the at. the at. this is d w news live from berlin and he's the joker in the pack could ukrainians choose a comedian as their next president will ask our kid correspondent live alone to mirror selenski is leading in the polls in a closely watched raines also coming up slovakia elects its first ever female president anticorruption campaigners is on that chopper towboat won almost sixty percent of the vote in a runoff poll. now

. i'm married to evanston it's good to have you with us ukrainians have begun voting in the first round of a presidential election the vote is being watched closely in the west and in russia ukrainians have dozens of candidates to pick from but polls indicate there are three frontrunners including a television comedian. the last time ukraine went to the polls and twenty for fourteen the country was in free fall russia had just invaded and annex the crimea region and production separatists had seized control of part of the country's east over five years on what are the issues foremost in ukrainians minds. connelly reports. more than ten thousand people have lost their lives since war broke out in eastern ukraine back in twenty fourteen millions have

been forced to leave their homes as the shooting continues political attempts to end the conflict remain stuck in no man's land but the fact the fighting didn't spread further and that ukraine's army was able to regroup essential to president petro poroshenko as campaign when his message to voters is clear only he can keep ukraine safe and stand up to russia. but five years of war have also left their mark on ukrainians pockets in europe second poorest nation real incomes are still lower than they were before the war as household bills have skyrocketed. over three million ukrainians have left the country in search of work it's these people pensioners and those on low incomes struggling to get by the ex prime minister yulia timoshenko is trying to reach she promises to cut household bills in health as soon as she's elected and do more to ensure ukrainians can find work at home both president poroshenko and ex prime minister tymoshenko have been around for

decades and many ukrainians especially younger voters are hungry for change. one person who seems to fit the bill is actor and comedian polygamous lenski the forty one year old may have no previous political experience but he has played the president before and the hit series servant of the people this is calm tells the story of a school teacher whose rant about the state of the country is caught on video by one of his pupils the video goes viral and the teacher suddenly finds himself catapulted to the top job don't worry good morning mr president. mixing footage from the sitcom with his campaign ads zelinsky is now trying to convince ukrainians that he's the outside of the country needs to shake up its corrupt politics his motto become president but stay ordinary guy his critics argue that in reality he's no outsider launching a campaign calling him a puppet of the oligarch. a sworn enemy of president petro poroshenko it's called

he who put zelinsky on television in the first place and on whose channel he announced his surprise run for the presidency selenski denies this anything untoward about his relations with the businessman. for now the polls put zelinsky in first place far ahead of his rivals but questions remain come election day will ukrainians really take the job and vote for someone who's only experience of politics so far has been with the t.v. script in his hands. is nick connelly filed that report and he joins us now for more from kiev hello to you nick so the frontrunner currently is a comedian but what makes you craniums think that he can actually do the job as leader of the country. morning well qualified or not i think the cs it's mainly about protest sentiment about a kind of collective weariness with the political class here in ukraine that's been

really in charge of this country the past twenty thirty years supports remember that when the soviet union fell apart in the early ninety's poland and ukraine for instance were as rich as wealthy person as each other now there's over a million and a half ukrainians working in poland so ukraine really has fallen back economically in terms of corruption transparency international puts ukraine somewhere between mali and djibouti in terms of perceptions of corruption way down there the only other european country that does badly is russia so there is really a weariness and an anger that things haven't changed fast of the people's lives haven't got better obviously there are still questions whether people will really take that risk where they'll take the jump to vote for someone who doesn't have any political experience and there are also questions about selenski commitment to politics he's being a bit elusive about whether he's willing to slug it out in politics even if you doesn't win the presidency this time if he's willing say to go into parliament as an m.p. he's not being clear about that and maybe he'll choose if he doesn't win to go back to show business well not in the previous election the incumbent president

poroshenko won by a wide margin now he's facing an uphill battle why has his popularity slipped so far. i think last time around it was a bit of an unusual situation the election twenty fourteen came just after russia had annexed the crimea the war in the east just got going so people really desperate for a safe pair of hands that portion go that was what he was basically selling the voters and they gave him an absolute majority in the first round this time around people are frustrated that their incomes their real incomes are still lower than they were before the war the conflict in the east hasn't been resolved although that's not all in his hands lots of that depends on moscow but i think the overarching theme is is a frustration that things haven't changed as fast and as revokable as they should have corruption is a big issue in the has still been no major public conviction for corruption knows big figure has had to go to prison or lost their wealth and that is something a lot of people are very unhappy about. that was vividly is nick connelly reporting

from kiev well turning now to mozambique where aid agencies are stepping up their efforts to help the sick and hungry in the flood ravaged country cyclone to die killed more than seven hundred people in mozambique and in malawi and zimbabwe when it struck two and a half weeks ago hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless authorities are now warning of the danger of water borne diseases and they reported a jump in the number of people ill with cholera the areas previously under water now large muddy swamps the receiving floodwaters in mozambique haba the bodies of many of the missing the threat of disease here is very real. is warry over a spike in the number of color cases in the city of beirut koehler it causes acute diarrhea and can kill within hours if not treated nearly a million vaccines

a jew to arrive in the country soon. government and i work as a wrapping day or if it's to treat those in need teams from around the world are arriving with food clean water and medicine. we go into a very critical phase now which is assistance this is this this will be done in feet in five years which is foods health what's a sunny day should and also shelter. we also want to make sure that the committees who thought capable and conditions we store did livelihoods so we would be with some measurements that we taking like seeds means for them to work make sure they do get this soccer culture is hugely important to mozambique nearly eighty percent of the population depends on it many people not only lost the roof five of the hades bought the harvest to getting their damaged land back in working

order. critical. let's turn now to some of the other stories making news around the world amazon says an investigation shows that saudi arabia tapped the phone of its boss jeff bezos that's after a tabloid printed leaked messages between bezos and journalist lauren sanchez shortly after beezus announced he was divorcing his wife because of own as the washington post which employed the murder of saudi dissident jamal khashoggi. brazil's president show your bulls an r. o. has arrived in israel to be in the country for several days seeking to bolster ties while avoiding angering arab trade partners the trip comes as israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu battles to gain support ahead of national elections. the local elections are being held in turkey they're the first since a reform package gave president wretch a type heir to one sweeping new powers poll suggests his ruling party's popularity

has been hurt by the country's economic recession and that it will lose ankara and even possibly istanbul. now lawyer suzanne a couple tova has become the first female president of slovakia the country's electoral commission says couple tova has fifty eight percent of the votes with nearly all ballots counted capita over ran on an anti corruption platform and promised to bring change to politics and slovakia the political novice is known for her work as an environmental activist her opponent in the runoff poll was maro chef cho bitch who was backed by the government. well joining us now from bratislava is correspondent. so. before she was chair of presidential bid susan a couple tova was in fact largely unknown even in her own country what more can you tell us about who she is. she was known as

a environmentalists who fought for eight uli illegal lays down and that she stressed and i corruption an agenda which was i think the most important the. in her and action campaign but her victory really shows that this country is ready for a new generation of politicians mostly because the established group of calling the shots including that treat so who is the leader off their wing smear party turned out to be really deep into corruption and they are what was characterized by massey that views of aust power and funding so that of the chapel dies when the new face who presents a different political culture she has massively reject the popular reason and in her campaign that temptation really fused to jump on the for example

the migration of red tory or or other kind of rhetoric to act tracked extremists waters are i think sick a bit of a represents a new generation for leadership in slovakia so what exactly do you think she will really change now that she's become the country's first female president. i think that that more than changing things she she needs to be present and clearly drawing ropey and brought transatlantic activated because he specially in that we should grab a region he can see the graphic then the seas inclinations the arts of russia if you look at hungary or even the czech republic so she is urgently needed as a voice april european a voice and the voice actually rejects some of even calling the remember those

those are rhetoric that he might cost us the auris that you know like the country the small country by by. foreigners yes they had a ball and go many thanks indeed for your reporting and. now paris's louvre art museum is celebrating thirty years since its iconic glass pyramid was built to mark the occasion the museum has invited the french street artist known only as j r to reimagine the pyramid on a grand scale the louvre about to be transformed. hundreds of volunteers a pasting thousands of strips of paper to the floor for three full days. they're marking the thirtieth birthday of the louvres famous gloss pyramid and they're putting together an art work by french artist jr who's creating an optical illusion

. why why not why not reinvent and rethink places why not wake up in your own city and allow yourself to reinvent and rethink it to look at it in a different way i'm growing up in the suburbs i always try to see parts differently not like everybody else climb onto rooftops and go into tunnels and to be able to see a monument like this today and rethink it reinvented as an artist is that modernist that utopia which allows you to move forward and take people along with you. and this the pyramid rising from an imaginary crater is the end result. you're watching t.w. news coming to you from berlin we leave you now with some images of earth our cities around the world turned off the lights on famous landmarks in a call for global action on climate change america thanks for the.

staying up to date don't miss our highlights. program. w dot com highlights. for. me president the long. end of the rwandan patriotic front to include the rebel army and in the one nine hundred ninety four genocide wasn't when. there wasn't.