you've been. having all. week to see the pretenders certainly he's one for the ages. up. on. hello and welcome to focus on europe i'm lara baba lola nice to have you with us a new beginning for turkey those are the words of istanbul's new mayor who broke the ruling party's hold on the city tens of thousands of residents celebrated cram in a model sweeping victory after president aired a one demanded last

a revote he won said whoever wins istanbul wins turkey and its people have now delivered a clear message to their country's leader well with their vote the people of istanbul have rejected president at a once increasing authoritarianism democracy at work the people are suffering from the country's financial crisis that has also caused wants popularity to fall the construction boom he encouraged has flopped and abandoned projects now dot the landscape one casualty of the economic downturn is alibaba marketed as a kind of fairy tale to potential buyers the luxury development has now become a cautionary tale for investors. who wouldn't want to own a castle and here there are plenty to choose from over $700.00 in total. it's a place straight out of a fairy tale. but it's turned into

a nightmare for developer measure yet because no one wants to live here. he's the one who dreamed up the idea of building the chateau style vélez some 200 kilometers east of istanbul to have a living we're here in the turret that every driller has. for your own who's going to enjoy the view of the natural landscape. they also have a nice overview of the estate and other villas. we have our arab friends in mind as buyers and we've seen how they've been keen to invest money in our country in recent years there's been a little. bit we're done get them of. them there we still do. but those yet are lynn's dreams haven't come true because the arabs have stayed away $200000000.00 u.s. dollars have been sunk into the project before the developer filed for bankruptcy last year it's just one of many real estate projects that have gone bust in turkey

. the building which had been fueled by low interest rates and cheap credit has come to an end. experts say developers lost all sense of proportion and though far more homes that need it now in times of high inflation and a weak turkish lira the industry is suffering if you can all 6 in order compared to the previous year new home sales have collapsed there is a number of mortgages issued has fallen by close to 80 percent. that's led to massive layoffs in the construction industry. one in every 6 people there is lost his job. as some 2000000 people are employed in the sector you can imagine the seriousness of the situation or triggered. the bush housing development was also supposed to create lots of jobs. but in the neighboring town

of new people had long viewed the chateau project skeptically it's known for its traditional timber houses not concrete chateaus. local historian memo chun tork lives in a 200 year old timber house that he has lovingly restored he's proud of my door knows our teas and all traditions. little to do. in this house not even the nails come from a factory blacksmith made them with a hammer and. so with anger is chantel worked at disneyland style housing development for foreigners has been built just a few kilometers away the people of modern who view it as a threat to their centuries old traditions and values. of their infant was there still a sense of community here. we hope and support one another. how can we pass on our traditions and values to the next generation when thousands of people whose

only connection to this place is a real estate investment settle here which. you probably shouldn't worry too much it's likely no one will ever move in bush about bust looks set to become a ghost town to keep that from happening measure yet again a selling the shadows for just 350000 euros a piece he still hopes to attract buyers who want to feel like the king of the castle. peace on the border between the republic of ireland and northern ireland well today there are few traces left of the past conflicts but decades ago when the borderlands were a place wrought with criminal activity and terrorism many smugglers profited from the separation and division of the good friday agreement and the e.u. single market brought stability to the island now with briggs it looming there are worries that a no deal scenario could reignite illegal activities there again people like seamus

murphy fear that a hard border could encourage separatists and smugglers to return to the violence of the past the current the things change because we change learn. from his home in the republic of ireland seamus murphy shows his friend peter where the irish border runs rex it is a constant topic of conversation and concern for them some cynical humor helps. it would be illegal for auggie to take his dog from the thais down as far as those pine trees because once he passes the pine trees in the republic of ireland about his dog would not be allowed to teach and others it would need to be shots like i'm not too sure he's going to come play with that regular guy. i have me doubts about that. here in the border region people aren't big sticklers about regulations seamus murphy says smuggling was part of everyday life when he was a boy though most of the time the goods involved were fairly innocuous detergent.

or a couple of sheep in a carrier. almost anybody over 50 years of age have themselves some smuggling skills and we admired smugglers when we were children there were legends there were robin hood figures in this area so there was no social condemnation of a smuggler smuggling was perfectly respectable business to be a. mick who prefers to keep his last name to himself says he to smuggle goods back to them the truck driver brought his cargo across the irish border on country roads avoiding the customs officers altogether. he believes that will bring with it duties and price differences and that will encourage smuggling again. where. i'd be going to barbados facio instead of yeah it was really you know like over.

the border yes the so money back since 2 or 3 on the cross and here over the years couldn't you. know here. so this thing of. the sea it was in the old days these warehouses right by the border were used to smuggling cattle grain heating oil and other products until the e.u. customs union and open borders made it unprofitable but gangsters continued to operate in the region and could profit from. the danger is very substantial there are people with access to hundreds of thousands opposed to invest in the goods that they want to smuggle and those are the people with existing links to crime. work together just as criminal gangs have cooperated in particularly in illegal cigarettes and importing of illegal

cigarettes from eastern europe from. after that it could be more lucrative for these gangs to smuggle beef from the u.k. into neighboring ireland and then sell it for higher prices in the e.u. . the only way to stop them would be to implement tougher border controls but politicians warn that that could also reignite the northern ireland conflict. has the potential to bring us back if there's any infrastructure. at the border and in relation to border control attentional brings by those dark days and that's what's very worrying for people and that's why it's so imperative that there is no return to the borders of the. this former british customs shed as a relic of that past. conor patterson from the new reach a matter of commerce and trade recalls that it would sometimes take an entire day for

a truck to clear customs. although back then there was less trade between northern ireland and the republic of ireland. this facility was both here and in our area that was secure we have we have cameras we have we have the british military very close by the previous facility was was was destroyed and the ira of which killed 9 people i'm not swore they are actual arjun's of the political conflict came from that's why 300000 british soldiers and northern ireland during the course of the 30 year conflict. some bricks and supporters say the answer to the problem is a smart border with infrared cameras and motion sensors but among locals there's also huge opposition to the idea. the problem with.

any take knology installed at this border will not last 24 hours. why because it will be either blown up by paramilitaries ripped down by respectable people like me. these 2 men want things to stay just the way they are at the irish border they view breck's it as a threat to peace and stability in the region and no one wants the troubles to return. 2 syrians accused of carrying out torture on the orders of dictator bashar al assad are currently awaiting trial in germany and it's thought many other suspected war criminals entered the disguised as refugees but investigators now have vital evidence out of syria during the war to trace them down this has given hope to

a lock she has been seeking justice for nearly a decade for her son who was killed by assad's torturers. nerium lives in a berlin suburb she's from syria and part of a major hunt to catch syrian secret service members who committed crimes like the. mari m sun a yob is one of the regime's many victims he was beaten and tortured to death when the syrian civil war broke out. i don't live on one of his fellow students even health torture him he had always been very courteous towards i hum and greeted hand and the news that. i don't understand how someone could turn into a torturer and become a monster like that. serious secret service systematically tortured just for speaking up for human rights demanding syria become a democratic country and for urging assad to step down. now 8 years after

a yobs death his mother wants justice. i want the culprits to be brought to justice from the accomplices all the way up to president assad and these people are responsible for spilling our children's blood. there are more than 26000 pictures of syrian torture victims they could help convict syrian torturers and murderers in the coming years their victims and their relatives demand justice like syrian human rights lawyer mohsen darvish who was tortured before being able to flee the syrian capital damascus is that a few months of school to surface and the branches to become like this. many of his friends and political allies in the fight against the assad regime were abused like this no one knows how many people lost their lives. the lawyer shared

all of his information with european investigators and has joined human rights organizations in pressing charges against former syrian tormentors. european police are currently investigating former assad torturers who fled to europe disguised as refugees in february 1 suspect was arrested in france and 2 others in germany. among them anwar who came to the german capital berlin as an asylum seeker. this is a 1st term it will be a fine of. these cases this is the 1st time you know this is the 1st time there is a respectable independent court judge and we have victim and suspect and we signed the law and the state of florida we don't have it in syria. we have seen documents showing that germany's federal office of criminal investigation has investigated on more or its suspected involvement with the syrian

secret service we have asked the syrian embassy in berlin for a statement it refused to comment. they could be that the prosecution of syrian torturer seems to be gathering momentum in europe. where at the secret investigative bureau somewhere in europe where bill wiley of the commission of international justice and accountability is working hard to catch syrian criminals . used to hunt war criminals as un prosecutor now he has access to a vast archive of syrian state documents that could prove crucial in catching assad's henchmen basically. what you have in this room are materials generated by the security intelligence structures of share the military structures of syria and the bath party or political structures of syria at the top level and that the government levels here they are the files documenting the crimes of

the syrian regime they have been meticulously cleaned scanned and logged and carefully analyzed by several dozen investigators they comprise interrogation reports and many other files that document figures within the security apparatus that systematically tortured people they also shed light on suspected syrian torturers like anwar how many. people do you think you. were. more senior ranks as you said or are. there maybe more that were. you aware of the documents could you imagine. there could be more of your. there should be more of syria whether there are turkey or. elsewhere italy's. mario. whose son

was murdered by the syrian secret service hopes that not only the killers of her son will be caught but all perpetrators that have gone into hiding will meet justice for her the hunt has just begun. it was a stark warning from environmental experts that made headlines by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the world's oceans well that threat is increasingly prompting grassroots action like a project taking place off the coast of lithuania the baltic sea is awash with what are called ghost nets lost or abandoned fishing nets made of plastic the bina caco discovered the problem years ago now is she leads a team of volunteers who treats the nets from the seabed a painstaking process. some final instructions before the diver. out of the nets look. i don't like dozens of old fishing nets are caught on

a shipwreck off lithuanians coast sabina caco and her crew are going to bring them up. care cow is a pharmacist and one of germany's most experienced divers. in 2016 she noticed a particular kind of waste in the baltic sea hold trolling and dishing nets. a study revealed that thousands of nets are lost in the baltic every year. europe has to lay the foundation for plastic to be prohibited as far as possible. 10 percent of the plastic trash in the seas consists of ghost nets. and when they degrade they release micro plastics and vast quantities. every year care cowan or fellow divers set out from lithuania to bring up the ghost nets on a voluntary basis they finance their operations mostly out of their own pockets. once at the wreck the divers find no shortage of nets to marine animals their

deadly traps. care cow on the other divers try to cut the net away with a simple knife but make no headway eventually they abandon the operation. some of these nets are decades old and aren't about to give up easily. they're made of all kinds of materials and they're all different ages. besides these are enormous and very very heavy heavy from the lead water and sand and everything that's been washed into them over the decades. we have to cut them up into little pieces to bring them up to the surface. but now the nets are already piling up in many ports such as in the south of sweden here as part of a baltic wide pilot project basis from the port authority is looking for ecological solutions for disposing of the waste. plastic industry will not be able to use.

raw material because each. different type of plastics they want to have very clean room much earlier. but now the tons of waste can be offloaded in series and taken to a recycling facility for old fishing nets on sweden's west coast. here employees painstakingly cut apart the tangled nets. the various materials are then separated and recycled each in the appropriate fashion. it's still good quality but it's not good enough for fishing but it could be good enough for an beach bag. like the process of turning old fishing nets into beach banks is complicated so been a character house team has finally succeeded in bringing parts of the enormous trolling net to the surface. but they still have to keep it aboard their boat.

for us as a group we've achieved fabulous success and i'm overjoyed i think it's wonderful that we've managed to get this done and that everybody worked together so well let's keep it up. they all agree that many more people and especially governments will have to join in their battle against the ghost nets. a few countries at least want to introduce a tagging system for fishing nets so in future their owners can be traced so being a caricature sees it as a 1st step to ask if we can prevent 521-0000 nets getting lost and this year then we'll only have to worry about the ones already underwater. and we won't have to worry that for every net we bring up $100.00 more are being discarded. sabina cares about the baltic sea she'll soon be back she says the battle against the

ghost nets has just begun here in the baltic sea and all the around the world. it is made here it can be old and right or rich and cultured i'm talking of course about swiss cheese a staple in kitchens all over the world well that's thanks in part to its mass production which started in switzerland and the region emon tall where the king of all she says is created well now an experiment is adding a new dimension to traditional recipes producer bad player says he has scientific proof that music can make a difference in taste. the gammon valley or amman tal is where switzerland's best known cheese comes from and one of the producers here wants to make his product even better. where tom flair is a veterinarian and a cheese maker who's looking to revolutionize the world of cheese. intolerance 2 and a half years old microorganisms are working on it it mostly bacteria. and it's

amazing actually that they're able to affect its aroma all the way down to the very heart of the cheese of this case is present in 10 he 9. the family wants to get those bacteria to begin vibrating to music he believes that might change the taste of his cheese. then on the song when you put your hand on the wheel of cheese and feel the sound waves move through it but it's hard to believe it wouldn't have some kind of effect on the. firm players experiment is getting a little help from students at the university of the arts in barron. for more than 6 months they'll serenade his cheeses with a range of beats and sounds including rock songs by led zeppelin mozart's opera the magic flute techno or hip hop equal or. wanted to just like.

the sound waves will pass through the wheels of cheese causing them to vibrate in different ways depending on the music he pops up and. hip hop has lots of bass in it the classical pieces are very dynamic with quiet sections but very loud ones tonight allowed so does the cheese feel any different after half a year of acoustic irradiation. understand we feel a difference with the rock'n'roll one but i hope i'll be able to taste it to make it up on. a jury made up of cooks and artists is judging the results of the experiments they quickly reach an unequivocal conclusion you read yes there are differences on the cd. according to the experts here hip-hop brought the best results. i'm pretty surprised by the results my guess is that the constant beats and intensity of hip hop has some kind of effect on the cheese as it ripens just us across in a case that provoked all of this what do the other judges think. i felt that the

rock music cheese tasted bess i guess because it was strongest it had a rock n roll flavor and cleft except that he. says. it's very soft and slightly sweet stuff and just in series. the employer is happy that the hip hop cheese got such rave reviews tying his product to the musical genre could make the younger generation interested. doesn't there are many young people out there who've never given a 2nd thought to m. and tal are hard changes unpasteurised cheese things like that and on the sets which is why labels like hip hop or techno m. and teller could prove a hit. of live is now checking for measurable differences in the different cheeses . and let's not forget a traditional form of singing from the region who knows maybe one day em and tell you a little cheese will be the next big thing. well

the next time you're served blue cheese you'll know what to do thanks so much for watching focus on europe and do get in touch with me on twitter about this week's stories of leaders and you yes you get the yacht you. king. tut.

tut. tut. tut a. little to. enter the conflict zone with tim sebastian germany's far right all positions possibly a f d takes its place in the new and be expanded populist group in the european parliament for i guess this week is bastards from the show i don't feel the column actually structured because you know it sets the focus off you need to close out some of its highly controversial rhetoric conflicts sophie to 1630 minute t.w.

food. borne whole. body . the book.

never has a been the stock. is facing a mass extinction. you could say that hope itself is in danger. but there is a glimpse of. the biggest companies in 1600 global change. the possibility . that not only animals will be sufficient. to get. the lion's share of the conservation of hope. frank food. international gateway to the best connections also road and rail. located in the heart of europe you are connected to the own world. experience outstanding shopping and dining offers and try our services. alan gassed at frankfurt airport city managed by from a bought. this

is g.w. news live from berlin the struggle to rehabilitate fighters from one of the world's most violent militant groups they have terrorized somalia thing is killing that many innocent people but now some of the al shabaab militants are all being offered a chance to leave the group and rejoin society t.w. spoke exclusively to some trying to come to terms with their violent. also coming up police in hong kong began arresting people off the pro-democracy protesters

still.