troops stationed here in germany from 34000 to no more than 25000 it's a major class and apparently neither germany nor nato received notice before we did it blindsided by a bully it's not exactly how allies usually treat allies donald trump it's become business as usual i'm christine one guy in berlin standing in for brain golf this is the day. i say get out get out i can't guarantee. that we're protecting you and it means a lot more to you they're protecting our troops i don't know how much protection we'll get by protecting you even as we deal with the german government has been informed that the us administration is considering reducing the presence of u.s. forces in germany. is the fact is that the presence off united states soldiers in

germany so that overrules security off the nato alliance is. also coming up tonight the coronavirus is not going away they may be lifting lockdowns in here and in the u.s. but in africa more lockdowns may be on the way the w.h.o. once the pandemic is accelerating we know that it took 90 days to reach 100000 cases and only 19 days to move 220-0000 cases. so even though these cases and for less than 3 percent of the global total it's clear that. is accelerating. we begin the day with news of the shrinking u.s. military presence here in europe the government or the german government says it has received word from washington that the number of u.s. troops stationed here will be reduced president donald trump has ordered the

removal of nearly $10000.00 troops from germany that would cut the total number stationed in the country by a 3rd but berlin isn't the only ally coming under pressure from the trump administration the white house has also os japan to significantly up its contribution to maintaining american forces the u.s. has guaranteed japan's defense since the end of world war 2 it has more than $50000.00 personnel stationed at the cities across the country washington puts the price tag at some $5700000000.00 much of which is already paid for by japan now the cost sharing agreement is due to be renegotiated next year japan is already spending more on defense but on its own forces. soldiers practice landing unfabulous vehicles in a picturesque carry on japan south coast drive out. climbs the hatch a man head back to the beach it's as if they were planning to start off unusual

sometime soon perhaps around the officer in command there's not a lot to talk to us about. it's important to train the soldiers one of them dr no one's the helmsmen it's not always easy to make a team out of them because you're pretty thrones goes wrong. according to its constitution japan isn't supposed to have an army and many wanted to stay that way . we don't want to pander fine to most all over the. wolf not even on america's science that's why we're against the drills. even science tokyo seems to be preparing to end to the military won't state the defense minister recently deployed this to straw into the gulf of amman in an interview he says it's a completely harmless mission. is aware of his own power he wants to become prime minister would you ban like to play a more active role military role on the world stage we believe sending our

destroyer to the region to get enough information to secure the past safes passage all japanese or japan related to ships are important for us so that's why we sending it we're not part of. american initiative and or european or you run union issued every it's strictly on our own isn't that risky i mean there could be some kind of conflict and you are right why should we be in it but if everything's fine why you need to wash it in the region what we need to get the information to secure the safe passage all our tankers or other ships so we are sending them for information gathering what's wrong with it. just i'm a constant mission. some people see it differently. us

asian relations expert glenn fukushima for example finds the idea amazing. gold i think as defense minister that's what he had to say you know just as when koizumi was asked in the diet. is it not dangerous for the soul defense force to be in combat zones he said well if a soldier from sources there by definition that is not a combat zone. that was his answer. behind the scenes of u.s. japanese military relations the mood is less easygoing than here american military units stationed here still may try and aid missions with the japanese earthquake for example but since washington has demanded much more money from japan for u.s. troops tensions have risen considerably it is actually cheaper to have a marine stationed in japan than to have them in san diego so if we pay them no then they will become sort of mercenary and i

don't think you're supposed to do would like to do that. posh words especially coming from an otherwise normal japan is a possible future government leader seeking to expand his influence in a big way insiders say there is support for this in the ruling party but less so amongst the japanese people. and for most nights i am joined by tradition case of it's a he's member of the german parliament foreign affairs committee and a former general staff officer off the gym and forces and zachary haas he is the deputy director of the asia program at the german marshall fund in washington d.c. gentlemen welcome to both of you mr case of a step has the trumpet ministration told you why it wants to withdraw all at the off its troops from germany. no so far there was no explanation at all we have nothing against it however this should be

a chief amongst partners and it should be coordinated and not announced while the media. writes so so what exactly have you been told have you been given a timeline for that for the trip production. now we only have heard that the idea is to reduce the troops by the end of september this year our demand from the parliament is that there should not be any effects prior to the us presidential election so we would like to see the new administration to handle this topic but this is not be done within the several months because there are thousands of people and also their families and there are also contracts and we as a strong partner for the united states would like to see these troops to stay in germany all right mr oz but i'll come to you now it's considered the pacific for a moment the us once japan to pay even more all for the us military and braylon a why would miss

a trump in making the system on to now. well it's it's difficult to know exactly what's behind his thinking but if we look back at statements that donald trump has made both as president and when he was a canned candidate running for president in 2016 certainly indicated that he was thinking more of a lion says as very transactional in nature really focused on dollar amounts rather than allies working together or collaboratively to address shared values or or promote shared interests and so when the trumpet ministration interview goshi asians with the south koreans and then now with the japanese asking for a much higher amount it's really raised a lot of questions both in washington but also in asia i mean look at what we know that china is a rising ministry apollo in japan speck yeah the south china sea is abuzz with it we hear very often how does donald trump's demond strengthen the block

against china here. yeah it so it's important for the u.s. and japan to maintain their strong alliance we've actually been working very hard over the past few years to increase in iraq or ability to make sure our forces work well together in part because of the military modernization from china and its increased use of maritime vessels both coast guard and people's liberation army navy vessels which of have been a significant challenge and so it is very important for us to work together this unfortunately the question about how much japan should be covering for for u.s. forces in japan is distracted from this when we really need to be focusing on ever continuing to to tighten our alliance ok and and what does that mean for that

alliance right what does it mean for us japanese ties as does if we can this military partnership. i don't know if i would go so far to say is it we can sit or at least it won't there will be permanent damage if we are able to to get through this past year or we renegotiate what are called special measures agreements every few years typically every 5 years with south korea or japan and so negotiations of this type are or normal this the amount that we're seeking and the explanation for what that amount will cover is different and that is what's caused concerns but ultimately we do have a lot of shared interests and values with japan both see rising challenge from chinese military modernization as i said so we will be able to i believe come together in time that alliance but this is a distraction it can give an opportunity to the chinese government to try to

exploit this distraction and what we really want to see is that there are openings for china or other potential adversaries in that regard. mystic is a bit i want to bring you back in that at this point japan and china and the u.s. these are all important for germany as well the changes that washington has to carry out they in germany's or even nato has interests. well i think that we need japan as us close and scrum ally we see him as a partner in the alliance for motile at the relisten which is was founded by some german and french prime ministers and ministers nevertheless what we need is a credible burden sharing a sign from the european union and the european nato members that we are willing to take over more responsibility from the americans in the close vicinity of europe

look to ukraine look to the west on balkans to the new middle east and to libya so as have burden sharing in the u. of the americans would mean that we take over more responsibility to become more credible on the other side this would also give the american president a signal that he is a could promulgated to the american population that the europeans are taking over more response an ability to ease the burden of the united states so that they could focus more in the pacific region this is very important because we we need the the world trade and we need also this free sea lines of communications and therefore it is all in one so a close cooperation with japan is also very helpful for the european union and giving this israeli thing to happen that we will see troops being pulled out of germany. well this was an announcement and the question is when and where to

if they shift these troops to poland this won't this would not be very negative because poland has a strong. fear of threat towards the russian movements the border while ations as well as space violations and a lot of hybrid warfare so this would give a signal for more defense and credibility of nato towards towards russia however we expect from the u.s. president that he is discussing this with his closest ally its allies in the european union and in they too because you cannot shift troops without coordination with the host nation and germany since its serenity since 1900 is a very strong partner and we would like to be handled all saw even and that with the united states this is not the way you treat your close partners ok rajneesh

case of a member of the german parliament's foreign affairs committee and a formal general staff officer of the german armed forces and separate haas for the deputy director of the asia program at the german marshall fund in washington d.c. gentlemen thank you both for those insights tonight. it's to the central african country of cameroon now and the story of how political rivalry is holding back the fight against the current of iris prevention if it's concentrated on the biggest city do not have to a disputed election the government has banned the work off the opposition leader maurice come to all but he and his party are determined to press ahead blasé are met some of the aid work is defying the bad. these volunteers income room and getting ready to dish because big 19 prevision keats. they are not

fish minds and i call b.s. consonant ties is a market in douala the country's largest city. congress opposition leader come to critter do going to hook up the sprint of the kernel bios. people are happy to get equipment but authorities see otherwise. the government says these organisations are listed in the call. meetings of the rocks these speeches it wanted just to see it is this past sunday or is there any time by cameras security forces. says started a program to a month ago i list of a dozen people have been arrested across the country. despite their risk who want is reached out to disadvantaged communities almost every day. 300000 kids have been donated in over 15 communities who fall by them because they come up to on a senior member of the team says they are not backing down or the other we are

birth records in your despite all the rest are reporting that was that report somebody might address that report you'll see it was obvious that the more. of this your retarded boy up to be i'm not going back to the law i'm no continuing only i'm a wilcox we are because the need is. and we need to do our best so there is no way to stop it. congress interior minister who. was not about billable on our request for an interview. didn't you know bios is not really spread in this country when more than 6500 cases fish must win. in april. 2 positions continue to distribute hygiene kits to people who can't afford them. not deserve i am so happy i have spent much from my little savings to buy hand sanitizer and i don't even have enough money to buy food but i had to struggle to

get a job or did i don't i'm now joined by dr mary stephen who is working as a technical officer at the w.h.o. regional office called anything to have the w.h.o. why do you think they have at the pandemic is exeter raising in africa is the continent ready. yes so we as. you do on the continent want to situation if you look at look at the different countries it varies from country to country the pandemic is driven by 10 countries over 80 percent of these cases. from 10 countries india continents so we still have some through countries that are reporting less than a 100 kids is more we haven't seen the peak yet be continents and countries continue to enhance the preparedness and readiness capacities to respond to

increasing number of cases so we are seeing. countries establishing community hospitals trying to build capacity or enhance capacity at the lower levels of the health system because given the peculiarity of assistance in africa most of the capacity as you find them at the national they are bored because of these potential increase in number of cases they are beginning to decentralize to buca placidity to be able to dictate to tests to isolate treat and also contact what is. the people that might have been exposed to positive coheed cases including the implementation of preventive measures among the members of the community saw the issue of us 3 to educate. no one.

when we can. just see it out sorry to interrupt you there but i do want to ask you this we are still talking about africa being the least affected region in the wild what is the explanation behind this. yes africa is the least african. region in terms of pierce's in terms of deaths so the beginning of the outbreak you record is the continent that had the importation of kids this lasts so we started having. 1000 kids and we fear we were in reported up close all continents of the world so before i didn't know there were already countries were already implementing into screening and some of them where quarantine trouble us now quite a number of countries my marriage to detect imported guess is in the end of some

of them where the points of entry somewhere. people would inquire into minded to quarantine and they were able to limit the 4 dust cleared of these. communities so in terms of the deaths we also have. a younger population and. learn self beauty's that's one tree roots tool one's chances of dying so these are some of the factors that affect what to do if your seats and and the number of deaths very interesting and thank you for that insight that stopped him a steven from the w.h.o. in congo brazzaville thank you. ukraine is one of the few countries in the vault where sarah guessing is affordable and easy to arrange but the global health emergency has prevented dozens of parents from joining the band new born children the wrong way it has been painful for

couples but potentially disastrous for children's development now some families have finally managed to be united as a correspondent nic conley met one such family. one month and 3 days late but at least they're together. and your elders have traveled more than 10000 kilometers by car through continent in lockdown to finally meet their daughter. and 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 lock down in sight all 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 hold would help when they read that ukraine's human rights on the woman had promised help parents into the country and jumped in their car to drive the 3600 kilometers from their home in madrid to kiev . and the 1st 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 he received this i didn't think a piece of paper could make you this happy. but it wasn't enough. was not the czechs and were 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. you know that we've lost months of our daughter's life. super important yes. it was actually a month and 3 days to register their daughter's birth in spain will probably still have to go to court in spain as in many other european countries surrogacy is really. not a legal illegal coronavirus lock down was just the 1st of many obstacles on that path. so we asked if it's know how many babies are still in limbo as a result. we're all scratching our heads here trying to work that out but it seems that even the government doesn't really know so we heard from the ukrainian

government's human rights and with women who help families like 20 ukraine with special permission she says about 100 families have been in touch with her over recent weeks asking for help getting into the country while those travel restrictions than place but experts say that is just the tip of the iceberg they. they estimate that most agencies here in ukraine have been advising their families to stay quiet not to reach out to the government they're worried about too much government intervention there have been calls from certain lawmakers here to ban international surrogacy so there was a real worry about coming out as it were and making clear quite how big a phenomenon this is and i think the pictures that went around the world of those babies in a hotel ballroom they really are representative that was essentially a p.r. stunt by a very savvy clinic director who wants to get international attention to resolve this problem most babies including all those babies babies spent that 1st month last month or 2 in a private apartment with a camera so the picture the reality

a bit more banal than those pictures but this seriously is an industry that. sees families from across the world coming to ukraine this is not just a european phenomenon you have families miss far as argentina saudi arabia china some of those chinese families it's estimated have been up to 3 or 4 months late picking up their babies given the lock down starts in china earlier than in europe or north america so this really is a global phenomenon happening here in ukraine. all right the day is almost done but the conversation continues online join us on twitter either at. one of me at 1.7 it's been great having your company back.

to. africa. hygiene measures during the corona crisis in rwanda is expensive 'd and disinfectant are virtually unattainable 'd. but a young businesswoman has decided to improvise. in her distillery she produces disinfected. for. next w. . creating understanding to music. jewish conductor daniel barenboim and his palestinian friend emerge saeed shared her vision. and they made it a reality the creation of their own music academy in berlin.

45 minutes. we know that this is a scary time for the. coronavirus is changing the world changing our lives so please take care of yourself good systems wash your hands and if you can stay at home we're d.w.b. profusely we're working tirelessly to keep you informed on all over platforms and we're all in distributing one together and we're making sure. stay safe everybody stays in syria's civil war stay safe it's released in straight sets.

we should never underestimate the power of nature our current situation is a humble reminder of that but nature can also help us in countless ways as long as we walk we get rather than against it i am standard here in kampala uganda and the africa with me today i was always michael present in one.