shampoo saws the ball girls are right there are but. we're just learning this is going to feel. this is the w. news a live from berlin pro-government marchers rally in iran after days of unrest targeting the regime tens of thousands hit the streets in a show of force for tehran but elsewhere anti-government protests have continued

amid reports that iran is clamping down on the demonstrators. also coming up u.s. president trump hits twitter with the florio warnings to america's adversaries we put that had to what could be another turbulent year for the white house at home and abroad. and iceland moves to close the pay gap between men and women the new year brings a new law making it illegal to cave women less for the same work. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program thanks for joining us we begin in iran where authorities are trying to turn the tide against anti-government protests that have swept the country pro-government demonstrators have taken to the streets in several cities across the country according to this footage which was aired by iran state media it follows nearly a week of unrest that has left at least twenty one people dead and hundreds of

arrests hit the country's supreme leader has blamed foreign meddling security forces are struggling to contain the boldest challenge to iran's clerical leadership in nearly a decade. now the protests they have drawn people with a range of frustrations but some in iran say that adds up to a movement that lacks a clear message. layla took part in iran's last major protests in two thousand and nine she was a student then but this time she's not participating. she's interested in politics and wants to see reforms in her country but she's skeptical about the current protests aimed at president rouhani and against economic conditions in iran. more yet you think you would be able to back then members of the political system stood behind us that was important but today that's not the case. i understand

the economic hardship the unemployment rising prices but with the current protests i do not see a clear goal there's no concrete plan demonstrations need to be organized. by the about them it is either of us it has all. we ask if it's dangerous to protest the whole thing as banish was of course many students end up in prison this way without achieving anything but maybe this time they'll accomplish something nobody knows if the demonstrations had a clear goal maybe i would take part again along with my entire family. was quite ambitious to shake out when. it's mostly very young people often without any job prospects who've been clashing with security forces they're seeking out confrontation by attacking police stations and ripping up posters of iran's supreme religious leader on tuesday the supreme leader spoke out about the protests for the

first time and he blamed foreign elements that that's. that iran's enemies have conspired together and are using various means such as money weapons politics and intelligence services to sow unrest in the islamic republic because well you're into a group the population is divided some worry about further restrictions in the wake of the. protests others are sympathetic to the young people and their anger. corruption and nepotism higher salaries for politicians these are not crimes a simple worker who doesn't even get his minimum wage and is now defending himself this is a crime. the protests carry on and the warning from the revolutionary guards still applies if the unrest doesn't stop they will intervene and put an end to the uprising once and for all. and for more let's bring in

political analysts in iran expert paulo thanks so much for joining us when we look for example at these pro-government demonstrations that we have seen in the past twenty four hours what do you make of them is this a sign of a changing tide in favor of the regime or is it merely propaganda. well this has happened before into cells nine and this was hostile tried in the first days in the twenty ninth of this ember that the regime also tried to do that this is only normal in a country where there are millions of members of militia that it is able to gather some crowds but not in the least it means that there is a sizeable support from the population to the authorities i think that now control it what happened in two thousand and nine protest is absolutely widespread it is from west to east northeast and it's not the middle class movement is not

a problem we did in the regime between so-called roof reformists and conservatives it is challenging to the regime itself it is the crowds saying we do not want theocracy anymore we again between conservatives and reformists is over we couldn't care less with it any longer we want democracy and this is such a powerful strong and unanimous voice around the country that makes of it the biggest political event in much much a long period of time not only in iran but at the world level right so what does that mean then internationally speaking because i mean we see you standing by there in brussels with the european union flag waving behind you from a european perspective for example how isolated is the regime there in tehran.

i think that the tiran regime is the earliest and most important form geodes type of government in the middle east it is ideologically politically and militarily it is the heart of the. hardline islamist policy and the miming of this is clear that the people that have experienced for a longer period of time this type of government is absolutely fed up with it this is no alternative to the real problems that the whole of the muslim world is in countering the muslim world as everybody else wants democracy wants rights to be respected is not a band of fanatics and this message is going far beyond the borders of iran.

so what should the policy they be then going forward because i mean if we look for example at the iran nuclear deal i mean that was very clearly a policy of engagement with iran was it the correct one. oh i don't think so i think that we only have to compare the way that the west faced the soviet challenge to understand that this is not the case because the soviet threat was challenge not only on the nuclear weapons front which is obviously an important one but or the human rights field fundamentally. think you broke and against the expressions of the soviet union and these three elements that go to get a one hundred years ago and what happened would use nuclear deal was that every single source forgotten and the nuclear issue was seen as some technical issue that

you could go see her out of the rest of the circumstances and i think this is a great error human rights can never be forgotten. that we have to leave it the that there but we thank you so much for sharing your expertise on iran we very much appreciate it thank you. north korea has reopened a suspended communications line with south korea in what may be a sign of thawing tensions north korean leader kim jong un ordered that hotline at the country's border to be reconnected the two koreas have been making overtures to improving ties since new years that is when kim signaled that he wants to see north korean athletes cross the border to join next month's winter olympics in the south . a quick check now of some other stories that have been making news around the world a suicide bomber has killed at least eleven worshipers in a mosque in northeastern nigeria the bomber attacked

a mosque in the town of gumbo where and there has not yet been a claim of responsibility for that attack. many businesses and schools in the indian financial hub of mumbai have been forced to close as protesters from a low caste community blocked traffic and staged sit ins for a second day doll it's called the strike in protest against attacks by right wing hindu groups in the city of. on monday. rescue crews have been working to recover the bodies of forty eight people killed when a bus careened off of a cliff in peru officials say that six from survivors were found but other passengers are still missing the vehicle collided with the truck before plunging off the highway north of the capital lima. u.s. president donald trump has started the new year with a flurry of tweets directed at america's adversaries and partners that he says need to toe the line for north korea's leader he had this i too have

a nuclear button but it is a much bigger and much more powerful one than his and my button works trump also threaten to cut aid to the palestinian authority saying that after paying hundreds of millions of dollars the us wasn't getting any respect he added that with the palestinians no longer willing to talk peace why should we make any of these massive future payments to them and the us president also addressed the protests in iran the people of iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt iranian regime all of the money that president obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. well iran north korea the middle east peace process are all among the many challenges that the u.s. president will have on his plate at twenty eighteen and back at home investigations into alleged links between russia and trump's campaign remain open our washington correspondent carson phenomenon sent us this report on what lies ahead in u.s.

politics this year. there is little dolls who will dominate the headlines in the united states this year once again donald trump like him or not the president has up and it's washington's way of doing business we broke every record it's the largest i always say the most massive but it's the largest tax cut in the history of our country tax reform might be trump's only big legislative achievement so far but the president has used his many powers to change the u.s. for years to come the environment consumer rights immigration foreign relations trade and the judiciary have all been affected donald trump has even changed the way journalism works these days this is arguably the most important tool of journalists covering the white house has a smartphone to follow the president's twitter feed and to find old what is on donald trump's mind today or the next owner or the next minute

until the next tweet anyway on average the president treats seven times a day in addition to speeches and other statements trump rants against what he calls fake news parents conspiracy theories and so its opponents celebrities and even members of its own party and praises himself for his real or imagined achievements like ending the alleged war on christmas i told you that we would be saying merry christmas again i've and donald trump certainly isn't done yet his next big project is infrastructure the united states might be the world's only remaining global superpower at least for now but back home much of its infrastructure is crumbling like this hybrid just outside washington. i the president hopes that his new initiative will for

a change be popular across party lines but there are still many open questions like what kind of infrastructure projects you'll bridges and airports or will equip schools and hospitals and who's going to pay for that donald trump's tax reform already blows a big hole into the federal budget and then infrastructure package for a come on top of that now some republicans want to cut welfare programs to plug that hole but that's a no go for the democratic party especially in an election year and in fact the democrats stand a good chance to win a majority in both chambers of congress in autumn after all trump's approval ratings are at a record low for any u.s. president in modern history of to a year in office they hover at around thirty five percent so his biggest hope for a boost in popularity is continued economic growth or perhaps the outbreak of a major international crisis. nothing makes americans rally behind their president

like the threat of war and in particular when it comes to north korea and its nuclear program trump hasn't been holding back they will be met with fire fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never see before and there are quite a few people here in washington who fear that trump might follow through on his threats this year the rhetoric of trump and some of his supporters on north korea shows parallels to the bush administration just before the invasion of iraq and so would raise some eyebrows when the commandant of the u.s. marine corps recently told his troops a war is coming and they should be prepared for a big fight. the pentagon quickly backpedaled saying the marines should always be prepared but with such an unpredictable commander in chief not everyone is reassured so two thousand eight hundred promises once again to be a turbulent year in the u.s.

and the role in the world. and from watching what's ahead for the united states in twenty eighteen i'm joined now by boris foreman is political science lecturer at bard college here in berlin welcome to our us thanks i want to begin first with the tweet that we saw from donald trump beginning in the new year of course not a stranger to picking a fight we have done that in the past but this time around he's targeting north korea and the palestinian authority and iran what do you think that that says about the potential direction that he wants to maybe take policy and what his plans might be going forward well so far we've seen that at least he didn't turn into a states' man the way that into a presidential figure the way that people anticipated just after the election it seems to be a twitter seems to be as weapon of choice deterrence to turn strategy if you want to see a strategy but frankly there's not much of a long term vision that we can see here so i think that's going to continue the

type of volatility we've seen in the international system that trump has also fueled probably persist in the new year i think domestically there are a couple of other things at stake we just saw that the infrastructure bill which was a big promise which indeed has the potential for a bipartisan agreement because hillary clinton and sanders at the time were running on a sort of similar ticket but it remains to be seen how that's going to be financed especially after the tax reform and his campaign is also under investigation isn't it so i mean he's under quite a bit of pressure right now of course the campaign ties or potential ties to russia being heavily investigated at the moment that process is expected to take a while we know normally those investigations don't happen overnight but could we cease. some major breakthroughs either way in twenty eighteen well it seems like in the last couple weeks robert miller the special investigator was zooming in on the inner circle of trumps and we saw some more or less nervous reactions from that inner circle so it is certainly possible that there might be some kind of

revelation in two thousand and eighteen i think what we should not forget however is that just as important as these russian ties which might but end up to be a reason for impeachment in the end the obstruction of justice the potential of struction of justice by trump might indeed a major problem and that's something that might backlash is that the i weren't there impeachment how long does that take well it takes awhile it takes their strong institutional hurdles in the congress both in the house and in the senate to start an impeachment process it's unlikely to happen in two thousand and eighteen because we also have congressional elections and i don't think that the g.o.p. will will you know it would backfire on the g.o.p. to do it now let's talk a little bit more about those congressional elections those midterm elections coming up in the fall of course. you know in the republican party at the moment trunk himself as as we heard not terribly popular if we if we measure it on

a historical scale could you see if swing here toward the democratic side and what would that mean for his presidency the historical context is great for the democrats from the last twenty mid-term elections only eighteen or eighteen of the midterm elections went to the party that was not the president's party so historically always the other party wins out most of the time and you just mentioned a trump has very low approval ratings that also points towards a major win for the democrats but we shouldn't forget that in two thousand and ten with the census the republicans were very strong at redistricting which is important for the house of representatives so the democrats need to be very strong . order to win the hosts in the senate there's a similar picture because the democrats were so strong in the last couple of elections most of the seats that are up for election are democratic seats ok so the moral of the story keep your eyes open in twenty eighteen for what's happening in

the united states are four men from our college thanks so much for telling us a little more about it thank you. germany's full steam ahead economy is sweeping up every willing and able worker in the country driving unemployment to the lowest level since east and west germany were reunited way back and ninety ninety germany's jobs agency says joblessness dropped from six point one to five point seven percent last year as domestic demand ward ahead and exports continued to surge that means a total of just over two and a have a million men and women in germany were registered jobless the same time the number of people in employment reached an all time high and experts expect that figure to rise further over the next year earlier i asked august meeting chief economist at bear in burbank what was driving this surge in employment there are two main drivers of the growing german employment figures the first is germany is simply

a good place to invest and to create jobs that's due to the labor market reforms that were implemented some thirteen years ago the second point is obvious we are enjoying global sick they can upswing strong economic growth in major parts of the wood including germany at that of course means more gains in jobs now what do you make of the fact that the employment in the service sector grew the strongest should a country with a strong industrial sector like germany boast jobs in this segment particularly. well a strong economy like germany is should be adding jobs in many sectors and that's what's germany is doing and quite naturally the biggest gains are in parts of the service sector those which are what economists call labor intensive that is where you actually need a lot of people to do the tasks that is for instance in health care which can't be

automated that much that's a nurse thing care that's in a few other sectors like that but even industry jobs growth is pretty good now at the same time companies continue to complain that there is a shortage of skilled workers how does that fit in with the growing job numbers what this means is germany could be creating even more drop than it's currently doing if there were more people around a good deal of the jobs growth that germany is seeing is coming from people staying long go on the job from women entering the workforce in even greater numbers than before and to some extent of course from migrants mostly those from other european countries who have come over recent years and how can this issue of the shortage of skilled workers be addressed in the future that's basically germany needs a better education system and it needs an immigration system which makes it even

easier for skilled people from abroad to come in not just from europe but also skilled people from some places beyond europe to fill the jobs that are available so the employment figures in germany are at a ten year high what happened to the fear that digitalization and the rise of robots would kill tens of thousands of these positions. well it way the rise of robots and of the digital age that has prevented the gains in even more jobs german industry is raising its output even more that it's raising employment because the german industry is adding robots but all in all the gains in industrial output the gains in services mean that all in all the drops are plentiful these spight is special in industry robots taking over if you costs german employment reaches historic levels holders meeting thank you so much for your analysis you're

welcome. and iceland the new year has brought with it a new law making it illegal to pay men more than women for the same work and it's the first country in the world to make both public and private enterprises accountable to these rules. until now women in iceland have earned an average nineteen percent less than their male colleagues but those days are over equal pay for equal work has just become a must irrespective of gender ethnicity sexuality or nationality the new law will cover over one hundred fifty thousand workers. of course so far women have borne the cost of the gender pay gap and if the cost is too high and to reach our goal we're all going to have to work hard now we have the perfect chance to do so thank you for. the new law affects one thousand two hundred companies in iceland which employ at least twenty five workers who now have to publish their wage scales there

are courses to help them implement the new rules on completion companies get a certificate which has to be renewed every three years. the memphis difference this will affect employers first and foremost they're offering the jobs and now it's up to them to shoulder their responsibilities. and be part of this mission with us pack up these have to recognize that it's hope to close the country's gender pay gap by twenty twenty two and the other countries have made similar moves for now beisel and is the global pioneer. who would have thought well after the christmas break german bunds biggest stars are trying to get back into shape sara has more on these attempts were heading to some sports news for you now christoph because in football the bundesliga returns from the winter break in nine days and champions very munich have begun their preparations for the restart with a training camp in qatar the team including new signings and all wagner's arrived

in the gulf state for several days and tenth fitness and tactical training they will return to face lever cruisin in the opening game twenty. meantime crews in one of the toughest races on the planet have returned to the high seas in melbourne australia in stage four of the volatile ocean race boats are set to travel over ten . one thousand kilometers to hong kong team map free held the lead out of melbourne but that can change the leg is expected to take nearly three weeks to complete the overall race which began on october. eleventh stages and will conclude until june. a quick reminder now the top stories that we have been following for you here at g.w. in iran tens of thousands have helped pro-government rallies following days of unrest targeting the regime of these twenty one people have been killed and hundreds of arrested during a week of anti-government protests. you're up to date now on the news more coming

up at the top of the hour and don't forget you can get all the latest news and information around the clock on our website that's g w dot com we will leave you now with some images of the bone chilling cold that has been gripping much of the united states over the past few days i'm sorry kelly in berlin enjoy a season. the bulk.

coal. industry for. use. where is the nation still.

in the past that's the problem. why do people always. what the new year will bring and what on earth does that have to do with the stars. why do people jump on the treadmill in january only to jump back off in february. what do we really need for a good start to twenty eighteen. we ask the experts. to rome in sixty minutes t.w. . crime fighters the new season of radio crime thrillers begins. for investigative cases that will keep you on your toes. in crime fighters

series at the base idea so every young person needs to listen to crime fighter and share tell a friend tell a friend tell a fake. crime fighters don't miss it. but it's not just germany is a strong country. that we have achieved so much we can do this and it's something hinders us we must overcome it. going where it's uncomfortable global news that matters w made for mines. but. experts say germany is losing its.