this is deja news a lie from berlin and an apology from australia's prime minister for vacationing in hawaii while parts of his country burnt prime minister you have other responsibilities and i accept that not accept the criticism thousands of firefighters are struggling to contain catastrophic places across several states to go to sydney for the latest also coming up. europe takes the u.s. to task for sanctions on a pipeline transporting russian gas to western europe the measures could push up costs and delay construction. and

a provocative new piece by banksy is unveiled the artist creates a nativities scene that draws attention to israel's barriers around the occupied west bank. i'm michael good to have you with us 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 is hope at last a break in the weather. the reality of the fight against the flames tormenting

australia the force of nature overwhelming. here in europe. just a handful of firefighters here more than 3000 others are on the front lines in new south wales in 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 and outrage 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. acknowledge that. he had to time ever again and you had the benefit of hindsight and with my different decisions. the past 2 days have been desperate in new south wales a situation officially termed catastrophic as one official said as bad as it gets

exhaustion is setting in. take management and the dry and the relentless niter 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. spite the intensity of the. as cold wet weather moves in but still hundreds of. on the assessments of the damage caused by the started. journalist roger maynard in sydney following the blazes there roger prime minister scott morrison has apologised after returning from vacation is you're 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 too well and he's been and saloon pilloried in the press and on the social media as a result of that is under a lot of pressure to politically to pull out all the stops to try to restore his image this morning he went immediately to the rural fire service headquarters in sydney to meet officials and also to discuss 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 ted 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 how australia and about $60000000000.00 a year from the export of coal so there's a lot riding on this debate 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 it's about $2324.00 degrees celsius compared with $4445.00 degrees yesterday so there's a drop in temperature and that certainly helped firefighters will be battling blazes in a blue mountains now for most of the weekend is help them to gain some degree of control although a limited amount of control because these fires also immense earlier today we heard of another potential disaster in an area southwest of sydney in a little town called balmoral which has

a population of about 400 of the prime minister and the state premium 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 that the false claims overnight and that's why the story is going to repeat is so many areas of australia at the moment you know in the blue mountains and in southwest of city we've got this sort of christened of flame and certainly a lot of the outer reaches. and no one can really stop it basically dreamless roger maynard in sydney speaking to us just a short while ago now to some of the other stories making news around the world. in hong kong police and activists have clashed at a sit in against china's treatment of it's a weaker ethnic minority police were seen striking protesters with baton making arrests the protesters say china is abusing an estimated one to 2000000 we are

muslims detained in camps beijing denies the abuse at least 18 prisoners have been killed while riding in a jail in honduras the fighting broke out in a prison located in the northern port town of tele rep or relatives of the dead prisoners gathered to collect the bodies for burial. ashraf ghani seems headed for a 2nd term as president of afghanistan according to preliminary results he won september's election with just over half of the vote the announcement had been delayed by irregularities in a recount gunnies nearest rival was abdulla currently the country's chief executive . 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 shots so these 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 stream to many german

politicians are outraged by the american measures. just wants more markets for their fracking 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 in warm weather on this issue or any other we believe the political differences should be resolved politically and shouldn't contribute to making a trade conflicts worse conflict. the consortium building north stream too says construction will continue but finishing the pipeline may now take longer and cost more. protests and public dominated the news in haiti for months now as people become increasingly frustrated by government they see as corrupt the political crisis is making it more difficult for aid agencies like doctors without borders which is working to stop medical system from completely collapsing. barbed

wire and concrete separates the rest of port au prince from the hospital run by doctors without borders since last november around 170 medical professionals have been working here many are from haiti itself but they're joined by volunteers like thomas shaffer from switzerland who wanted to help rebuild the country's medical services. because it's all night it's a major medical crisis since the last unrest most of the public facilities have closed off there are a few private hospitals but the majority have also closed their doors shut the eyes . for months people have been taking the frustration to the streets poverty stagnation and anger have fueled the protests more than $100.00 people have lost their lives much of the rage is directed at president moyes who is accused of corruption while many go hungry and the security situation continues to deteriorate this 11 year old was shot in the stomach almost all patients are victims of violence resulting from a power vacuum that has allowed gangs to take control of the streets and inflict

their will on any who crossed their path. security is tight around the headquarters of the opposition they've brought serious charges against the president and have been calling for a new transitional government since january. that will make sure that members of the government who have enriched themselves illegally will say that they. will unify the people to rebuild the country we've already worked out a plan to do so. the better. haiti is on the brink and there's no sign the humanitarian catastrophe will end any time soon now some more of the day's news . cuba is getting its 1st prime minister in more than 40 years tourism minister many cruise takes over the post last held by communist leader fidel castro is expected to share responsibilities with president. under a plan to decentralize power. north korea's leader kim jong un has met

top military officials to review his armed forces yang has set a deadline of the end of this year for the u.s. to change what the north calls hostile policy denuclearization talks have been stalled since february. croatians are voting in a presidential election where a tight outcome ease expected the current president conservative conservative kalinda grab a guitar of it she is facing challengers on the right and the left the ballot comes days before croatia takes over the european union's rotating presidency the secretive artist banksy has unveiled a bible nativities seen with a twist in the israeli occupied west bank the score 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 bags the insulation 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 the scholar of bethlehem. and it's a scar on the fly him it's it's a play on the words that cause the start of a flame scar about. the artwork as a metaphor for how police demeans 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 banksy sports are on display.

banks is trying to be a voice for those who cannot speak simply like this and he's trying to cope. our situation through art to make the palestinian voice richer word through art. banks is creating a new model of resistance through art. a typical thanks the artwork provocative and disturbing. we've got some breaking news for you you could call it egg breaking news hundreds of sea turtle babies freshly hatched at a wildlife refuge in pakistan have just been released into the arabian sea this year nesting sides have been disturbed by storms adding urgency to efforts to look after the eggs of this endangered species the babies all seem to know exactly which way to head with a bit of luck they could live to be 100. coming

up after the break it's the bundesliga with nick mechanic line came into matchday 17 level on points with legal leaders leipsic blood but were hoping their rivals would stumble allowing them to reclaim the top spot going into the winter break find out exactly what happened next on the bundesliga and a reminder you can get all the news on our website that's d.w. dot com more news as always at the top of the hour. i'm cold.