this is. from berlin germany's president speaks out against feminism in a televised interview. anti semitism destroys this sense of home for all who want to make a life in the country and he takes on a law requiring crosses to be displayed in public buildings also coming up. polls have closed in lebanon in the first parliamentary election in nearly a decade an unprecedented number of independent candidates are hoping to shake up

levanon political establishment under prime minister saad hariri we'll go live to beirut for the latest. the. president. kicks off his election campaign called a little early to go ahead next month and now faces a credible threat to his power from an opposition alliance. and welcome to the program german president. has spoken out strongly against anti-semitism in the country after a series of anti jewish attacks in recent weeks and a televised interview he also criticized a new ordinance in bavaria that requires crosses to be displayed in regional government buildings. the various state premier marcus has rekindled

a dispute about religion and patriotism by requiring various state premises to display the christian crucifix as president of the federal republic frank was that dime a dozen cars involved in day to day politics but as a committed christian he believes religion and its symbols are a matter for the church not the state. that's if people don't go to church on sundays putting crucifixes in government offices isn't going to make them religious . has been in office for just over a year and how loans chancellor angela merkel's new grand coalition government and the interview he said the challenges in general politics were equalizing the standards of living in town and country immigration and integration he also demanded a decisive rejection of anti-semitism you wouldn't with jews christians or muslims whether believers or nonbelievers whether they've lived here for years or who just arrived they all want to make a home in germany that will be possibly fun to some interesting spreads in germany

because in the end it destroys that home for everyone. and. that democracy must be nurtured if it is to be preserved it's clear that the fight against populism is to be the theme of his second year in office of i believe the task of the federal president just to warn that as the world becomes more complex as its problems become more complex the answers can become more simple and. the rule of law operates in germany said steinmeyer but freedom and democracy are not guaranteed. the ballot count is underway in lebanon after voting in parliamentary elections ended a few hours ago it's the first election held under a new law meant to give smaller parties a chance but observers expect the race to come down to the western backed prime minister saad hariri and the iran backed militant group hezbollah. lining up to elect

a new parliament for the first time in nine years the war in neighboring syria security concerns and disagreements between rival parliamentary blocs delayed this vote until now many vote is deeply frustrated. with had enough of clans that have ruled us for fifty years. tried with the old guard but nothing's changed you will add up some of those yet to nab an ins old prime minister may well become its new one billionaire businessman saad hariri heads up the coalition campaigning for votes from simians and moderates but he is under some pressure these companies are foundering and many resent his cooperation with hezbollah. the radical shiite group has pointed to its military successes in syria in an effort to secure more votes it's set to profit from electoral reform i thought because we're going through difficult times military success and hezbollah are particularly

needed without hezbollah we also have terrorists in this country and every few g. crisis similar to that of syria and iraq a view to your. new non-denominational protest parties are hoping to challenge the political elite in this election but that chance is a slim due to high electoral thresholds and old political alliances. let's go to our correspondent who is following the story for us in beirut all the polls have now closed what are you hearing in terms of voter turnout. as of six pm the water timeout was forty six percent in the last elections in two thousand and nine the older time i'm sixty four percent what's happened this time around is that a few hours before the polls were supposed to close the political leadership of different political parties appealed to their waters to get to the team sent us to the polling booth and vote in huge numbers why that happened because in

a certain sunni dominated district the sunnis that dominate had voted no i beg your pardon so the shias lost their will just to go and the christian parties did the same so in a way in the towards the end the political parties have asked their voters to go ahead and cost their ballots in huge numbers and we've also seen some minor skirmishes between the supporters of hizbollah and the supporters of saddam heavy these future moment now as you mentioned these are the first election since two thousand and one that's a lot has changed in the last nine years what are some of the domestic issues that are on the minds of voters well this is actually the first election for this generation the two thousand and nine elections you had voters who had witnessed the civil war and they had a very different bent of mind at that stage but this time around you have hundreds and thousands of first time voters it is not yet known how many of their water playing on their minds are dominantly civic issues like office prices electricity prices and several other issues but they feel it has not been as levanon continues

to have into ferentz from reasonal powers like saudi arabia and iran the country cannot move forward and that is because of the sectarian divide in the country hizbollah and its allies the christians and so needs to mention the sectarian divide the country has a new electoral law based on proportional representation how could this impact the outcome of the vote. well essentially how this would impact the outcome of the walk is that in a sunni dominated area perhaps she would get a seat or a druze would get a seat in a position would get a seat and wiser but broadly it's not expected to impact the elections as far as a sectarian politics in the countries concerned because the seeds are still result of sectarian candidates essentially means that your watch will not be forgotten if the lists that you watch it fall has got a minimum number of seats so you will see some surprises but not too many because the established political parties have done this acted in math pretty well this time we do have civil society candidates but it remains to be seen how they perform

. reporting from beirut thank you very much it's not the other stories making news around the world forty five people have reportedly died in fighting between armed bandits and local militia in the northern nigeria state civilian militias say the bandits attacked residents of villages this is the latest in a growing number of incidents of rural violence across the country involving cattle fast robberies and kidnappings. pakistan's interior minister a son in kuala has been shot in the arm in an apparent assassination attempt he was at a meeting with his supporters in his home district in french province when the men fired at him security forces have arrested a suspect believed to be the attacker. sunni's ians have voted in their first local elections since the twenty eleven arab spring revolution this is seen

as a crucial step toward consolidating the country's democracy but turnout was low especially amongst the youth who drove that revolution in two thousand and eleven but are unhappy about continued high unemployment and low economic growth. turkish president. has launched his campaign for a snap general election which he held at the end of june at a rally erewhon told supporters he would resist any attempt from domestic or foreign actors to divide the country and promise to make turkey stronger there is much on the line for are the one in the upcoming ballot winning it would secure him sweeping new presidential powers that were narrowly approved just last year. oh president one is well known for his all singing all dancing rallies tens of thousands attended the unveiling of his party's election manifesto thanks but takings were high that he would announce a major new initiatives but he didn't was seven weeks still to go to polling day

this time yet for campaign promises he did pledge more investment economic growth and a commitment to democracy and he vowed that there will be no letup in operations against what he calls terrorists some targets border with syria there will be new offensives in the african region of syria after the election we will not give up on constructing terrorist organizations we shatter the terror corridor are being formed on our southern border with these operations our soldiers who wrote an epic enough rain are ready for new missions but the work up that of those. two arms of the election would be a turning point for turkey even opposition parties agree about that they just don't see it as positively as he does if he wins another one will bring in constitutional changes that will give him even more power as president four opposition parties hope to prevent that by forming an electoral lives they say they're seeking a return to freedom of speech and the press on an independent judiciary so far

seems to be making all the running but seven weeks is a long time in politics. iranian president hassan rouhani has warned the united states that pulling out of the nuclear deal would be a terrible mistake the two thousand and fifteen agreement lifted sanctions against iran in return for tehran's promise not to continue with its nuclear program u.s. president doll trump has condemned the deal as flawed and threatened to leave while tehran says it's complying but not seeing the benefits speaking at a rally in the city of sobs of our rouhani says he's ready for any decision trump makes. ah as if the us office to pull out of the nuclear deal they will soon realize that this decision will become a historic regret for them so you will. think we tell the whole world america europe the east and the west we will not negotiate with anyone over our country's weapons and defense. oh.

why. oh we will build and stockpile weapons equipment and missiles as much as our country requires. these stars in slovakia instead of celebrating i'm a wedding friends and family are mourning murdered journalist yon kid siac and his fiance martina near olga could siac have been investigating high level corruption in the country there are still unresolved murders in february have led to mass protests which triggered the resignation of the prime minister amid demands to battle corruption and protect press freedom it should have been one of the happiest days of their lives but in place of their wedding friends and family are all knowing the murdered journalist ian could see a continued fiance martina with a memorial concert. is where we can accomplish the.

investigation again and amount to mass murder as well as causes of corruption can be investigated it's not known who shot could siak and his fiance at close range in late february but when he died the journalist had been working on an article about alleged connections between leading slovak politicians and the italian mafia in the cigars that the in the article could siac named people and companies we have checked all the names and connected them to seventy criminal cases we're looking into possible links. prime minister little bad fits so has resigned but behind the scenes many believe he's still pulling the strings that's prompted tens of thousands of people to protest. slovaks are furious that have been received nations but not enough because. above all corruption must stop

we need more public scrutiny. that seems unlikely in light of the latest development the country's public broadcaster recently fired several journalists they'd signed an open letter against corruption in the media. to sports now in formula one fernando alonso has once again proved his versatility by winning in a different series this time in the world in durance championship the spaniard triumphed in the toilet on his debut in the sports car series and belgian along so was also impressive when he raced at the indianapolis five hundred last year for the very first time the double f one world champion will return to formula one next weekend for his home of the the spanish grand prix. and a reminder of the top story we're following for you the vote count is now under way in lebanon's first general election in almost a decade observers expect the race to come down to the western backed prime

minister saad hariri and the iran backed militant group has a lot. you're watching the news we back at the top of the hour and i'll be boss and thanks for watching. this from the germany is a strong country. that we have achieved so much we can do this and if something hinders on some we must overcome it. going where it's uncomfortable global news that matters t.w. made for mines.