visited up leaders live from dublin trump to tighten the screws on russia the us president says he will impose fresh sanctions in response to allegations that moscow battled in the twenty sixteen presidential election the u.s. has also joined other countries in their support of britain standoff with russia also on the program. thousands of syrians flee perceived east include sas

government forces close in the battle for the rebel held on tight has been one of the deadliest in the country's seventy year civil war. slovakia's prime minister resigns amid a corruption scandal a political crisis was sparked by the murder of a journalist investigating allegations of fraud against businessman with ties to the government. plus seeking justice more than twenty years on the daughter of one of the victims of rwanda's genocide against it said to see population ochs to convince a court that belgian troops should have prevented the killings. i did which is a freezing with nights that seem to go on for ever and this is one of the world's highest suicide rates that the un says it is the happiest place on earth which countries that stay with us will find.

i'm filled gal welcome to the program. u.s. president donald trump is to impose new sanctions on russia and response to allegations that moscow battled in the twenty sixth u.s. presidential election its latest move targets five organizations and nineteen individuals united states has also signed a joint declaration with france and germany in support of britain standoff with russia over the attempted murder of a russian former spy in britain. was behind this mr president it looks like it i spoke with the prime minister and we are in deep discussions a very sad situation it certainly looks like the russians will be hided something that should never ever happen and we're taking it very seriously as i think there are many others. as part of its response to the poisoning of this form a russian double agent and his daughter on produce oil the u.k. is to expel twenty three russian diplomats moscow denies any involvement and is

threatening its own battalion the. british prime minister theresa may paid a visit to salisbury the medieval city in the west of england shaken by a nerve agent attack on former russian double agent sergei streep and his daughter yulia may visited the restaurant where the poisoning took place and has put the blame squarely on moscow. well i'm pleased to have come down here to salzburg to speak to people who responded to this terrible incident that took place and as you know announced in the house of commons yesterday the action that we're taking we do hold russia culpable for this brazen brazen acts and despicable acts that's taking place on the streets of was is such a remarkable city where people come and visit and enjoy it often very lior nato secretary general u.n. stoltenberg accused moscow of trying to destabilize the west and issued

a warning. we do not warrant a new cold war. and we do not want to be dragged into a new arms race but let there be no doubt nato will defend all allies against and the threat mase international allies are standing by here the us france and germany joined britain in blaming russia calling the attack the first offensive use of a nerve agent in europe since the second world war russia has responded by saying it would be absurd to carry out an attack on foreign soil ahead of the presidential elections and the fifa world cup moscow accuses britain of dishonesty and withholding information. in which i can't tell you the motives of our british

colleagues but i don't think they are on assistance and. if they were britain would answer the questions we've been asking and would follow the procedures of the chemical weapons convention. moscow promised swift retaliation to britain's decision to expel russian diplomats . but it's all starting to feel very cold war this isn't it let's get more from the w.'s chief political correspondent. and we show him and moscow cost and not and no washington a welcome all cost and phenomena that start with you president trump seems pharma now in his support for britain's position against russia why the turnaround. well it seems that british prime minister to reason may has managed to impress on president trump the importance of this matter for the u.k. and she also has been able apparently to convince the u.s.

president that the evidence that russia was behind this poison attack on former double agent in england on british soil was very convincing and you're right the president trump in the past has often been rather cautious or even reluctant to blame russia and president putin for anything made be meddling in the u.s. elections or other misdeeds that seems to have changed on as we've seen he now says it looks like russia was behind this and he is taking it very seriously and indeed will come to those charges regarding the u.s. elections that shortly. let's come to let's talk about this joint statement that who was saying what was the joint statement of the u.s. person and it quite clearly states that they see a violation of the chemical weapons convention and a breach of international law we also take from this statement that this is seen

really as pretty much of a watershed moment because it marks the use of chemical weapons for the first time on european soil since the end of the second world war i'd say this is the second watershed moment that we've experienced we saw. a magical come out with very strong language also putting in this into historical perspective when we saw the accession of crimea by russia and this is also something by the german chancellor particular role here in europe by pretty much holding this up together and maintaining those sanctions towards russia this is a pretty strong statement it comes very close to these nato allies actually declaring that there has been some kind of attack it stops delivery stop sort of that nobody has an interest of further escalation and the big question is how will russia now right. act and how will be the e.u. reaction come next week when we see foreign ministers meet and also a summit. in the summit coming up i was it was interesting the e.u.

reaction because france and germany in the u.k. there but no e.u. response to should we should necessarily read anything into the well those technical reasons because simply the twenty seven member states there also a lot of member states who don't really want to see their country on the state and really these countries here are the core of the west let's just recognize this the western bloc is back really in terms of stating their common position at the same time you have countries particularly greece. and hungary who have very close ties with russia and who are kind of playing a game between the e.u. and the potential they see in russia they have no interest of having the cygnus on this paper and getting all sides that this is been the problem of the european union since day one really getting everybody behind any kind of foreign policy statement is always really pushing it but let's go to moscow then and really show in russia making enemies of all over the world tell us about the latest russian response. well we don't even know what what russia's

response will be to may's measure as we've been kind of waiting for a clear response on that all day in the morning the foreign ministry spokes woman said that it wouldn't take long for there to be a response the kremlin spokesperson and media of his golf said that putin would be the one to make the final decision on what the response would be but there have been very sharp words from russia we've been hearing that this is all a political show that these accusations against russia are crazy and also city lover off today accused the u.k. of not following the correct diplomatic protocol he said that the u.k. was not responding in a very gentlemanly way as it as it might be expected from the u.k. so kind of strong words all around from the russia they're definitely escalating this war of words that's that's taking that's taking place at the moment. bearing

in mind i believe that russia has elections on sunday. i think it's hard to directly connect the two of course the rhetoric that we're seeing. is part of an ongoing rhetoric that we've seen from russia russia has has been tired of peddling this this narrative all along that everyone is against russia that all these measures are part of a russophobe campaign i can't tell you how many times i've heard that word in the last few days from various politicians various media outlets and of course that might unite people behind putin but in a way it's strange because putin doesn't really need the extra support polls were showing that he would have taken seventy percent of the vote anyway and that turnout was probably going to be fairly high as well so this is kind of strange but

it does fit in with the overall russian narrative that we've seen ahead of the elections close and in washington the latest news out of washington is that the u.s. is now imposing a separate sanctions on russia because of its meddling in u.s. domestic affairs. among other things yes the u.s. has in fact slapped you sanctions on five russian entities and nineteen individuals most of them connected to the russian intelligence community for a number of attacks on u.s. interests the treasury secretary the finance minister of the us even the new chin mentioned in particular russian meddling in the us elections but also destructive cyber attacks on u.s. computer systems and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure which means control systems that run american factories and the country's electricity grid so

of course the russians interfering with the electricity grid in particular is something that worries the americans about as much as russian interference in the u.s. elections the authorities say they have have affected companies to kick the russians out of their systems but that of course only applies to those systems where russian interference has been detected the sanctions are focusing on financial matters so those entities and individuals will be denied access to the u.s. financial system that might hurt some of them who have international interest but if it is enough to deter the russians from further interference and further attacks is an open question well let's put that to emily show and moscow. what response from the kremlin if any to this set of sanctions. well there has been a response from the deputy foreign minister sergei to go off he said that russia is

calm about these new sanctions and that they are preparing their response to the to these new sanctions as well we don't know what that response will be interesting lee russian state t.v. kind of has kept calm so perhaps russia is a little bit rattled by the timing of this but it does in a way play into this this whole narrative that i mentioned before of the fact that all these accusations against russia are being grouped into one by the u.s. certainly fits in with this idea of an overall western anti russian campaign going to show it in moscow thank you costa fall down and watch and thank you mccain here with me about it thank you as well. now answer some of the other stories making news around the world tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the hungaroring capital budapest in what they called a peace march it was held in support of the country's prime minister viktor orban had a parliamentary elections in three weeks several smaller opposition rallies also took

place. in brazil and identified attackers have shot and killed the leftist member of rio de janeiro's the city council not able franco and her driver were in a car when banning another vehicle opened fire and killed was an expert on police violence and no social work in rio slums. in syria it looks as though the siege of rebel held east into kuta is coming to an end a monitor group says that more than twelve thousand civilians and how leaving the area and crossing into government controlled territory the exodus began after regime forces advanced overnight seizing the eastern half of the key town of how maria seven seven years to the day since the syrian civil war began under the thousands have been killed in that time and the u.n. estimates of fourteen million have been displaced. no adama's it's an activist and journalist living in east and welcome to so well here in the thousands of people are leaving them that syrian forces are running the area what do you see

. that's right today just three thousand people. leave the. regime area but. use them as shield on his. return to bring the sounds in news doing good i mean i said to use the civil defense. in the tank is to try to. fall and break them to enjoy. so just to be clear what follows what you are seeing is the. regime using civilians putting the civilians in tongues in order that they don't get fired on yes yes yes today and how they.

so you'll do. you when you're friends are you safe and actually you know. been targeted and the building and the neighborhood and today they were like a crazy at the bombing on day. one and. i said it is used for gas. and least for like from one hour they used to go to twice and and the neighborhood and there are many. people in the hospital and so this moment so given the dangers that you have outlined why is it have you stayed. i mean that's our home and that's when that's where we are is an ob and that's where we are growing our band and. go to school and learn and that's our

right to say you i mean it's our all my our how we can leave that's home for. the regime or russia does it look as though this fighting a. final stages no actually. they fight that again and they are a girl to destroy and take one tank to from as had a regime and how madea town and give many soldiers. today and how. we wish you well thank you for joining us. on who to. get to business news from crystal and talking a lot about water we all need it but is it safe currently it's not as clean as we all would hope it is phil and who studies claiming that bottled water can contain

micro plastics now the health implications are largely unknown but just to give an idea of the scale of this issue ten years ago the world drank two hundred twelve billion liters of bottled water now the latest figures show that this number has nearly doubled now the biggest market is china last year consumers there spent thirty seven billion dollars on bottled water united states was next was twenty three billion dollars and third place was mexico now it's a global business with many players the french company the no one is the largest share it's followed by coca-cola and the swiss food giant nestle but as recent findings suggest consumers appear to be drinking more than just water. most people think of water is clean and pure but research by the nonprofit organization or by media suggests that the bottled kind often contains microscopic plastic particles. researchers analyzed bottled water from

a total of nineteen locations in nine different countries the results came as a surprise. every brand of bottled water that we looked at had plastic every single brand. the occurrence varies kind of kind of dramatically certain brands had much higher counts than than other brands are. the highest concentrations of plastic particles were found in nestle's pure life brand of bottled water. the indian brand visit larry had about half as many particles per liter. as did germany's carol steiner and which is owned by the french food giant known. nestle and carol steiner have rejected the study's findings they're not slow us is a research at the life notes institute of freshwater ecology he says it's not yet clear whether micro plastics of the kind found in bottled water are harmful to

humans. we're just starting our research chemists biologists and toxicologists still need to conduct tests we don't even know what kind and size of micro plastics are to be found in the environment and in the food chain as long as we can to certan that we don't know what we're talking about this is the tip of the iceberg that this icebergs micro plastic contamination appears to be widespread but what effect it might have in the long term is not clear it's most likely liable to do far more harm than good. and i'm now joined by dr sherry mason from the state university of new york for don't you know you just saw in the report and she left the michael classic research for this specific report released by all of media dr mason welcome to the program there is still the question where the plastic is coming from now you yourself think it is coming through the process of bottling of the water are you sure well no i mean

the study was focused on under by the simple question is there plastic in bottled water so we didn't test it at various stages along the way but i mean we have good supporting evidence that it's probably coming from the packaging in the fall we release to study look at tap water and tap water we find most fibers ninety nine percent actually of the particles that we found in the tap water study were fibers in this study sixty five percent of the particles were fragments so that difference in the morphology or the shape of the particle is an indication of a difference in the source of where the plastic is coming from additionally we did f.d.r. analysis on the particles that we found and were able to confirm the. vast majority of them and over fifty percent were polypropylene and this is the same plastic that she used to make

a cap the next most about it was polyethylene and polya are fairly and those are the plastics that are typically used to make the bottle so it does seem to indicate that the plastic is making its way into the bottled water from the bottle itself and from the industrial process packaging the bottle so i'm sort of line short with water in glass bottles be less effective than. we did actually compare one brand where we did it we looked at that brand packaged and glass is packaged in plastic and we did find it significantly less amount of the plastic within the bottled water that was packaged to grass now we heard in the report that the major companies that are bottling the water are rejecting your findings and they say the water is safe so there's no need for them to think about a recall. well we can have differences of opinion on that and i do think the vast majority of us live this specially in developed

nations we live in and places where our tap water is very well regulated and quite safe and our research really supports that tap water is it's much much cleaner that packaged bottled water. dispenser stout which is. dr sherry mason from the state university of new york for dhoni i thank you so much for being on the w. . thank you for having me women at the u.k.'s banking giant h.s.b.c. earn fifty nine percent less than men working at the company that's according to figures published as part of the british government's investigation into the gender pay gap the survey also indicated that the bonuses of lower paid female employees were eighty nine percent lower than men's h.s.b.c. says the difference is largely due to the lack of women in higher pay executive positions it's promised to boost the numbers of women in leadership positions in

the next to yours. now a growing number of countries around the world are in dangerously indebted and a healthy economy doesn't even provide a necessarily a way out of it that story in a short while for now back to you phil thanks kristoff slovakia's embattled prime minister overfeed so is resigning over his handling of inquiry into the murder of an investigative journalist who's afraid there was forced to step down after his kodesh and partners threatened to force a snap election will be replaced by the current deputy prime minister peter pellegrini slovakia's government has been plagued by protesters the death of a journalist could siac and his fiance they were killed as he prepared to publish the results of his investigation into alleged links between the italian mafia and top slow about politicians. about balog over is editor in chief of the slovak newspaper s m a which jointly published could see its investigation she joins us

from some back as capital bratislava welcome to day w what will change with robert feet so's resignation. i'm afraid that at this point not much because but they'd be knee is just the softer version and also a bit feet so and i think he'll preserve the very same political culture and today at the press conference and a bit fit so made much of for to send the message that he's not ready to leave while he thinks that he asked chairman of the strongest parliament but on the three party it will be standing behind the battles of the new prime minister and i assume that he's going to influence all the major decisions that are going to be made and something which will to a chemise are that's forgive me for interrupting you there tell us what you mean by the political culture in the back and what is wrong with the political culture that

. it's the political culture which allowed that people having ties to mafia got very close to the prime ministers of these that the several political scandals have never been properly investigated in slovakia the journalist kept breaking stories about political corruption and about every use of european funding and so far no top politicians have been jailed these archaea but it didn't mean that they had not been indicated in these stories and and the murder of the journalist really made the society to realize that that was the red line and this is the political culture that we are going to reject and we don't want to have in the country and other aspect of this political culture is to deny any responsibility any political or moral responsibility for the condition of the countries in the more our condition so far robert fits our has never not apologized

to the media and he's known for really like being very badly quite aggressive to the media and even when he stepped down he didn't say he was stepping down because he felt any political responsibility he stepped down in order to come what he caused chaos created by the abuse of the murder of two young people but if what you say is true and play out where the state have no way of knowing if what you say is true then this goes beyond politics because you're talking about the police and the judiciary as well. yes and slovakia has a long term of corrupt judiciary and i think that even after their revolution there has never been a photo or a free form of the judiciary in slovakia and it's proved by very long court cases

long dragging cases and there is much doubt i mean the trust in the judiciary in this country is very law ok when i'm the only girl i'm afraid that time has been. a ballot of a very interesting we thank you for joining data. thank you for having me. this is state of new world use live from god and will huff up will it just about the to cut cut cut cut. cut cut cut. cut. cut or gotten treasure trove that has been gathering dust and it's iran museum sold for nearly forty years. one of the world's largest and most valuable collections of contemporary art. but secrets doesn't hold. hidden treasure iran's legendary modern art collection.

the margarita in thirty minutes on t.w. . started out with some junk and instructions from a book. page of fourteen william kumquat. the boy from malawi wanted to build a wind turbine to provide his village with electricity listening to choose a. quick and exciting journey around the world to get a. story william and a windmill start march twenty first on t.w. . the race for immortality has begun him going leading neuro scientists are researching ways to replicate the human brain coax androids are taking over physical labor. this human brain is deciphered. tonight enjoys

for the artificial consciousness are the number one item on the market. the transfer of the human mind into an avatar is successful immortality is within. budget cuts. remember you words we mean the planet and you make sure that they wanted. factory starting march twenty fourth on you. this is day w.'s live from but in our film gala top story this hour u.s. president said donald trump is to impose fresh sanctions on russia and response one occasions that moscow meddled in the twenty sixteenth presidential election united states has also joined other nations in supporting britain. with russia. and the family of a rwandan official who was killed in one thousand nine hundred ninety four genocide

is seeking justice in a brussels court it was one of two thousand people massacred in a school where that sort refuge is to have to says belgian troops posted to the school could have stopped the killing but withdrew leaving people inside to the effects. you land is a survivor she witnessed the genocide in rwanda we meet at my place because she wants to protect her children and doesn't want them to know how close she came to death she finally once justice and believes that thousands of lives could have been saved. if i'm really angry our lives were worthless in rwanda at the time of conti you land us father was once the country's foreign minister these pictures show him at a meeting soon after the family had to flee from hutu militias to learn i was thirteen years old the family sought refuge at the don bosco school in te garley

which was protected by belgian un peacekeepers you learn that shows me a photo of her sister in front of the building she says they believed the un soldiers would keep them safe but then suddenly a un jeep drove away i heard people shouting they are leaving my mother panicked and tried to get away people were asking the soldiers to shoot them otherwise they would be lynched vaughan would rush a. because people were trying to hold on to the legal spot the soldiers shot into the air to get rid of them i saw them driving away and was shocked at thirteen i didn't dare imagine what would happen next in all those men by. the belgian peacekeepers withdrew on the eleventh of april one thousand nine hundred ninety four the unspeakable followed hutus attacked the school on the same day murdering two thousand and two it sees. a brussels court is now deciding who is to

blame for the mess or we need your london smothered there her family is suing the burgeon state for failing to protect civilians the trial has already gone on for more than ten years now it's drawing to a close. then we can finally overcome our grief and tell ourselves that the victims souls are resting in peace with the the main question in the trial is whether the belgian u.n. soldiers abandoned the two thousand refugees and left them to die an independent inquiry team sharply criticized the bison decision to pull out of front and the early days of the genocide the position of burton peacekeepers to retreat from the school leaving civilians inside to report sure it is described as this crisis for the families of the victims away the verdict and hope that the version state finally house to recognize but lawyers of the victims insist that the order to

withdraw came from brussels. for. the belgian strongly intervened in preparing their troops to pull out had they stayed only two days longer at this bloodbath wouldn't have happened the previous. unanimous father couldn't be safed he died at the hands of hutu militias it's in his memory that you learn that and her family refused to give up in their fight for justice. fake news has become one of the biggest buzz words of recent times and one of the term means different things to different people much of the discussion is focused on the spread of misinformation online that just like facebook and twitter have been implicated i'm still trying to find effective ways to counter it now you tube says it has a plan to tackle the conspiracy videos that frequently trend on the powerful jerad

read from v.w. social media desk and tell us to jared so what is you tube's big plan well it hasn't released too many details yet but what we do know is that in the future it's going to place boxes of text and links on videos that attract debate and conspiracy theories and it's not producing this information on its own it's taking it from the online encyclopedia we could pay to you tube see has said videos like this one are a prime candidate possibly one of the world's most famous conspiracy theories that the moon landing in nine hundred sixty nine was faked so in the future videos like this that we're seeing could contain a link to the we could p.t. a page on the main landing to i guess help educate conspiracy theorists and to help tackle the spread of false information and why is this happening well you know hoaxes and conspiracy theorists have had a platform on you tube for years and it's been criticized for that it's it lets them be there but it also makes money from from this of course it makes money off

every video it's placed online from advertisements and so people are saying well you tube needs to be be a bit more accountable for the content that it hosts and a good example of this was after the florida school shooting last month there was a video that trended very well accusing one of the teenage activists calling for gun control of being an actor you tube eventually took that down but not before that video got hundreds of thousands of clicks and shit is so i don't think it is going to start doing this with all the conspiracy videos but probably on topics that do attract that. debates are like the moon landing like nine eleven and probably against videos that question science like anti-vaccination videos we are probably going to be seeing these these text boxes containing sort of alternative information recession has a well it's got a lot of people by surprise including we could pay here itself because you didn't tell it beforehand that it was going to be doing this and you know it does look

like a good idea at first glance trying to use is publicly available information to push back against crazy theories but the way you tube is doing it is annoyed a lot of people because we have to keep in mind this is a multi-billion dollar company aren't by google using the information from a much smaller player we kapadia is a publicly available website but it's a nonprofit website it's updated by volunteers and so you've got this sort of situation where possibly you chub is using wikipedia to piggy back you know to solve its own problems and you also you know assuming that all the information on wikipedia is correct which of course it cannot be one of the people criticizing you tube is a woman named barbara fishes she works for the we can media foundation which operates the wikipedia website she said it looks as though you trooping google wants more pocketing we could pay and it's volunteers only to rid themselves of their responsibility of media platforms so quite a lot of skepticism out there we just have to wait to see exactly how this looks on

you tube great thank you. this is d.w. news still to come while it's freezing in winter and has one of the world's highest suicide rates but the u.n. says it is the happiest place on we'll hear from a hockey ambassador from not happy country. tales of prison the torture of the leipsic the book opens world talk to everybody and author about life under the dictator child cesco and how the corruption has continued to this day. now as a growing number of countries around the world in dire financial straits a recent study has been looking into it and christopher coke can tell us more that's right fill their coffers are empty and debt and bankruptcy are looming over one hundred nineteen of these nations that's according to the catholic aid organization music area or this gloomy picture is a reality not only for countries with long time financial woes like zimbabwe for

example but also for nations like donna or angola places whose economic situation has been improving in recent years we'll talk to an expert from our africa desk what's behind this worrying trend for us this report. when gunna became independent in the late one nine hundred fifty s. under president kwame a crueler the country's economy was twice as strong as south korea's. while the country's economy rapidly expanded gonna descended into corruption. money from oil and minerals slipped into the pockets of the elite. the country was soon facing bankruptcy. along with many others in africa. of the one hundred ninety five recognised countries in the world one hundred nineteen are in financial difficulty says aid organization. that's thirty six more than four years ago their debts now total around six point nine trillion dollars and that is leading to

unemployment and social tension even extremism and migration. critics say debt relief alone is not the answer they argue if the root causes of corruption can't be fixed the problems will only resurface later. out of the this is how most him from sudan sees things he made his fortune in the african telecommunications sector every year his foundation six toward a former african head of state who helped encourage their country's development very much into a lack of suitable candidates he's only awarded the prize four times in the last ten years. let's get some more insight on the story with daniel pearl's from africa desk daniel why is this debt situation worsening in so many developing countries. there are several factors contributing to this one is that many countries want to expand their infrastructure they want to build roads they want to build railways

they want to build airports all of these things that they simply need of they want to grow their economy and the second issue is that they they've they borrow money simply to finance this infrastructure development and the money is readily available in global markets unlike in the past where developing countries found it very hard to borrow money on global markets it has become a lot easier for them and the first facto contributing to this is the other fluctuating prizes of raw materials on global markets because a lot of these countries depends on the export of raw materials that's their main income and if prices for then it becomes very hard for them to still service their debts and are african countries particularly prone to this issue. well yes they are partly it's due to civil war two to political instability it's partly due to corruption but of course it's also partly due to the fact that african countries need to expand their infrastructure quite desperately because their populations are

growing and the infrastructure that partly still dates back to colonial times is extremely insufficient so the pressure on african governments to to finance infrastructure development is extremely high and now some organizations are lobbying for debt relief but experts say that that alone won't solve the problem if widespread corruption isn't tackled what's your take on that well that's absolutely true christophe i mean without a public sound public management of the country's finances of course there's always a high risk that countries can slide into bankruptcy i mean one one example we are seeing is mozambique. it's actually a country that was doing pretty well financially for many years but then some some para stuff a company started to borrow huge sums of money and the government said they would guarantee for repayments and the problem is then the money simply disappeared somewhere and now the debt burden of muslim because extreme lehi again you know what be a way to solve the problem or at least ease the pressure apart from obviously

tackling corruption. well the campaigners are saying what is needed is a mechanism an internationally approved mechanism for countries which are on the on the action of bankruptcy the problems at the moment we have no international a set of rules of how to deal with countries who are sliding into a debt crisis and it's very important to have it and also some sort of global or for a t. that is then going to have to step in because if a country is reaching bankruptcy the people that are suffering the most are the poor people inside these countries because the government has to cut back on expenditure in the health sector of the social sector the educational sector and the like any other polls from d.w. is africa desk thank you for your insight and now to the happiest nation on earth you don't know where it is well filled does know this much i will tell you it's not vis country off it's just very sad every year because i have nothing better to do

the united nations runs the world's happiest countries with nordic countries tending to dominate this year's no exception with finland now officially the world's happiest nation from fifth place last year the study looks at factors like life expectancy income social support and corruption the finns beat near neighbors norway and denmark who were also in the top five germany by the way was fifty. i see days long winter nights and a wide social safety net is it the stuff of happiness the finns seem to have at least some of the answers. will our politics said economics i think we have the basic stuff he's quite good in finland so it makes a great like base why why we're doing so good here no that sounds strange but we friends really that happy with running on the list you. want to be able to follow we have all the services that we need here daycare is nearby and the

parks as well we can play and slide down hills if we want just like here. the study also says being happy seems to be contagious it found a high correlation between the happiness of citizens and that of immigrant newcomers. but what explains those countries with less fortunate rankings like the us which fell for places to number eighteen. i think it's the general uncertainty and political unpredictability people don't know what to expect in their future i don't know if that's my guess but. for now the finns and their nordic neighbors know what their future likely holds more sterling scores on quality of life indexes even if their heat indexes don't always play along. so what have the fans got to be so happy about. perhaps

a clue us and she is finland's i blasted out to germany and i since you know well why finns so happy. i think it's a combination of very many things but the basics are the very very good nordic welfare model we are having a free country very democratic country equality very called education which is free for all and it's similar equality for all as well. called health care system also very very. not completely free but with very very low costs and then maybe equality. equality between men and women but equality in the society as well there is a hope and opportunities for people to sort of explore the possibilities and then of course incredible nature and maybe this hour or so yes that that's what we all

like a good sort of is the thing to do fill in this when we were ok that the country has topped the list but do things generally sort of walk around with big smiles on their faces or days of gotta get up and go to go to work miserably on a monday morning like the rest of us are think the latter very much so if you are walking especially when it is raining or when it's dark or snow you you see people moving quickly from one place to the other but basically i think they are quite satisfied with life somehow they still sort of welfare we have converted to well being or so and that sort of like i said small everyday things which makes us happy . and you've sort of hinted at it the long cold dark nights when when people who have been there think of finland that's what we think of we think of long cold dark nights long cold dark winters sol is an extensive out the whole. of these the keys to happiness well maybe for some people and there are keys but on the other hand there are then very wide long summer nights and a lot of

a lot of festive honest and joyful people so if you are seeing people in the summer i think they are they are more outspoken more open and because it's warmer and so on but it is i think this sort of we can we haven't. possibility to enjoy some of the winter nice cold winter we ski here and. cross-country ski possibility or saw skating an incredible creative environment for children of course with white snow and so on and then you don't mean that when you're in the summertime for instance then very long or on days where you don't sleep so much sand do you have great parties. and figure out why for a holiday it's. all a serious though that the country does have one of the highest suicide rates in the o.e.c.d. how do we square that but better picture the happiest country in the world and one

of the high suicide rates in the world and that's interesting interesting question or so might be that there is the sort of extreme source or like our weather is quite extreme might be that might be also sort of honesty of the people that we are assisting also very very accurate accurate also know the cause of the deaths might be that us where indeed it is we have we have been paying attention and there is a lot of work done in prevention as well in our health system which is very cold well when you free health system so we wish you well. and all the rest of it. to the finish ambassador to germany thank you so thank you very much. bookfair in the eastern german city of leipsic opened on wednesday and is now in full swing from a different culture desk and tell us more welcome peter and the winners of the main

prizes have been announced that's right phil the big moment has arrived the prestigious leipzig book fair prize has gone to esther kinski from here in berlin a berlin based writer for her book with an unusual title it's called grove a field novel it's a novel in three parts about three different journeys to three different it's a lesson on a very different note the nonfiction prize has been awarded to the historian ergo through the soviet century archaeology of an ink extinct world described by the jury as a new interpretation of communism very timely given the tensions surrounding russia at this point in time and very fitting indeed given that the leipzig book fair tends to look east. what else do businesses have to look for to plenty after all leipsic is the second biggest book in germany and it's going to run on for four days and some three hundred thousand visitors are expected they can take part in workshops with new and upcoming authors lectures and readings by famous writers all

of which means the leipzig can claim to be the largest reading festival in the world and this year rumania is the guest of honor yet tell us a lot about related why they're focusing on the country. well the folks who made it because as i say they tend to look eastwards so they pick out so they very often pick out an eastern european country and remain yours to one of it and to fight this time around it needs the attention it's a big country it's a beautiful country it's got a very very strong culture but it was decimated under a chair cesco and what we're now seeing is that this book fair to mark the occasion forty books remain in books have been translated so that gives real insights into a culture that is really riven and torn between hope and despair and you know peace we have a report now about two leading remain young writers and they're the villains between hope and despair is very much a feature of these profiles. listen ok. france

one thousand bytes in bits from two thousand and thirteen to two thousand and seventeen there has been six point four million book buyers who have been lost and that of course is an alarm signal for us. but because of the lives in a multi-tasking society people are stressed and the fact that they must be online all the time and constantly acting and reacting meaning stress for then so that they no longer have the time to read and. not fill was a comment by the the head of the the booksellers organization here in germany commenting on the fact i was going to mention it we didn't quite get around to it. the the number of book buying people in germany has dipped by six million in recent recent times so that's a pretty substantial figure that was what he was commenting on there we should go back to remain and we should get our reports about the two leading remaining writers but let's do it. mirra chair casarez is one of romania's most acclaimed contemporary writers eloquent sharp and someone who doesn't mind

speaking uncomfortable truths that people who are poor or. ninety's stay poor. but at the same time. there is now a very rich people who got the reach most of them ninety percent of them because of the corruption. romania's communist regime under a dictator. who may have crumbled in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine but many of the old ladies simply reorganized and corruption remains a huge problem. in his sprawling blinding trilogy cause rescue works through his time under the chacha school regime it tells of coersion drills of hunger and fear of torture. it wasn't the year for last nine hundred eighty nine the people heard about wars and uprisings but they fear not because that too must come to pass in his books contra rescue mixes real scenes

with surreal ones dreamlike sequences with nightmarish episodes katana screws latest novel saul annoyed is unique among the author's works because for the first time contra school has created a main character who doesn't only think of himself but for the good of the community carter eskew says that he has learned that literature should be humane and it said the big questions. mamma look at as another has been working in spain for so long that it seems like forever she works in tourism at the seaside and comes home once a year out of season she arranges it so she will catch the winter holidays for years and years she hasn't seen romanian leaf or in bloom she always comes when it's money when people are grey and muffled up and she gets the impression that the country is a depressing place he. lavinia burnished his debut novel interiors zero was a surprise hit and run mania it's the story of a young woman who tries to build

a life and future in bucharest while her mother lives and works in spain being left behind is a common story british his own mother has lived and worked in western europe for years so. i read recently a report of the un i think it was with the. fastest depopulating countries in the world and they were all eastern europe. lavinia burnished a wants to stay in romania she feels she belongs here even if life for the young is not always easy. to preach at the two the key themes of romanian literature seem to be the chuck cesco years and the experience of what you might call exile yeah and they held their link because the charter school years were so very very painful a very many intellectuals optum left and left the country that has remained the story of roumania right through to the present day with millions of people leaving the country in recent years but i think there is a tendency now among younger writers to turn away from that things at least support

that pain aside and to look to the present look to the future of remain here and to write about ordinary things like life and love and trying to survive in a post communist society just getting on the back good story thank you so much for the craven that's it you are up to date. but go off we'll have more for you at the top of the out i'll get back.

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colors freedom of expression fear of students blocking the abortive travels through russia before the election. he meets with work and the rich to support the president to those who oppose him and investigative journalists. shows from our series this week on d w. earth. the boehm two moves of species. worth saving and going to those are big changes and most start with small steps global ideas tell stories of creative people and innovative projects around the world. ideas that protect the climate boost green energy solutions and reforestation. results of people you can not predict of course

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this is v.w. news weibo from berlin tonight u.s. president trump gives the green line to new sanctions against russia he says he'll impose fresh sanctions in response to allegations that moscow never ordered the twenty sixteen presidential election the u.s. has also joined other countries in their support of britain's standoff with moscow .