something back my friend of mine and going to look at as we miss him too many of us are. white waves surfers fighting against unseen pollution in the city starting january seventh w. . this is d w news live from the death toll rises in iraq as a season's most violent unrest a near us state media now saying more than twenty people have been killed after nearly a week of protests across the country the government's threatening to crackdown

also coming up. saudi arabia barks on a pivotal year as it introduces reforms among them lifting the ban on women driving will hear from saudi women about the change and the call for deeper reforms. south korea proposes high level talks with the north now this comes a day after north korean leader kim jong on offered a rare all of france to the south and new threats to the u.s. . plus it could be a make or break year for the german chancellor we look at what's in store for on the macro of twenty eighteen as she tries to form a new government as part of our series this week on the year ahead for a key global player.

i'm brian thomas great to have you with us protests people have been on the streets in various parts of iran's since thursday protesting conditions in the country and this is footage provided by iranian state t.v. which claims that protesters are violent and that some have damaged a.t.m.'s buildings and other property and also claim that some protesters tried to take over police stations and military bases on monday iranian state t.v. showed president hassan rouhani meeting with members of parliament to discuss the situation rowhani claim that protests are happening because iran's enemies are angry due to the country's accomplishments and are therefore provoking protestors state t.v. provided interviews with iranians who don't agree with the demonstrations because one in these protests should have a message of unity but they should be held peacefully not to finally that's not. being and safety don't reach it initially there are so many people who intend to

exploit the situation and take advantage of the violence they're destroying a society. of pro-government rally took place in the northern city of rushed where protesters voiced their support for the government they've asked for a peaceful solution to the country's problems. so far though anti-government protests continue the fear now is that the government might crack down hard on the protesters. well willet for the very latest from tehran let's bring in correspondent eric randolph eric we're getting reports of dozens or scores of arrests where you are in tehran nine people killed overnight what's the latest. yeah there were just recently had some states. region including six protesters who tried to stall a police station as well as

a policeman in another town a revolutionary guard another town most of these protests are focused outside the provinces this isn't sporadic presence or on last night but almost always go elsewhere and we do have reports of hundreds of people being arrested in various parts of the country over the last few days now if these protests continue in the way they have so far to date are we likely to see a crackdown by authorities could we see the republican guards stepping in suddenly protests grow seriousness government has closed ranks in record that there are legitimate grievances and house try to take a relatively salt. you've got have been waiting in the wings though these things to start early how to fish use clue talking about seditionist elements saying that this is a proxy war being waged by groups and countries outside such as saudi arabia united

states that could provide a pretext for us more serious crackdown and could it be necessary what what type of support is there in broader raney in society for the protesters and for their demands. oh but we were out so it's ironic is yesterday. why that's how i've been taking part in the protests so there are widespread sympathy and understanding for the economic grievances that drove these protests in the first but everybody has a story of unemployment about young people become fart jokes about frustration which it would not be more responsive not doing enough to control prices and corruption and so that is widespread problems even if people don't agree with the way these protests are being conducted and many. everybody understands the groundswell of frustration. and right to society. eric thanks so much for that

from tehran thank you all south korea's offer to hold talks with north korea on whether the north can send athletes to the winter olympics south korea's president inside his country is ready to negotiate on letting north korea join next month's kung lympics by the south chang rather exposed by the south but he says that north korea's nuclear issue will be a major point in any talks north korean leader kim jong un has raised the idea of joining the olympics in his new years speech now in the same speech he also issued new threats of attacking the united states. ok let's get a line up now if we could to a soul and go to correspondent josh smith who's in the south korean capital right now john what are we to make of this a limb pick over church the olympic diplomacy we're seeing could it signal

a breakthrough and the hope of reduce tensions on the peninsula. well there are certainly those in seoul and elsewhere around the world who hope that this does some kind of opening end to the rising tensions that we've seen over the past year however many analysts were somewhat cautious and skeptical of this noting that north korea in the past has also offered similar branches all of branches with little result they also noted that even if north korea does come to the olympics it's not clear that this will have any impact on the broader dispute over their north or their nuclear weapons program ok well what's the word in seoul right now is it looking like north korea will be sending a team to the olympics this outskirt the south korean government is certainly open to that it's something that they've been calling for

for some time and they jumped quite quickly on kim suggestion that officials might meet today the south korean government proposed holding talks on january ninth they say they have not yet heard however back from the north koreans officially on whether they are willing to send a delegation ok now one way to look at this is that i can jump on is trying to split the u.s. from south korea with this overture is that a possibility that's definitely something that analysts have noted saying that that is almost certainly a major goal behind kim's efforts to both reach out to the south koreans while maintaining his threats against the united states it's not clear however whether this will work as the south korean government has played an active role in

enforcing sanctions and other international pressure on north korea. thanks so much for that from seoul. now for a look at some of the other stories making in the news today israel has toughened conditions for ceding any part of jerusalem to palestinians in any possible future peace deal lawmakers passed an amendment that requires a special two thirds majority in the knesset to do so the news want to use jerusalem as the capital for an independent state. legislation has come into effect in the u.s. state of california allowing the recreational use of and sale of cannabis customers lining up to be the very first to take advantage of the law change the beginning of what's expected to be a billion dollar industry californians voted to broadly legalize the drug in a twenty sixteen rough road. police here in germany are investigating a member of parliament for incitement to hatred after she posted anti muslim

remarks on social media beatrix on stores of the far right party accused cologne police of appeasing quote barbaric gang raping muslim words of men after police tweeted a new year's message in arabic while all this week d w will be giving you a preview of what to expect from top global players and twenty eight team today we're focusing on germany number one on the agenda for chance on a machall is trying to form a new government now it has been more than one hundred days since germans went to the polls and september's elections and in just a few days americans conservatives will start exploratory talks with the center left social democrats but even if those talks are successful it could take months before a new government is actually in place. each day a new record is broken here in berlin never before has it taken so long falling in

election to build a new government. and in the middle of it all chancellor. or at the moment interesting chancellor. if decisions are being made in parliament she has to search for allies so far she has not been able to find a fix coalition partner it looks like no one wants to form a coalition with the chancellor on the other hand doesn't think a minority government is the right thing for germany in other words she has to woo the social democrats and build another grand coalition but that's still a lot of work to do. this is becoming a problem on the international political stage why french president mccall has kiyo go it's actually best to wait it out that's not good for her and not good for europe europe cannot work without a strong germany and a strong german french alliance that is why berlin carries a huge responsibility to build

a stable government. twenty eighteen will be an important year for the e.u. reforms must be made and burden is expected to make suggestions soon. is hardly any doubt. will remain here in the chancellor rhee and govern germany the question is just when will she be elected at the moment to act internationally like her neighbor here in the swiss embassy people are used to remaining neutral but from the german chancellor the world expects something else. the weak chancellor at the head of europe's biggest economy at least america is able to steer the course of her own party. in a fourth term she wants to lead another grand coalition. there was unanimity from everyone that we now have to go into exploratory talks with the s.p.d. with the goal of building

a stable government. within her conservative party people are saying that she will last another four years at the most no one discusses this openly but many in the c.d.u. are thinking about the time after. potential success as now i have to position themselves at the same time to plan how she can hand over power little by little without losing it too fast. so what's the next step in germany there are a lot of on on such questions. was the first question. and have a great start in the new year. whether it turns out to be good or bad twenty eighteen will certainly not be boring. well in twenty eighteen her own party members may want her to stay on but what about the public to be a political correspondent michelle a tough there's here to talk about that you have your crystal ball with you we're

going to find it's good to have it of the year i had a new poll michele are showing about half of germans want a machall to actually step down that's not exactly a ringing endorsement of a continuation of the old coalition in a new form well i'm going to self saw it coming this was never going to be a great start into the new year. after this initial told to form a coalition failed with the greens of the free democrats and now it's in the end will be up to the social democrats grass roots and she does see do you possibly to and really shouldn't have that much to do with these people but that in the end will decide whether there will be a continuation of the grand coalition that would be her safest ticket to remain the german chancellor but there still are other options on the table and it might well happen that the social democrats decide against this then she would be left in the position that she has said she doesn't want to be in she does not want to be leading a minority government necessarily that might be one of the options if these talks

don't move forward if they're not successful the young social democrats a big question mark out there what does happen if these talks break down well if they break down that will be the option for her to lead either a minority government or actually go down that a bit more complicated road of fresh elections and one thing is for sure i mean she herself has suffered in the polls by this dragging out of forming a government although she is you know frankly it's a mathematical question this was all up to her. at the same time the social democrats have suffered. well. these elections could become a very different ballgame indeed if germans are once again to go to the polls and talk about the germans talked about the people who voted what do they want to see happen in terms of problems being solved briefly if you could what are their top priorities what is this like contradiction and how germans are feeling there is

a climate change there is a want for tains they want more social justice at the same time they were kind of quite happy with the german chancellor angela merkel. at the same time so unemployment is at a record low so the bread and butter issues are pretty much covered here. but people feel a disconnect with politicians on the whole and that will be a. kind of there this morning thanks very much you know. a new year fresh records hong kong stocks rose to the highest level in over a decade on tuesday and markets in shanghai also posted gains in the first trading session of twenty eighteen now with exchanges and the united states set to open later investors will look to see whether last year's record setting performance will carry over to twenty eighteen the prospect of a major tax overhaul in the u.s.

put investors they're in a bullish mood through much of last year and rallied to global trading a weakening us dollar and solid manufacturing figures out of china i consider early positive signs for global consumption and the year ahead. now for some more analysis let's go to germany's financial capital frankfurt room my colleague amount of ice is keeping an eye on things and it's a good morning to you a lot of optimism among investors in asia how did german markets get into the year . actually not that optimistic if you look at the german market it opened up more or less in maggot to territory and that is also true for most of the european bourses and one of the reasons could be the very high year exchange rate which is traditionally actually weighing on german at quickies this german accurate is very much dependent on export on the export outlook which of course tempered if the

euro is going up and there's a let's look at the year ahead one of the big topics that are on investors' minds in twenty eighteen. well there are so many topics i can tell you they are political topics such as the mid-term elections the new united states which will be a big test for the u.s. administration whether they can follow up on some of their promised reforms but also in europe you have the c.b.d. which is the central central element for the markets the seabees plan to unwind their monetary stimulus is very high on top of the top of the agenda of many investors and we also have upcoming elections in italy we've just seen how how sensitive the markets are to tell you news we have currently the bonds already trading a little bit i haven't it comes to the us because political risk is fact for italy

and that's also a show and if it might some it might be seen as a test also called the whole of the garrison but of course we'll also look to the u.k. bracks it will be more or less prepared to in the course of next year and we'll be seeing we'll have more visibility how the u.k. wants to exit the european union and the device with the market wrap up and to thank you so much the new year brings in a new set of rules as of january first social media companies in germany will have a mere twenty four hours to take down illegal material if they fail to remove hate speech or fake news they could face a fine up to fifty million euros a post critics fear the likes of facebook and twitter could overcompensate and do need controversial but legal posts to avoid to have to find facebook has hired hundreds of new people in germany to comply with the law the days around christmas

and new years a good time to get away from it all and the far north of europe is attracting more tourists than ever mostly thanks to its spectacular natural phenomena. this is the spectacular result of electrically charged particles colliding with atoms in the upper atmosphere the northern lights visible only in the nighttime skies above the arctic circle this couple from germany spared no expense to come here to the extreme north of norway. for me is more an adventure here and it's something special when we told our friends and family that we go to trial. for four weeks and they were they become very jealous. with the sun barely climbing above the horizon in the deep midwinter days are largely cloaked in darkness so the norwegians of come up with some rather special attractions for tourists the hotel brought out of ice for example king crab safaris and close encounters

with killer whales in recent years no ways tourism sector has gone from also run to leading light. we have the highest growth percentage wise at in only twenty eight percent and this makes me very happy and visitors to this secluded but increasingly popular corner of the world are also getting a buzz especially from those awesome night skies. indeed now it's said to be a pivotal year for saudi arabia as the government implements a series of reforms it is indeed kristoff the saudi ban on women behind the wheel as to be lifted in june the majority sunni countries under strict shari'a law and is the last country in the world where women are forbidden from driving instead women have to employ chauffeurs or ask male relatives to do the driving. the women sit in the back and do young boy is in the driving seat and saudi made

videos like these making fun of the country's ban on female drivers have been watched thousands of times while it was a good gag it seems to be out of date. as of next year the time that i have seen me will be allowed to drive a car. and she's already lining up a perfect right. car shopping has become a popular whole bay for wealthy saudi women. you just want to be free with the car you can get your groceries every stuff every shop you don't need to to to wait for somebody to take you to do is small things you know your daily life thing when you go to my office come back to my office to my home you know. i'm free the candy list says a lot of saudi women have actually already bought cars but until now they've just been for their drivers driving yourself is obviously a lot more fun. yeah that's life but. so what do saudi men

think about it this is the time for her to the wife and to her doorstep of the fires so that they will have free time to play i don't. know if soupy and her sisters don't have a regular chauffeur there aren't any public trains or a metro in jeddah so when no funds to go out she has to hire a driver or ask her brother mohsen sunday afternoon drives a popular with middle to upper class women but there's always a male chaperone present. no for wants to get a driver's license primarily for financial reasons. and the business maybe i want to save the money that i spend on drivers the law makes total sense what a women who don't have a husband or brother supposed to do when they need to go somewhere to take a taxi. the new law will make many things easier but personally i don't like it i

can drive my family were ever they need to go. saudi society is still very conservative women are required to wear full length black robes. rotana me one. color in saudi society she says there's nothing in the qur'an that says women must wear black ten years ago the freelance designer was one of the first women in the country who dared to start designing the buyer traditionally the robe of choice of saudi women in different colors red green or purple she was inspired by the traditional colorful costumes of the bedouin women it caused an uproar at the beginning. they have to be permission from their has been going god why i have said ask your husband because they know when to. buy don't buy. that kind of

a lot by they're not used to it you know britain also designs a range of premises female entrepreneurs have been common within her social circles for several years now. and now no soupy wants to do the same she's currently unemployed but retraining as a jewelry maker it's a project funded by prince charles and the saudi foundation teacher is a british goldsmith. the aim is to open up new industries for women. up until now men have been the only ones able to learn a trade. now women can to. go to the cafe and i would like to have a small workshop in the future where i can give my own lessons to show that every saudi woman is capable of having a trade and i want to produce my own jewellery. too and.

the chauffeur who takes no food to her jewelry course and back every day costs around one hundred twenty euros per month during the week her brother doesn't have time to drive them oh it's money the family scrape together from her mother's small pension and her siblings incomes. although they say they aren't a wealthy family things are changing for them to. sort of that. we women now have more freedom here to when we can earn our own money we don't have to constantly ask our husbands for it think of the house and if we didn't have a face in the world's no one knew anything about us saudi women now we're proving that we can do anything about it so a. change is in the and in saudi arabia and

a lot of women are eager to see it through. we have time for a quick reminder of our top stories this hour state media reporting that the death toll from ongoing anti-government protests there has now risen to at least twenty including a police officer protestors are said to have tried to overrun police stations and military bases during the day five protests. this is due to the news live from berlin i'm brian thomas for the entire news team thanks so much for being with us there's always more at our website did you dot com on these and other stories for now though thanks for being with us.

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