and why did they have all the time? i should just search for the day and take them out where i mean, that's the, there's a dw news live from berlin to down cathedral reopened in a ceremony in paris. 5 years after the iconic building was ravaged by fire for dignitaries, joined french leaders to celebrate the success of the restoration of the latest from paris. also coming up, syrian rebel forces are why do you mean they're likely to salt in syria? with reports of fighters are just 20 kilometers with a capital damascus enclosing in on the other 2 cities. revel commander has son of bill gone. the said the is when the sled alliance was advancing on the southern gates of the capital rebels have already savage the entire southern province of

thought and bellowed county and gets under way and gone there as pulls close and tightly contested presidential and parliamentary elections. are correspondence in the capital opera brings us the latest, the . i'm aaron tilton, berlin. thank you for joining us. i ceremonies underway and parents to mark the reopening of neutral down because he dro or you're looking at live pictures here from the ceremony. president, money of my call is hosting dozens of world leaders and dignitaries and the french capital to celebrate the restoration. the cathedral in the heart of paris has undergone a pain speaking renovation. to restore to its former glory after a fire gutter its roof and would work and cause its famous fire to collapse some 2019 the main structure, only narrowly avoided destruction. and let's cross over to our correspondent lisa

louis, who's standing by in paris for us. so lisa, you're right in front of the dr. down cathedral. the reopening ceremony is happening tonight. what can you tell us? well, it's been a very moving ceremony with different said the ringing of the bells and other bells were ringing for the 1st time after 5 and a half years. and there was applause from inside the cathedral. the people here, 10000 people, thousands of people on this end were the bonds that have come here to watch the ceremony live on giants screens that i set up a loan. the said that was one top then the ox, richard knox, on the do not. so the tiny with a saw made of 10 by that mistake from the fire. and there was this route. so right, you knock 3 times then why on? so that was repeating free time and actually the quiet was sending for not saddam

the parties on so to the archbishop who then into the cathedral, the very moving may. but the, you know, that was a symbol of the task. the like religion re taking possession of the cathedral. there was also another part of the religious ceremony where the oregon, the, the great all good with 80000 types was a 1st for the 1st time again, as someone was playing on that organ, the pipes were no damage in his life, but never polluted with lead so they had to be a really cleans in a painstaking a process to be able to have a republican where they quote, a republican part of the ceremony. where, for example, the president, him on my call was speaking, holding a speech, saying that the whole nation differentiation was expressing it's rough 2 to 3 days who i told you not for them, the police from the fire,

but also restore it. and these people, the people who were storage, the cathedral and who said that they were here tonight. i people the inside and outside of the materials for offering for them in amazement of you know, dropped to to say, how joyful everybody was, how hockey and what he was thought the cathedral is now reopening and our viewers are images of us president like donald trump in the audience there. now we know he met with french president my call, and then also the ukranian president living there's a lensky for talks earlier today. what do we know about those talk so far? gone from has indeed come here to attend tonight ceremony and one of my colleagues spending an invite to him earlier a few days back on when the the president elect accepted it was declared a diploma. who, by many observers, many commentators you could say it's tonight, was actually a double qu because a president zaleski v. a and president also came to paris to attend the ceremony.

as my call, he received both of them one after the other day and then wrote them together opens, isn't it? and is interested in talking to donald trump will soon return to the white house because the crazy and president needs us to pull off the russian invasion of ukraine. that's in french 22 at full prism across on the i've had this was a way to show that he is still a great statesman and that he plays a role on the diplomatic level on the to national level. that's why he was trying to show what he actually chief to show in a way tonight and over. obviously, he was also trying to deflect from what's happening happening on the home front. where things are really in dire straits and french politics. well, as you were saying that this is a cool form, a call on the international scene, but is he using today's ceremonies to kind of mask some of the trouble waters is facing at home?

he actually and so on thursday nights when he was holding a televised speech here in france, he was saying this is supposed to be a moment of happiness for from the moment of risk fight. this comes after last wednesday, frances government basically fell apart. it was ousted by parliamentarians right on a budget. the budget for next year, and a to that budget was peg a no confidence but which brought down the shades on you the government, the government headed by 5 minutes. i'm sure it's on. it's only been in place for 3 months now. president call has to find a new prime minister really difficult task, given that solomon is split into 3 blocks model, which has a clear majority. and you know, the french are just notoriously bad at governing with coalitions. so really, really tricky for to, in my call to find any prime minister. and tonight to end this weekend,

at least there is an named over slide to fraud. so to protect from these problems or i thought was lisa lewis reporting for us in paris. thank you very much for that update series. long time ruler bush are all a side is facing uprisings and multiple friends. as the main rebel offensive in the north, west continues to move towards damascus. opposition factions in the south are also closing in on the capital. these images on social media shows syrian protesters toppling the statute of the late president bush. all son's father enjoy romano in the southern suburbs of damascus. rebels have already steps the entire southern province on the north. syrian rebels are petroleum, the country side around the key city of homes is government forces begin to defend the city. and president bush auto assigns 24. you who to let spring. indeed, the reporter got seal heinous for more on the situation. so. gotcha,

what exactly is the situation on damascus right now. aaron, president bush out an asset is facing the biggest challenge to his rule. he's ever faced. their closing and right now on 3 different friends, the rebels from the north. they're coming with reinforcements through homes, from the south. you mentioned that uh uh, there is also some way that that they've captured. and all these groups are coming together and heading north towards damascus. they've already captured certain parts in the outskirts and from the east, from the us coalition area down south ordering a rock. that's where there's also another offensive. so there's 3 different fronts, there's closing and in damascus. and it looks like it's only a matter of time. now you show those pictures of these are mano in the outskirts of the masses, that is the blues minority as well. so it's not just the stuff either sham rebels

that we're seeing now. but also other groups like the crews minority, has been protesting for over a year in other parts of syria. now it seems that they see an eminent fall of assets rule that they're also challenging his work in damascus itself. was he mentioned there, it sounds like president side is around, isn't all sides. where exactly does that leave his allies? that is indeed the case in uh, before i get to his external allies, i want to talk about his closest allies internally. so a lot of syrian generals have already fled, sir, there's many reports of them to lean to different areas. there were generals, which led to 11 on iraq as well. there's news that 2000 uh, syrian troops have now sort refuge and a rock. and so everybody's kind of realizing that the fall of a side is evidence. so they kind of want to redeem themselves at the moment by

turning against him. perhaps we are seeing this on the front lines. there's many front lines suddenly collapsing. and the reason for this is they're trying to redeem themselves, or when the rebels come, they don't get executed for their actions in the past. so we're seeing his internal allies turn on him. and externally iran seems to have also changed it's narrative on the meeting. rebel group the hey, at the national h. d, as that is a dramatic about face in a war which has lasted almost 13 years. where does this leave this of the civilian population? it's a lot of mixed feelings. on one hand, you have civilians fling right now from damascus towards the syrian toast. before that, we saw civilians fleeing from a level as well. a lot of kurdish, the kurdish population, tens of thousands, even a 120000. some estimates are saying, on the other hand, you have political prisoners released from prisons after being there for decades,

for petty crimes in the eyes of the regime like toppling the statute. acids, father. so there's many celebrations, many reunions of families who haven't seen each other for decades. and on the other hand, a lot of displacement and fear of what's next and fear of the unknown, right? i'm afraid let's leave it there. and it was due to the reporter garcia or harness. thank you very much for your reporting. polls have closed and bowed. counting is underway and gone as presidential and parliamentary elections. the boat is largely a contests between the current vice president mohammed to my one year of the really new teacher out of party and john of need mohammed, the main opposition, national democratic congress, party of many guns fuel the leading candidates off a little hope for change as the country struggles with its worth, another crisis entered generation. i asked our correspondent, you to come on even after us when results are expected. i will, aaron,

i can tell you for sure that it's not going to be tonight, and that's just because the voting, the vote counting process here is very low and tedious and that's what's happening behind me. so the polling office says we'll take out to the pallets one at the time and show them to the members of the public. were working diligently in the on the other side. and to get the, the count, the votes. i don't if you can hear them from the background, that's what's happening. and once they've done that's with the presidential results, we move on to the fundamental results. now you, this votes incentive, the 3 pulling stations, and this has to happen in 40000 voting, pulling stations across the gun. so it's a process that we don't expect to end tonight. but secondly, between sunday and monday morning, we should be seeing some clear results of who's going to take the election. and what exactly were the main issues driving people as the cast their votes? there were 2 fundamental issues, the key one being the state of the economy. you know,

the current government went on a kind of boring screen which left of the economy here in free full and the love of the people who have spoken to dave who did not turn out to vote specified that it's because they don't want to waste another day giving somebody a job well not to kill them when they eventually gets into power. so the economy is just the top of mind. the 2nd is going on see that's the local term here, that refers to the legal gold mining, which has led to catastrophic solution of god knows what the ways and those are the 2 key concepts from everybody that i've spoken to. and what exactly where the candidates promising during their campaigns well, the current vice president minute about lumiere says that he was a digital economy. he's repressed, expressed more on what exactly he means by back. but he's been hard for us to do so . but we're assuming that he means getting gunner to the 4th industrial revolution where they can compete with the globe as the voltage attorney on his part to join mahatma, who is also a former president says that he was

a 24 hour economy to. but the viability of that has also been questioned. you can see that the lights infrastructure here in the country is not exactly the best, but he says that he has a blueprint for this and he will see it come through. all right, that was to money and ok. thank you very much for that update and you're up to date, but to stick around up next we need a bid as well. and priest who's persuading people to replace me and their diets with vague and alternatives. that's a reporter after a short break, and now we return to use of some of those picks from the reopening of no to them in paris. oh, apparently we've lost that feed anyway. i'm there and doesn't berlin? thank you very much for joining us. the

thing and see you the same way.