that defines. 970 the big. december 23rd. this is deja vu news live from berlin an apology from australia's prime minister for vacationing in hawaii while parts of his country burn prime minister you have other responsibilities and rights if that's not accept the criticism thousands of firefighters are struggling to contain catastrophic blazes across several states we'll go to sydney for the latest also coming up. in germany and the e.u.

take the u.s. to task for sanctions on a pipeline project to supply western europe with russian gaps a look at what if any impact those sanctions may actually have. and a provocative new piece banksy is unveiled the artist creates a nativities scene that draws attention to israel's barriers around the occupied west bank. a my cloak of glad you could join me australia's prime minister scott morrison has been forced to apologize for taking a holiday at the height of the devastating bushfire crisis emergency crews are struggling to contain hundreds of blazes around sydney a combination of record temperatures drought and powerful winds is fueling the inferno at least 9 people have been killed since the fires began but there's hope

at last a break in the weather. the reality of the fight against the flames tormenting australia the force of nature overwhelming. there are. just a handful of firefighters here more than 3000 others are on the front lines in new south wales and one of the biggest fire disasters australia has seen to have lost their lives. and back in australia to help coordinate the response prime minister scott morrison outraged by leaving for a holiday in hawaii is a crisis peaked he's returned with repentance. obviously return from that has caused some great anxiety in australia and. acknowledged that. he had to time over again and you had the benefit of hindsight and would have made different decisions

. the past 2 days have been desperate in new south wales the situation officially turned catastrophic as one official said as bad as it gets exhaustion is setting in. take management and the dry and the relentless nighter this season is certainly taking a toll on so too was a geographic spread of the activity just to go challenges transport and an accommodation challenges spreading and moving people right across such a broad geographic area all add to the challenges of 'd. spite the intensity of the. cold wet weather moves in but still hundreds of. the assessments of the damage caused. journalist roger maynard ease in sydney following the blazes there roger prime minister scott morrison has apologised after returning from vacation is there

likely to be any political fallout for him in other words are australians buying what he's selling. not really being rather cynical i think at this stage in his absence overseas sunning himself in hawaii while much of australia and certainly didn't go down too well and he's been and salute pilloried in the press and on the social media as a result of that he is under a lot of pressure to politically to pull out all the stops to try to restore his image this morning and went immediately to the rural fire service headquarters in sydney to major officials and also to discuss a strategy with them also there were up fighters from america and canada who arrived in australia over the weekend to try to offer a helping hand during his press conference scott morrison accepted the criticism

levelled at him and apologise for any offense corps has done here period to concede that climate change might have been a contributory factor in all this he emphasised that it was not possible to make a direct connection between climate change and any particular incident now australians are $60000000000.00 a year from the export of coal so there's a lot riding on this and he is not prepared to give that sort of business away immediately anyway well mercifully temperatures around sydney have dropped hasn't helped firefighters much. yeah it's a lot cooler in sydney if they have about 2324 degrees celsius compared with 4445 degrees yesterday so the news will drop in temperature and that certainly helped firefighters who've been battling blazes in the blue mountains now for most of the weekend is help them to gain some degree of control although a limited amount of trouble because these fires are so immense earlier today we

heard of another potential disaster in an area south west of sydney in a little town called balmoral which has a population of about $400.00 of the prime minister and the state premier of wind to this particular part of the world earlier on today and and and the work was that although no one's actually been allowed back into the village yet that most of the village has been lost such was the force of claims over night and that's why the story is going to repeat it is so many areas of australia at the moment you know in in the blue mountains and in southwest of city we've got this sort of christians of flame and circling a lot of the outer regions 'd. and no one can really stop it basically that's journalist roger maynard in sydney speaking to us a short while ago germany has strongly objected to u.s. sanctions against the north stream to gas pipeline from russia to germany the

sanctions target companies building the pipeline under the baltic sea washington says the project gives russia too much power over europe and its offering its own gas as an alternative. the gas pipeline has just 300 kilometers to go this signature aims to stop it dead in the water the new u.s. law imposes sanctions against companies building the pipeline washington says north stream 2 will make germany too dependent on russian energy for your business says german vice chancellor scholtz. sanctions constitute serious interference in the internal affairs of germany and europe and of our own sovereignty we have checked to them in the strongest terms moreover this behavior is entirely in comprehensible and is not at all appropriate between friends and nato allies. the sanctions target companies like swiss based all sees it operate ships that lay pipelines at sea but because the sanctions could threaten business the company does in the united states

its announced its suspending work on north stream too many german politicians are outraged by the american measures. just wants more markets for their fracking gas and they want to force europeans to buy environment damaging fracking again. but the government in berlin says it won't retaliate. we do not want to trade war whether on this issue or any other we believe that political differences should be resolved politically and shouldn't contribute to making the trade conflicts worse conflict. the consortium building north stream 2 says construction will continue but finishing the pipeline may now take longer and cost more. so work on the pipeline halted with only a few 100 kilometers to go. political editor. if the project could be stopped altogether. you know it's actually very unlikely that u.s. sanctions will stop this project from going

a hot head over all because it's more strategic that it is a technical question at the moment is a swiss company that is simply afraid to continue any work because of the threat of sanctions and they have specialty ships technology you can't replace but what you also can't replace is that strategic alliance between germany and russia on this particular point of energy security of energy supplies this is a project that's also been hot these are bases within the european union and the united states simply wants to kill it's unlikely it will do so because it's also a matter of principle even for the opponents that imposing sanctions is simply against international law and how international business is currently done. the chief political editor there and now there's some the other stories making news around the world at least 18 prisoners have been killed while the rioting in a jail in honduras the fighting broke out in

a prison located in the northern port town of tele relatives of the dead prisoners gathered outside of morgue to collect the bodies for burial. creations are voting in a presidential election where a tight outcome is expected the current president conservative. is facing challengers on the right and the left the ballot comes days before croatia takes over the european union's routing presidency. new zealand has ended a gun buyback program initiated after terror attack at 2 mosques in christ church killed 51 people earlier this year the government banned some semi automatic weapons giving owners until this weekend to turn them in for payment. getting guns off the street literally people were still turning in their firearms on the last day of the buyback program the government says more than 30000 weapon owners participated turning in over 50000 guns but i do believe that our communities are

just a little bit safer for. 6 months but there is still a lot more to do and i'm confident that the new zealand police can do that and be the safest country in the world. the measure followed an anti muslim rampage at 2 christ church mosques in march of this year when a single gunman killed $51.00 people the massacre shocked the country where mass shootings were extremely rare the prime minister just in the ardor and moved quickly to ban semi-automatic weapons like the one the gunman used the legislature passed it nearly unanimously. mrs speaker we are all to me here because 5050 people died and they do not have a voice we in this house are the voice and today mr speaker we have use a voice wisely. further legislation now moving through parliament would create a registry to track all guns police say that's intended to make it harder for

criminals and gangs to get access to weapons. but in a country where many farmers and hunters are attached to their guns the measure has faced some resistance. there is a huge amount of files on those that. i'm aware that they are going to become criminals time tomorrow even as the buyback and the amnesty continues meaning gun owners can still turn in weapons with no questions asked but anyone caught with a banned weapon faces 5 years in prison. the secretive artist banksy has unveiled a bible nativities seen with a twist in the israeli occupied west bank the scar of bethlehem takes pride of place in a hotel owned by the artist which overlooks israel's west bank barrier. at the 1st glance this new banksy installation just looks like

a typical nativity play now take a closer look it's not the christmas doll that is shining on to baby jesus mary and joseph it's light that is coming through a shell hole on a demo concrete wall a reference to the israeli built beriah they could be seen from every room of this hotel. he called this amazing piece of art to be scalded off him. and it's a scar on him it's it's a play on the word to go through thought of a friend's car about. the artwork as a metaphor for how palestinians live today in bethlehem and the rest of the police team in territories. walls off just like the name of the hotel where the installation and many other banks these works are on display. banks is trying to be a voice for those who cannot speak simply like this. is trying to cope.

our situation through art to make policy and voice reach a word through art. banks is creating a new model of resist through art. a typical banksy artwork provocative and disturbing. now for some more breaking news that is egg breaking news hundreds of green sea turtle the turtle babies freshly hatched at a wildlife conservancy in pakistan have just been released into the arabian sea this year nesting sides had been disturbed by storms adding urgency to efforts to look after the eggs of this endangered species the babies all seem to know which way to head with a bit of luck they could live to be 100. coming up after the break it's the leader with nick mckenna kline gladbach came into matchday 17 level on points with league leaders leipsic club but were hoping their

rivals would stumble allowing them to reclaim the top spot going into the winter break find out what happened next on the bundesliga. don't forget of course you can get all the news or now website that's d.w. dot com michael in berlin i genuinely appreciate your company. literature invites us to see people in particular. i like to see the kids find the strength. of the books on you to. show hello halflings this is your new ball

speaking welcome to the show with the ding dong yeah my concerts.