this is you get your news live from berlin a forensic mystery in the u.k. and next russian spy novels critically ill police decontaminate the site where he was found unconscious after exposure to an unknown substance near a bird sings a former intelligence official we've also spied on russia for britain. also coming up south korea's most senior delegation in a decade meets with the north korean leader kim jong un positive signals coming from those meetings about the global you ask the ongoing war. really to get through to serious eastern grew to the bombs come to the mission should we talk to an aide

organizer who says it's the worst shelling seems of the cease fire was to take us back. i'm sorry so much got there good to have you with us investigators in england are retracing the steps of a former russian spy who was reported to be critically ill after being exposed to an unknown substance media reports identify him as a circus cripple who's lived in the u.k. since a spy swap in two thousand and ten but authorities remain tight lipped they've only confirmed that two people a man and a woman were found unconscious sunday on a park bench in the southern city of salzburg. a crime scene that could be straight from a bond movie. police stoned hazmat suits as they decontaminate the street where the

former russian spy a group pal and a woman had collapsed the substance that has made them critically ill hasn't been identified both or a teaser treating it as a major incident and have even closed a nearby restaurant as a precaution a passive by said it looked like the pan had taken drugs. on the bench there was a couple. an older guy and a younger go she was sort of let in on him it looked like she passed out maybe he was doing some strange hand movements looking up to the sky. i felt anxious i felt like i should step in but to be honest they looked so outspent i thought even if i did step in i wasn't sure how i could help emergency services rushed those people to soulsby hospital where they remain in intensive care police also guarding the former spy's home as the investigation continues but.

this has not been declared as a counterterrorism incident and we would urge people not to speculate however i must emphasize that we retain an open mind and we continue to review this position the focus at this moment in trying to stop what has caused these people to become critically ill and we are working with partners to prioritize his diagnosis. sixty six year old circus group paul was granted refuge in the u.k. after spy swap in two thousand and ten. peepin sentenced in russia to thirteen years in prison for spying for britain let's get the very latest on the story now with our correspondents beth moss in london and erin tilton in moscow good to see both but let's start with you or tell us more about what has happened to this a former russian spy and the woman that he was with on that park bench in salisbury . well we know that the police are treating this very seriously and

although they are saying it's this point in time not a terrorism incident they also appearing to the public to come forward with information and everything is sealed off basically it reminds people here in the u.k. of what happened in london with alexander litvinenko this other perilous being drawn somebody kremlin critic who was poisoned here here in london and at this point in time there is no official of official analogy or the police are not saying that it's got anything to do with russia or you know the that is something that they could link the kremlin to but of course this is what people will be wanting to find out more about people are speculating indeed berkut erin coming to you we saw a report a little bit about this former russian agent but what more can you tell us about. well you know paul is that he was actually over the course of thirty years an agent

for the g.r.u. that's the russian military intelligence service in two thousand and four he was arrested and accused of being a double agent for the british secret intelligence services and those were allegations he actually admitted to it seems that seriously paul had become a double agent sometime in the ninety's he admitted to taking money in exchange for turning over information that expose the identity of several dozen russian spies working abroad and he's also said to have informed on some of his partners here directly in moscow now admitting to those crimes did land him in jail he was sentenced to thirteen years we heard there in the report i know he only ended up serving around four or five of those years he'd been sentenced in prison he was eventually exchanged in two thousand and ten part of one of the largest spy exchanges that's taken place since the cold war he was actually exchange as part of a group. involving the actually where anna chapman the infamous russian sleeper

agent who had been sent the u.s. was also a part of now and since then we're told that he's lived a rather quiet life in england actually issue in the spotlight and just trying to stay out of the public eye even as police are urging caution bereket this is an unusual case how is england reacting. well of course the newspapers and old media are full of speculation and people are thinking about alexander litvinenko who died in two thousand and six not far from where i am here in central london he was poisoned and there was a trail of polonium all across central london basically that police were able to trace he was somebody who had worked for the russian intelligence services he had done time to be a critic of the kremlin and sort asylum here in london but he was poisoned and two thousand and six and later an inquiry ruled that he was probably ordered by the kremlin and by blood to be killed now we also know that buzz feed which is a u.k.

news outlet has had an investigation recently and they said as many as fourteen dead here in the u.k. are linked by u.s. intelligence services to russia so speculation about a lot more interference but i have to stress that this is nothing that is official it's an investigation by media and it is speculation at this point in time what about in russia erin what's the reaction been there well so far with this latest incident we've only heard one comment come from official sources the speaker of the kremlin said that it was a tragic incident said that the criminal also had absolutely no information regarding what actually went on in england he also said that the english authorities haven't actually reached out to russia in any way shape or form in terms of cooperation in terms of the investigation however he also stressed that

the group the kremlin and russian authorities would be open to working together to find whoever was behind this latest poisoning attempt all right our correspondent erin a tilton in moscow in london thank you both. now a south korean envoy has returned from talks in north korea where a leader kim jong un welcomed delegates from the south of the first time since he took office in two thousand and eleven the south korean delegates visit with aimed at easing a standoff over north korea's nuclear ambitions john young state media quoted kim john as saying he wants to advance ties with the south there has been speculation that better relations on the korean peninsula could open a path for washington and pyongyang to discuss the north's nuclear program correspondent jason strother s. been monitoring the talks for us but says obstacles remain to bringing the u.s. and north korea to the same table both north korea and u.s.

are sitting very far apart from each other right now the trumpet ministration has said that it will not engage in negotiations with pyongyang unless the regime is committed to denuclearization meanwhile north korea has said while it's willing to hold dialogue with the u.s. it's not going to get rid of its nukes so unless some sort of compromise is reached i don't see how negotiations could go ahead right now. all right now to some other stories making news around the world uncertainty is mounting in italy after sunday's elections failed to establish a majority for any single party leaders of both the euro skeptic five star movement and the anti immigrant league or now vying to rule the country they're on likely coalition partners and forming a government could take weeks of negotiations with other parties. officials in the u.s. state of florida have passed a bill to create new restrictions on rice's sales and allow some teachers to carry guns in schools for the move comes in response to

a deadly school shooting in the state last month walker born in the us a senior u.n. official is said nian mars ethnic cleansing of range of muslims was ongoing that after being visited a refugee camps in bangladesh is cox's bizarre district hundreds of thousands of for him to have fled to bangladesh since last august and me and maher forced to launch forces launch a crackdown on their communities. japan has appointed its first female commander of a navy squadron it's a move famed at encouraging more women to join the country self-defense forces. was inaugurated into a new role on board japan's largest or ship should be commanding this water and of one thousand of which only thirty are women. the last twenty four hours have been the deadliest for civilians in the syrian rebel held on clover of eastern ghouta since the recently established un backed cease fire at least sixty eight people have been killed and several hundred wounded as government war planes resume

bombarding the enclave the russian military is now offered rebels and their families safe passage out of the area but a rebel spokesman has dismissed as calling it a policy of quote forced displacement on monday and aid convoy was allowed into the area but deliveries have been suspended due to continued military action. and let's get more with on macdonald from save the children in the jordanian capital amman alan thank you very much for joining us at the red cross says as we said it has to halt aid delivery to east because of violence but at least some supplies could be delivered how significant is this with it's a positive step in that it's the first aid delivery we've seen for quite a long time but it's it's more when they what's needed is the aid the caribbean yesterday is going to reach a few thousand people there are three hundred fifty thousand at least civilians in these to goods or who desperately need they say. so what came in yesterday is

include some food supplies that will last for a few weeks but it didn't include a lot of medical equipment and supplies medicine supplies that are vitally needed for sick children inside the area what do we know about how children in this district have been affected by this conflict. a lot of the children that we've spoken to. and their partners in the area working with. pretty much living underground. shelter get mines in underground basements they sometimes go to school in underground schools it's too dangerous for them to come out because of all the bombing and that there was a brief improvement for a few hours a day with in the last week. with the russian announcement but it was just a couple of hours a day of the bombing has continued throughout the rest of the day the president continued and in the past couple of days we've seen the worst fighting in civilian

deaths since. the un security council authorizes the. cease fire in the area which just hasn't happened so it's been getting steadily worse for children and they're also very well. child malnutrition rates that we see in these two groups are of the worst that we've ever seen in the syria crisis. people desperately need food and medicine what does this mean in terms of aid deliveries allen is it safe enough to consider sending in more convoys. i think a lot of it all depends on what with security situation happens in the next few days at the moment there's been a. steady bombing shelling yesterday the u.n. . convoy that went to syria and had to leave early before it even unloaded a lot of the trucks because shelling started the start it really depends on whether the cease fire announcement is actually respected which so far just hasn't been are

and save the children partners in eastern groups are providing some distributions or blanket certain. shelter kits for people who are very new to this place to meet her months after fighting but it's very very small scale and a lot of it's i'm pretty the charts of the distributions like that but it's just not possible because it's it's too dangerous and even. aid organizations offices and trucks during the distributions are. all right alan mcdonald from the save the children joining us from the jordanian capital amman alan thank you very much thank you. hundreds of thousands of syrians have fled the civil war in their country and come to germany to find refuge many still have relatives back in their war torn homeland he met some syrians living here in berlin whose family members are stuck in the besieged areas of eastern ghouta yasser so honey and his friends are from east ghouta the exchange updates from their relatives in this berlin cafe their

smartphones bring them the sights and the sounds of the bombardment. i had to shut my eyes it was she horrible the sooner you get even worse everyone here has extended family who suffered in the war you know for the two or three days underground without food or water. since the telephone network in east ghouta is unreliable relatives communicate mostly through recorded messages but sometimes they get a direct connection. oh you're doing my nephew. terrible uncle for you today the army is getting closer this man's nephew deserted the syrian army and says he faces certain death if the army recapture his village since the outbreak of the revolution seven years ago yasser saadi has been helping his besieged relatives in the scooter by sending money whenever he can job

a syrian kurd is a key link in moving money from germany to syria he insisted on meeting us in this park rather than in the cafes where he usually meets his customers since east ghouta has been cut off many syrians in germany have been using underground networks to support their proceeds relatives financially. the regime has told the streets of eastern ghouta points out everywhere. wants to give one hundred euros to his mother all siblings comes away with just fifty or seventy five because everyone manning the checkpoints once a share of the money. arab world media has tried to rally support for east ghouta. knows it's only a matter of time before the syrian army recaptures the city he hopes his family and the rest of the civilian population will survive the fighting and that there won't be massacres after the city falls to him the struggle for

a free and democratic syria is all but dead now the only victory is survival. right after some business news now and donald trump's talk of tariffs is that drawing fire from his own party cat and sponsor me in the rather public confrontation house speaker paul ryan and other republican allies of president donald trump pleaded with him monday to back away from his threatened international terrorists which they fear could spark a dangerous trade war with public and congressional leaders even suggested they may attempt to block the tariffs but trump remains adamant and retaught says we are not backing down all this comes as the u.s. canada and mexico are attempting to renegotiate the nuff the trade deal which could also be impacted by the dispute over tariffs. the nafta partners were all smiles in mexico city but then the u.s.

repeated its warning it could walk away from the long standing free trade agreement . as president. we hope for a successful completion of these talks and we would prefer three way tripartite agreement that proves impossible we are prepared by little basis if agreement can be resolved because there was clear anger at trump's new tariffs and a warning that there was more than just trade at stake. and canada believes that all of these restrictive trade tariffs on canadian steel and aluminum are absolutely unacceptable. it is wrong to see trade with canada as a threat to the national security of the united states. move. it from a stance is worrying not just trading partners but members of his own republican party like house speaker paul ryan they've pleaded with him to back down but the

president is adamant. those and i don't think you have a trade or actually i don't think try to predict and i don't think you're going to have a treat when. we think it may be trump's idea of a tough opening gambit the art of the deal but for now his tariffs threats of worried allies and corporate leaders like. spectacular sportscar concepts and drafts of what the future will look like drawing in customers at the geneva motor show there are plenty of you vehicles to choose from including the new audi a six and spite of all the chrome paint and horse power the show is being overshadowed by the ongoing diesel scandal as well as the possible ban of diesel cars in germany also the impending trade war between the us and the e.u. . this folks wagon is supposed to be the car of the future the completely electric eye division has a range of six hundred fifty kilometers no steering wheel no console this car is

fully autonomous it's scheduled to be on the market in twenty twenty two but then it will have a steering wheel. the id vision is still in its concept phase at the present the specter of punitive tariffs and a possible trade war with the us is ruining almost everyone's mood so they come in and if it's not that easy to ruin my mood it just comes as a surprise for decades we've been investing in globalization we have worldwide contracts if someone is of the opinion that this is no longer the right way then we have to have a discussion about it we had v.w. will analyze the situation and react accordingly. when the north winning instead of . last year germany exported over twenty billion dollars worth of cars to the us punitive tariffs would hit german car makers hard still b.m.w. mercedes and folks wagon have u.s.

factories with more than ten thousand employees. if i look at the german car industry we have invested heavily in the past years in the us we have built up new jobs a lot of new jobs we are exploiting from germany into the u.s. almost the same amount of cars as we are exporting cars from the us in other countries but in spite of all the saber rattling there is some understanding for the american side here in geneva after all the united states only imposes a two point five percent import tariff on foreign cars at the moment the e.u. on the other hand exact said ten percent import tariff on american vehicles sold in the european union auto experts think a parity in import tariffs could bring a relaxation of tensions in the transit lactic relationship. cross over to our correspondent john l. donilon who is in geneva for us to now in the report we had a rather calm v.w.

bosses everybody in geneva so relaxed about the tariffs. no there have been quite a range of reactions here at the geneva motor show regarding the punitive tariffs it's actually a big cloud hanging over the whole affair now these reactions range from dismissiveness to indignation to all out concerned that's why the future of free trade may be in trouble here now dismissiveness of course because it's not clear how donald trump would actually enact this if it came to pass whether his own party would allow him whether that would not result in destroying his own home industry and indignation of course because a lot of european carmakers as we saw in the report there have created a lot of jobs in the u.s. market but of course there is a real concern that the tit for tat action here that's dominated the discourse so far will continue to escalate and that's going to create real problems for the worldwide auto industry it's interesting because some of the carmakers have also said that in the event they expect the national governments to help them out in

this regard but let's not forget that this is a time where the relations between government and car industry are being closely scrutinized especially in the face of growing consumer mistrust. you know. today that this completely withdrawing from the european. market how is that being seen over the edge. exactly toyota is dropping these all from its passenger cars by the end of the year so that means in some markets like france and italy what they're doing really basically is just getting rid of stock but it's important to make the distinction they're dropping diesels from passenger cars that means their commercial vehicles will still have them no i approached them earlier bearing in mind of course about two yota has a financial relationship with d.u.h. the u. eight of course being the environmental activist organization that's behind the driving bans the potential driving bans here in germany and i said to them i said to them that of course it's raising

a few eyebrows here what do they make of it they're dropping these from the lineup especially given the fact that they have given money in the past of course their only response to me was to say nope it's fake news one of them one has nothing to do with the other and that their decision was driven by consumer demand so not at all a surprising answer from toyota there. at the geneva motor show that for us thank you very much. and that's it from me and now it's a show of unity between israel and the u.s. that's right go ahead while president trump says that he may actually visit israel to attend the opening of the new american embassy in jerusalem and may accomplish speaking during talks with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu at the white house. a friendly welcome for the israeli prime minister in washington from a u.s. president who sees only to eye with him on the middle east and believes the chances for peace a good what better if we could make peace between israel and the palestinians and i

can tell you we're working very hard on doing that and i think we have a very good chance and the the biggest difficulty that anybody said you look over twenty five years nobody could get past number one gerosa they couldn't get past that we've taken it off the table so this gives us a real opportunity to do peace but troops move to relocate the u.s. embassy to jerusalem has a grave a two tensions with palestinians and many others in the region reacting angrily to last december's decision. in the oval office netanyahu praised the move and repeated his view that iran is the greatest threat to regional security iran has not given up its nuclear ambitions it is what came out of this nuclear doing both good and rich this practice integration that we were including on our own borders. and i think we we have to stop this country that churns through if you go through

in the book you wrong must be stalled. and come to. talks between the two leaders focused on concerns of iran's activities in syria and on trump's push to change or abandon the twenty fifty nuclear deal with tehran. now to an unlikely tennis doubles match in california between these two met world number one roger federer and microsoft co-founder bill gates teamed up for a charity match to raise funds for federer's foundation the v.i.p. pairing in the match for africa went up against u.s. tennis pro jack sock and t.v. host of bennett guthrie in san jose so we're definitely crowd pleasers and the roger federer foundation to use the event to raise money to support children's education and after. belgium is only known as a powerhouse in winter sports but the belgians did produce

a medalist at the two thousand and eighteen winter olympics speed skater bart swings was received by king sleep on monday swings who was accompanied by coach yells freud a play second to the men's mass start of benton john cherry and got to show the king a silver medal in the world palace in brussels that where a medal win was just the sixth and belgium's history and their first since way back in one thousand nine hundred eighty s. it's a reminder now of our top story it's a sour a former russian spy is reported to be critically ill after being exposed to an unknown substance a name but media reports have identified. him as. an ex intelligence officer convicted of treason in russia twelve years ago. thank you for watching to stay with us. globe.

celebrating the men who broke new ground. sport. innovation. and. women pioneers our series for international women's day. next.

looking for the march a straight. edge of the seat drama. joining the tribulation. we've got it all listening go live to a glimpse sixty minutes. with that women may be lost. but the world is still the. are from completely generous causing. because the need to movements influence the world why do based on sexism international women's day twenty mm seem to focus this week on d.w. . distrust times he made a point of still. a miracle representative. mika architect of east

germany's police station. and explained if i had my way. east germany would still be here feeling shmita master of feeling ok and what you know about. starting march thirteenth on d w. i everyone welcome to the show today we'll take a look back at the oscars here's what else is coming up. a labor of love it took seven years and sixty five thousand paintings to make loving vincent. a one stop shop a london church but i'll go for brides to be.