for us in which topics and developments will shape for the next twelve months our political outlook on. brylin twenty eight eighteen and what lies in store for the new german government. and for chancellor angela merkel. today on d.w. news. this is news live from berlin the death toll rises in iran as it faces its most violent unrest in years at least twenty people have been killed in nearly

a week of protests around the country iran supreme leader accuses the enemy of the country of meddling in its affairs also coming up. with just over a month to go until the winter olympics south korea off first to hold talks with the north to discuss letting pyongyang's athletes participate in the games. and have a cost and it's good to have you with us the violent demonstrations rocking iran show no sign of easing after nearly a week of anti-government protests at least twenty people have been killed and hundreds of others have been arrested a protest began over economic woes and rising food prices but have since turned into political rallies against the country's brillig just leadership iran's supreme leader has accused the country's enemies of stirring unrest. let's take

a closer look at the major players in iran and what they want for their country. 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 it's the highest ranking political and religious authority backed by the revolutionary guard which was established to protect the system and crush political opposition he's 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 judiciary. 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 criteria 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 savi still remains under house arrest earlier we spoke to a.f.p. correspondent eric randolph in tehran and asked how much of a threat the protests are for the regime. well this is the biggest test the regime

has faced since there were mass demonstrations back in two thousand and nine the difference this time it is that. considerably more though it is very difficult to confirm the reports we're hearing for problems is due to restrictions on travel we do know that six protesters were killed last month on school these ocean. several other. very small towns and cities. all over the country these days. there is a start of crackdown was just been told the four hundred fifty people in the rest of iraq last three days were protests actually rose at least we don't know how many you've been arrested in other parts of the country. that was eric randolph speaking with us a short while ago to germany now we're on member of parliament and

a leading figure in the far right party may face charges of illegal hate speech for her angry tweet on new year's eve beatrix launched ranted at police in the city of cologne for publishing a new year's greeting in arabic she said they were trying to appease muslims in germany twitter swiftly deleted that post and also froze or account for most of new year's day. when the winter olympics in korea just a month away south korea has offered to hold talks with the north on whether pyongyang can send its athletes to the games south korea's president moon j.n. says his country is ready to negotiate on letting north korea joint next month lympics hosted by the south but he stressed that north korea's nuclear threats would be a major point in any talks. let's go straight to saul now and reuters senior correspondent josh smith it's good to see you could this moment

there's a lump it diplomacy signal some kind of breakthrough and actually reduce tensions well that's certainly what officials here in seoul are hoping this is because something that south korean president. has been pushing for some time he has proposed to the americans for example to delay a major joint springtime military. drills until after the olympics they're hoping that. new year's speech maybe that opening that they've been looking for just a day to day per posed on january ninth to meet with north korean officials and discuss possibilities for their athletes visiting the games however there's been no response to that overtures from the north just yet ok and there's a bit of a time crunch as we mentioned earlier there's about a month away until those games how likely is it that the north will actually be able to send a team. well both sides do seem to be making

at least some effort to make that happen obviously up until just a few days ago there had been no movement on behalf of the north although south korea as well as other of the. officials had repeatedly extended the invitation to the north now what remains to be seen is whether you know all of this can be worked out you know a way that. works for both sides is likely to face at least some criticism from many members of the international community who worked for months now to try to isolate the regime in north korea over what they see as a rogue nuclear weapons program you mentioned the criticism and there's been some negative reaction already to the idea of north korea participating in the games i like to read out a tweet now from us republican senator lindsey graham he said this earlier allowing kim jong north korea to participate in the winter olympics would give legitimacy to

the most illegitimate regime on the planet i'm confident south korea out will reject this absurd overture and fully believe that if north korea goes to the winter olympics we do not. that's the response from one senator in the u.s. how much influence can statements like this have on salt when it comes to engaging with its neighbor briefly if you can well there are certainly very powerful amends that i have expressed criticism one of the leading. members of all of this however will be u.s. president donald trump who just today what you did as well but he said that it could or could not be a good move so obviously remains to be seen again just how influential some of these more hawkish members of the international community will be. in seoul thank you very much. now to some of the other news making news around the world

firefighters in new york are battling a massive 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. 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. a new campaign against sexual harassment has just been launched in hollywood and it's already raised thirteen million dollars the time's up initiative has the backing of power players like reese witherspoon jennifer aniston and shonda rhimes who you see there it aims to help victims of sexual misconduct working in low income industries

. to saudi arabia now where the government says its ban on women behind the wheel will be lifted in june the majority sunni country is under strict sharia law and it's the last country in the world where women are forbidden to drive instead they have to ask a chauffeur or their member to drive them. the women sit in the back and a young boy is in the driving seat. videos these making fun of the country's ban on female drivers fifteen thousands of times it was a good guy it's going to be out of date. as of next june ratana hashmi will be announced 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 shopping 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. ok that's like. so what do saudi men think about it this is the time for her to drive to have almost all the fires so that they will have free time to live 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 flights 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 her driver's license primarily for financial reasons. in the business 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. 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. i mean. saudi society is still very conservative women are required to wear full length black robes. rotana hashmi 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 deads to start designing the

a 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 to go in god where is your husband because you know when to. buy don't buy pink i'll buy green color for 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 a 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 count too. so i would like. 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. the chauffeur who takes no for 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 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. sort of

a lot of. 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. 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 it so a. change is in the air and saudi arabia and a lot of women are eager to see it through. you're watching live from berlin more coming up at the top of the hour and don't forget you always get the latest news around the clock on our web site thanks for watching. the d w. c i. find. it it. discover.