this is news coming from george ford's brother goes to washington and makes an emotional plea before congress. to make it stop. stop the pain stop was. joined by him and he was ignored please listen to the cow now. those calls for change grow louder as the police chief of minneapolis where george boy died promises to push for reform of the city's law enforcement also coming up another front between long time lines

confirms that washington may be planning to pull almost a 3rd of its troops from germany critics worry it's a knee jerk reaction for the trump administration that could undermine security in europe. as pandemic restrictions ease some couples were lying on surrogate mothers are finally getting the chance to meet their babies for the 1st time our correspondent in kiev reports on one couple's long journey to parenthood. hello i'm terry martin good to have you with us of a dramatic congressional hearing the brother of george floyd has called on lawmakers to make sure he did not die in vain killing in police custody ignited protests across america and around the globe the pleas floyd comes as demands grow

to reform policing install african americans dying from excessive force by by police officers. the day after his brother george was laid to rest in houston texas . floyd was in washington d.c. in an emotional testimony. to ensure that his brother did not die in vain when you watch your big brother who you looked up to your whole entire life. boy's mom. i'm tired i'm tired of my pain you feel when you watch something like that people of our backgrounds genders the races have come together to demand change on it him on a short and make the necessary changes then make the law enforcement the solution and not the problem in minneapolis where george floyd was killed the police chief is promising change he says he'll withdraw from contract negotiations with the

police union to push for reform i plan to bring in subject matter experience and advisors to conduct a thorough review of how the contract can be restructured to provide greater community transparency. and more flexibility for true reform. but many protesters believe true reform can only come through a radical change defund the police has become a rallying cry protestors want to cut funding for the police in favor of other community based projects. police have also come under fire for using heavy handed tactics against protesters after floyd's death and there have been dozens of complaints of police targeting reporters in one such incident police fired rubber bullets at d. w. stefan siemens and crew they. were threatened with the birth 6. of your you are in the middle of.

the us has promised to investigate the allegations. i know there have been concerns from some countries of their reporters having been treated in appropriately here you should know and those countries should know we will we will handle them in a completely appropriate way george floyd's killing has put police in the us under intense scrutiny floyd supporters hope that his death may finally lead to real change. minneapolis police have announced what they're calling transformational reforms here's more from. now that's a very big word for. as of now very very little steps that is for example that the choke hold is now illegal that's for example or something mr shelving did need on the on the neck of somebody that is now not allowed anymore as police practice and

secondly any police officer who is witnessing this a colleague doing this has to interfere cannot just say hey not such a good idea about has to actively interfere and make the other officer stop doing what he's doing if he's doing this now however the big problem in the big question is here police unions you alluded to this in the piece they're very very very powerful and the contract between police officer and police department that's the point here this is where it really hits the rubber or the rubber hits the road where it's going to be interesting because those contracts are so tight that you basically have no transparency and and then it's really important for the community no accountability for police officers this is what the chief tries to change this is what police departments probably try to change all over the country. you know the stuff and simmons there in washington well the german government has confirmed it's been informed that the u.s. is considering

a partial withdrawal of american troops from the country this follows media reports that president don't trump had ordered the removal of nearly 10000 troops from germany almost a 3rd of u.s. military personnel stationed in the country and the german government spokes person said that while they've been notified a final decision is yet to be made by the u.s. . correspondent teri schultz joins me now form from brussels terry do we know why the trump administration might want to withdraw all over a quarter of its troops from germany we don't tarry it makes absolutely no strategic sense you know there are these stories floating around that he's angry at chancellor merkel again for germany's very low defense spending it won't reach the 2 percent level for more than another decade at best or that he's angry at her for not agreeing to come to a g. 7 summit this month because she said you know the stage of the coronavirus threat is simply not out

a point where i want to travel there is no reason militarily that the u.s. should want to pull troops out of germany it's probably the major military in europe and it's used not as president trump often for trey's it to protect germany or protect protect europe but as a staging ground and a training ground for u.s. operations elsewhere in the world so president trump would lose a lot of maneuverability if he were to pull troops out of germany where for example people might be surprised to learn is the headquarters of the u.s. africa command so yeah we don't we don't understand it people who are looking at this from a military standpoint here in brussels terry were nato has its headquarters help reacted to these reports of a possible u.s. withdrawal from germany. well as you know nato job is to keep calm and carry on and make sure nobody gets too nervous and in fact i had the chance to ask the secretary general stoltenberg a question about the rumors of the of the troop pullout earlier this week and his

answer was so bland he said well we're in constant discussion with the united states about troop deployments in europe he didn't address the question directly at all in fact he did have a phone call with president trump after this event where i spoke to him and even after that nato officials wouldn't confirm that president trump even informed secretary general stoltenberg about any specific plans for a troop pullout so we do have some some reports that president trump might like to move troops to poland which does spend 2 percent of its of its budget on defense but that raises other questions about whether troops u.s. troops should be deployed that close to the russian border and there's just hasn't been any any different definition on these these stories yet but there is a nato defense minister ariel next week where defense secretary mark esper will be getting very pointed questions well this proposal which we have to say is unconfirmed it's already drawing criticism from politicians and defense analysts on

both sides of the atlantic how likely is it terry that this withdrawal of american troops in germany will actually happen briefly. you think i can't read president trump better than than anyone else but this is a reason why people aren't getting too agitated about it yet you never know if these things floated out of the white house are actually going to happen or if his military officials will have enough influence on him to get this pulled back before it actually goes into effect terry thanks so much that was the correspondent teri schultz in brussels. just briefly look at some other stories making headlines today amazon is battling police use in of its facial recognition program for the next year the technology has been shown to misidentify people with darker skin the move comes amid growing calls for police reform in the wake of the police killing of george floyd. mourners have been paying their respects to burundi's president

here including who died suddenly on monday the government says he suffered a heart attack when currencies of was set to step down an august after 15 years in power marked by repression and political violence. germany's foreign minister has warned israel that its plan to annex parts of the occupied west bank will by late international law all issued the warning in israel just weeks before the new israeli government plans to make the move which has also been condemned by several other european governments. would be 1st on the agenda months and his israeli counterpart gabi ashkenazi signed an agreement on the german government providing funding for the holocaust memorial yog question. germany is a staunch ally of his route but the relationship has been overshadowed by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu he's planned an execution of the jordan valley

and settlements across the west bank land the palestinians claim for that own state . which is the german government and colleagues in the european union have serious concerns that the antics a sions could make it impossible to achieve a 2 state solution we think this would be the room way to go as parts. the e.u. has considered imposing sanctions against israel if the annexations go ahead germany is unlikely to take such tough measures but berlin takes over the rotating presidency of the e.u. next month and so must must come up with a common strategy in the e.u. palestinian prime minister mohammed saeed called on germany to maintain a hardline with israel you know how sensitive this issue is war for germany while this under other circumstances should not come. along this should not come at the

expense of that but as you know vibes palestinians have warned they'll proclaim a palestinian state if israel goes ahead with the annexation. locked elves around the world of left many families separated some couples relying on surrogate mothers have been waiting for months to a unit really annoyed with their newborn stranded in ukraine one month and 3 days late but at least they are together. and your oldest have traveled more than 10000 kilometers by car through continent in lockdown to finally meet their daughter. she still has to get used to us she doesn't know who we are. their daughter spent her 1st month with a carer in an apartment her parents only able to see her on a screen. you know the so sad we were crying just seeing her pictures and unable to do anything for her you just feel so helpless all you can do is wait . as their daughter's birth came and went and with no end to lockdown in sight or

people are and your elders could do was scour the ukrainian press with the help of a translation up on the lookout for some sign of hope neither the spanish government nor the ukrainian embassy could or would help when they read that ukraine's human rights on the 2 men had promised help parents into the country and jumped in their car to drive the 3600 kilometers from their home in madrid to kiev . first trip was a leap in the dark we didn't know what we'd encounter at the borders on route they received a long hoped for permission to enter ukraine yeah i cried when we received this i didn't think a piece of paper could make this happy. but it wasn't enough. this week was not the checks and we're just 500 kilometers from kiev then they told us no we just couldn't take it anymore they were missing just one document enough for them to be turned back at the ukrainian border returning home to madrid with the

only option without their baby a week later they were back at the ukrainian frontier after 7000 kilometer round trip to madrid and back this time with the right documents and they were finally allowed into the country other parents have been less fortunate separated from their children by even greater distances and still unable to enter ukraine how many babies are still without their parents no one can say with any confidence yes you know. we've lost months of our daughter's life. super important yes. it was actually a month or 3 days to leave it felt like a year spanish must sound strange to her she doesn't want to sleep she just wants to listen to us. and i know. this journey to becoming a family like any other is not yet over to register their daughter's birth in spain

they'll probably still have to go to court in spain as in many other european countries surrogacy is a legal gray zone not a legal nor illegal the coronavirus lockdown was just the 1st of many obstacles on that path. you're watching d.w. news from berlin thanks for being with us. this. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and. our corona update. with 19 special next on.