that was syria analyst kristen helberg speaking to us a little earlier this is day to view news he is a reminder of the top story we're following for you this hour germany's chancellor angela merkel is chairing and e.u. summit in brussels aimed at bridging differences over of corunna recovery plan member states are deeply divided over the conditions for handouts from 750000000000 euro folks. will have more headlines at the top of the out until then check out our website data dot com thanks very much for watching. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and. our corona. from the covert 19 special next on d w. a meal call complete 2nd season on the.

russia or the russians as his main backers christine thanks so much for your insights this morning kristen helberg for us. this is news live from berlin still to come on our show this picture as found in germany's wax wars is the base for a massive police manhunt aided by aircraft and search dogs these officers are looking for a man who disarmed 4 officers and disappeared with their weapons into the south german wilderness. but 1st a former senior executive at german payments processor wire card has confessed to his role in the company's multibillion euro fraud that's according to lawyers who say the executive was c.e.o. of card systems middle east workers largest subsidiary he was arrested in munich last week card systems played a key role in the wire card scandal which put it near $2000000000.00 hole as balance sheet. filed for insolvency last month. our financial correspondent ali barss following this for us from frankfurt today due to what has the man in question we can't release his name for for legal reasons exactly confessed we don't know that we don't know the details of what crime what ac

earlier we spoke with kristen helberg an expert on syria we asked her how stable assad's hold on power is after 9 years of civil war that's left more than 400000 syrians dead and the country in ruins. well actually what right at the beginning of his power everybody was hoping for reforms and i think this was the 1st mis understanding that bashar al assad never came to power to reform the country to make it a democracy or to modernize the country so why is it still there i mean this question is very important because you have to look at the inner structure of this regime this regime has replaced the state which means that all the institutions the parliament the judiciary the administration the military all of these state institutions serve the preservation of power of a son there is not a target of power center in the country with for example a military like in egypt so this is nothing can't get dangerous for us out in self and until now its power is built on loyalty so he in forces loyalty by means of fear so this is why he needs the intelligence operators which is very important to us

let's bring in a christian helberg an expert on syria kristen thanks for joining me when bash said came to power 20 years ago he was held as a reformer today become tree is largely in ruins an estimated 400000 people have been killed in the war and half the population is displaced how is assad still able to hold on to power. 1st of all i think this was a misunderstanding from the beginning because. as. well as subtended to reform the country to make it to the credit system for example that he wanted to modernize and this is what he did especially by liberal by liberalizing the economy but still actually what he didn't change is the very nature of this regime the regime in syria has replaced the state and this is important to understand because all institutions like the parliament the military the administration the judiciary they also have this one goal the preservation of power so until now assad really depends on loyalty this loyalty is enforced by means of fear this is where he needs a very strong intelligence that the wages and the secret services in more powerful than ever and it i