you want to become citizens. for margaret's your platform. this is d.w. news live from berlin and donald trump's former attorney gives a damning indictment of the president to congress. is a resource. use of congress. and. michael cohen unleashes a torrent of allegations the white house says they're all lies also coming up the

second summit between the leaders of the united states and north korea has begun donald trump and kim jong un opened their meeting in the vietnamese capital hanoi with the u.s. president praising their strong relationship monta will and be enough to make progress towards peace. and tensions soar as pakistan says it shot down two indian aircraft a military spokesman also says one indian pilot has been captured the disputed territory of kashmir is once again at the core of this latest crisis between the nuclear armed neighbors. omarion evanston it's good to have you with us donald trump's former personal lawyer and fixer michael cohen has made a string of explosive allegations about the u.s. president testifying to. for

a special congressional committee in washington cohen claims trump knew about wiki leaks e-mails damaging to his rival hillary clinton before they're released during the twenty sixteen presidential campaign cohen also says trump ordered him to pay hush money to porn actress stormy daniels who says she had an affair with trump cohen says he was then ordered to lie about that to the first lady white house denies all the claims collins already pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and lying to congress and will soon begin a three year prison sentence. well our washington correspondent helen humphrey has been following the testimony and she joins us now so helena we have seen a copy of cohen's prepared testimony and now of course we've heard him speak and deliver that testimony he's also been answering questions what stood out for you.

right now if we thought that statement seemed inflammatory when we received it head of the hearing less than twenty four hours ago when mr cohen delivered it in congress it seemed explosive essentially what we're seeing from mr cohen is a pincer action on one hand the character assassination against the president saying that this man is more bad than good he only wanted to be president for his own self enrichment essentially but he had to come up with something more substantial and he came up with three main accusations against the president one regarding the wiki leaks release of e-mails from against the democrats an allegation that he was aware of those e-mails sent to be released ahead of time particularly those against hillary clinton saying that would be good too when it comes to russia that trump continued to work on the moscow trump tower projects into the campaign campaign in twenty sixteen and he knew about meetings between

a russian connections and his son don jr in twenty sixteen and three we'd already heard about the hush money payments to adult film actress is now the accusation that donald trump reimbursed mr cohen for that payment in twenty seventeen or less when he was already in the office well one of these are all of course very serious accusations but does michael michael cohen have any evidence to back up these accusations. right that's what's so interesting about this committee hearing because it's not a court proceeding so he could bring with him other articles other exhibits he thought may back up his claims and that's something he's a sought to do in order to restore his credibility he exhibited for example intimidatory tweets newspaper articles but one piece of evidence that will be seen as king will be closely examined is

a check for thirty five thousand dollars which mr cohen alleges mr trump paid him in order to reimburse him for that hush money payment to stormy daniels take a look at that moment when he delivered that piece of evidence in congress as exhibit five my testimony shows i am providing the car of the thirty five thousand dollars check that the president trump personally signed from his personal bank account on august first of twenty seventeen when he was president of the united states pursuant to the coverup which was the basis of my guilty to reimburse me the word used by mr trump's t.v. lawyer for the illegal hush money i paid on his behalf. all right helena so his shows the check and yet cohen's problem is the question of credibility it's known that he has lied to congress in the past will this be enough though to

convince lawmakers that he's telling the truth now and will his testimony be enough for a trump to trigger an impeachment investigation against donald trump. well in fact that's almost the accusations the accusation that the republicans are leveling against the democrats by holding this hearing they're saying that you want to trigger impeachment proceedings against him and to a certain extent by holding this wednesday an open hearing accessible to the public perhaps the democrats are hoping that this will turn the tide of public sentiment we know that here in d.c. for example you know bars are already opened for people to watch that testimony people are glued to their television sets but we need a robust accusation of course and a robust legal tool the murder investigation might be one way of doing that and we're still awaiting the results of that to be deliberate. helena humphrey

reporting for us from washington d.c. thank you. now the second summit between u.s. president donald trump and north korean leader kim jong un is underway the two met for a short time wednesday evening and more lengthy talks are set for the morning trying to push him to give up his nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic development came and trump had dinner together at the metropole hotel in the vietnamese capital hanoi the talks come eight months after a historic summit in singapore which is the first between a sitting u.s. president and a north korean leader. under phenomenon has following the talks in hanoi and she has this aspect of the meeting so far on the first day there are some it's done old straw. and we're all smiles and pleasantries the u.s. president we've. 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 that talks will continue the u.s. is seeking the chilled 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 agreement both are happy with. and now to some of the other stories making news around the world spain's former prime minister mariano rajoy has appeared in court as a witness in the trial of twelve catalan separatist leaders royce said the politicians had knowingly created a dangerous situation in their fail twenty seventeen independence bid he defended his decision to crackdown on the separatist movement the trial is ongoing. british

lawmakers are set to vote on amendments to prime minister theresa may as planned for leaving the european union the amendments could lead to britain where questing to delay drags it beyond the current march twenty ninth deadline european leaders say they're open to allowing more time but not to renegotiating the exit deal. egyptian state t.v. says at least twenty people were killed and forty others wounded after a fire broke out at cairo's main train station the fire was reportedly set off by a train's fuel tank exploded when the train crashed into a barrier. the european union has urged india and pakistan to exercise utmost restraint in their current flare up of violence over the disputed territory of kashmir the e.u. warns that conflict could lead to serious and dangerous consequences for the two countries and the wider region on wednesday india and pakistan both said they'd

shut down each other's aircraft. the wreckage of an indian air force helicopter near srinagar draws a crowd the circumstances surrounding the downing of this aircraft are unclear but all is not well between the juggernaut neighbors india and pakistan the customer region has been central to the dispute between the two countries for decades as i must admit it is the world's most militarized zone a powder keg waiting to explode the latest escalation began two weeks ago when forty indian paramilitary police were killed by a suicide bombing in paula according to the indian government its warplanes retaliated this week by striking a training. near the pakistani town of balakot killing quote a large number of militants. he says it launched the airstrikes against the group jaish e mohammed after it got hold of intelligence that the group was planning further attacks. the likes of continue the future of pakistan acknowledging this. investment there to get information that. either gets into parts of india the

middle can get he said you could be given. tensions rose further with pakistan's claim and had shot down two indian warplanes and now pakistani prime minister imran khan is calling for talks with india. meanwhile calls for deescalation to resign from around the world growing concern that the first air strikes by the nuclear rivals on each other's territory in decades. the german government has responded to reports that german made weapons are being accused in the war in yemen saying it's taking the allegations seriously investigative reporting by d.w. and other media partners suggest that saudi arabia and the united arab emirates have deployed those arms and contravention of agreements with germany opposition politicians have called on berlin to end its strategic partnership with saudi arabia. according to german regulations this minesweeper made in germany should

not be in yemeni water is but d w and its investigative partners have assembled proof that the vessel is on not to have service that that's prompted cool's for action is that good ahmed in my view it's a clearer than ever that germany based some responsibility for the terrible suffering in the war in yemen with them and if we don't want not one of them we have to stop delivering weapons to all sides in the conflict. citizens and politicians have been expressing their dismay online using the hash tag german arms the greens are calling it an absolute worst case scenario. he's germany in directly involved in one of the world's most devastating conflicts in response to the report senior government figures a calling for an explanation they suspect of being illicitly supplied to warring parties i think this case needs to be investigated deeply every state that gets

weapons from germany was allowance of the government has to sign and confirm that. remain in the state where they are delivered to. chancellor angela merkel's cabinet has denied knowing german weapons of being deployed in the war in yemen in the wake of revelations the government says fresh inspections will be carried out concrete he invites the government takes seriously and will investigate any evidence of abuse or failure to observe the terms of and to use the question is what has happened to the weapons that found their way to saudi arabia the united arab emirates the evidence peaks for itself they ended up in the war zone in yemen. another doping scandal has hit the sporting world this time nordic skiing is under scrutiny after police made several arrests in germany and austria the raid focused

in part on the town of they fed austria where the nordic ski world championships are currently taking place. a house used to peace and quiet in the austrian alps is now at the center of a police bust here police arrested seven people among them five athletes. austrian police are working together with german authorities in a sting centered on an international doping ring whose backers are believed to come from germany. and start the motor of the munich public prosecutor is bringing charges against four german citizens on suspicion of using doping methods for a bit and by the anti doping law. the athletes are alleged to have practiced blood doping which involves blood being removed from the body and light reinjected shortly before competition boosting delivery of oxygen to cells police say on wednesday they caught two austrian athletes red handed or forty's they say the doping network originated in germany they believe it operates around the world. at

the same time as the bust in austria police in germany searched nine buildings in the town of effort including the practice of sports medicine specialist mark s. who was arrested along with an assistant police believe he is a leading figure in the doping network. you're watching daily news coming from berlin up next after a short break w. business news africa will tell you about what the real action of nigeria's president means for the country's economy and thanks for watching. stories of people for information they provide. the means they want to express d.w. on facebook and twitter up to date and in touch follow us.

donald trump and kim jong round number two here in hanoi vietnam. to be able to hammer out a deal.