this is live from berlin tonight the man once adored as america's day found guilty of sexual assault a jury has convicted the actor and comedian bill cosby of drugging and molesting a woman it's the first celebrity conviction of the meat to end it could see calls the rest of his life behind bars also coming up after the french president's state of the white house this week tomorrow belongs to german chancellor angela merkel and it's hoped will be you know all moments like this from her previous encounter

with the u.s. press and history about to be written north and south korea's leaders will meet tomorrow on the so-called peace law which divides the korean peninsula is this the start of real peace. it's good to have you with us we begin tonight with breaking news out of the u.s. the actor and comedian bill cosby has been found guilty in a sexual assault trial cosby has been convicted of drugging and molesting a woman in the first big celebrity conviction of the me two movement he could face a prison sentence of up to thirty years dozens of women have come forward in recent years to say that he drugged and assaulted them. several victims testified against

him at the second hearing cosby's lawyer has failed to appeal the conviction saying quote the fight is not over yet. well after the verdict was announced many of the women gathered outside the court room to make a statement to the press gloria all read an attorney representing dozens of cosby accusers so this is a watershed moment for the me too movement. we are so happy that finally we can say. women are believed and not only on hash tag me too but in a court of law where they were under oath where they testified truthfully where they were attacked where they were smeared where they were denigrated and where they were there were attempts to discredit them. and after all is said and done.

with it we're finally beat and we thank the jury so much for that. all right for the me too movement and for hollywood and the entertainment industry in the u.s. is a huge huge story i'm joined here at the big table now by our culture editor scott wrong i mean you cover movies as well i mean and in television what more do we know about the events that led to this conviction well i mean the accusations against bill cosby have been building for several years more than sixty women have come forward made similar allegations that he drugged them and then sexually molested or assaulted them. this case was important because it was the only one that was not limited by such of the material as all the other cases the alleged it sounds and heard many years ago and no longer could be brought to trial this one could and what i think is interesting is that as you said in the in the intro there was a trial in this case it ended in a mistrial and then it had to be they had to get another jury back in and have

another trial the first trial was before the me two era and then didn't mistrial this trial was after the me two era in a different climate in america i think that might have impacted how the jury saw the testimony how they looked at the evidence in terms of its impact it's tremendous i mean cosby before these accusations came out before his downfall if you want to call it that he was one of the biggest stars in the world ends and as such a bore it was an almost untouchable he he was a phenomenally successful actor comedian producer director and so forth but he also represented something he represented you said america's that he also represented a pioneer in the civil rights movement he was the first black star of a t.v. show i spy back in the day he was on saturday morning television for children when we hear of course we grew up with him we grew up with him and he was part of our childhood and it was he was he was an iconic figure in america and it seems almost

impossible to reconcile that image of bill cosby that we have with what we found out in this trial yeah and just to bring that point home listen to one of cosby's many accusers just moments after the verdict was announced. i feel i don't feel that i mean. right there i have right here right there like i'm dreaming of. the pinch me. feel like i'm dreaming i feel like i. when you first heard that you were not trying to answer but. i feel like i'm in humanity is well yeah interestingly i mean to interrupt you but the there was something right after the verdict was announced we also saw a bit of a different side of cost because he's lashed out yelled at the district attorney

called him an a hole he started screaming definitely not the image of america's that we are used to seeing him to from television threats. what. when we're talking about the sense of justice then can we say that that justice hands been done i mean i've obviously not a lawyer i'm not a judge the he has been found guilty of sexual assault after many attempts to to bring him to trial and to convict him. is all this going to appeal. if that appeal successful will have a whole other conversation if it isn't he faces from each of these charges is found guilty on three charges each carry a sentence of up to ten years even if they make those run concurrently the man is eighty years old as you said he will spend the rest of his life behind bars and you know the climate in specially in the united states and in los angeles right now is completely different than it was just what really have to go right and so what is this conviction mean then for a lot of these possible me two lawsuits you know that are coming up for trial yeah

i think i think harvey weinstein is going to be a bit nervous watching news of this of this trial obviously each case is different and the legal system moves in its in a slow and deliberate way but i think you can definitely say that the the atmosphere in america is different the context in which these trials will be held is different if there are legal cases working against harvey once and for example the moment if those come to trial i think will have quite different outcomes that we would have six months ago and in the wake of the wake of cosby i think this could really be just the start and it speaks also to the power of the hash tag the hash tag of a social movement it's exactly right all right scott ross perot's as always thank you scott. german chancellor angela merkel is on her way to the united states to meet with u.s. president double trouble her visit comes just a day after france's manuel mccrone addressed congress and held talks with the u.s.

leader americal took off from berlin for her second visit to washington during trump's presidency. it's expected that she would try to keep u.s. support for the germany back to iran nuclear deal other issues on the agenda during friday's talks are likely to be trade security and energy. so she's got more of what she going to be doing. hi brant and she's going to be here on was actually a very short trip and that's going to be all business and no frills she's going to be in the united states for less than twenty four hours at landing this evening local time and then her first engagements with the united states president donald trump will be tomorrow for a lunch she will have some things to talk about with him there and then she'll head over to the residence of the german ambassador before being a back on

a plane to berlin by evening so if you look at this visit it obviously contrasts very sharply to that which we saw earlier this week of a french president. who really had a red carpet well we saw him get helicopter rides with donald trump he had a lavish state dinner and he was the first state visit of donald trump's presidency and so we're getting a much more it muted and businesslike a visit from marco on friday and it. did not leave washington with any political victory. she's coming to washington in. a trade war. right there are really two big issues that america is going to be trying to press the u.s. president on while she's here one is trade as you say she's going to be seeking

a permanent exemption for the european union from steel and aluminum tariffs that donald trump implemented or that he announced in march they've had a temporary exemption unlike some u.s. allies like canada and mexico but they're going to be hoping to get something long term in place before that exemption runs out on may first now the other big issue that she's going to be trying to get the united states to see eye to eye on is of course the iran nuclear deal president all trump has called it the worst a deal ever made about obviously europe sees that quite differently and that's why one of that was one of my big missions while he was here as well is to try and butter up trump to try and get him on his side and cozy up to him in a way that hopefully he could prevent him from withdrawing from the deal as we've heard it seems like he doesn't think he had a lot of success in that medical and could have been the one two punch in terms of getting. kind of cozying up and miracle driving the deal home we're not going to

know until she leaves whether that's actually been a success from europe. when he spoke to the u.s. congress. basically deconstructed america first what type of reception is likely to receive. certainly not one with so much fanfare the transatlantic ties between the united states and germany are very strained at the moment part of that is because she is not going to have an opportunity to address the u.s. congress like we saw that was in fact a very rare to see a foreign head of state speaking in english before u.s. lawmakers so the question is going to be more than anything not just whether she can win over representatives here and the public's opinion but whether she can get donald trump in her corner and that's going to really tell us a lot about where things stand between germany and united states our washington

correspondent claire richardson on the story for us tonight at the white house clear thank you very much. well history about to be made on the korean peninsula south korea is preparing to welcome north korean leader kim jong un for talks aimed at finding peace and nuclear disarmament will be the first north korean leader to set foot in the south for more than sixty years the peninsula has seen some dramatic diplomatic strides over recent weeks and the hope is that this will this meeting will significantly ease tensions messages of hope on the fence dividing the two nations it's here in the border village of. make history on friday . when he crosses this border marker to attend the enter korean summit to be the first north korean leader to set foot on south korean soil since the korean war ended more than sixty years ago kim has promised to end nuclear and missile tests

hoping for a lifting of sanctions in exchange this does not mean that north korea plans to denuclearize. jodan june professor of political science at seoul national university believes that north korea will use its new weapon as a bargaining tool you know tell you it is secure then you have. to think about your economic. issues so use a good time for north korea true focus on economic issues because if you look at the security issue or levy handed because he has nuclear weapons some south koreans are skeptical that the summit is good news there don't you go general john allen is saying that he will complete denuclearization and close the nuclear test site through the into korean summit but we can't believe it others however see the summit as a cause for optimism caught in

a dialogue is always good talking in person can sometimes lead to a better outcome and that's why i think it's a good idea to go it over to you. well obviously it'll take time we'll have to see whether it's possible for north korea to become nuclear free before that some steps will have to be taken. as officials in panmunjom complete the final preparations for the summit it's clear that achieving any official agreements in just a day of talks will be difficult to say the least but friday's summit is a breakthrough in itself. and if the meeting goes smoothly it should lay the groundwork for something even more unusual talks between north korea and the u.s. . and here's a reminder of the top story we're following for you the american actor and comedian bill cosby has been found guilty in a sexual assault trial he's been convicted of drugging and molesting a woman in the first big celebrity conviction of the. becomes less than a year after a jury deadlocked in the first trial on the same charges resulting in

a mistrial. with more world news followed by the day i hope to see the. true. freedom of expression. a value that always has to be defended and new. all over the world. of freedom freedom of art. a multimedia project about artists and their right to express their views freely. d w dot com to freedom.