brent: this is "dw news," live from berlin. tonight, the trump administration cracking down on cuba. fresh measures designed to choke off the flow of cash and travel to the country. the move could try up investment in cuba, what is washington also targeting venezuela's nicolas maduro? also across france, church bells ring out in tribute to notre dame. as the nation pauses to remember

what was lost in the blaze, there are plans to rebuild and firefighters rejecting claims that they responded too slowly. plplus, a nemesis of turkish president erdogan takes control of turkey's largest city. he is the new mayor, what is the political battle really over? -- but is the political battle really over? i'm brent goff. to our viewers on pbs in the united states and around the world, welcome. we start with breaking news coming in from portugal. at least 28 people have reportedly died in a bus crash on the portuguese island of madero. reports state that they were in a tourist bus which overturned near the coastal town of santa cruz. the mayor of the town has reportedly said most of the

tourists on the bus are germans. we understand that many ambulances are at the scene. that is breaking news, a bus accident on the portuguese island of madero. we are hearing the reports that dozens of people have died, most german citizens. now to the u.s. and its target, cuba. the trump administration has announced new measures aimed at drying up the flow of cash to cuba. washington says it will limit the amount of money that families can send to relatives in cuba as well as curbing travel to the country by u.s. citizens. the restrictions come a day after the white house did a long-standing ban all lawsuits by foreign companies who use property, skated by cuba -- confiscated by cuba following ththe 1 1959 communist t revolu.

cuba's president said no one will be allowed to take the islandnd away from thehe cuban people. reporter: t the new u.s.. restrictions on cuba are said to effectively keep foreign investors out of the communist country. sec. pompeo: today we are holding the government accountable for seizing american assets. and we are advancing human rights and democracy on behalf of the cuban people. reporter: the cuban people are already struggling with a range of econonomic and social proble. the country desperately needs foreign cucurrency to papay for importrts. the crisisis in venezuzuela is spilliling over. everyday supplies are becoming scarcer. supermrmarket shelves are empty. people face long lines for basic supplies like chicken, cooking oil, and eggs. but things could get even worse, warned cuban communist party

leader raul castro in his speech to the national assembly last week. he said a country would never give up solidarity with venezuela, something that has prompted the u.s. to tighten restrictions on cuba. should the u.s. decided sanction companies doing business with the caribbean island, it would affect thousands of european investoror you envoy - -- the eu envoy in havananarotested.. >> we believe it will be self-defeating. obviously, this will create more confusion, more confusion for foreign investment. reporter: for the eu, the change to u.s. policy on cuba comes at an awkward moment, just as brussels prepares to negotiate a trade agreement with washington. spain, which is heavily invested in cuba, says it wants the eu to challenge the move at the world trade organization. brent: we go to washington and

our correspondent on the story for us. good evening to you, oliver. we have seen the u.s. tighten the screws more and more on cuba. what is washington hope to achieve by this latest measure? reporter: basically, the united states are trying to stop the flow of money into cuba and to punish those companies who are doing business with cuba. perhaps the most important action to look at today is the reimpose a of this of -- reimposing of the so-called helms-burton act which has exexted since e 1996 but was suspended since then. this allowed u.s. citizens who have property cononfiscated, , y were given the right to file a lawsuit against those trafficking in these properties, and that was suspended in order to protect european partners who

were doing business with cuba, but now the descendents and the relatives of those people who were -- whose property was confiscated, are able to get compensated for that. it is a gift for a lot of cuban exiles in the united states were able to get money. brent: definitely generate positive reactions in miami for the trump administration. what about the timing of this? there are some who are suggesting that all of this is a response to the cuban government's support of venezuela and its president, nicolas maduro. brent -- oliver: certainly the maduro regime is a close ally of the cuban government, and cuba is one of its strongest supporters. it is basically -- it will be less attractive to invest in cuba and as a result of that,

less money for cuba would mean less for venezuela in the long run. you can also consider this an election stunt in some ways. donald trump, in order to be reelected in 2020, is heavily dependent on supporters beyond his loyal fan base. he has been looking at the latino community for quite a while now. he getting a lot of support from the venezuelan community in the united states and hoping that cubans as well. brent: is that what is going on? reaction in europe has been negative to what the trump administration is doing with cuba. what about among the u.s. population? trump, is he getting brownie points beyond is base, as you say, what he is doing?

oliver: it depends on who you speak to. did talk to those whose property was confiscated before the revolution in 1959, and those will be happy to get re-compensated. but of course it also targets those who would just like to travel to cuba, normal tourists, and that will be a lot more difficult right now. most importantly, it would target cuban exiles who just want to send money back to their relatives. i have to remind you that that is one of the most important reasons for cubans to migrate to the united states, to help the families back home. and economy where people are heavily dependent on the u.s. dollar, they have two currencies durban. it will increase the sun -- two currencies there. it will increase the suffering for many people in cuba. brent: generating headlines on

the eve over the release of the redacted will report to congress --mueller report to congress, too. all of our, thank you. -- oliver, thank you. former peruvian president alan garcia has died after shooting himself in the head just before he was due to be detained by police in ththe capital, lima. the 69-year-old underwent emergency surgery at a local hospital. he was being investigated for allegedly taking illegal payments from a major brazizilin construction company. garcia led peru, serving two five-year terms as president, the first in 1985 and the next in 2006. he always maintained he was innocent. this is definitely a shocking story. for more, we want to go to a journalist based in lima.

facing arrest, alan garcia takes a gun and kill himself. is that the connection there? what more do we knowow about ths suicide? >> yeah, no, that is absolutely what happened. he did it a after police offices raided his home in lima a this morning wiwith an arrest warrant in relation to the odebrecht scandal. odebrecht is the larargest construction company in latin america, and has been at the middlele of this huge corruption scandal. the company has admitted paying nearly $1 million in bribes to politicians from argentina to mexico in return for public contracts. alan garcia was at the center of that investigation here in peru. his arrest has actually been anticipated for a long time. anyway, police showed up this morning at 6:30 at h his home to

arrest him. he asked to go to his bedroom to call hisawyer. afafr a few moments there e was thsounund of g gunshots. police forced their way in and found himself sitting with a single wound to the head. brent: to the police -- did the authorities, did they may have any reason to suspect alan garcia would try to harm himself? we should argue they should not have let h him go to a r room by himself f knowing that he was about to be taken into custotod. simeon: that's s a good point. i guess the ququestion would be was he has a former president given n different treatment than an ordinary prisoner or suspect would have been? what a allow any other suspected to have gone off unobserved to everyone like that-- to a room like a?

having said that, people get arrested all the time, and it is pretty unusual that they take their own life at that point in time. brent: very important point. bizarre turn there. thank you. here are some of the other storiesi making headlines around the world. the first iranian woman to win an international boxing match has canceled plans to return home after iranian authorities allegedly issued an arrest warrant for her. sadaf khadem beat a french boxer on saturday in france. female boxing is allowed in iran, provided women adhere to the islamic dress codes and that the matchehes a are refereed by women. the on -- once india's largest rline, jetet airways s says it s suspendiding operations from wednesesday night onwards.

the is sitting on more than a billion dollars in debt. jet a airways pilots say theyeye not been paid in four monthths. 20,000 jobs are at stake. the teenage environmental activist greta thunberg has met the pope. she brought her campaign to tackle climate change to the vatican today. the 16-year-old who has inspired weekly student protests against global warming spoke briefly with pope francis. we understand the pope urged her to continue doing what she is doing. now to france, in the country's struggle to move forward after monday's devastating fire at notre dame. earlier today, president macron convened a special cabinet meeting to discuss storing the cathedral within, as you may know, five years. france also plans to hold an architectural contest to design and new spire for the church. but emotions across the country remain high.

people are still thinking about what they lost this evening. the nation paused to pay tribute to thehe damaged church. reporter: 6:5050 p.m., the time when the fire broke out at notre dame on monday. bells of commemoration in paris, in leon, in strasburg, and in saint-denis. the country took a moment to pause. the shock still lingers. bubut there is also sosome mease of relief.f. despite the destruction, much of the cathedral could be saved. that includes its organ from the 1730's. >> the instrument has been saved. obviously, for me you just can't imagine the evening and night that i had when i watched this, because i thought that if the organ was destroyed, a part of

me would be destroyed. this instrument is a part of my life. rereporter: but it could be yeas befofore the organ is heard aga. for now, the church is being secured. >> thye lead which cover the entirety of this of all melted completely. we have to continue to monitor the building and its hotspots, as well as a third area, the scaffolding. it surrounded the spire before it collapsed inside the cathedral. reporter: the planned reconstruction will bring huge expense, but about a billion euros have already been donated. french officials are vowing that the money is in good hands. >> we will present draft legislation next week that will ensure transparency and proper oversight of the donations. every euro that was given for the reconstruction of notre dame

will be used for that purpose and nothing e else. > the french deserve to know everything that happens with notre dame. will they be asked for their opinion? >> we e believe thee rebuildingf notre dame to thehe experts. the goal is for it to be even more beautiful than it used to be. reporter: one thing is clear, the collapsed spipire will be re-created. france's logic and competition to replace it, and entr ants will have to respond quickly. the goal is to have it completed by 2024. brent: we go to paris. our correspondent lisa louis is on the scene this evening. it has been 48 hours and still blaze. -- since the blaze. today for the first time we heard from firefighters, who had to answer some uncomfortable questions about why they perhaps were too late or too slow to respond. what do they have to say today? lisa: well, they were first

talking about what was going on in notre dame right now, that there are 60 firefighters still of the site to make sure that there would be no new fire, that they were still looking at some weak spots of the structure, or the monument, to make sure it would not crumble in following days. they also addressed the controversy. apparently they arrived 10 minutes after the alarm went off after they were called, whenn they said that 10 minutes is actually quite fast in paris. brent: are there any new leads into the investigation into what caused the fire? lisa: i have just heard back from the paris prosecutor's office. they are still working on the case with about 50 investigators. the paris prosecutor's office told me this would be a very long and complicated investigation that for now they

didn't have any preferred lead. they seem m to be quite shortrtt this -- quite sure that this was an accident. they also said there was a hiccup at the beginning of when the fires were started. apparently there was the first alarm that went off, and then the security p personnel went to have a look. they c couldn't fifind the fire. only 20 minutes later, when the second alarm went off, they had a look and the flames were already quite high, and that is when they called the fire brigade. brent: as we have heard from fire experts, 20 minutes, 21 minutes can be in a when you are talking about a fire spreading. let's talk about the pledges, the money that is being pledged to rebuild notre dame. we're talking about more than half a billion euros already coming from a lot of france's richest people. how is that going down with the public in france?

lisa: well, people here are obviously very happy that there is so much money that will go to the reconstruction of notre dame, but there are a few controversies. basically, two kinds of controversies. on the one hand, they are saying that if you make a large donation, you get a tax reduction of 60%. the government has it that with small donations it will be 75%. people are arguing, well, these people come up with the money, but the government is putting part of the bill. on the other hand you have the second quite large controversy, people saying that when there is a cathedral that has burned, knock-down -- not down, but lots of damage, you can come up with the money, but what about other causes? for example, the many homeless people in france. why can't you come up with money for that? brent: it's a good point, and it

begs the question, with these benefactors be so generous if there were no tax credits in return. lisa louis reporting from paris. as always, thank you. a volatile political battle in turkey appears to be over, at least for now. turkey's main opposition candidate has been declared mayor of istanbul after a disputed vote tally and recount. a crowd of supporters for the new mayor, mr. imamoglu, flocked to the justice palace to greet him as he took office today in istanbul. all of this despite an appeal still pending by president erdogan's ak party. the ak party wants a new election. imamoglu's victory ends 25 years of control of istanbul by erdogan's ak party. let's go to our correspondent dorian jones. he is following the story in

istanbul. there are a lot of people on the move in istanbul right now. what kind of change are they hoping for? dorian: i think firstly they want an end to the rule of 25 years of parties affiliated with president erdogan. on top of that, i think people did warm to ekrem imamoglu's message of inclusivity. throughout his campaign he said he would work for everybody in the city and avoided getting involved in erdogan's politics of colorization and fiery rhetoric. he said, "no, i don't want to get involved with this politics of polarization, i want to work for all the people." in his victory speech today he said, "i think the kurds, turks, greeks, armenianss," all of istanbul's divers population,, a message of inclusivity. that is what people are looking

for. brent: we say that there will be no challenges to the legitimacy of the mayor of istanbul, and the fact that this has been challenged, what is this say about democracy in turkey? dorian: absolutely, he is not guaranteed to stay in power. the government media commentators throughout the day have been saying that he better enjoy the next few days because he will not be in power for much longer, because the ruling a k have a file an annulment of the vote with the electoral board, and they have five cases claiming that the vote was fraudulent and filled with irregularities and they are calling for it to be be held. there have been concerned about the electoral board given that most of its members are appointed by the president and his government, and past decisions have been accused of being impartial. in relation to resemble, --

istanbul, broadly speaking there is acknowledgment from the opposition that they have behaved fairly, and that will continue. but with democracy, there will be questions for erdogan, because erdogan's electoral success the last 15 years has been built on actual success at the bollenbach. he says, "whatever you say about me, i went elections." now he has been defeated and this will raise questions over erdogan's legitimacy. brent: it is very troubling if this vote were to be challenged yet again, especially considering that the country had two or three years of this crackdown under erdogan. looking outside, you would think the country would be in the grip of the ak party, and that vote rigging or any type of miss calculations would be practically impossible. dorian: well, indeed, and in fact, speaking to analysts, i

think there is almost disbelilif from the opposition party that they could even win istanbul, given the iron grip thatt erdogn has over the media and varioious structures. the fact that the opposition has won has given major hope to the opposition going for that they can ultimately challenge erdogan's power in almost that is why the ruling ak party and erdogan are so concerned. brent: as always, dorian, thank you. preliminary results of indonesia's election .2 a victory for incumbent president -- point two a victory over incumbent president joko widodo. hehe is expecteded to prevail or rivaval prabowo subianto. rereporter: they pulled out all the stops. election officials dressed as superheroes in the hopes of maximizing turnout. it is all about this man, sitting president joko widodo, comfortably on course to be

reelected as leader of the world's thirdrd-largest democra. >> let us unite again as a nation, as brothers and sisters who share the same motherland. after these elections, let us develop and nurture harmony and brotherhood as one nation and motherland. reporter: the main challenge for firebrand former general prabowo subianto claimed there were irregularities in the voting set up, insisting many polling stations opened late. >> i urge my supporters to remain calm. everyone should state calm and refrain from h hasty action. focus on safeguarding the ballot boxes because they hold the key to our victory. reporter: the election was on a vast scale come with a 190 million potential voters across three time zones. most seemed happy to participate. >> you know, funny thing. thisiss very excxciting.

>> i felt vevery happy today, because it's my first time to vote for president. >> i''m very proud. i voted and it was very fun and exciting to vote. reporter: the series of so-called quick count by pollsters give incumbent widodo a clearly. has proved reliable in's elections, but official results are not do full -- due until next month. brent: at the monte carlo masters, there was one surprising upset. rereporter: our file at a all -- rafaelel nadal was at his dodomt vast on his favorite service. ththe so-called clay king when past roberto bautista-agutut, dazzlingng the crowd o on his wo

a straight-setsts victory. joining him will be world number three alexander zverev. but the german had encouraging words for his young opponent after the match. the biggest shock of the day saw old number six kei nishikori knococked out by pierre-hughes herbert. the freshman breaking serve after serve to knocked out japan's top layer and secure passage. brent: you are watching "dw news ." "the day" is next. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

t the full i'm nor cell at the headlines this hour. eagles across frantz ring the bells been altered -- a whoppppg nine hundred million euros have now been rise to save the monument. after was severely damaged by fire on monday night some expense will the president's plan for reconstruction is too ambitious. us president donald trump uses his veto to block congress from instructing him to end us support for the saudi led war in yemen. five year conflict has pushed millions of people to the brink of famine trump says the bill was a dangerous attempts to curb his palace