brent: this is dw news, live from berlin. fires of dancing on the city of tripoli. offensive. also coming tonight, tit for tat , rn say it may declare u.s. troops in the middle east

terrorists too. a prominent russian put under house arrest. in an unexpected move, he was set free. we will tell you why. ♪ brent: our viewers on pbs, the united states and welcome. we start in libya, where the battle for the capital is raging. -- they forced the closure of the city's only functioning airport and thousands are reportedly link the city. the militias are under the command of this military strongman. he backs a rival government and says he is conducting a war against terrorists, but his

opponents a he wants to tell -- set up a military dictatorship. dozens have died in the fighting already. western countries are calling for a truce and the resumption of these talks. >> funerals in the libyan capital, honoring fighters loyal to the you and backed government, victims of the clashes with forces of the warlord. his troops are closing in on the city. >> we must take our revenge on this criminal. he is coming to invade. >> government forces are preparing to defend the capital. the fighting threaeatens to disrupt oil production and drive more migrants to seek refuge in europe. it looks like a bitter battle. >> we will protect the capital

with our lives. we will give our lives to tripoli. >> but the militias are equally determined to launch an assault on the city. it appears t that the strongman muammar gaddafi wants to s seize control l of the whole country,o prototect the people, he sasays. >> this c campaign was launchedo defend civilians, the libyan people, defend the resources and the dignity of libya. >> the internatitional community as calling for a cease-fire. >> i think the first m message e need to pass is full of limitation of the troops to allow theheivilians a and woundd to be upgraded from the city and avoid any further military action and military escalation.

>> in tripoli thomas civilians turned out to demonstrate against the advance. they say nearly 3000 have already fled the fighting. many more are likely to follow. brent: i'm joined by a political analyst, the first think tank in libya and joins us from beirut. we thank you for taking the time to talk with us. with people outside looking at the situation, what should they see when they see general half car -- halftar? >> they see a man that claims he has an army, but really has a badge.

the last three years, many of those tricks that he claims are loyal have conducted war crimes and being investigated for war crimes. they went to tripoli and were responsible for killings, so kind of careful of the libyan national army. they are really kind of engaged in a battle for control of libya , so really dangerous toto think of it as a conventional army. brent: he is selling this as a campaign to rid the country of terrorists. he has mentioned al qaeda and other extremist groups,

basically trying to get the west to listen to what he wants to do. is that not true? >> isis has come out and already claimed that they want to fight them. they came out and said they had nothing to do with it. the only people are there himself. no one in libya is buying andnd wants to see progress in that. when you believe that any saw the groups like that, you treat them as if they are captives and radicalized those groups. it is a very dangerous narrative to buy into. brent: what about his supporters? do they see the possibility of a

return to libya that was controlled by muammar gaddafi? do they want that kind of leadership and dictatorship to be restored? >> i think they want to restore it via proxy. it is the uae that established in 2016 according to the u.n. panel of experts and have been drowning in the east of the country. not only on the ground corn aiding the strikes and many of their own officers were killed, but also, they have been given diplomatic immunity and the security council has been unable to issue a statement to condemn the sanctions. they have been saying that it is russia blocking the council, but

the european union is also facing the same logic. none of these configurations between russia and they use the exact same language, so the only threat that ties them together is the french. the defense minister was in libya, claiming he was rating that's waiting for his victories. antonio was interview a -- was in chipola -- tripoli last month. that is a serious problem. brent: we appreciate your

insight tonight. unfortunately, we are out of time. thanks for coming on the show. the united states has declared iran's revolutionary guard a terrorist organization. the white house says a move that is technology iran is a sponsor of state terrorism which relies on the revolutionary guard to exported. the decision triggered an instant response and itt said it can declare u.s. forces in the middle east terrorists. to explain the new policy, mike pompeo said the u.s. wants to exert maximum pressure on iran. >> for 40 years, they have actively engaged in terrorism

and graded, supported and created -- created and supported other terrorist groups. it violates the laws of armed conflicts all around the world. brent: let's take the story to our washington bureau chief. we know that iran is already heavily sanctioned. what difference is a going to make by ladling the revolutionary guard a terrorist organization? >> we have to see that today's decision in this contest and also have to remind ourselves how influential iran's

revolutionary guards are. it went nearly unchecked and the interest in business and other areas of the economy, so now i t is b being unable to impose sanctions. i asked this question, what we have to expect now. let's have a listen. >> you canan prosecutete in the force and creates [no audio] it also gives a range of neutrals to stigmatize e and isolate the force and is important because the irgc

controls possibly half of iran's economy, so when you have european companies or any companies around the world doing business with iran, it could be an ira gc -- irgc from the company brent -- company. brent: could this increase retaliation against u.s. forces in the middle east? >> it could. officials have argued it would allow hard-liners in iran to allow deadly attacks against americans. they told d me the trump administration is convinced that the revovolutionary guards are posing a greater threat to u.s. troops on the ground and he also told me that if you ask where to

guard the threats from iran, theyey would be plalaying by thr own rules and that is something that is unacceptable for the u.s. administration. brent: at the same time, they want the iranian regime to return to the negotiating table. how are they able to achieve, basically square a circle? >> they are trying to impose more sanctions to increase economic and political pressure on iran in the hope that it would lead to new negotiations about a new deal that would only concentrate on iran's nuclear programs, but also its missile programs on its activities in the region. however, we have to say that in the moment, -- at the moment, it does not look like iran would be ready to talk. brent: alexandra, thank you.

here are some of the other stories making headlines around the world. in sudan, people died in protests over the weekend. thousands of protesters are demonstrating and they want the military to oust the president. the turkish capital on kara has sworn in its new mayor. in recent and local elections, they sprung a surprise from the party. the party is now appealing from the victory as well as opposition in istanbul. italy's far right administrator has announced plans for a popular alliance in the european parliament. they hosted talks in europeans elections.

among the groups, the danish people's party and also the fence party -- fins party. an award-winning director has been freed after being held on house arrest for more than a year and a half. supporters sayay the arrrrest ws politically motivated. >> and they ordered h his releae fromom house arrest, the directs gratitude to the court and his supporters was plain to see. now, he can devote himself to his work again. >> thanks to all the people who came u up and encouraged me by saying d don't give up on my day two-hour walks. itit was incrediblyy suctionon t was incredibly touching.

>> in august 2017, he was taken into custody over allegations he had in bezel function -- and bezel funding -- and beze -- in bezel [no audio] >> it was ridiculous. they said he never used money for the midsummer nights dream production and they were not aware. they became aware that there is nothing against him. >>'s radical style of direction and classics angered conservatives. he also defied become an by supporting russia's argie bt

immunity. >> his release was unexpected, but he is not allowed to leave moscow and stand trial. brent: here in germany, police have launched a crackdown on criminal networks. they are believed to have thousands of members spread out in different parts of the country. they have their strongholds in the area of bremen and here in the capital of berlin. many of the families came in the 1970's and 80's. a were not allowed to work. authorities say they are going to crack down. police are especially worried that the criminal groups are preying on young refugees and

recruiting them. in an attempt to disrupt activities, they are calling it a strategy of a thousand pinpricks. >> a large-scale raid, investigators are mainly targeting bars with a suspect organized crime plans are laundering money. it is the biggest operation of its kind in berlin. the mayor has come along. he wants to know how the mission is going. >> this time, the improprieties are minor offenses. the district mayor says he will not turn a blind eye. >> >> we can punish everything

from minor to major offenses. we are examinining a zero-tolerance strategy. >> large-scale raids are part of a new campaign against orgrganid crime suspected of committing major offenses, including a breakup of stores in broad daylight or the theft of 100 kilogram gold coin worth millions. convicting them is difficult because few are willing to testify allsop the government is increasing the pressure by seizing luxury cars and real estate, but organized crime researcher says that is not enough to break the solidarity. >> they are all sworn to secrecy and that's what makes the investigators work so difficult. they are unable to break through these structures. there would need to be a support program for people who want to

leave. >> there are no such programs yet. almost every day, she sees the plans at work, -- the claims at work. >> the mafia is concentrated here. i think sooner or later, something is going to happen here. >> she says she is most afraid of the xena phobic attack. more migrants will fall into a life of crime if the state does not do anything about it. >> i think it would be good that we could make the path to unlawful is hard so that it is not worth it to come here to

commit crimes. >> germans should get used to huge police actions like this one. authorities say they know these are not enough, but they lack better resources against the fight against organized clan crimes. brent: the u.k. is proposing new regulations to tackle harmful confident -- content online, such as promoting suicide or terrorism. what is this proposal all about #-- proposal all about?? >> they want to monitor the social companies and the presence of harmful content on their platform. what this ranges from, child

abuse, hate crime, hate speech, they would like this to write a code of conduct that companies would have to adhere to. the watchdog what also have the powers to implement this and find companies and people within the company's, so it is quite a far-reaching proposal, but still proposal and the government has launched a consultation and people have 12 weeks to go online and submit the reviews. >> it sounds like a proposal that could be opened up for a lot of interpretation. what prompted the proposal? >> it has been in the drafting for quite some time, particularly after the case of a 14-year-old who committed

suicide in 2017 and after the death her parents found there was constant inciting suicide on her instagram account, but more generally, a sense that not only in the u.k. social media companies are not doing enough to self regulate and we can also take a listen to w wt prime minister theresa m may had to sy abou this. >> social media firms are still not doing enough h to protect users from harmf conontentnd thatat is not gooenough, so today, we are puttina legall duty of care on these companies to keep use safe anand if they fafail to do so, tough pishments will be impmposed. the era of social media companies regulating themselves is over. brent: the u.k. government is not the only one talking about regulations is it? >> know and just last week, they just passed a strict law after

which facebook in particular came under fire for not being fast enough for preventing a video of those shootings from circulating. they could see social media companies being find up to 10% of their profit. if they failed to and move -- remove this quickly enough and on the other hand, we are seeing more governments trying to take matters into their own hands. critics are saying that these regulations, if they are rushed, they could lead to unforeseen consequences and one of the main reasons is they could undermine freedom of expression online. brent: definitely the wild west days of the internet appear to be over. as always, thank you. in factories around the world, robots have taken over much of

the competitive work. artificially tell it -- artificial intelligence is the answer, but the work of machines raises questions about who they should be and who should collect the danger. >> artificial intelligence offers great potential for work and medicine, using thousands of x-ray images, they have trained their own homegrown ai to conduct diagnoses. all you have to do is photograph and upload or extra -- or x-ray and weight. >> it is a mess. it is saying that this thing here is possibly cancerous and i can seee that righght here. >> ai controls data like how they are walking.

they could use it to identify signs like parkinson's, but costs and is advised that caution is advised. most of what we see by the great, but it rose up ethical questions. we don't want a situation where we are ethical, but failed to progress, nor should we freely develop thingngs. take google's intelligent microphones. google warns that some detail can be derived from some household downs like the length week time -- like the time we spend brushihing our teeth. >> google means to take over the world. they mean to direct our thoughts betwtween personon and person. >> artificial intelligence grants huge power to intelligencece companies.

>> we must adaptpt to the needsf the modern age. fofor example, a spokes takeover of whatsapp should have beenn prevented because it wass completely clear what it would lead to. >> there's no avoiding it, the ai resolution -- revolution is coming. brent: after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. stick around.

.. helloo and welcome to france twenty four under on a diss and we are live from paris deadlines is hourr. the main candidatetes in israels election make their last ditch appeals to voters benjamin netanyahu is looking to become the country's longest serving prime minister. and he's warned his party is at risk his main challenger meanwhile says israel is on the verge of f historic chahange.. on the eve of israel's's electin washington the class iran's powerful revevenue slash revolulutionary guardrd a terrot organization benjamin netanyahu welcome the n news and thanked s friend at donald trump. and they use foreign policy chief