ah ah ah, this is the w news live from berlin, france chooses a president, emily my crohn seeks another 5 year term faces a strong challenge from his far right opponent wearing the pend, also coming up ukrainian celebrate orthodox easter. despite the war that's ground down for 2 years, senior us officials are doing keith for talks with president the landscape. ah

big welcome to our viewers around the world. i'm really mm hm. it will begin in france, where voters are causing their ballots in a tightly contested presidential election. one of opinion polls suggest pro europe in my new micron is on course for another 5 year term in the eliza palace. but as far as its opponents, marine le pen has mounted a strong challenge. victory for her could shake the foundations of european unity. it's election day and frances, bracing for the lead pen, my car show down the stakes. a huge le pen would become more and francis 1st far right leader and 1st fema president lou. my call would be the 1st french president to win re election in 2 decades. much will depend on how many people will show up to vote in a country that's deeply divided. why should see that several problems to my home? i'm not a fan of my call,

but i think it's the only democratic option. that's the key in the vehicle. when we have seen how they have restricted our freedoms these last years, especially during the pandemic, i'm not sure if people are aware of this, but i think unfortunately, we will continue on this path if my call as we elected to the gentleman that exceeded 2 is the supporters of left wing candidate jaundra, milan shaw, who came 3rd and round one, who feel particularly frustrated. they no longer have a left wing option. now their vote or a low turn out has the potential to tip the scales. my coal has tried to appeal to these voters by toning down parts of his manifesto. like the plan to push up the retirement age from the current $62.00 to $65.00, we'll decide we can fix a lower target change. i'm open to discussion with one kid. meanwhile, the pen has also tried to gather more support by continuing to depict herself as the candidate closest to the people are struck phone. i want to tell every french

person that my project is tailor made for them who i want them to be happy and prosperous. safe. and i will defend their identity hid lucila before the lovely. don't you think? all opinion polls in recent days point towards a wind for the 44 year old pro european centrist mac home. a la pen victory, however, is still possible and would sent shock waves across europe. while in emmanuel crohn's headquarters, we have dw lisa lewis and in marine, the pens ponti, where barbara vsl is now standing by for us, let's start with lisa micron is expected to win, but i imagine many people are on edge of their seats now wondering if there will be a surprise tonight, especially with a large number of undecided voters. absolutely. as you said earlier, this, the report was saying earlier, you know, my call has been delayed in the to suppose by here at the election venue of am i my

cause. you can clearly sense a feel as sense of tens expectation. it doesn't look like a done deal behind me to participate my. my calls are slowly flowing in and you can feel that they are nervous. they will be looking at their results that can come out at 8 o'clock at night. as you said, one factor that could play a role is extension and polling institutes here are predicting a record abstention. and for this 2nd round of voting. so it could, it might well go down to the wire here in france. and also in paris we have barbara, this is the 2nd time that micron and le pen are facing each other on in this run off. what's different this time? what's different is that in a marine le pen has really gotten much closer to emmanuel in mac. wrong than last time, her chances are much better. she has really, as they say in friends, d,

demonized, the program of for party. she's playing down the right wing x from his idea. i mean, she's talking about identity. she is talking about discriminating against her. foreigners migrants and, and other non french people. but generally she has sort of tried to soften no profile. and, and that may be the main point she has really hit on the one big concern of french voters. and that is, they're buying power. they are really afraid of inflation, they're afraid of rising prices into what, what that might do through their lifestyle. and that is what she relentlessly has been campaigning on. during the last 3 months, she has toward the small village and prevent villages and provincial towns of france and told people, i will keep you safe. i will keep money in your pocket. she didn't say how she would want to do that. and of course, experts have been laughing about this and saying she must have a magic monetary bought there many voters who buy into this, all right,

those are correspondence keeping a close eye on these election resolves as they come in in the next hour. that is up barbara weasel and lisa lewis in paris. well, let's also cross over to central paris, where dw are in a straus is standing by marina. you've been talking to some voters today. what's the feeling there? there's been a big discussion going on, especially among left being voters in the last 2 weeks since the 1st round of the presidential elections. and there are basically 2 or maybe even 3 camps. so the 1st cam says, yes, of course we will vote for emory micro because we don't want to marine the pen to get to power a far right. an extreme president. and they are the people who said, yeah, we will go to the polls, but we will will, blank because we don't ones in manuel, macro and power. at least we don't want to support him. and then the people who said, we don't want to go to the polls at o,

and that's showing in the really high of century rates. so it could be, it could go up to 28 percent. that would be 2 or even 3 percentage points from percentage points more than in 2017, so 5 years ago, and it would or could be, and the highest absentia rate. since 1969 are in a straus in central paris. thank you. marina. while the po, polls close at 8 p. m central european time, and that's in just under an hour from now, we'll bring you all that special coverage, starting 15 minutes earlier, at 1945. stay tuned to d. w. news for all the latest results and analysis for my experts and correspondence on the ground, walla. in the meantime, let's take a look at some other news around the world. at least 6 people died and dozens more were rescued when a ship capsized off the coast of lebanon. the port of tripoli has become

a departure point of migrants leaving lebanon because of the deepening economic crisis. 10 passengers have died after a tall boat sank in japan. the vessel sent a distress call, but went down in a nearby national park coast. garza still searching for any survivors. thousands of argentine farmers have protested against president alberto fernandez. they're angry at his policy of capping food prices to cub inflation. argentina is one of the world's largest food exporters with agriculture. a key part of the economy and coptic christians have been celebrating easter worship has gathered at saint mark's cathedral in cairo. sunday marks the end of the 55 days lent, known in the coptic calendar as the great faust or you cranes, president vladimir lensky is due to meet with us secretary of state antony blinking, and defense. secretary lloyd austin in keith landscape is pushing for more weapons

to fight the russian offensive in the south and east or earlier to lansky recorded an orthodox east. a message from keeps st. sophia cathedral, he said ukrainians should turn their rage into a force to defeat evil. meanwhile, ukrainian fighters and civilians are still trapped in the port city of mario pal. the un is calling for people to be evacuated. and zalinski has spoken to turkey's president about mediating with russia. well, let's cross over to keith and speak to d, doff these rebecca riches. so top us officials are scheduled to discuss ukraine's request for more weapons. what is a precedence? lensky hoping to achieve from this visit? will you always answer yourself very hill? i may walk. president zalinski wants can really be summed up in one word and that would ease weapons. he's being colon for since the beginning these war,

this war. and that coal is getting ever louder, or we firm that out with his office today. weapons is of course a top of the agenda with the americans, but president zalinski said it himself last night when he announced that the americans would be visiting today. he said that nobody should come to cave empty handed and that he was expecting weapons and support and guarantees. another thing that he will be trying to press upon the visiting american delegation is of course, the fact that this is a turning point in this war. president zalinski says this 2nd phase of the war, this easton, the battle for the east and the south will be really decisive, not just for ukraine and the ukraine, ukrainian people, but for europe and, and the global security at large. so that's something that he's really going to try and press upon with lincoln and austin, today's cave. and rebecca soleski is also spoken to turkey's president reggie type ado on about the situation of troops and civilians trapped in mario poll. what's the situation there when it comes to evacuations and the humanitarian corridor?

will evacuations out of mary poll a really, really difficult as you can imagine. they often fail, and we haven't seen any evacuations. we haven't heard word of any successful evacuations out of mary paul for a couple of days now. and that that topic was discussed on that phone call with turkish president o to want, who is expected to have a call with president putin as well. and so that also discussed a pace negotiations. ab president. oh, to wanda, sits reiterating that he'd be happy to mediate between the 2 parties. oh, tuan is also made with un secretary general antonio terrace to morrow, as he travels there ahead of visits to russia and ukraine. to visit with both ladies, so to try and revive those pace negotiations, which have been installed for some weeks now. but of course the, the situation in mary paul is going to be very decisive when it comes to those pace negotiations, president to lensky sank. it will be a red line of russia does kill those remaining troops and civilians at the as of

steel plant that they negotiations will be dead in the water. and people in ukraine are also celebrating orthodox easter. how are ukrainians spending this day? well it's, it's a very unusual acer, as you can imagine, rahile ha, bought the san did come out today on the 1st sunny days that cave all that you crime has seen since the beginning of the war. so, you know, people were out in the straits the wants of smiling paypal. in fact, it was really nice to see. and behind me you probably see that michael's cathedral out michael church. it's one of the biggest in cave where a lot of worship is go to celebrate the holiest day of aysa. and we spoke to some people there. they said that they were slightly concerned about the security of situation. obviously this hot and security alerts over the easter weekend in the capital. ah, but that they were just so happy that they could get out and celebrate their favorite holiday. they. they also said that they really had faith in their,

their soldiers, and that they believed that you crime would ryan's successful at the end of this, rebecca riches reporting to us in keith. thank you, rebecca. some sports news now and by and munich extend their reign as bonus luca champions. they seal the record 10th german title with victory over dormant rabbit levin dusky was among the go scores against his former club as by and ran out 31 winners. it's the 1st one to seek a title for. they coach julian na guzman at just age 30. for elsewhere in the buddhist, they got to late goal. so onion berlin, get some revengeful that captivate at our b live sick. earlier this week, leipzig took the lead just after halftime through use of paulson when union failed to clear the ball. but then michael equalize for union seconds off to coming on as a substitute. and then kevin barons hit the winning goal with just a minute left to play or has a look at the table. just

a few matches left to go this season by and, and thought when will finish 1st and 2nd. but he, then there's a battle for the european sports with 5 team separated just 6 points. and at the bottom, you have her to berlin and stood cod will be facing off in a crunch. delegation match on sunday. delafield are running out of time though to get themselves out of the drop zone. well, 1st are already down here watching the w news. here's a reminder of our top story opinion polls. the jess french president emmanuel car is on course for a 2nd 5 year term, but as far right opponents marine left hen has mounted a strong challenge and sundays election run off. we'll have life coverage here on dw news, starting in half an hour, around $945.00 central european times that unit for that. coming up next is your max of the visiting the site of the real down to nami,

especially more few on the website, d, w dot com for the latest news analysis and video. you can also follow us on social media. and really, muhammad, thanks for watching i found out with not just another day with so much is happening all at once. we take time to understand this is the day an in depth look at current news, events analyzed by experts and critical fingers, which is the weekdays on d, w on the green.