this is deja news live from birthplace and the death toll rises in iran as it faces its most violence unrest in years at least twenty people have been killed in nearly a week of protests around the country a wrong supreme leader accuses enemies of the country of meddling in its affairs

also coming up twitter suspend the account of a far right german lawmaker over an anti muslim tweet the reprimand comes as germany begins enforcing tougher laws concerning hate speech on social media. and it could be make or break for german chancellor angela merkel we look at what is in store for her and twenty eight team as she tries to form a new government. plus saudi arabia prepares for a year of major changes as it introduces reforms among them women will finally be able to get behind the wheel but does lifting the ban on driving go too far enough . and legal marijuana hits the shelves in california recreational users can now buy the drug without fear of arrest in america's most populous state.

of meddling in the country. and from our i am joined now by mehdi most any and editor at t w is farsi language department welcome to you there are fears of a greater crackdown there in iran president hassan rouhani has apparently promised to deal with those who break the law who could be targeted as they see the government seems to be holding back for a full crackdown this the most ration why disparate and decentralize and. we don't any leaders it would be really difficult to target the government to target a specific group or people rouhani talk about to side the first talk about the right of people to have a peaceful demonstration and say can things is once a both the violence that's happened i don't i can't see really. specific

map or solution for government to go to ireland actually stop these demonstrations and in the meantime i mean when we look at what these protesters are opposing iran just generally speaking has a number of political power players and opposition leaders let's take a closer look at some of the major players there in the country and then i want to get your take there after havel this. he is the most powerful man in iran right after god. the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei has the final say in all state matters and is the highest ranking political and religious authority backed by the revolutionary guard which was established to protect the system and crush political opposition he is also the commander in chief. hasan rouhani the president of iran is serving his second term he competes with the hardline factions of supreme leader a common a that dominate the security apparatus and to share. rouhani was expected to bring

change but he has so far failed to deliver on his campaign promises of greater civil and political rights. iran went from a monarchy to an islamic republic after the revolution of one nine hundred seventy nine now the country is run by an authoritarian regime without real checks and balances iranian citizens can participate in elections and register as candidates to do so they have to undergo a vetting process by the guardian council this powerful body ensures that political candidates and legislation match the critter e.-a of islam and the constitution in last year's election only six out of one thousand six hundred applicants were accepted. the last major protests took place in two thousand and nine following a presidential election that opposition politicians say was tainted by fraud. dozens of people were killed during what became known as the green revolution. one

of the losing candidates in that election mir hussein was salvi still remains under house arrest. and we know that you yourself you were involved in that mousavi campaign bear back in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine there was a clear up as it had there what can you tell us about the main actors in these most recent demonstrations and what their goals might be any do they want more economic reform or is this really big or to they want regime change. yeah exactly this demonstration organized by ordinary people you cannot see any footprint of. or a famous opposition groups and what they wanted people in two thousand and nine it was the both the results of election and they the people in the protests in two thousand and nine they believe that they can reform the system but change the president but these people they are most mostly young people that they are really

angry about economic social and political transition in iran and also economy situation. they want really found them in my opinion they want really fundamental change in the system that we can say we can hear on the street is not the boat reform or freedom of political prison or nothing about mousavi and karroubi leader of green movement it's both more about supreme leader and they really want change and i think they want regime change in iran is social media playing a role here and if so how big of a role is it in these protests what more can you tell us about it. yes i can mention that that that's really social media when when this started in the first and second day social media played a so important role you can see the communication minister rouhani government ask

a telegram director to shut down. telegram channel that's this channel had the most and one million members and no this channel just one day after that it started new. channel to present to the people and know they have more than a million two hundred thousand members they organize protests sometimes they encourage also while it's act against the. banks or of usual organization or military bases but they are really effective in other hand that we have the conservative activist in tweeter they try to change the whole story and say ok the people came to a street not because the whole system because they are not against the system because they're of the results of rouhani government and we can see clearly if there are so social media fights. happening between two sides or i can

say maybe three sides and other side or reformist they didn't join the protest and also they didn't defend really the whole system and results this happen so where is the opinion live when we talk just about the iranian public broadly speaking because we understand that there are people in iran who are critical of the regime but that they don't necessarily support these protesters why is that. in my opinion most stuff people are not happy with the islamic regime in iran but the media class or a part of this middle class and part of reform is they think this kind of protests this kind of movement has and maybe not and that's really clear laws of future there was afraid you don't become the next syria and they don't want these kind of things happen in the country they want more reform and a stable e.-t. and that but. i see i see

a side today there is this is started to perfect the protests their own in social media by frame of. reformist but same time we can see some criticize really hard to criticize against their protester that's come from a reformist. mehdi was a an editor at the farsi language department with the latest on the is the protests in iran that have been six days running thank you. on a bench as well as here with more on an ailing economy there in iran which is really what is behind to a large extent these protests always of the people who are already frustrated but then we saw this rise in food prices making them out as was the president has acknowledged the public's anger over the flagging economy which has benefited from his nuclear deal with world powers but not in a way that support immediate gains for most iranians. the protests began

thursday in response to a forty percent price increase for eggs and poultry the government also announced plans to raise fuel prices the moves would have hit the poor especially hard at a time of economic uncertainty inflation is at ten percent unemployment is high and young iranians face weak job prospects this despite the high hopes that many expressed as international sanctions began to be lifted in the wake of iran's nuclear deal. with the sanctions being lifted we hope that foreign capital into the country. that will allow us to reopen factories. and then it will be easier for young people to find a job that suits their taste. but that's not what happened foreign investment did increase but not to an extent

that would allow the broader population to live a better life one reason is the country is still decrepit banking sector international money transfers are difficult and many credit institutions are essentially bankrupt so far the government has failed to build a stable trustworthy financial sector. threats from the u.s. to reintroduce sanctions have also made foreign investors wary many iranians once placed their hopes for reform in president has done rouhani but now they see him as an ineffectual leader unable to stand up to the islamic hardliners who really run the country. so sanctions are a topic again germany was part of the international deal that was done with iran over its nuclear weapons a twenty fifteen foca try is here from the association of german chambers of industry and callers to talk about the business implications involved here is to where would you put german iranian relations right now. we had really brilliant

relations before the great. late teen of iran from from the world economy in the year two thousand and five for instance we had a trade volume or an export volume of five billion euros so we are let's say back on track the export is growing to the iran we will reach after the end of this year the full billion. line limit or shouldn't be a limit but we are a bit below our expectations because foreign direct investments from germany to the iran are not really flowing below expectations because iran hasn't developed as as it was expected to since those sanctions started lifting the german business and european business are are under the support of democrats that means that sanctions could bounce back and with the decision of donald trump in october two

thousand and seventeen there is even greater uncertainty and the whole process of the reigne and business and economy is not that encouraging what we half expected why isn't it that encouraging because i was just looking at the growth figures gross domestic product rising quite impressively between twenty six and twenty seventeen has not got through to the peak. you have to take into account that iran was isolated by roundabout at least one dk get out of the world economy and right before it was a versified economy really relate to and dependent on imports and also on exports and so there is the need for a catching up process which already began but why is that catching up process taking so long because china is really seizing the opportunity and its trade is booming with iran it's become iran's largest trading because for bigger investments

stemming from the vests there is the threat that you get to be punished due to different sanctions regime between the european union and the us in the us so almost no german bigger investment can take place because there's a lack of investment due to potential punishments in the us and very briefly what if there are more sanctions from the us what's going to happen this this fragile relationship between the west iran then this will break break up the economic relic sation and to some extent quite confident development in the iran for itself after all from the association of german chambers of commerce and industry thank you very much for your assessment. and let's get a quick check now of some stories making news around the world people in the pakistani city of karachi have held a protest against u.s.

president donald trump the demonstration was in response to trump's first tweet of the year where he threatened to cut foreign aid to pakistan accusing its leaders of deceiving the united states the u.s. ambassador to pakistan has been summoned by the country's foreign ministry. south korean president lee j. m. has offered to hold talks about north korea about cooperating on next month's winter olympics with the south. but he stressed that north korea's nuclear issues will be a part of any dialogue north korean leader kim jong un had raised the idea of joining the olympics in his new year speech. firefighters in new york are battling a huge blaze in the bronx area at least eleven people are reported to have been injured the fire broke out on the first floor of a residential building just last week twelve people died in another apartment fire also in the bronx a new hollywood campaign against sexual harassment has been launched and it's

already raised thirteen million dollars the time's up initiative has been backed by a list of power players like reese witherspoon jennifer aniston and shonda rhimes who you see there the project aims to help victims of sexual misconduct working in low income industries. while to kick off a new year we will be bringing you a preview all this week of what to expect from top local players in twenty eight teams today we're taking a closer look at germany's chancellor angela merkel now number one on her agenda is forming a new government it's now been more than one hundred days since september's election later this week merkel's conservatives are set to start exploratory talks with the center left social democrats but even if these talks are successful it could take months before a government is 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 interim chancellor. if decisions are being made in parliament she has to search for allies so far she has not been able to find a fixed 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 might call has to 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. a week chancellor at the head of europe's biggest economy at least america is able to steer the course of her own party. in a false term she wants to lead another grand coalition it's got 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 of the c.d.u. are thinking about the time after american potential successes now if 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. what was the first question. oh 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. while her own party members may want her to say on but what about public opinion t w political correspondent report vito bald joins us with his crystal ball to tell us what is likely to happen in twenty

eighteen is a very big task there for you report and i'd like to just begin with with you know a potential gauge of the of the atmosphere here in the country because apparently a recent poll shows that forty seven percent of germans want america to step down i mean that's not exactly a ringing endorsement for a repeat of the old coalition is it. you know it really ended one doesn't really need a crystal ball to predict that two thousand and eighteen will be the most difficult year for johnson machall at least during a time when she has been a chance low or leader off a conservative party popularity rates of figures on the drop a minus seven percent since the last elections the same applies also for her closest ally whole seeable for the leader of the seas you party which is this is the party of the conservative party of but it also applies to. the leader of the social democrats and he was her main rival at the last elections so this shows that

i'm glad machall right now is feeding on the weakness of others she doesn't have a big rival within her own party but the serve the survey you have just shown you have just talked about shows that the germans seem to be a little bit fed up of the survey says that they don't want to step down but they don't want her to serve even if she's. successful in forming a new government they don't want her to serve for your. time anymore and they don't want to to run again and if there is the case of you elections so robert then take us through the possible scenarios i mean because what happens for example if the talks which are set to begin next week as we mentioned if they fail to produce a new government does merkel have a way forward. well if as the legal leader of the biggest party in parliament is not successful to form a stable government to find a coalition partner then the german president has to step in it is his decision on

what to do then he has several possibilities he could either ask uncle americal to form a minority government something under medical has ruled out several times now if she doesn't want to lead a minority government he could then ask someone else for instance martin shultz the leader of the social democrats but this is very unlikely there's no thinkable majority within parliament which could bring multinationals into power and of course then funk what a steinmeier the german president could also call for new elections this is he's the only one who has the power to do so but he also already said that this would be the least favorable option so it's going to be very complicated whatever is going to happen rip of it evolved with the very latest from berlin thank you know what. a member of germany's parliament leading figure in the far right a.f.d. party may faced charges of illegal hate speech for her angry tweet on new year's

eve beatrice fun style he ranted at police in the city of cologne for publishing a new year's greeting an arab back she said that they were trying to appease muslims in germany twitter swiftly delete about post and also froze her account for much of new year's day. and for more let's bring in d.w. social media editor elizabeth show who is standing by with the very latest so liz can you tell us more about what happened. those are on new year's eve of the police in cologne had sent out a series of tweets wishing everybody a happy new year and the tweets were in german english french and also in arabic so once of those tweets were published expunged or she was one of the leaders of the party tweeted this this was her response to seeing those tweets in different

languages she said what the hell is happening in this country why is an official police side tweeting in arabic do you think it is to appease the barbaric gang raping hard's of muslim men now back to expunge doris is probably referring to an incident that happened in colona two years ago also on you years eve we reported about it it was a when there was mass sexual assaults right there in the city center and many of the accused where men of arab origin and many of them were also muslims now after she had tweeted that the tweet was the leader had to buy a twitter and her account was also suspended for a while and many people in germany believe that this is the first time that we're seeing really this new laws to fight tate speech being applied on social media and this new law i mean it is a very fresh one tell us a little bit more about it. that's right it came into effect yesterday on the first

of january and basically it requires all of the social networks that have more than two million users to delete any content that has been reported as being offensive or as being generally breaking of the german laws that has to happen within twenty four hours otherwise there are fines of up to fifty million euros that have to be paid and if the content is the disputed if it's not very clear whether it really breaks german laws or not and then of the company has up to seven days to deal with that snow facebook and twitter have already put in place some options where you can report any content that you believe is violating of this german law so let me show you how it works for example here on twitter if you want to report tweets then you click on report tweet and then you have these different options and you see the last one there is says that the tweet you want to reportedly the truth they want to have deleted is covered by the nets. because it's a very long german word that is the word that's the name of the new german law it's

a little more difficult to reports content on facebook they also have. a special ops and for germany but there you first have to take a screenshot of whatever you want to report the content whether it's a picture or some text and then you have to fill out your name your organization if you're working your job title post the address email address and all that and after that you will be able to tell the people of facebook to take a look at the content that you have seen and facebook had started working on this the last year we saw them employing more than hundreds actually hundreds of people who have to deal with finding hate speech and then deleting it if they believe that it goes against the laws in germany and how about the users there on social media what do they make of the law so far. oh well the people are pretty much divided about this they have differing opinions i mean in the past lots of people have been calling for stricter rules and regulations on social media because they have said

that hate speech is rampant there nobody's really hunting what people are writing or posting on social media but then right now people are saying that maybe this law has gone too far and that it will hinder freedom of expression onli a let me show you what people outside of germany are saying because also some of the critics for example neil clark here are british journalist he says germany begins twenty eighteen by restricting a freedom of speech and free expressions on social media under the cover of take tackling hate speech but who defines hate speech that is the question that people want answered because the people at facebook and twitter centrally decide what is deleted and what not elizabeth show on our social media desk thank you. you're watching news more coming up after a short break i'm sorry telling us he said.

building megacities at all costs india's ambition for the future. one hundred state of the art cities are planned in just twenty. mins from this gigantic undertaking. and who loses. india one hundred two cities. in forty five minutes on g.w. . bush but this germany is a strong country. that we have achieved so much we can do this and if something hinders us we must overcome it india. going where it's uncomfortable global news that matters w made for mines.

welcome back you're watching d.w. news i'm sarah kelly in berlin our top stories state media in iran report that the death toll from ongoing anti-government protests has risen to at least twenty including a police officer the country's supreme leader ayatollah ali my company has accused foreign enemies of iran of meddling in the country. saudi arabia says that its ban on women behind the wheel will be lifted in june the majority sunni country is under strict sharia law and is the last country in the world where women are forbidden from driving instead they have to employ chauffeurs or ask male relatives to drive. the women sit in the back and a young boy is in the driving seat saudi made videos like these making fun of the country's ban on female drivers fifteen pounds of times it was a good gag it seemed to be to date. as of next june ratana

hashmi will be allowed to drive a car. and she's already nineteen up perfect. car shopping has become a popular holby for wealthy saudi women. you just want to be free with the car you can get your groceries every stuff every shopping you don't need to to to wait for somebody to take you to do 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 qandil a 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 like. so what do saudi men think about it this is the time for her to that i found. herself i don't 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 one's 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 wants to get her driver's license primarily for financial reasons. and i've been this many i want to save the money that i spend on drivers the knoll 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. along 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 on or. saudi society is still very conservative women are required to wear full length

black robes. rotund me once more 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 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 husband going god why ask your husband because in a. green up by the by pink out by. 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 a 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 too. order because. 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 jewelry and show it to. saudi society is changing driven by the falling price of oil members of the

countries royal family are pushing for economic reform. it's simply no longer viable to leave half of the population sitting at home. is family belongs to the country's elite. her father is a prominent real estate developer. he takes a pragmatic view on the issue. fifty percent of this is so. they should play the role they should have it is their issues themselves. his children are all well accustomed with western culture but on a system that is a working mother of three. and her brother wants a more modern society. i think women should even compete with him and opposition so that's going to improve the business sector people start to produce more to compete even more so. i know so it's been this is being practiced all over the

world. the chauffeur who takes no food to her jewelry cools 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 scrapes 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 mark. the start of their love. 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 the mother has plenty of 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 to get it so a. change is in the admin saudi arabia and

a lot of women are eager to see it through. and let's talk a little bit more about that change i am pleased to be joined now by sebastian sons of the german council on foreign relations an expert on societal change in saudi arabia thanks so much for being with us thank you. when we look at women's rights in saudi arabia what are we seeing right now what is ahead i mean are these major changes which are about to happen or is this religion's window dressing it's both i would say. first of all we see a tremendous change and a very positive developments when it comes to the influence of the men in society in politics and especially in economy but on the other hand the new leadership. by mohamed been some of the very young crown prince is trying to positioning himself as a modernizer as someone who wants to change the country completely and the role of women is very important for him to shoulder the world that saudi arabia is not that country as it is perceived being very conservative being stuck in the middle ages

but it is more than that and therefore it is to preserving his stability his power by bringing women into into the public and bring women into the economy is he a modernizer because i mean he's been cracking down on the opposition as well making headlines in that regard how did those two go together it goes together very well because i would say that mohamed been someone is a saudi populist so on the one hand he wants to show the world as i said too that he is able to modernize the country in an economic way so economic transformation is his top priority in his agenda so the agenda the vision twenty thirty which was published and introduced last year is is to bring the economy back on back on track and to make it make it independent from oil but on the other hand political freedom is not on his on his agenda so what he's trying to do is to fight

a position to fight traditional elites and also to crack down on this minority in the eastern province but on the other hand to show the world to show its very young population that he is the man who can create jobs i want to talk a little bit more about what that could potentially mean for women and perhaps we can go back into history a little bit because i know that you very closely monitor developments especially in this in a historical context if you look just back for example at the one nine hundred seventy s. . if we look at saudi arabia or even countries like egypt libya afghanistan they in women in particular enjoyed far more freedom when it came to education when it came to the way that they appear out in public. is there an awareness among the women in these countries that so much freedom has been lost. i wouldn't say that there is a real awareness of. them that has been lost but for sure the standard of education the level of education by them and has been increased

hundreds of thousands millions have been gone to the west to study there and now they return back home and they want to change the society they want to be part of the societal change when it comes to the political regime especially inside saudi arabia they witnessed a very strong islamic islamist opposition at the end of the nine hundred seventy s. inside the country and therefore the instrument to lies the role of women to show their piety to show their religiosity and to make the whole society more conservative in the 1980's and in the nineteen ninety s. and now we see a shift back to what has been what has been present in saudi arabia in the ninety's seventy's as you have mentioned correctly special sons with the very latest joining us from the german council on foreign relations an expert on societal change in saudi arabia especially with the very latest on this effort for women to drive in the country we appreciate your analysis and thank. you

at. twenty eighteen could be a blockbuster year for i.p.o.'s in parts of the world initial public offerings are the first time stock of a private company has offered to the public so your chance to invest now last year was a disaster if it's to raise equity but the number of big chinese tech firms going public could change that analysts expect new listings to raise around five hundred billion dollars over the next couple years that pits the chinese put city against new york as the favorite place to take companies to find funding among the i.p.o.'s a small make a show me n. wealth management platform new facts. well for now asia correspondent andrea hang as well as our frankfurt reporter and they devise back on the wave of i.p.o.'s to hit germany this year but starting with you andrea why is asia leading this global i.p.o. judge. well this is eighteen percent jump which is almost making up nearly half of

the global telly is mostly coming from china followed by hong kong and india now just from china alone these are mostly new business lease business listings and this still a bunch more that will take about fifteen to eighteen months to be approved and it's all the tech sector i see which is quite interesting that's exactly right yes that enter general shift to capital markets as opposed to banks for financing needs as well so back in the tech sector ten cent and ali baba's subsidies these two big names in the asian tech sector they are the biggest players in this game at the moment and if you notice these are what we call new economy companies that china wants to attract biotech firms and r. and d. funds are also at the top of that list then let's pull you in at this stage is that also the case when it comes to i.p.o.'s in germany this year. well actually

i.p.o.'s are expected to be on the almost record level also here in germany for two thousand and eighteen but the companies who are planning on going public are very diverse we're talking here potentially about the biggest i.p.o. since nine thousand nine hundred six coming from siemens a very very old school old economy company they're planning on listing their magical solutions business at least for twenty five percent of that then also going to bank is planning on listing parts of their asset management also rather old economy and then we have a couple of midsize companies who are currently owned by private equity which is which are planning on selling those stakes so those companies as well as the markets are doing so well so it's more or less afraid not to comb of a the average german economy not so much tech guy is will you keep saying old

economy there are international interest in that. it is actually for example joe k.'s the c.e.o. of siemens is touring the word and apparently there's a lot of interest in the magical solution business because obviously we're all getting older and that is one of the key drivers as well for profitability for aseem and so a very interesting business to invest in and everyone wants to live to one hundred back to you and the new economy why so much interest in hong kong over new york. that's an interesting question and a very good one this tradition is being breaking story this tradition is being broken for the pure and simple reason that new chinese listings have not been performing as well as expected in the new york stock market for an example of days t.p.n. which is backed by ali baba they saw their shares plunge fifty five percent in the new york stock exchange just late last year also in addition to that this is also

china's way of propping up its own me main i.p.o. market as well ok hong kong over new york and the new economy over the old economy nice to speak to both on that one anetta and andreea there for us thank you for the death of the dirty diesel some cities around the world have already stated or slated deadlines for bands but when will germany join a nation with a history of manufacturing high class vehicles ninety eight percent of cars on the roads here have regular internal combustion engines but not for low. due to air pollution several german cities could face driving bans in twenty eight teams the diesel engine and its emissions are mainly to blame it's becoming a familiar story diesel remains popular it's cheap and efficient critics say it's outdated and should be replaced as soon as possible. as comes on as approved

possible the diesel will continue to play an important role in certain areas such as truck traffic and shipping but it will lose importance in those areas as well and especially with cars alternatives are available by two thousand and twenty electric vehicles will be very efficient and more interesting for customers in venice it's hard to imagine that a technology that's bad for the environment will survive launch longer once electric mobility has gathered momentum is the no longer a. hybrid engines could benefit from this development because they use two types of power electric and internal combustion it's a safe bet once the batteries exhaust it the car continues to drive on fossil fuel . at the moment there are still not enough charging stations for electric vehicles and their range is too limited evey's are pollution free but making their batteries is not the power they're using can be green or not depending on the source. that's

why the internal combustion engine will remain popular for years to come its supporters claim because at the moment there is no perfect alternative the engine success will also differ from country to country. each individual's personal power could also play a part and that could be exonerated by new year's resolutions for a while look at least. another smokey business as i think you could say marijuana is moving from the shadows to a regulated market which is very unfair here we're not talking about the netherlands in fact we're heading over to the united states now ben because on the . california has become the largest us state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana voters approved the move in a referendum back in twenty sixteen the change in the law is set to generate a billion dollars in tax revenue every year but some users say that despite the new legislation they will still buy the drug on the black market. these three.

cutting the ribbon the owner of this medical center in oakland says he wants california to be a beacon of hope to parts of the world where people are still suffering under prohibit as he put it. customers have been lining up since early in the morning to be the first to take advantage of the change in the log it allows adults twenty one and older to buy possess and grow marijuana until now it only been available for medical purposes. it's history it's history and i think it's the way it's beneficial it's going to help a lot of people a lot of different demographics in the long run been a medical patient for quite some time and my card expired so it was kind of waiting for the food for the new year to legalize and i'm going to come out to w. spoke to the director of a rehab clinic that helps heroin addicts overcome their habit by using cannabis and other states will absolutely follow suit when you see the benefits of california

another sister you know washington colorado. oregon none of them have had the negative outcomes. they both very positive outcomes as some buyers of marijuana said on the first day of legal sale it's safer than having to purchase their supplies down a back alley but some reckon they'd still use the black market because one of them said it's cheaper. germany has many cultural centers fun. this one stand out when it comes to creativity. culture special analysis of germany's arts scene has spared no expense trying to find out which german city should rightly where the culture crown . and for more on that i'm joined now by writer trial bobby initiator of this project a very scientifically have to mention right writer and dumping the cultural crowd

hear him germany tell us about that out of a. starting point was the idea that. there's many a d. ideas perceptions myth about germany as a cultural nation's that's how we see ourselves but there's very little information dot hasta to stickle daughter and that's what we did we researched sifted through all the available data and tried to find out how these figures stand up to reality in the midst and up to reality take german cities were talking about german cities everyone would instantly agree that there is one german capital of culture and that is berlin of course no other place could compete but a number of surveys scientific service actually found out that if you look not at the total number of residences but at the per capita quota per inhabitant the image changes completely but then comes only fourth place behind munich and dressed in

and now of all places is germany's capital cultural capital number one you wouldn't believe it because you think of engineering and car manufacturing and when you talk about should go so what we did is we sent a reporter and looked at that cultural gem that hidden cultural capital of germany that is to. of course i know the stats kelly the wonderful ballet company we've just come out of the museum over there months sometimes i get the impression there's too much opera opera great opera the opera. the stuttgart opera has already been named germany's opera of the year seven times stuttgart is the country's secret cultural capital and audiences are by no means provincial. has a certain modesty but when someone from outside factors for its excellence things come out in the open. that's what's happened now. is just as much

a part of the city's d.n.a. is business. porsche or posh and just as internationally important on the market. it's part and parcel of that the war gods world class ballet is housed under the same roof canadian eric go to here was a soloist at the got ballet before setting up his own company here. it was a plan to start easy and these days we're doing more of our work like what you were to thing or if it's a little bit more out there my public after ten years i think they can try pretty much anything. stuttgart attaches high value to culture the arts museum in the center of the city houses numerous important collections and has a budget that allows it to organize unusual projects. come to stuttgart germany is secret champion of the arts. and

a very well kept secret i mean who would have thought gart is that a cultural paradise well that not not really because in terms of living costs is very very expensive and that's not for the young who artists and also it's a bit odd to additional is not exactly cosmopolitan so this is where in comes back into play because berlin is the magnet for young artists affordable you can afford studio the food is not too expensive even in spite of soaring prices in berlin but . for example has. four young artists from over all in the world from everywhere in the world the highest density of artists every ways that one out of ten residents in berlin considers himself to be an artist officially so whatever not his name be but there's a broad definition but one out of ten that's incredible quote you can define that many ways there are a lot of angles there and speaking of different angles i mean really looked at the

arts here in germany from different perspectives yet we did look at more than just the cultural capital and other myths and looked at how they stand up to the facts take books four thousand bookshops still around in germany and in spite of good in gaza. all these big names we're not the most avid readers in the world we're actually very mediocre readers in particular the terms the chinese are much better than we then again we are very strong in classical music with the opera capital of the world six thousand eight hundred opera performances per year that isn't it so you can go to an opera every day everywhere in germany. what surprised me most during our survey about the cultural mist is what we found about our place in the art world were very famous for being strong in the art world. perhaps just let's

look at the what video we produced and where we tell the whole story. german artist truly a success story in demand among collectors and museums around the world with giants of contemporary art at least that's what we tell ourselves. the fact is that german artists are well represented among the global top one hundred there are names such as new york was i'm really talking or. living them all is. the world's most expensive living artist following his record setting auction say in two thousand and fifteen when this abstract painting fetched forty six million dollars. and more on that on line with reiner childbirth but that you're up to date here at c w news i'm sorry kelly in berlin and thanks for watching a few against.

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building megacities at all costs indios ambition for the future. one hundred state of the art cities are planned in just twenty. mins from this gigantic undertaking. and who loses. india on hundred new cities. in fifteen minutes. the fast pace of life in the digital mold to shift as the lowdown on the web that shows up new developments useful information and anything else worth knowing. presents the latest finds. looks over the shoulders of makers and choosers. shifts in forty five minutes to. meet the germans

new and surprising aspects of license culture in germany. us american keep music takes a look at germany existing chrissy's the two traditions every day lives and language can just come out of. so i'm ok i'm good. w. dot com the germans. climate change. waste . pollution. isn't it time for good news eco africa people and projects that are changing no one fireman for the better it's up to us to make a difference let's inspire each other to. be committed for the farming magazine. d.w.

. visits you know of course nothing is a great one we'll twenty eighteen have in store for us soon which topics in developments will shape the next twelve months our political outlook on. religion twenty eight eighteen and what lies in store for the new german government. and for chancellor angela merkel. today on.

this is d.w. news live from berlin and the death toll rises in iran as it faces its most violent unrest in years at least twenty people have been killed.