these four success strategies that make a difference. breaking bread. on g.w. . this is d.w. news live from berlin and donald trump's former attorney testifies to congress i recruited this just two years to try to recruit will that don't support. what michael cohen unleashes a torrent of allegations against trump the white house says they're all mine.

this is the second summit between the leaders of the united states and north korea is underway donald trump and kim jong un opened their meeting in the vietnamese capital hanoi with the u.s. president praising their strong relationship but will it be enough to make progress towards peace. and the british parliament is preparing to vote on a series of amendments to the government's bragg's a plan prime minister to resume aid is insisting britain will leave the e.u. on the twenty ninth of march. thanks for joining us i'm marion evans team a racist a con man and a cheat all that's how michael cohen president donald trump's former personal. they

are and fixer has described his client to us lawmakers cohen has been testifying before a special congressional committee in washington he's made explosive claims that trump knew about a wiki leaks e-mails damaging to his rival hillary clinton before their release during the twenty sixteen presidential campaign cohen also says trying to ordered him to pay hush money to porn actress stormy daniels says she had an affair with trump and then lie about it to the first lady to the white house denies the claims the committee has called cohen a liar. as well cohen has already pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and lying to congress and he'll soon began a three year prison sentence let's hear some of what he had to say to congress today. because i know what mr trump use he's a racist he's a con man. and he's cheat. all right with me in the

studio now is the w.'s my waiter she's our former washington correspondent so my all we'd already seen of the prepared testimony from cohen but now we've actually heard him speak to lawmakers how compelling did you find his testimony if there were there were moments when i thought wow this is an powerful stuff he appeared emotional especially when talking about his family and so on that he's very very close to his wife and his two kids it was also very interesting to see him look directly into the camera perhaps thinking that the president is watching over and hanoi vietnam where it's at the leave the middle of the night there and say saying things like i am not your fixer anymore mr trump i find it ironic that you're in vietnam when you avoided the draft hearing the vietnam war and the u.s. several things stood out to me and there you go ahead oh my you know and well why don't we just go live because michael cohen is still continuing his testimony let's listen in can be characterized as a blind loyalty to donald trump

a blind loyalty that led me to choose a path of darkness is that accurate mr cohen i wrote that you wrote that and said that from the judge wright that's correct you read a few other things here let me ask you why you did some of these things when you filed a false tax return in two thousand and twelve two thousand and thirteen two thousand and fourteen two thousand and fifteen and two thousand and sixteen was all that out of blind loyalty to the president no it was not when you fail to report four million income to the internal revenue service did you do that to protect donald trump no i did not and when you failed to pay one point four million in taxes i got constituents who don't make that in a lifetime when you fail to pay one point four million in taxes to the u.s. treasury. was that out of some blind loyalty to the president united states it was

not but the number was one point three eight and change and i have that money back to the i.r.s. i think the american people appreciate that one point three and i would also just like to say it was over the course of five years approximately two hundred sixty thousand a year and that's what i said two thousand and twelve two thousand and thirteen two thousand and fourteen two thousand and fifteen two thousand and five years yes got it when you made false statements to financial institutions concerning a home equity line of credit taxi medallions and your park avenue apartment in two thousand and thirteen two thousand and fourteen in two thousand and fifteen and you pled guilty to making those false statements to those banks was that all done to protect the president no it was not about this one and you created the fake twitter account women for cohen and paid of him to post tweets like this one in a world of lies deception and fraud we appreciate this honest guy that michael cohen has tagged t.g.i.

ath hash tag handsome ass tags sexy was that done to protect the president you know mr chairman i didn't actually set that up it was done by a young lady that worked for red finch and during the course of the campaign which you would know it's somewhat crazy and wild we were having fun that's what it was are you having fun was it done to protect the president that was not done to protect the president fake twitter account that was you know there was a real twitter account it exists they have firm to create this i didn't know the firm intimate knowledge it was done by a young lady that works for the firm and again sir you having fun during a stressful time the point is mr condit you lied to protect the president july to help yourself. i'm not sure how that help me sir i'm not sure how did either right and i would like to know to more than half the people in on that's just my way are men here's the point for me just gave you a thirty minute opening statement and you have

a history of lying over and over and over again and frankly don't take my word for it take what the court said take what the southern district new york said cohen did crimes that were marked by a pattern of deception and that permeated his professional life these crimes were distinct in their harms but very common set of circumstances they each involve deception and were each each motivated by personal greed and ambition a pattern of deception for personal greed and ambition and you just got thirty minutes of an opening statement where you trashed the president of the united states of america mr cohen how long did how long did you work for donald trump. possibly a decade ten years that's correct and you said all these bad things about the president there in that last thirty minutes and yet you worked for him for ten years all those bad things i mean it's dad that i can see working for him for ten

days maybe ten weeks maybe even ten months if you work for him for ten years. because how how long did you ah how long you work in the white house i never worked in the white house that's the point isn't as you call it no sir yes it is no it's not so you wanted to work in the white house no certain get brought to the dance certain now i was extremely proud to be a personal attorney to the president of the united states of america i do not want to go to the white house i was offered jobs i can tell you a story of mr trump reaming out running to previous because i had not taken a job where mr trump wanted me to which is working with don mcginn at the white house general counsel as well and you work for star as they don't want one second what i said at the time and i brought a lawyer in who produced a memo as to why i should not go in because there would be no attorney client

privilege and in order to handle some of the matters that i talked about in my opening that it would be best suited for me not to go in and that every president had a person here's what i see here's what i see. so you go work for ten years as you're trashing the guy he worked for for ten years didn't get a job in the white house we've been watching live pictures from the hearing of michael cohen u.s. president donald trump's former lawyer and fixer as he was being quiz there by a member of the house committee with me in the studio for a bit of analysis on all of this is my. former washington correspondent so my some very tough questions there addressed to michael cohen most of them seem to be about cohen's credibility in light of the fact that he is known to have lied to congress in the past how credible are you finding michael cohen this is a tricky spot that he's put himself in because he's he's made himself an enemy of

both president trump supporters and president trump detractors shall we say. these are questions that he had to have known were going to be brought up and what happened right before michael cohen started giving his testimony was that same representative jordan calls him a convict who has lied to congress basically questioning why we should believe anything that you have to say it's also known that this representative is a strong ally of the president and one worth watching him do right now is trying to bring michael cohen down and call into question absolutely everything that he's given here today now we should say it's not just sort of cohen's word against the president's here he has evidence he has exhibits that he has given to this congressional committee so what we're seeing now is the the line of attack of the republicans are going to take versus was going to be the line of attack that the democrats will take which is much more likely along the lines of trying to strongly connect the president to the goings on that will happen in the campaign

particularly with the alleged russian meddling the payments to these women who have alleged to have affairs with the president. this is this is a tough spot if you're michael cohen because no. he likes you and nobody want to be friends with you nobody wants simple if you well michael cohen certainly didn't mince any words about his feelings about donald trump and we do have a clip of what michael cohen said a short time ago in his introductory remarks let's have a listen strom is a con man he asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair and to lie about it to his wife which i did and lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets because she is kind of good person and i respect her greatly and she did not deserve that. all right so michael cohen calling donald

trump a con man how do you think those types of words that kind of language is being received at this committee hearing cohen is doing two very powerful things here that are sort of working in tandem he is disclosing very specific knowledge about specific events that were very central to trump's world the trump campaign trump's financial dealings trans personal life he's also leveraging that closeness to offer a very damaging character assessment those two things together make him sound very credible now we've seen the way the president has reacted to michael cohen ever since cohen quote flipped on him and started cooperating with investigators start cooperate with prosecutors he called him a rat he's threatened him he now. talks about how his security is under threat his family is under that big and he directly accuse the president of causing these threats to his safety here. but again cohen sort of in

a tough spot trying to turn on his former boss as representative jordan pointed out trying to paint him as this ultimately very bad guy now if you're someone who doesn't support the president this is something that you know you are the new you are he knew that this was something trump was capable of this is what he was like if you're someone who supports the president and you you see good in him and you want him to be a good president for the united states. this is going to be interesting to see how that media sphere spins this how the supporters and that spinning well my i think it's safe to say with trump reacting in the way that he has been and calling cohen all of these names it seems that he is in fact consist concerned about the impact that his testimony might have could it be damaging enough all of these statements by michael cohen to actually threaten trump's position or could we see this kick

starting in peach mint investigation. that is the word that everyone who wants to see the president out of power loves to bandy around the word. it is very very likely that trump is up right now in his hotel and how nouri watching what's going on right now we know that the trial trump is very capable and very willing to punch back against people who make negative statements about him whether it be a journalist a newspaper or a former personal lawyer of his and we know that trump is not someone to take these sorts of things sitting down now how much he's going to be tweeting about this versus how much he's going to be paying attention to what's in front of him in vietnam that's going to be interesting balance to watch and his twitter feed. really appreciate all your analysis thank you. well as my you mentioned the second summit between u.s. president trump and north korean leader kim jong un is underway the two met for

a short time on wednesday evening and more lengthy talks are set for the morning trump wants to push him to give up his nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic development came and trump dined together at the metropole hotel in the vietnamese capital hanoi all these talks come eight months after historic summit of singapore which was the first between a sitting u.s. president and a north korean leader. alexander phenomenon is following the talks in hanoi and she has this assessment of the meeting so far on the first day there is some it's done oh it's true. and we're all smiles pleasantries the u.s. presidents we've paid to trust whose good relationship with the north korean leader referring to the brutal dictator as my friend he seems to be hopeful that there are personal poor can bridge gaps in negotiations on thursday the talks will

continue the u.s. is seeking to tilt commitments from pyongyang to dismantle at least some of its nuclear facilities while kim's regime wants relief from punishing economic sanctions the challenge will be to turn on the apparent good chemistry between the two leaders into a concrete agreements both sides are happy with. british prime minister theresa may has appealed to lawmakers to support her plan to take the united kingdom out of the european union address ahead of a series of votes set for later today well meanwhile german chancellor angela merkel and french president amanda micron have agreed to support giving britain an extension. on article fifty regarding bragg's it the two leaders were holding talks in paris to break that agreement deadline is on march twenty ninth.

british. well joining us now a number of british m.p.'s have left the two main parties over their disaffection with of course their leaders have been taking over brags that they've gone on to form an independent group in parliament and now we're joined by our london correspondent david moms who is with one of those m.p.'s hello to you. hello to you in berlin yes i'm here with angela smith and now independent m.p. i just met you left over brags it as one big reason now labor has shifted its position on the second referendum have you already managed to to to shift labor policy to influence labor policy while it would be very nice to think that we have the time the fray that you know the spent made by the labor party on monday appears to be unraveling really really fast so it looks so we were where we started with the labor no people's votes amendment on the order paper today in the house of

commons no commitment my getting different sources saying different things what appears to be clear is that the people's vote will still only be put on the table if all of their options fail so i'm afraid i thought it was a really positive development on monday but i'm afraid it doesn't look like it's going to be the case and again we've got two major parties here the tourists and the labor party who were let in britain down and they're just putting themselves first rather than the country and it's really disappointing so it seems like a people's vote a second referendum is becoming unrealistic and also there is not really a majority in the house of commons for it is a well i'm not sure of that we've got two parties who are being whipped you know the tory party in the lead party to two against the people's votes at the moment you know what in the end theresa may has to either a set a new deal or her tail and i think she can only get her deal through the house of commons if she accepts the principle of putting her tail back to the country and

a company tree referendum in other words ratification by the people i think she can get her deal through on that basis and one sometime soon she's going to have to face up to that and what can you as independent m.p.'s i mean you're a small group what can you do to achieve your goals well i think. you know we we're putting the pressure on it's quite clear what having it in because the politics of the changing even though they're not delivering at the moment will continue pushing for the people's. second reference we will poll in this we will carry on doing this because we think politics is broken and we have a responsibility to put the country first and honestly we don't want to lose our relationships and i say this with our closest friends we are european britain is european couldn't three. superstar action for the country in the future angela

smith thank you very much and well that to you in berlin all right so many thanks for those interesting insights angela smith and they're getting us. all right let's get you up to speed now on some of the other stories making news around the world egyptian state t.v. says at least twenty people were killed and forty wounded after a fire broke out at cairo's main train station fire was reportedly set off by a train fuel tank which exploded when the train crashed into a barrier. emergency crews in indonesia are scrambling to find dozens of people buried in the collapse of an illegal gold mine at least three bodies have been recovered fifteen people were rescued from the mining shafts in north so will we see problems. the vatican says it will reopen will open its own investigation into australian cardinal george pell that's after melbourne found guilty of sexually assaulting two teenage boys tell sentence will be announced next month he faces up

to fifty years behind bars. now a series of cross border incidents has heightened tensions between nuclear armed india and pakistan over the disputed region of kashmir well this video is said to show shells fired from pakistan coming down in india. controlled kashmir near the city of or a jury of skirmishes have also been reported elsewhere along the line of control that divides kashmir both sides also say they've shot down aircraft pakistan says it downed two indian warplanes while india has confirmed the loss of one aircraft and says it downed a pakistani jet none of these claims have been independently verified both sides have closed airports and airspace to commercial flights in the region. pakistan's prime minister imran khan has urged restraint after meeting with his top security officials. can we afford miscalculation with the kinds of

weapons you and we have shouldn't we be thinking where this will go from here if things were to escalation it won't even be in my control or in narendra modi's control no american drone will get in. there gerri and president obama has been declared the winner in saturday's elections electoral commission report of the incumbent six word fifty five percent of the vote biharis main rival the billionaire cart claims the election was rigged and he says he'll challenge the results in court. scenes of joy as supporters of president mohamed who bahati celebrate his reelection behati swept to power as a reform candidate four years ago now focus of giving him enough to turn to deliver on his promises for years he has been busy fighting corruption mean you know before he can create opportunities he has to fight other things before those

opportunities come bequeath it so we think this opportunity we've given him no we give him do right time did the right time for him to create more employment through the youth everybody in one three or four hundred years about to fight corruption bring jobs to nigeria's young population and a festering the hardest insurgency in the north of the country but even those who voted for him admit that he's fallen short of expectations. i don't think you have any other choice he's not the best choice and he has the best days but we don't have any other option because i. was. one of the supporters assange when his opponents a furious his rival. refuses to work. the election result saying the vote was rigged up a bucket supporters feel cheated to cool it is the window of this position.

but they begin pulling the election. of all the m.p.c. and there were no harpy on the chick or double don't know what is ip because in order. to cool it it is time for him to become president of nigeria. civil society groups report that thirty nine people were killed in clashes between rival supporters on election day alone with his second term secured biharis first task is to stop the anger at its controversial victory leading to further bloodshed . and now to wanted to go and first parco africa's biggest film festival it's also one of the oldest and most influential movie events on the continent for can foster stages as pago every two years and it's running until saturday here's a look. this is africa's biggest film festival and it's celebrating its fiftieth anniversary.

twenty full length movies are competing for the so-called african oscar the golden stallion of. filmmakers and film lovers meet up for the rendezvous of the continent first of all to spark a means a lot to me it brings together many people from different nations and different backgrounds it's a moment of sharing. the mind of five guys says. it's very rare to see a cultural event that lasts for fifty years in africa it's true that everyone has made a real commitment from the book in a big government to the actors and also the filmmakers while holding up well despite the lack of cinemas and a lack of funding why exactly new. on . the very first streaming at first is the film the

mercy of the jungle. no pointers. when you get. to the edge. it's a road movie about wars in congo seen through the eyes of two soldiers lost in the bush. it's a story of hopes and weaknesses and come up as we already. know to leave in this. country together the food is beautiful the people. need to leave in peace so this is about it's this and plan for if it's a future for too good. by the end of the festival on saturday more than one hundred sixty movies will have screened close to five thousand professionals from the film industry are on site while got to cinemas are overflowing fest pac oh definitely lives up to its motto movies about africa by africa and for africa.

and a quick reminder now of our top story. the transformer attorney michael cohen has told congress that trump had advance knowledge of leaked e-mails from the democratic party during the twenty six thousand presidential campaign coming also saddled her trunk made it make a series of racist remarks against african-americans. up next fifty w. news asia and marion evans stand thanks for watching.

every journey begins with the first step and every language the first word published in the. rico is in germany to learn german why not come with them simple online on your mobile and free stuff from d w z e learning course nikos fake german made easy. germany state by state.

colorful. clear stuff. the most traditional. find it all at any time. check in with a web special. take a tour of germany state by state on d w dot com. donald trump and kim jong un round number two here in hanoi vietnam will the jew be able to hammer out a deal that is more substantial than the singapore agreement tentative steps towards denuclearization in return for an easing of economic sanctions joining us we'll walk you through the events as they unfold here slung. did w. news. will be a. good.

place. to. play. this is d w news asia coming up on the program the worst crisis in the disputed kashmir region in decades as india and pakistan trade fire. and diplomacy between personality donald trump and kim jong un prepared to square up in vietnam well they deliver.