To prove. Im going to. Want to welcome to the program it. Region has gone ahead with Regional Elections despite being told not to do so by Prime Minister of the country had been due to hold national and Regional Elections last month but the federal government postponed them indefinitely because of the. Decisions into groene accuse obvious made of using the situation to prolong his rule no surprise population is rated to be small its around 5 percent of ethiopias 109000000. 00 people need us from the ethnic group dominates at ethiope. His politics were nearly 30 years but that ended when i be afeared came to power in 2018 now about 2700000 people in the region are expected to verts to gray officials have warned that an intervention by the federal government would amount to a quote declaration of war. An act of defiance in ethiopias Northern Region and to cry. These people are lining up to vote in an election that the federal government says is illegal. It also says the results will be no and void. But voters here determined to press ahead saying its a democratic right to cast their ballots in with the latest argument how can we be without electing a government. Should we leave it open we must vote the federal government is saying that this election is not legitimate due to the corona virus but the election is legitimate the only thing to have an effect in a film is the election campaigning has been in full swing in the regional capital mcalary. More than 600 candidates from 5 parties are vying for just over 150 seats in the regional parliament. So tip to win is a party that already governs a regional particular ip Peoples Liberation front on t. P. L f c theyve played an outsized role in politics since leading the Armed Struggle to liberate the country from a marxist dictator in 1901. But their influence has waned since Prime Minister abbey admit came to power in 2018. Theyre also facing pressure from a party that wants to try to go its own way and secede from ethiopia so many people have started to question if you are preaching to many in the village do share the views have started to agree with your analysis sure at this moment the acceptance is beyond our expectations. Respective to gripe breaking away is yet another headache for Prime Minister ahmed who is struggling to keep the country unified. But for the moment his main challenge will be to decide how to respond to a vote he deems unconstitutional. For more on the story im joined by have beck and i from the deed. Service good to see you there so how is government likely to respond to this. Last saturdays house of a division i dont mislead declared dot. Todays election is unconstitutional and therefore void so we dont know how did this decision will be implemented in regards to. The federal governments relationship but the Prime Minister. Did this election illegal. Military intervene intervention to resolve this dispute for their governments might have options at its disposal if it decided to intervene to respond but any kind of measures for sure we complicate things further right and also i can understand that but tell us more about this standoff between the leaders into grat. And Prime Minister asked. Of both parties who are in power in and in l. A. Where members of the former e. P. A. Out of diff who governed the country since 1991 the rivalry intensified after primaries robbie homage and his circle decided to merge that and e. P. Out there and then after the 2 parties t. P. A. Left and then you really form a Prosperity Party failed to agree on almost everything even the Prime Minister removed over members of t. P. A. People and if members for its cognate. Prosper Tea Party Members and the federal government officials accused the t. P. In their fee for almost or even did a bad thing this happened within the last 2. 00 decades so all the valerie the difference was there but it was intensified after the merger of the f. S. If they could. Its a great take this a step further and push for cessation they have the memory about wanting independence in this region. We. Should grow proud for. The people who are inclined to our decision of dots one idea which becomes some more footprint is east peace among the 5 but its got a part of this we are participating in this poll in this election todays election one roof intended to have an independent to degrade mission we see where that is not going to party we. Give the Regional Government or not but this is not an easy issue with many people afraid as if there are approved by the federal government by people on different out of government so. We see what would happen but its not. A new think they discussed among the political elites for the last 4 years all right thats i said to bethany with that insight for us whos from the park service thank you. A day off a report alleging that u. S. President donald trump made crude and disparaging remarks about Nelson Mandela and theres still no word of denial from mr trump no tweet all statement distancing involve the alleged remarks now in a book written by Michael Cohen trumps cola personal lawyer the u. S. President allegedly said that mandela if the whole country up now its a whole if mandela he was no leader but also mandela foundations of africa criticized donald trump for used. In a statement the foundations say that we do not believe that leaders who conduct themselves in the way mr trump does are in a position to offer all forces of commentary on the life and with all. In a moment i was talking to the spokesperson of south africas ruling party the a. N. C. 1st have a listen to some South Africans we are asked how they felt about mr trump alleged remarks. I dont think is a. Great president because as for me on my site it doesnt care about black people it doesnt care about what happened to us and i really dont think that President Trump have to have anything in those people for 1st of all in the very 1st is proven time and time again that his very 1st. We all thought africa like most people we do know what the kind of leader that mandela was we do know all the struggles that he went through says mandela was a bad leader i mean take a look around do you see whats happening in the streets thats because of fears like Nelson Mandela when bella 1st of all he was a good man you know he was the father of the nation you know and he was a very giving man you know and he was there for the children and you know a lot of things changed because of mandela and we are working in the streets and we are free because and joining me from johannesburg is pull him up he is a spokesperson for the African National congress or the a. N. C. Welcome to africa mr we just heard from South Africans reacting to mr trumps alleged remarks about former president Nelson Mandela what has the president of your party and the country sorghum apostle say about this. Just 1st tuesday to the police here in the African National congress but we are condemned today despite a few months attributed to president of the United States going to time about a president as a man there you would know that president mandela well i quote who is celebrated to this day because of the route that he played not just on going guys in south africas people but the resources they need for the peace of the rest of the wit show you all of the committee with a set mr trump has in the past insulted south africa one could say in 2030 for example he tweeted that south africa was a quote crime ridden mess waiting to explode and quote whatever it is a shame to say south africa and the u. S. Spend like with mr trump in the white house. Well we we there are those kind of lesions where they do from state to state we gauge with the president of the arctic or south africa but we do not welcome. Some of these comments that would seek to undermine our superiority they have a good National Congress including the government it leads right here in south africa having bestowed on itself the mantle of leading society will never go out of its way to undermine the civilian to other nations we expect that the president of the us will also be doing the same respecting the rule that democratically elected governments like i was occupy and are expected to perform on be out of the cities as they did. And then some other i would also give this again this is alleged to have been said by mr trump that he is said to have lost mamie a country thats run by a black person that is obsessed that is except say it loosely quoting him there but you have to speak for one of the oldest parties on the continent so to say just your reaction to that that youve got somebody in the white house who is basically disregarding an entire continent leadership we do not need our fit nation from dont have crime or any other leader outside this country it is the people of the people of this country the republic of south africa we have gone out in successive elections to indorse and. The a. N. C. Led government where we shot that we built a strong multiparty democracy now if you come to south africa regardless of the challenges that would take on the ground you will see that the infrastructure we have built over the past 26 years is such that we have to be focused on constructing a better country where people write that split my ba in johannesburg he speaks for the a. N. C. Thank you so. Thats it for now you can find more of our stories on our web site thats. Dash africa. And faced the fates of. One continent. 700000000 people. With their own personal stories. We explore every day life. What europeans fear and what they hope for. On europe. D. W. Passion drama competition whatever marketing numbers atmosphere cover fight thats hacking into mission love hate money. Fans from slander spams and friends. To go off on you tube join us. As shakeout after the academy of Motion Picture arts and sciences in los angeles over diversity means strict new rules for any film vying for the best picture oscar will get the lowdown on what that means for the industry and also in the pipeline. A codex minister a 14th century collection of middle high german poetry makes a rare appearance at an exhibition in months. And in meet the german my colleague Rachel Stewart gives us a comprehensive tour of germanys at times quirky film and television landscape. Well to be eligible for a best picture oscar filmmakers will have to adapt to new inclusion and diversity guidelines in unspent came on tuesday and the new rules will be implemented in 2024 at the academy said the decision was part of a greater push to promote diversity both on and off screen and none too soon as the problem is hardly new. Black demonstrators are brutally beaten by Police Martin luther king was the figurehead of the 1960 s. Protest movement 2015 the movie so mark was the hot chip to sweep the oscars but went home almost empty handed reactions were angry at the academy and the oscars were considered too white. I disproportionate amount of people who do not look like me doing what i do. Protests on social media use the hash tag off so whites women true protestors that larry werent getting a fur tail at the oscar awards ceremony in 2019 despite all the protests it was mostly white men who took to the stage in 2020 and more positive signal from hollywood the south korean film parasites became the 1st Foreign Language movie to win best film. And our film experts got rockstro joins me once again from the Venice Film Festival to talk about the new oscar rules welcome scott in a nutshell just tell us what are these new requirements. Well the new comments and to be clear they only apply for nominees for best picture so only the very top award handed out by the oscars but these requirements are based require diversity at all levels in front of the camera but also in the production staff all the way to the people who market the film that there should be very strict requirements for a degree of diversity in the cast in the director and all the way down basically if you dont have that degree of diversity you will not qualify for best picture and how surprised were you by this rule change. Quite a bit i knew that the academy wanted to make a change i didnt think it would be this this radical really will be interesting to see how this is received because this goes a lot further than i at least expected the academy do it shows that theyre quite serious about pushing hollywood to become more diverse ok so essentially this is a good thing obviously with the academy wanting to shed that a white image but what impact might this have on the stories that filmmakers want to tell. Yeah itll be interesting because i mean if you look just at the nominees for best picture this year 8 of the 10 wouldnt qualify under these new rules i mean films like a joke which which won best actor or. The irishman but also a film like little women which many celebrated as a tribute. To female filmmaking because its only white women on screen it wouldnt qualify under the new diversity rules so itll be interesting to see what impact this will have and if we will start to see new and different stories and if certain stories might start to disappear from hollywood. Its very interesting obviously we were speaking earlier that diverse diversity is a relative term it depends on the perspective that youre coming from but id like to go to another story thats flaring up again disneys new live action remake of moulin is facing boycott calls from activists for being partly at least filmed in the region in china where we are muslims are being persecuted by the Chinese Government now coming from our diversity discussion there heres a film that was hailed for its chinese story with an all chinese cast but tripping up for cozying up to beijing how big a problem is this for disney. A pretty big problem actually i mean hollywood the big studios at least have an issue with china theyre desperate to get into the Chinese Market is a huge market they need it to really make their film successful but the Chinese Government to time determines what films get in and so hollywoods really bending over backwards and has been for years to do everything it can not to offend china and disney with thought to have the ideal type of film a chinese story with an all chinese cast ideal for the for the Chinese Market but because they shot in this area of china where alleged these these persecutions are taking place its really put them in a in a bad light im not sure if its actually going to hurt the film itself commercially but it definitely has hurt the image that disney has because no one wants to be seen as a cheerleader for a dictatorship thats right well scheduled to be released in theaters in china on friday i believe so we will keep an eye on not and see what kind of an impact this controversy has had thanks very much for joining in tuning into i think and god will see you tomorrow scott roxboro in venice next up we go back in time to the middle ages here in germany and a new exhibition in my aunts sheds light on the complicated power structures that were in that area at the time of charles the great of the king of the franks and the founder of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 800 well its been years in the making this exhibition and years since one of its central attractions has actually seen the light. This massive steel door protects one of the most valuable books in the world the codex manesar is 700 years old a collection of songs and poems from an entire era 811 decorated parchment pages with love as the central theme. Greets with singing the sweet ones i neither can nor want to avoid. This is the source for more than half of mina saying poetry. Very rarely then the book out to those people interested in seeing get up close this is really about the aura of the original. The last time was 14 years ago now the codex manesar is going back on public view its been cushioned in shop and fireproof packaging for the journey its insured for 80000000 euros and has a police escort. And this is its new temporary home from charlemagne to Frederick Baba ross are the exhibition the kaisers and the pillars of the power in the land as museum minds examines the complicated network of relationships between emperors and kings and bishops and princes. And we want to show how the middle ages were different in fact only about 10 percent of the population belong to the pillars of society but it is just as important to us to show that they were always in a network of influence with each other so there was a process of negotiation that was not just based on orders and obedience the emperors power was limited. The funeral crown of empress gives a lot of sway via the marriage certificate of farnell the acts. Mission reflects the importance of women in the middle ages as the pivot of court life. The woman is in charge she holds the court together even when the men are waging war and shes the guarantor of a courtly behavior that rises above desire and brutality. Women are objects of desire but at the same time the educators of man without the codex men are so we would not have this perspective on the not so dark middle ages. And from literature back to cinema now a topic that is ever close to our hearts especially german cinema and television i think for very obvious reasons and nowhere is it more evident that national tastes really do differ when you arrive here in germany as a foreigner for instance there are a number of lets call them idiosyncrasies to get your head around but there are also a great many more. Crime scene thats the name of one of germanys favorite ever t. V. Shows millions treated on sundays at 8 50 pm sharp and the show has been running for 50 years the germans love crime drama but what makes this one so special its got murder and intrigue of course and often picks up on current social debates like f