a joint enterprise between micro machall and i think a lot of us are looking to the two of them. to give a strategic direction for europe and therefore also for the west so after all the camaraderie and the celebrated friendship even the french president said i don't really believe that donald trump is going to stick to the iran nuclear deal so what is. do you think don't trump should listen to anglo-american. well. i think he should do this too whether he will nobody knows i mean you know there are two problems with trump one is his as well ideology and his promises but an even bigger problem is the he's totally erratic personality the total unpredictability of the mountains and nobody is quite what he is going to do but we just have to keep on trying keep on working and in a sense the good news is that he can change his mind as we've seen over north korea . to think about national thank you so much for this interview. well now to that stunning and emotional cost be conviction the actor and comedian bill cosby found guilty in a sexual assault retrial just hours ago caused be see

a joint enterprise between macro machall and i think a lot of us are looking to the two of them. to give a strategic direction for europe and therefore also for the west after all the camaraderie and the celebrated friendship even the french president said i don't really believe that donald trump is going to stick to the iran nuclear deal so what is. why do you think don't trump should listen to anglo-american well. i think he should do this too whether he will nobody knows i mean you know there are two problems with trump one is his as well ideology and his promises but an even bigger problem is that he's totally erratic personality the total unpredictability of the man so nobody knows quite what he is going to do but we just have to keep on trying keep on working and in a sense the good news is that he can change his mind as we've seen over north korea to think about national thank you so much for this interview. but you know while talking to the british historian the still under way on twitter and it's all about one man and his seeming bill mance with a u.s. president yet here

at the white house that still sounds up the utter lack of political chemistry between i'm going to machall and donald trump. when trump and simply didn't react as merkel asked him to shake hands thank you. german chancellor i'm going to cause reputation as the global leader who keeps the world strong men on the straight and narrow simply doesn't seem to apply to this u.s. president who insists on setting the pace and direction of global politics. observers say trump's erratic decision making challenges merkel's political style to confront even partners with very harsh positions to threaten and then to undo and sort of go back into a more cooperative mood and i would say he has kept european partners pretty much on their toes trump upstaged his nato allies by talking about money rather than values twenty three of the twenty eight member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they're supposed to be paying for their defense. his willingness to challenge the core values that bind together what is known as the west soon led machall to a sobering conclusion. side. and t

machall well you'd have this kind of state had two and a half hour visit set to focus on working down the list of problems my car had to leave a result with but lynn already resigned to the fact that the trade war is in the making expectations are low. he would rights group amnesty international has accused the turkish government of creating what it calls a climate of fear and called on it to stop using the state of emergency as an excuse for silencing critics missed his report on turkey comes a day after a court in istanbul so intense to fourteen journalists the leading opposition newspaper jim hood they've now been released from custody pending the outcome of their appeals but they are barred from leaving the country. released from prison but by no means a free man i cannot so i publisher of the german newspaper hugged by his supporters he was one of fourteen employees found guilty by a turkish court of aiding terrorist organizations charges he says a trumped up. good good there's no justice in turkey there's no judiciary as we've always said they cannot scare the german hurry it ne

ok now we're seeing another high level guest arriving in washington on friday you mentioned on the machall coming there is going to be doubling down on microphones message on iran on trade that's the interpretation of the european press that this is what's happening there is a good cop bad cop strategy even though i'm not sure if it's better to stop the bad cop first and then the good cop it's been clear that the relationship between trump and mocassins much more friendly and outgoing than it is with with until america yes she's trying to she will be briefing deep briefing with mccaw and she will try to see what points are still open to try to negotiate and. further a strategy that is in the interest of the e.u. we'll see the results of that so i'm ok as soon these friday or saturday we should see some firming up on both iran and transatlantic trade borders foreman thanks very much. now for a look at some of the other stories making the news at this hour new details are emerging about the man suspected of killing ten people in the canadian city of toronto. alex maskey and posted a hostile

now later this week president connors going to be traveling here to berlin to talk with chancellor machallwhat sort of reception do you think he's going to get oh you know for the cameras and in style and everything that there will be a display of unity that is more important than ever now that we actually have some divergence as in real topics because you know in the beginning we had sort of a honeymoon phase where both of them came together and said we are willing and in accordance to reform the european union but if you look at the policy proposals as you said earlier for example a common budget for the euro zone the germans are against it or if you look at the latest last week foreign policy the french went on an air strike to avenge an alleged chemical attack in syria by bashar al assad and the german said yeah that's a great idea but we're not going to participate. russia and the u.s. have stepped up their war of words over the alleged poison gas attack in the syrian city of duma the u.s. says moscow may be trying to remove evidence from the site to thwart an investigation also accus

and double trouble french president meets with machall over his ambitious reforms for europe while struggling with another tough reform agenda of his own. i'm a fizzle and that's to business the hazard lights back on. the job. government may come to the rescue although the order manufacturer is in french hands now chancellor merkel urging the p.s.a. group to keep its promises before buying the european general motors last year it valid to hold job guarantees at opel but shop stuff of rejected wage concessions demanded by hearsay or in exchange for a commitment to invest in a production line for a new model that opens bactrian eyes enough to come make it continues to lose money recently management pressed unions to forgo worth four point three percent pay rise to allow for further investments in germany. let's see how traders are reacting to this story daniel cope is in frankfurt for us analysts had said that it was going to be tough for the group when the french made those promises and keeping those promises would be tough before they even bought opel has has it got any easier. you know not r

because we also sort of course the french president a man who i might call go to washington before machall needa back home or marco managed to draw out commitments on these issues to just the e.u. have any leverage going forward you know sometimes the process is so. process for certain steps have to be taking one after another and the visit of my troll prepared the ground for further negotiations and what i thought was very interesting about the visit of merkel is that she admitted that the nuclear deal is far from perfect one of the issues is said you know it has a certain time limit to it and the other issue the us is complaining about is that the ballistic missile program is not part of the deal and she said we have to improve the deal but it's a good base to further negotiate in this is the european position they consider the deal it's a big success for europe and delta see it in strengthening the more reformist in iran so for the u.s. president to listen to the european leaders and to understand we're trying to understand what they have what they can put on the table is an important s

his willingness to challenge the core values that bind together what is known as the west soon led machallto a sobering conclusion. the size. and in the minds in which we could rely fully on others are somewhat over. for by more than a year into the term presidency germany is still struggling to find common ground for corporation with trumps in a circle merkel second visit is laden with pressing issues. there are three important issues on the transatlantic agenda for this meeting one is definitely trade and the criticism of the transatlantic trade arrangement the second one is germany's contributions in military terms to nato and the third one is the iran nuclear deal. the president of the french republic at the end of his state visit in monrovia called directly criticize trump steelmaking and called on the u.s. congress to live up to europe's expectations the united states is the one who invented this middle of dualism your are zero one now who has to herb to preserve and reinvent it. merkel wanted to have this kind of stage for two and a half hour visit is set to focus on working down th

are all pretty much zero now we know that germany did not participate in these these strikes but machall has given her backing to them and she released a statement saying we support the fact that our u.s. british and french allies assume their responsibilities the military intervention was necessary and appropriate so that's praise from merkel but why isn't berlin then therefore planck was response as well but it's especially true in the middle east and of course that her historic role reasons for that so this is a traditional position nobody i think was expecting germany to get militarily involved and indeed ministers have been pointing out that nobody off them to get involved. but at the same time this is about full political support in his goal politically behind the other three countries and he's saying that everything needs to be done to send that message that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated is a very different position that germany has now from what was the case for instance in two thousand and three and iraq of two thousand and eleven over libya where germany sto

really coming from the people and it's not necessarily coming from other politicians like i'm going to machall it's a pressure that he has started himself in many ways michael really thinks that the european union is on the verge of collets because of what you have with the situation with populists winning elections all across european union heat attributes this to problems construction problems especially in the eurozone where countries in trouble really don't have the means to help themselves and then you have other countries especially the north who are unwilling to help them he sees that as the basic flaw helping populists all across europe and he believes this needs fixing quite soon as possible so michela meantime when we look in berlin where this meeting is currently underway we saw a three points really come up in the press conference that is progress on the banking union on asylum policy and a common foreign policy here in the e.u. where are we likely to see progress. well all or none for the interesting thing is that the two leaders have a press conference before actually they go int

may say one building block that we can improve upon the money all phone con on the issue of trade machall got no assurances that the trump would continue to exempt the e.u. from steel and aluminum tired of states instead trump bemoaned the u.s. trade deficit with the european union. it's been unfair and i don't blame the chancellor and i don't blame germany i don't even blame the european union i blame the people that preceded me for allowing this to happen. there's no way we should have a trade deficit of one hundred fifty one billion dollars mean on nato spending trump revived an old grievance with europe and we're protecting europe and yet we pay by far more than anybody else and nato is wonderful but it helps europe more than it helps us and why are we paying the vast majority of the costs thank you very much everybody even know macro's meeting with trump lasted only a few hours it followed a three day visit by french president and money will not com neither leader was able to get trump to change course on iran or trade it's a sign transatlantic ties could remain troubled. joining me

and they take the airing of the machall that they're using for bait great at first. that creates a little bit of alarm bell in my mind. donors to have enough water so many here. they are and the fish come into the gulf where durst dinamo. it's the greatest place and i want to live spring summer and fall and it's fantastic and you couldn't want friendly nicer just sports i still am i don't want just coming in from tanishaa i always want it to be the last boat out just in case i see that fiend in the fifty's and the sixty's northlake was a fairly active fishing community there was too can reach up there process mainly lobster macro herring fish take things at that so it was a fairly active fishing community this is a picture of the first tourist costs for flight one hundred sixty seven cop i've kept every person from seoul and. there's a no we're on a conference there to get the charter business going ahead a judge to fish to make it make a public can get it in the guardian the newspaper they had to come in get it and get to picture taken which end up killing the fish

a joint enterprise between macro machall and i think a lot of us are looking to the two of them. to give a strategic direction for europe and therefore also for the west after all the camaraderie and the celebrated friendship even the french president said i don't really believe that donald trump is going to stick to the iran nuclear deal so what is. why do you think donald trump should listen to uncle america been. well. i think you should listen to whether he will nobody knows i mean you know there are two problems with trump one is his as well ideology and his policies but an even bigger problem is the he's totally erratic personality the total unpredictability of the man so nobody knows quite what he is going to do but we just have to keep on trying keep on working and in a sense good news is that he can change his mind as we've seen over north korea to think our national thank you so much for this interview business now and can be you talk its way out of donald trump's talent that it went to has a story that's right phil and the clock is ticking as well confusion reigns over

machall won't have this kind of stage the two and a half hour visit is set to focus on working down the list of problems my call have to leave a result with but lynn already resigned to the fact that a trade war is in the making expectations are low. and watching the news still to come american actor bill cosby is convicted of sexual harassment but age eighty will the once beloved actor actually do jail time. now as we look ahead to that visit between america and trump and washington trade issues are set to dominate the agenda that's right because of the moment. companies are exempt from the tariffs on steel and i mean the about donald trump want those exemptions to end on may first that's the assumption at least of the german government according to do w. sources germany's exports have been a thorn in trump's side for quite a while and he's been quite vocal about it calling the germans bad very bad here's what's at stake for the german economy and twenty seventeen german companies sold goods to the u.s. worth almost one hundred twelve billion euros that's mainly cars machinery and phar

state in this case the charles saw as a gas killing animal how are you going to advise chancellor machall on conducting talks with president trump. well first of all the united states remain the most important partner of germany and europe as a whole on the other side of the atlantic go to international of the global scale that is the one fact on the other hand we see in the in the past the development that concerns us that brings a change to how we communicated across the atlantic are asking pair to form a time so we were facing new challenges we see that europe and germany have to take over more responsibility by this itself to care about or know about their own security issues and but having said that the current situation that we're facing on my hope is that before any strike after the gas attacks in duma which for me are a fact you know can be answered that there will be diplomatic talks and also including the word security council ok and now talking about taking on bigger responsibility do you support the idea of significant u.s. military action in syria well again i mean this can o

reforms not later this week come out on a call on is traveling here to berlin to talk with chancellor machall what's on their agenda. well more of the same of those things. they were going to talk about those reforms of the european union of course they have another topic now on their plate with syria where you could see the difference between those countries france led some of those airstrikes against the regime of bashar assad and the germans said hey we think that's a great idea but we're not going to participate so it shows you that even for those things the differences are very big but on the other hand those to him i knew in my call and i'm going to get along very well they've shown it multiple times they make an effort to show that they are needed but quite frankly terry that this honeymoon phase seems to be over now and now they need to show that for the policies for the day to day life for the day to day routine they can also figure out some kind of compromise to be well on the same page and keep that german french engine that they just wanted to restart humming along speaking of the

it's also interesting because some analysts were saying were telling me this week that the fact that machall is decided to support the u.s. in this particularly could also be something of a strategic gain for the french president because it may give him some leverage in the coming weeks when visits donald trump in washington arms are the regional issues and in particular i'm thinking of the iran nuclear deal a deal which france supports but the donald trump wants to scrap ok many thanks for bringing us the view from paris we'll be speaking more to you later well the u.s. general joseph dunford spoke about what was specifically targeted in syria during this joint operation let's listen to what he had same first target was a scientific research center located in the greater area this military facility was a serious center for the research development production and of chemical and biological warfare technology. the second target was a chemical weapons storage facility west of holmes we assessed that this was the primary location of syrian sharon and precursor production equipment the third tar

thanks very much albanians prime minister iran is your berlin today for talks with chance wrong the machall topping the agenda is the country's progress towards european union membership now that's ahead of any new summit next month with albania and other accession candidates from the balkans european council president. has told the prime minister that enough progress has been made for accession talks to begin e.u. requires new members to meet certain standards and rule of law human rights democracy and economic better than this now he'll be any leader acknowledged that hard work lies ahead so i asked him whether there will be obstacles on the road to accession technically we have fulfilled all of big asians and we're all more because for the space so now it's. decision making based on political judgement and worries or little judgment there is always a. struggle because there are different views different interests but what i. wish it will be does not become of any. ensure politics dynamics and is not used by political forces or individuals as kind of state go to kind of push forward agend

with tehran the agreement is expected to dominate the state visit of the french president emanuel machall to the u.s. . is urging the u.s. president on that front to stick to the twenty fifteen agreement because alan fischer. you're forgetting going to work to support. in the statesman emanuel mccrum decided to be a tourist taking the opportunity of a sunny spring day in washington to walk to the lincoln memorial the french president arrived a few hours earlier with a warm greeting but a clear agenda we will have your partner here to discuss a lot of bilateral issues and to discuss about her security about trade. and a lot of. very important for our countries and beyond our two countries at the white house he was welcomed for the first official state visit of the trump presidency donald trump gets on well with the man you're mccraw but in the talks that have to follow the french president wants to convince him to stay inside the iran nuclear deal not to abandon it and to also think again about possible trade tariffs on european goods the white house press secretary seemed to indicate ther

the apparent friendship between the french and american presidents was on full show during emanuel machall state visit to washington politically the two men have little in common but the liberal macro is determined to get on with his conservative counterparts we have to make room for years in france opinion polls suggest donald trump is unpopular but many people support mike ross approach. what on that they are great friends doesn't matter michael is the french president and he must create strong ties with the u.s. . it's very important for france and for the u.s. and even for europe especially as trump seems to really appreciate president it's just a chill to have a good. analysts say that macros courting of trump is seen by many french people as a political tactic mcroy is probably really doing that for the strategy of trying to show from that he actually does respect him and to value the transatlantic relationship because at the end of the bay from the european perspective every might not like the american president but the u.s. was always remain an important partner since micros electi

lower it's fallen to fifty seven percent so hence you know the government just a few weeks old angler machall her fourth term in office but there is this slide in approval is this a continuation of this magical fatigue well you have to see that we are comparing here the situation today and the situation four years ago and in those four years of political landscape in germany has changed completely there was the migration crisis there was the rise of right wing populism of the alternative for germany party in all in those four years the political landscape has become a lot more fractured which we saw in the very long coalition discussions coalition the guys the actions that we had since the last election in germany in october took almost six months for a new government to be formed so all of these developments have happened in the last four years as a comparing map of standing four years ago when she was simply the person in charge who know where she is managed to cobble together another government. i think is not quite as significant a change in the sense you might even say it's amazing it's

duma german chancellor angela merkel is launching a new initiative to reach out to moscow on tuesday machall spoke by telephone with russian president vladimir putin she said russia was going to be a factor in bringing peace to syria later she announced she might meet putin face to face in the near future. free trade was expected to top the agenda during the prime minister of new zealand's visit to berlin but the talks between just cinda ardan and the german chancellor have been sidelined by a recent incidents in syria. at the weekend france great britain and the united states attacked syrian military targets raising questions about the effectiveness of germany's policy in the region on tuesday chancellor angela merkel reached out to russian president vladimir putin in a bid to mediate. benign if we could if we want to have a peaceful solution in syria we need to talk to russia russia is going to be a factor if we want to bring peace to this situation the german government sees itself as playing the role of intermediary between the western allies and russia foreign minister of us used harsh

leaders are hoping for is what is my call and germany's machall personally pleaded for talks with trump last week but they both came away without any promises. behind the scenes u.s. and e.u. representatives are scrambling to find a last minute agreement to avoid the introduction of punitive tariffs by the u.s. the americans expect concessions saying they've been unfairly treated when it comes to trade with the e.u. the munich based institute for economic research study the tariffs on five thousand products to compare the e.u. and u.s. tax each other the results there are considerably higher barriers for u.s. product entering the e.u. than vice versa on average europeans charge a five point two percent levy as opposed to just three point five by the americans u.s. beef is especially hard hit it's taxed at sixty eight percent meanwhile the u.s. charges a forty nine percent levy on european tobacco products and twenty two percent on trucks. experts suggest lowering import duties on both sides while that would reduce european customs revenue it would certainly be cheaper than starting a tr