brent: this is "d.w. news," live from berlin. stopped in their tracks, the main route for migrants to northern europe is now effectively closed. as more countries stop letting refugees through, what will happen to the 36,000 people stranded in greece? and what about the ones who are on the way? also on the show, donald trump seems unstoppable in the u.s. presidential primaries after three more wins. for the democrats, bernie sanders has a surprise victory in michigan. and a milestone for artificial intelligence, a defeat for us. the super computer beats a grand master at the ancient game of go. are intelligent computers about

to gain the upper hand? i'm brent goff. it's good to have you with us. the main migrant route from greece to northern europe has been slammed shut tonight. western balkan countries have closed borders to transiting refugees. slovenia announced that only those with valid documents would be allowed to enter the country. fearing bottleneck, croatia, verbia -- serbia and macedonia have closed their borders. on the southern edge of the balkans route, migrant traffic has been at a virtual standstill for the last two weeks. hungary is responding to the crisis by extending a state of emergency to the entire country. the interior minister says the country is bolstering police and

military patrols to keep migrants from entering. new measures also include stricter border checks and enhanced police powers. so with borders along the balkan route closing, even more refugees are likely to be stranded, you guessed it, in greece, with more and more arriving every day. >> frustration is building at greece's border with macedonia. up to 14,000 people are stranded here and the gates are closed, sealing off the balkan route to western europe. conditions are dire. heavy rain has turned the camp atide -- idomeni into a swamp. the conditions are so bad, some are returning to camps in southern greece. >> it is a terrible situation there. it's a few tents. we spent two nights under the rain with the kids, without

anything, without even, without blankets. the majority of the kids there even if their families have tents, they are sick, they are coughing. the last two days, it's very heavy rain in idomeni. so we decide to go back to athens. >> the situation in the south is not much better. thousands are waiting in tents at the port of piraeus and more are arriving every day. aid workers are warning of a humanitarian disaster. >> my understanding, this will be a lost generation of children, no one knows where they will go, what will happen to them, how they will have education. it won't be a bright future for these people but at least we have to tell them what they have to expect from europe. >> european union leaders are thrashing out a deal to return

migrants to turkey. but they are not meeting again for another week and the outcome is far from clear. for those stuck in greece, the wait continues. brent: here in germany, the migration crisis has given a big boost to the alternative for germany political party, also known as the a.f.d. it opposes mass immigration and has been holding a big demonstration in the eastern german city of jena. the party is highly correctly of angela merkel and is demanding an end to her open-door migration policy. me right wing movement in dresden have called for people to vote for the a.f.d. when three german states going to the polls on sunday. the a.f.d. is likely to gain a significant number of seats in all three and further challenge the chancellor. these will be regional elections to watch, our chief political correspondent will be watching them for us. good evening to you.

what happens if we see the a.f.d. win more than 10 or even 15% of the vote? >> well, practically speaking, that would certainly change the coalition options for the more mainstream parties that have been governing in these states until now. they may find themselves looking for new partners at state level but you can be sure they will not be asking the a.f.d. to join them in government. and such a result would definitely provoke a lot of head scratchi and worrying of the type that we saw here this week after municipal elections were held in the state of hesen last weekend. we saw a result of over 10% for the a.f.d. in the main city, frankfurt, and nonetheless, the main newspaper there, which is one of germany's leading newspapers, said, look, this is not really reason for alarm, we don't need to start planning candlelight vigils, let us be

pragmatic about this. brent: does that mean the german chancellor probably would not make a u-turn on her refugee policy, even if the a.f.d. did show these strong returns? >> no. i cannot see that happening. i have seldom, in the entire time that she has been in office, seen her take so ted fast -- steadfast and principled a stand as she has done on the refugee crisis and she herself has said clearly, i am not playing party politics and tactics here, this issue is far too important for europe to do so. brent: but she can't forget what is happening inside the country, particularly to the political landscape, and you can't wish the a.f.d. away, even if you wanted to. she's going to have to accept the reality that they are a political force, isn't she? >> certainly the refugee crisis will be an issue here, both of the mainstream parties, the

c.d.u. and s.b.d., the partners in the governing coalition at national level, have tried to make us believe that these local elections will not be decided by anything more than local issues, but the fact is that the a.f.d. absolutely is riding a protest vote here. it has been instrumentallizing people's fears about refugees and basically trying to sell them on the idea that the a.f.d. can bring back a nice, cozy home genius germany of the type that the country was many years ago and if that reminds you of the kind of populace rhetoric we have been hearing from donald trump, for example, you're quite right so yes, the a.f.d. is set to ride that for quite a while but in the past, germany has seen right wing parties ride on the back of anxiety about foreigners and for instance the republicans, they rose to power in in 1992. by nine years later, they were gone from power. they simply couldn't deal with

the nuts and bolts of local policy making. brent: melinda crane on the story for us, thank you very much. she mentioned donald trump in the u.s. presidential primaries, it seems he is unstoppable. the billionaire businessman looks increasingly likely to clinch the republican party nomination for u.s. president after scoring big wins in three states. ted cruz managed just one victory in idaho. now, for the democrats, bernie sanders surprised everyone with a win in michigan, but his opponent, hillary clinton, she took mississippi. >> hillary clinton remains ahead in the democrat race, even though michigan has a significant number of delegates, her defeat there seems to be little more than a hiccup in her campaign. secretary clinton: thank you so much. hello, cleveland! hello, ohio!

>> she's already moved on to ohio which votes next week. secretary clinton: we are so excited to have the campaign building across this state and this campaign is about building a future, where every american can live up to his or her full potential, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you know. [crowd chanting "hillary"] >> the two races are all about delegates. these are people sent to conventions to choose their presidential candidate. the primaries tell them how to vote. clinton's victory in mississippi keeps her well ahead of bernie sanders for the democrats. so far in the primaries, clinton is halfway to the number of delegates she needs to secure the democratic party nomination. sanders has only a quarter of the number he would need to get there. for the republicans, the donald

trump phenomenon appears unstoppable. he now has about a third of the delegates he'd need to secure that nomination. those republicans who would stop him are split between his main challengers, ted cruz and marco rubio. trump is already talking about taking the top job. mr. trump: thank you, wow. i can be more presidential if i want to be. i can be more presidential than anybody. you know, when i have 16 people coming at me from 16 different angles, you don't want to be so presidential. you have to win, you have to beat them back, right? but i would say more presidential and i've said this a couple of times, more presidential than anybody other than the great abe lincoln. he was very presidential. >> candidates are directing their efforts at the next states to vote -- ohio, florida and illinois will be important battle grounds with large bounties of delegates. brent: a little earlier we spoke

to our washington correspondent and asked her if there is any way cruz or rubio can catch up to donald trump. >> i don't think it's a done deal yet and i'm not sure whether cruz and rubio can catch him since they are far behind, at least that's the case for rubio, even if he does win florida. cruz is a little closer. but i'm sure that the republican establishment, the party, is hoping that maybe this will go for a contested convention, which means that none of the candidates gets a majority of the votes and therefore they can do, have a process at the convention and have votes there again and free some of the delegates so that they maybe get a different majority than donald trump. brent: reporting from washington. as the zika virus spreads across south and central america, the world health organization has issued new warnings for pregnant women, advising them against all travel to affected areas.

zika has been linked to birth defects, developmental problems and infant deaths. it's mainly spread via mosquitoes but new research shows the virus can be transmitted through sex. here's some of the other stories making headlines around the world. a ukrainian pilot on trial in russia has given a defiant closing statement, making obscene gestures at the judge. nadezhda savchenko vowed to press on with her week-long hunger strike. she's been held since 2014 over the death of two russian journalists in fighting in eastern ukraine. there have been worldwide protests at her trial. poland's constitutional court raised the stakes in its showdown with the country's governing nationalist conservative party. it ruled laws the government introduced last year to restrict powers are unconstitutional. thousands have been demonstrating against those laws in attempts to tighten control

over state media. a court in japan has ordered a nuclear plant operator to shut down two reactors in the city of takahama, about 300 kilometers west of tokyo. the ruling comes after local residents complained about the plant's safety. the decision comes just days before the fifth anniversary of the fukushima nuclear disaster. it has been called a huge breakthrough for artificial intelligence, a google super computer has beaten the world's best player at the 3,000-year-old chinese board game called go. the developers of the software are describing the win as their moon landing. >> it's the ultimate showdown between man and machine. taking on the challenge is lee sedol. he's the world champion of an ancient chinese board game called go. the man facing him represents his most challenging opponent yet, a software program called

alphago. the aim of the game is to capture as much territory as possible on a 19 by 19 square grid. sounds simple? it's not. there are more possible moves on the board than atoms in the universe. the moment of truth as the result is calculated. round one goes to the computer. a blow to lee, who'd been putting his faith in human capability. still, one thing he does have over his opponent is a sense of humor. translator: i'm very surprised. i didn't think i'd lose. my initial failure in today's go match continued throughout the game to the end. of course, at the beginning, i didn't know i'd be beaten. i was surprised alphago played such a perfect game. >> this was the first of five matches that will happen over the coming week.

while the machine triumphed this time, commentators say it was a close match with both players making mistakes. this very 21st century battle is only just beginning.

brent: welcome back, you're with "d.w. news" live from berlin. time for business news, daniel winter is here to talk about a cat fight or -- some type of fight in africa. daniel: two of the largest economies at loggerheads the. south african preside jacob niria, meeting hissit to counterpart, muhammadu buhari. overshadowing the trip is a spat between m.t.n. and nigeria's telecom's regulator. m.t.n. has been fined for not disconnecting unregistered sim cards. nigeria said those helped boko

haram to coordinate attacks. >> south africa's jacob zuma was given all the p and circumstance due a visiting head of state. but his nigerian host, president muhammadu buhari, wasted no time in getting down to business. he complained that nigerians about hade for -- paid for m.t.n.'s mistakes with their lives. >> the federal government was business counting on the security, not the fines enforced on m.t.n. you know how the unreginasterred are being used by terrorism and between 2009 and today at least 10,000 have been killed by boko haram, at least 10,000. >> nigerian regulators say boko haram used unregistered sim cards to plan attacks throughout

nigeria and ordered telecom providers to deactivate suspicious cards but m.t.n. wasn't fast to activate the regulation, offering boko haram a communications platform to carry out further attacks. the nigerian government hit m.t.n. with a massive $3.9 billion fine for noncompliance. to date, m.t.n. has so far paid $250 million to nigeria and is trying to negotiate a reduced fine. daniel: following this story for us, what do we expect the outcome to be of this m.t.n. row? >> we can expect that the m.t.n. case was very high on the agenda of this visit and of course president buhari's accusations that m.t.n. was fueling the terrorist attacks by failing to disconnect unregistered users definitely threw oil on the fire. however, there have been very

many hints today regarding secret talks behind closed doors so i think if m.t.n. continues to show goodwill, we can expect that for high fine of almost $4 billion u.s. will not be the last number we hear. daniel: if we widen the scope a little bit, what are the economic and political relations like between africa's biggest economy and second biggest one? >> historically they have had very good relations, also because of nigeria's role in south africa's anti-apartheid struggle. there was even a so-called mandela text in nigeria to support activity of freedom fighters in south africa but recently the relationship has been suffering a little bit. very many south africa companies have been complaining that new regulations have been making their life in nigeria

increasingly difficult and on the other hand nigerians have been complaining a lot about tough visa regulations and anti-migrant attacks in south africa but i think both countries know very well because they're the strongest economies in africa, how much they depend on each other, especially in times of economic crisis. daniel: thank you very much for that update. china's been investing heavily in africa for years but now the economy back home is slowing, the chinese are less eager to spend. while the country's foreign minister promised to keep cash flowing, exports from africa to china have slowed. some are starting to feel the pinch. >> chinese development helpers at work. they're set to build some 3,500 kiometers of highway in the democratic republic of congo. add to that rail lines, hospitals and schools, all in exchange for 10 million tons of copper and 200 tons of cobalt.

the massive deal is estimated to be worth over six billion euros. but china's appetite for raw materials is cooling. its economic growth has sunk to just over 6%, the lowest rate since 1990. and africa is paying a price for the slowdown. the continent's exports to china fell by around 40% last year. three major african commodities exporters -- angola, republic of congo, and nigeria, saw their exports to china halved. the falling demand has driven down the price of mineral resources further on world markets, worsening the situation for african countries. and the outlook is grim, continuing moderate growth in china and weak global economy mean demand for africa's commodities won't reach their previous highs any time soon. daniel: that's all your business

for this hour. it's a sad day for the music industry, though, and brett, you've got the story. brent: george martin, the music producer known for his work with the beatles, has died at the age of 90. he was often called the fifth beatle. he enjoyed and played a major role in transforming the group into global superstars. the former beatle, paul mccartney, led tributes to martin, describing him as the most intelligent and musical person that he had ever known. >> as head of anr at the label, george martin signed the beatles when no one else would. he shaped their sound and identity from the word go, wasting no time in implementing ringo star. >> the very first record was "love me do" and the second was

"please please me" which was only arrived at after much doubt on my part whether they could write a hit song. >> they followed his advice and sped up the tempo. >> at the end of that session, i was able to tell them, you've got your first number one. ♪ i know you never even try, girl ♪ >> from that moment onward, they blossomed. they became wonderful songwriters. >> and the rest is history. the lennon mccartney magic was perfectly complemented by george martin. his collaboration with the fab four was an enduring one. he's associated first and foremost with the lads from liverpool. >> george martin was part of all that history of the beatles. >> in 2006, aged 80, and now sir george martin, he teamed up with

his son, giles, to remix selected beatles tracks to cirque du soleil's live las vegas show, "love," earning him his sixth grammy, proving love is all you need. brent: you're a lucky person if you can say you met george martin and my colleague is one of those lucky people. he's at the table with me tonight. how credible was it when he said he was the fifth beatle? >> well, he didn't actually make that claim himself. many said that of him but it's a fair enough claim for people to have made of him, although he was a very modest man himself. he absolutely shaped the sound of the beatles' records, as the report just said, speeding up "please please me" to get the first number one. he came up with the idea of a string arrangement for "yesterday" and orchestrated that part himself and the amazing sonic collage that is

"strawberry fields forever," he was instrumental in all of those elements. his work spanned the entire beatles career and it's a legacy many producers would aspire to. brent: you know so much about him because you actually have met him and actually spent a lot of time with him, at least at one time. tell us about that. >> it was verynteresting. i was writing a piece for the "guardian" about him and it turned into a long profile. our first meeting was at air studios which was his domain. a huge recording studios at hampstead in london and the conversation just rolled and rolled and he invited me to his house for lunch and we carried on the conversation there and he was a terribly, terribly modest man. but also very proud of elements of what he had done, in a more subtle way. for example, one of the hits that -- one of the songs he produced was listened to by nasa astronauts when they were going around the moon and they named one of the craters after one of

the songs he produced. he was proud of that. brent: i wanted to bring out the point that he was losing his hearing. >> that's true, yes. he had hearing aids in both ears. he talked emotionally about realizing when his hearing was failing. and he relied very much on his son, giles, to be his second pair of ears in later projects. brent: we appreciate you coming in and sharing your personal stories about george martin. thank you very much. we're going to leave you now with a musical tribute to the man who they called the fifth beatle. george martin. ♪ there are places i remember, all of my life, though some have

changed, some forever, not for better, some have gone, and some remain, all these places have their moments, with lovers and friends i still can recall, some are dead and some are living, in my life, i loved them all ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org.]

. in china, divorce rates have been rising for 12 consecutive years. in 2014, 3.63 million couples got divorced, roughly triple the number recorded ten years earlier.