brent: this is dw news live from berlin. tonight, lebanon's prime minister says he is resigning. saad al-hariri becomes the first major political casualty after two weeks of protest paralyzing the country. his offer of reforms were not enough. will his departure be what it takes to restore calm? also coming up, russia and turkey's cease-fire has expired in northeastern syria. moscow says kurdish militias have met a deadline to withdraw

from the kurdish border region. and the u.k. edges closer to an early election after the opposition labour party throws support behind a pre-christmas poll. the lawmakers are still wrangling at this hour over the date of that vote. i'm brent goff. to our viewers on pbs in the united states and around the world, welcome. tonight, lebanon's beleaguered prime minister saad al-hariri has announced he will resign. the move follows almost two weeks of protests across the country, demanding political change. many lebanese are unhappy with what they see as a corrupt and incompetent political elite. the prime minister failed to satisfy demonstrators with his

announcement of a series of anticorruption measures as well as political reforms. today he headed to the presidential palace to submit his resignation. earlier, we spoke with our lebanon correspondent and we asked him about the fallout from hariri's decision. >> the first action that we saw on the protest square -- [indndiscernible] they want to takake down the old sectarian regime. the first step, they achieved. now they y are a asking for the formatation of a neww government with technocratic members so they can achieve the other demands. brent: that was our

correspondent in lebanon. staying in the middle east, to syria, where the cease-fire brokered by turkey and russia has ended. russia's foreign minister saying that kurdish forces have withdrawn from the border area, saying they withdrew earlier than planned. turkey says it will verify the withdrawal with joint patrols with russian troops -- witith kurdish troops. militias agreed to retrere from the area under the deal struck last week. ptuh first time and have traded fire near a border town. six sysyrian soldiers were reportedly killed in gunfire. thousands of kurdish refugees have fled northern syria since turkey launched its offensive against the kurds. many have ended up in camps in neighboring iraq. a huge question mark hanging

over their future and the fate of their loved ones. reporter: this woman and her daughter are looking for a neighbor they lost track of when they fled northern syria. they have been combing the refugee camp in iraq for the past three days. >> i am happy. she is my neighbor, my aunt, everything. i love her and her daughter very much. reporter: she, her husband, and their two daughters survived the turkish military offensive. they say it was a gift from god. >> the turkish army didn't invade, it just bombed the city from the other side of the border. we fled. our house is very close to the border. our children were afraid.

the bombing was indiscriminate. people died. reporter: now, turkish president erdogan is planning to resettle a million syrian refugees from syria. >> [translated] forcing some people out to make room for others is not acceptable. reporter: the camp in northern iraq is overfilled. the syrian refugees are being brought in buses from the syrian-iraqi border. the turkish military incursion took residents by surprise. the refugees were not able to bring much with them. mohammed fetches water. he is afraid that he and his family will have to stay put here a long time. after all, the occupying turkish forces are cooperating with the free syrian army, which includes many radical islamists in its ranks. >> [translated] if the turks and

the free armies day, we can't go there. we are afraid because they are cooperating with i.s., letting i.s. fighters move through their territory. reporter: she hopes her family will be able to return home one day. she wants to be a role model for her daughter. she does not want to let turkeys resettlement plans were eager -- turkey's resettlement plans worry her. >> if they came, they would be welcome. if they had no home, i would take them in. it does not matter if they are arabs, kurds, christians, or muslims, we are all syrians. reporter: for her, the worst thing about being displaced is her children will not be able to go to school for a long time and opportunities could pass them by. brent: some of the other stories making headlines around the world --

a u.s. army officer is testifying before congressional investigators in the impeachment inquiry against president trump. lieutenant colonel alexander bettman appeared despite white house orders for him not to. an advance copy of his testimony says he raised concerns about trump's disputed phone call with the president of ukraine. a mountain climber from nepal has broken the speed record for conquering the world's 14 highest peaks. he climbed the mountaiains overa period of six months and six days. the previous record was eight years. all 14 peaks are at least 8000 meters high. closer to sea level, wildfires in southern california have driven some of l.a.'s wealthiest residents from their homes, including basketball star lebron james, even the terminator himself, arnold schwarzenegger.

several fires are burning out of control, the biggest in wine country beyond san francisco has spread and firefighters are struggling to contain it. the local electricity supplier says one of its power lines may have started the blaze, despite shutting off electricity to hundreds of thousands of customers to prevent downed lines from doing just that. reporter: heading into an inferno, san franciscan firefighters on their way to battle the biggest and most destructive blaze, the kincade fire. further south in california, the smoldering remains of several homes in los angeles. fires swept through the tinder dry hills, prompting this morning from authorities.. >> if you are in the mandatory evacuation zone and you are still watching this, you are an idiot. get the hell out. it is way too out -- too dangerous.

people who stay behind are endangering themselves and not helping. reporter: time is of the esessence. there has been a short respite in the winds, but they are said to pick up again. >> what we are starting to get ready for is another red flag event. right now it looks like that is going to start midday tuesday and push us into wednesday morning, so we have a quiet 24 hour window, then another critical period tuesday night into wednesday. reporter: it remains a race against time, a battle against the blazess b before the next critical period begins. brent: jayson campadonia is a reporter with nbc news radio in los angeles for us this evening. hello to you. there are 12 fires burning in the state. we can tell by y your tie that t is windy in l.a. where you are. what about the santa ana winds

that are supposed to pick upup totoday? is that the biggest threat inn terms of fighthting these blaze? jayson: yes. firefightersrs are throwing everything they have added right now in south california. the getty fire that erupted yesterday is holding at 650 acres, but it is windy. windnd gususts a about 10 to 15s per hour r right now. officials say by 11:00 tonight, gus get anywhere from 60 to 70 miles per hour. that is happening in northern california as we speak, high winds are hitting the kincade fire, alreaeady at 75,000 acres. brent: what about in l.a.? we werere hearing a lot of prire homes are threatened and even celebrities have been forced to evacuate. whatat have you enen hearing?? jayson: that's right.. in the getty f fire footprint, e

650 acres, you have multimillion dollar homes. $10 million to $15 million. you mentioned lebron james, arnold schwarzenegger. other celebrities have also had to evacuate and are sharing their stories on social media. it is a a scary thing when you have that kind of money and you are forced to leave everything behind. we are seeing celerities making donations toward the california firefighters fund. john cena, chris pratt, these guys are donating hundreds of thousandsds of dollars.s. brenent: what about the cause? are we any closeser to knowing w these buyeyers started -- these fires started? jayson: not exactly. pg&e believe one of their transmission lines w was brokenn a wind gust of 100 miles an hour and landed on the visitation below that wasn't maintained -- on the vegetation below that

wasn't maintained and the line was able to ignite the vegetation and spread quickly. in southern c california, a tree that hit a power line is possibly the start of the getty fire. brent: reporter jayson campadonia with the latest from los angeles. hong kong's protest movement has been, to some extent, about us versus them. that separate hong kong identity, different from mainland chinese. with news that police sprayed a mosque with blue water cannons during a weekend protest, it served as a reminder of the territory's diversity. hundreds of thousands of filipinos and indonesians live and work in hong kong, along with others from south asia. correspondent medea sparling are has more. mattias: the southern tip of this peninsula is one of this person's favorite places.

the area is one of the hotspots for hong kong's ethnic minorities, about 250,000 non-chinese citizens live in the city. at the center of the community, a five block concrete jungle from the 1960's. although quite far from his home, he comes here quite often. >> there are many halal food choices available here. snacks, fresh meat, lots of drinks which are not available in the mainstream society. reporter: two weeks ago, a rumor spread that the protesters were planning to attack the area. hey protest leader had been badly beaten. this person has had a shop here for 25 years. >> for the firstst time in my 25 years in hong kong, i saw the

area closed. reporter: nothing of the like happened, but when the police water cannon passed a nearby mosque, it sprayed blue dye on the entrance of the building. although police apologized, protesters saw it as an attack on the southeast asian population. most families moved here during british rule as the city moved away from its colonial past. they have gotten little attention. suddenly that all changed. a week after the paint incident, the protesters were back in the neighborhood. this time, shops remained open. >> we want to protect the neighborhood because the people here are hong kongers. reporter: suddenly the south asian community was a focal point of the process -- the protests. >> they say do them a favor by eating in the neighborhood. so a log of chinese people,

double or triple than the regular days, they are coming to this building, shopping, eating food. reporter: this person calls himself a third-generation pakistani hong konger and has also taken part in some of the protests. while most elderly prefer to say out of politics, he says more and more young south asian hong kong ers have joined the movement, drawing attention from the media. >> many issues, hong kongers begin to realize they have a stake. reporter: the protests have shaken many certainties in hong kong. the relationship with its minorities seems to be one of them. brent: the u.k. looks to be heading to a snap election. lawmakers are voting on u.k. prime minister of boris johnson's bill to trigger an early election this coming december. it is johnson's fourth attempt

at an early election. his election bill has cleared its first parliamentary hurdle after opposition mp's say they back his proposal. mp's now are voting on whether to hold an election on december 12. it comes after the european union this week agreed to delay the u.k.'s departure from the eu for a third time. the date is now set for the 31st of january. let's check in with our correspondent, on the story for us. mp's are voting right now. is boris johnson going to get the election that he wants? reporter: at last, it does look likely we are going to see a general election in the u.k. on december 12. as you mentioned, it was johnson's fourth attempt trying to push a general election through parliament.

this morning the opposition labor party finally announced they would also get behind the idea of a general election. they had been holding off because they wanted no deal taken off the table, now we know the u.k. is heading into another extension, they are not leaving the european union on thursday but instead will stay until january 31. this is why it looks likely that the opposition parties will back johnson's request for a general election. if that is confirmed, we will see six weeks of complaining. we have heard that the mood already changed today, that the parties were getting into election mode and election rhetoric. brent: amazing to think they have the energy to do that. if johnson does get those early election, how confident can he be that voters are going to deliver the majority in parliament that he wants?

reporter: the polls suggest he could get an majority in parliament this time around, that he would win an election. he is very much ahead of the labour party, ahead of the opposition party. on the positive side for him, he is an excellent campaigner. we have seen that in the referendum for the leaf campaign in 2016. he has, on the other hand, ditched his promise that the u.k. would leave the european union on october 31. we will see if the conservative base will forgive that. that is on the negative side. if you look at the history, three years ago theresa may called, unexpectedly, a snap election. she was ahead in the polls, very far ahead, and that changed within six weeks and led to this hung parliament we have seen

that could not find a majority either way in the brexit saga. we will have to see. six weeks are a time in british politics. brent: we know theresa may did the same thing, called a snap election, was betting on getting a bigger majority, and the result was the opposite. she was weakened until she had to resign. if johnson does not get the majority that he wants, what will happen to him, and what about brexit? reporter: this is the question about this general election. brexit is the dominating topic and so far -- parliament was at a standstill. now we look at the different parties in regard to brexit. the conservatives have this brexit deal on the table that johnson negotiated with the european union. he wants to push that through if he gets a majority. the labour opposition is not clear on how they want to handle

brexit. they might call a second referendum if they were to win. the liberal democrats want to forget about brexit altogether and remain in the european union. we also have the new kid on the block, the brexit party on the conservative side, they want brexit asap and to make a clear cut with the european union. what has become clear is a general election would be another referendum on brexit. brent: our correspondent in london, thank you. the fight against doping in sports will soon be led by a man from poland. he will become the new president of the world anti-doping agency this coming january. his most pressing concern will be the russian doping scandal, which has severely damaged wada's reputation. in an interview with dw news, he gives his thoughts on the

challenges that lie ahead. reporter: this is the man charged with solving the sports doping crisis. he takeses over as president of e e worlantiti-doping agencyy at the startrt of 2020 with a lengy to do list. >> we have to eliminate the anti-doping blank spots. wewe still have countries withot anti-doping policies. in south africa, only one accredited laboratory. reporter: the wada budget leaves lilile room fofor buildiding new laboratories. >> i propose engaging the private companies, the public companies to finance. reporter: that proposal may set off alarm bells for some observers after the controversy surrounding the oregon project run by nike. several athletes involved in the

project won gold medals before he was banned by athletitics ths year for anti-doping vioiolatio. >> it is very important for me to engage some companies to increase the budget for anti-doping controls. reporter: at 35, banka will become the youngest ever wacda president. he favors a modern approach to communication. >> with the athletes, environment, also with the media. i want to be more openn to a relationship with the media. this is the relationship between me and wada in the past. reporter: when it comes to russia's alleged manipipulationf lab data, bananka refuses to be drawn on which actioiowada should take. > i am not actually the president. if wada discovers a possible

manipulalation, the decision shouldld be tough. the possibible sanctionsns is obvious now. reportrter: banka and wada may have to rule on whether russia should be banned from next year's olympic games. thanka -- banka faces a baptism of fire when he takes the range. brent: germany has one of the best triathletes in the sport trophy history at this month won the ironman championship in record time. in a dw exclusive, he talks about how he rises to the challenge and about his connection to a controversial country. reporter: most ofof us would sa, under pressure i if we had to complete a 226 kilometer triathlon in under eight hours. not this man. he managed to do it in record time. earlier this month, he won the

ironman world championship in hawaii for a third time and did it with a record winning time. he simply strives when the going gets tough. >> i have always been a big fan of the saying pressure creates diamonds. it iss very symbololic for me. i need pressure to get to the very best of my ability. reporter: he also won gold at the 2008 olympics, but the 38-year-old has recently come under criticism. he trains with a bahrarain elite and d during that comes from a country known for human rights violations. >> i believe that we are going there dedespite the troububles d actually creating an escape for people or crcreating the possibility to make lives better. to me, that feels better than popointing my finger and saying,

what you are doing is terrible. reporter: not everyone may agree, but what is on disputable is that jan frodeno is a testament to pushing the boundaries of human endurance. brent: is japan about to change the way the world rides escalators? ahead of next year's summer olympics, tokyo's transport authority has launched a campaign to improve escalator etiquette. the goal is to improve safety in the city's busy metro stations. please pay attention. reporter: the push for escalator etiquette has been escalating for some time in japan. like most big cities, tokyo train writers in a rush want a clear side so they can make a run for it, but some parents are saying, hold on, safety first. >> [translated] i would like to see people only standing on the escalator and for that to become part of our culture. reporter: she and others are at

a workshop. the aim is to make escalators standing room only. so far the new way of riding is being well received. >> [translated] i think this is a good campaign. it would be great if it spread through all of japan. >> [translated] i think this campaign will spread awareness and help make things safe. reporter: and this is how you do it, orderly and safety -- safely. kids are regarded as the best ambassadors for getting the message out since they are excited to share what they have learned. this lesson includes experiencing what it is like to travel as an elderly or disabled person. for these children, the new escalator etiquette campaign is a big step in the right direction. brent: mind your manners on the escalators. a reminder of the top story we are following, there is a new

development in the last few minutes. mp's in the u.k. parliament have voted to hold a snap election in december. december 12 is the date of that election. it was british prime minister boris johnson's fourth attempt at trying to secure it. it comes after the eu agreed this week to delay the u.k.'s departure from the european union for a third time. departure date now is january 31. again, election date is december 12. you are watching dw news. after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. tonight, insnside the firires tt haveve californiaa burning. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, whwhich is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

. it is at nine pm here in the french capital watching live from paris- france twenty four i'm tumblers wilson these are headlines the british parliament has just voted innovate aimed at finding out details surrounding the general election in december breaking the break the deadlock let's listen in. for the last three hundred and fifty. to the wrong. two hundred and ninety five the news to the l