join the discussion and have your say. to each of allan sloan media form twenty eight plates. business d w news live from berlin lebanon goes to the polls for the first problem until election in nearly a decade security fears and a tug of war over election reform delay voting for years now and unprecedented number of independent candidates are hoping to shake up lebanon's political establishment also coming up. protestors in paris to tell their president they have

had enough tens of thousands hit the streets calling for an end to macross agenda which they say favors the rich. and of fall from grace for germany's once highest paid blue chip c.e.o. u.s. prosecutors have indicted the former boss of courts wagon as german prosecutors are examining his case what's ahead for martin winterkorn. i'm michel henery thanks for joining us. voters in lebannon are heading to the polls to elect a new parliament for the first time in almost ten years the vote had been postponed several times due to war in neighboring syria and the new electoral laws approved last year proportional representation will replace the previous. winner takes all

system and electoral districts have been reduced lebanon as a patchwork of groups and religions vying for power. among those hoping to make gains in the country is hezbollah the islamist political and militant group financed by iran which supports the syrian president bashar al assad the election highlights the power struggle in that in a country divided along sectarian lines. the graves of lebanese hezbollah fighters who died in neighboring syria the iran funded parties militias are revered by many shiites in lebanon. in syria they fight alongside the troops of president bashar al assad an ally of iran . has ball or under it secretary general has son nasrallah is not only a military organization but also an influential political force is represented in the lebanese parliament alongside other muslim and christian parties and it's part

of the national unity government shiite and sunni muslims and christians are sharing power there lebanon is a diverse country almost twenty religious communities live here as dollars involvement in the war in syria is creating tension between them it undermines lebanon's policy of not interfering in other countries all parties agreed on the policy so as not to become entangled with the region's interest groups this country of four million has taken in more than one million syrian refugees since then poverty and unemployment have risen sharply and growth has fallen to one percent down from eight percent before the syrian war in addition there are the hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled the palestinian territories decades ago lebanon is formally at war with israel beirut demands the establishment of a palestinian state and the return of refugees as conditions for a peace agreement lebanon maintains close relations with israel's main critic iran

mainly through hezbollah. time and again the country has run the risk of being drawn into the regional power struggle between shiite iran and sunni saudi arabia despite its attempts to maintain good relations with all muslim states in the region. that was the case in two thousand and seventeen when prime minister hariri a sunni supported by saudi arabia suddenly announced his resignation jaring a visit to riyadh possibly under saudi pressure and according to his statement fearing assassination by hizbollah but after mediation by france hariri returned to beirut and withdrew his resignation. it's unlikely much will change in lebanon after the elections whatever the outcome of the vote parliamentary seats and key political offices will continue to be divided proportionally among religious groups that means lebanon will remain a divided country. i'm joined now by

a correspondent in beirut who's following today's vote for us on shore thanks for joining us lebanon has started its first parliamentary elections in nearly nine years why has it taken the country so long to get to this stage. well there are several reasons but if you talk to the lebanese they say that's only because the ruling here wanted to keep the power they sought to extensions of the cabinet in the elections have not taken place to fourteen different reasons at different times remember off the civil war ended according to type agreement this power sharing agreement was a right that under which the president would be a question the prime minister a sunni in the speaker. after that we've seen the syrians on lebanese territory under two thousand and five you've seen israeli invasions of levanon and then we've seen this war in syria and all of these have been courted as a reason by the lebanese by the ruling lebanese to sort of seek an extension having

said that the lebanese also feel very proud of themselves they say that this is sort of a shining light in all the middle east where at least fighting to be a functional democracy and it's not must they do have certain expectations from these elections and it is because of so to say the lebanese great that this country is seeing elections and i can tell you today there is much excitement on the streets in lebanon and people are hoping that it would be too little but some change should occur on today's voting so it sounds like it took so long the country because the country have been affected by political and sectarian problems but touching on that excitement that you mentioned more than seven hundred thousand young people are eligible to vote in the country for the first time will their vote bring a change to the political system. well i believe they should but i've been talking to a lot of people for all of the month last month and the young people seem quite divided we don't really know how many of these. thousands of youngsters will actually go out there and vote most of them say that they do not think that would be change

that the fear of the warlords would come back to power when they see warlords essentially mean the warlords of the civil war who after the agreement was a write up on the century became politicians and continue to be in power so there is sort of this disappointment at a huge level but of course they do want to. yes there are a number of people you speak would say we would like change to we want. our politics to be nonsectarian we do not want fall foreign policy to be meddling so those young souls are also going up toward an interesting phenomenon this election is that representing people who want change in a similar society candidates and establishment candidates and many of them are fighting the largest coalition of such candidates it's called not what the need or all for one nation and defeated at sixty six candidates i'll be they are have also fielded candidates based on. which suspect is a certain seat result for but they say that they are secular these see that they won't and nonsectarian country it remains to be those seen whether they are

a city phenomenon one of a just a barrel phenomenon or whether she was like. me heartlands like truthfully they would score any seats at all so it sounds like there are people public choosing between establishment and alternative groups but let's talk about hezbollah for a moment the military croupe and political party is looking to expand its presence in the parliament what do people expect from them. but you know his came into being in eighty two walked israeli invasion so the ballot in his will last century is and this is what most lebanese say despite what sect they belong to that we need as well as military wing because our army the lebanese army is not strong enough which essentially means that israel in waves who's going to protect lebanon and this is a close to every week we hear there's going to be a war with israel so that essentially is the significance of his will that is why people say we still need hizbollah but if the lebanese army were to be strong

enough and they don't want as well as military wing thank you atia vora and bear fruit. now here are some of the other stories making news around the world a coal mine explosion has killed at least eighteen miners and injured several others in southwest pakistan rescue operations have been concluded according to authorities the blast was caused by a buildup of methane gas. a trench will flood has swept through a district in the turkish capital ankara injuring six people the powerful water said vehicles downstream through the streets dozens of homes and offices were also flooded authorities say crews have already started cleaning up the affected neighborhood. russian opposition leader alexina vali says he's been released from custody after being detained yesterday at an anti-poaching rally in moscow novotny had called for a nationwide protest against president putin's inauguration for a fourth term as president on monday some one thousand six hundred activists were

arrested in other demonstrations across the country. french police say forty thousand people hit the streets in paris yesterday in a protest targeting president emanuel mackerel the demonstration comes one year after mccrone took office in a landslide election when organizers of the protests say the young president's social reforms hurt working people macron first sale a president of the rich that's what more than seventy percent of french people say according to a recent survey and forty thousand of them hit the streets to join a konovalov displeasure at the french president. give us hope. it is a disaster the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. it will go to borrow some cast mocked as a king others short him with a noose around his neck a thoroughly french way of railing against the elites but underlines how many see

his presidency. moments after his election when macron tun from a political gamble or to a president with a clear claim to leadership destined for the top crossing the courtyard of the former royal palace luva within minutes he was a head of state with a touch of the monarchy about him. was. and when putin visited welcome to rest side i treated him to france's splendora. the french are proud of themselves and their self-confident young president. and when he cultivates a treat planting male friendship with the most powerful outsider in the world than it is riyadh politic nevertheless he does not cut back on his criticism. whether in washington or in front of the world economic elite his message is clear and

gentlemen my my first message is that france is back. not least economically at lightning speed he relaxed labor laws and lord corporate taxes investors are coming back and unemployment is going down. he has changed the mood in the country france has no more innovation to change to new things and. one year on and those who i want to celebrate macron see things differently these changes are viewed know as progress but as a treat one way or another france is changing. continues to set a fast pace. the scandal hit former c.e.o. of both swag and martin what are korn is normally at every match of german champions dire new nick but he didn't travel to the champions league game last week

in madrid u.s. authorities have issued an arrest warrant for winterkorn for his role in the v.w. diesel emissions fraud. this is the village of munich where martin venter core has been living since he left fox in two thousand and fifteen as v.w. c.e.o. he was the highest paid executive in germany not only has he been indicted in the united states there's also a warrant out for his arrest now under german law however he can't be extradited still he is a risk. in. the u.s. he faces a rest before travelling to other countries he'd have to check carefully whether they could detain him and extradite him to the u.s. or. he's put the world's biggest carmaker back in the headlines car sales are strong despite the diesel emissions scandal p.w. has a large pile of cash despite billions in penalties but the risk is of intercon could drag down again american allegations of systematic deception at the highest level of g.w.

have not gone unnoticed by politicians in germany. it's not for me to decide if he's guilty or not that's the job of the courts but it's interesting that in the us they're not afraid to tackle executives. for me top managers who've been earning top salaries constantly claimed they knew nothing they must take responsibility for . the key question is what did winterkorn know and when did he know it. although he told a parliamentary investigation that he had not known about the intentional cheating and deception there is mounting evidence that he did know about it before the scandal broke in september twenty fifteen. it was only in july two thousand and fifteen a senior executive is said to have spoken to venta cohen on the phone and told him we've been cheating in the us the same month a lawyer for the company says he talked of into cohen about the cheat software and how best to pursue damage control in upping the current public prosecutors in

germany are also investigating even to call on suspicion of fraud and market manipulation at a major sunday newspaper is reporting that v.w. is considering suing him for damages under german law executives can be held responsible for losses whether they knew about misconduct at the time or not if oversight was unduly lax. that's our news wrap the bundesliga show follows after the break with all saturday's big action thanks for watching. two w.'s program guide on. the highlights with the home not. dot com highlights. the blessing. and a curse. the force of nature and inescapable fate.

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