you. mean. this is deja vu news live from berlin president trump threatens to use his emergency powers to fund the wall on the border with mexico on a visit to the front year he says the clarion a national emergency could be the only way of breaking the political deadlock over the barrier so is there an emergency blast our correspondent on the border also coming up the german chancellor makes her first trip to greece and selects a soprano's became prime minister in the past many greeks blamed on the back old for the hardships caused by austerity measures so how do they feel about her today

. and some two months ago this woman the wife of one of norway's richest man vanished without a trace police have now gone public for the first time since then with some of the details about that one of the latest on the mysterious disappearance. i'm brian thomas thanks so much for being with us president trump has visited the u.s. border with mexico to press his case for a wall to prevent immigrants from entering the country illegally the president said he was thinking about bypassing congress in the clearing a national emergency to secure funding for the border barrier or a phenomenon has also been at the border and sent us this report from maccallum texas. true. they backed off trump and wants him to build the border wall.

they don't opponents and supporters of the u.s. president facing each other in mccalla while waiting for his arrival was going to greece and italy and i think it's very important that we secure our borders is absolutely important and it's necessary for my children for their safety i was just at state for all the positive he was asking but the support of the peoples of all the exposure to fix our country sponsored. church members of the same community but deeply divided a couple little store temper the police had to intervene meanwhile president lamb was given a tour along the rio grande day where he talked to border patrol agents using the strip to bolster his argument for his signature complaint promise that what they need more than anything is the barrier the wall color whatever you want whether it's steel and concrete you don't care we need a barrier in macallan trump once again threatens to invoke emergency powers to

build the wall without congressional approval but many in the rio grande a valley does agree they don't see a reason to declare a national emergency here most people we talked to at the protest told us that there is no crisis that they feel safe they accuse the president called stoking fear in their community and even some of the time supporters say they do for tighten security but they don't think that the world is going to fold so much. brenda kennedy has lived in that alan for twelve years she says she's proud of her community. this is the safest place i've ever lived in my life so this whole idea that there's. you know victims coming over illegally and drugs in the street and for a child it's ridiculous absolutely not. she says he president trump stayed long enough . alan to see that for himself maybe he'd change his mind. ok let's go straight

to mccallum now and always on a phenomena put the report together for us good morning oh xandra can you tell us more about the president's visit to the border. well the whole purpose of this visit was of course to both. ford aboard the for every detail seems to be well orchestrated he met with border patrol officials with border patrol agents who didn't receive that paycheck he held the wrong table of border security and immigration where they were he was shown bricks of harrowing bales of mary who are not guns and cash that was seized by border secure the border patrol agents then there were to appear for family members of people who were killed by illegal immigrants so as you can see this visit was well orchestrated and i talked to many people here and some of them told me that they didn't like it they didn't like that

the president was using card breaking stories to make his case for the border ok i was honored you just mentioned some of the border patrol agents that the president was was talking to how if they've been describing the situation at the border. they met with president and they gave him a security briefing at the border one border. border patrol official told that many nationalists trying to sneak into the country across the border people coming from pakistan or china so it seemed at their deaths he was a sort of supporting the president and there are border patrol agents who would tell you that. a wall needed to protect the border but they also tell you that what they need is more personnel and better technology to protect the border alexander

the president is now back in washington d.c. he's been talking once again about declaring a national emergency to break the standoff over funding the wall out likely. i mean it seems that the white house is really seriously looking into it and we are hearing that that president strong is leaning towards this options option of all there are people in the administration lobbying for restraint and we have to say that the most democrats are of course against those they criticize such as that such decision would be an overreach would be illegal but there are also democrats they were they are open to this option saying that that could be the only face saving way to reopen the government alexander phenomena thanks very much at the us mexico border maccallum texas for story thanks very much. now for some of the other

stories making the news this hour president trump's former lawyer michael cohen will testify publicly before a congressional committee next month he's expected to face questions about his harsh for russia and hush money payments arranged on from spain have to keep extramarital affair allegations out of the news during the presidential election campaign. police in the u.s. state of nevada have asked talian authorities to obtain a d.n.a. sample from the portuguese football star chris young rinaldo the move is part of an investigation into allegations that he raped a woman a decade ago in las vegas the thirty three year old eventis player denies any wrongdoing. german chancellor all america has praised greece for improving its finances just months after the country emerged from its final debt bailout during a visit to athens to meet her greek counterpart alexis tsipras a magical acknowledge that the debt negotiations were tough times but greeks widely

blame her for the austerity they've lived through in recent years. the german chancellor's visit means a great deal for greece and for prime minister tsipras to spite their differences ties between the two have improved significantly especially since marcos last visit to head home i'm very glad to be here today after all the ups and downs over the last few years of what i believe that what we achieved exemplifies the european spirit. that despite having different political beliefs despite very different problems we always strive to find a common solution to america's previous visit to greece and twenty fourteen was overshadowed by a wave of angry protests back then as an opposition leader sippers railed against the austerity measures imposed on greece and supported by berlin but after becoming prime minister sippers dropped his fears and he bailout stands and ended up

implementing the reforms demanded by increases creditors and although merkel was widely blamed in greece for the years of austerity her image among greeks has also improved but the outside mrs merkel has her priorities first her country then europe and after that world peace. i wish her a happy new year and good health and a good thing to get to the for. america and tsipras are also expected to discuss the name change deal with neighboring macedonia which berlin supports under the agreement the former yugoslav republic will be renamed north macedonia in return greece will support the country joining nato and eventually the e.u. but many greeks are against the deal including tsipras coalition partners here that will form a. response in the region for americans visit this or the deal with macedonia gets ratified by parliament. if. the insured remains valid even if the opposition

takes power to the east. it's a little bit. conservative opposition leader kitty a close mates of talk is leading the resistance to the macedonia deal in the greek parliament super's hopes that merkel might be able to influence the conservatives position because if his coalition breaks down tsipras may soon find himself facing a vote of confidence. or just how serious is that one of the questions out there today following the visit as did abuse chief political editor michel cover joins us now from athens good morning michelle could on the macro help and first off this name dispute over the two macedonia's. well she certainly is trying. mapped out here in athens already that she felt that this agreement that would basically ended decades long dispute is good for

both sides and it would help greece as much as it would help the european union in the sense of also stabilizing the balkan region which isn't in the headlines that terribly much but which remains a constant potential source of instability right on the european union's doorstep but she also said that she did understand that her influence particularly on the opposition leader its attackers who is from her own political count the conservative camp which will also play a big bowl in this upcoming european elections she understands that her influence there is limited and she also understands between the lines that her making any policy recommendation to dish she doesn't go down that terribly well in greece ok there's a very big meeting coming up today all america will be meeting with the greek president on what continues to be a very emotional issue on a very divisive issues well. yes the issue here in

greece is how much in terms of reparations the greek state could potentially still demand from germany germany that is an issue that is concluded that was part of an agreement that is the basis of german reunification at the same time there is a commission hearing greece that has actually come up with a pill of some two hundred ninety six billion euros that it feels germany's still owes greece now in the light of recent history in the light of this greek rescue package that is something that certainly brings emotions to the boil here in greece at times but there's no press conference expected so if we won't see any public statements that ok michele thanks very much for that for now michelle there for us in athens. well what will the new year hold for chancellor on

a macro and what's on the minds of millions of german voters the latest in for test survey by the german public broadcaster already has all the numbers the year has just started but it's already seen a massive political scandal the hacking and release of personal information of some one thousand german politicians and celebrities german voters were asked how worried are you about internet data leaks years what the survey found a majority sixty one percent are very worried were quite worried thirty nine percent are a little worried or not worried at all our political correspondent tom sparrow's been looking into the numbers this morning hello to you thomas people in all age groups are very worried about their data being leaked. exactly germans value of their privacy a lot that's something that we've known for a long time and also haas historical reasons explains brian why germans of all ages are particularly concerned about the possible misuse of information if you look for

example at the younger generations people aged eighteen to thirty four they also revealed that they're either worried over very worried about that possible misuse and that goes hand in hand with what germans are actually doing in order to better protect their information they don't believe that that's only something that the government has to do for example by tightening laws they also believe that they have to do something about it and that's why a majority have made it for example that they don't give many personal details online that they never open unknown attachments the same time however many admitted that they don't change their passwords as often as they should thomas and some good news it looks like a lot of people here are feeling financially secure with germans very positive about their personal economic situation an overwhelming seventy eight percent saying it's very good or good only twenty two percent consider their personal economic situation on satisfactory were bad. well there are not many

countries where people are satisfied with the economies here in germany thomas are germans too optimistic perhaps well we're talking here about the personal financial situation of german germans for example don't like decks they like to be conservative when it comes to these kinds of issues they like to plan for the future so it's important to say away here we're talking about the personal situation there are two important caveat however one is that this is not the case overall for example in eastern germany many people tend to view that situation rather quickly the second caveat is that many germans when it comes to the overall development of the country do have for example many even think that germany is moving in a direction that they do not necessarily agree with when it comes to changes in japanese political landscape or germany's culture as well ok now all this is not really change the overall political preferences people have of elections were held

in germany this weekend this is how things would stand german chancellor merkel's conservative c.d.u. c.s.u. bloc down one point that twenty nine percent to greens remain unchanged at twenty percent the social democrats of the junior party in the coalition their one percent fifteen percent far right if the right behind them unchanged at fourteen percent and the business friendly f.d.p. there at nine percent a one point and so is the far left left party well thomas all party members of course following these numbers especially closely with two thousand nine hundred said to be a major election year. what what's the sentiment about the. well we have obviously the european elections coming up but then also there are three region no election in particular in the eastern part of the country and that explains why political leaders are looking at these numbers very carefully when it comes to

those regional elections because although those regional elections always they focus on key local topics they are always by definition also on allies in a broader spectrum as well tom sparrow for us today looking at the numbers stop us thanks very much wall street and germany are struggling to cope with the heaviest snow fall in two decades several people have died in alpine regions in the past week avalanche warnings are at their highest levels some communities in bavaria have declared a state of emergency and forecasters warn more snow is on this way. as we report some locals are now taking drastic action to try to avert disaster. it is a beautiful sight but the snow laden slopes also spell danger many mountainsides in austria so heavy with snow that the army is preparing to sort of avalanches with controlled explosions in the past twenty four hours it has snowed nonstop.

most of the interest in them and it makes sense to set off these explosions that's a common strategy to defuse the situation but the areas with the highest threat level there above two thousand two hundred meters you cannot set off explosions there because you can't get there and when it comes in the valleys the battle against the snow continues we're told they're complaining about cancellations the austrian chamber of commerce is expecting business to drop by fifty percent in the affected areas one hotel owner who is grateful just to be alive is to go. he was finally lifted from his mountain chalet on wednesday he had been snowed in since christmas day. i was trapped the feeling was very depressing and it's exhausting to shovel snow all day lows in germany a state of emergency has been declared in parts of. the. in the worst affected

areas the snow on the roof sways up to four hundred kilos and he. must urgently burn off from those roofs forms need to be frightened experts fear that up to me to a fresh snow will fall before the weekend meaning the chaos in the northern alps is set to continue. it's to norway now where police say the missing wife of a billionaire has been kidnapped and in an unusual twist the alleged abductors are insisting on a ransom being taped paid in a crypto currency summer to bitcoin investigators admit they have no idea what may have happened to the victim or where she is. sixty eight year old and elizabeth haagen has not been seen since last october but police have only now revealed that she is missing the search for home and surrounding woodland in a wealthy suburb outside the capital flow has failed to turn up any useful evidence

police say the kidnappers have used only digital technology to get in touch with them. they order it but until there's not been any verbal contact yet there's not been any sign that she's in life and neither is there any sign that she's dead at all for my mother. the victim is married to tom haagen a property and energy tycoon and one of noways richest men. detectives want to talk to a pedestrian and to cyclists filmed outside the business man's office on the day his wife disappeared it the suspects have not yet been identified by bahais would find i'm surprised in horrified that something like this could happen here and i also feel great despair for the family it's a terrible situation because the. local media say the kidnappers a demanding a ransom equivalent to nine million euros to be paid in the crypt currency monera

simulate a bit calling. the police or devising the family not to pay any ransom they're working on the theory that mrs hogg and was at home when she was abducted but offices admit the investigation is making little progress. let's get our business now with stephen and more bad news for a former giant in the global auto industry that's right brian we're talking about carlos ghosn japanese prosecutors filing two new charges of financial misconduct against go on who remain c.e.o. renault the french automaker meanwhile said it had found no evidence cohen has committed fraud or no says an investigation shows the c.e.o. was in full compliance with finance laws for the past two years gone is credited with rescuing japanese carmaker nissan in its alliance with renault has been held in a tokyo jail since november his lawyers say they will continue to seek bail. and

over age asian markets are up today due to efforts by u.s. and china to resolve their trade dispute western nations are hoping that any resolution might lead to easier access to the lucrative chinese consumer market something that has remained frustratingly out of reach for many businesses and germany's influential industry association has now called on the european union to adopt a tougher policy towards china on just this issue. chinese market has long been a gold mine for many german companies with high end car makers like audi and mercedes making an ever larger share of their profits here but the b.t.i. federation for german industry claims the chinese market is far from a level playing field. the business lobby accuses beijing of using a combination of protectionism price dumping and state subsidies to bolster china's economy and cement the central government's control divide that the development of a free market isn't on beijing's agenda these are the central government is trying

to expand the communist party control of the economy and civil society. and that's become more apparent in the last three years because. there is also growing concern that china shopping tour of buying controlling shares of german high tech companies like robotics manufacturing kuka could soon lead to a strategic disadvantage for europe in the report the b.t.r. is calling on berlin to take action to make the economies of germany and europe more resilient among the demands increased scrutiny of china's state support for firms that compete with european companies and more oversight of chinese acquisitions the b.t.i. also says western countries must do more to defend their lead in technology as. of course we need to do our own homework first and increase our own competitiveness by investing more in infrastructure and education including research by expand the research budget. but often. the medion also believes you members must

close ranks to ensure china does not eventually gain a competitive edge in technology so what effect does the u.s. china trade and the pressure it places on china's economy have on market access in that country let's go to clifford is china correspondent for the irish times and he's joining us from beijing clifford when we talk about the difficulties that overseas businesses face in accessing the chinese market give us an example of what we're referring to. well i think it and if you take the example of infrastructure projects in particular there was recently when the chinese purchase a chinese company purchased hahn airport outside frankfurt you would be able to do that in germany for example. a german company would be able to to buy a chinese or court and so it's in areas like infrastructure i think that our dollar particularly at accused in this area and you're very likely to see phillipos on our whole team say that big german construction company making a motorway network here in china it's more likely to go to

a chinese firm so i think these are some of the concerns that german companies have when it comes to market access now we know that europe is closely watching the trade negotiations between the u.s. and china or market access is on the table could trump's pressure approach pay off . that it seems that it could it's china isn't reacting quite as extremely as people told nam it is not quite a heavy reaction that people anticipated but it's stepney having an impact so this gives and the us a lot of leverage in the in the in the trade talks and if and eventually they do could come to a resolution i think there are signs growing that it they could come to a resolution soon and this would be obviously of benefit to european firms who are also hoping that some of the issues that the u.s. wants addressed are also are also dealt with because they will benefit european firms to. the cliff and you talk about the impact there of the trade war on china's

economy can you give us some examples of what you're seeing or what you're hearing there. well i think i am looking ahead to two thousand and nineteen we're going to reprove going to see a slowdown and how we how we how we experience that here and you see particularly in the south at the moment i think the manufacturing areas like dash and jan and don't go on the high tech areas and you're seeing an impact there where the companies are experiencing a bit less growth than before you see it in manufacturing orders they're slowing down i think this is the manufacturing sectors but she came portman course when it comes to europe because china has long admired the german model of innovation and so in terms of. in terms of chinese getting access to german technology. this could have a big big impact for them to create clifford clifford cohen and try to correspond for the irish times thank you very much. and all eyes are on the u.s.

dollar following remarks by federal reserve chairman jerome powell that the central bank there could be patient with plans to raise interest rates now powell had previously suggested the fed would raise rates at least twice this year despite fears this could throw the u.s. into recession for hikes last year june unprecedented angry response from president trump who accused the fed of threatening the country's economic boom powell says the fed won't be swayed by politics. and. that's it for us a business you're watching news of course have more for you in the next hour and you can always find more online dot com and dot com slash business i'm stephen beers in berlin thanks for joining us.

on. quadriga international talk show for journalists discuss the topic of the week as the new year gets underway germany's find out shows you don't put three. quadriga next on d. w. . and he's made even stuff. was the youngest to put it to make if you're

a piece national. the genes of pleasure in families from this. company on this is first class. sixty minutes. sleep. carefully. soon. to be again. discovery home.

subscribe to the documentary to. follow in a very warm welcome indeed to the first edition of quadriga in twenty nineteen and it's the new year get some the way germany house alongside four other countries become a norm permanent member of the united nations security council now there are high expectations about what germany can achieve but two year stint on the council comes at a very difficult time with the devastating ongoing conflicts in both syria and in ukraine .