to distance itself from groups like they get up at the same time you see members of the team marching alongside there are also reports that i was looking at that in some of the demonstrations that happened some time ago they were hot some members of the way that were there present as well so in a way the f.t. has on the 100 to distance itself but on the other hand there are certain links on the big question that arises from this is where does the benefit whether it benefits all the way these connections actually homme this body that as you say brant is the main opposition party here in germany and we say that the party does to defeat in the fact that it gets all of this media attention which we know the parties like our political correspondents almost bear on the story for us tonight almost like you are known to asia taiwan is often considered

a bastion of liberalism in asia and that liberalism it will be tested on friday that's when parliament votes on 3 bills to legalize same sex marriage and for the. community the roots of this vote has been difficult back in 2007 the island's top court ruled that a ban on same sex unions was unconstitutional but last year taiwanese voters rejected that decision in a series of referendums. shane lane and mark yuan have spent the last 2 years planning their wedding in fine detail. the cake shop owners from taipei have been dreaming of their special day ever since taiwan's top court ruled same sex couples should be allowed to marry a 1st for asia. so. one me often overlooked internationally and all of the things we have done are visionaries that we can be proud of that. but on top of the usual wedding stresses

shane mark and other taiwanese same sex couples have a bigger problem and it's divided the island. i i same sex couples wanting to wear it still don't know what their marriage will look like that's because the courts didn't specify how its ruling should be applied so parliaments will vote on 3 options one put forward by the government is just about satisfactory for these rights campaigners and to others tabled by lawmakers which don't use the word marriage and provide much less protection for couples. we don't know what these lawmakers want maybe they want to force us down a dead end but we won't except that we'll fight like that but not everyone on this relatively liberal island shares these people's desire for equality in a series of referendums last year more than 2 thirds of voters decided marriage

should only be defined as being between a man and a woman friday's ruling will be closely watched and it may not be the last word on the matter. well u.s. president donald trump has announced plans to tighten immigration making it tougher to gain entry into the united states trump wants immigrants to have better english proficiency and higher job skills and he also says that he wants to reduce the number of asylum seekers this initiative however stands little chance of passing because of the divisions in congress now here is part of what trump said earlier about that plan our planet sheaves 2 critical goals 1st it stops illegal immigration and fully secures the border and 2nd it establishes a new legal immigration system that protects american wages promotes american values and attracts the best and brightest from all around the world are there

was the u.s. president speaking there ever will for more on trump's immigration reforms a plan that was put together by the way by his sudden wall gerri let's go to our correspondent in washington alexandra fun good evening to you alexander so tell us a little bit more about call it the trump plan but we all know it's really the trump cushion of planned. yes so the trump i've been strange or of what trump has said today is that he wants to transform or to create a further know full and more there are no immigration system that is based on merits and that means death trumpet once the majority of people coming into the country to be educated and skilled workers scientists doctors engineers and he wants to limit the number of people who are coming into the you asked because they have family here family members that are already you as citizens and he also wants

to limit the number of people seeking asylum he said today that you asked asylum system is being abused but by frivolous claims he has not presented any details or evidence for that by basically what the trump trump white house is proposing is a sort of pine system that we can make it easier for skilled well educated workers who can speak english and maybe already have half a job offer to come to the us this plane is similar to what we find a cure the in australia for example but those countries do not have the dreamers young people who came illegally to the united states as children what what about them in this plan. well it's quite striking that the plan does not address the dreamers and there are a faint roughly 3600000 the young people who were granted to work permits

and protection from deport taishan by the obama administration about president as we know it eliminated this obama era program and now those young people are in limbo pending court's decisions so the plan is not addressing this issue and that's why it's rather odd likely that democrats are going to support this plan. the chances of getting this plan through they're not very good or that you know them to none i would say that not only the democrats are not suppose supporting this plan and the republicans are not happy with that either this plan is not designed to become low that's what senator graham said and he is a republican and a trump ally a washington bureau chief alexander phenomenon the story tonight with this trump immigration plan alexander thank you well the artist ai wei wei has called

berlin home for the west 3 years he left house arrests and forced censorship in his native china he recently announced that he is leaving germany but he's signing off with a war just european exhibition ever of his work in the city of dusseldorf as ever the show mixes human rights advocacy with the unexpected. beyond soused an activist a way opens his launches to european show ever into suitable for germany and he's in an expectedly unpredictable mood. the show comprises a huge range of his work some not so well known. and some now famous in their own right. he's lived and worked from berlin since he fled china in 2015 i think did. you for your.

this is. your. office. and he's maintained his provocative style. and his most recent work focuses on the plight and experience of migrants and refugees exhibiting all the clothes left at a greek refugee camp before it was cleared by the authorities so all i know was like. when your home was going to see war and you never settle for you why you're not. sold as clear. and. i know also i do you know i mean you were. if not only we were many but you can raise. anybody who has no freedom of speech or be free to fall if somebody else wants to

be we don't want to speak. the exhibition reflects the artist uncompromising and unapologetic. here's a reminder of the top stories that we're following for you campaigning for next week's european parliament elections is entered its final stretch but there is growing concern that the e.u. was unprepared for foreign disk information campaigns aimed at discouraging voting u.s. president donald trump has announced plans to tighten immigration making it tougher to gain entry into america trump wants immigrants to have better english proficiency and higher job skills the initiative however stands little chance of getting through the divided congress and the chinese dissident artist ai wei wei so opening an exhibition in the german city of dusseldorf it's the biggest show of his work ever seen in europe like much of his work that mixes human rights advocacy with surprising l s. you're watching news live from

berlin up next is looking at the current standoff between the u.s. and iraq i'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by the day good to see you this.

quadriga the international talk show before journalists discuss the topic of the week savers are rattling once again in the middle east as a standoff between the u.s. and iran intensifies could u.s. pressure produce a new and better nuclear deal as washington claims more result in the war that's our child the country join us. quadriga next d.w. .

going to one official estimates more than 1200000 venezuelans live in colombia legally and illegally. already eckel will return to vast whaler. to visit friends it's not i don't think i'd ever go back there to live you know what i live there again i don't know so i'm not sure. bearing witness global news that matters. made for mines. and action packed life for. me. anything is possible as long as i'm comfy and his friends can drink. his movie theater in kenya has done refugee camp.

his life story may have ground to a halt. 27 years ago but there's no holding back his dreams. thank you for watching. cinema starts may 27th on t.w. . welcome to quadriga savers are rattling once again in the middle east as a standoff between the united states and iran intensifies the trump administration has sent an aircraft carrier to the persian gulf and is updating war plans over what it says are iranian threats to american troops and interests this follows iran's announcement last week in response to tighter u.s. sanctions that it will partly reduce its.