various sectors, ranging from infrastructure to health and education. these initiatives name to contribute eradication of quality and the promotion of sustainable develop the welcome to dw news. here, our top story is live from berlin. she's also a close ex husband sentence to 20 years in prison. the woman f, a center of a mass rape trial that has shots the world, leaves court saying she still has hope for the future. also ahead on our show, ukraine's president of a lot of years a landscape joins and you've leaders and brussels. he says, european security guarantees will not be enough to protect to frank and that nato and the u. s. must be involved and fighting for the rights of women and minority groups in syria now that the opposite regime has been overthrown.

the . i'm clear, richardson, thank you so much for joining us. so many political, the ex husband of the french woman at the center of a mass rate trial that hasn't shocked the world has now been sentenced to 20 years in prison. the maximum term for his crimes in france has 50 co defendants for jails for between 3 and 15 years. she's out there, poll says she still has hope for the future. is the end of a grueling months long mass rape trial for she's out of political. in that time she's become a symbol of strength and resilience and a feminist icon. shipper so far evicted to the unrecognized victims whose stories often remain in the shadow

. you are the cause, i want you to know that we share the same pride in football. was this with, i would like to express my deepest route to jump to all the people who supported me throughout the so do you need to to know the city play the book thing one. yeah. it's your testimony that moves me and i've grown from the strength to come back every day with any of the size of these long days here. and it said it was only the deals usually i believe on when i opened the doors to this trial on the 2nd of september, i just wanted to side you to be able to understand the proceedings be so to which i've never requested that decision. this is, you know, shake off shows, i know, have confidence in our collective ability to cross the future and reach everyone and the women and men and like on it and live in harmony with natural respect and understanding on that. many don't know they split is that once they all show, richard, thank you very much as well on this dominique political,

the ex husband of. she's a political, was sentenced to the maximum term of 20 years in prison for his crimes. they include rate and drugging his then wife. the almost all of his safety co defendants were found guilty of rape and given jail terms ranging from 3 to 15 years. less than prosecutors demanded. dominique petticoat made contact with dozens of men on an online platform and recorded the abuse in hundreds of videos and photos. the convicted men come from all walks of life and range in age from their twenty's to their seventy's. they've become known and friend says, mister, every month, most denied they had raped. she's had a political the case of sparked a fierce debate. confronted by consent, the laws regarding sexual violence and the behavior of man. oh,

just based on up was it. i hope they will be at before and off to this trial for all the victims of domestic sexual sex istic violence, it's all equal as you go. okay, i'm not sure it will change things, but i hope it does. i know, i hope traditionally it will stand as an example too. so. so i promise all the things on from the end of a historic trial, one marked by the bravery of she's at a penny. cool for helping to shift shame away from those who suffer sexual violence to those who committed they don't use a visa. louie has been up at court in oven young. she told me more about the sentences that the other 50 men apart from public cause ex husband have received. so yes, these are 50 other connected, received sentences, prison sentences of between 3 and 15 years, depending on, you know, the individual circumstances and also the background. now some of these convicted have a already spend and spend time in prison and kind of walk free today because

of some of the parts of those present as well. so you know, we're on parole. so that is something that many people actually have complained about here at court. i was here reporting earlier, and there are lots of people demonstration after the announcement of the verdict. this has been a case that has shocked the world. what kind of reaction has there been there in france to this verdict? well, the french press really has been reporting on this extends to see you on a day in day out basis and know that we're doing live shows that we're listening in the court room. that is really because it was pretty cool. decided to wait for a ride to i don't know me to you and that has really had an impact she wanted, as she said, to the full shame, to shift to the perpetrators away from the big sam. it really seems that she has at least to say, i think sense, it's saved that many people here has been talking about this trial. everybody

really has heard one way or another of the pretty cool try. and obviously it's been a topic of discussion. obviously they will also lots of international media here today for the verdict for those. so during the school months to try and you know, that has it really. that's been in love to us attention that was drawn to what happened to get a quote through an at the courthouse in avenue. and in addition to her shifting how people thought about this case. do you think that's how that goes or deal has affected the debate in france over how sex crimes are prosecuted is well, this is what some people are asking for you. no one comes say that a commission on so called came until submission. that is rape off the under the influence of drugs has been revised by the government upon the also at least partly,

and responds to this case. so one senator and one member of parliament. now looking into how possibly, you know, how to change rules, how to change. for example, training full health official is also for, you know, education, how health education can be adapted to today. so it can bounces pennsville. so looking into how to maybe get the figures on chemical mission because there are no see goes on a nationwide level just yet. so that as something that is moving, obviously there's also a debate going on, for example, amongst 10 minutes saying, you know, this is really showing that we need to change our understanding all just ignition of consent. for example. some say, you know, we might have to, we should actually include a definition of active consent, which was basically means that you need to give you a clear agreement. and otherwise, if you de invite any sexual at would be regarded as sex or thoughts. all right,

so it sounds like this trial really has increased the pressure on politicians to better protect against rape and sexual assaults. while this is obviously what people here has been asking for, but mine do the people i've been talking to for example, a group of feminists that have been following with the private you close me and pushing up bundles of pockets across the street. you know, with phrases that were said inside the court room, they have actually said, you know, yes, lots of people are watching this. lots of journalists have come here. and lots of people in phones are aware that this is happening. however, we haven't heard enough politicians talk about this guy, but he that side of the formal problem in a 2nd, a melissa takes commenting on that saying, and i really, i salute is though to because courage to really has become a symbol of dignity and resilience. and yet, as i said, many equipment is spent,

many people here are saying they should have said more has would have been done more people should have talked about still more about that on a political level to really get things moving. well, thank you so much for your reporting. that is our correspondent lisa, moving for funding from france, turning now to some other name was a president for a lot of years, a lensky has been pressing the european union to do more, to support ukraine nearly 3 years into the war with russia. joining an e u summit and brussels the worst case that europeans security guarantees will not be enough to protect, to claim without the backend of nato and the united states under donald trump. air raid sirens, as russian drones attacked huge, almost 3 years into the war. these guys are still far from safe and ukraine's president is still busy asking allies for more support and security guarantees. he struck a positive tone when asked how he felt about to trump taking office in january. welcome dawn of. what can i say?

which fears the trump may push for a quick deal to end the war and force keith to capitulate, where the backdrop to oles, wednesday's talks and brussels on to chose his words carefully. can you imagine, for example, we have sci fi, everybody i, b, c, 's fi, um, yes. and can you imagine that into mazda, which and we'll come back, who lose everybody. we need to have real plan, strong position us. and i very much call that we'll, we'll, we'll have you need to between, you know, just as i said, and your opinion leaders, unity is often to reach them on those you leaders. and even as a wednesday made his case, hungary as prime minister victor oregon, known for criticizing ukraine and cruising up to russia, was busy promoting his own blonde for a christmas cease fire. one which keeps says he has no mandate to make just left

thousands of young guy side at christmas time. change the numbers on the new foreign policy chief made her view clear any at 1st for negotiations too soon will actually be about the full for ukraine. the only other actors in the world are carefully watching how, how we acts in this case. and therefore, we really need to be uh, strong and face with questions on which concessions ukraine might talk to making the future. germany stop to it's tried and tested lines and stuff obviously. so self comfortable, not give off stuff i think is completely inappropriate. the some and discussing what should follow is it's a full step. we're not thinking about what will happen soon. and i continued support for ukraine is important here, a clear course that there's no escalation of who does not develop into

a will between russia and they turn this to. and also extortion, most of the laptops, this is likely the last time zelinski will meet you culture parts before the change of leadership in the white tice. 2025 may well mark, a turning point. and so wednesdays challenge is making sure rushes war turns and ukraine's favor. so let's get across to our correspondent jack para case and following a summit for us in brussels. jack, this will be the last summit before donald trump starts his 2nd term as he was president. and it's not only his position on you frame that e u e. u leaders are worried about is it? no, it's not. i mean, it's a really interesting one. that deadline of the 20th of january, when he's in olga rated, is really important, especially in ukraine because of the issue that he says he wants to bring about the end of the war within 24 hours of taking office specialist donald trump has said, and there's a suggestion that european peacekeeping forces, that's what the united states seems to be. thinking of the european peacekeepers

would go into ukraine to sort of retain some kind of peace keeping force. not european leaders, the 20 to 26 of them out to the emmanuel. my from the french president isn't here, but the others a unlikely to really want to talk too much about what that will look like. if they mentioned that there's an idea that it could be seen as pushing the ukrainians to the table to have tools. so that's a really, really big issue for the europeans. a trying to get on the same page, trying to understand what they going to do when from comes into office and not only on ukraine, but also i cannot make the donald trump said that he wants to put terrace on impulse of products into the united states. during his campaign, he said the terrace with his favor, it was and he's good. so that means that the european leaders are going to have to look into exactly what that means. specifically, the gentleman comment because the exports into the united states market and that will be top of mind for them, no doubt. tell us

a little bit more about what other issues are being addressed at this meeting. yeah, it's an interesting, this one sometimes you need is they come here to make decisions and sometimes they come to knock heads and get an idea of what's going on. and that's why one of the topics is the e u, in the world. and so they're looking at many different issues. things like migration is also on the agenda here. we also have discussions to say, man, and i'll tell you, but we've had the george and elections which a st. george a ton against is pop into the european union. big issues in mo, data and that also going to be obviously talking about the situation in syria. this is the 1st time that they're getting together since the photo of boston are on the sides regime in damascus. and what is the discussion like there are half they've been talking about the possibility of a syrian refugees returning home to their country. are there any announcements we could expect on that? yeah, i don't think we're going to get any announcements, but there's be some interesting things that have happened. the austrians, for instance, have offered the syrian refugees living that were size in yours to return back to

syria. it's a complicated situation to be offering refugees back into a situation which is still quite unstable in syria. one of the big things that the european union sort of has to get is had to run and decide is whether it will remove the designation for haste. yes, the new leadership in syria from a terrorist, actually the you doesn't designated as a terrorist organization. what it's kind of does following the, the un, but the un still designated them as a terrorist organization. so what will be your opinion do on that? and that's where it comes to the leaders sort of getting together and having a decision. i don't think we'll get into 9 payments out of this summit, but they will start looking into exactly what they going to do. how are they going to approach the disagreeing leadership, the new survey and leadership? we know that a series of the new employee had some communication with them. we don't know how deep that went, but the european union will have to have those discussions on the idea of refugees

is over a 1000000 serial refugees in germany, for instance. and some of them may want to be repatriated, some of them they want to stay that ra, serial refugees all across the european union as a you need is appropriate going to one to find out what the others are doing and get on the same page. what types exactly what they're doing? we're hoping a little bit little bit more information will come out as soon. jack, thank you. as always for your recording, instruct, parents in brussels, us, and a quick look at some more stories making headlines. president vladimir putin has boasted that his military operation and you crate has strengthened russia during his annual news conference. he claimed russia would be ready for a high tech can do and ukraine by testing. it's a new, a rational missile against western air defense systems, food and also said he's ready to talk to you printing and president called them. here's the landscape. belgium has joined france in banning the sale of disposable bates from january. first. belgian lawmakers are concerned about their use among children and the environmental damage. they cause government data show that most of

the young smokers start the habit with a serious new rulers have vowed to uphold a quality for minority groups. following the overthrow of the i said, virginia, but campaigners want formal guarantees protecting the rights of women and minorities. did all these abraham and rama drama connie have been talking to syria and women fighting for a better future in the syrian capital, damascus, we invited women's rights activists from many different backgrounds to tell us what they want for the new syria. despite their differences, they're united in their aspirations for the future state building. so i want to speed up a quality for all citizens, regardless of race, ethnicity, sect, or denomination. do i want the constitution to treat everyone equally? i want to civilian personal status laws. i want the same custody rights over my

children, that my husband had fun when we started adding one that came in to associate with number one in can i one to him in laws? electra laws citizenship laws and here since laws knows around children with unknown lineage, these children should be registered under their mother's annoyances of know and leaving him to get this process. i want to gender sensitive constitution. when i'm the in laws to give women freedom, both in private and public life, have also given these hopes, these women are also worried about what a possible is looms take over. might mean, shall go to my house. i worry the most about our freedom of freedoms as women, citizens my policy. i worry that we have just changed the name of the machine and that we would get a new dictator and a different form. we had a military authoritarian dictator library,

we will just get an islamist one. i worry about political as some i am not against islam itself. i am a muslim, highly the a yan equal to the front door. the worst scenario would be extremism, physical got an experience similar to the, to iran experience, such as, after the fall of the chavo. wrong photo, about the simple, the shot to get them out on the streets. optimizon is what reams. i'm on. serious. i didn't feel afraid, the fear is gone. we have now started to build a future in the serious hours. and so i'm, i think the situation is better. my children were far away from me. now my daughter is back in syria after 9 years. the is, are consistent with, i mean a lot and it looks like a sum of sodium your and how we use a young female hope to rebuild syria. how this mobile honey about in june situation is greater than route and compared to what we expect it to be high, i can this audience everywhere you go into mass. seems like the one behind the

men and women celebrating the falls were started as a women activists regardless of background. also tell me there's still a lot that needs to be done for them to get the syria, their dream packet are gathering with the activists. some are already making plans to make their dreams are reality stuff. and now we have been training now. i mean we have attended workshops and so on. but many other women, if not have the opportunities we have had, we have had to work in a horizontal way on concepts that we can present to all women for awareness and community set. going, nancy, that we need to work on psychological support, especially for families of detainees. the people who have seen their children return as skeletons of them alone. but in the back of their minds,

they're also thinking about what to do. things do not go their way beyond the we now have the freedom to pro chase, so we will go to the streets and do that. if there are laws against prizes, then we will just play will emigrate. so i didn't know because i had to go have a non he and most of his but right now these women activists from around the country are building up their network. they know there's work to do here in germany. lawmakers have back to plan to protect the constitutional court from extremists initiative for flex fears, that an authoritarian party quoted, gain enough power to interfere with the judiciary. there's a sense of urgency inside the german parliament. these days elections are arrived. the corner unpopular parties are on course to do well. no law me cause one to 4 to 5. what they see is a weak link and the foundations of their democracy. it isn't. i know we are

a stable democracy, but to ensure that it stays that way, we should make this amendment to the basic law in order to secure our democracy, even better against enemies of the constitution's plan. it's not about insurrection . it's more like that sued in the us. it's about the constitutional court. some in germany, fuel tax on did you additionally, like loosing and pulling that hungry could, shouldn't happen here. home broke thoughts on this one is germany, meet this not which worked well for the last 75 years busy. and then it was a in other countries that there are 2 main lines of attack by right wing populist and right. we can get stream is this one is the free press on the other is the independent judiciary, which is why you have to expect that and there isn't any possibility they will try to damage the court keeps month as well, can go to see investigation. so the shooting, even though the tasks of the top course has been trained in the constitution of basic law enforcement provisions about how it works or not. for example,

term length for judges. the retirement age or the procedure for a pointing judges are set by an actor parliament. that means they can be changed by a simple majority under the new plan. those provisions with being trained in the basic law, which requires a to start majority to change. so this is a high hurdle to ensure that the tried and tested structures that the constitutional quote i maintained. that's to stop a party like the far right, told, tentative for gemini, interfering with the courts. do you guys have different platforms? do you mind that i missed is a pattern of mine, so i have no sort of lawmakers points to the everybody's rushing a legit attempts to submit the rules in the state parliament of to written just as evidence of their intentions. the f d 2 are classified as a suspected case of right wing extremism by security services. see the proposal is are necessary. the eyes, b,

a b naturally speaks out against this because as we recently saw an effort, it uses every opportunity to make the democratic state institutions look batch off to. he says he wants to own select, i'll say in. so that's it. interfering with the top court would go beyond making institutions look bad, which is why law because backing these new safeguards will hope they are never needed to have these political correspondence, simon young has more for us assignment that was a bit about how the supreme court judges and germany are appointed and what their role is, or yeah, clear, the constitutional court has 2 functions really. on the one hand, it's one of the central organs of the german state on a paul with the parliament, the bonus dog and the federal president for instance. and on the other hand it's, it's also germany's highest cools. and one of the main things that it does is look to see where the legislation that's cost is in line with

a german called situation where the people's rights are properly protected. now, at the 16 judges or senior lawyers, and that can be proposed by the federal government in berlin or side by the regional state governments. and also by the political parties. and in order to become supreme court judges constitutional court judges. they have to be elected to that position. hauff of them are elected by the parliament by the buddhist todd and the hoss by the buddhist road, which is the to the 2nd chamber of parliament where the federal states are uh, represented. so it's a pretty powerful cause, and it's embodied in the sort of fabric of the gym and state and transfer all off. schultz decided the changes agreed today would protect the court from the influence of extremists. what is exactly the fear here? how could extremist influence or change the court or yeah,

well what's often mentioned is that something that happened here, like what happened has happened in poland and hungary and poland for instance, as a nationalist policy. the piece when it was empower, attempted to have judges that 8 approved a point 8 across the polish legal system that was heavily criticized by other countries. and the you and jim and politicians, fear that back kind of influence could happen here somehow. so they say, well, we'll anchor at these, the new rules, the, the structure of essentially, of the constitutional court in germany is constitution. that's just going to make it much harder for any single policy to change things and to have that kind of influence. it will also make it harder for them to block or delay at the appointments and the interior minister today compared it to what should have happened to the volleyball republic, the principal, germany, which failed to sort of show up in both states institutions. and that of course,

led to the rise of the nazis assignment. thank you so much for that update. our political correspondent, simon young. and that is our show for now. i'm clear, richard said in berlin, thank you so much for watching the

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