it's all about the studies inside. it's all about george dance to discover the world from different perspectives. join us and be inspired by distinctive instagram or others at g.w. story the topic each week on instagram. this is d w news live from berlin u.s. president donald trump backtracked some comments he made about russian election meddling trump has now said he supports u.s. intelligence assessments of the russia tried to influence last year's presidential

election his comments come in vietnam a day after he announced he believes russian president vladimir putin when he said that russia did not meddle also coming up. hundreds of thousands take part in a pro independence rally in barcelona that's a spain's prime minister prepares to visit the region for the first time since imposing direct rule. plus a first for the arab world the news of a dobie opens its doors to the public the billion dollar project promises to act as a bridge between east and west through the medium of arch. by michelle henery welcome to the program. u.s. president donald trump has sought to clarify remarks he made about russian election hacking at a news conference the vietnam trying to distance himself from comments he made on

saturday he had said he believes russian president vladimir putin when he insisted there had been no russian meddling in last year's election has come of that come under fire from republicans and democrats back home. band and the military guards at the say in the lightest carefully choreographed encounter on donald trump's diplomatic tour in hanoi trump met his vietnamese counterpart. but before arriving in vietnam the president tweeted out a tirade against north korean leader kim jong un and slammed quite hide isn't food for criticizing his meeting with vladimir putin yesterday. trump had been mocked up to saying he believed the russian president when he denied meddling in the u.s. election today he clarified those remarks and signaled a potential end to his feud with the intelligence community i believe that he feels that he and russia did not meddle in the election as to whether i believe it or not

i'm with our agencies especially as currently constituted with their leadership i believe in our intelligence is our intelligence agencies i've worked with them very strongly in my not baby and they rekindled relationship he was asked if he could be friends with kim jong un i think anything's a possibility. strange things happen in life that might be a strange thing to happen but it's certainly a possibility if that did happen it would be a good thing for i can tell you for north korea but it would also be good for lots of other places that it would be good for the world. this is the most ambitious trip to asia by u.s. president in decades but so far it's not who donald trump has met but rather what he has said that have again dominated the headlines. spanish prime minister mariano rajoy is due to visit kind of learned today for the first time since madrid dismissed the regional government it comes in the back of massive protests on

saturday hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to call for the release of political leaders jailed for backing the region split from spain the protest organizers also hope to keep up the momentum for independence as the spanish government aims to quash it. i know a familiar sight in barcelona huge crowds of independent supporters on the streets of the catalan capital there demanding the release of jailed separatist leaders and former catalan ministers. we have ten political prisoners in catalonia among them are vice president and the majority of our ministers there are also representatives from civil society we want to tell the world we want freedom for our prisoners and freedom for catalonia because. after catalonia has referendum madrid dismissed the region's government former ministers and separatist leaders were taken into custody on charges of sedition others fact about including former catalan president karl has pushed him over madrid has issued

a european arrest warrant that could see him extradited to spain he says madrid is wrong to prosecute him and his former ministers. you know to be treated like a criminal like a drug trafficker like a pedophile like a serial killer i think this is abuse this isn't politics this is using the courts to do politics. that will. push them all has called on the european union to intervene. the civil war it is very disappointing to see that the european union that we're all part of they can respond to situations of poland and hungary but cannot respond to the situation in couple of here because the present at the un the situation came to a head on october the first as catalans went back to vote in what madrid called an illegal referendum they were met with scenes like these. many catalans were

outraged madrid's heavy handed approach may well have boosted support for independence. but the question why is whether that support has waned and whether separatists will triumph in catalan elections next month. spanish prime minister mariano rajoy wants to convince voters to choose pro unity parties he set to visit barcelona on sunday for the first time since the referendum to launch his party's campaign. joining us live for more is d. w. spain correspondent michael oppenheimer michael this is the first time spanish prime minister mariano rajoy has visited barcelona in the beginning of the crisis in catalonia how is he handling the situation. there's been a lot of criticism about the handling of marianna if you have a separatist movement in one of the most important economically mourners and most

important regions of the country why does it take so long to actually visit that region so first of all this is a big question but also his hardline chorus on imposing direct rule over catalonia and acting famous article one hundred fifty five sacking the regional government to solving the parliament all these harsh moves that he did that didn't certainly solve the political crisis in catalonia many observers see that these these handling as rather heated up of the conflict so there is a lot of criticism of how mariano rajoy handled this and why does he do these political movements. hundreds of thousands have been on the streets of barcelona protesting against the spanish government can rejoice win over voters there know he can't is party the party to

a popular has been always very unpopular or has not been very successful in regional elections in catalonia the last ones in two thousand and fifteen his party has dropped again by five percent down to eight percent so he cannot really hope to win and win the hearts and minds of cattlemen people what he's doing. is more looking at spanish voters than the rest of the country and there is part of that popularity rating has actually increased so whatever his strategy is it's not really focused on catalonia it is focused on the rest of spain and michael can you tell us a bit more about the visit what does he hope to achieve there what can we expect. we can expect that he will defend his strategy he will defend how he handles the crisis in catalonia. for sure he's not going to move for

a centimeter from his way and his way has been rather bureaucratic say some observers he wasn't a politician with a lot of charisma in the past his popularity rating was really low too low so far and he's been winning popularity again in the rest of spain so he will just support the regional candidate there in catalonia and then hope for the best during the fall for these predate snapshot elections in december michael out of time and spain thank you very much you're welcome lebanon is calling for answers after its prime minister saad hariri resigned unexpectedly he announced he was stepping down during a visit to saudi arabia last week lebanon has now called on the saudi government to explain why he is still there and has not returned home on saturday hariri appeared on state television with the saudi king the lebanese government believes hariri is

being held against his will his surprise resignation has plunged lebanon into a political crisis and made it the new focus of the long run power struggle between saudi arabia and iran. the u.n. climate change conference currently underway in bonn is the first major opportunity for governments to discuss the implementation of the paris climate accord but it's also a chance for protesters to draw attention to issues they believe are being overlooked germany will of recent has recently said it will comply with tougher eve restrictions on cope fired power stations after initially threatened to take the issue to court but for some that's not good enough. more than two thousand climate activists made their way through bone on saturday for the protesters most of the blame for global climate change lies with the burning of fossil fuels such as brown coal. it was on the move in we should be happier with less leave it was not necessary then we don't need this extra

production. there are twelve power plants in germany that still run on brown coal they will be heavily affected in twenty twenty one when strict new european wide regulation on coal comes into effect german states with coal industries want the federal government to challenge the european union's plans and reject the coming regulation deadline i know much about the star deadline is not possible for us currently there is no alternative for the outrageously production it's a reasonable price of all the jobs that will be lost and could there be job losses experts say a number of plants are likely to close but the environment ministry says the power company's future is lie in their own hands moon mostly i think after each of the farmers just have to assess if they want to apply for exemptions for some of their individual plants then they would just have to open their books and prove that it is economically essential i passionately don't understand the fasti of the groom just three months back and bone of the climate conference those opposed to the

brown coal industry say they're hoping to find new allies for their find. you think you know what we think there is a growing chance that there are more and more decision makers in berlin who are saying yes we need to move away from franco in germany not just for climate protection reasons but also to protect the health of citizens should step aside for now the energy giant he is playing it cool the firm says ultimately the exact costs of the coming industry changes are not yet known. the loop is one of the world's most famous museums and now it's opened a branch in abu dhabi thousands of visitors attended the opening in a spectacular building designed by french architect john is out of the building like the museum itself attempts to combine eastern and western influences it's the first museum of its kind in the arab region here's more. thank you ng in the

thirty degree heat we're now name from the somewhat cooler paris is already pulling a crowd in the arab world for the opening of the louvre abu dhabi the five thousand tickets went quickly like the arts many visitors have come from europe the local seem to like it. we've been waiting for more than ten years so we're very proud to have an institution like this here the europeans took our artifacts and so the arabs are ok with taking the name at least and create also museums and bring part of the art back and also some european art so i think it's actually quite a good move. it's precisely what the rich immersive he wants the orient and the rest of the world comes together an arts and historical qur'an additions to vinci's belfair on the air way where a sculpture fountain of light. the shakes have left the structure of this arabian louvre true a frenchwoman star architect john nouvelle who time spans one hundred eighty meters

as designed it invites interpretation. just looking at this new thinking about how they did this based on like the palm trees the print of the palm trees at so creative like you know it's connecting that culture and modernism together so it's really nice that. i'm there celebrating this in their own way as artistic expertise and name recognition come as a price the emirates has spent around one point five billion euros on the overall project including loan fees for the arts from the original in paris it gives a stronger exposure in terms of cultural associations with with france and with europe i think it's fantastic that the louvre opened a new branch in the middle east it's for a limited time though the name louvre can only be used for thirty years in six months they want to the opening has been long and ostentatious now it's time to see

whether this temple of high art can help bridge the arab and western world's. but a stunning site don't forget you can always get the building news on the go just download our from google play or from the apple store that'll give you access to all the latest news from around the world and most push notifications for any breaking news you can also use the dishonest photos and videos. that's all for now be sure to tune in for more news at the top of the hour in the meantime you can log on to w dot com for more news around the clock and for watching. by tens of thousands of fans for their mega life sets.