ah ah, this is the w news live from china, that's up it's military activity around taiwan, beijing puts on it biggest show of force around the island in decades following a controversial visit us out. speaker also coming up for my german chancellor. gerhard schroeder faces renewed criticism over his ladies from the bottle.

ah i'm and you can make it and welcome to the program. china is stepping up its military activity around taiwan as tensions rise following the visit of u. s. how speaker nancy pelosi. beijing is preparing its biggest show of force around taiwan, indicates the government i pay says it scramble jets to warn off chinese aircraft that entered its air defense zone and number of ty, wendy's. ministry websites have come under cyber attack. hello, c, left taiwan pledging. washington's iron clad commitment to defending democracy. the people's liberation army released these images of china, launching its biggest show force against high one in decades. navy and air

force drills indicated in blue, have encircled the self governing island that china claims as its own. the drills included what beijing cold precision missiles strikes in the taiwan strait. this new escalation comes as beijing hits back for us. how speaker nancy pelosi visit to ty pay. pelosi reaffirmed us commitment to defending ty, ones, democracy as the islands governments scramble jets to water of chinese aircraft encroaching on the air space. what was infill like? our government is even more resolute to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our nation. in light of the current situation, our government will not only actively strengthen its self defense capabilities, but will also maintain close ties with like minded countries. like the united states, which i the issue has dominated

a meeting of the association of southeast asian nations in cambodia is capital norm pen with china and the united states joining the summit. in his opening remarks, china's foreign minister emphasized the political and security ties between china and us young countries. laura, we have guarded the peace facing the turbulence of the national security. the 2 sides have strengthened to strategic communication, jointly tackled the challenges of various spillover effects and jointly maintained the uneasily achieved stability in the region. us ian is positioning itself as a negotiator. it's cold for all sides to de escalate, wanting a miscalculation could lead to open conflict. i spoke to g w correspondent in taipei, joyce lee earlier, and she gave us an update on the military maneuvers. well, up to now, china has fired more than 10 ballistic missiles to the north east and south west of

the island. high wants defense ministry that they have activated the missile defense systems. the drew was initially planned to last for 3 days, but the p. o, a announced today that they will extend it for more one more day until monday i fired rose tech place and 7 songs, including an area just 20 kilometers from the south of south and city gaucho. the thing is, china often holds military drills in the taiwan strait, but what we're seeing now is something else entirely. tell us why these latest exercises, so worrying. well, the truest, unprecedented, this is the 1st time beijing tries to encircle the island like this. the de facto a blockade is a direct challenge to free air and sea navigation ponies, fishermen russia to go back to the pulse for safety. as for international flights, departing in a rocking in taiwan, they have to fly alternative routes to avoid the dangerous stones. it's was no

attendance on china's social media able and we chat chinese citizens have expressed huge disappointment at beijing to lack of action to stop hello see from visiting taiwan. many were expecting to appeal a chew, tick hope laying down, but it didn't happen. and the public, this content is a huge blow to seizing things authority, especially when his under pressure to look strong ahead off a party meeting later this year. many fear the pressure could prompt china to take even tova measures against taiwan. and the drew could be, you know, practicing for a future invasion. and joining me now from bangkok is to to none, pung, so derek, he's the director of the institute of security and international studies as to the long colon university in thailand. welcome to d, w. now tanya is launch, what may be its largest ever military exercises around taiwan?

were you surprised by this? no, no, i don't think that most of us in southeast asia as an ice, we've seen this kind of a chest pumping and muscle flexing from china belligerence over the years. this one is the maximum one, right. largest one that we've seen, and china threatened to do this. basically this is a bring and ship that was started by a low c. and i had to fall through in order to ensure that it's a credible. so you know, this is basically a k. i want a signal, but i don't think that china chinese, we'll, we'll, we'll do the military response, meaning that they will do a lot of thing and puffing a chest, but then it will be a page and we'll go back to the status quo. the association of southeast asian

nations is taking place in cambodia right now. china, in the u. s. i joining that. i see. and summit to what extent of the tensions of the taiwan going to dominate that meeting? of course the timing is, is he missed close the so is it just days before the 55th asking for mr. meetings and all this, you know, he has a lot to deal with the me in my system who and the civil war in the south, tennessee before that china's the, in the regions. and now the, the russian base. and you claim the russian question. so asked and has had a lot to deal with. and you know, normally it's the kind of the bridge and broke up for the big players for the major power. so now the loss, if it cost rate prices with china's military live fire drills

going to exacerbate and you know, it does not help for us to, to maintain the central role of security in the region. so as, as much more challenged by the latest events and already had a full play before. and you know, remember that if asked in this not be well, it becomes irrelevant and doesn't have a central role is back of the big house because they will not have a place to talk to each other. nations have been very careful so far to pick sides between the us and china, the, the rivalry in the pacific. but will they now gradually be forced into making their allegiance is clear. you know, the, the, the us in that, and the secret to the test requires the big power to be relative balance at relative peace. so when the major power go at it, like now,

like you see in the right you as a china russian question. this is back last year because i think it's a collection of small states under major powers, under intense competition and robbery like this is being forced to take sides. and i think we've seen the divisions coming out of this on the am i speaking the one side of the book, singapore, indonesia, malaysia, philippines, on the other side, while i'm on the rest of the question, also we see splits are we see a split over the south china sea. so now i think china and the us both trying to rally us in members to their size. and this is that is dividing the original organization right down the middle. and that the vision is deepening, and it's not good for, for the neighborhood, whole neighborhood because one us in is divided the major power, so have no kind of bridge to have dialogue and no mediator. so i think that job

look a kitchen and pump the derek from chill along corn university in thailand. thanks so much for that fascinating analysis. thank you. now, the ukrainian president vladimir lensky, has condemned comments by the former german chance i get it at suggesting that russia wants to negotiate a solution to its war of aggression should as refusing to cut his place, personal ties with russian, lead atlanta to 10 and is facing an investigation by his own policy, the social democrats. it was a self styled diplomatic mission to the kremlin. vladimir putin spokesman confirmed that former german chancellor gach florida metro russian president on the moscow visit last week. an interview with german media showed us at that point in once

a negotiated solution to the war in ukraine, and that the recent grain deal could be slowly expanded into a ceasefire. damages ukraine's president followed him as a lensky made clear what he thought of the former chancellor's diplomatic efforts. moves early to proceed. it is simply disgusting when former leaders of major states, with european values worked for russia, which is at war against these values. he yeah, cowboys, property sinless. bonnie. ac rush is using these people as messengers, them to say that the terrorist state allegedly wants negotiations, bearablewood, gotch, herders and long standing friend of putins. soon after leaving office in 2005, he accepted a job with russian energy company gas from later became chairman of the supervisory board of another russian energy giant ross left should as refused to distance himself from the russian leader in march. shortly after russia invaded ukraine,

he travelled to moscow to meet putin, his wife, posting this picture of herself praying for peace with the kremlin in the background. schluter has been scorned for his continued ties with russia. some of his privileges as a former chancellor have been withdrawn and he is facing an investigation by his party. the social democrats over his kremlin links once more in the store and are now by dw politics correspondent nina hossa. hi nina. we just heard of la laudermill lensky saying in that report that putin is using schluter as a messenger. is there any sense that all in german government circles that the former chancellor could play a serious mediation role in this conflict? well, as the lens, his reaction is pretty much mirrored here in the german press to day as well. people call screwed up putin's puppet,

et cetera. you mustn't forget that term. gad, florida is suggesting getting not stream to so that controversial gas pipeline. we've all been talking about so much that he's getting that going to make up for the lack of gas deliveries via not stream one from russia. but what he doesn't mention is that he gets through to himself is the president of the board of directors of not stream to. so he'd benefit personally. and that is reason enough to doubt that he could be the neutral mediator. he's pretending to be and yet he is still the only high ranking politician in his party who still has links to putin. but as far as government circles are concerned, politicians here from the, from his own party, keep telling us that sure that is acting on his own behalf. and definitely not in the name of the government. it is possible that back in february when the war 1st escalated that some consider using him as an official mediator. but since then, should have really has completely sidelined himself here in berlin with statements that repeat the russian view word by word and make it look essentially as though

the german government is lying. you've mentioned his party, the s p d. they've more or less disowned him, he's currently facing an internal investigation. what exactly is it that his party b s, b d is investigating? while the sbc is looking into 17 official requests to kick him out of the party because of his close ties with russia and in particular with russian state owned energy companies. so the party itself says that it is not too optimistic that there will be successful in kicking him out for legal reasons. what's working in favor here of florida is that those who the did leave the supervisory board of energy giant crossing left in may. and he also didn't accept a nomination to post the supervisory board of gas from after a lot of pressure on him. so the sbc that they will represent the result of that investigation in a few days next monday. and so that i can then appeal the decision and the legal

battle could track on for a while. do you think that with his lobbying on behalf of twos in the russian gas injury industry, do you think that that could even lead to him being sanctioned by the government? it's not looking like to that the moment the european parliament back in may spoke out in favor of imposing you sanctions on gach lou. that because of his activities of ross and f, and then he did leave ross left. so that's not looking very likely. he w's nina has . i think so much for that. or ukraine's foreign ministry says russia is tracing ukrainian prisoners of war illegally and using them for political purposes, which is strictly forbidden. under the jin geneva conventions, russia and proxy authorities and eastern ukraine have charged dozens of soldiers with crimes. 3 foreign born ukrainian soldiers have been sentenced to death on allegedly fabricated charges and dw forget her shook her, met the parents of one man being held by the russians,

and they fear he could suffer a similar fate. each morning if gania would carriage take some time for herself and quite to look at her son, she hasn't heard from maxine since russian forces captured him 2 months ago. she scared there might be torturing him, or that he might be dead. you do cylindrical i sit in the kitchen and just cry while my husband is still sleeping. when he gets up, i wash my face in person nights and try to be strong for the day and not to cry anymore. only in the early mornings i allow myself to cry. what's it difference as well? oh yeah, the couple invited us to their home because they want the world to know about their son. his parents say, maxine volunteered to join the army, even though he is a pacifist, he had worked as a journalist and activist campaigning for refugees and human rights. but when russia invaded,

he decided to take more direct action or to wish you use go. so she to go early to he told me i'm joining the army because i have to defend the values i've been fighting for my whole life. yes, this is bruce. they only realized he had been captured when a video of maxime being interrogated was shown on russian state media with to boucher. it was horrible. the 1st thing i felt was just horror. i saw my only child listen to the deal. i thought that can't be true crow kremlin telegram tennis quickly called maxime, a nazi a nationalist. they even said he was a british spy because he had worked as a local producer for the b, b. c in 2003. maybe in the blue cross blue to my biggest concern is that they might not recognize him as a prisoner of war like they have with others. and that they would fabricate

a criminal case against him. so using all those lies and twisted evidence, leticia claim in some of a good, a storage it was use when you free our domestic intelligence sources confirm that russia is holding more than 7000 ukrainian soldiers prison. but they won't talk about any of it on camera, because negotiations for prisoners swaps on top secret. a lawyer representing the families of more than 50 captured soldiers has agreed to talk with us. let us laugh, we cannot see. f works closely with domestic intelligence to try to get prisoners back. he expects that russia will fire more and more criminal cases against ukrainian prisoners of war. i think this is so this is don mostly for their political purposes. when you create search and you know, importance to person, gray plots ish, you know, you can use it to in their political, you know, trait. but yes. again,

yeah. and or like sunday i don't want things to get that far. they fire the nerd into peer to the european court of human rights. they say they will fight with everything they have until maxine is ready. health experts have long said that breastfeeding is the most beneficial way to see the baby, yet the united nation says that less than half of all infants are exclusively breastfed in their 1st 6 months. it's currently world breastfeeding week. and so the u. n. is trying to raise awareness of the issue. in this next report, we're going to take a look at france, which for years has had one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world. mullin and matthew has a very young visited work to be a 5 month old daughter boone. she's the 3rd child molly, instill, breastfeed so once or twice a day. the world health organization says breast moved is the ideal food for infants providing essential nutrients that help protect against illness. brutal

also drinks formula since melinda, a lawyer had to go back to work 3 months after her book. but juggling works, she says, isn't the only challenge when it comes to breastfeeding her daughter in france, all citizen cuz people are surprised that i still breastfeed her. i came back from hospital after her birth and was really exhausted. people would say, why are you torturing yourself by breastfeeding? take it easy, your husband should take her. now. i did feel a bit enjoyable, torn, luke? what was his hotel mother? this is her decision to nurse starting with the 1st child 6 years ago, was not an easy one. i felt a bit alone. i was surprised when staff at the maternity hospital gave my son a feeding bottle without my consent. i really wanted to breastfeed him. it was the 1st sign that something was wrong. they are coming out with the mother phony. mullins experience is not unusual in france. statistics showed that less than 70

percent mothers will start breastfeeding at all. and the number drops to just 22 percent. after 6 months, experts see a big reason is frances rinsed to be short maternity leave to 16 weeks after baby's book. but the aversion to nothing. once deeper than that, karen f. v is a private lactation consultant in more than paris, she helps future mothers prepared to breastfeed to me and helps troubleshoot when there's a problem with our printer covering up to dishes, advising a client over the phone. so carol says, women wanting to breastfeed in france face an uphill battle because of the lack of awareness across society. but it's a great lack of supports support from the community in general, the health care professional talk with help know much much about breastfeeding. so as soon as there's some kind of issue, they will say, well, then you can go home, you know, making maybe you can drop right, breastfeeding and, and use

a bottle. in french feminists in the seventy's weren't really in breastfeeding. in comparison to the swedes or the region mothers, our mothers didn't breast feed. so we don't have a culture that supports breast feeding. despite its look, breastfeeding weights, france is far from being the only country, but mothers switch early to infant formula. the world health organization says that across the globe, less than half of all new ones are breastfed. within the 1st, i will flip or drink breastmilk exclusively for the recommended 6 months. and when joined now by amy brown, professor of maternal and child public health at swansea university in the u. k. welcome to dw, we saw in that report a report that france has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world. can you tell us why to women not breastfeed?

i think a lot of women want to breastfeed and would really like to breastfeed their baby, but when their baby is actually born, they find that the support just isn't in place for them to be able to do so. i mean, breastfeeding is obviously very, very natural, but that doesn't necessarily mean that is easy. so without the support system around you. whether that support with practically latching your baby on or broader support around carrying for your baby and going back to work, then it can be really, really challenging. and a lot of women are then stopping far, far before they're ready to do so. so support has a huge issue here, but of course, and breastfeeding culture differs around the world. doesn't say, can you explain to us why that is and how that works very much. so different countries really have very different attitudes to breastfeeding both in terms of how normal they think it is and how likely you are to see it amongst your friends and family. so if you have

a culture that is really supportive of breastfeeding and it has really high breastfeeding rights, and it's much easier to breastfeed your baby because everybody around you is likely to be accepting of breastfeeding. and they know what to do when you've got a problem. now, if you're in a country where breastfeeding rates are really low, then not only is the support not in place to help you with that. but when you talk to your friends and family about it, even if they're supportive of you, they don't really know how to help. say, it ends up being even a bigger issue because the support isn't there. and the understanding isn't there either. the benefits of breastfeeding a clear do you think women aunts don't have enough education and information about how good it is for them? and quite frankly, how, how good it can be for the, for a new mother as well. and i think to some extent, then we're not very good about talking about the benefits of breastfeeding for

a mother's health in particular. but i think a lot of women really do know the benefits for their baby, and they really, really want to be able to breastfeed. it's just that the circumstances that they're trying to breastfeed n o most set up against them. it's like we tell them that breastfeeding is really good for them and their baby when they're pregnant and then their baby is born and the support is needed for them to carry that. i just isn't in place. so i don't really think it's a case of telling women how great it is. it's more really a case of telling everybody around them about how important it can be to a mother. not just for health reasons, but because it's something she wants to do it's, it's how she wants to cat her baby. so from what you've been saying, what's needed most to encourage more women to breastfeed is support. i presume rice at the beginning when the babies are 1st born, but also in the months after that. absolutely. i think we just need a really big investment in supporting breastfeeding,

but also supporting mothers more generally through those early months of having their baby. so if they are better supported, if they have better maternity pay, if they have longer maternity leave, then the whole experience becomes a lot easier. i think we do need direct support for breastfeeding, but we also need better support for mothers and motherhood in general and just that really challenging experience of becoming a new parents. so i think that we looked after on the mother's batter, we'd actually see our breastfeeding rates rise to such an important topic. amy brown, professor of maternal and child public health. it's once a university. thanks so much for talking to us. a volcano has erupted near iceland, capital rates you the occult to days of earthquake activity. thousands of people were brave enough to make it to the site. the 300 me said. crevice is much longer than the fisher opened by and near by or up from last year. that became

a major tourist attraction, drawing thousands of businesses. now iceland hasn't eruption every 5 years on average. this is the 7th in 21 years. you're watching dw news up next focus on europe. looks at the migrant crisis on b, moroccan, spanish, florida. i'm andrew cripps mckinnon. thanks so much for watching t w. i ah, with

there have never been this many death. europe's external borders. we enclave of malaysia. between morocco and speak with it's also where a true a sudanese asylum seeker tried to cross over to your i barely surviving. he speaks about brutal push backs and rejection. focus on europe

next, on dw, into the conflict zone with sebastian. little is known about the inner workings of the kremlin, especially with vladimir putin in power of my guest this week for the prime minister. because castiano what in the early, 2000. and he knows what from behind the closed door with the russian government, a conflict with 60 minutes, w. o. you become a ready news with hackers, paralyzing the tire societies,

computers that outs where you and governments that go crazy for your data. we explain how these technologies work, how they can go in for us, how they can also go terribly, watch it now on youtube. ah, ah, with hello and a wall. welcome to focus on europe. aside from the.