metropolis of crime. starts january twenty ninth on t w. this is d w news from berlin tonight in washington the whispers of impeachment is getting louder as u.s. president donald trump marks two years in the white house a buzz feed news report contains explosive new allegations that trump directed his former lawyer michael cohen to lying to congress about his dealings in russia now leading democrats say they plan to investigate also coming up

a letter to britain from germany with leading german personalities publish an open letter in the times newspaper asking the british people to abandon breaks it into a state in the european union we'll bring you reaction from london plus the boom this week is back we look ahead the set of these top of the table clash between legal leaders and fourth place barbie like. i'm bringing off it's good to have you with us is this the smoking gun leading to a criminal us president a new buzz feed news report claims that u.s. president donald trump directed his former personal attorney michael cohen to lying to congress about his business ties to russia the report cites. two unnamed law

enforcement officers president reportedly ordered cohen to lie about plans to build a trump tower in moscow and supported a plan for cohen to meet with russian president vladimir putin to jumpstart that projects now you may remember last year michael cohen pleaded guilty to lying to congress about the russian real estate plan president trump has repeatedly denied any collusion with russia. or at least take the story out of the u.s. capitol i'm joined by our correspondent all oversoul in washington good evening to you oliver if these reports this report by buzz feed news if it proves to be true what will it mean for donald trump or brand it will be another puzzle piece but this time it could really mean a shift in tides for donald trump the reports says that donald trump told some michael cohen to lie in front of congress about the direct duration of these

negotiations for this mosque trump tower project michael cohen said that think o.c.a. sions were over by the time that all trump was actually officially announced being the candidate of the republican party for u.s. presidency but in fact these negotiations lasted a lot longer and they lasted until the summer of two thousand and sixteen and that being just a few months ahead of the actual u.s. elections now if this turns out to be true of these allegations that donald trump told michael cohen to lie in front of congress this would certainly mean that we're witnessing here the strongest piece of evidence yet of donald trump being guilty of all struction of justice and it comes at a time when you have the democrats who are now in control of the u.s. house of representatives meaning that they can subpoena people as they wish what kind of reactions are we getting from both sides of the political divide today.

well the democrats can certainly be happy about this and they will certainly use this for their purposes we just had the chairman of the judiciary committee of congress saying that it's a crime to lie to congress. especially to tell yourself or in an ad to lie to congress rather and also vowing that his committee would investigate these allegation that they would get to the bottom of it we also already heard again once again from the democratic party's calls for an impeachment once more and donald trump has also responded on twitter a c usually does he is trying to question the credibility of michael cohen there he said that cohen was already convicted of perjury and fraud and that he simply lying to reduce jail time or at a correspondent all of brazil is on the story for us in washington all over thank you very much. well timing is important here all of this comes as

donald trump marks the midpoint of his four year term his first term in the white house the w.'s a washington bureau chief alexander phenomenon has this look back at the first two years of our were to time with. he has remained true to himself bragging about his accomplishments fleshing out at his critics. your faith viewing the presidency through the lens of a television show me presidents trump has been dominating the national conversation as no other of modern president has done before at the midpoint of his term he has grown more confident of his own judgment but he also seems to be more isolated no then at any point since he took office his administration has seen a record breaking turnover with top level officials and advisers leaving or being fired as the president continues to push through his america first home see the

paris climate accord is simply the latest example of washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages. the united states it is time to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel iran sanctions are very strong the strongest sanctions resolver imposed there will be a strong deliberate and orderly withdrawal of u.s. forces from syria some of trump's decisions compounded america some even shock its closest allies but no one should really have been surprised says candidates weinstein the president of the conservative leaning cops institute in his view trump is only delivering on his campaign promises the president is someone new to politics someone who both has outside the box ideas and a management style that is very unconventional not. particularly well to the

way washington works. especially controversial. with. fueling speculation about the issue and made sure their relationship trumps two years in office has been overshadowed by the russian investigators focusing much of the on one question for the right not only did i work for russia i think it's great that you're even worse. despite the russian approach most republicans are happy with their president praising him for bringing in conservative judges cutting taxes and fighting for a border wall thank you very much of this fight however could be just a preliminary skirmish in the current divided government and not just by a backlash against some of the president's policies the democrats are now in charge of the house of representatives with many freshman lawmakers eager to take on trump

and we've seen how much more investigation is closing in on this administration and so this is this is why i like to. show house of cards because this is what he knows how to do is about creating distraction and chaos so that the american people are not paying attention to the real disaster that's happening in the united states and that the sastre being his presidency and that's in part why so many folks around this country voted for change and for change has come to washington and this is what it looks like. as to munch us as events have been thought donal's from first two years may ultimately local comfort through what i have. and we'll have more on transfers to yours coming up later on the day here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world president trump

has canceled his delegations trip to the world economic forum in davos switzerland the cancellation comes amid the turmoil of the u.s. government shutdown treasury secretary. was to have been part of that u.s. delegation violent protests that erupted in the sudanese capital khartoum following the funeral of a protester who died from police gunshot wound earlier in the week officers fired live ammunition and used tear gas against demonstrators who threw rocks. and seen five weeks of anti-government protests russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov says his country is open to a proposal to send german monitors to be careful straight which became a flashpoint between russia and ukraine two months ago the comments came as germany's foreign minister heiko mosse visits moscow. more than twenty leading figures from german politics sports business and entertainment have appealed to the u.k.

to abandon brecht's it the open letter appeared in today's times newspaper and among the signatories are the new head of uncle america c.d.u. party a k k as she is known under great crump current the head of germany's social democratic party and very analysis and green party leader robert harding it reads after the horrors of the second world war britain did not give up on us it has welcomed germany back as a sovereign nation and a european power this we as germans have not forgotten and we are grateful should britain wish to leave the european union for good it will always have friends in germany and in europe but britons should equally know that we believe that no choice is irreversible our door is always will always remain open europe is home we would miss the legendary british black humor but more than anything else we would miss the british people our friends across the channel therefore britons should know from the bottom of our hearts we want them to stay

well a short while ago we spoke with our london correspondent very good mohs and we asked her about the reaction to that letter in london. i don't have as far as i know an official reaction but it by any of the government figures but i've looked at the newspaper headlines and it has been reported even though it's not exactly had line news because there is so much going on in terms of pranks that end as an absolute chaotic situation where the u.k. is trying to figure out where it wants to go so it has been a exist for example the financial times the business paper said reflects a rising anxiety in berlin in terms of the cost of business so it's the fear of the heartbreaks it and this is a reaction to it then we have the sun the biggest tabloid they say they report well germany is begging us to stay in the you and similar the express and other tabloid

and both the my leaning towards brics they say it's a desperate desperate bid for britain to stay in the european union i haven't seen a lot of scathing criticism but it's certainly seen as something that is political and it's a political intervention so it's not just hot to hard by by leading german figures but it is something that is the center comes from the center of british of german politics really. and there was there on a love letter from the germans to the british asking them to abandon breaks sports news now this weekend sees the bundesliga return from its winter break league leaders dortmund are up against once again saturday's late game after an impressive first half of the campaign dortmund could finally stop by in munich's run of six consecutive bundesliga tight. there's plenty of anticipation endorsement they sit comfortably top of the table with a six point lead and complacency may be their biggest rival going forward and city

has the it's a good situation to be in but we know there are seventeen more games and that it's still a long season ahead or a big challenges and difficult games to play especially in the next few weeks pressure to perform mean dominated the opening half of the season with fast paced entertaining play they'll have to hit the ground running straight away with their first opponents fourth placed life sick coach lucian five expects a tough away trip. this in dangerous in possession but also on the counter-attack they can also play a long. transition really really quickly he communions so there's not much else to say about life they're a very good team is in the standards of dampening the mood somewhat is the recent illness of captain marco royce cossar is also only just coming back from injury

together they've scored twenty three goals over half of the total the team also looked shaky in recent friendly matches. the christmas season then new year's eve then you spend time at a sunny beach in dubai or somewhere and you look at the table and everyone is passing you on the back of. perfectly normal for the tension to lessen but not affect us. we must maintain the same approach we. first off of the season in the fall and get on i'm going think like an on the outs. statistics point towards a successful second half of the season men have led the league three times at the halfway mark and each time they won the title not a bad omen. as well as take a swim coach take a look at this her name is deep blue and she is thought to be the biggest great white shark ever recorded she's certainly the biggest one we've ever had here when

she was spotted off of the coast of hawaii shark researchers thought that it would be a great idea to jump in with her i guess and here are afraid of death but we found out there was no need to worry she had just eaten a sperm whale her stomach was full so she left the divers alone i'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by the day with or without the shark we don't know yet we'll see you later. using germany to learn german. and those people. with him online along and free to staff. the learning course speak.