this is t w news coming to you live from berlin after a missile strikes around and the u.s. ease back from direct military conflict around appears to be standing down which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world president trump insists he wants peace but will his country's ongoing clash with iran play out in the way it's also coming up why did a ukrainian passenger plane crash just moments after takeoff from iran's busiest airport there are still no definite answers we'll go live to kiev. and

a different kind of brags it britain's prince harry and his wife megan announced they'll step back from royal duty and spend more time in north america in unspent took the queen by surprise. hello i'm terry martin thanks for joining us president says iran appears to be standing down in its confrontation with the united states while he himself has not threatened further military action the president was speaking after iran launched a missile attack on u.s. military installations in iraq but caused no casualties. a crucial and highly anticipated moment no americans were harmed. in last night's

attack by the iranian regime. we suffered. all of our soldiers are safe and orderly minimal damage was sustained at military bases or donald trump confirming no troops were injured or killed in iran's missile attack meant there was no need to escalate tensions between the 2 countries. it's all about the iranian state television had earlier claimed missiles fired by iran's forces had killed 80 u.s. soldiers at the ion al assad air base in iraq because. the attack was an act of revenge for the killing of top military commander general kasim any the move has been widely welcomed across iran. crowds chanting death to america as iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali how many tell them their message has been delivered my god.

a slight force delivered last night but what is important is that the seditious presence of america. in the region should be and it fits her. she was the country's foreign minister also spoke out. of the. view we've said very clearly that if the united states takes any further action respond accordingly and we will respond in a very harsh way but proportionately united stunnel trump and did promise further action but in form of economic sanctions military confrontation it appears has been averted for now. for some analysis now i'm joined here in the studio by rachel rizzo us political analyst from the aspen institute here in berlin good

morning rachel morning so the u.s. and around or now holding their fire tehran says that it has concluded its actions to avenge the killing of its top general. but what about those militias supported by iran is it not true that the u.s. is just as barbel as it was before this whole confrontation began well that's a great question that you ask and i think based on trying speech last night it seems like we have avoided an all out war but you raised a good question about the militias you know iran said last night that they had concluded their operation but that this does give them a little bit of room to maneuver and if militias decide to take their own revenge it gives them a chance to say it was it wasn't that their mission had been concluded so i was little did i lose my ability and we should point out 1st that there were some rockets fired into the green zone in baghdad overnight just after trump spoke

exactly so i don't think anyone is going to be letting their guard down any time soon here what is donald trump strategy now in dealing with iran and what can we decipher from what he's done so far and what we heard in his speech on wednesday well what is his strategy for anything really you know that's a great question i think they just based on his speech last night he were on a path to deescalation no one in the united states no one in iran wants a war but i think that this does really depend on what happens next and so those are steps that i think people in the united states government congress are going to be looking very closely to see exactly what happens but like i said before it's too early for anyone to really let their guard down in his speech donald trump called on nato to play. a bigger role in the middle east what do you make of that well i don't really think anyone knows exactly what he means by that role i mean nato does

have a role in the middle east there's the iraqi training mission obviously but i think that over the last few years trump has spent a lot of time calling nato obsolete calling our nato allies free writers so it's really surprising to a lot of people that he would make a speech last night and call on nato allies to play a greater role i mean this isn't really a mission that nato is is made for this is why nato exists so i'll be looking for more information on that in the days and weeks to come course we're here in europe nato does have a mission in iraq a training mission there are german troops there and other troops how do you think nato allies are going to respond to this appeal from donald trump i think that's a great question you know the past few years have been really difficult for the u.s. european relationship the u.s. german relationship especially and so i don't think nato allies are going to be jumping to come to the united states's. defense in the middle east region i mean

they're really stuck between a rock and a hard place right now and unpredictable united states president and iran that's not a great place to be in racial thank you so much analyst. from the aspen institute here in berlin thank you. well in his speech yesterday president trump outlined a number of measures that he believes could help achieve his goal of containing iran and its nuclear ambitions these include new negotiations and new sanctions on terra the time has come for the united kingdom germany france russia and china to recognize this reality they must now break away from the remnants of the iran deal who are j c p a way. and we must all work together toward making a deal with the ring that makes the world

a safer and more peaceful place. let's bring in d.w. political correspondent thomas sparrow who joins us from our parliamentary studios tell us how is germany likely to respond to trump's initiative. terry with restraint there will be discussions on what exactly germany and not only germany but also the other european allies that are close signatories to the j.c. could react germany has said so far that it's still believes that the iran nuclear deal is important that they would still like to keep it but at the same time they're not just going to stand and watch while iran takes steps back from that iran nuclear deal so that's the initial reaction that we've had in the last few days from germany regarding the iran nuclear deal but it is something that germany and very probably the other european allies will still want to keep even though they do recognize that he has lost some importance in the last few weeks and in the last few months. of course since announced there's going to continue with in

reaching your rainy contravening the deal that was negotiated but there's also called for nato to play a bigger role in the middle east how is that going down in berlin. every time there is a hint that germany could play in any way a bigger role militarily in different conflicts around the world this is made here in berlin by the different parties with a lot of skepticism that has to do with german history and that is not something new in that regard but if germany is going to play a bigger role militarily then one very obvious option would be to do it as part of a nato mission we've already heard from nato that. the head of nato spoke to donald trump on this particular proposal by the u.s. president and what they agreed on is that nato could play a bigger role and that they would stay in touch regarding this issue so it is still unclear how the nato could play a bigger role but that there is indication that nato could do so. well later today

germany's foreign and defense ministers will be meeting with the bonus time here in berlin to address the security situation in iraq what can we expect there thomas in particular the meeting today regards the situation in iraq and we've already seen by the german defense and foreign ministers regarding their position on iraq they will be presenting that to the german parliament and in fact you know you can clearly see that there are 2 issues that worry that german government one is just ability of iraq in particular the possibility that all these tensions and differences could play into the hands of the so-called islamic state and 2nd the issue of german troops in the region as we saw already germany moved part of its contingent to other countries in the region and does hold something that we expect will be discussed today in the german parliament tell us thank you very much t.w. political correspondent thomas sparrow. now what caused the ukrainian passenger plane to crash in iran just minutes after takeoff all of those

on board were killed more than $170.00 people at all the ukraine international airlines jet was on its way from tehran to kiev the aircraft went shortly after iran fired missiles at u.s. bases in neighboring iraq ukraine's president vladimir selenski says his country will send a team of investigators to iran. the morning after wreckage and what's left of the personal items of those who were on board. the ukraine international airlines flight from tehran to kiev was carrying over 170 passengers and ukrainian crew the majority were iranian with many canadians and some swedes on board. many were rainy and students were rainy and canadians returning via kiev having spent the winter break with their families. around the world expressions of grief

like here at key international airport but also an international scramble to find answers. since the last inspection took place on the 6th of january there were no comments from the inspector as the aircraft was functional there were also no comments from the crew upon arrival. since the crash coincided with the red launching missiles at u.s. bases in iraq some experts say the plane may have been shut down canada's prime minister justin trudeau said his country would join any probe our government will continue to work closely with its partners to ensure that this crash is thoroughly investigated canadians have questions. they deserve answers. say categorically one way or another that the plane was not shot down. i cannot it is too early to speculate i would encourage people not to want to speculate u.s.

secretary of state mike pompei o has said he wants the u.s. to be involved in the probe but the iranians say they won't hand over the black box to boeing initially iranian and ukrainian officials both blamed mechanical problems but the ukrainians later backpedaled declining to offer a cause while the investigation is going on. for more now let's bring in matthew cook from the key post he joins us from kiev matthew answers are still being sought as to why this plane fell out of the sky what can you tell us about the investigation. right now there's no official information on the cause of the plane crash presidency lenski this morning announced that a team of ukrainian experts had been dispatched to tehran to take part in the iranian commission investigation these are 40 specialists and possibly even more individuals from ministries like the ministry of defense the interior ministry of ukraine. is

a dense he did not really say anything more concrete than that just that the the investigation would go forward that they expected cooperation from iran and that he encouraged people not to draw any preliminary conclusions until the crash had been fully investigated and we're hearing that iran does not plan to turn over the black box to boeing for example are ukrainian authorities really confident that they will get full cooperation from their reign in counterparts in investigating this crash. so far they appear to be confident in his message to the public which he released on facebook video message president today said that he expected the ukrainian specialists and the ukrainian experts would have access to the black box or would be involved in the process of opening the black box so right now that does seem to be the case it should be mentioned that ukraine has pretty normal relations with iran and so there isn't really reason to believe that there will be serious

problems at least not yet many ukrainians died in this tragic accident how are people in ukraine dealing with this situation. well there has been an outpouring of grief. to many members of the public and also people involved in aviation different pilots flight attendants brought flowers to a memorial set up for 9 of the 11 ukrainians who perished in the plane crash these were crew members of the ukrainian the plane international airlines flight. there's been a lot of people remarking on the tragedy in social media at the same time because the last lack of information about the causes of the crash also been a lot of issues that people speculating that it was a rocket attack that it was a bombing in his message president since he called on people not to spread these rumors because right now they're unconfirmed and the expert opinions on what could have caused the crash are still rather divergent there isn't that there isn't

exactly a consensus on what the reason was matthew thank you very much that was journalist matthew cook from the post. now some of the other stories making news around the world leaders are meeting with libya's u.n. backed government as the conflict in the country worsens germany's foreign minister and the e.u. council president met with the leader of the un backed government. ceasar. rather the e.u. russia and turkey have called on government forces and rebel groups to declare a cease fire starting this sunday. but libya's interim government plans to start a corruption investigation into $600.00 officials who were part of former president evo morales says administration or alice was granted asylum in mexico last year after he was forced to flee believe in the wake of disputed elections. hundreds of

thousands of people in puerto rico are without electricity and water through a series of earthquakes hit the u.s. territory earlier this week the strongest quake had a magnitude of 6.4 making it one of the worst in a century at least one person died and hundreds were made homeless. and in pneumonia break in china may have been caused by a new type of virus that's according to the world health organization more than 50 people call pneumonia have caught many in the city of on many of them worked at the same seafood market the w.h.o. said the illness could come from the same family as the sars virus it's. in australia more people have been told to leave their homes due to wildfires authorities warn that higher temperatures and stronger winds on friday will increase the fire risk australia's national weather agency confirmed it last year

was the hottest and driest year on record for the country huge blazes raging in all stair rail you have destroyed an area of land is because south korea 26 people have died in thousands of homes have been destroyed. the embattled australian prime minister scott morrison promised that the states devastated by the fires would get some more money from the federal government soon. of course this is coming out of the the recovery fund which are announced earlier and this is a small but very significant initial pilot i said the money would be flowing immediately and those $1000000.00 payments will be sitting in the bank accounts tomorrow. big changes could be coming to the british royal family prince harry and his american born wife have announced they plan to step back from their duties as senior members of the family prince harry and megan had just returned from a 6 week stay in canada in a statement on their website and on instagram they said they would continue to

support the queen but wish to become financially independent and balance their time between britain and north america. earlier we spoke to our london correspondent charlotte potts and asked her just how significant this announcement . it is really a dress to move and unprecedented in modern royal history and i think we have to take a look back at the couple's history their marriage and their relationship in a 2018 was met by huge and susie essman also their charitable work that they've been doing through their foundation and all of that changed in 20191 of the highest there of course was the births of their son they opted for a royal title already for that baby so maybe a sign of what we're seeing happening now but the couple was met with huge scrutiny criticism by british tabloid media to a point where harry stepped up and said that the tabloid magazines were driving

a ruthless campaign against the couple and that he was afraid that what happened to his mother to princess diana would happen to his wife meggan formally. the duchess of sussex so that was his fear and he probably trying to take themselves a little bit out of the public eye of course that move though doesn't mean that they are completely out of the public eye but at the moment very much in it. now. to taiwan where there are real concerns about chinese interference in the islands upcoming presidential election the allegations are hard to ignore for an island that beijing claims is part of its territory china looms large in daily taiwanese life. it's graduation for these young students at taipei university but while their thoughts may be on their careers their hearts are with fellow students in hong kong. a quick glance around the cafeteria makes it

clear where their sympathies lie and who their common enemy is china. now it's easy to weigh in the past china's interference was not so noticeable but now it is if we allow this to continue it would be like the frog in the slowly boiling water it doesn't notice the heat until it dies. but when singing is in the current political mood in taiwan is really unpleasant. but. tensions are growing red paint attacks on activists critical of china hooliganism and vandalism and solidarity demonstrations for hong kong. foreign journalists have been verbally abused by pro china advocates like mrs john here member of the china patriots association. the official the group's headquarters are here in taiwan's capital taipei

a chinese flag flies over the building inside a portrait of taiwan's former president chiang kai shek hangs alongside current chinese president xi jinping china born mrs john is busy painting patriotic slogans this one reads for unification with china against taiwan's independence. that's a quote you honed as a chinese in taiwan still is sons and daughters of the chinese nation we're taking on the responsibility of pushing for the unification of a country that says it sounds. then they plaster their campaign bus in slogans they want to give taiwan's liberal pro independence president a piece of their mind. taiwan's authorities strongly suspect that the c.p.a. gets resources from china through back channels. but taiwan has a powerful opponent china groups and media organizations often financed by wealthy businessmen and women are the most obvious means of chinese influence. but more

subtle mischievous methods are employed using social media. the politically independent taiwan fact check center in taipei has been monitoring the sharp increase in fake news. these include repeated claims often using manipulated content but taiwan has been behind the protests in hong kong. now then soon as this is how one since local elections at the end of 20 eighteenth's least become aware in taiwan that we have become victims of an information wolf that china has been waging against us in order to manipulate time when the society and elections. since. those local elections saw the meteoric rise of a man that previously no one had heard of how will you from the opposition protests

and i mean dung party now a presidential candidate a populist propelled by a well oiled political machine who's especially gaining ground in social media. and it's where did this sudden momentum come from. claims china has nothing to do with it. but jiang and her patriotic chinese association waged their fight for independence out in the open at taiwan's presidential palace they proudly hand over their petition. while the now woman just in the petition for the president to recognize that there is only one china and for a peaceful unification with the main. you know. they hope that in the not too distant future china's flag will eventually fly over taipei. this is d.w. news and these are our top stories u.s.

president donald trump says no americans or iraqis were hurt in iran's missile strikes on u.s. bases in iraq which tehran launched in retaliation for the u.s. killing of a top general mr trump did not threaten further military action against iran before promised additional economic sanctions. ukraine has declared a day of national mourning following a deadly plane crash in iran on. in stay all 176 people on board the ukrainian airliner were killed ukraine's president has said he will step up cooperation with the iranian government to establish the cause of the crunch. the crisis in southeast australia looks set to worsen due to soaring temperatures and stronger winds forecast for friday authorities are advising the local residents to evacuate quickly 26 people have died in the fires and more than 2000 homes have

been destroyed since september. britain's prince harry and his american born wife megan mark say they will step back from duties as members of the british royal family the couple said they wish to become financially independent. this is news from berlin for more follow us on twitter at news or visit our website . and finally the show must go on that's the motto for an elvis presley festival in. the elvis express for the annual extravaganza dedicated to the rock n roll legend the find the event in rural new south wales is going to have despite the bushfire disaster gripping much of the country festival goers are encouraged to make a donation to the fund for firefighters battling the blaze. you're

watching the news coming up markets breathe a sigh of relief but european companies are boasting with their feet. why they're leaving. that story and more coming up in business just a minute away with stephen beardsley i'm terry thanks for watching.

in asons they call them digging up the homeless. christos on the front face. he provides jobs for street people in his own cafes. to help them start their own newspaper. but best of all use it all to restore their sense of dignity.

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better we need to take a closer look at. experience knowledge to move today. on to g.w. . europe felt it would keep business with iran going to preserve a critical nuclear deal and offset u.s. sanctions so why is european investment flooding out of the country we'll take a look. also on the show carlos ghosn gets his day if not in court but at least in front of the cameras we'll take you to the ex nissan chief's 1st appearance since his dramatic.