♪ anchor: this "dw news." germany gets ready for a new government, a coalition deal making the social democrats the next chancellor as angela merkel steps down. also, estonia holds military drills as russia gathers mass troops on eastern europe's frontiers. human rights watch says do

belorussia and poland are violating the rights of migrants and they have a duty to prevent further deaths as a result of the border standoff. ♪ welcome to the program. the three parties negotiating to form germany's next government has reached a deal. the three parties presented their coalition agreement at a press conference a few minutes ago. it was in front of a background that said, dare to make more progress, as they vowed to step up the fight against the pandemic and do more to address the climate crisis. once the agreement is approved, they aim to get a social democrat named chancellor by the beginning of december.

so let's have a look at this with our political correspondent . welcome. you were with us as we listen to what was going on. we did not get a lot of detail, did we? correspondent: no, but if they had read the 177 pat pages, that would've taken a lot of time and been boring. this press conference was about demonstrating the unity between those three partners. germany will get a government it never has had before, social democrats, greens, and the business-friendly fdp have different partners, that this press conference served as demonstration of this great idea of making compromises to bring this country forward, and they outlined their big visions of

where they think the country needs to go. anchor: let's bring our chief political editor at the conference into the conversation. welcome. one of the big takeaways, what are they for you? correspondent: you can hear the likely new chancellor speaking behind me. for me, a big take away is foreign policy starts way down, where's during the last coalition deal -- whereas during the last coalition deal, it was at the beginning of this. i got the chance to ask him how different germany will feel internationally, and he told us all here in the room that it would be his government's task to make sure admits that huge changes -- amidst the huge changes on the political map, it

is a multipolar world, stressing multi-naturnationalism in a tigt bond with the u.s. anchor: right. they did touch on some domestic issues, germany well behind western countries when it comes to internet speeds in the digitization of society in general. this coalition has said it will try to tackle that. correspondent: absolutely. that is something the free democrats, who got the most young voters, said their task will be, to demonstrate the current status quo has to be overcome, that is how they see their task, and digitization is part of that, but there were bread and butter issues, something mentioned as one of the key policies pushed through that would rise to 12 euros, increasing wages for 10 million people in germany, and then the

climate issue, which the greens got to speak about and stress this would go across the board through all the ministries, and that is why we are seeing, most likely, because it is not official yet, the big climate and trade ministry created that is expected to be led by the green coleader. anchor: pick up that point about green policy across the government. governments around the world, we are all green now, but there seems to be a specific emphasis in germany on this issue now i'm a change. correspondent: the greens rose to their current popular support because of the climate crisis that was becoming tangible in germany, so a couple of years ago with a rise of movements. they made it one of their key conditions, to put the fight

against the climate crisis a key topic of any next government. the way i can see it here in the coalition treaty is that they are saying that the climate issue is going to be part of this new super ministry there leader will get, the economy and climate will be one ministry, but apart from that, they say in the coalition treaty that they want to make sure that the climate-friendly solution is always the simplest one, so basically making climate-friendly options the logical go to solution, and that is the compromise the greens had to make also with the business friendly fdp, we don't need to raise taxes, we just need more people to obviously go for the green solution, so we will see a

lot of measures that don't necessarily look like climate protection measures per se, but that will trickle through all the various areas of government policy. anchor: as well as the super ministry, we see one of the green code leaders as likely to be germany's foreign minister from us that this is a big deal. this is them taking this issue seriously at home and abroad. correspondent: it is taking the issue seriously in the coleader seriously, who is expected to become the vice chancellor, and the climate issue is interesting because in the cola merkel's government -- angela merkel's government suddenly went into overdrive during the final sessions of the bundestag after a constitutional court said they had to get faster and climate protection to protect the rights of the youth in the future. but the big step here is that

germany's exit exits from coal will happen by 2030, eight years earlier, secured by the greens, and the overarching question is this is a coalition deal, this is where their mouth is, but where will all the money go? that will get very interesting once we see those budgets attached to the ministries. what we can tell now is the environment ministry will be expected to have less funding in this future climate trade ministry, which will become quite a powerbroker expected in the future government. anchor: final word to you then, not yet a done deal. they have an agreement which has to go back to the members and then what? talk us through what happens next. correspondent: they did sit together for long hours over the last couple of weeks, so i would say all the parties have had the opportunity to raise their

objections. it is still part of the former process that all three parties involved in the next government have to ask the parties for permission, essentially for approval of this coalition treaty. the greens ask their membership, so that will be a 10-day process starting tomorrow, and the social democrats and fdp will put it to special conventions where voters can vote on this treaty, and i think it is likely they will all approve it, and we will see the big exit of angela merkel from the political stage on december 2, and then the next chance will be sworn in on december 8. anchor: the, just tell us, because our international audience will be aware of the social democrats. we know what a social democrat is, what the greens are, but

these fdp's, who and what are they? correspondent: that depends. postwar german history, when you look at it, it depends on the leader of the fdp, because it had some governing experience with the social democrats decades ago, so they are the liberal voice. it depends very much on the leadership of the party of the day to say, does that mean business-friendly, liberal market sort of a policy, or does that mean socially liberal? this is going to be interesting to see, because the person who will be the head of the finance ministry is known as somebody who does not come from that social liberal tradition, but is a representative of the business-friendly fdp, but the

fact he is entering the centerleft coalition will have an impact, i believe, on his party. anchor: right. final, final word. germany and the world has had 16 years to get used to angela merkel's way of doing things, this calm some would say boring chancellor who manages to steer the ship well. what sort of chancellor can we expect mr. schultz to be? correspondent: well, he certainly has learned from angela merkel, because he won an election campaign and wanted to be photographed in the typical way. when he spoke about covid, he said, it is serious. those were the keywords. when the covid first wave hit germany, those were the first words of angela merkel. he is the most like angela merkel other candidates, but he

will be more left-leaning, but infamously, angela merkel is also known for picking, some say stealing the best ideas from the social democrats and scoring points by making them her own, so i think we will see a level of continuity. that is what i heard out of the policy comments out of the ministers behind me just now. anchor: thank you for that. thank you both. we will look at more stories we are following. in sweden, parliament has elected the first female prime minister. she clenched a last-minute deal by securing key support from the left party with the promise to raise pensions. the social democratic party leader will succeed the outgoing pre-minister. relations between china and the

u.s. have flared up after u.s. president joe biden invited taiwan to join more than 100 other countries at a virtual summit on democracy next month. china, which considers taiwan part of its territory, and russia are not invited. in la palma, the volcano continues to erupt. one of the seven lava flows reach the sea on monday, the third float to reach the atlantic. air quality has worsened on one of the canary islands off northwest africa, after a new overflow of the volcano. the ngo human rights watch is accusing belarus and poland of committing serious human rights violations against migrants gathered at the border between the two countries. after conducting interviews with migrants, the group says the belarusian border guards may be

guilty of toure. interviewings said th had been pued bac sometimes violently, by polish border guards. human rights watch urged the eu to show sidarity with the victims at the border. the victims are said to include an iraqi baby who was born a stillborn. a researcher in human rights lawyer with human rights watch has recently returned from the border between poland and belarus, welcome to dw. what did you witness when it comes to human rights violations? >> thank you for having me. i was on both sides of the border. i spent one week and belarus in on week and poland inteiewing afcted people, affected in the way they have been subjected to human rights abuses,ften on both sides of this border. so what we detected in what we concluded was that hijab hijab when peoe enter into poland,

they are often apprehended by polish border ards in most cases, and insad of dealing with claims for international asylum protection in an orderly way, according to due process, people are put in vans, cars, ought to various locations of the razor wire border, then forced to go back into belarus where usually helltarts, as people call it. once they are on the belarusian side, they are collected in open sites essentially under the bear sky, no shelter, no food, no war, and kept there eight urs to seval days, until the berusian border guards decide to collectively take these grps back to the border come back to the razor wire, and force the cross back intooland , and this is a ping-pong game

that can go on for weeks and weeks. meanwhile, people are freezing in this very hostile terrain. anchor: these accusations of brutality and abuses, i understand you spoke to migrants about it, people who have been through this and asked them what happened to them, so how did you verify those stories given they have a vested interest making both sides look as bad and utal as possible? >> right. we have a rigorous methodology when conducting research. first, the people we interviewed, we always interview them independently from each other, without anyone around, and then what we do is if we see a pattern emerging from the testimonies we gather, there is reason to believe that what all these people said has truth to

it. on the other hand, we tried to verify this information to going to other groups, volunteers, medical aid workers, other reliable sources, even journalistic sources and others who have done work on that issue, so this is why we can confidently say that what these people told us is the truth. anchor: thank so much for joining us, art researcher at human rights watch. >> thank you. anchor: now, there are fears of more conflict in this region. ariel images released by the u.s. have sparked concerns about a potential russian invasion of ukraine. david and says emerged that an estimated 100,000 russian troops -- evidence has emerged that an estimated 100,000 russian troops on the border, preparing for ac and ground attack -- four an air and ground attack. the kremlin denies any plans to

invade, but the conflict is alarming nato countries like estonia, now mobilizing troops. correspondent: as estonian reservists get battle ready, nearly 2000 of them were deployed as part of snap military drills the country held directly at the border with russia. >> the messages, we are ready. this is an exercise to improve defensive readiness. it is important to have all our men and women on duty. this is a way them to demonstrate to them a potential aggressor that the price will be very high for to do something. correspondent: estonia and the baltic states were once part of the soviet union here now they are nato members hosting western troops -- union. now they are nato members hosting western troops. the fear of russian aggression runs deep. one reason is the border

standoff between belorussia and poland, and fears of pressure using natural gas to exert pressure on europe, and now an ominous buildup of russian troops near ukraine and belorussia. >> the kremlin is because of different reasons became much more now aggressive and nervous, and that is why we are worried about what can come next. correspondent: russia's president vladimir putin has repeatedly warned the west not to cross moscow's redlines and stairway from what the kremlin considers its sphere of influence. russia's military has been accused of provocations before, but could the new military buildup be the groundwork for an outright invasion? >> it is obviously a serious situation. it is more difficult this time compared to the spring to say that vladimir is bluffing. there are fundamental issues that remain unresolved, and it

is entirely possible the russian leadership thinks the only way to alter the status quo is through force. correspondent: nato in any cases alarm. >> we think it is extremely important to send a clear message to russia about reducing tensions, be transparent, and avoid any type of escalation of the situation in and around ukraine. correspondent: however, opportunities for direct talks are few. nato's relations with russia are at the lowest point since the cold war, according to the secretary-general. the nato-russia council, a mechanism for consultations, has not met for two years. last month, the alliance expelled eight russian diplomat saying they were intelligence agents, the criminal responded by suspending the mission to nato. what is next? experts say it is crucial for the west to communicate to the

kremlin with the cost of further escalation could be. >> they could fight a nuclear war for ukraine or force them to surrender. we have a lot of shades of support and signaling to the russian side we can conduct ourselves in order to alter moscow's calculus and benefits. this battle is not lost yet. correspondent: the military exercises in estonia are over. the army used them to build a barrier on the border with russia, but do nat drillsre just staing in neighboring lafayette. russia's behavior remains a matter of concern for the baltic states. anchor: let's look at those concerns with the president of lithuanian's foreign policy advisor. welcome to dw. are you really expecting a russian invasion? >> lithuania and other baltic countries are the guardians of

the external nato and eu border. we are on the front line of the alliance, and we are ready to defend ourselves and the alliance in any circumstances. we understand that article five is for all nato members, and we are very much count on nato allies as well. i must remind u that germany, namely germany, is in charge of enhanced forward presence in the waning -- lithuania, a military unit set up after 2014 invasion in ukraine, so we together with our allies and we trusted them and we are ready to defend ourselves. anchor: ok, so you're ready to defend. you are prepared, but this is something you really, truly expect to happen?

do you believe that russia is messing troops in the east in order to invade? >> it is clear that russian behavior is aggressive. it was witnessed by the last military exercises in 2021 by the russian army. they are playing offensive, not defensive scenarios from us that the military buildup -- scenarios, so the military buildup is high, so we understand the tensions are being put high by the russian side. anchor: are these concerns shared by the general population? >> sure. sure. lithuanian population are very much nato-loving people. 80% of look the waning support nato and feel a part of nato. we have a return to the conscript army, and the young people are having their military service each year, and we are in

close cooperation with other nato allies, and indeed, we count on nato allies as well. anchor: i have seen in an interview that you recently claimed that president putin will try to annex lithuania at some point. were you serious about that? >> well, we do not believe he would try to annex because the cost of the further escalation could be extremely high. anchor: so when you said that in an interview, why did you say it? >> well, the, the president putin, what he wants to do is restore what was once the soviet union, and this is a very dangerous plan, because that means that aggressive behavior will continue if, if allies

would let him do so, so what is most important is also defense, deterrence, rising the cost of the potential aggression. anchor: right, so if you do it, it will cost you so much, you will have to think about whether it is worth it, but here is the thing about warfare nowadays, we have seen aggression coming out of russia that does not necessarily take the form of military action. we see them engaging in cyber warfare operations, talk about the supply of gas out of russia, so under what circumstances would you expect your nato allies to step in? >> indeed, you are speaking about hybrid warfare, which can have very different forms, like yes, energy security or energy supply cuts, like little green men who were used in ukraine, like campaigns of disinformation

and misinformation like fake news, a lot of means to coerce the neighbors. we are indeed, we are various seriously considering article four under washington treaty, just in case something will happen. anchor: thank you so much for joining us. the chief foreign policy adviser to the president of lithuania. >> thank you. anchor: a quick reminder of our top story, germany's social democrats, greens, and free democrats have unveiled a coalition deal for a new center-left government that will make a social democrat chancellor. the finance minister will be from the free democrats, and a person from the greens is lined up to become germany's first female foreign minister.

that is it. you are up-to-date. more world news at the top of the hour. next, monica has our business magazine, asking the question, who can save mother earth? that is it in just a moment here on "dw news." ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsle for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪

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♪ >> welcome back to france 24. you are watching "live from paris." these are our top headlines at this hour. dozens of migrants drowned in the channel near the french port of calle. rescue operations are still ongoing in what is being described as the biggest migrant disaster in the channel on record. justice for the arbery family after the three men involved in ahmaud arbery's murder are found guilty. they are due to be sentenced and can face life in prison, marking the end of a painful and racially charged case in the united states.