only candidates who have already had some experience as a minister is that an advantage for the job obviously it is an asset if you have had experience of national level because in many cases national political parties are not really supportive of their european and they're not pushing them they're rather pushing their own national candidate so you don't see visually that they exist but one man has definitely been in the spotlight on the european stage. who could be the joker in the pack he's not officially a candidate but he might just end up getting the job at the well regarded negotiator he enjoys the respect and trust of many hats of state and government and in the end that could be way more important than a load of t.v. debate. and joining me now from brussels is a d.-w. correspondent georg matters georg as we just same 6 formal candidates for the use top job but there could also be

a wildcard how so. rebecca the reason for that is that the a mechanism how the head of the european commission is selected is not cast an eye and what we do know is and what is certain is that the heads of state and government from the 28 even member states will select the head of the european commission but will they pick that person from the lead candidates or in fact from the lead candidate who has the biggest majority in the european elections the biggest group that is the big question they could also say we'll pick someone else for instance money of the the chief negotiator and then propose that person to the european parliament because at the end of the day the selection of the heads of state of government will then have to be approved by the european parliament it's a complicated process and we'll find out on tuesday and complicated process indeed only is very complicated as the elections and traditionally voter turnout is relatively low we're starting to see some numbers from this year how much interest

have we seen this year i've asked that question to voters when i cast my ballot this is morning here in brussels in belgium and i have to say that a number of people really said they had they had difficulties on the other hand i also met a lot of voters who said look we came out for the environment that is important we've heard the message that there might be a title way from the far right and so we've decided that we need to show off in this election and in fact if you look at the early figures from turnout there are some positive signals here over decades the turnout numbers for the european elections have been decreasing but this year round the only numbers around which day at least show that in most of the member states they have been increasing this time around so high stakes definitely this time and we've seen the most recent polls point to some central gains for national euro skeptic parties are they really drawing that much of a support. well if you look at france the polls predicted that the far right

might actually be bigger than french presidents mark halls national party in the european elections or if you look at other states for instance poland but also in hungary or it italy italian the italian far right party of salvini the french the italian foreign minister the so-called party lega is the biggest growing party in this european election so yes they are expected to make gains the big question will be at the end of the day they need to team up in the european parliament and form groups in order to have an influence and even though they might wind up to 20 percent of the parliament seats they would need to team up and form a group and that is unlikely to happen the way things look at the moment this election is also very much a proxy election election for national national issues one of the countries to watch while already mentioned france but of course there's the u.k. that is now participating in this election and they expect the conservatives to

perform rather badly seeing that in the trees i'm a didn't deliver on her breaks of promise but instead to nigel farrar spreads the party will make a major gains then there's also austria where there's been lately a political scandal that cost the far right causing the coalition there to break up the government so that will be interesting so a number of interesting things traditionally these elections have been used as a protest vote and this year round this is not different a very interesting night ahead matters in brussels thanks very much now to some of the other stories making news around the world. auto manufacturers renato and fia cries are reportedly in talks to form an alliance that could be announced as soon as monday it be the world's biggest car making venture would share development and marketing costs i know is already allied with japanese makers and it's official. thousands of israelis have protested against legislation that could grab prime

minister benjamin netanyahu munity from prosecution israel's attorney general says he intends to charge netanyahu with fraud and bribery netanyahu won a 5th term last month. the miller has ordered the return to canada of tons of rubbish that's been sitting in philippines for 3 years the waste dispute escalated last week when miller recalled its ambassador after canada mr deadline to collect the trash environmentalist and had campaigned for the wastes return. us president donald trump has started a state visit to japan by taking off a round of golf with prime minister shinzo abbay trump says he wants to strike a deal with japan to address what he calls a trade imbalance between the 2 countries north korea's missile tests are also likely to be on the agenda but so far the visit has mostly focused on fund. a

heavyweight fighter in a black leather jockstrap sizing up the opposition and throwing loses out of the ring i perhaps donald trump was going to get some ideas for his next move in his trade and diplomatic negotiations from the super wrestlers. but in fact this was all part of a rich entertainment package that's been around or 2 with golf laid on for him by japan's shinzo abbé for the u.s. president's 4 day visit to japan. and a sushi meal with their wives too. but lying beneath the surface is the issue of trade between the 2 countries trump expressed his dissatisfaction about the trade deficit with japan almost as soon as he arrived in 2018 it was almost 60000000000 dollars mostly related to the auto industry or. for both sides it's hard to reach an understanding at this time specifically in terms of automobiles the u.s. has announced a delay to its decision on whether to increase tariffs on cars and auto parts for

180 days so there won't be a conclusion any time soon. the u.s. is also hoping that its agricultural products will enter japan at a lower tariff but with japan's upcoming elections it's difficult for it to make such concessions if they can't resolve the trade issues though at least the 2 go for years can enjoy some time together formula one racing now where lewis hamilton of assaidi is defended his pole position to win the monaco grand prix is when further increased his lead in the championship reigning world champion bate out sebastian vettel of ferrari who came in 2nd 3rd place was hamilton's team mate terry but us finishing in 4th was max fish definition of red bull and was hamilton's 77th one pray when. a german professional baseball player is having the season of his life in the us max kepler originally from here in berlin plays for

the minnesota twins where this season he has a batting average of 270 and 11 home runs and his team's not only top in its vision but it's also the highest winning percentage overall they've got an exclusive interview with the 26 year old when the canned. max kepler is currently one of the top players in major league baseball he's got some of the best stats in the leak he's hugely popular and his team is riding high but it wasn't easy getting to that point. kepler says at age 14 he decided to pursue baseball over soccer and tennis 1st playing in local leagues in germany once he made the move to rookie ball in the u.s. he then experienced a steep learning curve people through are harder so i did just that. but you know i thought oh yeah the game was just a lot faster let's say in general. and took me in i say a month a couple months to go just to it the 1st it was overwhelming your home and see you

know a lesson everyone's you just watch them learn such everything of what a sky engine are and to try to make the most of it he's now played 3 seasons for the minnesota twins with this one looking to be his best ever he's also determined to make the game more poppy.