the prize winning documentary. from the forest starts aug ninth w. d w news live from berlin a record drought turns back areas of australia to dust it is the country's worst drive spell in fifty years and across the globe raging wildfires and extreme heat have scientists raising the alarm they warn that rising temperatures could ever bursley disrupt earth's ecosystems. also coming up lawmakers in argentina are

voting on whether abortion should become legal the issue has been highly controversial and divisive in the homeland of pope francis and german ryanair pilots who vote to join friday's strike that's already disrupted the travel plans of more than twenty five thousand passengers they want to budge an airline to give them a salary hike. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program australia's most populous state is gripped by its worst drought in fifty years with pasterns turning to dust and heat waves scorching parts of asia including china and japan wildfires are raging in portugal spain and the united states so what is behind this extreme weather in just a moment we will speak with environment editor but first this report on the high

temperatures and fears that earth's ecosystems could be irreversibly disrupted. it's been more than fifty years since the state of new south wales in australia has seen a drought like this farmers pray for rain as their crops and livestock die some are forced to shoot starving cattle others face the prospect of having to simply abandon their land. on the other side of the world a similar story the french are simply too dry about half of this farmers corn crop has already died in the us record temperatures are fueling the worst wildfire in california history the twin blazes dubbed the complex have exploded to cover an area the size of los angeles in less than two weeks. scenes like this are likely to become the new normal according to an international research team's latest study they call the trend hot house earth i said.

it's when the climate is much warmer than it is today three to four degrees than it already is four to five degrees warmer than in the pre-industrial climate. international climate targets aim to limit the earth's warming to two degrees celsius but scientists now think even that is too high setting in motion processes which could create a domino effect such as glacial melting researchers argue that without putting in place specific human made climate protections the seas could rise but up to sixty metres so how to curb greenhouse gas emissions scientists say we need to cut industrial carbon travel less by plane and car and eat less meat they say already the earth is on the brink of irreversible warming with severe effects like those in australia the government there has announced a multi-million dollar relief package for farmers but with dry conditions forecast

to continue that may not be enough. and let's get more on this now we are joined by sonia and she is the team leader for environment and she joins us from our studios in bonn welcome to you sonia just heard there that one of the states in australia is in one hundred percent drought with one of the driest winters on record how dire is the situation. well droughts are common in australia it is the driest continent on earth and it's been predicted that climate change would make australia hotter and drier so now we're seeing these predictions come true apparently climate change has altered the weather more modern and is causing the rain that would normally fall over new south wales to shift southward so that rain is falling into the sea instead of over land over this land that is in such desperate need of that moisture you know and it's hot not only in australia we've

also seen this around the world and here in berlin for example it's nearly forty degrees today can we attribute all of this to climate change well he waves and drought are natural parts of the earth's climatic cycles but what we are seeing as a result of climate change is that the frequency and intensity of these droughts and heat waves are increasing so for example this heat wave that we're currently experiencing in europe scientists recently determined that this was made twice as likely as a result of climate change and. we heard in our piece there about this new study warning about what's called hot house earth is that the direction that we're heading and should we be scared well it is alarming just to explain what those scientists did was examined various upticks in the history of the earth they looked at our current climatic situation and they projected some possible scenarios and they found that even if we do manage to limit global warming to under two degrees

celsius as is the goal under the paris agreement even with this warming could trigger a cascade of feedback loops that could heat the earth four to five degrees above pre-industrial times but to be clear this is not a sure thing it's just one possible scenario. some alarming insights there and so new jamie thank you so much for joining us to share. in other news germany has wrapped up a deal that will send migrants who have been registered initially by spanish authorities back to spain the deal will come into force on saturday spain has become the main entrance point for refugees crossing the mediterranean sea more than twenty three thousand migrants entered spain in twenty team according to the un that's many more than italy or greece to deal with spain allows german authorities to reject those refugees who have already been registered as asylum seekers in spain german chancellor angela merkel wants to reach similar agreements

with austria italy and greece. arjen time lawmakers are due to vote today to decide whether or not to legalize abortion it is a controversial decision with fiercely polarized campaigns for and against the proposed bill the powerful catholic church has been campaigning to get the upper house of congress to reject the measure but there has also been strong support for the pro-choice lobby especially among the younger generation in june congress's lower house passed the draft legislation by the narrowest of margins at this time it is widely expected to fall short of the votes necessary in order to pass into law. in our ethics and religion correspondent martin gak is following the abortion debate and the decision which is expected to be handed down today in argentina there and martin what do you think we're going to see well right now it looks like the know will actually take the day there are thirty eight bodes that have been

sort of declared for the no again thirty first that we have to bear in mind that when it actually cleared the lower house in june the situation was very similar and they started with no essentially ahead and then of course turn the other way so it's hard to say why is this such a polarizing issue especially in argentina i think it's a polarizing issue everywhere you look essential because there are of course are. just intuitions but there are also moral intuitions i think that the particular already of the latin american gays that there are real really no defenders to be found of abortion i mean the discussion concerning the freedom of the woman to choose or the freedom of women to choose is really quite marginal most of the discussion has been centered around abortion is something that is already happening is something that we cannot really stop the question is what are the legal instruments that we're going to be ploy norther to mordor late it it is very very clear number one that criminalizing women has been nothing but a failure of

a policy and this is throwed left in america the second problem is. to some degree abortion law to marry get something that is really at hand if you have enough money so the problem this presents is that a lot of women that do not have access end up dying in dire situations that are end up in hospitals this shows that there is a lack of equality in front of the law this is a very different picture for the debate and this is at this time what we're hearing in the senatorial debate which is what is that we're going to do about the things that are really here with us is not whether we allow them or not is what do we do with them and you know amid all of this we know that argentina of course this is the home of pope francis for example and he's known as a relatively progressive pope when we compare him to popes of past times where does he come down on the issue and how is the catholic church influence in the about the got to leave church by and large an entire unit structure of course takes the position that the catholic church usually takes which is untie abortion but

argentina let america by and large it's a very peculiar region so argentina has a group which is actually quite powerful has become quite bar for all over the last couple of years called got to look women for a choice or for the right to choose discussion of things i mean catholics that stand in pro-abortion grounds or conservatives that are actually sort of siding with the pro-abortion forces whereas you have people on the list that i. take a much more cautious approach abortion is something that like murder so the figure of the pope is important to go through the church board but it should not be read as a sort of black or white game it most certainly it's not martin jacques following the abortion decision in argentina for us it's going to be a close one and we thank you for putting it into context for butcher. well now let's get a quick check of some other stories that have been making news around the world the democratic republic of congo's longstanding president joseph kabila will not to run in the upcoming election according to

a government spokesman the announcement ends months of speculation could be a list second term officially ended in twenty six team but he had refused to step down now he has chosen former interior minister emmanuel ramasamy shot da r. e. to represent the ruling am p. coalition in that vote. zimbabwe's main opposition party says that it will formally challenge the results of the country's presidential election nelson chamisa and his m.d.c. party now only lost last week's poll to president emerson and then god what is the p.f. party with the dominant want the result sparked protest that was met with deadly force by the military zimbabwe's electoral commission has dismissed allegations of fraud. indonesian officials say that the death toll from sunday's earthquake in lumbered province has risen to one hundred and thirty one with more than fifteen hundred deemed severely wounded aide workers have been struggling to reach victims

in remote areas many are believed to still be buried in the rubble over one hundred fifty thousand people have been displaced. and police in the u.s. state of florida say that a herd of cows helped corner a fleeing suspect these pictures show the bovine deputies pursuing a woman after she crashed and allegedly stolen car the cows chased her to a nearby road where the police were raiding to arrest her. a german ryanair pilots have just voted to join their swedish belgian irish colleagues in striking on friday ahead of the announcement ryanair already cancelled one hundred forty six flights to destinations all over europe affecting more than twenty five thousand passengers those numbers are said to rise as the german pilots join the twenty four hour strike to demand

a higher base salary ryanair argues pilot salaries are not too low pilots are also biting the airline over base transfers the maximum number of flight hours promotions and annual leave. and here's our frankfurt correspondent on the strategy strategy of the unions and of ryanair have a list. normally unions operate on the national level as the labor law and the law for collective bargaining is organized on the national level and not on the level of the european union but now the unions are talking to each other they're coordinating their strike action in order to be able to hit the management of ryanair together stronger and this concerted action is a logical reaction to what ryan air has been doing for decades ryanair systematically has bypassed the national labor laws trying to use the one jurisdiction in the european union which is most favorable for the management and

like this has managed to keep the unions out of the company and dictate the terms of labor. for tennis now and two grand slam winner showed signs of their best form at the toronto masters stand i'm very eager overcame nick carey garros in three sets and me while the reigning wimbledon champion novak djokovic had a slightly easier path into the second round. stand in orange must have been fearing the worst against me carry us a full steam the australian it's hard to keep up with. the curiosities form can change dramatically from one set to another in the second very brink a took the initiative aided by an injury to his heavily strapped opponent. well know how that fails his ranking has slumped after two knee operations last year. but he's getting back to his best the majestic backhand flowing again this race swept through in three sets. novak djokovic is another

veteran big name who's had his share of injury problems in recent years it's good for the record to be a boston is the passage. but even the best get down in frustration of it shredded a break in a second search. and then took his anger out some of. the bad moves didn't last long he completed his reign on a tiebreaker after matches a white. thanks for watching. state. color. traditional. check in with. germany. dot com.