ration causing beijing to condemn what it says is washington's extremely wrong and dangerous decision just another round in the ongoing fight between these 2 economic superpowers think coronavirus trade wars south china seas a military standoff and huawei or are we building up to something big i'm phil gayle in berlin and this is the day. for me from over to taiwan i want to say congratulations to present saturn are gratian the democratic process in taiwan has matured into a model for the world. in the u.s. taiwanese independence is a dead end plotting towards and supporting taiwanese independence be sure to fail despite great pressure from outside to want to demonstrate to the wisdom of the giving the people of voice in the choice. take the necessary reciprocal counter

measures against us is mistaken actions the consequences of this will be borne by the us. greatly underestimated the degree to which beijing is ideologically politically hospital for free nations. also on the day a year after of autumn is the lansky was sworn into presidential office in ukraine promising to end his country's a war with progress or separatist what's the 1st act on this comedian turned politician the. hasn't been able to end the war putin won't let him. he promised to end the war he should at least start doing something this war has been done for 6 years and nothing has been done. so let's start with the latest a verbal tussling between the united states and china and the apparent unwillingness on both sides to tone down. the rhetoric the latest flashpoint is

taiwan u.s. secretary of state mike pumpin allowed to bitter from beijing after he congratulated the taiwanese president on inauguration a condemning what is what he said it was interference in the china's condemning what china said was his interference in domestic affairs beijing of course claims sovereignty of the island which is governed itself since the communist came to power on mainland china in 1949 this is the latest in a catalogue of disagreements on trade technology amongst other things and more recently of course the us president blaming beijing for what he calls a massive worldwide killing of the coronavirus pandemic president she claimed this week the chinese acted with openness transparency responsibility i wish it were so it's been 142 days since doctors that want central hospital 1st started sharing information about a sars like virus and yet today we also hear this morning beijing continues to deny

investigators access to relevant facilities to withhold live virus samples to censor discussion of the pandemic within china and much much more. i want to stress that at the critical moment when the international community is united facing the covert 19 pandemic the us is still upholding you not to listen like that you want to cause maximum pressure. this goes against the global anti pandemic cooperation and seriously violates the human spirit china urges the u.s. to immediately change course and correct mistakes. so this was about harder boxer's a senior asia expert at the battle's mine institute here in berlin a welcome to d w should we presume that secretary of state pompei comments to taiwan were being were deliberately provocative towards china. absolutely this was

a provocation aimed at china's stage for the domestic u.s. audience the u.s. government wants to get tough on the world stage so this is not at all unfortunately about taiwan entirely is freedom or democracy they're just being used for internal election reasons in the u.s. it's interesting though with though isn't it for us non china specialists that something as apparently innocuous as well done on your election madam president should bring such an enormous response from china. absolutely but taiwan is the biggest factors red line that china has and the u.s. and western approach that many of the u.s. approach to taiwan has always been strategic ambiguity not saying too

much about what they it would do about taiwan and this has. led to a certain stability in the region and of course trump is doing away with all this diplomacy mili provoking china over taiwan this time where the chinese communist party government and he big personally also under immense pressure is extremely dangerous because we've seen a lot of speculation recently therefore shooting ping bringing taiwan back into as they call it in china that embrace of the motherland will be one thing that it will be very keen to do in his term and giving him a reason to escalate the situation in the taiwan strait is really i would say the diplomatic equivalent to drinking doesn't affect. the

so this latest disappeared over over thailand this this is the end of what has been a couple of years of china and the u.s. butting heads on trade on huawei free passage through the south china sea and of course on coronavirus should we see these as lots of separate files if i can put it that way or other part of a larger u.s. strategy to achieve will to achieve what. it is one big fire the big strategy in the u.s. at least the rational part of it is to maintain u.s. position in the asia pacific region and to maintain the u.s. position as the main power in that will china is obviously challenging this. and all the disputes they've had in the past were aiming at pushing

china back and using china towards a more level playing field in tearing to established rules of the global order and global governance china obviously is having none of that they want to assert their power in the asia pacific region so this is really an escalating situation between the u.s. and china ok and obviously also economically after think economic crash of 2008 it was chinese money through loans and business deal that helps lots of countries stay afloat and now we have the world in a 2nd on the crisis worse than that is china likely to be the lifeline this time. i don't think china's going to be the lifeline for western economies let me give you one example of what happened in the last crisis it was a financial crisis china had a massive stimulus package for example for infrastructure they needed

machinery from abroad from germany for example and they needed that to build roads and housing fast now 101112 years later they get having a big stimulus package but they have their own technology and they're much more insistent on using indigenous chinese technology so even in the last crisis what they did is something that they did for their own sake but the side effect was that it worked very well for western economies this time they don't appear to be the solution they must more appear to be part of the problem could talk to you thank you for joining us about how to botch from the battles mend institute thank you. the

presidential election in the day passed peacefully despite fears of political violence in the east african country however shortly after the polls closed position. a vote opposition leader. said and actually observers from his party have been chased away from polling stations there were no independent observers on election day. since 2005 but surprised many by not seeking a 4th term has anointed successor ever rescind is an army general considered too close to the government's alleged crimes nor as someone who tried to stop them in other words a compromise candidate. i would like to tell you that since these founding no president has supported his successor because i too have never benefited from the support of my predecessors an american. sentiment reflects.

his history in the transfer of political power and rose to the top in 2005 as the result of a peace deal that ended over a decade of civil war critics say his decision to run for another 5 year term in 2015 violated that deal the resulting violence cost at least $1200.00 lives that's on top of hundreds of thousands of deaths from ethnic strife in the decades since he came independence from belgium in 1982 landlocked is one of africa's smallest and poorest countries the world bank estimates that 75 percent of its 11000000 people live in poverty. there's no money or nothing since morning we've just been sitting here looking but we can't find any customers. the un has warned the government's efforts to repress criticism a new cycle of violence and. currency's as party and its youth wing has been accused of rape torture and murder rights groups say the president himself has

encouraged crimes against humanity and campaigning has gone ahead without regard for the coronavirus pandemic as has public life in general critics accuse the government of covering up the true scale of the public health crisis something the winner of today's vote might not have the luxury to ignore. although the vote was peaceful a number of election observers are saying that burundi fails to meet conditions for a free and credible polls his friend moved from d.w. south africa to ask. they're from brilliant people and the international community brooded never accepted their international observers their number to join now is we're not allowed to come in their country and even 2 years it is 2 years before they suspended some of the international media organizations like b.b.c. the voice of america and key international media houses and then there is also the problem of corner virus they said that they said that guys if you want to come and

observe these elections you have to stay you have to be current teens for 14 days and this was announced just one week before devoid. of the coronavirus pandemic is proving to be a stress test for the european union like no other but the blocks stability has been challenge before few know that better than joan told younker he was european commission president from 2014 to 2019 he began his tenure during a currency a debt crisis that pitted wealthy and that this against struggling. the arrival of more than a 1000000 asylum seekers in 2051st rattle the block tilting towards a far right and populist apartheid that jacked it to authority from brussels brags it consumed his final years in office did the loser bad reader asked him how

populist parties a use in the corona virus outbreak to push their agenda. people who smile to a dish that is belittles all of course use this crisis to explain how we need strict border controls. that every country would better deal with the crisis individual e. could not together with the european union the. should do all. through the mission is what i believe the people of europe have learnt from this crisis. take. their learning that one country alone will not beat this pandemic alive these are clues a list. could all have to pull in the same direction we. should listen if it is a reason maybe one consequence of the many small acts of solidarity. from the

judges french covered 1000 patients being cared for in germany and luxembourg. or neighborhoods helping each other around. will be that after the crisis we'll all be better people and better europeans. and you can see the band bigots are full interview with the former head of the european commission. on line at d w dot com. today marks a year since a ukrainian a comedian and actor became president of his country and during a news conference her help to mark the anniversary of president vladimir selenski i spoke about the situation in the don't pass he called for direct talks with president putin on the issues that he planned to meet with partners in the so-called normandy format as russia germany and france as soon as the coronavirus a crisis was over before last year's election of

a president selenski had no political experience of them playing a politician and a hit t.v. show the w. our correspondent nick connelly in kiev looks back now on the president's 1st year . no hesitation a ready smile and an eye for the cameras then again this was an apology resilience his 1st inauguration as president of ukraine donegal before the start of a hit t.v. show the real thing was watched by millions online a reminder for anyone needed white picked up a record 73 percent. for a job all my life i've done everything i can to make ukrainians laugh. great for the next 5 years i'll be trying to make sure you koreans have no reason to cry luck. ukrainian certainly have had enough to cry about in recent years war with russian backed separatists has claimed some 13000 lives and displaced millions such

that force of night i'm ready to do everything to stop our hero's dying. i'm ready without hesitation and to lose my position to make peace happen. so year a year for all the high drama of that speech the reality has been disappointing a quick end to the conflict is only possible on russia's terms something neither selenski know many ukrainians are willing to accept even a stable ceasefire has remained beyond reach just as it did for his predecessor hundreds of ukrainian soldiers have died been seriously wounded solecki took office . selenski the only tangible progress has been a series of high profile prisoner exchanges with russia and separatists gestures of good will but no more than that. a summit in paris last december linsky face to face with climate putin for the 1st time. you had hoped that personal chemistry could achieve a breakthrough where years of negotiations failed hope that was soon dashed. and

while the tone between moscow and kiev may have changed the fundamentals haven't. but it's alinsky knew from the outset that his presidency would be defined by the war his 1st year in office was spent putting out fires he could have seen coming. within months of his election the world was once again looking at ukraine and not for the right reasons. ask yourself whether or not president trump had pressured him into launching investigations into his democratic rival joe biden ukraine's new president found himself stalling holding out just long enough to avoid his country being dragged into present trumps impeachment trial in us partisan politics. and just as one dangerous seeded another arrives in the shape of covert 90 a threat ukraine's underfunded health system was always going to struggle to me. as the dust settles on a turbulent 1st year in office ukrainians are going to be expecting more from their president than crisis management. lenski now has to find in new story of his

presidency a story to inspire the 73 percent of ukrainians who interested him with the country's biggest ever mandate. well that report from nick connelly in kiev who joins us now are welcome to make a year enter a lansky have president say how much closer are we to peace in eastern ukraine. well phil we've barely edged forward this is well and truly a conflict that stuck the front lines haven't moved in years but people are still dying soldiers dying the last week civilians and soldiers being wounded almost every day that hasn't change you get the sense. that he thought that personal chemistry meeting. face to face could somehow achieve more than it has been able to i think ukrainians voted for the water end but they were willing to give him to basically. let russia decide the terms this would happen and that seems to be the only way to end this conflict in a hurry to give russia some kind of veto over ukraine does in the future so given

that the only option on the table is. it looks very difficult see where this is going and it looks like he's going to have to find a new topic to kind of really justify his spot in the top job ok but 73 percent that's quite a mandate why did you craniums vote for him in such huge numbers was this just about electing a celebrity. i think this is about a mood about a tone you've got to think about what ukrainians went through in the last 56 years they had a revolution they had an economic crisis many people saw their savings wiped out then russia annexed crimea then the conflict in eastern ukraine began people were just exhausted and their previous politicians were just telling them he's got painful reforms ahead and the best you can hope for is some kind of frozen conflict with russia and then you have someone like selenski coming on to the stage someone the everyone knew his face from t.v. someone associated with the lighter side of life with comedy who told them that

there is a sort of easy solution to this and that he could really shake things up and basically take these problems out of their hands and appeal to a lot of people we went out into the streets of of the last few days and ask people what they thought about his 1st year in office. the more miserable misery hasn't been able to end the war putin won't let him. i'm convinced his promises came from the heart he really meant it he just doesn't know how to make it all happen. he promised to end the war he should at least start doing something this war has been done for 6 years and nothing has been done. but so. i'm disappointed and i voted for him but i'm really disappointed right now. i think selenski is an honest man but he's really trying it's the people around him that are the problem. and they calling ukrainian policy exists it's quite an

interesting phase at the moment to me as a landscape not the only high profile figure to take office that how of the other ukrainian a mr scott. well that's the thing he is only one of whole a cohort of people from showbusiness that have made their way into politics apart from him he was this country's most famous stand up comedian and actor we have ukraine's most famous rock musician. who predictably set up a party called voice he seems to have slightly lost interest in day to day politics and has kept one foot in parliament but has been recording a new album but apart from him we have former world heavyweight boxing champion vitaly klitschko who is mayor of kiev someone who had a lot of skeptics the beginning but has really put in the hours and one of those people over he's seen as potentially one of his most serious rivals for the presidency next time around i think the takeaway from this is if we think in the west that people are kind of tired of career politicians then they have to come to ukraine this is

a place where people assume that people go to politics to make money or to protect the money they've got so that kind of association with something that's not politics with show business with music with sport that really comes into effect and in situation where people don't really believe in any kind of ideology that personality is the only thing that politicians have going for them and obviously if you're coming from showbiz you can sell yourself much better to the audience to the voters than any normal career politician and you touched on in your report was suppose attempt by president trump to coerce ukraine into launching potentially damaging investigations into the son of his likely presidential rival joe biden that was a story that made big headlines over here did it attract much attention there in ukraine. well that's the curious thing ukrainian leaders are always obsessed about getting attention and support from the u.s. and often struggle to do so and suddenly ukraine became the topic everyone was talking about in washington and it wasn't being talked about here in ukraine

firstly most ordinary ukrainians didn't really understand what the allegation was and secondly if they did they weren't really impressed by the concept or shocked by the concept of a conflict of interest the idea that a politician could be going off to government interest or personal political interests of business interests the same time that is just seen as a given in this part of the world so there was little shock about that obviously the people in power were very worried they saw the danger of ukraine getting sucked into this internal u.s. power struggle of support for ukraine becoming a partisan issue where it hadn't been in the past it seemed like he was out of the woods that had stalled long enough for this to blow over but yesterday we had our ukrainian m.p. giving a press conference where he said he had recordings of joe biden talking to former president poroshenko have say that everyone involved in this has said these are fakes but he is trying to push this push a new investigation so we have now the prospect potentially of an investigation here in ukraine with joe biden maybe only as a witness in the months coming up to the next u.s.

election so potentially ukraine in the headlines in the u.s. for a few more months a quick word about the bread and butter issues and jobs health corruption vehicle to me is the president making much of a difference. well frank you haven't had much time overseas have to deal with corona with ukraine gate as it's known and trying to somehow get some kind of relationship with him if putin there's a big worry here among the reformers in government or who have been in government he doesn't have the patience or the understanding of how long it takes to really change things that he's someone who's come from t.v. and wants quick results who's looking at his rate ratings and is not really willing to put in the hard graft lots of ukrainians are really willing to wait they're voting with their feet this is a country that seen millions of people leave you know western europe betting money they can here so there's a lot of pressure now on zelinsky to really deliver and make ordinary ukrainians lives better. they could connally and care faqir for that

and that was the day as ever they conversation continues online you can find us on twitter at news or at phil dale and don't forget to use the hash tag the day of a good.

i'm going. to give. some up. this woman is defying the regime. but one must move has been searching for her husband and son for years both might be victims of syria's secret service now there's a ray of hope suspected henchmen of us on our own trial in germany the law some display in the. midst of the t.w.a. . gets a deadly sin. and

a basic human trait. it drives us. and britain to destroy us. green. in part one of our shoes great church. green something that. green the faithful desire. in 45 minutes on d w. one the rises cities will sink into the city block the entire stretches of land will be abandoned. the water the strongest. it's happening faster than anticipated

a. massive breach are supposed to prevent flooding but they only delay inevitable. how will we live in the future. 66. sea level starts to slip on d w. hello and welcome into focus on europe liz show the corona crisis has been dominating headlines for months so much so that it has overshadowed all other topics like the ongoing war in syria the conflict began 9 years ago and there's still no end in sight years of heavy fighting and bombing have left many city.