this is deja vu news live from berlin a hopeful step toward resolving the conflict in eastern ukraine for russian separatists and the ukrainian government have exchanged all the prisoners they have been holding will go to kiev where people are waiting to welcome back their free nationals also coming up a man with a knife turns a hanukkah celebration near new york city into a bloody crime scene new york's governor says it was an act of domestic terror. and australia's bushfires have hit firefighters hard including the many volunteers who

had to take leave from their jobs now the government has agreed to compensate them for their efforts. welcome to the program the ukrainian government and russian backed separatists have completed a prisoner exchange the swap took place at a checkpoint near the rebel held city of horlivka in the donetsk region of eastern ukraine the exchange covers all remaining prisoners being held by both sides since hostilities broke out in 2014 it stems from an agreement that russia and ukraine reached earlier this month. carefully coordinated ron davis in ukraine's rebel controlled region. the free prisoners include ukrainian riot police accused of firing on protesters 2014 the controversial swap has angered some

activists there but others see it as a crucial step to improving ties with moscow. it's the 2nd major prisoner exchange this year september saw another swap that brought inmates home and fostered hope that the war in eastern ukraine could soon be over an early victory for ukraine's new president. we have agreed the 1st step to one block. or not it is returning our soldiers political prisoners. for more than 5 years the ukrainian army has been fighting a russian backed separatists in the country's east the war has cost around 14000 lives and turned a key industrial region into a conflict zone efforts to stop the fighting have so far come to little when selinski was elected in april he promised to restart the peace process that

culminated in a meeting this month with his french german and russian counterparts in which sunday's exchange was agrees. a state of mind an exchange between both sides in this conflict based on swapping everyone with them on. the deal is again raising hopes 1st swift resolution to the conflict but major hurdles between russia and ukraine still need to be overcome before peace is possible. correspondent david stern is at kiev airport for us where the french ukrainian prisoners are due to arrive soon david what more do you know at this time. on the tarmac at kiev's bartie small airport right now with a mass of ukrainian and journalists from kiev waiting what we're told is the imminent arrival of the prisoners in the people that have been held we don't know

when they're going to arrive we're told that it could happen any time soon but out of course remains to be seen we've been told or there is been reported that more than 70 people were handed over to ukrainian authorities and have now come to the government controlled territory on the other hand the ukrainian officials handed over over 120 prisoners to the moscow back separatists and as you said you'd seen on this happened a little bit earlier in. in the day but right now we're waiting to see what when they arrive and what their. how they will be received. and how of ukrainians been responding to this deal is this being seen as a success for president selenski. well these prisoner exchanges are always met with a great deal of fan for fair hope and in fact a great deal of happiness on this one also was coming by some controversy as you heard they released the 5 there cooch as they're known riot police but in general

this is seen as a positive step in all the asli ukrainians not just the loved ones but in the general society are very happy to be seeing these people coming back some of them who have been in captivity for 4 years since 2015 so obviously this will be a very joyful reception when they do when they do arrive david stern and keith thanks very much for standing out there in the cold for us. here. now let's take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world. at least 10 people were killed when a missile hit a military parade in a town in southern yemen the ceremony for new recruits was being held by a south yemen separatist group a spokesman blamed the rebels for the attack. more than a 1000 demonstrators have gathered in hong kong to mark a turbulent year in the semi autonomous region protests began in june over a proposed extradition law but grew to include demands for more democracy

protesters say beijing and the local government are eroding freedom and democratic values. a german rescue ship has docked in sicily after rescuing more than 30 migrants in the mediterranean the allen curdie vessel reached the southern port of position on sunday the migrants were picked up off the libyan coast last week. to the u.s. now where the jewish festival of lights turned into a bloody attack late saturday night a man with a knife barged into a rabbi's home outside new york city where people were gathered to celebrate hanukkah the stabbing rampage sent 5 people to the hospital 2 are in critical condition police arrested a suspect shortly thereafter it's just the latest in a recent string of suspected anti-semitic incidents in new york now with us for more on this story is due to be reporter in for him and what's what's the latest so just to give the viewers a bit of context this attack happened in rockland county this is

a collection of town northwest of new york city it has a large jewish population 31 percent of the population there is jewish and in recent years it has seen a surge or an uptick in the population of hasidic jews as families are being priced out of places like queens and brooklyn in new york city because of the ongoing gentrification of the city so 10 pm a man enters a home stabs people in there the man in question has been identified and arrested as grafton thomas 30. when years old and he will face 5 counts of attempted murder and one count of armed burglary this has been designated as a domestic terror attack by new york governor andrew cuomo a very horrific harrowing night for the people inside the house no doubt so let's take a listen at one of the eyewitnesses who was there i saw walking in by the door i

ask who's coming in and middle of the night with. well i was saying that he pulled it out from the think and he started to corral you to the big room which was on the left side and i've thrown tables and care that he should get out of here and the guy was a god or a rest guy. he was bleeding here bleeding in his hand. i ran it to the other room because i tried to save my life i saw him running down this way so i ran out to a lady. came along with me they're still staring what time is not on he will know them time now and they still are right now. member of the community how is the community officials there how are they responding so it seems that the community is trying its best to keep the spirits up now the rabbi's congregation is i was actually right next door to his house so this actually could have been much much worse right after the rabbi then headed to the congregation and continued

celebrating. the holiday with the people there that's on the what have but of course the community has very concrete demands as to how this situation can be avoided in the future the orthodox jewish public affairs council through its twitter page has called on authorities to step up security around their homes and their places of worship. they suffer from a lack of resources as it as it seems according to the community but they also want to see concrete consequences to the people that are behind these attacks so they want to see a list of you know these people that do these things where do they end up jail sentences so that you know nobody would be motivated do such a thing of course the attack drew widespread condemnation the prime minister of israel benjamin netanyahu has vowed to help local authorities in any way possible to defeat this phenomenon the phenomenon being of course anti semitic. attacks

the man in question was arrested in new york city and we do have a response from new york mayor bill de blasio he tweeted we will not allow this to become the new normal we'll use every tool we have to stop these attacks once and for all the n.y.p.d. has deployed a visible and growing presence around the jewish houses of worship on the streets in communities like williamsburg crown heights and bora park and these are of course communities that do have a sizable hasidic jewish population in new york city right and he says they're going to do every possible to not make this new normal but it is a new normal in some way i mean speak to that larger phenomenon here indeed i mean this is just the latest in a string of. very very disturbing attacks on the jewish population in new york just last month a man with stabbed while walking to a synagogue in the same town where this attack happened. there's a you know there's been a an uptick in the past week new york city just new york city. has received at

least 6 reports of attacks possibly motivated by an anti jewish bias and just earlier this month in jersey city very close to where the attack happened 2 shooters opened fire on a kosher market 6 people were killed 3 of whom were market goer so certainly it's seems like a phenomena and something needs to be done about it abraham thank you for bringing us these details and we've been getting reports of another attack at a place of worship in the u.s. at least 2 people have been shot at a church near fort worth texas we'll keep you up to date on this story as it develops now australia is bracing for another week of bush fires as temperatures are expected to soar firefighters have been trying to contain the fires since september 8th people have died 2 of them firefighters themselves many of those on the front line are volunteers and now the government says it will pay

them for their efforts. it's one of australia's worst seasons over. with so many blazes to battle it's often volunteers who answer the call for help. giving their time and paying the costs. so. 56 days. you're exhausted at the end of that you might have one day break and then they want you to go again. it just takes its toll physically and emotionally on the family they don't see you maybe it means i use my annual leave it means that i you know i use my time in lead time. now there's help for the helpers some volunteers to be called been saved for about 20 days worth of income lost while fighting the recent fires. as the very prolonged fosli this

is putting additional demands on our firefighters in particular and it means that the turnouts in the coal out have been far more extensive than in previous years going well and beyond and above what is normally expected who are engaged in volunteer. the life of the already public servants have been pledged additional leave to join the fight. with us truly is some of just getting started the country needs more helping hands to step up to the challenge. some sports news now and in the german football bundesliga 4th place dortmund have signed one of the most sought after forwards in europe it's 19 year old norwegian erlang brought holland holland has been playing with the austrian club salzburg the scored 16 league goals this term and netted 8 goals in the champions league group stage is 2nd only to robert levin doust. and

a reminder of the top story we're following for you the ukrainian government and russian backed separatists have completed an exchange of prisoners captured during ukraine's 5 year conflict it's part of a degree meant reached earlier this month between ukraine and russia the conflict is ongoing and his claims. far more than 13000 lives. don't forget you can always get d.w. news on the go just download our app from google play or the apple app store i'll give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications for any breaking news you can also use the g w app to send us photos and videos from where you are. or watching t w news from berlin coming up next is the best of night groups and don't forget you can get all the news any time on our website do you have your dot com or follow us on twitter at g.w.

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