in our interactive documentary. and returns home on t w dot com tang's. this is. from berlin tonight u.s. president pushing back against accusations made by his former attorney michael cole says that hush money paid to two women during the election campaign was totally legal says it was his own money and not campaign funds but tuesday remains the darkest day so for in the truck presidency will ask what happens next also coming

up zimbabwe's constitutional court hears a challenge to president in an election victory the opposition claims there was massive tampering with the vote. and desperation along one of europe's most heavily fortified borders d.w. news goes to the spanish territory. in northern africa following migrants determined to get across as. if it's good to have you with us tonight u.s. president donald trump is hitting back at perhaps the most severe take away from what is being called a trump's black tuesday the president's former lawyer michael cohen told federal prosecutors that new campaign funds were used as hush money and paid to keep two women from. going public with damaging stories about the u.s.

president trump claimed that because they came from his personal bank account that the payments were not even quote a campaign violation or trump was out on the campaign trail today where he found supporters who didn't seem to care what was being said in washington and new york. observers are calling it the darkest day so far in donald trump's turbulent presidency but the u.s. president at a rally in west virginia appeared unraveled. he's done time and again denied any russian involvement that aided him during his electoral campaign. fake to the right here in which we got i hope big company. where is the closure you know they're still looking for collusion where it is acknowledged it

finds a television we want to find the collusion. his comments came just hours after developments that mean two of his ex advisors are facing lengthy prison sentences michael cohen is trump's former personal lawyer and close friend he pleaded guilty to a range of charges including campaign finance violations cohen's attorney lanny davis seen here wearing glasses said his client was prepared to tell everything he knows about trump including prior knowledge of the hacking of democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton's computer and also a meeting in twenty sixteen between trump campaign aides and a russian delegation underoath cohen who once said he would take a bullet for donald trump swore he paid hush money to trump's alleged mistresses including porn actress stormy daniels at the direction of who he referred to as the candidate it's widely understood that he's referring to the u.s. president. to pay money to silence two women

who had information. would be detrimental to the two thousand and sixteen campaign and to the candidate and the campaign shortly afterwards a second court case delivered further drama mr trump's former campaign manager paul mana ford was convey. did on eight cans of financial crimes none of forte's trial is the first to emerge from special counsel robert miller's investigation into russian meddling in the twenty sixteen election nonna forward faces a second trial next month on several charges including acting as an agent for a foreign government in washington critics of donald trump staged at this protest they seem to have no doubt that he colluded with russia but it's likely to take some time before special counsel miller reaches any conclusion on that. time where to where do we go from here to help us kind of talk through this jointer to be tabled by boris for he's a professor of politics at bard college here in berlin

a familiar face here we've talked many many many evenings about us politics haven't we boars and here we're we've got the us president now is he facing a political risk or is he facing a legal threat i don't see where you see the exact opposite between the two i think he's facing both. the risk is that there might be an impeachment process that some point. we'll see how the congressional elections go this will be decisive it's not so much a legal issue then it is a political issue there have been charges before and i think there could be made a claim that they have been impeachable offenses so it's not really but the vehicle questions but more about the political questions but he's also facing the legal risk about complain fines and that's a pretty obvious as well but do you think that we've reached some sort of tipping point here but just in the last twenty four hours we're hearing the word impeachment now used by

a lot of people in washington in the past have not said that is that a difference i mean that's the big question and maybe it remains to be seen it will take another week or two to find out mulder will try to avoid a situation that james comey had to face which was to have. intervention in the election process in two thousand and sixteen so miller is going to come up with the evidence if there is any other evidence so we will see if this is a tipping point so far the republicans have been quite opportunistic and have backed up donald trump in the last two years many of them have just been very silent of democrats they've been silent in the last twenty four hours they've been silent as well because i think. talking about impeachment from a democratic point of view might also mobilize the base of donald trump and that's risky as well as a good point that the us president has been ripping at his former attorney michael cohen accusing him of making up stories to get a deal i want you to take

a look at the tweet that the president posted today he tweeted that michael cohen pleaded guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime president obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled it. boris does he have a point there i mean there is the conflating two things well i think opening the. question is a whole different story and that's a strategy we've seen before i mean if you squandered he tends to kick out into different directions that's something we even saw in the primaries against hillary clinton and it's interesting if you look at his twitter account that the last two tweets were about ice's and immigration and about a hurry can the bill but he really talked about before so there is a certain pattern here for sure what do you make of what we saw last night after this news had broken the u.s. president goes to west virginia he has a campaign rally and he's being cheered and then we hear this chanting from the

crowd hillary laugher up i mean it's beyond bizarre isn't it well i think there's of the us political system is very polarized in it has been very polarized since at least the mid one nine hundred ninety s. since the culture wars really so there are permanent realities going on and the media channels are just as polarized there affect the politicization in the society so. probably this whole debate won't have a big effect on his base the question is he won the presidential election with a well with less votes and due to the political electoral system is around us the question is if this kind of very marginal advantage will last for another couple of months we would have you know something come november with the midterms that's for sure or storm is always we appreciate your insights thank you. here's some of the

other stories now that are making headlines around the world hundreds of elderly koreans have said their final emotional goodbyes to relatives at the end of a rare or union for families separated by the korean border the south koreans are heading home after a three day visit to the north the first for union to take place in three years residents of hawaii are bracing for a rare hurricane that's bearing down on the islands they're stocking up on emergency supplies in anticipation of flooding in fierce winds hurricane lane has been downgraded to category four but could still be the most powerful storm to hit hawaii in recorded history marches have been held across the u.s. in support of prisoners who have gone on strike prisoners in seventeen states are refusing to work in eat for two weeks they're demanding improved conditions and standard wages for their work is being called one of the largest prisons droids in u.s. history. head shops in england could soon be banned from selling puppies and kittens

the government is considering a wall that would prevent shops from selling dogs and cats under six months of age now pet lovers would have to buy directly from a breeder or a dog from an animal shelter. zimbabwe's constitutional court has been hearing a challenge to president emerson in god was election victory the main opposition party the movement for democratic change claims there was what it calls massive doctoring of last month's vote in bed should be overturned the president and the country's election commission deny foul play the court has said that it will deliver its ruling on friday. amid tight security symbolic ways constitutional court has become the stage for the country's latest political showdown. all eyes are on the nine judges who must decide whether to throw the case out declare a new presidential winner or order

a fresh election. the most during it's in good faith so that's everyone must visits by the after of the who only all five of the cords comments are weak spots the zits or them it's always going to do does it's. the opposition party is challenging president and misson wanting back was an election victory last month claiming it was rigged moron and replace him bob ways veteran ruler robert mugabe in november last year. the electoral commission said he won july's presidential election with just over fifty percent of the vote. i would like to guarantee you that we have a very strong case and we are going to overturn this electoral fraud consistent with what we promised we are going to defend you know force our force the people's fault

this in but with what. post-election clashes have already resulted in a number of people being killed including sylvia my foes a mother of two. although many zimbabweans are hopeful this case will put an end to the violence and uncertainty there's no guarantee that these judges will change anything. in recent months italy has tightened its border controls and now what spain has become the main destination for african migrants trying to reach europe and one in three point in spain's a north african on a plate of. hundreds of migrants and stormed fences in a bid to enter european territory at least a hundred fifty people managed to cross in the bid to hinder more from entering the territory authorities have erected a six metre high fence along the eight kilometer long border with morocco but for

those who make it through it's no guarantee of an easy passage to a new life. it follows a group intent on making in the mountains of morocco near the border with they say the police could show up at any time and destroy their camp. the group has thousands of kilometers behind them knowledge just a few hundred metres separate them from europe that. fence this man from. deep cuts there from his attempts to storm the border for. my father is dead my mother has nothing not even food i'm the oldest son and i want to try and make some money to help my mother that's why i left. i have been travelling for two years since leaving. with them fifty thousand others all hoping to make the journey from morocco to europe. the fence is here to stop them it's

eight kilometers long and fitted with razor sharp wire along with the territory of this is the only other e.u. border in africa on the other side as afonso crew sato from the spanish guard it's his job to secure the border but lately that hasn't always been possible. over six hundred migrants managed to storm the fence at the end of july the police are helpless and talk of unprecedented levels of violence makeshift flame throwers quicklime and grappling hooks other migrants weapons of choice but i am we are going to they were very well prepared and organized. small they were so violent that we could not get to the fence. i mean they threw acid at us and did all they could to prevent us from closing the holes that they had cut into the fence. in morocco's mountains and his

friends are already preparing their next attempt they're tired of the brutality at the hands of the moroccan police they only find food at a nearby rubbish dump a soft drink a cucumber a moldy potato. life here is unbearable. morocco is teeming with police offices. all of my friends are left guinea with me made it to syria. what am i supposed to do here i'll stay here until i can get in. their sense of desperation is what drives them. and his friends it's euro or nothing. well the u.s. has impose new sanctions against russia today helena has that story just keeps coming just keeps coming the latest that in fact brant by the trumpet

administration to ramp up pressure on the russian economy officials in moscow say they're bracing for lower growth and a week of ruble as a direct result now until now the kremlin had dismissed the big falls in the currency as market volatility not anymore they. don't know what you know it's a modest russian reporters saying that the u.s. is now banned exports of gas turbines to russia along with key items for the aviation industry like jet engines and electronics until now the kremlin has been demonstrably on ruffled by u.s. sanctions especially since an earlier round had long reduced trade in military goods. but the mere announcement of this list sent stocks in large state owned companies tumbling on the moscow stock exchange. flag carrier aeroflot slid twelve percent of the beginning of august when the sanctions were decided. on the ruble exchange rate has dropped sharply in recent weeks foreign minister sergei lavrov is

outraged something of the still sounds of it's quite obvious that these sanctions have nothing to do with syria ukraine or crimea. they're being used to enforce unfair trading conditions or to hobble the russian economy. a further round of sanctions lined up for november could target banks u.s. russian air links imports and exports and diplomatic relations. they would hit russia's six largest state controlled banks as well as the country's entire oil and gas industry all of which would have dire effects on the russian economy. wall street shrugged off the legal programs of two former close associates of president trump markets posted any small losses trumps whom when the where michael cohen who former election campaign manager paul manifold could face long prison sentences but it's still not clear whether or not their actions will

have a negative effect on republican chances in the november midterm elections well let's get the latest from wall street our financial correspondent so if you should he is standing by sir feet it was a remarkable day yesterday in the trials of cohen and amount of food would have to walk it's made of these developments well one would think that this would have an impact on performance and stability of the financial markets as most investors are investing not only based on numbers but also based on assumptions about how the stock prices are going to further develop and as people close to trump are falling some certainly might fear they could take trump down with them or at least in danger the status quo by whatever is happening in the white house does not seem to concern investors too much at the moment they're investing in strong company strong

companies that just through parted good earnings that flourished in a solidly growing economy and even if we might see a small loss in the stock or two like we did on wednesday that does not mean that people are selling stuff and panic maybe some investors simply might have stopped buying and prefer to watch the market while holding on to this stocks interesting times but of course the bull run continues as well i suppose the question really is now for how long can we expect it to do so. yes over rarely we have seen or have been seeing have actually been going on for nine and a half years since march two thousand thousand and nine that was one markets only started recovering from the financer crisis but there are threats to learning for example the multiple trade wars that have and impacted the markets yet because investors seem to be thinking trump can succeed in talking to foreign leaders and to get a good deal for the u.s.

and then of course some bears are showing up or simply saying the stock market is at the end up a cycle of growth so is the economy so we're going to see a recession this i think might be a little too pessimistic and also too simplistic but i think with rising interest rates the likelihood of a smaller correction in the markets becomes at least realistic all right save a human ski in new york for us thanks for that sophie well you have his boss king in its hottest selma since nine hundred seventy six but there is one huge downside this hardly any rain that's threatening the livelihoods of thousands of followers and in fact drought is wreaking havoc around the world millions of hectares of forest have been lost to wildfires some countries have declared a state of. the drought has affected all of northern europe even north of the arctic circle temperatures rose above thirty degrees at times

scandinavian farmers are expecting the worst harvest in a quarter of a century the governments of lithuania have both declared a state of emergency farmers in poland and the czech republic watching their crops wilt and expect the damage to be long term experts say climate change is at least partly responsible for the drought and expect further problems around the globe or climate models are saying that the negative impact of climate change are all made revolts or will be much more severe regions of so asia africa and europe and that means the biggest. negative movie where people already were and that's something we need to take very seriously. africa for one has been hit by an unusual a severe drought this year cape town became the first metropolis to strictly ration water. farmers in australia ran out of water for their

cattle drought there has even driven wild emo's into the cities searching for water . in north america droughts has sparked catastrophic wildfires along the western seaboard from california to the canadian province of british columbia millions of hectares of forest burnt down the smoke creating a major health scare. the ready wiring situation and in fact brant has knees of a new way to monitor well what is all very worrying whether that's exactly right after sixteen years of intensive planning testing and construction a new satellite is about to be launched that will be a giant leap forward for weather forecasting the satellite eolus named after the keeper of the winds of ancient greek in mythology is scheduled to be sent into orbit shortly from the european space agency's south american launch pad in french

. b.o.'s will be the first satellite to directly measure the earth's wins at all altitude which. when currents play a major role in distributing heat around the planet. the current send the rotation of the earth greatly affect weather patterns and they're part of what makes the blue planet habitable. the satellite is carrying what the european space agency calls one of the most sophisticated instruments ever to be put into orbit it consists of two powerful lasers a telescope and two receivers the illness will be hoisted to an orbit of three hundred twenty kilometers. from there it will measure global winds by beaming short light pulses towards the earth some of that light will bounce off small particles like dust in droplets of water the satellite will collect and

measure the light that's reflected. until now meteorologists have only been able to piece together when dr using sources like weather balloons there are regions where little data has been collected like the southern hemisphere. and that's because a lot of it is covered with oceans making it difficult to measure. the airless mission aims to supply the missing down to. the satellite will complete an orbit around earth every ninety minutes and deliver it started to a site in norway the aim is to improve weather forecasts worldwide. scientists also hope to gain valuable insights about the climate from the data of the satellite sends back. complex weather patterns in the equitorial pacific will be one focus in particular the so-called el nino and la nina patterns phases of a cycle that involves temperature fluctuations between the ocean and atmosphere.

that can cause droughts and crop failures and also affect the formation of hurricanes in central and north america. scientists hope the wind measurements from the elders will help them better understand this climate phenomenon and its effects the mission is shared through to last three years. back here on earth most story of a full time u.s. federal judge who several times a month indulges his passion for ice dancing at the age of ninety five he's been hitting the regularly ever since he received a pair of skates from his wife and that was twenty years ago when he was a sprightly young man of the age of seventy. normally he is a busy new york judge who is presiding over a high profile cases involving the likes of facebook and harvey weinstein. but twice a week robert sweet takes on a very different challenge the ninety five year old heads to the rink to indulge in

his second great passion ice dancing nowadays he wears a helmet after suffering a concussion following a fall but he's generally very steady on the skates and he's keen to get even better. this is. a very personal i wish it. was for. you it's very important to your be found lunch it's very important to your be in the right place on your blade it looks as if you're on the entire blade but you're not you're just shot at a relatively small part of the blade even has a coach but two time olympian some though was weary of training a judge at first. on the beginning i was very afraid because federal judge. and then but i sure would like judge us with a like anybody who was a lawyer in fort flint but you become less not as miss and if you become less my

friend because he's vain to. live above nice folks and a lot of the sweeties and surprisingly gives out the as old as clients but at ninety five he's showing no signs of slowing down everything or goldthorpe just and what do you plan to be doing at ninety five you're watching the w. news live from berlin after a short break i'll be back to take you through the day stick around for the.

center of the conflict zone which we should sleep on. this week on conflict zone i'm going. to get that enough second yet foreign minister to get his due in monk the politicians touching for a comment. on the question of long duration of the compromise has beautiful. is a fair deal for everybody conflicts. in sixty minutes on g.w. .

quadriga international talk show it's been a tumultuous week in german politics and europe resolved bitter divisions over migration of the government it is said stead into the abyss could friendly fire from president trump to defeat one of the strongest military alliances in history oh no my guests have to say on quadriga. margarita on d.w. . lehman brothers ten years on a story of ambition greed and megalomania. we're so clear about the reason control the rich that's what the whole of investment bankers called the carousel with their first on everything's wrong the wanted to

ignore the reality of the whole thing might blow up in a license of a system that spun out of control good mobile more mobile and of course a member of. the kurdish investment bank lehman brothers start september thirteenth on t w. two of the president's men the crimes they committed and the crime that trump is accused of committing what happened yesterday is being called it trumps black tuesday the word impeachment is now flying all around washington d.c. should be worried or perhaps the better question tonight why should donald trump be worried at all i bring golf in berlin this is the day.