this is d w news the live from bar lead and calls for strict action as north korea marches forward with its nuclear ambitions foreign ministers meet in canada for a u.n. allies summit on the north korean nuclear program the u.s. warns that the threat is growing and leads the charge for increased pressure on pyongyang. also coming up they can lock up his body but they cannot lock up his

mind so says the hong kong pro-democracy activist after a court jailed him for his leading role in a twenty fourteen umbrella protest and banning refuses to answer u.s. lawmakers questions about his time at the white house now he faces a congressional subpoena what does he know about alleged russian ties to the trump campaign. welcome to the program thanks for joining us. china has criticized what it calls a cold war mentality after foreign ministers from twenty countries met in canada to discuss the north korean conflict the ministers discussed increasing economic pressure on in a bid to end the country's nuclear ambitions u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson warns that the threat of war is far away and

called on nations to remain sober and clear eyed about the current state of affairs . and japan's foreign minister also weighed in urging the international community to continue economic sanctions despite the recent warming of relations between north and south korea have a list north korea continues to advance its nuclear and missile programs even as we speak and we should not be blinded by north korea's charm offensive in short it is not the time to ease pressure or to rework no it's career. and for more we're joined now from seoul by josh smith a reuters correspondent covering korean affairs welcome to you josh we've been hearing stark warnings from diplomats around the pacific at a time when it seems like seoul m.p.r. have found common ground is this a disconnect but i think it signals

something of. concern over the fact that the talks so far have focused mostly on the olympics as well as a few other kind of sideshow elements of into a korean relations this is something that i think all sides see as a positive step but one that's very limited in that it doesn't get to of course north korea's nuclear program which has caused so much of the tension on the around the world. just we heard the japanese foreign minister warning that we shouldn't believe the north charm offensive so how what do we make of gangs olive branch is it to be interpreted as a genuine. that is something that remains an open question right now it seems that the south koreans have no better option than to respond to the north korean overtures because of course everyone is interested in having an

uneventful olympics however many observers including those in south korea have said that is a strong likelihood that north korea is interested in using these overtures as a way to blunt and reduce international pressure which has increased in recent months and especially when it comes to sanctions you have about international pressure i mean it's not dying down from the united states at least we heard rex tillerson is warning that you know diplomats that people remain sober and clear eyed when it comes to north korea his comments and the u.s. role is that impacting what's happening on the peninsula right now. do you think it definitely goes to the fact that many of these officials around the world especially in washington are looking ahead to after the olympics when many people expect the north to continue its weapons testing program and. going

back in some cases on some of these elements that have led to a thaw and so i think signaling that they are not backing down from this pressure is a big part of their plan to try to bring north korea to the negotiating table on these bigger issues. josh smith with the latest from seoul thank you so much. thank you. a hong kong court has sentenced pro-democracy activist joshua wang to three months in jail wang was found guilty of contempt of court relating to his role in the twenty fourteen pro-democracy umbrella movement street demonstrations it is the second time that he has been imprisoned over the rallies he pleaded guilty to defying an order to leave a protest camp and ahead of the hearing one said that he had no regrets about his involved. let's bring in correspondent florence she joins us via skype from hong kong this morning welcome to you why is joshua wong

being jailed for a second time for his role in these protests. well of course the answer depends on who you ask the question because if you ask the court it's very clear he will be sent to jail for every single or often is that they can be trying to. get you off in this case and you know the people ignored injunction back in november twenty fourth t. guts when police were starting to try and clean. occupied sites that were part of the umbrella movement and mancow was one of the sites that were blocked by thousands of people who were protestors and it was the first major site that to release decided to actively dismantle so for this issue just no one is among sixteen activists to either pleaded guilty or were found guilty of the same oftens and the high court judge who handed the judgment twenty five joshua longs

involvement on that day as deep and extensive interesting to note that the judge handed down an even more severe jail term to a lesser known or activists corder reffo one who's the vice chairman of the rape ready court opposition party called the league of social democrats and he was given for going to half months in prison and then the fourth you know there is many students who also took part in the same incident received suspended jail sentences now if you ask joshua you will see of course that this amounts to political persecution that the government and the police are using the court of public home to discourage young people to take part in such events and to become committed engaged in the future from congo. and in fact joshua had some words to say about his sentencing laws i just want to play it briefly and then get your reaction to his words. because of our body but they come out oh i really hope they do it

is different we need to face the prison sentence and presto going you know the fight for democracy and if you're right you're. a defiant statement there a spirit seemingly undeterred is him saying that the umbrella movement will continue to fight for democracy but florence if we speak about this realistically is it possible if most of its leaders are tied up in court cases right now. you know well it's important actually to zero to mention about all these court cases that you know we each piece of strategy then was still party and most of these young people surely see disobedience and passive resistance to them being sent to jail ease consistent with what they expect the almost except this has a price to be to get that message across but obviously it is

a struggle at the moment there is another long shot cases implying the pro-democracy leaders and activists but for example. coming out of by election they have people in reserve and they will have announced that they will use that number three the younger of next cho plastic changi joining us via skype from hong kong thank you. let's get a quick check now of some other stories making news around the world colombia's military says that one of its helicopters has crashed killing all ten people on board officer said that the chopper was on a routine mission when it came down near the north and town of so go via they ruled out an attack as the cause of the crash. a military court in thailand has dropped charges against an eighty four year old historian who has been accused of insulting the country's monarchy so locks of harasta question whether a national myth about a dual fought five hundred years ago by

a king on the back of an elephant have really happened the court said that there was not enough evidence to proceed. u.s. president donald trump's former chief strategist steve bannon has refused to answer lawmakers questions about the trump campaign's alleged contacts with russia bad and was testifying in a closed door session before the house intelligence committee when bannon declined to answer their questions they issued a subpoena in an attempt to force him to talk but bannon then reportedly said he was under instructions from the white house not to discuss certain subjects let's hear what a democratic lawmaker at the hearing had to say this was effectively a gag order by the white house preventing this witness from answering. almost any question concerning his time in the transition or the administration and many questions even after he left the ministration this was effectively a gag order by the white house preventing this witness from answering. almost any

question concerning his time in the transition or the administration and many questions even after he left the ministration. and that was democratic congressman adam schiff speaking a short while ago when tyson barker now joining us where he is program director at the aspen institute germany here in berlin welcoming good morning to you tyson thank you was this a gag order and disband and have a legal basis for not talking but i mean basically what benon is trying to do is curry favor with the white house by employing the same technique technique that jeff sessions used when appearing before the intelligence committees in the spring saying not necessarily that he's invoking executive privilege but some of the questions were all of the questions really could touch on areas that are fall under the scope of executive privilege and therefore that he shouldn't answer them so he's throwing up obstacles to questions provided by the house intelligence committee it's angered members on both sides of the aisle including republicans who

have said that they're going to try to push this even further of course that same executive privilege will not apply to the subpoenas being issued by the grand jury being conducted by robert and i want talk a little bit more about that because of course as you mentioned there are multiple investigations that are underway when it comes to miller's investigation this grand jury subpoena about the possible links between trump's associates and russia and really trying to get to the bottom of that alleged relationship if bannon refused to speak to lawmakers about that. what would happen if he were to refuse to do the same for muller subpoena i mean that would be a possibility he i mean basically all legal minds are saying but he has to basically be up front and frank with the with the grand jury otherwise he could be held under contempt it could have criminal implications so he's going to need to he cannot obstruct justice he could not impede the investigation the grand jury is going to have to answer the other question is really you know executive privilege really applies to executives it does not apply you know presidents in the oval

office does not apply to campaigns it does not apply to what has happened since he left his position asked. and so to the president you know he is continuing or he was continuing until the release of fire and fury to provide some outside counsel to the president that if that book is to be believed the president relies on a lot of outside counsel none of which falls under the umbrella of executive privilege so there are a lot of people who could be questioned in an intelligence committee setting as well let's talk a little bit more about those other people who have been questioned because we know that when it comes to investigation at least that this is the first time that he has issued this grand jury subpoena to a member of trump's inner circle in order to get information all the others you know have basically had a meeting with him in his in his office and his staff what does that tell you about what bannon might now and where muller is at this point in the investigation i mean we're all kind of reading this from the outside but if we look at the forensics of

where the investigation is headed we know a couple of things one we're getting much more advanced along the path towards trump and his immediate inner circle you know they are clearly building whatever case they're trying to build whether or not they're going to exonerate the president or indict the president either way they're building toward some kind of conclusion and we're seeing that by the interviews being conducted in the inner circle the second thing is if this is related to collusion or you know ben was not there he was not there in the incident that we know about in june twenty sixth team were junior met with russian lawyers to discuss information that the russians per had on hillary clinton the dirt that they had in her but he was there for so it was a cover up if there was a cover up he was there for the firing of jim called me he was there for admission that that had to do with the russian investigation he was there for the drafting of the response when that information was leaked about the dungeon your meeting on the plane in the summer of twenty sixteen so he has a lot of information maybe not about the crime itself per se if there was

a crime but about the cover up if there was a cover up so there are so many different directions that this investigation can go anywhere a lot of size and scope a lot of discretion that has basically at this point as the special can write well thank you so much tyson parker for joining us to shed a little bit more light on what is happening in washington thank you. bitcoin the trip to currency that's divided the financial world has been in freefall in the last twenty four hours tumbling more than twenty five percent it's being described as a bloodbath bitcoin fell below eleven thousand edging close to its six week low rumors that the south korean and chinese governments could ban trading in trip to currencies and many of the coins know where the e.u. is also reported to be preparing new rules that would no longer allow cryptocurrency oldest to remain anonymous when they convert chris to points to euro's. something i'll definitely want to discuss with our man at the front of

stock exchange daniel corporate daniel i mean critics have been a warning for a long time that the big corn really was nothing but a bubble ready to burst is this the crash that they were warning off or is there something else at play. also answer the question monika let's really have a look at some very interesting numbers just yesterday the bitcoin was dropping more than seventeen percent that's the biggest loser in the last three years also other cryptocurrency such as theory or ripple or car drug or they all went down between twenty and thirty percent according to market analysts sorry those are really lots of numbers but really outstanding i think at the beginning of january the total a money estimated in crypto currency was at a level of eight hundred twenty two billion dollars within one week more than two hundred and thirty billion u.s. dollars were lost so analysts are clearly concerned they will be thinking that there is a link to those sanction that we might see from south korea and china and yes i

really think this is really the first bitcoin crash that we are seeing but still with lots of potential even to lose more money because right now we are still at a level of about nine thousand dollars now and daniel just briefly if you could i mean only a month ago analysts were talking about bitcoin becoming a mainstream commodity what's happened to that notion well that didn't really pay off i mean there was really this hype at those big exchanges in chicago c m e c m o e but it really has kong down it really seems that investors don't really like that in this environment it is regulated there are certain trading hours and so this also there is gone for the moment monica all right daniel corbin from said thank you so much for this. well tax havens are on the e.u.'s agenda today the block is preparing to remove several countries from its recently published

blacklist of tax havens seventeen countries were named in the list published in december and many of them were small islands in the caribbean and in the pacific eight countries are now expected to be removed from the list next week after making new commitments that's what the e.u. is saying they include south korea one of the world's largest economies the united arab emirates one of the largest arab economies and panama long a haven for offshore accounts now critics say that the e.u. is backtracking by allowing the countries off the list so soon and earlier i spoke to a whore shadow nair e.u. policy advisor on inequality and taxation for oxfam international and i asked her just what those two commitments are well i would really wish i could answer to your questions where the problem with this blacklisting process is that turns france is lacking and we do not really know what kind of commitments other countries making

to be have the list it was already the case with what we called the great list for all countries which could have been blacklisted but just committed to reforms the problem that we never dared to have a chance to so those commitments and i'm afraid it will be exactly the same for those eight countries which are soon going to be removed from the u. blacklist all right so even if those commitments are really really great is there going to be some sort of control mechanism in order to check if they really going to change their tax schemes. well we hope so we're always hopeful but the problem again is that if we don't know what the commitments are to whom are really relying on to know if they're really fulfilling their commitments we're just relying on the willingness of you member states including some e.u. tax havens to make that judgment whether the commitments i've been fulfilled or not that's a bit worrying that's why we're asking for more transparency regarding the government's commitments below what you just mentioned sort of evil tax havens i mean how does

the tax system the various countries actually fare in comparison to those well known tax havens well if you talk about the impact of tech sevens on e.u. countries and their tax revenues we believe the e.u. tax havens are way more impact than the tiny islands the u.s. been able to pressure to commit to reforms so what we're asking is not that they stop asking to other countries to reform but that they also look we've in the you to also investigate their own countries and to ask in the terrier's tax haven such as looks number island and never turns on marta to also reform now i mean this blacklist that we're talking about with those seventeen countries it was only released in december now it's january what was the point. well it's true it's going very very fast i've never seen such

a fast decision on tax issue that european level so far some of the countries we believe never really deserve their place on this directly such a country has moved what is a friend of a country has moved on the tax revenues but it's true that for those we're wondering why going so fast and also all those countries will just be moved to the greatest so it's not really that they are compliant is just that they're making promises at the same time if the u.s. able to go so fast then we're also wondering should their sources other countries that just adopt new we're firms and i'm thinking for example about the us of just the very worrying tax reform or i. don't either from oxfam international speaking to us from brussels thank you so much for your views thank you. i don't want to sarah now and the humanitarian crisis in syria is not going away any time soon absolutely monica that's because the fighting still continues and we want to turn now to one area where the fighting is underway because the

saudi regime forces have stepped up attacks on the country's last rebel held stronghold thousands of fighters and civilians fled there after the fall of aleppo back in two thousand and sixteen but intense fighting has once again pushed people to flee and aid agencies warn that a massive humanitarian disaster could lie ahead. rebel counter attacks against the syrian regime of. president bashar al assad's forces have stepped up their assault on this last opposition stronghold in the north of the country in recent weeks. against them this coalition of generalities and moderates don't stand much of a chance. troops backed by russian airpower launched intensified attacks on northern hamas and southeast about a month ago. that's led to the biggest wave of migration we've ever seen.

the one. hundred thousand people have already fled the fighting in southern this is raised fears of yet another humanitarian crisis in syria we're extremely concerned that amid this escalation in fighting up to two million people may be at risk this is an area where tens of thousands of people have already been displaced and the ongoing fighting could provoke even further displacement of civilians. that means more suffering the regime's campaign has included attacks on hospitals according to the u.n. those so far left unscathed ill equipped and doctors. are exhausted. there are so many injured people we can't take care of them all. no hospital in the world

could treat the number of patients that come here after their neighborhood has been bombed. it is a war zone and that's all they russia iran and turkey designated it as a deescalation zone last year more than a million people have fled here from other former rebel controlled areas fighters as well as civilians but they're no longer safe the syrian regime and russia say they're targeting terrorists but political analysts disagree. the syrian government wants to bring all the remaining rebel held areas under control and wipe out the opposition that doesn't care what happens to them he wants to take control of the whole country before peace talks began. just a few weeks ago this market in it live was bustling. that was a sense of normality. but that save it now. going to be

a stall holders have nothing to do anymore no one dares come here because of the asterix people are staying indoors she is gone but after seven years of war in syria peace is no closer it appears that assad wants victory at any price. let's get you caught up now on some of the results from round two of the australian open in melbourne fifteen year old marta cost you one her second round match in straight sets the teenage sensation is the youngest player to reach the third round of the grand slam tournament in over twenty eight years meanwhile world number two caroline wozniacki produced a great escape in her match rallying from five one in the third set to be croatian yana fet and in the men's singles joe wilford tsonga squeaked through to the next round after a five set villar against dennis shop over the off. on meantime seven years ago

formula one driver robert partially severed his arm while taking part in a rally race in his spare time his career in top level motor sport looked over but after years of rehabilitation he is back in his beloved sport of luck. robert crew but so was one of the most promising young formula one drivers but after almost losing his arm in a two thousand and eleven rally accident he's painstakingly worked his way back now he's williams' reserve driver which means you fill an integral brief a team a car race it's not quite the job you wanted but still a major achievement but you know for me it's a great pleasure to be back in the form of course my target will still become a race driver but there is a great feeling for milan has been the my biggest part of my life russian rookie served the starting drive ahead of the pole but williams still expect to make

a major contribution. where we know the robot is a legend really kind of a fantastic career in formula one before he's unfortunately only here. to use reserves but more importantly to use a development driver qubits or already has warmed to his name from two thousand and eight there's still a chance it might not be his last. a quick reminder now the top story that we've been following for you here at new foreign ministers from twenty countries have agreed to maintain pressure on north korea in an attempt to end its nuclear program u.s. secretary of state warning that the threat of war is growing china did not attend the summit in canada but criticized what it called a cold war mentality. you're up to date on the news i'm sarah kelly in berlin thanks so much for watching i'll see you again at the top of the.

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