a compromise plan, but then we all know that benjamin netanyahu and his government have already rejected that a compromise plan. and this would be something where all of shots could voice is criticism without embarrassing be israeli prime minister too much. okay, so if i asked you to describe the atmosphere that this visit is taking place in, is it her, are they trying to put forward or a joint front? how are they managing this? well, when i talk about atmosphere, of course, there are 2 different arenas. i would say one is the atmosphere between benjamin netanyahu, his government, and all of shots, and the german government. that is something where the the 2 leaders visited a memorial site today where they both commemorated victims of the holocaust. some 10000 jews were deported in the years. 41 and 42 from a platform in western berlin said the to leader stood there and urban him in that ano said that he was very moved. and this is something that happens regularly. ad

visits are both a german government and these railey donvan say that it is important to commemorate and the victims. i'm to also keep in mind that germany and israel, the current states, are linked by that history and add that therefore they have a special responsibility. the germans towards the israelis unable and at the same time also when you talk about atmosphere, you have to also be aware that security here in berlin is just massive. there are more than 3000 police here on the streets or security to get here into the chancery was extremely tight. you have to be checked to every where you go. this is something that normally only happens when the american president is in town. so there's a high security concern here. also we are expecting a lot of demonstrations. some of them are organized by israeli citizens who are, will rally forces here together enjoying the protests that are happening at home in cities like television, jerusalem and heifer. where they say that the ad,

these controversial a reforms i actually threatening israeli democracy, which is why they also intend to hold big rallies here in berlin in solidarity. nina, thanks so much. let's d w's chief, political correspondent, nina harvard. all right. joining me here in the studio is our chief international editor richard walker to talk some more about what's happening in berlin today. richard, we've talked about that the pressure, the ben benjamin netanyahu is under asshole. been at these protests about judicial reforms that have been going on for months. now. critics say israel democracy us is at stake. can you talk to us a little bit more about how the german chancellor will show it's is going to go about addressing that today dealing with that situation. yeah, we're, as we just heard from nina, this is going to be, it's tricky moment. frolla schultz. he has to really kind of walk a line in between, you know, not attempting to ignore what is happening in israel and also not appearing to kind

of overstep what, what, what will be seen as of seemly and appropriate for german politician to, to say about the situation in israel, but it's hard to overstate the scale of the situation in israel. we just saw a just from rebecca earlier on the, on the highway. there's now blocks in the center of tel aviv. this is a massive wave of protest that's taking place across israel. is starting at the beginning of this year and it snowballed and got bigger and bigger and bigger. and the fact that the president of israel, who is meant to be, is really a sort of constitutional figures to the stands above politics. normally that the president of israel made a televised address of the nation coming up with alternative kind of compromise proposals, an alternative to this judicial reform. and then that was very, very quickly of virtually all that on the tarmac televi report on the way here to

germany. benjamin netanyahu said no, that's not going to be a run out. that's not going to fly. and isaac hertzog, a man whose is a sober statesman saying the israel could be on the brink of civil war. i mean, that is the context. it's a serious situation. and so certainly be asked about it. so he's not going to dodge it. but i think, and i would basically underline what nina said, i don't think we can really expect super strong language from sholtes on this though. he really has to walk a lie where it really wouldn't go down. well, for a german politician to be seen is giving a dressing down to an israeli politician, given the history of japanese responsibility for the holocaust. so that's the line that he's going to have to work. but that doesn't mean that this debate is not live here in germany. very much is mean, there's lots of quotes been coming out of the last few days. for instance,

you know, the head of the central council of jews in germany, a man could use f schuster saying that many people in the jewish community in germany are concerned about the divisions opening up in israel, in israeli society that are being exposed by this proposed reform from netanyahu, and alina burbock will have schultz is foreign minister saying that, you know, i will not hide the fact that we are worried in saying that a strong democracy needs an independent judiciary. so there are a lot of voices here that are critical. but now it's him that's on the spot. so if we take a step back and look at sort of german israeli relations today, or how would you describe the relationship? i mean, obviously you've mentioned several times. this is the responsibility that germany has to this or else it's really anchored in that you know, so, and you hear this over and over again. you heard a lot from alco will. i'm sure we'll be hearing it from sholtes as well. that this

responsibility, the jeremy, has a unique responsibility to the security of israel. and, but that doesn't mean that germany is never critical of israel. and you will often see whenever the an announcement, for instance, of an expansion or, or, or new settlements in the occupied west bank, one of the kind of key a controversial issues between the israelis and the palestinians. regularly, the germans will then join save united states and other european countries, putting out statements, criticizing that, saying that that kind of stands in the way of the ultimate goal. that they still profess of, of finding what they call a 2 state solution between israel and the palestinians that the palestinians can have their own state to urge them to live in securely there. so that's one example where there is differences. there also differences about iran and netanyahu said that he wants to talk about iran here. see israel is greatest concern is about

iran's nuclear program that iran is, is, is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. germany was one of the countries that supported getting this nuclear deal between western congress, but not just western countries. also china and russia on board to limit the scope of iran's nuclear program. germany was a strong supporter of that extra co initiator of that. most israeli government to be strongly opposed to that. so it doesn't mean that the germany and israel are absolutely one to one on all the issues. but there is a bedrock, there at a kind of a limit. i think the german politicians are certainly german leaders feel that they cannot necessarily go beyond in terms of being seen as meddling in israeli politics . just a quick reminder to our viewers that we are currently waiting for. the german chancellor will of shots and the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to appear in front

of the cameras for a press conference for a conversation with the media. and president and a prime minister. netanyahu has been spending the day in berlin and we will hopefully be hearing from then at soon in the meantime, richard walker, you talked earlier about the israel israeli president, a hat sog offering this compromise deal yesterday. so clearly signaling the, the, the seriousness of what the situation is in israel at the moment he put forward this proposal and, and it was immediately rejected by the prime minister. so has that essentially destroyed the likelihood of any sort of immediate end to the that the turmoil, the israel finds itself in right now? i mean, i think the answer is, we simply don't know. i mean, as we can see for, from rebecca's reporting there, we can just see the huge pressure that is kind of bubbling up from, from the street. i had so came in with this plan course to try to,

to find compromise that has quickly been rejected. but we'll have to see in the coming days in the coming weeks, whether that, whether he makes another attempt where the other members of the opposition come up with the alternative or compromise plans, benny ganz, one of one of a member of a previous israeli government, one of the leaders of the current opposition parties has come out and said that he wants to talk. i expect that we may be hearing more voices like that so, so there will be certainly pressure on netanyahu to come up with some sort of compromise arrangement. but so far, really seems to be, it does seem to be very strongly sticking to his guns. and this, of course, raising the kind of concerned that we're hearing from how talk you know, talking in scenarios such as the civil war. that's right in the throes of profound crisis and suggesting that it might be bring on the brink on the civil war. i mean, what netanyahu is, is he essentially fighting for his own political life here?

why does he seem so unwilling to? well, i mean, there is a view among some critics of netanyahu, that these reforms really are central to his own fate. because yahoo is going through a trial for corruption charges including bribery, for example. and netanyahu's, critics say that, you know, part of, they see is his motivation in pushing forward these reforms that will weaken the independence effectively of the judiciary as potentially being of benefit to him as this trial proceeds. that by reducing the independence of the judiciary, that he reduces the freedom of movement of judges who may be deciding ultimately what happens to him. and it's possible that this, you know, the case of netanyahu could ultimately reach the supreme court,

which is at the center of these potential judicial reforms. so, so yes, so for netanyahu's critics, they say this is absolutely kind of central to his bid for, for getting through this trial unscathed. and let's just bring it back to berlin netanyahu is, is in berlin today. and can you just walk us through again? netanyahu's agenda has a and his, his priorities today. what do you want to get out of his visit yesterday? what he said on departure was that he wants to talk about iran, so it could be interesting to see what he is saying about iran. i mean, let's not forget that. well, let's have a quick look at the context around iran, so that there was this nuclear deal with iran, which the americans pulled out of under donald trump, the europeans, and the other signatures of the deal. try to keep it going, but it's basically unraveling. and there have been attempts, negotiated attempts to try to kind of get the deal back up and running again. but

that process is completely stalled and there's not a lot of optimism that that is going to get back up and running. so that's the big question. what happens next? and so one big question is whether these re lease at some point might launch some kind of military strike against iranian facilities, trying to take iranian facilities involved in this nuclear program. that is one possibility. there's certainly a lot of nervousness in european capitals about what happens if israel were to go ahead and do that. and now there's a new wild card that has come into this story in that china suddenly and how it's together with the iranians and the saudis. just a few days ago that it had managed to negotiate an agreement between iran is saudi arabia. so the, to basically enemies within the, within the middle east. a very long standing

enmity between these countries that it is managed to negotiate that they will restore diplomatic with relations with each other. so a thor going on in a very, very deep, profound underlying conflict within the middle east. now this could really kind of reject the situation and in willis, this very 1st has happened a few days ago. but further from the point of view of israel, it raises a question. because netanyahu another is where you leaders have wanted to try to get diplomatic relations going with saudi arabia for a long time. and there's been talk recently about whether this might be something that could be in the offing soon. now suddenly, saudi arabia, setting up diplomatic relations with iran, the country that israel sees is an existential threat to it. this really kind of throws everything up in the air again. so i think i'll be watching out also for anything that netanyahu says about that. m schultz is also commented on this on, on this deal between the iranians and the, in the saudis recently. but in a very low key way,

simply saying ok is good for the region is good for stability. if these countries, you know, make some progress in their relations, but for israel, it throws up an awful lot of questions. okay. richard were going to leave it there . we are still waiting for this press conference between the german chancellor and the israeli prime minister to begin, but it doesn't look like they are ready to start yet. so and richard are chief international ed, so thanks so much, we'll come back to you shortly. and in the meantime, we will go on to another story in iraq where to super yachts belonging to the former dictator. saddam hussein have become a curious attraction in the 20 years since the war that deposed him signs of the old regime are still evident. the grandiose vessels remain a legacy of extravagance and excess. just a few 100 meters, separate the grandiose vessels on the shot. allah, rob waterway in iraq, southern city of basra. but despite the proximity,

they have met very different fates. the almon sewer now lays half capsized on its side more at a nearby key. the basra breeze is partially open to curious spectators. equally gioviatto literacy who are in fact all those who visited the presidential yacht, were stunned by the opulence of the former president's life. not eoc ethan b. clue. the quote capacity. this yacht is a futuristic masterpiece. saw because of the decoration and delicate details. all at a v. i. p. room, you all at the hall and the president's private bedroom, properly ivy, more to divvy. while often my orphan manella hospital east, during his nearly 24 years and power saddam spared no expense, and the boss or breeze was no exception. it cost $25000000.00 and unheard of some at the time for a country involved in a long, costly war with iran does it does. it could accommodate nearly 30 passengers and

$35.00 crew members had 13 rooms, 3 lounge areas and a hela pad. now the basra breeze is a legacy of the province of basra, preserved for the benefit of researchers and students. monday, the alman sewer, which means victorious. now languages, half submerged. it was struck during the us led invasion of iraq in 2003 in its heyday. it could accommodate $32.00 passengers and $65.00 crew members, but the presidential yacht was bombed at least 3 times during the war and later sank. the authorities have recently started to clear, shut all rob. that process will not only make the waterway more navigable, it will also help iraq start moving beyond the decades of war. bill makers in france of approved the wording of a proposal by the president manual nicole to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64

as clear as the way for the controversial bill to face its final vote. and the move came of thousands of protest it took to the streets of cities across france in a last ditch attempt to convince lawmakers to oppose it a fine oh show of force against french president and manual mccullin's, unpopular pension reform across bonds, protest is turned out in their hundreds of thousands, desperate to 4th and last minute turnaround by lawmakers union needed in no said they had no intention of backing down. the form is bad today, it will be bad. want to be in voted for all personally by force. so we'll keep fighting with completely what told it actually the raising of the time and tags remain on acceptable to us. the protests were largely peaceful though there were some skirmishes with police. oh. according to surveys, more than 2 thirds of the population opposed my cones plans to raise the retirement

age from 62 to 64. recurrent protests in recent months have drawn millions across the country and repeated war counts have disrupted the transport sector to coincide with wednesdays, protests unions called an 8th day of strikes in paris. refuse collectors walked off the job over a week ago. now $6000.00 tons of rubbish have piled up in some areas trash has almost taken over forcing pedestrians on to the roads, attracting rats and repelling restaurant visitors and tourists. it did surprise me alive because i heard that, you know, people lately told me like, oh yeah, it's a very clean you know, you know, very clean city. so just like a surprise me so far we are not changing any plans. if we encounter more garbage though, we'll probably visit other parts of the city because we don't the garbage has done

little to impress lawmakers. mccauley bill would bring france more into line with its e, you neighbors, most of which have increased retirement age to $65.00 or higher. but with union saying they'll continue their battle, even if the bill passes. pension reform in france is set to remain a burning issue. the u. s. defense department has released footage that it says shows a russian aircraft intercepting a u. s by drone over the black sea on tuesday. now, according to you, esl sororities, this video shows a russian su $27.00 fighter jet, approaching the drone and dumb pink fuel over it. as the air craft passes closely by without appearing to cause any damage to the, the washington says the jet did collide with the drones propeller on a 2nd pass, which is also shown, although the actual collision isn't visible in the edited video that's been

released low damage to the propeller can be seen later out earlier i spoke to military analyst marina miran his with the war studies department at kings college london about the black sea drone footage that's been released by the pentagon. she gave me her view on the russian fighter jets behavior . if you look at the footage, we see that see russian flying curve passes thrown very closely from above so it's speeding up to the drone and, and passes it. so the, the, it, the behavior is obviously indicating that they are trying to intercepted prone, perhaps to clip it. or at the very least, the kinetic power of the fighter jet would create a war attack. so probably when the 1st plane flew over and didn't create a desire, the fact, the 2nd one repeated the whole scenario. and what happened was that the,

the drone ended up with a damaged propeller. now was this damage really serious enough to force the drone down into the sea? well, that's a good question because apparently it wasn't just the propeller. the drone became uncontrollable if it was caught in a war tax. then yes, it would be very difficult to control the drone regardless of the propeller. and there is also another possibility of russia using electronic warfare systems in order to jam the controls, also drones. so that can be several reasons for why the drone wasn't, wasn't operable anymore, and had to be brought down. ok. now, given that we've got this evidence now, what might the likely consequences be? oh, the problem is that we have seen something like this already in to 10191 iranian

era defenses. shut down the u. s. global hawk. that is much more serious because in this incident of the russians actually didn't use any weapons. and i think that that was by design, they had to somehow brings a drone down without actually using any kinetic force. meaning that it couldn't be considered as an act of war. and if remembering 2019 and president old trump had several options on how to respond. and there was no a severe response. the relationship between the u. s. and the run was not very good at the time and it remains that way. however, no consequences have followed apart from kind of a diplomatic channels functioning. and you know, more than that, you know,

now we have the ration among the saying that they didn't do anything. and it's very difficult to prove the intention was the russians stayed behind it or words, use reckless pilots decided to act on, on their role. and so the response options to this a very limited, pretty much through the diplomatic fear. ok, now russia is saying that it will raise the u. s. drone from the c bed. if required for security reasons, are they likely to do that? and why would they do that? over russia? it is obviously very interesting to recover that drone, because se would be able to reverse engineer it. they will see what intelligence gathering equipment the drone had. this is perhaps the reason why they wanted to make sure that the drone goes down in one piece and as damaged as possible. and the security implications upside even the if the have the gone. erases all the footage,

whatever. intelligence has been gather advisor road and the russians still can reverse engineer the sensors. they can potentially share those technologies with the likes of iran and china. so there is a potential security implication to this whole debacle was thrown i was marina muran with the war studies department at kings college london speaking to us earlier, we're going to take a look now at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. 2 and a half tons of uranium have gone missing from an undisclosed location in libya. that's according to the u. n's nuclear watchdog watchdog. the international atomic energy agency says it's looking for the nuclear material inspectors fear the uranium may pose a radiological risk. tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in greece to express their anger over last month's trained disaster,

but left 57 people dead. unions of also called for a 24 hour general strike, leaving the fairies in port flights, grounded and trains canceled south korean president un, so keel and japan's prime minister for me. ok, shita have announced relaxed trade controls and have agreed to meet more frequently . the 2 leaders were summit in tokyo. the 1st such meeting in 12 years. relations between the 2 u. s. allies have long been soured by better historical disputes. a european markets are appearing to rebound of to switzerland's embattled bank. credit suisse secured a big financial lifeline. concerns over the troubled lender had earlier sent asian stock. market's falling. credit suisse has said it will borrow up to 50000000000 euros from switzerland central bank in a bed to shore up its liquidity. meaning how much cash it has on hand to finance its business. the sudden collapses of to us banks last week have sparked growing

fears worldwide. jitters on the mark had sent many asian stalks into the red again on thursday. investors are wearily eyeing the problems that have hit several banks in the us and europe, wondering if they're just the 1st signs of a deeper crisis. the latest alarm bells have been sounding around credit suisse, one of europe's largest banks, pro macroeconomic perspective credits. he says, major global player, major player in the us, smaller than it used to be, but still very important. shares of the swiss bank plunged to a record low on wednesday after it's the biggest shareholder said it would not provide more funding to the company. the dive prompted the swiss central bank to step into the port credit suisse, making it the 1st major global bank to receive such a lifeline since the 2008 financial crisis credits, which has

a lot of links to the financial sectors of other countries. since it has operations in the us, in other parts of europe and more widely around the world, and it will have a lot of creditors and, and subsidiaries elsewhere who potentially could get into difficulties if the, if credits within, in switzerland what to have trouble. analysts say, balance sheets across the entire banking sector, now facing greater scrutiny after the failures of silicon valley bank and signature bank in the us. they're searching for weakness across all, you know, banks including credit risk. so the risk is not off the table and across the horizon, people are trying to think about, well, you know, what does this really mean for the banking industry as a whole?

i'm really keeping a close eye on credit suisse. that to me is really much more concerning and depending on how that works out over the next couple of days and even this weekend, i do think that is something that certainly can how, you know, very broad implications for the market and all the global financial systems like quickly taking decisive action to show up credit suisse. the swiss central bank is hoping it can prevent the crisis of confidence from spreading as bait to kristy plots and from d. w business earlier and asked her about the reactions to all of this in germany's financial capital. frankfurt. i mean, the whole story is on the line on the board behind me, where you can see is that plunge when or after hours. and early morning traders got nervous about even the docs index, which is of course, an index of germany's 40 largest companies. so, so i'm showing to some degree, some nervous determined, his nervousness about the credit suisse situation rolling over even into german markets. but we also see a recovery taking place to some degree in the last couple hours as well. why is

that? as we just heard, the swiss national bank has said it will shore up credit suisse hoping to contain some of the fall out from that situation. that seems to have restored some investor confidence, at least to some degree. okay, could you put things into perspective for us? how alarming is this whole development with credits lease? i mean, credit suisse is certainly a globally significant bank. it's the 2nd largest bank in switzerland, which we should remember is a country that is known for banking. this bank is in another league than silicon valley bank. the bank in california that sort of sparked off the financial uncertainty in the u. s. last week in which is sort of created these situ, these conversations we've been having the last few days. so certainly in a, in another league, but that being said, now that we know that the swish national bank will be stepping in will be taken care that there is not too much fault from this. there is unlikely to be, at least for now, a huge major fall out of contagion into other markets,

but it's certainly created a greater sense of unease in the global financial market right now. okay, so you mentioned those 2 u. s. banks that are in trouble. first, now, as you said, a well known european bank, i mean, on analysts, you know, worried about this sort of potential contagion as you say that things could snable . right. i mean, we should be clear that what happened with the banks in the u. s. and what happened with credit suisse are so in some ways unrelated, i mean the credit suisse self had largely to do with the fact that the saudi national bank, their largest, their shareholders, said that it will not buy more stock from credit suisse. but that was not because of uncertainty about credit suisse, not being good for the money that had to do with regulatory issues. so we're not exactly seeing contagion here, but what i will say is that the nervousness caused by what happened in the u. s. is certainly playing a role on investors, encouraging them when they get nervous about something that credit suisse to maybe get rid of their stock. so there is definitely an echo effect, whether that's contagion or not, is debatable.