berlin. on the eve of presidential election in afghanistan, a picture of polling station in suicide bombers. across the country they are sending out ballot boxes, but taliban extremists are threatening to bomb voters and polling places. also coming up tonight, president donald trump lashes out at the whistleblower whose report includes allegations of a president abusing power, and a white house covering it up.

for the democrats, the case for impeachment is clear. >> the whistleblower, by the very act of coming forward, has shown more dedication to the country had more of an understanding of the president's oath of office than the president himself. ♪ brent: children in chains. shocking discovery at a boarding school in nigeria. police rescue boys and young men , shackled and assaulted in what is said to be an islamic school. ♪ i'm brent goff. to our viewers in the united states and around the world, welcome. tonight the people of afghanistan are looking forward with hope and trepidation, after months of delays and uncertainty. they are set to vote in the nation's fourth presidential election tomorrow, saturday.

but taliban extremists are threatening to disrupt the vote with suicide bombings and rocket attacks. there are fears that violence during the election could deepen the country's political instability. [emergency siren] correspondent it is scenes like this the afghan government is desperate to avoid on election day. violence is just one challenge facing officials organizing the elections. five years ago, allegations of systematic fraud marred the last one. abdullah abdullah, the man who lost to the current president that is still his main contender now. >> with all our strength, we will prevent any kind of fraud in this election. at the last election i said we won't accept any government based on fraud, but it happened, because afghanistan was facing multiple threats at that time. the start of withdrawal of foreign troops, the rise of islamic state, and also the

taliban had an upper hand. correspondent: to fight electoral fraud, around 100 thousand election observers will monitor polling stations across the country, but they will be allied to candidates. one third of the afghan defense forces will be on hand, but that is still not enough. some polling stations will stay shut, because the army cannot protect them. voters are worried both about their personal safetety, and far elections. >> we all participate in the elections inin large numbers. we trust the government will provide security and transparency of free elections. >> the taliban are threatening us all t the time to stop us frm participating in these elections. they threaten us every day, but despite this, i believe most people will vote in the elections, to defend democracy.

correspondent: protecting voters' lives and democracy in a country where violent militants control or are active in a most half of the territory. brent: my colleague joins me now. she has reported extensively from afghanistan. it is good to see you again. former president hamid karzai has warned holding the election now in afghanistan is like asking a heart patient to run a marathon. is this the responsible thing to do? reporter: there are no two ways about it, voters going out tomorrow in an effort to cast votes are under threat. the taliban have made crystal clear that anyone who participates in these elections, who facilitates them, is a target to them. as we have seen in the 2014 elections, i was on the ground to cover them, it was really a messy affair, messy because the

elections were manipulated. there was ballot stuffing, all of that, but also because security couldn't be granted and a lot of voters lost their lives or their fingers. they use this indelible link and you can get it off, so it stays with you for days. the taliban use that to identify voters and chop off their fingers. brent: considering all this, which candidate is in the best position to reach some kind of peace agreement with the taliban? reporter: we only have two candidates who really have a chance of winning tomorrow. and they were partners in government for the past five years. that is president gotti and his -- president ghani, and his chief executive officer, abdullah abdullah. oath say they want peace for afghanistan, but how they go about it is different. yes, it needs the afghan government, civil society representatives, he needs the youth and the international community. in saying that, i i mean more tn just the united states. there are a lot of international

players afghan -- active on the afghan battlefield. brent: we know there is this mortal threat for people who are going to vote. what is the appetite among afghans for this weekend's election? reporter: it depends on who you ask. if you talk to young people who are part of the liberal, educated elite, they see it as a sign of protest and will vote because they think it is our right, now we can come up and want to cast a vote. but if you go to the countryside, and we hardly get access there, millions of people will be disenfranchised. for them, it is, how i get the next meal for my family, how i survive the next day, those are bread-and-butter issues and those weren't addressed in this election campaign. brent: the taliban is good at making threats, but what about carrying out these threats? how strong is the taliban right now in afghanistan? sandra: evidence suggests they either control or contest half the country. what we see is basically a

back-and-forth. they managed to occupy a diststrict, stay for a few days, and then special army forces drive them out, but what you don't have is a clear frontlines. sabeans get stuck in the middle, there are militias on ththe ground, that is why we see this growing number of civilian casualties. it still is the world's deadliest conflict. brent: sandra, we appreciate your reporting. thank you. the u.s. campaign against the taliban is the longest in american military history. a valley in eastern afghanistan was one of the most lethal battlegrounds. u.s. forces named it the valley of death. dw news met one who survived the fighting. [gunfire] correspondent: under fire and returning fire, tracking down

the enemy. that was sergeant brendan o'byrne's life for 15 months. his deployment was the subject of the 2000 -- the 2010 documentary restrepo. he returned to silly in life 11 years ago but finds it difficult to leave the war behind him. >> i loved rununning right befoe the military. i loved running inside the military. but now every time i ran outside the military, every time i started to get winded, i would start having panicked -- panic attacks. what is going on? if you are in afghanistan walking up a mountain and you are winded and can't get out of the way, you can't physically get to the next concealment spot, that would be a problem, wouldn't it? reporter: o'byrne was 22 when he was sent to fight the taliban. his mission, he believed, was to make the world a safer place, but on the ground the reality was different.

>> you can't defeat an ideology with violence. you kill someone, and they have family. and now you have created two more terrorists instead of the one, and that is ad infinitum. you can do that forever. that is what fighting this kind of war is. reporter: after returning home, o'byrne battled several years to overcome psychological problems and alcoholism. with his life back on track, he is studying to become a high school english teacher and lives in a quiet neighborhood in wilmington, north carolina. [inaudible] if we haven't figured out in 18 years what to do with the

taliban, and make them more pepeaceful or defeat them, now they are in possession of more territory, so we haven't figured it out. we've lost. reporter: in a small workshop in his back garden, o'byrne works on sculptures. it is his own retreat from the war, and a way of remaining calm. it helps and process everything he experienced. >> worth it is a hard thing to say. i life who -- i like who i am as a person today. i don't think i have gotten here any other way. but i wouldn't do it twice. i wouldn't go again. reporter: o'byrne continues to work to leave his experiences of war behind him. in the meantime, america debates whether it can do the same. brent: now to that rapidly moving story of the whistleblower report alleging abuse of power around a cover-up and the trump white house. u.s. president donald trump has

gone on the attack against the unnamed whistleblower that reported him for soliciting inner parents -- soliciting interference in the presidential election in a phone conversation with ukraine's president. president trump says the claims are inaccurate but provided no evidence to support the claim. he also accuses democratsts of ininstigating a witchhunt and ss spies were behind the revelations. trump insinuated harsh treatment for those spies, which critics say amounts to witness intimidation. let's discuss where things stand right now with my colleague. he is in our washington bureau. good evening, pablo. it has been quite a week. where do things stand on this friday evening? pablo: brent, you mentioned it is a rapidly moving story and in the past few minutes, u.s. media is reporting the secretary of state, mike pompeo, has actually

received his subpoena to appear before three of the committees that are involved in this impeachment inquiry. we also know the chair of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff, has said we could see those hearings beginning next week, at the end of next week. he set amongst those expected to appear in fact our the attorney general, william barr, and the personal attorney of president trump, rudy giuliani. so it is incredibly fast-moving, this story. we have one i sing what is happening there with regards to mike pompeo, but once we see how quickly this is moving, and this appears to be one of the issues the democrats have been focusing on, that they want this to move quickly, they don't want this to stall, and there is talk as well that we could bc -- we could see

these hearings wrapping up in a couple of months. that's what democrats have been saying. brent: the hope is to keep these hearings laser targeted. what is the case democrats are trying to make? pablo: you are right, they want to focus on these ukraine allegations. that is where they are focused. they are focused on the fact that this was an abuse of power and they are looking at exactly what president trump did. they are claiming he was seeking dirt on his political opponent from a foreign leader, of course dirt being on one of the presidential candidates from the democratic party, joe biden, and also the president trump was essentially using aid to ukraine as a bargaining tool. there has been a lot of talk here that president trump was asking for a favor, i favor for a favor, this is what they are referring to.

and also the focus has been very much as well on why it took so long for this complaint from the whistleblower to actually see the light of day, why it took so long for them to be able to see it, and how the process was work. why was the call logged in a separate computer system from the one it should have been logged in, according to the democrats? so many questions are being posed. the are more questions by the day. brent: more and more questions. and that is prompting the president to push back. how is all of this playing out with his base, and with the general public in the u.s.? pablo: in just the last few minutes, we heard from president trump. he just posted a tweet defending himself once again, saying it is fake news, saying democrats are trying to steal the 2020 election, and the video is quite

ominous. also the word hearsay's being used by many people on the republican side defending president trump. they are saying the whistleblower didn't actually directly here -- directly hear the claims he or she made in their complaint. and they are going after certain people, focusing for instance on adam schiff from the house intelligence committee. so they are defending themselves, president trump is defending himself and using tactics we have seen before, like we saw in the russia investigation, claiming a lot of it is down to fake news. brent: what a week. pablo foley elias in washington. thank you, have a a good weweek. here are their stories making headlines around the world. the british oil tanker seized by iran in the strait of hormuz two months ago has left t the iranin port whehere it wa being dedetained. ththe ship was taken by iran's

revolutionary guard, two weeks after an iranian tanker was seized. that ship was released in august. hundreds of south african government employees have protested against violence targeting women and children. the rally followed a call from the president for all members of society to work together to prevent gender-based violence. france paying respects to former president jacques chirac, who died thursday at the age of 86. people havave been comoming to e presidential palace to ponder -- to honor thehe center-right politicianan who dominated frenh politics for decades. his later years were marreded by scandal and corruption conviction. now to a disturbing discovery in nigeria. police in a northern city have rescued hundreds of boys and young men, many of whom were found shackled in chains. some had been tortured and physically assaulted. they are all said to have been

attending an islamic boarding school in the building where they were being held. in our next report, dw news has chosen not to show the faces of the rescued boys. correspondent: these boys were sent too boardining schooool foa religious education. instead, they were starved, chained and wept. -- and whipped. some bear the scars of the physical suffering they endured. >> i became a christian, i left the islamic way of lifife. >> [inaudible] they denied me access to a lot of things.

correspondent: police say it is not clear how long the children were held there. but all of them came from nigeria. >> this place is not an islamic school. you can see for y yourself. small children brought from different countries, ghana and the r rt, and thehe childldren e here from all over the country. some of them were in chains and were dehumanized. correspondent: there are many islamic schooools across the nonorthern, partly muslim region of nigeria. police arrested sevenn peoplple includining teacherss running te school. the children arere now staying t a temporary camp in the said he while police contact of their parents. brent: in egypt, security forces have sealed off cairo's tar rear square -- tarir square, the

center of the arab spring uprising in 2011. the clampdown comes amid harsh security measures following rare demonstrations in several cities last weekend, all of which were broken up by police. attorneys say more than 2000 people have been arrested since last weekend. egypt's general prosecutor has disputed that number. >> the streets of cairo are full of police, especially around prominent tarir square, the side of major protests in the past. strict controls are in place. the state has moved quickly to quell demonstrations since secretly recorded video shows. returning from a new york, president sisi portrays himself as a man of the people, rejecting criticism and scorning the media. >> the image they portray is full of lies and slander to deceive people. egyptians are wise enough not to

believe it. correspondent: but last friday, hundreds in cairo and other cities called for sisi's resignation, the first protests in years. security forces responded witith tear gas and rubber b bullets. according to human rights organizations, almost 2000 people have been arrested in the past week. internet videos from an exiled building contractor, muhammad ali, triggered the protests. from his home in spain, he accuses sisi of mismanagement and corruption and is calling for new mass protests. >> be strong, egyptians. this man is using you and deceiving you. correspondent: the state broadcast gives no airtime for government critics, until now. it shows only pictures of sisi's supporters cheering at a rally in cairo. brent: for millions around the world, fridays are not

synonymous with climate strikes. more are taking place today. today started with tens of thousands of students gathering in public spaces in new zealand. they demanded world leaders take immediate action to deal with the climate crisis. correspondent: they march in new zealand, in taiwan, [protesters chanting] and in italy. all over the world, climate protesters not losing their urgency. instead, calls for world leaders to take stronger action against climate change are echoing, even in more remote regions like herein nepal. rising temperatures are eating away at glaciers in the himalayas. >> we are the futurure generati. the future of the earth is in our hands. we have to care for attend after be aware from now. [protesters chanting] correspondent: these people are convinced of the threat posed by

global warming, but worry their representatives are doing enough to stop harmful effects. here in washington as elsewhere, they fear economic interests are taking priority over ambitious climate policies. ♪ in berlin, crowds were smaller than last week, but still, many braved the rain to voice their disappointment with the government's latest package of climate measures. [protesters chanting] the climate -- >> the climate package is an insult for us young people standing here. on a day like this, it is a slap in the face. >> we did our homework and know we have to act now. we are in the middle of a climate crisis. correspondent: gran -- greta thunberg marched along

activists in montreal. she has been the target of blowback but says this only serves to spur her on. >> the people want to silence us when we become too loud for people to handle. so they try to silence us. we should also take that as a compliment. correspondent: thunberg's movement is showing no signs of slowing down, despite the fact that real political change has been so far elusive. protesters say they will keep shouting until the world's politicians hear them. brent: german police say they have smashed an influential criminal siebel -- cyber network. seven people were arrested on suspicion of trafficking weapons, drugs, and child sex abuse images.

the rate follows five years of investigations that involve more than 600 police officers. reporter: it looks like the set of a hollywood movie, a former nato bunker converted into a data center, 500 square meters of service used for a multimillion euro criminal enterprise. police seized 200 servers in a major operation. the bunker was hidden five stories below ground in a small town in germany's southwest. >> it wasn't just that we had to secure the physical location. we also had to crack the digital storage and the data center. reporter: it was likely from this location that an attack on deutsche telekom customers was carried out in 2016. it was the home of the illegal online stores like wall street market, selling millions of euros of illegal drugs, documents and child pornography.

the investigation was complex and lasted more than four years. >> operating a data center like this in germany isn't illegal per se. first, you have to prove online crimes are being committed by third parties. then you have to prove the people running the center about it and supported it. reporter: the main suspect is a 59-year-old dutchman. the investigation and analysis of the data, which could include customer data, could take months if not years. brent: time for sports. for fans of german football, a bumper weekend ahead. leap sig. our surprise -- leipzig is in the lead, with bay ine hot pursuit, but it could be a big day for dortmund's title ambitions.

correspondent: dortmund is looking to get their season back on track after dropping points in frankfurt. captain marco royce was bothered when asked if the club's mentality was in question. royce refused to acknowledge that their mindset was to o blae thomas delaney's own goal ainst franankfurt. brasass don't knowow what all te fuss is ababout. >> fundamentalally i don't think we are in such bad shape, so i don't know where these huge problems are that you are seeing. correspondent: munich has an easier task as they have a match saturday. one player scored his first goal against the defending champions last time out in their victory over cologne. they trail leipzig by two points. under a new manager, leipzig have been stellar through the first five matches. [applause]

but the hosting team will surely put leipzig's undefeated record to the test. the royal blues are having a rebirth under new coach david waggoner and are determined to stay in the top half of the table. brent: you are watching dw news live from berlin. after a short rake i will be back to take you through "the day," and tonight we are looking at the week of the whistleblower. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

. nine pm here in the french capital you're watching live from paris f from thirty four i'm tom but gisele's and these are the top stories. fresh protests erupt in egypt wiwith those taking part voicing their opposition to president ob that fatah and cc they quickly dispersed by the authorities. for the three hundred former officials from the us security a and foreign policy agencies formally endorse the congressional impeachment. of president donald trump. can be part of the solution not the pollution that is the child of hundreds of thousands of young people across the globe. calling for action on climate change