♪ quirks hello and welcome. this is which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] -- a this is -- >> hello and welcome. this is "dw news" live from berlin. washington is bracing for some bruising confirmation battles as the president-elect picks republican hard-liners for a number of top jobs. we look at some of the first

figures named to the trump administration. and still reeling from the dieselgate scandal, german carmaker volkswagen says it will cut 13 jobs nationwide but says there will be no forced reductions. my name is christopher springer. good to have you with us. barack obama has left the german capital berlin, ending his final tour of europe as u.s. president. leaders of europe's biggest nations have been anxious to find out more about america's new direction under obama's successor. >> it's the last time a security detail will be out in berlin for president barack obama. the next u.s. leader to visit

will likely come with a fundamentally different agenda. obama and chancellor merkel, on the other hand, found much mutual ground during this visit. both want transatlantic relations to continue as always, especially regarding trade, climate protection, and nato. the president made it clear he is counting on the west and on merkel. president obama: across the board, she has always been someone i can trust and someone who, i think, deeply believes in the role that germany can play and that all wealthy nations can play and not only making our country is better but also making the world. >> as well as the u.s. president, the chancellor also hosted her counterparts in france, italy, spain, and britain, all facing their own national crises, but the roundtable was designed to show that even after obama, merkel would not be alone.

>> only when we worked together are we strong, and we demonstrated that today in the discussions with the u.s. president. as chancellor of germany, i would like to do my part on the one hand in the service of the people living in germany, but that also includes working towards a united and successful europe. >> british prime minister theresa may is pushing ahead with the brexit, but she also stressed the importance of continued international cooperation. >> daesh, syria, immigration -- challenges we will deal with by working together. that is what we have always done as britain and germany and what the u.k. will continue to do when we leave the european union, including through international groupings such as this. >> obama will not be attending those, and there was a warm goodbye from the german chancellor. obama leaves merkel with plenty to deal with -- a new tenor and

transatlantic relations, a fracturing european onion, and the challenges facing her own political career. >> ok, let's bring in our political correspondent on this. he has been covering the president visit to berlin or us. i guess the main question is -- did obama managed to reassure us that his successor will remain committed to the transatlantic alliance? >> in this case, i'm afraid we know as little less the european leaders. right now, the problem is that barack obama more or less is the only source of europe has to know what is going on inside donald trump. over the last two and a half days, it became quite obvious that donald trump and angela merkel used these meetings done only for reassurance of also to give a message across the atlantic to donald trump to show

the real allies of the united states are here in europe and berlin, and these are the important people you have to call. >> the european leaders meeting obama in britain continued their talks afterwards. what's the outcome of those talks? >> well, there has not been a joint press conference, but we know these talks today were more or less down-to-earth politics in the end. they were talking about the ongoing conflict in syria and iraq and ukraine. most of this, of course, regarding russia and its role in these conflicts. we know from the white house press statement which came out later today that all leaders agreed on the need of extent of sanctions on russia regarding the ukraine conflict as long as russia fails to meet the minsk

process. >> one of those leaders was british prime minister theresa may. what kind of reception did she get? >> quite a normal one. i know the british made quite a fuss about the seating arrangement, ensuring she did not sit very close to barack obama or angela merkel, trying to read into it some importance about the deterioration of the relationship with the european union and international community. what we could see was that theresa may tried to make a point in saying that great written, of course, will continue to play a major role in international security, britain will continue to meet its commitments also within europe, although britain wants to leave

the european union, so i think all of this was more or less a storm in a teacup in the end. >> thank you very much, rupert. turning to the u.s. now where president-elect donald trump has named three figures to key positions in his administration. he has nominated a prominent obama critic, senator jeff sessions, for the job of attorney general. sessions is in favor of tough immigration policies and also was the first senator to endorse trump during his campaign. congressman mike pompeo is being nominated as the future director of these dia. pompeo a critic of obama's a deal with iran. -- congressman mike pompeo is being nominated as the future director of the cia. then retired lieutenant general michael flynn is becoming the

national security adviser. he is actually a member of the democratic party and once held the job of military intelligence chief in the obama administration but resigned due to differences with obama on his foreign and military policies. let's cross to washington now to analyze those names. some of them quite controversial, aren't they? >> yes, controversial picks if you are a progressive or democrat, you probably will not like general flynn. he will have a very important, unique position in the white house. he will be able to influence trump on security issues and all aspects of foreign policy. he served in afghanistan and iran and was one of the first from supporters. last year, he went to moscow to meet president putin. there are a couple of teachers showing flynn and clinton -- and

putin -- there are a couple of pictures showing flynn and putin meeting together and laughing. i expect flynn to use his connections to putin and the kremlin to improve the relationship between russia and the u.s. >> what does this tell us about the huge or shape of a trump administration? of these the kinds of nominations that will unify such a divided country? >> well, i don't think those nominations are going to unify the country. probably the opposite is true. donald trump is going to keep his promise and be a law and order president. on the campaign trail, he always said he was a law and order candidate. when you look at his appointees, they are all hard line or, but it is important to mention they are not neocons like former vice

president dick cheney. they are not interventionist. >> one other question -- congressman mike pompeo nominated as cia director, is a declared opponent of the nuclear deal with iran how big a threat is that nomination? >> many in washington, d.c., just say the iran deal is dead. trump and the new cia director criticized the deal over and over again. trump said on the campaign trail this is one of the worst deals ever, so i expect either the end of the campaign deal or some sort of renegotiations. i'm not sure if tehran is willing to renegotiate. i'm asking myself what are the repercussions, especially for germany as well as the region.

the campaign chair supported the deal from the beginning. >> many thanks for that. time for some business news now. u.s. corporations trying to foresee what is going to come with a trump administration. >> that's right, we just had the political perspective, but businesses are also having questions about what a presidency will mean, in this case for u.s. businesses. the president-elect's idea to bring jobs back to america mean things currently produced in mexico or china will have to be produced in the u.s. for a whole lot more money. the concept u.s. companies are struggling to accept. >> can apple's iphone be made in

the usa all the way? the world's most valuable company has reportedly asked suppliers to assess the possibility of making iphones stateside instead of in china and taiwan according to sources cited by business paper "nikkei asian review." that would probably prove easier said than done. shifting connection to the united states would probably double apples manufacturing cost s, but the news comes on the back of president donald trump's promise to move production to the u.s. to generate more jobs, a promise made in the campaign trail like here in michigan. trump: we will stop the jobs from leaving your state. we are going to stop the jobs from going to mexico and china and all over the world. >> trump says he has already started with ford. he claimed credit for convincing

forward to keep a plant in kentucky, but ford said it was simply planning to make space for another model. there are early signs u.s. companies may be bracing themselves already. >> on the other hand, if we get to financial news, banks and insurers are certainly not worried about the presidency of donald trump in the u.s. at least not for now. it could mean scaling back of tight financial regulations imposed by barack obama. that was part of the agenda in frankfurt, but of course, there's a lot more on the plate. the european central bank still has to fight off a huge amount of problems. ecb chief mario draghi is said to keep pushing his super loose

monetary policy. that is in europe, but what will happen in the u.s.? will donald trump make things easier for u.s. banks? >> trump had engaged in anti-wall street rhetoric quite a bit before the elections without saying exactly what he would do other than dialing back regulation. dialing back regulation like.-frank -- like dodd-frank is not is it to do. the expectation of most bankers is that the status quo probably will be held, which is already a good thing compared to if bernie sanders or elizabeth warren had come in. they would probably have been a lot more restrictive. also what we have to observe is that banks have become more risk-averse, so i think the status quo will probably remain in that is also important with regard to global coordination

with regard to regulatory arbitrage, so europeans are ramping up their regulations. >> we're going to take a short break. do stay with us.

>> welcome back. you are with "dw news" in berlin. president obama has said elwell to europe after his final tour of the continent. before saying goodbye to his post, chancellor merkel, and the human, he made europeans anxious. meanwhile, washington is bracing for some bruising presidential battles. the president-elect has picked a number of republican hardliners for the top jobs.

now back to business news. a huge story in germany, those of us who thought the dieselgate scandal was over, we were wrong. >> is not over and still has consequences for employees. everyone knew it was coming. it was just a matter of time. volkswagen just announced it would cut up to 30,000 jobs. a move of this scale is unprecedented. the savings plan is a desperate attempt to recover from the famous dieselgate scandal. >> a great step forward is how volkswagen management described its plans for the future. it was negotiated within the german carmaker for months. now the direction is clear -- vw workers will bear the burden of the plans which will cost jobs.

the pact for the future is the biggest reform program in our company's history. it will make volkswagen more efficient, more productive, and more competitive. vw pus balance sheet is overdue for repairs. the companies facing down the biggest scandal in its history. last autumn, the firm pus diesel cars were caught cheating on a missions test. since then, litigation has streamed in. in the united states alone, vw is paying off $14.7 million in fines. in germany, investigations into executive's still at the company who stand accused of having full knowledge of the cheating, but the employees did not know and yet faithful consequences. >> i can now say after long days and nights of discussions, the pact for the future means uncontrolled job cuts are now off the table.

>> volkswagen promises 30,000 posts will be cut responsibly. an uncertain future for the workers. >> despite the, let's say, optimistic approach of these plans, executives had said in the past that the

an area with hardly any food. this is an incredible moment. >> some of the areas down here

exist on hardly anything. white starfish, colonies of bacteria, at-like tube worms, and many other probably unknown species. excitement over the discovery, though, has been overshadowed by concerns of continued climate change. >> the algae that grow, the crabs that if the algae, everything will change if the ice melts. they will lose their habitat and died. then they just disappear. within a few years, the whole food chain will change. >> since they can 79, almost half of the ice at the north pole has disappeared, and without the ice, this impressive submarine world has no chance of surviving. >> the weekend is just around the corner, so in the bundesliga, all eyes are on the leak's top showdown on saturday night, dortmund against bayern munich -- all eyes are on the league's top showdown on

saturday night. this match has been known as the german classical, promising plenty of highlights and emotion. >> the mother of all bundesliga match ups. doesn't dortmund and bayern munich, you could feel the intensity at training sessions. this has become the german classic. before, there was the spanish classic between real and barcelona, and now we have a german when. it will be an important game for both buyer and dortmund. it is a game that stirs a lot of anticipation because it puts the coaching staff and team to the test. recent additions of the classical have been fiery affairs, and it is expected to be no different this time. i'm constellations are sure to make the game even more explosive. the defender will face his former club as will be dortmund forward, and munich austin

pester us player returning from a long absence. >> the dortmund game is always special. people expect a lot from this match, a lot of competition, a lot of pressure. that is fun for me and the whole team. >> the loss would lead dortmund nine points behind byron, putting a serious damper on their title aspirations. >> there are days when we have the dealing this is the best we could have done so far because these young or new players need time to get used to the rhythm and intensity of play in the bundesliga. >> byron -- byron -- bayern see themselves as the number one club in football and want to prove it again in the classico. >> america's national football league is heading south of the border. the oakland raiders and houston

texans facing off against each other in mexico city monday as they attempt to tap into the country's massive fan base. thousands of mexicans play in youth teams. millions of mexican fans tune in to the nfl every sunday. the game will be a test run with an eye to holding a game in mexico every year, similar to those held in london. you are watching "dw news" in berlin. we will take a really short break, and then i will be back with the day in-depth view, top stories from all around the world. do stay with us. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

this program is brought to you in part by cie international tours. for over 80 years, featuring all inclusive tours and go as you police value vacations throughout ireland and britain went. cie international tours.com. and by supporters of dublin gaa who will bring the all ireland winning football team to new york for special event on thursday november 17. an evening of celebration with the team and their manager. for more information visit outofirelandtv.com. ♪ ♪