making a last ditch attempt to wring concessions from the european union ahead of a crucial brics vote in britain's parliament tomorrow they has been holding talks with the european commission president john called younker she's trying to tweak britain's withdrawal deal from the e.u. to make it more palatable to u.k. lawmakers a major sticking forte point is the so-called irish backstop over the weekend he was ready to strike a deal with young girl in brussels but was over ruled by her own cabinet. all right so what is going on in strasbourg let's go there now live my colleague. is on the story for us good evening to you ben so first of all can we clarify what exactly is treason may doing in stross burg at eleven pm central european time on monday night. she says drafting a text to gether was commission president. and this text show that be tabled to the

house of commons the problem and tomorrow and the takes show interpret there was strong agreement the treaty that says how the britain can leave the european union and be here no there is an agreement that this text shall have an interpretive instrument they call it no which clarifies that the backs up but not be applied it turned at least at the backstop to only be applied temporarily that was one point the brits have over and over but this is already in tried in the text but now it's again reiterated maybe that makes it the house of commons happily we don't know and . we also hear that the medical it's a legally binding in the room because they know they want an exchange of letters that mrs may and the e.u. the president of the council mr toast did in general to become legally binding it's

also a reassurance it's all very technical but it seems that this is something that mrs may can offer to thousand of commons and in london the cabinet has gathered already to to go over this draft and also in ireland the covenant has got to check it from the other side ok i mean this i mean this would be remarkable if it is indeed the king's the interpreted instrument that you mentioned that means basically that sounds like a a clock or a stopwatch that would limit the time that this back stop mechanism at the border between the republican of ireland in northern ireland would would have validity so we're talking about a time limit on that if i understand you right back and you're also saying that the agreement is going to be legally binding which is what the heart breaks in two years have wanted all along my question to you can john claude younker can he alone provide theresa may with an agreement that is legally binding for all twenty seven

members of the european union. well no i would need some legal advice here but as far as i understand it's the treaty itself it's not changed it's only legally binding it's only the exchange of letters that was done in generally that must be something different and it's not exactly a time limit on the text up it's only the reassurance that it will not be applied for a vote but none of the sides can leave it on its own so the british would need. the europeans also to leave the backstop it's it's all about averts i would gets the substance it's not changing as far as i understand and we know we have this very important vote coming up tomorrow in parliament so me without having the details on the on this new agreement or this revised agreement are we talking about this being

a game changer for the calculus of how members of parliament are going to vote tomorrow. but sources in downing street number ten already said this is more than they have expected coming out yet from stross but so they were quite optimistic that the vote was somehow changed tomorrow at the pens on the hot cold brick city is and on the deal p. the northern irish pot if they agree or not and it's very hard to tell tonight what will go to go to happen tomorrow yeah and we're also getting some statements coming from the u.k. cabinet office ministers for example and it's still very very clean want to resume a enjoin volume for have negotiated tonight but hopefully within the next hours or at least by day you know sunrise tomorrow we will find out in strasbourg france tonight thank you ben. three known to algeria president of delos

ease beautifully has pulled out of the race for reelection the decision not to run for a fifth term comes after weeks of nationwide protest against his renewed cans of disk in a letter to the jury and people who flee get said the election that was planned for miti will now be delayed until after a national conference on political and constitutional reform the eighty two year old leader is now reshuffling the government has been in power since one thousand nine hundred nine he returned to algeria on sunday after spending two weeks in a swiss hospital and for more on this now i'm joined by journalist sophie young us here from the algerian capital algiers who joins me over the phone sophie on you've just been out on the streets and what is the mood there what are people saying about this decision not running for a fifth term. there are several thousands who lurk in the streets right now on that route where the downtown as you. have you know very

live but many people already think that this is definitely not enough. for the new crowd a process called it's like you if i'm not. here to answer that. the timing of the fact that i am. one of the four seven right now that there is no longer. time for me and. what is happening right now i mean we understand the beautifully good is reshuffling the government we understand that he appointed the interior minister to be the new prime minister it is is he is he truly is he giving up power were with this decision. it was a political monitor because he simply appointed it's a close ally. that. i mean if he can use the minutes of injury at this interview six years as

a close ally off the pieces was. quick and says that for the country four years. younger than his class one already. and yes it's going to transition government that. would be appointed and yes i mean yes i mean day. five in egypt we're going to. talk to. him and told him if he knew and would like to. still be on the elections we understand they've been postponed we understand there could be a new constitution in the works what do you expect for the country in the weeks ahead are you expecting more protests for more change at the top of government. absolutely just that we're not just on the do you can you. again this is a political my message to everybody smiling for new protests against the fast track

. it's not enough yet so i think it's going to get a friend to help the country fiance this so he be significant because development in the i mean days of a journalist is sophie on us are joining us on the line from the algerian capital on james tonight with reaction to that announcement that the president will not be seeking a fifth term thank you. there's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world u.s. backed syrian forces say they're making slow would bantams into the west village held by islamic state jihad a spokesman says that troops are battling militants holed up in underground tunnels in bug switches near the iraqi border in eastern syria the offensive resumed on sunday after a deadline for militants to surrender expired u.s. president donald trump's twenty twenty budget proposal has been delivered to

capitol hill you see it right there he's seeking eight point six billion u.s. dollars for his mexico border wall as well as increased spending on defense he's also looking for big cuts to non-defense spending such as environmental programs and welfare programs japan is marking the eighth anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami which struck its northeast back in two thousand and eleven officials and members of the imperial family attended a memorial service in tokyo the disaster killed more than eighteen thousand people and it caused a nuclear meltdown at the fukushima nuclear power station several people have been left injured after a powerful storm swept across parts of southern poland gale force winds tore down grooves toppled trees and power lines and damaged railway tracks hundreds of thousands of households suffered power comes. crashing besta gaiters have recovered the black boxes from an ethiopian airlines flight which crashed outside addis ababa on sunday the boeing seven thirty seven max eight belen from nairobi went down six

minutes after takeoff killing all one hundred fifty seven people on board it raises concerns about the safety of boeing's best selling new design. i remembering the dead families and the ethiopian pilots and crew remember the lives lost in sunday's crash. earlier at the crash site red cross workers retrieve the personal items of those on board while investigators recovered the wreckage. of a large crater marks the spot of impact eyewitnesses describe the horror of the crash and the aftermath the. fire was coming out from its tail and then it tried to lift its nose but it couldn't was going from side to side it went straight into the ground nose first then exploded i'm look at it but they get it off wanted i looked

and there were a lot of kenyans on it i saw identification documents of a university student from america. i saw pictures of ethiopians and chinese people . i meet. in new york the united nations flag has been flying at half mast among the dead a twenty one united nations staff. a global tragedy as it's close to home and united nations is united in grief. i extend my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims to the government of people of each. and o. these affected by these awesome. ethiopian authorities are leading the search aided by the u.s. kenya and others. the airline has announced its grounding at seven thirty seven max fleet and other countries are following suit the same boeing model crashed just

five months ago in indonesia. as investigators look into the airplane's flight recorders people around the world are hoping for answers to why their loved ones didn't make it home. for real madrid have reappointed isn't a things that don as coach after sacking something. is it done is set to take over training on tuesday his new contract runs until twenty twenty two in his hugely successful first felt. when three champions league titles in a row and one league a crown with rio they have struggled since he resigned nine months ago they crashed out of the champions league last week and are twelve points behind leaders of barcelona in. well a zoo in the u.k. has released fresh footage of its newest arrival a baby rothschild's giraffe the male calf called him bureau is less than one week old but he's already six feet tall his injury to the world was captured on c.c.t.v.

rothschild's giraffe named after the london zoo wallah just you first described the subspecies are one of the world's most at risk mammals in recent decades their numbers have declined by ninety percent estimates indicate that fewer than twenty six hundred now remain across africa. next up all the best from the arts with as well as business will see against.

hello and welcome along to news from the world about cults is what we have few today. a production of noble goal directed by kremlin critic kidders sarah brady cough while under house arrest in moscow premieres in hamburg. our guest today is vernon based painter lennart karl who's colorful mysterious images are inspired by renaissance masterpieces. and in this week's edition of one hundred german must reads we look at a mystery set in the heady days following the full of the burning war. we begin in hamburg where the opening night of the verde opera nabucco began with its director two thousand kilometers away and the house arrest in moscow carol said

a brand of coffee is a harsh critic of the government so unable to travel he's relied on friends to carry out his vision for the production and his updated take on verdi's classic puts the plight of refugees in europe into the mix. a modern rendition a very nice classic nabucco set in the un security council teaming with six intrigue and despot. to slave chorus laments their lost home but in this update the original hebrew slaves have been replaced by actual refugees from syria and afghanistan. director kiro served any coffee is not able to take the final curtain he's under house arrest in moscow and can only send a video message. great opening thank you

so much for this extraordinary moment in my. life. is all shit carol sir brenda cuff is considered a punk among russian directors he's received international accolades but the outspoken kremlin critic was arrested in august of two thousand and seventeen charged with embezzling public funds he now has to work remotely from his moscow apartment. and for me it felt like we had a real director here i've often worked with directors who seemed much more absent even though they were physically present the. rehearsal recordings for the director each scene from every phase of rehearsals was filmed and sent via a u.s.b. stick to moscow it was up to system director of guinea could logon to communicate serve brenna cuffs return video instructions to the team and. then point because just be up and then click with everyone has their own opinion of the message. they

see different meanings questions and answers that done. there is certainly no clear message. but it certainly shines a light at outcast from our modern society putting actual refugees center stage and letting them voice an operatic call for freedom. i'm joined now by a fellow officer i should say but a painter they're not corral just before we talk about your paintings which we can see in glorious technicolor one of them behind you if you are in a similar situation to sarah brown a cough that. and somebody said you can do those paintings anymore what would you do while i don't know i hope i don't get into this situation i have a. list let's just hope for it and i just i just wonder what you think of seeing this must be the biggest you've ever seen a part of your painting yeah yeah quite good resolution yeah very you sort of don't

see so i don't know that i know there's like a closer look i like that. ok. but. let's find out. lives and works in berlin where he initially studied architecture then he decided to dedicate himself to his true and studied art he finished the college of fine arts as a master students and stayed on in the german capital. he has his studio in the north of. this is where he creates his colorful pictures generally painting with acrylics. for his paintings he takes inspiration from the old masters. the fact that my subjects are often so similar probably has to do with this whole

universe of iraq and rococo my fascination with it i like to let myself be seduced by it. he often paints portraits of heroes and leaders he pays tribute to the pathos and decadence of past iris through his intensive use of color. how has developed a technique. towards the paints right down to the canvas to create thick layers that merge into one another. it takes him an average of one month to complete a painting unless he's fighting a deadline he'll take the time to work out. and he's grateful he's able to live from his art. to the artist's works come from all over the world some are prominent art lovers his works of also appeared in national and international exhibitions such as the berlin meet

collectors who. has no intention of letting circumstance. it's like being put him under any pressure. so no pressure but what you've actually achieved what thousands of volunteers dream about of make a living from your obs. so have you achieved your wildest dreams i mean what's what's what's the best of that. well i don't know what could be better for me i'm i'm very happy about this and i'm very thankful. that it worked out so far. i mean it wasn't always like that i also had hard time soon the studies we had to do stupid jobs. just to make a living and. yeah luckily those times have changed now you know infants by the barack and the run is souls as we heard and you talked about why but it's not always the case not all of your paintings. inspired by them i mean that's quite

clear did i want to always want to off do you have a eureka moment do you sometimes see something in your mind's eye the completed work or is it always a process. no it's most of the times it's the way that i make studies i make sketches and i try to create. my vision first on paper and then it goes stamps and step through and slowly it develops we have here you see this one that looks to me like you had it well then is that a football is that a football motif no i don't think it's from football. random people yeah yeah yeah but f'rinstance how did that one come a bath you know it was more that i was trying to search for. like some kind and

images from from nowadays and not from the bar called coco it was like a translation into i want times maybe. ok now one thing i've noticed in a lot of your paintings a blank faces i notice this happens quite a lot in your work now why is that you most of the time as we can see here maybe it's not so much about the personality of the character. the sailor around it all of the sayings they are wearing the poles and. they had that office so. i think like a painting a face then i would lead them to different direction. but i mean it's always a very noticeable to me when i look at it oh there's no faces and trying to find a greater significance but that's you don't want to take away. from the no no no no

it's more like the smell of it you know is that. you know not the personalities so . ok now you take approximately a month on a work said in the report that i always want to do is it easy to put the paper rush do you know. that stuff and you go to bed and you don't get up in the morning and go. that's what it is thank you yeah it's tricky because sometimes you know you have pain things that way you confuse something is missing and you don't know what it is so you maybe put it away for weeks or months then i just turn it around again and look at it as if it would be a painting from a from another artist maybe and then i have a fresh view and sometimes it's just need one stroke and suddenly it's everything you need it yeah yeah. thank you very much for being with us i should say to you

that before this weekend i didn't know if your work i'm absolutely blown away by i think you're wonderful. and you can give me the fifty euro is not. all success to you thank you very much for being with a surcharge for having me here. turning to literature now in our series one hundred must reads today's novel is set here in berlin around the time the berlin wall came down thirty years ago in fact the city itself is kind of the main protagonist my colleague david levitz will explain more about parise the shadow boxing woman. have you ever been a victim or felt like one what if you could fight back what if you could take out anyone you wanted to what do you.

guys novel the shadow boxing woman is about a young woman living in berlin when the wall comes down after she survives a rape her whole world changes she finds a martial arts teacher who transforms her into a fighting machine. the woman's name is hell not because she's a total bad ass because head is the german word for bright her neighbors neighbors don't get meaning dark when they don't who goes missing and hello decides to do something about it i'm going to break into don't cause flat after years of hard training with way opening the walk should be no problem calling the police exam question it's not as if i were recalled when doesn't just teach students punches and kicks but also the thirty six chinese survival strategy when has taught me how to wait calling it a feeling for the right moment those missions are find her neighbor takes her down a twisted path to the stranger who attacked her now if it sounds like

a crime story don't expect a classic whodunit. the shadow boxing woman brings together past and present as well as two berlins east and west that are just getting to know each other again but mostly it's about confronting fear and shadows of an era. and this unique list of one hundred german books you should read. is available on our website at d w dot com slash culture and indeed lots about the project and about the books and more about lit up they're all on the website as well that's all we've got time full on this edition of ups and culture. thanks to all the crew for keeping this altogether full may join us at the same time as a borrower if your job.

is german agriculture destroying baltic people. german companies are ninety to one massive scale it's a cheap resource to do to farmers. but environmentalists warned that extracting peat arms the climate draining vs bombs releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases depleting good people ox. close up next on d w. two players. table. to stage.

patrols. in a poker game of power and money the competition is fierce for the world's most important natural resource bluffing and betting checking how long will they be able to play and who will win their story we believe that renewable energy will play an important role in the future. the good poker game the geopolitical investigation starting march eighteenth on t.w. . such. europe needs peat but extracting it has become almost impossible in germany so now the industry is getting its raw material from the baltic states. the extraction permit process in germany takes a long time and it's expensive so companies have been forced to look elsewhere.

environmentalist are trying to put a stop to feed extraction experts like hans you.