this is deja vu news live from berlin investigators try to determine the extent of a cyber attack on germany's foreign and defense ministries this after russian hackers reportedly broke into government networks housing sensitive data the same group as they also have launched previous attacks on the german parliament and the us democratic party also coming up. u.s. president donald trump loses one of his longest serving most trusted aides hope x. is resigning from her job as white house communications director. and the last

article of a murder journalist alleges feelings of the highest level of slovakia's government we'll talk about his explosive claims and how they are now shaking off the slovakian politics. also on the show bands no more the international olympic committee left stoping ban on russia does this mean the world is now ready to trust russia that. i'm brian thomas a warm welcome to the show we start out here in germany where authorities have revealed that government computers were hit in a cyber attack as a hacking group infiltrated the foreign and defense ministries officials are trying to determine the exact extent of the breach sources are claiming a hacking group with links to the russian government broke into the networks it tax

were discovered in december but were only made public now. what is germany's strategy when dealing with difficult partners like russia lots of confidential information on that topic flow through the foreign ministry in berlin now the government has confirmed that hackers breached the foreign ministry's data network though it's not clear which data they targeted or whether it was sensitive. it is clear that this problem of cyber attacks on critical infrastructure by unfriendly states and powers is a really serious security problem we have to improve significantly in this area few . in twenty fifteen hackers infiltrated the network of the german parliament at the time it was thought to be the work of russian hackers who siphoned off data from the offices of german lawmakers back then germany's federal office for security said that the m.p.'s network wasn't linked to that of the parliament and was

therefore not as well protected as the ministries but hackers have now found holes in the ministries network suggesting that the attack was likely highly professional the german interior ministry has called for calm saying that it was an isolated attack but there's been criticism over the government's cyber security policy. i think that cyber security is neglected in the coalition agreement and i think it will be a key topic for us in the coming years. there's a blind spot that we have to fill urgently where we have to step up our game and where all our attention must go to. the interior ministry says the incident will be treated as high priority and designed significant resources. will those resources cover up that blind spot our security correspondent bob involve the mark is with us now actually a very serious situation interior ministry confirming the breach saying the

situation is under control what exactly are authorities doing well first of all they have to contain this virus now this they have to see the full extent how deep actually these hackers went into the data networks of the government we always have to bear in mind that what we're talking about is basically the heart of the i.t. infrastructure of germany this is the network that is used to communicate between the different ministries in germany so this is a very different very important network and yet of course authorities do everything as the theory of ministry said they put this as high priority high priority and pull all the resources in there ok so communications between the defense and foreign ministries was potentially compromised you know and that over a period of one year you have to ask yourself how is that possible. yes of course

this is it could have happened or it could have started already a year ago when you talked to authorities in the cyber defense they also often talk about the potential of time bombs so that sometimes hackers plays a meld where in the system but that doesn't start functioning right away it might be in the system without actually extracting for example data that might happen later so this could be one example explanation but still it was discovered in december and. why was the public informed only now three months after it was discovered ok reheard there are security experts admitting that germany has a blind spot you know considering the apparent level of sophistication that russian hackers have it is germany prepared to confront that type of professionalism. the simple answers obviously not otherwise this couldn't have happened but then you have to ask yourself these attacks happened in very highly

capable countries in europe also in the united states so who is really prepared to deal with these highly sophisticated attacks from russia russia puts a lot of effort in these groups a lot of know how but also a lot of resources in terms of time and money so these are very sophisticated compare come pains but then also i mean there is criticism that germany is not doing enough particularly since the attack on the bundestag there was a lot of effort put in germany on cyber security on i t security and cyber defense but this to do more not enough was done maybe and there's also the human factor all of these attacks mostly also go go along with behavior of people that are not prepared and this is on top of the problems in the systems thanks so much for that

update or security correspondent fabienne fun to mark. i will miss having her by my side those are the words of president trump paying tribute to his outgoing communications director hope picks now hicks was the fourth person to head the president's communication team and is the latest in a string of high profile departures from the white house excess her resignation has nothing to do with the testimony she gave to a congressional panel probing alleged russian meddling in the twenty six thousand presidential election on tuesday. let's go now to washington and did a few correspond carolyn and carolyn what was behind hope picks unexpected departure. well hope a resignation as communications director can really all of us have in here in washington but this is still just an announcement from the white house departure is going to be said sometime in the next few weeks but of course this comes in

a time where he was making a lot of headlines here because she deny to speak to the press about her role in the russian going again and then of course i can see them to leave the an ounce ment of her resignation happens after she testified for nine hours in the house committee of intelligence so one could assume that these two incidents the testimony and the resignation are in no way linked to each other but this is only an assumption that the official statement of president says that topix took this decision because she is pursuing other opportunities also the white house is sure that this was not related to her testimony but also to put this in context this may also be true because according to the latest reports that i have from here from from washington this was not a big surprise to her colleagues in the white house she is a person who always wanted to stay behind the scenes and here in washington d.c.

this was impossible so apparently she hated this city and she never really made her home ok well she didn't stay behind the scenes when she told the house intelligence panel that she told quote white lawyers present trump because those statements have personal immigration's for. well one of the consequences of having said that is precisely our president apparently got angry at hague's after learning she had made it on to say to the house committee that she. also if she defined this only as a white lies and this is important because it's not any comment he we're talking about the house committee of intelligence which is investigating russia's meddling into the two thousand and sixteen election the company panel is investigating context between trump's campaign and russia but there are no further details yet about the role. played in the russian meddling.

ok now he was somewhat unconventional press secretary if you come to play so prominent role in the president's inner circle well yes the interesting thing about hicks is that she she was not a celebrity which is quite unusual considering that she was one of the close advisors and longest serving aide she also wasn't related at all to politics she got this job by way of. before that she had worked for a p.r. agency making war. and before that she was a model so this is indeed quite unusual girly boy for us in washington this morning thanks very much girlie. now for some of the other stories making news this hour students have returned to the florida high school that was the site of a masher thing this comes two weeks after

a former student used an assault style weapon to kill seventeen students and teachers the incident has intensified narrative's debate over gun control the new push for measures to limit access to weapons. tempers flared during a televised russian presidential debate among president vladimir putin's seven challengers opposition candidate to senior subject doused a rival with water after he insulted her putin who's set to win easily was not and he's due to give an address in parliament in just a few hours that's expected to shed light on how his fourth term might look. well this russian election comes at a time of strained political relations between germany and russia but commercial links have been growing stronger that despite years of sanctions for us that is right brian and the pressure from the business community is increasing to relax these sanctions that were imposed on russia most almost four years ago after it's

an exaggeration of the crimean peninsula now the issue will be topping the agenda at a conference that the german. russian chamber of commerce is organizing in berlin today with high level political and business representatives in attendance trade between russia and germany is increasing sharply again after having dropped significantly last year germany exported goods worth a total of nineteen point seven billion euros to russia some twenty five percent up on twenty sixteen russia in return was able to goose its exports to germany by twenty percent to twenty one billion euros mainly in raw materials now the sanctions banned the sale of weapons to russia as well as the export of dual use technologies exports of energy related technologies and equipment to russia are subject to license and on top of that e.u. lenders are not allowed to give loans to russia's five largest state owned banks now a short while ago i asked from the association of german chambers of commerce why

sanctions needed to be scaled back if businesses apparently had adapted to them. if we ask business so then they are not confident with the sanctions that that's for sure for them sanctions are at the end of the day expenditures or no room for business so business volume has shrunk but never the less now and we are glad for that for the this experience is. back on the rise it's relaxing we are coming back but on the on the fields where there's sanctions on not effective because the sanctions only are to hit a part of the business relations and if we lost the business then they say ok expenditures we don't want sanctions that self-evident ok and now you're organizing this conference today regarding german and russian trade relations how do you think

the news of the hacking of german government institutions will impact this conference. this is a bad news there is no no. it wouldn't be responsible to be naive that there is. a really delicate political situation and maybe a situation where we have had from from russia but it's better to have at least. another world where we have business relations and this could maybe prevent. some players in the game not only between russia and germany from doing really even burst things so it's better to have relations in order to give the other side a signal that we are depending on each other like a fire of the association of german chambers of industry and commerce thank you for your time this morning you're welcome. police and protesters have once again

classed in athens a head of auctions of foreclosed residential properties banks are obligated to foreclose mortgages as part of greece's international bailout loan program demonstrators from the leftist popular unity party said the auctions are tantamount to stealing poor people's homes banks have repossessed many properties during years of austerity and increased taxation and in greece have been struggling to make ends meet the protests started in twenty sixteen now the government is introducing electronic auctions to bypass the protesters. and specter brian now and more on a terrorist attack that shocked germany right before christmas and twenty sixteen rather today kristoff german lawmakers are starting to look into exactly why authorities failed to prevent the deadly twenty sixteen christmas market attack here in berlin a total of twelve people were killed in that attack when

a failed asylum seeker drove a truck into a crowded holiday market in the city's center a towering play shot and killed the tunisian perpetrator four days later in a shoot out in the long after he alluded german police a special parliamentary committee will be investigating a series of police and security failures that allowed a suspect to stage a terrorist attack and escape the sea on december nineteenth twenty sixteen terrorist and nice amery steered a hijacked truck into a busy christmas market on berlin's bright child plants twelve people died and many are still suffering today from serious injuries. it was the first serious to haddest attack in germany but could it have been prevented a committee of inquiry is set to investigate this question in retrospect it is clear that security authorities knew a great deal about an ace amery they had already identified him as a threat one year before the attack they were aware of his drug trafficking his

phones were intercepted and his internet connections were being monitored in the state of north rhine-westphalia several officers were on his case am race asylum application was rejected although he should have left germany he remained when he was once briefly detained he could have been deported instead he was released and he changed his identity multiple times at the start of two thousand and sixteen the state criminal police office in berlin was informed that emery was on his way to the capital security officials knew that he was in contact with a terrorist cell of a radical islamist. they also knew that he sympathized with the islamic state and wanted to get a kalashnikov and we often visited the foo select mosque a meeting place for violence oriented salafist it was being observed but only from monday to friday despite the fact that amery counted as a leading potential threat he was only placed under surveillance by the state

police in the summer with bloody consequences how did security officials loose sight of a terrorist an answer to this question is not only important for germany but especially for the victims' loved ones. it's to slovakia now and the murder of a young investigative journalist there has sparked protests in the capital bravo about a thousand people turning out for a march organized by the conservative opposition party to honor the order young. and protest against political corruption the twenty seven year old was shot that is alongside his fiance. now shortly before his murder the news website he worked for published his last unfinished article and just hours after it hit the web its explosive claims triggered fallout at the very highest level of government. journalist john could see x. final story was the most explosive in his short career it may also have cost him his life the story details alleged links between the italian mafia and officials

working in the prime minister's office. it was published by his colleagues days after the bodies of his fiance martina over were found in there but his lover home . ninety nine percent convinced that the murder is connected with his writings about a link between italian mafia and slovakian politics. could see at story name two officials who have now resigned pending an investigation one of them. a chief advisor to the prime minister another. chair of the state security department both have denied any link to the killings prime minister robert fits so saying he was told us culver has cautioned against judging the pair without evidence he's offered a reward of one million euros for information about the murders slovakia's culture minister also resigned ashamed that something like this could happen in his country . for the. us culture minister i can't deal with the fact that the journalist was

killed during my term in office. in brussels european parliamentarians held a minute of silence to honor the journalists if government if it mean that's you know the truth with determination and didn't answer to anyone. the police to clear that he was almost surely killed to stop his investigation. incased could see x. grieving supporters want his work to be continued they marched in bratislava demanding safety for journalists and an end to corruption could see acts reporting may now have more impact on slovakia than he could have ever imagined. is that too optimistic or will his reporting continue on slovakia's political corruption joining us now from soccer's capital. is a bottle of us she's the editor in chief of the country's biggest daily newspapers marathon so much for being with us this morning at this time in our country's

history we've now seen resignations from the prime minister's office what is in yon could c.x. article published after his death that's shaking up this country he uncovered a network off company said the bill who will have links to drug these companies over the past decade have been i just want to say to you i got to if i could jump in the dragon to being the italian mafia ok if you continue please. and they have been accessing e.u. funding worth millions of euros so these people now have worth really like millions of euros and they were close to beatle who really work at the governmental office as your report masha and mr yes and he's had the ing the sec you really can't see off of this country and he's accessed seemed like top secret information and it

opens up the question how is it possible that he got security clearing and it really makes us journalists ask like r.v. a safe country if security clearance are even to people who have these close ties to two mafia he also pointed that yes continue please continue he asked yeah he also pointed that at the fact that that these these are not completely new information and even prime minister fits a core firm that bad the first story for example of which my my daily without the didn't bring anything what he shocked him completely but it means that these questions have been put on that they bill for a for a while and he hasn't given clear answers and since monday the they're waiting for his answers and and we haven't been given these answers crockery flying like

what they're all of these people are how how is it possible that they have been hired for the job they are doing it with these these background ok is that pressure going to continue from your newspaper on the prime minister's office on robert feed so that top politicians have possibly been working with the drug a have the italian mafia. yes we'll continue asking questions and that was our common man for young that even accompanied not only the story but all the stories and all the information he looked into like reveal really continue and trying to do finishes were today at the doors of chiefs in chiefs of the most critical media our meeting if you have a meaning and we'll discuss how to continue and how to make sure that the finished his reporting and not laugh at you know to be silenced never worked here really

started out so we will continue asking questions and i don't think that the resignation of these two people from the government off base solves the problem it's only like the first step it's a symbolic us that and the prime minister cannot saw the issue simply by the fact that that they step down and i think that also up yes sorry you're going to bother finishers office. i think also public pressure will continue there will be and other rally on friday i myself will speak and other journalists will speak out and they really really stress the importance of critical reporting critical journalistic voice for maintaining democratic institutions in the country bob doubled over energy for the country's biggest newspaper snare thank you so very much and and good luck to you with your investigation.

the international olympic committee says russia's olympic has been lifted with quote immediate effect despite two russian athletes failing doping tests at the games the country was reinstated after all remaining tests came back negative russia was of course banned after revelations of state sponsored doping at the sochi games twenty fourteen. competed is neutrals in pyongyang chan which is on tuesday president vladimir putin on at the miss russian patriots. the country's a limp a green statement means the next time any of these athletes win a limb pick goals up the podium hearing that from once more putin keen to move on from the dating scandal in total russia's ban lasted less than three months the i.o.c. has moved on surprisingly welcomed by russians and then picked committee for the. last ten years to sure that issue today's decision of the i.o.c.

is one of the most important for us because the russian olympic committee is once again completely reinstated in its rights and is now a completely full fledged member of the olympic family. excuse me. it was revelations from this man gregory roth chen cause that it helped lead to the ban of the former moscow direct the whistle on a state backed plot to cheat doping tests at the twenty fourteen sochi games as a result clean athletes from russia were only allowed to take part in pyongyang under the olympic flag the red white and blue kept firmly out of sight. and though two of them including alexander crucial minutes skinny failed drug tests while in south korea the i.o.c. agreed on sunday to lift the ban if no of the athletes tested positive they didn't and russia's reinstatement was complete. now of our top stories this hour germany is trying. to stand. on its defense and foreign

ministries a russian hacker group is believed to have broken into the german government network it's been accused of previous attempts on american and german political parties. president loses one of his longest serving and most trusted aides hope is resigning from her job as white house communications. can always get. from the apple store could you access all the latest news from around the world push notifications for breaking news you can also use. photos and videos. this is the. thomas for the entire news team thanks so much for being with us.

to. enter the

conflict zone the government of sudan is often accused of being one of the world's greatest violates is a few one rights just as often it denies the charges the mother who conveys many of those denials as the country's foreign minister ibrahim gun dog who is my guest here in music does he care if anyone believes. in sixty minutes p.w. . i. am not proud of him i will not succeed in dividing us out not succeed in taking the people off the streets because we are tired of his dictatorship. taking the stand global news that matters. made for minds. keeps about that. it's all about the stones

inside. it's all about george chance to discover the world from different perspectives. join us in sponsored by distinctive instagram others at g.w. stories new topics each week on instagram. hello and welcome to tomorrow today coming up. the science of the baby genetics kazakhstan leaves its monk on the d.n.a. . exercising your genes explaining the benefits of physical activity. and safety friends new technology is making cycling sites us. from our experience to alan.