this is live from punishment for south korea's former president park geun hey sentenced to twenty four years in prison for corruption a dramatic fall from grace has gripped the nation for months we'll be going live to seoul in just a second. also on this program russia and britain face off at the united nations security council the war of words intensifying over the ploy of a former russian agent and his. corruption case against south africa's jacob zuma has adjourned until june the former president facing

bribery charges linked to a multi-million dollar deal more troubles for zuma who was forced to resign from office four weeks ago. hello and welcome my name is christopher spring a good to have you with us alstad south korean president park geun hey has been sentenced to twenty four years in prison on a conviction in court including challenges of coercion bribery and abuse of power in a verdict broadcast live on korean television the court ruled that part concluded with friends to receive tens of billions of dollars in kickbacks from companies such as sam so parker's impeach general rested in march twenty seventh the scandal prompted months of massive street protests. we're going to go straight to seoul now waiting

for us to chase and straw the one of our crossbones that chasing the former president park geun hey found guilty on several charges just talk us through the the charges the verdict and the sentence. short he was found guilty of sixteen of the eighteen pouncey against her these all revolved around a friendship she had with a woman named chase soon shill and the judge agreed that. president pock used her power as the leader of the nation to pressure the heads of companies like samsung to give millions of dollars to this friend of hers under the name of donations to charities they say that even if the president did not you know really srong arm these business leaders to donate just the mere fact that she was the president of the country would put a sort of burden on on these business officials to pony up whatever money they felt

they needed to give and now she's being convicted sent a sentence of twenty four years in prison do people in south korea feel that that's appropriate. well the prosecution wanted thirty years and i'm sure many south koreans who are protesting back at the end of two thousand and sixteen into two thousand and seventeen to see her removed from the presidential blue house . would have liked to seen the book thrown out there but the fact of the matter is president is not the first south korean leader to be convicted in corruption in a corruption case three of her credit she was the third three of her predecessors were also convicted but none of them spent the entirety of their sentence behind bars president park has a week to file an appeal today's verdict and there's no doubt that that appeal will

be launched. and we're now seeing protests in south korea in favor of the former president president park so clearly there are those who feel that she shouldn't go to prison or at least think the sentence is too stiff. ever since president was detained about a year ago her supporters who are mostly in their sixty's seventy's eighty's even have taken to the streets and held quite regular protests they do not represent the majority of south koreans views on the former president these individuals are very conservative they have spoken with many they feel the country is being taken over by communists it's rather conspiratorial but i'm sure there are demonstrations will continue as long as she is. behind bars. many thanks for that jason strother

reporting from the south korean capital seoul. and we are going to turn to the other big story of the day the war of words over the poisoning of expiry gates crippling his daughter the war of words is escalating at the moment at the united nations security council last night the russian and british ambassadors to the u.n. facing off in a fiery exchange over the alleged nerve agent attack london is sticking to its accusation that moscow is the chief suspect for that attack russia denies any wrongdoing sara guy and yulia script for weeks the british government has accused russia of trying to kill them now the kremlin is using the u.n. to go on the offensive. we're going to verbs with guns and we've told our british colleagues you're playing with fire and you'll be sorry i don't think the british investigators are grateful to the british government for their hasty and

unequivocal statements and conclusions and a long and blistering speech moscow's envoy reached for alice in wonderland to argue that it was russia who were the victims of a sloppy russian under sourness blame game normal subsequent sampson's first verdict afterwards britain's envoy was unimpressed firing back with a passage of her own there's another very good quote from alice in wonderland this is sometimes i've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast so i think that the quite suits my russian colleague best it is the latest in a diplomatic war of words destined for mation claims and counterclaims that is showing no sign of letting up on. a russian broadcaster eared what it claimed was

a telephone chop between you. and her cousin. but whether it was genuine or not even the t.v. station would not say where it came from is another matter. victoria scrip hour later said she believes she was speaking with her cousin in hospital yes it was not me who contacted her she phoned me herself when the phone rang i thought it was a call from a british number i thought it was a call from journalists who were. back in solsbury where this international poisoning scandal began police guarding the hospital beds of the former russian spy and his daughter issued a statement and her name my strength is growing daily the entire episode is somewhat disorientating and i hope that you respect my privacy. is not only a victim she is a witness and her food recovery may yet prove vital in the search for the truth.

ok let's get more on all this now from that show from phil who is with me in the studio that this is a fairly puzzling episode you know this appearance of a script all the daughter of sag a first on russian t.v. as we just saw rym what appears to have been a telephone call with a cousin and then a statement on her behalf from the u.k. police what what what is all this about what impact could it have left on of course is hoping to listen very closely to what you he has to say as was mentioned in that report that she's not just a victim she's also a witness and this is a case where there's still a big lack of information and lack of certainty about exactly what has taken place in the u.k. of course saying that it believes that russia is responsible in some capacity and yet has provided so far no real snow can gun the evidence yet that that's taken place russia meanwhile denying it there's

a lot of uncertainty about exactly what's going on head so it hopes presumably that yulia will be have to shed some light on that ok well let's all to try and shed some light on another area of confusion exactly what the british foreign secretary boris johnson told us d.w. news a few days ago before we get into the detail of that the russian ambassador in the united nations security council meeting last night said something quite remarkable about that let's listen to what he had to say living through continued as he could get to know each other is not copyrighted by russia in spite of the obviously russian name because one is a name that was invented in the west for a line of toxic substances which is nothing new but what experts and scientists. they were developed in many countries including the united states and in great britain. in the uk you remove boris johnson in response to

a question from georgia vella directly confirmed that great britain does have some pools of that substance in ports and down she also had to put it on school in rebuttal don't read our she's complex continues so the russian ambassador to the un they're referring to our interview with the british foreign secretary boris johnson during which johnson stated that the u.k. has a sample of the nerve agent not be chalk. was the russian ambassador quoting or interpret change johnson accurately well the thing is it wasn't entirely clear what boris johnson meant to understand this but i think we're going to have to have a quick listen to exactly what it was that he had to say and then and then look at the russian tepper taishan so that they could would. you argue that their source of father is north edge and novacek is russia how did you manage to find that out so quickly that's very the puzzles sample something when i look at the the evidence

from the people from from porton down the we already have the samples you do and they and they they they were absolutely categorical and i asked the guy myself i said are you sure and he said there's a dark. they have to some poles. replying they do what's not clear though is exactly what's meant by samples did boris johnson mean in his oncet that the leopard laboratory in the u.k. has some pills seized from the crime scene and has been investigating those old was he reaching father and saying actually the laborde tree had previously had some pills in its possession russia's jumping on that feed it is not it if that hey i other countries of the axis could have been responsible for this other people may be in possession of this agent indeed if the report down had it others might have it it's very unclear that there is no evidence to suggest that that is indeed the

case but is very cleverly trying to pick holes in that ambiguity that boris johnson left there in his interview so the whole story remains an aging but ambiguous and confusing. helping us to understand parts of it thank you sean it. ok time now to catch up with some of the other stories making news around the world a judge in brazil has issued an arrest warrant for former president we see in a suit who is out of the order gives twenty four hours to surrender to police and start a twelve year prison sentence for corruption on thursday the country's supremum court refused to bid on do that remain free until all appeals against his sentence were exhausted. a regional court in germany has ruled it won't extradite former cattle and later collars on charges of rebellion but the court is considering a lesser charge of misusing funds from which he could still face extradition

pitching well has been granted bio pending that decision. in britain attacks on sugary drinks has gone into effect as part of national efforts to improve people's health studies show that a majority of adults in the u.k. are overweight or obese many drinks makers have already reduced their sugar content ahead of the levies introduction. time to look at some business news don't trump doesn't seem to think much about deescalating the trades but with china does he risk office to further he has a fact doubled down on a possible trade war with china the us president has ordered officials to examine imposing an additional one hundred billion dollars worth of tariffs on chinese imports now beijing announced a five the measures at any cost that is only hours before business leaders added vester the world had welcomed signs of the escalation in the dispute. u.s. president trump proposed the latest terrorist in response to china levying towers

and u.s. cars and soybeans that was also in retaliation to an initial round of terrorist washings on put on chinese products critics warned that an all out trade war could hurt the u.s. farmers worried this is the one thing keeping an eye on what's happening out of washington what's happening with the markets that directly affects our lifestyle directly affects our pocketbooks and the way we planned for the following years are we going to pay all the bills the sheer horror we got to buy a new piece of equipment. you know do you get your kids you know a couple new pairs of shoes more than half of us leaving exports go to china so for us farmers any escalation of this trade dispute means they'll while it's could be taking a direct hit but this is a spot that even the u.n. secretary general is watching closely. for civil wars always the damage for those involved who did war and for the international we're going to be

usable. we need to have the international cooperation wherever there is a problem that must be done and all that must be to the cities discussion to overcome the problem so far there is no dialogue instead the tit for tat continues china's ministry of commerce has already announced countermeasures saying it's ready to fight the u.s. at any cost. now for the latest market reaction let's cross over to a new bars in frankfurt only a china wants to fight us terrorists at any cost or could this leave now. it's leading to a trade war and unless something major happens if there's retaliation after retaliate then you're going to see bigger and bigger numbers if you continue what the president and china are doing here and it doesn't seem as if one or one of the parties is going to be backing down despite the relieving words that one one heard

from wednesday on. i saw an analysis this morning by an economist from the from out spunk who puts this down to donald trump's fundamental stance toward industry being all important for the united states in trade not being important trade having harmed the united states and jobs there and the others having all to lose in trade and not the united states so that seems to be an analysis of would point to donald trump's just continuing because that's the way he thinks and what he believes in walker a member of the european central bank board of director a warning today of the effect on growth and jobs and shows that he's worried about the consequences i'm only looking at the market reaction this morning to this latest twist it has been somewhat muted have investors become weary of this dispute. yeah it's a little bit surprising to me as well you know there was huge favorable reaction

yesterday on a few mitigating sounding words and now there is a huge escalation in the markets to the market is taking it in its stride in fact here in germany in the dax there's actually some shares that are gaining like lufthansa perhaps if you have to look at the larger picture of the longer picture since march the market has lost tremendously and i think a lot of investors are now saying let's see where this goes there have been favorable words maybe that can happen again but remember that the dax is tumbled from over thirteen thousand five hundred to now twelve thousand two hundred eighteen points in the dow has lost from twenty six thousand four hundred to twenty four thousand five hundred so there's already a big correction in the market at the moment only bought in frankfurt thank you. now despite the growing pressure on u.s. trade relations with the rest of the world there are still examples for growing economic cooperation between the united states and the european union and germany

in particular one such example is the german american skills initiative names to bring germany so-called dual education system to the u.s. combining classroom learning with hands on vocational training our correspondent carsten phenomena reports from the us state of georgia. it's seven in the morning and colicky and it's already at work the seventeen year old is training as an industrial mechanic at e.g. oh it's an american tech firm in union producing components for household appliances coats three year apprenticeship is based on the german educational model and he even gets paid a novelty in the u.s. where apprenticeships often unpaid provide only basic training and have a bad reputation but cold believes this program is a gateway to success this definitely gives me a jumpstart you know getting ahead of the ball and everybody else because i'll be having an associate degree the same time as people just have a high school diploma e.g. oh is only one of twenty eight businesses in georgia that have joined forces to

create their own pool of highly skilled workers for them embracing the german apprenticeship model means addressing one of the biggest problems in u.s. manufacturing we cannot find workers out there that have the basic skills as an industrial mechanic a machinist electrician any of the true vocational trades that we used to create in america forty fifty years ago the german system is is a really good example for a model to follow the apprenticeship you have in germany one hundred years old gives us exactly the programs that we need to create that work for. the german system combines hands on training and classroom learning same here colin mckeon spends half of his day at union central education center. which brings together schools colleges and companies we're seeing a tremendous growth in the skill set of these young people we hear it from our

employers we're seeing growth in our employers they're getting trained mentors who have a skill set that perhaps they didn't have before to teach young people how to get ready for the jobs of the future in the factory supports comes from the german american chamber of commerce in atlanta which certifies that all trainings are implemented according to german standards those standards are tough but the month is still high there's great interest from companies here in the united states but also other foreign companies and the united states the german company is always on the forefront advocating these programs and then the others fall out the importance of skilled labor has also been recognized in the world of politics georgia's legislature even changed a number of laws to accommodate the german model pushed forward by the state's lieutenant governor. i want to be able to expand this all. and i also want to

expand it in terms of not just simply in more locations but also being able to expand in different different types of degree programs back in you know in codes long day is coming to an end its parents are happy with their son's career choice i love the opportunity they have gave him to get ahead on his career and job and here have been chance to work and learn everything that he's able to learn and actually fill me in half of the same time i think that it's a great opportunity for kids and if all goes according to plan called mckeon is looking at a bright future. inspector christopher now and south africa's former president in court earlier today facing corruption charges that's right christoph jacob zuma the former president in durban high court for a brief court hearing this morning the case has been adjourned until early june

zuma is facing sixteen charges of corruption relating to a controversial on still that dog much of his time president the case centers on a two billion euro contract to modernize south africa's armed forces that's a contract dating back to the late one nine hundred ninety s. the charges which zuma denies include counts of fraud record cheering and money laundering back in february you may remember him as party the ruling a.n.c. forcing him to resign as president. and for more on all that we now have is christine who are in the studio with this she often reports on southern africa for us christine thanks for coming in court proceedings are over what happened this morning while it did it took a very short fifteen minutes that we were expecting that would be a brief appearance essentially the judge has allowed prisms zuma to review the decision to have the charges reinstated in the first place we're not surprised by this we knew that this was going to happen that he's defense was going to argue

that they want to question the legitimacy of having the charges being reinstated in the first place so procedural move other any grounds to question that legitimacy there is and it boils down to some very domestic issues they are essentially that did chief prosecutor who reinstated those charges last month abraham's he's position is questionable because it had been brought to a court that his appointment had some issues with it so on the basis of that proceeding zuma contest the charges being reinstated by the chief prosecutor a man called sean the sheep i seem to remember now take us back to the origin of all this because this is an arms deal that happened twenty years. to go why has it taken so long to bring these charges to court and bring jacob zuma to court so chris you all know that at some point zero was facing these charges until a prosecutor at the time decided to drop them citing political interference and since then various opposition parties including civil rights groups have been

challenging that very decision and we've seen president jacob zuma virtually use every single avenue possible to challenge that to stop having these charges being reinstated and much of that has been because he had the back to do it at south african taxpayers if they sanction funded his defense while he did that so he pursued on every news story and i remember hearing the senior counsel in the day saying something to be faked up or fight this in every street in every room in every corner and we really saw that happening and soon it all and revelled in two thousand and sixteen when a court ruled that dropping those charges was irrational but of course he doesn't have all those taxpaying resources anymore he's been ousted as president do you think we're going to see him i mean i hear what you're saying that he's there procedural move maneuvers that are going to happen now so this is probably going to take some time but will we eventually see him serving time in prison well that's a very interesting question because one of the things that's also going to be at the courts is that opposition parties have come forward and say that he shouldn't

be entitled to the state paying for his defense that it's something that he needs to do on his own so today's postponement was largely on the basis of he's reviewing off the charges being reinstated but we also expect that that's going to be a bit of a case on the side of the deciding who's going to fund his defense and as a result of that chris we can expect that this is going to drag out for a very long time it's going to be a long time before we have the first of the you know two hundred seven witnesses for example that the state has it's going to be a while before we hear from any one of them the good thing of course christine is that we have you to keep tabs on that case for us many thanks for helping us to understand you christine. and we're going to turn to some sports news now the first leg of the quarter finals of the europa league played yesterday night last night austin were cruising to an easy home victory over russian side c.s.k. of moscow lights edging pos must say athletico madrid beating sporting lisbon to

know lots winning four two on the night against the south spoke in tennis germany in the spanish city of valencia for the davis cup quarter final time i would spain well number one rafael nadal returning to action for the hosts he hasn't played since withdrawing from the australian open back in january meanwhile germany will be led by the number one player alex on the spirit who reached last week's miami open final you may remember and ahead of that time i spoke to the time for the answer that is spoke to six time grand slam champion boris becker he's now the head of german men's tennis and he believes things are looking up for the sport in germany. we are. in germany at the moment thanks to success in both the men's and women's game and. to world class players we have a world class player and. we're working hard towards having talented eighteen in one thousand euros of course we have to get past football i don't know if that's

possible but there is enough space for all of the sports tennis including the tennis. a quick reminder for you of on top stories former south korean president park geun hay has been sentenced to twenty four years in prison after being found guilty in a corruption case was impeached and arrested back in march twenty seventh during a wide ranging scandal revealing links between big business politics. and the war of words over the poisoning of expiry script all in his daughter has escalated further moscow's ambassador to the u.n. warning that britain is playing with fire meanwhile his british counterpart reiterated her country's belief that the only suspect in the poisoning was russia. at the top of the next year. a visit to the what. you know environment magazine at africa.

you've got a real. rachel thanks. these are to protect the housing estates a kind acoustic courage for the impudent beasts. effective without harming. ego at africa next w. . to start the stars he made

a lot of stuff from a new career presented to. be delish meter architect of east germany's police state . of the mind if i had my way. east germany would still be here. and what do you know about the. stir of fear in forty five minutes on d w. where i come from we have to fight for a free press and was born and raised in a military dictatorship with just one t.v. shadow and a few newspapers one official information as a journalist i have worked on the streets of many can trust and their problems are always the same fourteen social inequality a lack of the freedom of the press and corruption who can afford to stay silent when it comes to the fans of the film unseen or microphones who have decided to put

their trust in us. my name is jenny paris and i work a day darling. hello and welcome to the losers that edition of the environment magazine m l taibbi coming to you from a show war in austria.