from berlin. on the brink, ventas william the -- president maduro closing in on enemies. two opposition leader is taken from the homes in the middle of the night, the supreme court says they were detained because they were under house arrest and planning to flee. and mass trial, almost 500 people go to court in turkey, charged with being behind the failed coup. if found guilty, they could spend the rest of their lives in

prison. and italy debatate using their navy to o stop traffickers launching g boats from l libya. amnesty international calls the plan shameful, almost 100,000 migrants have come to italy so far this year by sea. ♪ laila: i'm laila harrak. thank you for your company. we are starting off with the volatile situation in venezuala where the government is cracking down on the opposition. to opposition leaders were taken by their homes by security service and overnight raids. this comes a day after the controversy over vote for an assembly that will rewrite the constitution. a move that critics say could spiriral the country intoo chaos even furtherer. correspondent:t: in the dead of

night, authohorities arrrrested oppositition leadersrs. the cctv p posted on twiwitt b y hisife. 12:2:27 a.m., the moment the dictatorship kidnaps him from my house, you will not break them, reads the tweet. lopez was already under house arrest when the intelligent services came for him. as was caracas maya, who authorities have also detained. two of the most high profile opposition leaders, but my call for a boycott of the vote for in assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution. protesters clashed with authorities on the street on holy days -- streets on polling days. several killed, including a candy, -- think -- including a candidate. the u.s. saying they would

freeze the south american's leaders assets. >> i thought it would be best to read the statement. he is not just a bad leader, he is now a dictator. the united states stands with the people of venezuela in the face of the suppression. we will work with our partners to hold accountable all those responsible for the escalating violence and ongoing human rights violations. correspondent: in a defiant mood, president maduro sent a message to washington and to the people of venezuela. >> are you with donald trump or are you with the free world? impose any sanctions you want, the people of venezuela have decided to be free and i am the president of a free, sovereign, proud and patriotic people. i am the independent president of a free nation, the republic of venezuela. do you understand? or should i make myself clear?

correspondent: in the face of onongoing vioiolence andd u.s. sanctitions, the attendance of o opposition leader's -- the arrest of those to opposition leaders shows more of madera's defiance. laila: we are covering fast-moving events in the capital. oscar, any more news on the ararrests? oscacar: this up in courtt issua statement saying b both men were planning to escscape, and that s whwhy intelligegence acted q quy to a apprehend thehem. the suprpreme c court alslso sat the lopez -- that lopez had published online and had violateded his house arrest. since he was given house arrest, those memen have been n active n twitter and have u uploaded political messages on youtube. the l lteatesest was a

prerecorded ssssage from lopopez asking those supporters to keep on fighting and mentioning that his wife is pregnant. laila: tell us about the two men, how important are they for the opposition? oscar: both were behind the wave of protests that left 43 people dead in 2014 and that was the reason for their arrest. they are highly popular. both have been influential throughout the years. lopez is the founder of a political party and the other is the mayor of caracas. for a long time they have bebeen leaders of the opposition, until their arresests. lopez's imprisonment has been one of the benchmarks for protest since there have been reports of injustice with the case. since he was givenen house arret last month, he has increased his political valulue and for some e is a bargaining asset for possiblele negotiations. the u.s. vice president, , for

example,e, spoke o on the phoneh lopez days before the sanction against president maduro. laila: the u.s. says he is a dictator on par with north korea's dictator, but how receptive is he to international criticicism? oscar: he is not receptitive to issue national -- to international criticism and not only is the compared to these mike mckee is given the same sanctions. in the past few weeks we have seseen a more repressive govevement, we h have seen and bebecome moree repressive in the last few years. we expect more confrontation and persecution in the weeks to come. laila: oscar, thank you. reporting on the fast-moving events in caracas. and next to that mass trial in turkey were almost 500 suspected coup plotters, including generals and pilots have gotten underway.

they are accused of leading the coup to topple the government oferdogan. most under arrest for some time, but some are being tried in their absence. correspondent: in what was clearly intended to be a public spectacle, the defendadas w whee paraded d before demononstrato babaying for blood. some tried to get through security to attack the accused as they were put into the courthouse. specially built for the event and with public gallery space for more than 1500 people. many outside where chanting that they wanted the death penalty. turkey repealed capital punishment in 2004, but many want it reinstated. >> we have confidence in the judiciary. we think they will be sensed to the heaviest punishment -- sentenced to the heaviest punishment. i want the death penalty back so they can be hanged. >> i expected justice from the court and i want a new law to be enacted so they can get the

necessary y punishment and be sentenced to death. correspondent: on the courthouse steps, photographers were given their chance for a clear shot of even though 41 alleges coup leaders. they are the first of nearly 500 defendants charged with violating the constitution, murder, attempting to assassinate the president, and attempting to overthrow the government. but the men that the president says is the master mananned -- mastermind w will not appearar t the trial. the dissidentnt, a onene-time ay of the president, lives in the u.s. and he e wille trieded in absentia. he has denied involvement. the turkish government has demanded his extradition. hundreds o of people have been related in a widescale crackdown in a state of emergency imposed after the queue. -- coup. laila: officials in afghanistan say that an attack on a shiite

mosque has killed at least 29 people and wounded more than 60 others, many critically paired it happened in the west of the country close to the border with iran. one attacker detonated a suicide bomb while the other opened fire with a gun. no group has claimed responsible yet. laila: italy's coast guard says they have found eight people dead off of the coast of libya. the discovery comes as the attire lawmakers deploy navaval vessels onon the coastline to op the traffickers that are launching boats. the defense minister toldld a parlrlmentary cocoittee that libya asasked italy for assistae and to the operation would provide the cocoast guard with logistical suppoport without encroaching on libyan sovereignty. nearly 100,000 migignts made i t across to italy this year, at least 2000 of them have died trying. and let's get you more on the developments. philip joining us from the

italian capital of room. why does the italian government want to the mission to go forward? philip: they are feeling a lot of pressure at thehe moment.t. the populist party is growing in popularity and thinking that the government is being ineffective in tackling the program -- problem. thee enormrmous number off immigrants arrivininillegally yn the country and there has been littlele help from european partners, so with ththe general elecection looming sometime in e spring the government clearly thinks they y have to dodo someg that makes it look strong and effective. and that is what it is attempting to do at this moment. laila: and as you are aware, the rights groups like amnesty international say they are concerned about plans to deter the migrants from leaving libya, so how is the government adjusting the issue?

philip: it is clearly a delicate question for the government, which is made up of left parties, one would expect these parties to have a certain sensibility y to the warnings of the humanitarian organizations, and an electorate that is generally sympathetic to the migrants' plight. but the feeling now is that polititical pressure i is so grt onon the govovernment that i ito , to some extent, turn a bldd eye simply because public opinion is turning increasingly agagainst it, and against the failure t staunch the constant inflow of migrants. laila: very briefly, last week the government of libya gave mixed signals about the mission from italy.

is it clear what kind of cooperation they want with the italiaian navy? philip: it is not that clear. libya sent a liaison on the 23rd of july, outlining a request for help. but the letter has not been made public and there is a feeling that the lyan position might change depending on how the libybyan public opinion reacts o the news. clearly the italians are keen to do something together with the libyans and to do something that is effective. laila: philip, thank you so much. we want to bring you up-to-date with other stories breaking news around the world. the european council says it has received 27 bids from eu member nations to host the banking authority and european medicines agency after great britain leaves. they are based currently in

london and the eu will make final decisions in november. and jordan's lower house of parliament has signed a legal loophole that allowed rapists to escape punishment if they married the victim. this was held as a major step forward for women in the conservative kingdom. lawmakers also tightened legislation that allowed shorter sentences for those so-called honor killings. berlin police have started testing facial recognition software that will take electronic surveillance to a whole new level of sophistication. it helps security cameras not only see people, but i defy anybody on the database. -- identify anybody on the database. they hope it will help to spot terrorists more quickly. correspondent: the cameras are not just all seeing eyes, it is hoped they can identify passerby's and compare their features with a database of images.

if they recognize a match with a criminal or somebody registered as a threat or terrorist, the system will sound the alarm. berlin police are testing the system with three cameras at this busy local train station in the south of the city. >> we want to know what the potential uses of this kind of system might be. it is too early in the child to speculate what the uses could become a then it is down to lawmakers to decide what is allowed and what is not. correspondent: but some legal experts say the technology would violate germany's privacy laws, which are relatively strict. >> such as systems mean people no longer know when they are being filmed and the data will be used to create a record of your -- of you as an individual. that is something that we do not want and the constitutional court does not want. correspondent: police are

skirting the uncertainties by recruiting volunteers who have said they are willing to be filmed and recognized of an attack six months. laila: we will be right back with more after this. ♪ ♪ >> germany is a strong country. we have achieved so much. we can do this. if something hinders us, we must overcocome it. > going wherere it is ununcomftablble. glglob news that matters. dw, made for mines. -- minds. ♪

♪ laila: so glad to have you with us. you are watching dw news.s. these are the headlines. president madero -- maduro has taken to opposition leaders, they were already under house ararrest but now they have been taken to prison because they were planning to flee. and germany's carmakers and government ministers scheduled to meet at a summit on wednesday, the reason -- the diesel emissions scandal in

which customers were tricked. and how dirty their engines were that is not the only thing. there are allegations of a cartel of carmakers wreaking crisis. some say the government and carmakers have been too close and it is time to pull them apart. correspondent: the german car and german chancellor, they were always there a close. the lines portion of experts can be attributed to carmakers, hundreds of thousands of jobs depend on the car industry. in the past, politicians and businessmen were always proud to say made in germany. with diesel cars, the manufacturers tricked lawmakers by installing software that concealed when the, limits had been exceeded hoping authorities would turn a blind eye. experts have long been critical. >> we find ourselves in a governmental crisis when we are not able, even decades later , to begin change.

we are clinging to outdated technologies that are not up-to-date. correspondent: all parties involved will be here on wednesday trying to find a solution. carmakers are hoping updating the software will be enough. they argue that hazard substance rates are reduced by one fourth. experts say a refit of the engines are necessary. something the social democrats prefer. >> if customers cannot rely on quality, this ruins the reputation of german industry. companieies must be made responsible and pay the expenses. correspondent: the transport minister is hesitating to public demand the upgrade, which can cost up to 2000 euros per car. he denies the accusation he is taking sides with the car industry. >> i am not panandering to a loy group. fostering relationships between

groups and a society is part of market economics. correspondent: everybody knows time is running out. some german ports have already paved the way to ban diesel cars. and it would be a catastrophe for the politicians, for the car industry, and for many diesel car owners in germany. laila: and amid all the gloom, positive news from one german carmaker. >> talking about a big change at opel, the company now completely sold to psa. the deal shifts psa europe to become the second biggest carmaker on the continent after vw. general motors did on opel and the british brand vauxhall, but critics say it was neglected and has not made a profit for almost 20 years. and new york and our financial

correspondent -- gm is still not doing well, even after the opel saga, is it? correspondent: we have weak july sales here on wall street and the general motors, dropping more than 15%, more than expected. to be fair, the u.s. car market was booming for years, but recently we got indication that this had pulled off a little bit, financing more difficult and there is a lot of debt with u.s. consumers. also, they are reducing the fleet sales. not just for general motors and for ford and chrysler, a big drop in the figures for july. daniel: and the president promised to make america build again with construction as one of his key platforms. it is not really working out, is it? jens: well, construction

spending was down for the month of june. that is what we learned here on tuesday. especially when you look at government spending, that fell the most since march of 2002. the biggest drop in more than 15 years. obviously, not much action out of washington at this point. nothing new with the health care bill, nothing from tax cuts, and the infrastructure spending, that is not really gaining traction at this point. some economists say, especially with construction spending and government spending being low, it could be tricky to achieve the goals for economic growth for the remainder of the year. wall street does not really seem to care, funny enough. we had another record close for the dow jones average. wall street and washington seem to be two different pair ofof shoes.s. daniel: not building foundations for economic growth. thank you.

daniel: mexico has a jump on renegotiating the nafta trade agreement with canada and the u.s. talks scheduled to begin later this month. reuters says mexico wants to preserve all the accord's provisions for free access of goods and services a and it is also pushing to promote integration of the labor markets. mexico is apparently holding fast to dispute mechanisms. with the current nafta agreement, which washington wants to scrap. cuba's government says it will stop issuing new licenses for private sector activities. the announcement marks the first time they've rolled back economic reforms it launched seven years ago. people hoping to open new restaurants and hotels and other services will have to wait. the government claims the phrase is necessary as they try to get a grip on wrongdoings in the new system, like tax evasion.

and eating out can be a nightmare from motiveuslims, always having to order the vegetarian option. it is something that london food guides want to change, putting on their own street food festival. on the menu, burmese noodles and mouthwaterering burgers. take a look. correspondent: this burger one not last as long as the picture. london's influential gastro scene only starting to cater to a market that has been around a lot longer. halal is used to describe meat slaughtered according to muslim law. it really means permissible. at the festival, the concept has been applied with some imagination. >> they are interested in the food culture. if you are not drinking, what are you doing?

you are eating. muslims eat t out a lot and we spend more money on eating out than non-muslims, so the idea is toto make sure that these diners have a place to go in here we are. correspondent: here, middle eastern influences are gettiting into the latestt fads, l like te burmese noodles. diners are eating it up. >> we do not have to worry about, is it going to be non-lahalal. correspondent: the u.k. says the industry is already worth to $3.9 billion and mixing halal with existing trends could turn into a recipe for even more sales. daniel: now we get to sports. laila: the olympics, news breaking that paris will be

holding the 2024 games with los angeles hosting four years later. they are not expected to confirm the host until september, but paris has rolled out plans to turn the extravaganza into a sustainable event. >> this land outside of paris is set to become the home o of the 2020 foror olympic games. >> they will be offering concordes, tailor-made village for the athletes, modern and smart city of 3000 homes after the games. correspondent: the committeeee looked at the success of the 2012 games hosted by their british neighbors. the olympics haveve left a strog infrastructural legacy. something parisians want to re-create. >> we will manage to get a physical legacy, tangible legacy,, a look at the of educatation and insnspiration, n terms of making sure that those

people will benefit directly from the games. correspondent: like london, paris s will build t the venuesn ththe outside ofof the city, ina suburb that will benefit long-term. the new centers will be constructed and jobs created. the olympic media center wiwi be built close by and turned into homes after the games. >> it could be a gooood thing, because you can see the e young people do not worork. you go into the suburbs and you see there are many young people during the day. it could be posititive for them, it could create jobs. in essence, it is good. correspondent: with the games seven years away, there e is a long wayay to go. but paris is already unfurling their master plan. laila: we want to remindnd you f top stories. president maduro has detained two opposition leaders in venezuela.

the supreme court has said they have been taken to prison because they were planning to flee house arrest. italy debating using the navy to stop traffickers launcnching frm libybya. amnestynternational has calleled the plan shameful. almost 100,000 migrants have come to italy by sea so far this year. thank you for your company. we will be back right after this. ♪

all over the world. for the top stories out. no details here us president donald trump this is all this while going to talk. immunizations start. models but it is the first day on the job you. so all. general john kerry bring order to the white house. it's techies biggest post acute trial today hundreds of people are facing charges over their alleged role in a failed plot to overthrow president at one. the accused forced to work past angry protesters on their way in schools. and pakistani make