from berlin. tonight, the pentagon releasing video it says shows how a russian fighter jet brought down a u.s. drone over the black sea. the video shows a russian fighter jet coming very close to an unmanned american drone that later crashed. the kremlin is standing by a different story. also coming up, poland promising to deliver ukraine four fighter jets in the next few days.

will the move inspire other nato members to do the same? and, protesters in france expressing their outrage of president emmanuel macron's decision to force through pension reform plans. macron says he's using special constitutional powers to push through unpopular changes without a vote in parliament. and israeli president benjamin netanyahu defending proposed judicial reforms in his country. netanyahu was in berlin today for talks with the german chancellor. he praised israel's a partnership with germany. --israel's strong partnership with germany. ♪ i'm brent goff. to our viewers watching on pbs in the united states and to all of you around the world, welcome. the u.s. defense department has released footage it says shows a russian aircraft intercepting a u.s. spy drone over the black sea.

according to the pentagon this video shows a russian fighter jet approaching the drone and dumping fuel over at as the aircraft passes by in close proximity without appearing to cause any damage to the drone. the pentagon ss the jet did collide with the drone's propeller. however, the actual collision is not visible inhis edited video that was released today. although damage to the propeller can be seen later. as you see right there. so, after days of a heated war of words between washington and moscow, the pentagon says it is now delivered proof. but does that change anything? i put that question to the founding director of the modern war institute at west point and co-author of the book,

understanding urban warfare, colonel lea collins. >> i do not think it has changed because of the video. it was credible in the beginning when the u.s. reported it was struck by a russian aircraft. i do not think it has changed the volatility of the situation at all. brent: on wednesday, pentagon spokesperson ned price, who i am assung already called this footage -- saw this footage, called the incident probably unintentional. what is your take on that? doesn't it look like this was an accident? >> dumping the fuel on the drone was obviously intentional. striking the propeller might have been unintentional but nevertheless, the russian planes were attempting to get as close as possible to that aircraft and if they hit it, it may not have been intentional but that was ultimately the outcome. if it was not intentional, it shows you really how incompetent the russian pilots are, because they could have taken themselves down if they crashed into the aircraft more forcefully. brent: what about this drone

that crashed into the black sea? washington said and wiped all the data from the aircraft. russia says it wants to salvage the wreckage. i mean, would it gain athing even if it did find any parts of this drone? liam: no, it isretty normal procedure, whether it is an aircraft, a ship, or personal communications on the ground. if you get any hardware in there, that will not be of any value to the russians. even if they are able to go down however deeply black sea is to retrieve part of the aircraft, they will not get anything of any value out of it. brent: there has been concern all week of this situation whisk -- quickly escalating and having an impact on the war in eastern ukraine. what has been your take on how washington and mask up -- moscow, how they have tried to make sure there is no escalation? liam: first of all, this is one

of the reasons we have unmanned aircraft, so it is ot causing pilots at risk or causing an unnecessary or undesirable escalation by either side, escalating because you lost a servicemember. but the flipside is it allows pressure to be more aggressive than they might have been it was a man aircraft. but why is russia even going out and doing this aggressive action in international airspace when they have a bottle in bakhmut -- a battle in bakhmut? russia's air force is not really capable of supporting the war, so they have nothing better to do than harass international airspace. brent: colonel liam collins, we appreciate your time and your analysis. poland is set to become the first nato member to supply fighter jets to ukraine. it will deliver at least four fully operational soviet-era mig 29's in the next few days.

poland's president duda saying additional aircraft will be supplied later after a maintenance check. ukraine has repeatedly urged western powers to send it warplanes which it says it needs to fight back against russia's invasion effectively. after poland's announcement, the prime minister of denmark hinted that other nato allies might soon follow suit. >> fighter jets have long been on the ukrainians wishlist, and it is something we are discussing in the group of allied nations. so yes, it is something we are discussing with our allies, and it is something the group of allies is considering. i will not get into any further details, but it is a big wish for ukraine. brent: with poland charging ahead, all eyes are now on nato members such as the u.s. and germany. will they follow suit? i put that question to our nato correspondent in brussels, teri schultz.

teri: washington along with germany maintains the line that absolutely not. and you heard denmark say it is being discussed but we have not heard any other countries really charge to the front like poland has. slovakia may be the closest to sending some of its mig's. we were at this stage before months ago with poland being very willing to send its fleet of migs, the whole fleet at that time, but i wanted to send them through bronstein airbase and make it sort of a u.s. transfer, and then it fell apart. this is not entirely unexpected that it comes back to poland sending migs. but we did not know to expect it today. brent: what did you make of hearing denmark say that more shipments could be on the way? it is not the first country i think people would expect to hear making an announcement concerning fighter jets.

teri: she did not make an announcement, she said it is being discussed. and being discussed in a group of countries that may have fighter just as a long way from sending them. we have seen the u.k. training pilots, the u.s. is that pilots. and so getting some people ready to possibly fly planes at some point is a long way from saying we are going to give you those plans. many allies still feel this is not the right move, germany included. brent: we have talked many times about sending weapons to ukraine. we were talking about battle tanks pick and there -- tanks and there was also that resistance. now those tanks are in that country, it is a done deal. will we see the same with fighter jets? teri: ukraine certainly helps so and that is why keeps asking for things it was told it would not get. if they stopped asking for tanks when they were told no, he would not see tanks there right now. now with poland breaking this

sort of blockade, which to some extent is a psychological bloc on sending these weapons, you may see other countries. the finish prime minister, not even yet the leader of a country inside the nato alliance, got in hot water last week when she said finland might think about sending fighter jets. that did not go down well with her own government who said that is news to them. brent: i am wondering if there is psychology here which should be thinking about. the fact that poland is making this announcement. they did promise about a year ago to do what they said they are going to do now within a couple days. the fact they are pushing forward and right now going alone. does that reveal may be divisions within nato that have not been made public? teri: it is more than psychology, it is geography. it is not only the poles who say give ukraine everything it needs, the baltic states regularly say whatever we can

provide, let's send it now. the divide between nato is not just political, it is geopolitical. if you are a country with a border with russia, a border with ukraine, a border with belarus, you very much feel unless we give you -- give ukraine everything it needs to stop russia, we are next. these countries would say to allies who might say this is an escalation, they say the escalation would be letting win -- letting russia win in ukraine. brent: teri, as always, thank you. there'll be no parliamentary vote in france on increasing the country's retirement age from 62 to 64. the french government today invoked a special constitutional provision allowing it to bypass a vote by lie makers -- lawmakers. this bill is controversial but the government says it is essential to keeping the pension system intact. the changes are still being met with widespread opposition including months of protests and

strikes across france. reporter: fierce debate turned to a raucous rendition of france's national anthem, as opposition mp's made a last-ditch attempt to stop the planned pension reforms. >> dear colleagues, thank you. i will ask each of the parliamentarians who are holding up a sign to please stop immediately. this is against our rules, and the florist for the prime minister. reporter: emmanuel macron's government said the reforms are vital to keep pensions sustainable for the future. but as the deadline to pass the legislation approached, ministers feared they would not have enough support to push through the changes. instead, just minutes ahead of the scheduled vote, the government invoked special powers to skip the process altogether. >> members of parliament, today, on the parliament bill, and due to the uncertainty hanging over

a few votes, we can't take the risk of seeing 175 hours of parliamentary debate collapse. we can't take the risk of seeing the compromise built by the two assemblies dismissed. we cannot bet on the future of our pensions. this reform is necessary. reporter: the move to force the reforms prompted immediate outrage from the opposition. >> of course this is it admissible, obviously -- inadmissible, obviously. it is not a question of forcing a majority, as is normally the nature of the article, it's preventing the expression of the will of the french people through their elected representatives. reporter: opposition lawmakers have said they will request a no-confidence vote in the government, but that is unlikely to pass with conservatives vowing to go against it. brent: earlier i talked to lisa louis in paris about what

happened and what did not happen in parliament today. lisa: it is, in a way, unusual. it is not business as usual, but it has been used before since the beginning of the fifth republic in the 1950's. governments have used it about 90 times. but what is unusual about it is he is using it for the special reform. this is the flagship reform he has been running for to be reelected last year with. and he was saying this is really, i want to put in place this reform. the pension reform is what france needs. i want to show that i can reform this country, and show that i am a strong statesman. also on an international level. using this special constitutional power means that he felt that he had not the power to convince enough parliamentarians to vote along with his group, and so he needed

to push the reform through. brent: he obviously thinks he is on the right side of history by standing by where he wants the country to go. is there anyone in government, in politics, who can stop him now? lisa: well, what happens when this special rule is triggered is really that the reform will go through, unless there is a vote of no-confidence. the different groups have 24 hours to bring in such a vote of confidence, until tomorrow. four position parties have already announced that they would do so. and we understand that these votes of no-confidence should be voted on next monday, probably, or starting next monday. and the only way to stop the pension reform now is really to bring down the government. now, when you look at the numbers, emmanuel macron has with his party and allied parties 250 seats in the

parliament. a majority is 287. and the conservative party has 60 seats. if you add 250 to 60 you get 310, and the conservatives have already said they would not vote against the government. so it seems a bit unlikely that this will bring down the government, although some commentators are still looking at the numbers and saying we cannot be sure that everybody's votes will be for what is expected. brent: so it looks like this increase of the retirement age is going to happen. explain to our viewers why the french are so enraged by this. i mean, from 62 to 64, to maybe here in germany or the u.s., that does not seem like such an unreasonable increase, but in france it apparently does. lisa: first of all, it is the minimum requirement -- retirement age.

the threshold where you get a full pension is 67. if you look at a european comparison, france is in the middlefield. people are so opposed to this reform because they say it is not just about pensions, it is about their social system. france has a fewer pay-as-you-go system. current workers pay for current pensioners, but there are very few people who actually have private pension funds. this is the heart of what they feel they will make sure they can have a decent life later on. they feel that the government is attacking the heart of their social security system, especially as -- there was a report that was mandated by the government by an expert committee and they had to look into the pension system, and their conclusion was that, actually, when you look at the figures, they will be a slight deficit in the future in the pension system. but it will not be dramatic.

so whether you what reform are not, that will be a political decision. that is why many people here fear the government, yeah, they say we need this reform, but do we actually really need it, or is it about something else? is it a question of justice? they feel the government want to take away money from the poor and give it to the rich. brent: dw's lisa louis with the latest from paris. as always, thank you. german chancellor olaf scholz has posed -- voiced concern over israel's plan confirm -- he met today with benjamin netanyahu. critics say the plans would allow the israeli parliament to overturn supreme court rulings. reporter: track 17 at berlin's station. from here, thousands of jews were sent to extermination camps right up until the end of the second world war. the two leaders paid their

respects. benjamin netanyahu said that although germany and the world have changed, jews are still being threatened. >> we have learned that the jewish people must have the capacity to defend ourselves, by ourselves, against any threat. but we also welcome a friendship of those who share our concern, our values. reporter: iran's nuclear program was on the agenda of the talks of the chancellery, but also the controversial plans to reform israel's judiciary. >> as a partner in democratic values and a close friend of israel, we are following this debate very closely, and i will not hide this fact, with great concern. we agreed that the independence of the judiciary is a pillar of democracy. reporter: protesters gathered in central berlin to demonstrate against netanyahu's visit. he rejected the criticism of his

policies. >> in israel, although -- this is not true. israel was and will remain a liberal democracy, not different and as vibrant as it was before and as europeans today. we are not going to deviate from that one bit. reporter: netanyahu had to cut his visit to berlin short because of the ongoing protests in israel. brent: our chief political correspondent has more on israel's plans to reform the judiciary. >> that was of course one of those moments in that press conference, i attended that as well, and many observers have been waiting for all our schulz's exact words -- olaf scholz's exact words. would he criticize israel's judicial reform, because --

which netanyahu's government has rejected and schulz was careful not to be too reprimanding but he still said he hopes the last word has not been spoken on the issue and that was as far as he was prepared to go. essentially urging netanyahu to approach critics of his reform again. brent: in israel, today was another day a protest against the government's controversial judicial reform plans. hundreds demonstrated in tel aviv in what protesters call a day of resistance. there were some scuffles with police. benjamin netanyahu's right when government wants to fast-track the controversial reforms by the end of the month. critics say the move would destroy israel's system of democratic checks and balances. earlier i spoke with our correspondent rebecca ritters in

tel aviv. rebecca: we are in the middle is -- of the protests but they have been happening all day. they have culminated in a tour of the city and now we have gone past the american embassy. they are trying to attract international attention. they say they are going to do anything that they can. they are calling a torch march and this has been happening all across the country. the biggest one happening here in tel aviv. organizers say at 150 spots across the country today people have been making their voices heard. some arrests were made earlier in the day and there were some scuffles in the lead in. but largely these protests have been peaceful and they are now in their 11th week. people say they are going to keep coming out until they have their voices heard. brent: i understand israel's

president isaac herzog offered a compromise proposal but the government rejected that. why is that? rebecca: that's right. he has been working on a proposal, a compromise if you will, to try and get both sides closer together. to come to just that, a compromise. but prime minister benjamin netanyahu flatly refused to come to the party on that one. herzog is saying hopefully it will be the beginning of dialogue. he is trying to do everything he can to try and stop scenes like this one. he is trying to get the country to come together. benjamin netanyahu sandy compromised plan was a wasted opportunity, but herzog still trying to get both sides to come together. we are seeing that the opposition are coming around to negotiations. they are interested in trying to come to some kind of negotiated

compromise. but there is still a very long way to go. people here are very angry and people on the other side, in government, they are very strong. we are going to keep following these guys because they are moving quite fast. both sides still very far apart at this point. brent: it looks like they are at an impasse. the turmoil looks like it is going to continue. rebecca: certainly. the people i have been speaking to tonight, the people i am now trying to chase up the street, these people have been saying they are not going to stop, that it does not matter. everyone is a little pessimistic. they think these bills are going to pass. they think they are going to lose the battle. but they say they will continue to fight. we saw president isaac herzog saying the country could be on its way to a civil war. i have heard people on both sides of the debate. some saying yes, others are

saying we do not think it will go that far. but definitely they will continue to come out and protest until they feel that their democracy is being taken away and they want to do everything they can to stop that. brent: rebecca ritters in tel aviv tonight. rebecca, thank you. shares in credit suites balance backed -- curtis with bounceback on thursday after they agreed to borrow -- a move to stop the bank from running out of cash. the share price of credit suisse lost almost one third of its value wednesday after its biggest shareholder said it would no longer be adding more investments to the bank. reporter: it was the topic of today in all major newspapers. credit suisse was the first big global bank to take a hit after the collapse of silicon valley bank and signature bank in the u.s. the institution had already lost much of its value in the last year.

this week when saudi national bank said it would not provide more capital than his current 10% stake, credit suisse's stock tanked. to avert the risk of a collapse, they quickly opened a $54 billion lifeline to ensure liquidy and calm the markets. >> injecting some liquidity is the usual thing that has been done. and my guess is that if they can turn around the business model, they should be fine in the future. reporter: in a further attempt to restore confidence in the banking system, swiss authorities said credit suisse met all the requirements of systemically important banks. the current measures proved effective to secure the back. yet the events of this week put a large dent in switzerland's reputation. >> people have put their money into switzerland in large amounts in the private banking and wealth management spaces and asset management, in large part because switzerland has this idea of capital preservation,

and that is the kind of clients swiss banks have attracted. that is now all put into question with credit suisse. credit suisse has done out -- has done uncountable damage to switzerland's repetition. reporter: the risk for other banks still lingers. a plunge in confidence and a run on the bank could still send any lenders spiraling towards collapse. >> any bank has a liquidity problem because they lend long and borrow short. so again, if for some reason depositors all get together and take their money out and coordinate on that -- that is the key thing, coordination -- then any bank that has engaged in any kind of business risk to make some money will be in trouble. reporter: started by the recent crisis, banks might now choose a more conservative strategy, especially in a climate of high interest rates. that could translate into a

cautious approach to lending, and a drag on economic growth. brent: here is a reminder of our top story. the u.s. has released a of tuesday's black sea drone incident. the pentagon says the footage shows a russian fighter jet come very close to the unmanned drone that later crashed. the kremlin has denied any involvement. you're watching "dw news." after a short break i will be back to take you through "the day." stick around. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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03/16/23 03/16/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i am here i ethiopia to reaffirm a pledge president biden made late last year. as hput it, the united states is all in on africa and all in with africa. amy: secretary of state tony blinken is in africa this week as the united states openly