♪ brent: this is "dw news," live from berlin. tonight, a knockout blow to russia's olympic hopes. the international olympic committee today banned russia from the upcoming winter olympic games over state-sponsored doping. clean athletes will only be allowed to compete under a neutral flag. we have complete coverage, including reaction from moscow, including russia's plans to appeal the ban. also coming up, a move that could mean a dead-end for the middle east peace process. u.s. president donald trump tells palestinian president mahmoud abbas he intends to move the u.s. embassy in israel to jerusalem.

palestinian groups are calling for a day of rage in protest. we will get the latest from jerusalem. and police in kiev arrest former georgian leader mikheil saakashvili, but they are forced to free him by angry supporters. we will have an exclusive interview with the man who escaped the police. ♪ brent: i'm brent goff. it's good to have you with us. the international olympic committee has banned russia from competing in the 2018 winter olympics. some clean athletes, however, will be able to compete as neutral, but under strict conditions. with just 10 weeks before the games begin in south korea, the ioc president and executive board found the evidence of systematic doping presented to them today was enough to stop

athletes from competing under the russian flag at the games. this is the second time in a row that russian athletes will miss out on an olympics because of doping after also missing out on the 2016 summer games in rio. the ioc president held a press conference a little while ago. this is part of what thomas bach had to say. >> the russian olympic committee is suspended with immediate effect. individual clean russian athletes will be able to participate under strict conditions at the olympic winter games 2018. these invited athletes will participate in either individual or team competitions under the name olympic athlete from russia, with the acronym o.a.r.

brent: we have got team coverage of the story here. at my right is matt herrmann from our sports desk, and our correspondent emily sherwin is covering the story tonight from moscow. matt, the ioc has decided to ban russia. clean athletes will be able to compete under the neutral olympic flag. so, was the evidence so overwhelming, and do we actually know what the evidence was? matt: yeah, we have a very good idea what the evidence was. through the efforts of some investigative journalists as well as whistleblowers from the russian side of things, we understand there was a systematic state-sponsored program of doping in place, at least as far back as the sochi olympic games and probably much more than that. in which the russian state security forces, the russian sports ministry collaborated for a system in which no russian athlete could give up a tainted sample.

basically they would have clean urine stored in advance and it would be swapped with the tainted urine, so that when the tests were undertaken, russian athletes would always pass with flying colors. this evidence was out and has been out for at least a year. the ioc wanted to take another closer look at the evidence. the evidence held up, and here we are. brent: emily, what about reaction from russia? there are reports that moscow plans to appeal this ban, right? emily: well, the kremlin spokesman said they would be waiting for a decision. he even said they might even wait for that decision in writing. they are sort of buying time. there hasn't been an official reaction but they said earlier today they would protect athletes and there has been some indication that they might appeal the decision in the courts. but it is not clear now, with

this decision for russian athletes to be able tp compete under a neutral flag, whether they would also be appealing that decision. brent: we are getting reports, emily, that the head of the russian olympic committee says that he plans to at least attempt an appeal of this ban. that's the official line right now. what are russians saying about this? i mean, we know russia is a powerhouse athletic country. emily: well, the people here in moscow that i have been speaking to on the street, they seem to feel sorry for the athletes, really, that they are being essentially punished. also there are surveys that show that actually only a minority of russians actually believe there was a state-sponsored doping system like the ioc is in fact now saying. so, they feel sorry. and also, there is a feeling here in russia that there is

some kind of a campaign going on, a western campaign against russia. people cite the widespread allegations of hacking, they cite the sanctions, and now this doping scandal fits in with that narrative. and i think people here just feel this is a political decision rather than a decision to do with sports. brent: we know the russian president has intimated at least once that this whole doping scandal is a u.s. reaction to alleged russian meddling in the u.s. election. i mean, that's the political angle of it. matt, what can be done now? you have got the image of russian sports in the world at an all-time low. can it be rehabilitated in any way? matt: i think the only way that it can be rehabilitated is for them to basically change their line. you have just heard from emily that the words coming out of the

russian sports apparatus is very much, woe is us, we are being victimized, this is all a sham. it seems clear to most outside observers now that that line is a sham. if they are willing to come clean, willing to say that we did this, we are now putting entirely different people in charge, different systems in place, we are throwing ourselves at the mercy of the world anti-doping agency, perhaps they can rehabilitate their reputation. let's face it, these athletes are being protected. the ones who are clean, the one to have never failed a doping test can still compete. it is the russian team who is being banned. it is the russian olympic committee chair who is been suspended. it is the former russian sports minister being banned for life. but the athletes are being protected. they are getting their chance to compete. brent: well, it takes two to tango. the athletes had to cooperate with the state-sponsored doping, if that was the case, right?

so they have all kept secret until now. matt: and that is a good point. i think it is hard to argue that these athletes this is being done against their will or without their knowledge, being coerced into this. because let's face it, the athletes want to win as much as anyone else. i know there are russian athletes -- for example the athletics competitors who were allowed to compete in the summer olympics despite the ban on track and field athletes, who for a reason decided to train outside the auspices of the russian olympic committee because they know something is fishy there. so i think there are ways where clean athletes can get their say, can compete, and can save their reputations. brent: matt herrmann and emily sherman on the story. to both of you, thank you very much. u.s. president donald trump has told egypt, jordan, and the palestinian leadership that he will move the u.s. embassy in israel to jerusalem.

it is a move that would be tantamount to recognizing the disputed city as israel's capital, something trump promised during his presidential campaign. reiterating statements made earlier in the week, palestinian president mahmoud abbas warned trump that moving the embassy would in danger the middle east peace process and promote unrest in the region. germany's foreign minister sigmar gabriel had this to say today about the announcement. >> a lot of member states including us have expressed their concerns that the recognition of jerusalem as the capital of israel will not calm the conflict, but rather, escalate it. it is in everyone's interest that that does not happen. therefore, we as germans, among others in the eu, are firmly convinced that we must maintain the two state solution as a goal. that means a secure israel, but also an independent and viable palestinian state.

therefore, unilateral steps to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital -- and that includes east jerusalem -- i believe that would be a very dangerous move. brent: all right. we have team coverage on this story now. i am joined from jerusalem by my colleague tania kramer and our correspondent carsten von nahmen in washington. tania, how are palestinian authorities reacting to this phone call from u.s. president donald trump? tania: we understand that mr. trump had this conversation with the palestinian president and the jordanian king and they issued a statement afterwards saying they were informed about the intentions of mr. trump to move the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. it is not clear when this will happen, there is no timetable given, or the framework in which this will be done. there were no details given in

that. but the statement from all the leaders here are stressing that there is so much concern, they are warning about the impact for the region, but also stressing that the palestinians will not give up on their claim on east jerusalem as the capital of their future state, according to international resolutions. so, i mean, this echoes many of the concerns from many leaders in the region. i have to stress that from egypt, jordan, saudi arabia -- everybody is saying this is a dangerous move and could destabilize the region. brent: president trump also called the king of jordan. we know in the past he has said that this type of move would endanger stability in jordan. why is he so worried? tania: i mean, jordan has a lot at stake here. jordan is traditionally the custodian of the holy sites. so everything that concerns east

jerusalem also concerns jordan, and you should not forget there is also a lot of palestinian refugees living in jordan. so what he also expressed again today in that statement is he also warned about going ahead with this move without having a framework of negotiations. there is this concern here we are hearing from people i talked to today on the palestinian side at least, that this is setting new parameters. jerusalem is such a sensitive site, it is so symbolic for a lot of people. it leaves a lot of people here with a lot of uncertainty now how this will play out. brent: and carsten, moving the u.s. embassy to jerusalem, it has been a u.s. goal for decades but it has never been implemented, right? carsten: basically all presidents since bill clinton have been kicking this can down the road every six months. because 22 years ago, the u.s. congress passed a law, the

jerusalem embassy act, which says that jerusalem is the capital of israel and that the u.s. embassy should move there. that law, however, gives the president of the united states the chance to postpone the implementation of that law by six months, at the time, if it is in the national interest of the security of the united states. and that has happened again and again. bill clinton and then george w. bush and then barack obama have all postponed the implementation of this again and again. donald trump also did it once in the summer of this year, but only grudgingly, after he was supported in this by his advisors and arab allies of the united states. but now he seems to have changed his mind. it could be that he declares he wants the embassy in jerusalem,

but still postponed the move for six months, so legally not much would change but it would still be a game changer politically and diplomatically. brent: carsten, is there any sense there in the u.s. about the timing of this being suspicious? that trump is doing this now to divert attention from the fbi investigation into his campaign's connections to russia? carsten: there is a sense, certainly, but it is difficult to prove. to be fair, donald trump seems to really believe that the u.s. embassy should be in jerusalem. he has promised it during his election campaign. now, he has broken some of his promises, but he has also kept some. when you look at the issue of the paris agreement on climate change, the travel ban against some muslim majority countries, now maybe also in this case. the point is that donald trump needs his core supporters, his base, if he wants to control the republican establishment. part of that base is the conservative pro-israel lobby and the christian conservative

evangelist partners and supporters. so he wants to keep that base and he will proceed with that apparently no matter what. brent: carsten von nahmen in washington and tania kramer in jerusalem. to both of you, thank you. here are some of the other stories making headlines around the world. spain's supreme court has withdrawn an international arrest warrant for catalonia's former leader carles puigdemont. puigdemont has been in brussels in self-imposed exile ever since october's legal independence referendum. the court says it with the true -- it withdrew the warrants because politicians have shown a willingness to return to spain. the red cross says at least 230 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in yemen during nearly one week of fighting. saudi coalition warplanes led at least 25 war strikes on the capital overnight. on monday, the country's former president ali abdullah saleh was

a fast-moving wildfire in the u.s. state of california has forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes. the blaze, in ventura county near los angeles, broke out on monday and was fanned by strong winds. authorities say it could soon threaten a city of more than 100,000 people. the cause of the fire remains unknown. there were chaotic scenes on the streets of kyiv today after police tried to arrest mikheil saakashvili, the former georgian leader who has become an anticorruption campaigner in his adopted home ukraine. he has also become a thorn in the side othe ukrainian presiden petro poroshenko. police detainesaakashvili, but were forced to free him when his supporters surrounded the van that was holding him. our correspondent nick connolly was there. we will have an update in just a moment from him, but first, here is what he saw today. reporter: early morning hide and seek on the roofs above.

except the man being detained is a former president. and one of ukrainian president poshenko's mt vocal opponents. as news of the raid spread on facebook, within minutes, a crowd had gathered on the streets below. but still there was no word from police as to why he was being detained. his arms tied behind his back, saakashvili had one last chance to address a supporters, called for president poroshenko to face impeachment. what it was once -- but it was once saakashvili was bundled into a car that the confrontation between police and his supporters really got going. street ornaments, rubbish bins, even parked police cars were all fair game as the crowd tried to prevent saakashvili's forcible departure. in the meantime, ukraine's

prosecutor general finally got around to answering the question on everyone's lips -- why such a big operation, and why now? saakashvili, he said, had colluded with oligarchs and was preparing to -- brent: a short while ago, our correspondent talked to the former georgian president and ukrainian opposition leader. we bring you this exclusive interview. nick started by asking him why he thinks he was detained. >> the real reason is that for the last several months, i have been heading the movement for change in terms of corruption, in terms of getting to the corrupt practices of the president and his immediate surroundings which have brought ukraine to being the poorest country in terms of gdp in europe. they have been menacing me for some time. they have told me they would arrest me. they have been sending me people. they told me if they don't find something on me, they will invent something on me.

nick: the authorities today have published something that apparently shows you talking to mr. poroshenko. >> i don't know who this guy is at all. i don't know him, i don't know how he looks, i don't know how he sounds. why would i -- this is absolutely fake. the thing is that these people, they told me if they cannot find anything on me, they will create it. we have been marching peacefully, quietly, but in big numbers more and more. that's what they were scared of. nick: ukraine is willing to elect or support someone who was born in another country? >> look, i am not running for office right now. i am just trying to rescue this nation from absolute oblivion of corruption. nick: [inaudible] >> well, right now i'm delivering the proper apparatus. whatever the future prepares for me, i will see it. but of course i'm not running for president, for sure.

thank you. brent: we're going to have more on that interview with mr. saakashvili coming up later on on the day. it's time for business news now. we are talking about u.s. president donald trump and his alleged ties to russia. there is a german connection , deutsche banis interested, now. javier: one of the most important companies in germany, which is why it is a big story here as well, because the investigation is now over the russian meddling in the u.s. presidential election last year, as you know. but a number of media outlets are reporting that special counsel robert mueller has asked deutsche to release data on accounts held by president trump and his family. the information was demanded by subpoena after deutsche rejected requests from u.s. house democrats to share the data in june, citing privacy laws. the bank loaned the trump administration millions of dollars in the past. with the investigation ongoing, we asked our financial correspondent konrad busen what

we do know about the background to this story. konrad: what we do know is that deutsche bank has had very close business relations with russia for a long time, with companies, with oligarchs. and we also know that deutsche bank has failed to prevent money laundering. it had to pay high fines for that here in europe, but also in america. what we also know is that trump has had relations with russia, or at least his family. people like jared and ivanka and don jr., with russians, also with russian oligarchs, like a building tycoon. the third thing we know is that trump and deutsche bank have had business relations for decades. the bank has given loans of several hundred million u.s. dollars to trump. the question now of course, what people here are wondering about, is whether all this is

connected, whether there is some connectivity of the loans to the russian investigation or potential wrongdoing of trump and his family. javier: that might upset donald trump, of course. the u.s. trade deficit has risen to its highest level in nine months. that means the country spent a whopping $48 billion more on imports than it managed to ship ft in exports. it works outt an increase in over 8% in the space of a month, potentially dragging down gdp for the full year. rising oil prices pushed the import bill higher. and imports from china also hit a record high. the news will not go unnoticed by u.s. president donald trump. he has long blamed the country's trade deficit for a loss of jobs and moderate economic growth. back to europe now, where enough is enough. that is what europe's finance ministers are saying when they finally take action against tax

havens like the ones exposed by the paradise papers and panama papers. the eu is naming and shaming 17 countries on a new blacklist, but to the dismay of transparency campaigners, eu members like luxembourg or ireland are not among them. and british overseas territories are also being spared. reporter: a tropical tax haven in the middle of grey brussels. today, the eu finance ministers singled out 17 tax havens on a blacklist. countries like barbados, namibia and tunisia have refused to help them crackdown on tax dodgers, but they stopped short of imposing national sanctions on them. >> hopefully this will help to increase the transparency of the global tax environment. i want to emphasize that this is not a punitive measure, but our wish is that those countries will cooperate more in the future. reporter: but according to the european commission, the measures against tax havens do not go far enough. >> from the commission point of

view, we could have seen stronger countermeasures. but we hope that this work will continue on the council's side. reporter: the ngo oxfam also criticizes the blacklist as being too short. they count 35 countries that should be blacklisted -- among them, four countries within the european union -- ireland, the netherlands, luxembourg, and malta. but there is not a single member states on the list. critics say europe should put their own house in order first. javier: our reporter charlotte chelsom-pill has been covering the story for us from brussels. charlotte, hi, good to see you. not a single eu country is listed on this blacklist. how does the eu even justify that? charlotte: that's quite right. well, the eu will argue it has its own tools for regulating tax avoidance within member states. they will say this is something

that was always planned to moderate the action of third-party countries, countries outside the bloc. but certainly the fact that no eu countries are on either the blacklist or the grey list, a list of countries that will have to adjust their behavior, is causing a lot of anger in some circles. oxfam, as we just heard in that report, is particularly angry. it published its own report saying, was this a blacklist or a whitewash? it argues that had the eu applied its own rules to its own member states, then four european countries would be on that list, including malta, luxembourg, and the netherlands. javier: you are talking about the justification with third-party countries. let's talk about those, because what does it even mean for the government of a country to be named on the blacklist? the list doesn't include just small vacation islands but also

important trading partners like say, south korea. charlotte: that's quite right. you are picking up on another one of their concerns that has been raised about this announcement today, and that is the fact that there are currently no concrete sanctions for countries found to be in violation of the eu's rules regarding taxation. that could change. there is some speculation that member states might be able to impose their own sanctions. but as it stands, it is only really some eu funding that is at risk. in fact, an eu commissioner for tax has criticized that, while saying this is an important first step that this announcement has been made, it could in fact have gone a lot further. essentially, it doesn't seem to have any teeth when it comes to dealing with tax issues. javier: charlotte chelsom-pill in brussels, thank you so much for the analysis. the eu is hoping for sunnier skies, and i think we have something for them perhaps. brent: we're going to go somewhere over the rainbow now. a new world record has just been set for the longest lasting rainbow.

this beauty you see right here appeared in taiwan on thursday and lasted for almost nine hours. university researchers are now submitting photographic evidence to the guinness world records committee. if accepted, this rainbow will knock out the previous rainbow record, a six hour rainbow record set in england more than 20 years ago. you're watching "dw news." after a short break i'll be back to take you through the day. stick around for that. we'll be right back. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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