this is g.w. news live from berlin tonight reading the mobile report the much anticipated results of the investigation into russian interference in the twenty sixteen presidential election that report has been made public and it delivers a mixed verdict clearing the trump campaign of colluding with moscow but not illegally obstructing the investigation the president claims he's been vindicated but the report tells

a different story also coming up tonight press freedom under assault a new report says the journalist here in europe and around the world are confronting increasing hostility would mean a journalist in exile who paints a grim picture of press freedom in her native hungary. i bring golf it's good to have you with us and we begin in the united states where after an investigation lasting two years special counsel robert muller is report into russia the truck campaign of the twenty sixteen presidential election has finally been made public it concludes that there was insufficient evidence that president trump's campaign colluded with moscow but did not clear him of having a legally obstructed the investigation as people poor over the. more than four

hundred pages done and the documents president says he has been vindicated meanwhile critics accuse the white house of trying to spin the report's findings even before it was released. the long awaited munna report or interactive version of it is available for viewing. but hours before americans had their chance to read it president donald trump's attorney general had his say. after nearly two years of investigation thousands of subpoenas hundreds of warrants and witness interviews the special counsel confirmed that the russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the two thousand and sixteen presidential election but did not find that the trump campaign or other americans colluded in those efforts but what about the possible obstruction of justice by donald trump ten episodes were examined and the president took no act that in fact

deprive the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation the president was quick to react and took to twitter to declare himself fully vindicated he later appeared at an event in washington where he expressed his delight i'm having to take you who was called. no collusion no obstruction. there never was by the way and never will be. but democrats criticized william barr for holding a press conference before the report had been released. the speaker of the u.s. house of representatives nancy pelosi currently on a trip to arland took to twitter and said barres partisan behavior had triggered a crisis of independence and impartiality she went on to demand that special

counsel miller provide public testimony in the house and senate as soon as possible democratic senator elizabeth warren said it was a disgrace to see an attorney general acting as if he's the personal attorney and publicist for the president of the united states the report could not conclude that donald trump obstructed justice but it's not over yet for the president as congress can continue to investigate him. you know someone who has been reading the report like barker right here are familiar faces one of our u.s. analysts a veteran of the obama administration and you know with the aspen institute so you've been reading the four hundred pages today like the rest of it is. what struck me is that president trump after the release took place said he was having a great day as he read that report well i think he's having i mean the entire failings of advisers from the white house is out completely on the defensive today

kellyanne conway has already come out and said that they're misrepresentations of what happened immediately after the firing of komi there have been a lot of gaps in the narrative filled in for example knowledge that ivanka trump and jared cushion or others hope pics were aware that there was dirt on hillary clinton being offered by the russians a lot of these these elements are being laid out especially on the obstruction of justice front and that's really where i think a lot of the focus is going to turn to well there were two cases in this report where we're mothers says you know we were almost there in terms of obstruction of justice the report concludes that the only thing that separated from obstructing justice was the fact that the people he asked to do that for him always said. that could i read that and i thought well isn't this something that's impeachable that it's right there in black and what isn't isn't that a massive irony that in this

a lot of the stuff is already come out in bob woodward's reporting from his book last year where he basically said you know a lot of trump's mandates to his staff rob porter apparently corey lewandowsky and others were just not acted upon because the staff knew that this would get the administration an extremely hot water so the irony here is that he actually has a staff that's really looking out for his best interest the question is a question of intent as as i think you have been in and others you know would end with. does it become a prosecutable offense and i think that what we're looking at here and this has been indicated in some of the footnotes in the report is that this is something that basically muller said this is something for congress to look at well is that what we're going to see now i mean mulder is going to testify today we heard the attorney general say he can do that right i'm not against that let's say he goes to congress and testifies and then it's up to congress to decide what to do i mean the document the report is no longer just a legal document it's now a political document right impeachment itself is political not legal right so there

are two avenues that the this is now going to take one is the political avenue which is going to have to do with congress and the other is going to be the prosecutions that could occur the further investigations that could occur for example by the new york state attorney general or in the southern district of new york the state of the national attorney there and those and one of the glaring omissions from the report has been trump's finances and the state of crimes finances so there is some speculation that a lot of the elements the evidence that has been found in the in these investigation was farmed out to others to further prosecute which didn't fall in the narrow mandate that very very quickly the democratic presidential candidates everywhere across the country have been saying that people are talking about this report they're talking about health care of the the economy is this going to change that do you think in the us i mean i think it's similar to frankly if you think about back to nixon and pietschmann or excuse me and his resignation and watergate

a lot of the basic facts of watergate were already available in one thousand nine hundred two before the one nine hundred seventy two election what happened was it just the temperature continued to rise through investigations and through the reactions of the white house itself and i think that's where where this could become much more pressing matter for the trump administration ties mark thank you very much for talking with you again tonight on the day thank you. here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world pope francis has washed the feet of several prison inmates as part of traditional festivities ahead of easter previous popes have generally washed the feet of priests on holy thursday the current pope instead carried out the practice in facilities such as prisons and centers for migrants paris has honored firefighters who battled monday's blaze at notre dame cathedral with a ceremony at city hall a host of dignitaries thanked them for their service including the mayor earlier the firefighters were also invited to a ceremony at the police

a palace with president in mind well. new york police have arrested a man who tried to enter st patrick's cathedral with eight leaders of gasoline police say the man told them he wanted to use the cathedral as a short cut the incident came two days after the fire at notre dame cathedral in pairs. german chancellor angela merkel has expressed her shock and sadness for the victims of a tour bus crash on the portuguese island of madeira all twenty nine people were killed in the crash were german the bus plunged down a hillside east of the capital on wednesday knocked. a holiday turned tragedy portuguese authorities worked into the night to clear the wreckage the bus plunged into a house after the driver lost control on an embankment rescuers were able to pull some people out alive but for many it was too late the bus was full of german

holidaymakers with families waiting for them at home. the german government is doing everything in its power to ensure that the relatives are well informed. the german ambassador and consular staff have already arrived on the islands to provide the necessary cash. but boy an official in charge of identifying the victims is already in place. germany has also set up a hotline for the victims' families. on twitter portugal's prime minister antonio costa expressed his condolences and reached out to german chancellor angela merkel . the driver has reportedly survived authorities must now determine what caused the bus to veer off the road. from. the information we have

from the company is that the bus was relatively new machine it was just five years old. but apparently safety rules were followed and it's premature to talk about the causes of the accident was it was a dance the diplomats who started to slums of felicity's on thursday european parliamentarians held a minute if silence for the victims. while three days of mourning will be observed in one. thing or reporters without borders has just published its latest press freedom index it's based on access to information legal restrictions and the rate of violence against the media whether it's committed by the state or others and there are some troubling results eritrea north korea and turkmenistan are at the bottom of the table and these are the countries where reporters without borders

describe the situation is very serious now at the top of the index we find the northern european countries of norway finland and sweden but the picture is not so positive in other parts of europe european union member hungary drop fourteen places to eighty selve a problem case here has been speaking with a high garion journalist who left hungary and now lives here in germany. barely nine hundred kilometers separate berlin in budapest but for a journalist or a dish areas work the two cities are worlds apart since viktor orban became prime minister nine years ago hungary's media landscape has changed radically. get her desk when i was a child i always heard that hungry was one of the most liberal countries in what was the eastern bloc and i grew up with this idea that is depressing but specifically this democracy in hungary is slowly being deconstructed and that press

freedom is being restricted. during the experience first hand how new regulations turn the broadcaster where she worked into state controlled media critical colleagues were fired she herself quit and went to germany in twenty twelve. bagnall is from back home two hundred journalists including doris former colleague were recently laid off and here t.v. station once critical of the hungary and government he reports that the broadcaster was taken over by a media foundation headed by a manager loyal to the government. as it can a lengthy stay perspective as there are no long term opportunities for quality journalism in hungary. dora works at a nonprofit organization in berlin with its own news portal and last is an agency that produces content focused on eastern europe she says you can find critical

reports written in hungary and about corruption for example but they are mainly online yes kept here propaganda you know there's a lot of propaganda in hungary the governing parties rhetoric has taken over it's only present at the same militaristic choice of words the same formulations the same phrases that government speakers use. journalists who do not cooperate are denounced as traitors reporters without borders says this affects not only hungary and journalists scapa nets. in recent years there have been several so-called blacklists in various media or on websites in which specific hungary and reporters or even foreign journalists as well were accused of being liars accused of being foreign mercenaries who want to destroy the country. according to reporters without borders animosity towards the media leads to violence dora fears that this could also happen in hungary. where the european

parliament has held its final plenary session of this term and one member of parliament from slovenia chose to send his colleagues off with a message and a bit of a song. and peace that's. going to get a cup of coffee. that was owed to joy from beethoven's ninth symphony we'll see at the top of the hour with more news if. it's crunch time the european elections are just around the corner of the shooting in asia you might ask a simple why should i care what the european market is one of the biggest in the once every month and be back with needs to catch up so watch our special show you will actions why they matter to asia. because of the soon to spread

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