marvel ball pulls a fine he'll try to make an historic jump to germany's top league and bring you the highlights from the first leg of their relegation bio. i'm brian thomas a very warm welcome to the show u.s. president donald trump had some tough talk for germany and russia ahead of a summit between those two countries leaders now during a white house meeting with nato secretary-general u.n. stoltenberg the president repeated his sharp criticism of germany for not paying enough for its own defense singled out it for profiting from nato while to same time paying the russians billions for energy supplies let's take a listen it's yemen a must demonstrate leadership in the alliance by addressing its longstanding shortfall in defense contributions germany has not contributed what it should be

contributing and it's a very big beneficiary far bigger than the united states frankly in addition to that as you know that by massive amounts of gas from russia. paying billions and billions of dollars all the president's comments coming just as the german chancellor and the russian president meet in tsotsi for talks at the focus on bilateral issues including the iran nuclear deal to share one is in that black sea town for us right now good morning emily what's on the agenda where you are in such you today. well the meeting today is likely to be very short just over one and a half hours but it also comes after a huge amount of contact between the german and the russian sides americal and putin talked on the phone last week the foreign minister visited the german foreign minister visited moscow and the economic affairs minister visited moscow as well so

this is a short meeting but there's a lot on the agenda politically and economically the two leaders are going to be discussing syria and ukraine the conflicts there but there will be a particular particular focus on iran after the u.s. left the iran nuclear deal last week both russia and germany are trying to salvage that deal and just at the beginning of the week the iranian foreign minister was in moscow as well to discuss potentially saving that deal and keeping it going without the u.s. and also german and russian leaders will be discussing most likely the north stream to project the economic affairs minister was in moscow last week kind of preparing for that he is trying to make a deal with the with the russian and the ukrainian side because ukraine is worried about its transit fees after all that gas pipeline is going directly is planned to

go to go directly from russia to germany through the baltic sea so we may see some movement on an agreement on the hugely important economic deal as well just energy policy and economics figuring very prominently in the diplomatic talks today emily sure one thanks very much for that. while this visit comes at a time of tense relations between berlin and moscow germany has condemned russia's annexation of crimea of course and its military support for the government of syrian president bashar al assad as well but with both countries wanting to save the iran nuclear deal could this be enough for a new beginning. it's an extremely complex relationship friend enemy partner adversary. this man's action binds them together since u.s.

president trump withdrew from the iran deal germany and russia have been sitting in the same boat both want to save the agreement moscow friendly politicians in germany view this as a time for a new beginning with russia. today there back in the game in the middle east there will be no issue that cannot be resolved without the russians this must guide us instead of saying they're not friendly to us. lately russia has not appeared at all friendly towards europe. the german bundestag political parties and the government were hacked by russian state agencies germany is now convinced of this at a meeting in berlin the british intelligence chief condemned russia one of the kremlin's central and entirely admirable aims is to build russian greatness on the world stage but it's repeated choices have been to

a few that aim through aggressive and punishes actions by its military and intelligence services. duma in syria. russia's partner bashar al assad is suspected of using chemical weapons shocking germany and its allies. we are home although. we also have the knowledge that russia as an ally of asset she has responsibility in connection with the poison gas attack in syria. there's no question about that and of harkat. in general with russia we are experiencing various actions directed at breaking international law or the aims of international law supporting assad in syria for instance but that does not change the fact that russia is an important political entity in europe. this week vladimir putin dedicated a bridge connecting russia to crimea the ukrainian peninsula that germany views as

having been illegally an extent by moscow. it's a move that only adds to the complexity of the relationship. i want to talk about this complex relationship i'm joined now by. no schmidt foreign policy spokesman for the social democrats a junior coalition partner in the german government good morning notion of thanks so much for being with us today with these talks about to get underway in saudi between america and lattimer putin do you think we're about to say or could see a new beginning in relations with russia well i guess we should not expect too much from this meeting there's a wide array of issues we have the west at the u.n. and germany are in disagreement with russia so it's good to be in talks and as always germany is in favor of an open dialogue with russia

but this dialogue needs to reach some results of the last two years there aren't too many of them. ok you're talking there about ukraine crimea. and syria as well do you do you think there's enough common ground right now though on iran for germany and russia to overcome we're begin working more meaningfully on those differences. re our iran could be a good start since russia is still. within the agreement and sticks to this very important agreement which. enhanced regional stability in the middle east and iran is also a good talking point because of iran's role in syria and so i would say that syria could also be an issue where germany and russia could try to find coming from since there's one point we all share and that is we want to have

a stable syria we don't want to have another failed state in the middle east as we've seen in libya or iraq so maybe this could also be a good starting point for some negotiation between the west and russia we heard today's comments coming out of the white house with donald from talking to young berg the nato secretary general about germany not paying enough words to fans and very critical as well of a german energy policy how do you feel when about those comments when you hear that type of talk coming from the white house. well there are some facts we can discuss but i don't like the way the american administration talks to germany it's not on the present drumbeats although in the new ambassador to berlin with who was

always in gauge in public criticism among allies and friends it's better to discuss things out there and as. everybody knows the new government in germany is ready to increase its defense budget by millions of euros so i guess the german defense budget policy is on the right track. ok now president trump also took aim at germany's policy of buying russian gas do you think as has been discussed in germany for years now that germany is in fact too dependent on russian gas supplies that has always been the case even during the coldest times of the cold war we imported lots of gas from the former soviet union and it was a we have a good record of keeping gas and oil through it all with of political turmoil

and i believe that russia is much more the pendent on exporting gas to divest than the other way around and so this can be a good. point all for cooperation because russia is there and cannot be removed from the map and it's better to engage in also in trade with russia than just to see it as a an enemy knows met foreign policy spokesman for the social democrats a junior coalition partner in the german government thanks very much for your comments this morning thank you now for some of the other stories making the news at this hour the democratic republic of congo's health ministry has confirmed eleven new cases of ebola along with two new suspected deaths brings the total number of reported cases to forty five concerns are high after the virus spread to one of the country's cities where the very first time. the u.s.

senate has confirmed gina has oil as the cia's first ever female director that despite questions over her role in the spy agency's torture program after nine eleven all told senators she now believes torture does not work and promised not to allow it to happen again. police in brazil have carried out one of the world's largest ever operations against online child pornography thousands of officers seizing computers and phones in coordinated raids across the country some two hundred fifty people were taken into custody they're accused of sharing over a million images of child abuse wants to the u.s. now in the killer way a volcano continues to keep residents of hawaii's big island on edge a new eruption has sent a massive ash cloud into the sky this follows two weeks of rumblings and fissures that have sent lava flowing into a number of neighborhoods and the stories of close schools and warning about the risks of toxic gas but some residents nonetheless are refusing to evacuate.

nature's fury surrounds the killer way a volcano. shortly before dawn a cloud of ash explodes from the crater shooting ten thousand meters into the sky it's the mountains most significant rumbling in days. we're still watching things real closely you know we could expect similar events to happen in the future as these kind of interactions between the ground water and the lava can be. locals captured their own images of the ominous cloud. basically what we're seeing is there's a massive cloud that went up into the sky but it looks kind of stagnant it's kind of just sitting there going really high interest rate and go different directions. residents are being advised to stay inside and authours he's a distributing mosques to guard against toxic gas. and there are increasing levels

of summer dioxide in various areas that's the reason why the alert on and off of the school has been. spitting lava continues to hole rocks for kilometers authorities are planning for the worst not everyone wants to evacuate so what's challenging for us is you know what's going to be the number for the population that we need to evacuate like here you know as long as the roads are open and there's a voluntary evacuation you know rule working with the county to see really what the numbers are going to be what they don't know is we believe some of the population leave. because they're so self-sufficient. killer whale has been active for over two weeks now lava has destroyed at least twenty six homes so far wind is now threatening to carry asked from killer whales to nearby tourist areas the worst

could be yet to come. let's go over to get. hard now owners a lot of attention in the business world on the sochi talks and that's why i don't . have a lot to talk about in russia today many small and medium sized businesses in europe doing business there and it's not getting any easier many are confused by all those sanctions and counter measures that are being slung between the u.s. russia and the e.u. the uncertainty about the changing political landscape makes investing and doing business in general increasingly difficult. german wholesaler metro has a big presence in russia but of late business has been flagging this week the company announced billions in losses attributed in part to a decline in consumer spending in russia fears over the state of the russian economy have left german businesses on edge. many european companies now find

themselves stuck in the middle of a flurry of sanctions and counter sanctions there are some u.s. sanctions on russia that european companies have to comply with in order to keep doing business in the u.s. but the same firms could also face repercussions from russia for complying and other thawing of what some see as a simmering global trade war. let's discuss this global trade war that's looming with this ocean of german chances of commerce and industry. things for joining us let's talk about western companies in russia one concern for them is the weakening economy that sanctions flying backwards and forwards i'm not helping either can you explain how that impacts on business. german business in russia is heavily engaged heavily invested there german businesses more than five thousand companies are active in russia and they are employing almost three

hundred thousand employees in the country and in times of sanctions and counter sanctions and all that threats so there's a lot of a lot at stake can you explain how all this is getting incredibly complicated you you know sanctions linebackers voice you don't have any idea where they're coming from and what they're related to anymore what how does it work we are affected by sanctions of the u.s. against russia due to the meddling by the russians into the u.s. election campaigns and they strengthen sanctions in april regarding this and these secondary. effects to european and german business to the project cannot seem to d.d. gas pipeline project then there are sanctions or stepping out of the nuclear deal of the us. with with iran and so the question is how do

we keep this deal alive and be dampened sanctions off of the european union against iran and then we have to the problem with the eastern ukraine and the established sanctions of the european union against russia just explain how the broader picture is it is indeed a very broad picture but. what business is expecting now from the governments what are german businesses for example expecting to discuss with other me booted today so we live in times where the political influences to the business is very strong and the new currency seems to us is sentients and tariffs not seen in the last let's say fifty years saul so therefore it's absolutely helpful that there is a platform of communication be.