this is d.w. news live from berlin tehran takes a tough stance on its unpopular fuel price hike iran's supreme leader says he backs the sudden decision to raise fuel prices even as a wave of violent protests over the graves of the nation also coming up venice under water again the city suffers its 3rd major flooding in less than a week and damage could run into the hundreds of millions of euros plus cuba's capital of bon celebrates its 500th birthday with music dancing and fireworks but

it's all against the backdrop of an ailing economy by saying. i'm called aspen welcome to the program any wrong thousands of people have been out in the streets protesting the government's decision to raise petrol prices by 50 percent and introduced rationing since the price hike on friday many demonstrators have abandoned their cars along major highways and joined mass rallies in the capital tehran but some of the demonstrations have turned violent at least 2 people have died as a result of the protests with many more injured. iranians have taken to the streets in the capital tehran and a number of cities across the country in protest against a government move to hike the price of petrol by 50 percent. well the demonstrations started with protesters blocking roads but it's collated quickly

petrol stations and cars were torched and all manner of public property was badly damaged banks and government buildings were also a focus for people's rights which failed to sway iran's leader ayatollah khamenei he stand steadfastly in support of the price hike. so i don't know long. down or made a decision for the country based on expert assessments this is asian must be executed. the move is in part of response to the failing economy as a result of u.s. sanctions but cumani says nothing justifies the response from protesters yet then is acting a bank on fire it's not done by the people this is what thugs do these words were indicative of a strong law and being taken by the government in the face of the wrist police of threatened more tough measures and the communications minister announced that the internet has been shut down for 24 hours to reimpose control. are let's get more

now i'm joined by cameron mathison he's a senior lecturer at the university of sussex focusing on international relations thank you for taking the time now 1st off iran one of the world's top oil producers can you explain why the regime would feel the need to raise gasoline prices especially on such short notice. yes iran is indeed one of the largest oil producers in the world but it doesn't have the. domestic. refinery factories enough for its you know domestic consumption so historically iran has actually have to import refined oil products for its domestic consumption the short notice though it is indeed kind of a mystery for many people as to why now given what's happening in neighboring iraq and lebanon and surely the regime leaders would would have expected that this is

might lead to unrest there are different stories about this i mean one can only speculate one is that simply the sanctions have been so crippling that the budget deficit iran is having at the moment could not be dealt with in any other way and raising the petrol prices or some other observers say that the president rouhani has done this in order to. convince the hardliners the so-called hardliners within your indian regime to come to a compromise with the government of united states over these sanctions in other words to show that you know the continuing sanctions of united states in the absence of some sort of compromise from iranian side would delete 2 measures which in turn will lead to social unrest in iran now you mentioned those sanctions of course we see these violent protests in the streets how much pressure is the regime under right now. well iran has had experience of social unrest

about a year or so ago we had also a widespread protests in many european cities so. in the absence of organized political parties which would kid good which could give direction and strategy to protest for the government it might be an all too difficult to suppress especially given that they have shut down the internet and means of communication to prevent people from self organize ation and song so one has to see if it continues with the momentum which it has now it could be difficult for the government to suppress but the iranian state has shown in the past that is that it doesn't blink from using iron fist when it comes to political protest inside iran all right cameron mathison senior lecturer with the university of sussex thank you so much for the perspective thank you. here's a check now of some of the other stories making news around the world sri lanka's

former defense minister go to buy a rajapaksa has won the country's presidential election well wishers gathered at his home to congratulate him is the south asian nation's 1st major polls since it was rocked by the easter sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people the vote was largely splits along ethnic lines. police have launched a late night time operation to clear pro-democracy protesters from hong kong's polytechnic university the push came after a day of fierce clashes activists vowed to defend the campus which they occupied as part of a campaign aimed at disrupting traffic and hitting the territories economy. russia will return 3 captured naval vessels to ukraine according to russian media the boats were seized by russia last year as they tried to break through a russian blockade that had closed access to several ukrainian ports ships return come to have talks between the 2 nations to discuss the conflict in eastern ukraine

. well the roots is holding a parliamentary election that up opposition groups say is neither free nor fair president alexander lukashenko dismissed those allegations after voting in the capital makes many prominent opposition figures were ruled in eligible as candidates critics say the election is vulnerable to manipulation. storms snow and rain have continued to hit the italian city of venice residents they are facing yet another high tide shutting the famous st mark's square for a 3rd day more than 2 thirds of venice is flooded damaging monuments shops and homes the crisis is expected to cost italy hundreds of millions of euros the city has been under water for days now with strong winds on tuesday bringing venice is the worst high water in more than 50 years. joining us now from venice is g.w.

correspondent julia julia 3rd major flood in less than a week in venice just give us a sense what's the situation right now how is the city coping with this. this city is coping relatively well all things considered but people are starting to become a little tired of all this flooding now so many floods so frequently are really exceptional and people are not prepared they're trying to clean up their homes again clean up their shops again and they're staying strong and venice is a resilient city but it is getting to a point where the spirit is starting to go down however everybody thinks that hopefully the worst is behind them and that they can start working towards coming back on their feet again i mean of course benny venice is a historic city it's a unesco world heritage site i mean do we know how bad the damage is yet we're hearing estimates in the hundreds of millions even towards the 1000000000 euro mark . what we've heard is that it will take time to really be able to

establish how much damage has been done and what the estimates are going to be that is because not only do they have to wait for the water to dry up but they have to ensure that the salt is not cause that much damage in fact the salt crystallizes and it ruins the structures so it is going to take some time in fact in some buildings today we were inside the each of the big famous theater here in venice the wall the water has crept through the walls and is still dripping so it'll take a while for it to dry out. we heard the city's mayor earlier this week citing climate change as a contributing factor to these laws and we know water levels are not likely to go lower in the future what are the plans in place right now to prevent more flooding or at least limit the damage in the near future. for 20 years now there is been a project in construction the so-called moses is some of underground very. years that are meant to protect the city from the tide going up however the work has been

slow there have been corruption scandals and it is no meant to be finished in 2 years the government is currently try to push for it to happen faster but it remains clear that the government the local one and the national one will have to reevaluate what they have been doing and what they will do in the future to avoid something like this happening again. really of course venice is a city that depends heavily on tourism on the i mean how are these wads affecting things like hotel reservations or people's trips to the city. we've seen people still coming in sometimes carrying their suitcases over their heads trying to not get wet in the really high water so people have still been coming here it is been hard to get for example to see where at some times of the day because it was shut but when they open it people come in there splashing around they're actually enjoying the high tide which does not sit very well with some of the residents but tourism is still coming and people hope that it will continue to

be that way tourists and residents of course braving those floods there in venice deli thank you very much. well cuba has been celebrating the 500th anniversary of the founding of a spanish concourse but the city's residents don't have much else to celebrate these days the trumpet ministration has mostly perverse and modest thaw in relations that were begun by president obama attended economic reforms introduced by cuba's government have done little to improve most people's lives. have vanished celebrated the anniversary with a gala performance in front of the capitol building music opera ballet traditional dance and a fireworks spectacle that belied the communist countries economic misery under oppressive regime. united and hope that everything will get better.

we cubans build on our dreams and future despite being surrounded by obstacles. president miguel diaz canal open the official festivities without making any remarks as a rule he stays away from microphones have found his best day comes at a difficult time the u.s. has imposed sanctions fuel this gas american tourists have stopped coming to the island gradually the communist regime is loosening its grip on the economy in the hopes that it will boost incomes. cuba needs a certain amount of privatization in the economy and that opening possibilities for small business people is one step cubans with capital can invest in the country that makes sense. vanna tan 500 following local custom residents touched wood for good luck in the future. than it has celebrated its birthday in style offering

a cheering audience what it is famous for opera ballet traditional cuban music and dance all this in times of crises latest us sanctions have led to our shore to jews and also to fewer tourists coming to cuba this means less money in the pockets of the people cubans are celebrating but are worried about the future on the other hand they say we are used to crisis and we will pull through no matter what. sports now and a big win for germany on saturday booking their place at euro 2020 with a convincing 4 nil win over bella bruce you can live side can now clinch the top spot in the group ahead of the netherlands and tuesday's game with northern ireland croatia and austria also went through. germany had been in the driving seat long before mathias didn't how open the scoring in the 41st minute but got back not showing any sign stadium and yogi live side's lead was doubled just after half time

smashing home this time to give germany some breathing space veteran midfielder tony close out of the 3rd in the 55th minute the real madrid filled with a neat finish from the edge of the area and close added a 2nd with 10 minutes to go the 2014 world cup winner now has 17 goals for his country to leave us are in talks you try to score some goals but it's more important that we can enjoy this as a team going you could see that it can get awkward that's the way it is in these types of games until the 1st goal goes in towards my surgery a job done for germany who can now focus on fine shooting their preparations and head of euro 2020 in june. are you ready tennis fans the finale to the men's tennis season is just hours away. austria's dubnyk team takes on greece's stefanos c.c. past as they bid to claim the a.t.p. finals trophy tournaments new converts easy pass beat the mighty roger federer in his semifinal in one didn't seem meanwhile overcame germany's defending champion

alexander therof in straight sets it was a dominant display you can see is full of ray of shots on display there the 26 year old won a 7563 victory in sunday's final of the unofficial 5th major would be teams' preview highlights so far. that's all from a stay tuned more news of the top of the. show head to our feelings this is to move balls speaking when i come to the show with a ding dong xoai concert. with the austrians guinness. and then incredible location. tonight grooves every week on d w.