"fine cut" " series is generousy prprovided by ththe bridges laln founundation. >> this is "dw newm berlin. another dismissal at a white house that seems to have a revolving door. donald trump's communication director anthony scaramucci is out after just 10 days in the job. we will get more from washington. also, even his -- the u.s. brands the venezuelan president a dictator. germany'y's transport minister denies allegations his

department gave into the car companies and play down the severity of allegations they cheated on emissions tests. soccer star cristiano ronaldo is in court on allegations he played tricks with his taxes. ♪ >> thank you for joining us. the white house has said donald chomsky mitigation director anthony scaramucci has left after just 10 days on the job. scaramucci was fired at the urging of trump's new chief of staff john kelly. scaramucci's appointment raised eyebrows a as he hadad no previs political experience.

he also gainined immediate attention with a strongly worded rant about two of his colleagues. our washington correspondent joins us now for more on this developing story. scaramucci is gone. what brought about his fall from grace? maya: it seems to have been this one-two punch, the strongly worded rant as well as the bringing in of general john kelly as new chief of staff. for those keeping track, thehere is definitely a revolving door of people in the white house. scaramucci coming in 10 days ago. former press secretary sean spicer resigned in protest to scaramucci being b brought in. scaramucci then brought down before chief of staff reince priebus. in his place, john kelly was brought in.

john kelly then requested that scaramucci be fired and here we are today. gerhart: scaramucci was named to this job only 10 days ago. what a shambles. what does this departure say about donald trump's white house? maya: it certainly does not help the allegations of chaos that has been plaguing this white house since day one. we saw a very short departure of michael flynn at the beginning of his administration due to alleged entanglements with russia. it certainly doesn't help a white house that wants to do business. the white house and their communications people constantly complain immediate is not covering what they are actually doing in terms of policies or legislation or any bills they are putting forward because the media is focusing too much on these -- these opposing chaos happening, but they are making it very hard to focus on anything else because of all the turnover.

gerhart: talking about the legislation and all the other things -- in the past hour the president has been speaking, but not about scaramucci. what has he been saying? maya: he wass giving the nate -- the nation's highest honor to a military veteran who fought in vietnam. we also have going on right now is a press briefing with now- press secretary sarah huckabee sanders. i expect there we many questions but very few answers over what exactly happened with scaramucci , why kelly requested him out, and what this looks like with kelly bringing his foot down, seems to be saying he won't tolerate this kind of behavior, how scaramucci was acting. gerhart: who has president trump's ear right now? maya: we still have chief

strategist steve bannon, very close to the presisint, as welel as evocative trump and jared kushner -- i thought the trump and -- ivanka trump and jared kushner. but there is a lot of shuffling going on and we will have to see who comes out on top of this team of rivals. gerhart: maya, keeping a close eye on that revolving door at the white house. thank you. we stay on that side of the atlantic, the u.s. has let sanctions on the venezuelan president, calling him a dictator. the move comes after the election in which their government changed a mandate in the constitution. the opposition called a sham. reporter: venezuela's and data later said these elections would be a fresh start for his deeply divided country. but the morning after in the capital, the ransacked streets

tell a different story. some feel that democracy has been snatched d from them. >> the biggest robbery i have ever seen. i was in the votingng center whe ththey recorded a huge turnout. it was not like they say it was. we don't know what will happen in the future. we're still fighting to see what happens. look at the streets and more or less, people voted this way. reporter: bowling day was marred with violent clashes across the country. protesters on the streets. several were killed including a candidate in one of the bloodiest days since unrest began. in the end, the president claimed a victory. >> there were states in the country where voters came out challenging the paramilitaries. they crossed rivers and

mountains but they voted for the coconstitutional national assembly. reporter: critics say venezuelans stayed away from the polls. the government says turnout was roughly 40%. people say it was rigged. ter monthshs of demonstratations and over 100 deaths come a vote intended to repair the country's political, economic and social crises may have only prolonged it. gerhart: our log -- our latin american correspondent joins us now. the u.s. said it will impose more sanctions against the president personally. what does that mean? >> accordingng to the u.s.s. department o of treasury, t the office of foreign asassets conol -- the u.s. has frozen any assets for bank accounts associated with him in the u.s. this is the latest sanction

against his government. there were worries that sanctions would target the oil industry. a looming threat that would really affect the entire country. from what we are seeing a sanction is directed at the individual. the u.s. said they would not impose sanctions after the election, and they have donene . gerhart: venezuela's attorney general says she will not recognize the new assembly, calling it an expression of dictatorial ambition. whatatre the implications ofof thth? oscar: the attorney general was loyal to hugo chavez. the fact that she has become critical in the last few months means they have lost a branch in government that they used to contntrol. she is also a symbol of the internal discontent. she has become the number one target of this constituent assembly and she remains defiant , saying she will stay in her position. she even said she will file a

case against maduro foror crimes against humanity. we could expect more as this assembly is installed. gerhart: pretty strong stuff. why is this new constitueuent assembly soo controvoversial? oscar: this elecection was maduo 's response to months off protes andnd it is designed to constrtruct those institutions they lost control of. cocoress, led d by the opposion. for r many it e evident i it ia power g grab. i'veve been coveringlelections re s since 2012 and i nevever sw vovoting centers a as empty as yesterda so to come up with a number r tt wawas higherer than what you u k chavezez ever achieieved was hao believe. but the amount of viviolence we saw, that is unheard of during an election and we are expecting more to come. gerhart: oscar, thank you very much.

back to germany, when the government is accused of cozying up to car companies. the transport minister has denied allegations that his department played down reports about emissions cheating after pressure from the industry. the latest twist in germany's so-called diesel-date scandal -- diesel-gate scandal comes at a bad time. reporter: he's alleged to have known that portia was manipulating software. german media said porsche requested them -- the transport minister says at the time there was a lack of evidence. he says accusations of cronyism with the car industry are absurd. >> this is a standard partnership between business, politics, and society.

anyone who thinknks this is cronyism does not understand market economics. reporter: they say the minister play down the report. they're calling on automakers to do more than simply replace software. they also want the hardware, the engines, to be improved so that emissions are reduced technically as well. >> the costs cannot t be carried by the carar owners. by the way, also not by taxpayers. they must be paid by those who incurred them. reporter: dieselgate is also causing uproar within the german government. social democrats and conservatives want to know exactly what the transport minister new and when. -- knew and when. gerhart: what is going to happen in this car industry summit on wednesday? i'm joined here by daniel winter. that meeting on wednesday, can

we expect the car companies -- daniel: they will say sorry but also politely remind politicians that the car industry is a huge contributor to the german economy and diesel sales so far had made up about half of all sales in europe. but the astonishing thing is the carmakers want to propose that taxpayers paid to cleanup the dieselgate scandal. really. they want subsidies from the government in order to convince people to upgrade the so-called euro-six cars. that's the best emission standard europe has, so that is what they are going to try to convince them to do. the carmakers might also put money into a mobility fund to help improve green travel infrastructure. they might also say they arere r a controlled phasing out of diesels. when they don't want is for the government to intervene and tell them what to do. we might see some of those things.

they also might want to mitigate the scandal ethics in the current cars involved. gerhart: fixing the current cars is a good point. recalls are being discussed but there is a big disappointment about what kind of fixes. daniel: that's right. hardware versus software. it's a wild west end off between environmentalist and carmakers. the carmakers want to do it cheaply and easily, as you would expect. the software fix is 100 euros per car and carmakers would pay for that. that should reduce half of emissions by 25%. environmentalists say that is nonsense. they want a 1500 euro hardware fix, but carmakers say that is utterly unfeasible. gerhart: is there a future for diesel? it's been discussed a lot in recent days, quite emotionally.

is there a future for diesel? daniel: it will be a gloomy future if anything. there are a lot of things working against it. pollution in general contributes to half a million early deaths every year in europe. so of course everyone will be working against pollution of all kinds in the future. france, norway and britain want to move into electronic cars await from -- away from petrol and diesel. 50% of sales in europe were diesels. one bank said that will be soon as little as 30%. they could already be on theirir way out. gerhart: daniel winter, thank you very much. coming up, the eu orders poland to stop logging in europe's largest -- last remaining forest. poland says it is none of your business. also, where's the 50 million?

soccer star cristiano ronaldo who support to answer questions in a taxax case against them. all the details from our sports desk. that and much more coming up next. ♪

♪ gerhart: welcome back. our top stories, u.s. president donald trump's communication secretary anthony scaramucci has left the job after just 10 days. scaramucci was fired at ththe urging of trump's new chief of staff john kelly. venezuela's president maduro has declared sunday's vote for in to rewrite the constitution a success, but the opposition has denounced it as a power grab.

the u.s. announced it will impose new sanctions against the country. germany's transport minister has denied allegations his department played down reports about emissions cheating after pressure from the car industry. it's the latest twist in the so-called these will gate scandal which exposed carmakers as using software to make vehicles seem more environmentally friendly. u.s. sanctions against pressure are causing concern in europe. daniel: the u.s. is handing out sanctions like they are sweeties. the eu should penalize the u.s. for sanctioning russia. that is what germany's economy minister says. she says it will damage firms beyond russia's borders, arguing they are in clear breach of international law. reporter: new measures by the

u.s. are aimed at important sectors of the economy, including the energy sector. those would impact the european economy. that's because sanctions against them could also hit german firms that were closely with the russian energy company. germany fears that companies working on important pipeline companies will pullout. the german economic minister has strongly criticized the american measures. >> we consider this to be against international law, plain and simple. of course we don't want a trade war, but it is important the european commission looks into countermeasures. reporter: the president of the european commission has already threatened counter sanctions. daniel: i want to bring in our new york financial correspondent on this. are any u.s. companies likely to be hit by the sanctions move? jens: at least what we are seeing is that there are quite some lobbying efforts underway

and a lot of the big companies here in the u.s. warn of potential unintended consequences we could see. some of the banks, some credit card companies, oil and energy corporations, some of the big manufacturers in the industry of corporations. aerospace companes -- yes, there could because sequences even if we can't put a number behind them. there is also some talk about the possible and future of companies like boeing in regards to russian titanium. yes, there is a fear in corporate america that there could be a negative impact. daniel: trump has talked about increasing natural death sales to europe -- natural gas sales to europe. does anyone stand to benefit? jens: certainly.

the key is basically liquefied, natural gas. the trump administration is hoping in general to become the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas. there is also some resistance to those ideas bececause if you export more natural gas, that would mean higher prices and that could increase the cost for u.s. consumers and also for some of the u.s. industry. if we look at future exports of liquefied natural gas, europe could be one place to sell to, but also china and other places. if you look at the market right now, the biggest importers of u.s. natural gas are chile, mexico, and further behind, china, india and argentina. that could be a plan if you look at the u.s. industry -- actually

the export of liquefied natural gas could kick off quite a bit. gerhart: -- daniel: qatar has lost a complaint of the world trade organization challenging a boycott by its neighbors. ththey accuse them of supporting teterrorism. it's the worst diplomatic crisis in the regioion for decades. saududi arabia a a the unitetedb emiratates now have e two montho settle t the complnt.. otherwrwisthey could face litigation at the wto and possible trade sanctions. poland has announced it will keep logging despite the european union court order to stop the operation. it is one of europe's last remaining primeval forests. warsaw argues it's logging is in the best interest for the local

community and the forest itself. reporter: at over 3000 square kilometers, the forest is one of europe's last touched primeval forests and at the heart of the latest spat between you and poland. -- the eu and poland. >> the state is obliged to continue protective measures and two for phil protective measures using a for film and tool, which is the forest arrangemement pla. reporter: warsaw claims thehe logging campaign was part of a bid to protect the forest from an invasion of needles and -- of beetles. environmentalists say the majority of trees were not affected by the beetles. they say the logging is part of an effort to inject new growth into the economy.

the eu has warned it could find poland 4 million euros for defying the order and 300,000 euros per day until it complies. daniel: it's back to gerhart now for sports. gerhart: cristiano ronaldo, one of football's most marketable players, has a feared in court in madrid -- has appeard in court in madrid on tax charges. he has denied accusations. reporter: the media gathered outside thcocourt in madridd where people were there. he has believed to instead arrived through an underground entrance, avoiding the crowd. he is here in the court. the prosecutor has accused rinaldo of using shell companies

outside spain to avoid 14.7 million euros from taxes made -- in 2016, a barcelona star and his father were found guilty on three counts of tax fraud. ronaldo's appearance was short-lived and he was thought to have left the way he arrived without facing the media. >> well, just a few words. the player has given his testimony. everything is in order. he's already on his way home. in about 15 to 20 minutes you will receive a press release with all the information. reporter: much to the

disapproval of those waiting to hear from the superstar. gerhart: everything is in order. nick, what has ronaldo been accused of and what has he said? nick: he has a heavy salary. he pays taxes every year. but he is just as good as marketing himself. he has a lifetime deal with nike worth $1 billion and that's where he has not been paying his taxes. this set of a complicated tax structure which reduced his monthly tax bills, essentially opening shell accounts in the virgin islands. it is acidly legal, -- absolutely legal, except for spain wondering why he is not paying taxes in spain. 14.7 million euros-worth

only from his image rights. he said he had never hidden anything. he also said the structure was normal for england and english tax authorities proved it was legal. gerhart: what happens to him now? nick: the judge in the case is going to listen to testimonies and she is in charge of the whole case. if she thinks it is worth taking to trial, she will. this could be a big thing. last year, another soccer star, his case took three years. ronaldo could be with this for a long time. rumor is he might leave the

club. but that died down. we both know he is media-savvy. he should be able to deal with this that it is a big story. gerhart: thank you very much. a reminder of the top story we're following for you. u.s. president donald trump's communication director anthony scaramucci has left the job after just 10 days. media reports say scaramucci fired -- was fired by the u.s. chief of staff john kelly. bye bye. ♪ [captionining performed d by the nationonal captionining institu, which is resesponsible foror its caption n content and d accurac. vivisit ncicap.org]

nfiscang land in the name of securit. but struggling farmers are skeptical about their true intentions. we visited. enfance on cat and husband got dot com. from paris on froze twenty four on your cell at the top stories this hour nnsl united states vows to defend east european states from russian aggression with vice president mike pence continuing his tour. climate soviet states this is moscow tells the u. s. to cup the number of diplomatic staff it has in russia. international condemnation for venezuela are often what's being seen as a race boat aimed at bolstering the power of president maduro the opposition is calling for more unrest. following the deadly protests in months our correspondent