>> this is dw news live from berlin. it tonight, the downfall of america's dad. justice for bill cosby's accusers. >> how do you feel? >> i feel highly -- i feel like i'm dreaming. can you pinch me? >> emotions running high outside the pennsylvania court that found cause big lt of drugging and molesting a woman. the retrial verdict marks the first big celebrity conviction of the need to era -- the # metoo era. it could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. tomorrow bought the german chancellor angela merkel and there is hope that there will be no awkward moments like this for

her first visit. history about to be written. north and south korea's leaders will meet tomorrow on the so-called peace line which divides the korean peninsula. israel peace on the peninsula within reach -- is real peace on the peninsula now within reach? to heavy with us. it tonight, we begin with that stunning and emotional cost he conviction. the actor and comedian bill cosby found guilty in a sexual assault retrial just hours ago. cosby was seen here leaving the courthouse and has been convicted of drugging and molesting a woman. this marked the first big celebrity conviction of the need to movement -- of the #metoo movement.

he could face a prison sentence of up to 30 years. dozens of women have come forward to say that he drug and assaulted them. cosby's lawyers vowed to appeal the conviction saying that the fight is not over. gloria allred, an attorney representing dozens of cosby accusers said this is a watershed movement, moment, rather, for the #metoo movement. >> i want to thank the jury. justice has been done. beginning in 2014, the accusers began to speak out. it took a great deal of courage. in the beginning, many were not believed. we are so happy that finally, we can say, women are believed and

not only on #metoo but in a court of law where they were under growth. where they testified truthfully. where they were attacked, smeared, denigrated, and attempts to discredit them. and after all is said and done, women were finally believed. and we think the jury so much for that. brent: the host of our weekly program looks at the movies, the movie business, and in los angeles tonight, i am joined by the entertainment and hollywood reporter kj matthews. let me start with you. this is a spectacular downfall for a man that was loved not just in the u.s., but all over the world.

>> this is the beginning of the end for bill cosby. he is 80 years old. he's been convicted of three felonies. he will likely spend the rest of his life in jail. he hasn't been sentenced yet. that will be 60 to 90 days. his image as america's tv father is tattered and no more. there are no more than 30, 50 someone in -- some women. many people in the african-american community initially really stood by him and did not want to believe the worst about him. as more came forward, everybody pretty much has abandoned him. brent: and this is something a lot of people would not have imagined a year and a half ago. scott: the stories had been circulating for quite some time but they were downplayed by a lot of people, not just the african-american community, but

among his millions of fans. it is also difficult to reconcile the image that we have of him as america's dad. from the cosby show. as a pioneer for civil rights. to reconcile that with the fact that have come out to be more or less a sexual predator. i will say it right out. to reconcile those images has proven difficult. but i completely agree. his reputation is in tatters and he's not going to recover from that. brent: take a listen to what one of his accusers announced. >> how do you feel? >> i feel like -- i feel like i am dreaming. can you pinch me? can you hold on? i'm trying to answer a question,

please. i feel like my faith in humanity is restored. >> a remarkable statement for someone to be able to say that. are they saying that justice has been served today? >> this is coming about in the #metoo movement. the first trial was deadlocked in july. that was before the movement got steam and got off the ground. now it has really been huge. it growing. dominating hollywood. and he may be a victim of that. it is bad timing but it is also justice for so many. hollywood is standing behind all the accusers and the alleged victims in this case. brent: talking earlier about

what he represented. before there was the cosby show, he was also a figure in the civil rights movement. and he enjoyed support among americans until recently. >> he has donated art and millions of dollars to historically black colleges and universities. he has been about education for african americans, trying to help them with scholarship funds. it was an african-american male that really brought this to the forefront, a comedian by the name of hannibal burress that was joking that bill cosby was really a rate this and people should look into it. more women started coming forward and saying that this comedian is telling the truth. there was a lot of blowback. a lot of people got behind these women as more and more came

forward and they were all of different races k -- saying the same thing. brent: this shatters the image of an icon for many of us that grew up watching him. people knew him from the cosby show or saturday morning cartoons. you name it, he had done it. what is this going to do? when we see this type of icon basically brought down. what can happen moving forward? scott: this is the first conviction in the #metoo era. you can see the difference that just a few months have made. the mistrial. how that was seen last summer. post #metoo, i think a number of men including mr. harvey weinstein will be looking at this case and may be shaking in his boots because he also has

possible criminal trials coming up. i think the climate has changed and i think hollywood has changed. i don't think there's any going back. i don't think it will make a major difference in just a second come from it. >> when the verdict was read out , he showed a very angry sign. could that be the last part of this story that people will remember? >> absolutely. they were discussing -- the district attorney, that is, whether or not he should be remanded into custody immediately now that he is a convicted sex offender. they said he's a flight risk. he has a plane. he may not show back up in court . that is when bill cosby stood up and yelled, i don't have a plane you -- expletive.

he was visibly angry, visibly loud, and i think still in shock about the verdict. luckily for him, the judge said he said his bail and he is allowed to go home. up until the day he will be sentenced. brent: kj matthews and right here at the big table, scott. glad to have you both. thank you very much. the german chancellor angela merkel is on her way tonight to the united states to meet with president donald trump. her visit comes a day after francis emmanuel macron held talks with the u.s. president. merkel took off from berlin for her second visit during the trump residency so far. it is expected she will try to

keep u.s. support for the german backed iran nuclear deal. issues on the agenda are likely to be preventing a transatlantic trade war, security, and energy policies. and for more on what that visit could look like, we caught up with the german governments advisor on transatlantic relations. >> you spoke with a tandem that they have regarding the united states. with solid president macron dead and what is angela merkel taking with her? >> in this tandem between macron and germany, put on the topics there. the iran nuclear deal.

there are a lot of tough issues and i think she is the right one to really work this out together with the u.s. president. >> talking about the trade issue, trying to prevent some sort of transatlantic trade conflict. how confident are you that this can be prevented? >> nobody has any benefit from a trade conflict or trade war. we should give it every effort to do away with this deadline that has been put out there from the u.s. side. so i think angela merkel together with her advisers are there with a very close coordination. what i expect is that we shouldn't have too high expectations. i suspect a possible result is to get an exemption for the

deadline. the economic dialogue or all of these issues can be addressed. is it steal and alumina me? i think the agenda is broader and we should give it all the effort that we can put in to solve these problems. >> in this specific case, what does success look like for angela merkel? >> we have received signals from the new economic adviser larry kudlow, advisor to the u.s. president in an interview that he was giving with regard to china. there was some leverage in the interview saying that from that side, we will see something. steps from the u.s. side and

we're prepared to talk about the permanent exemption. i think this would be considered a success. brent: that was the german governments advisor speaking with us earlier. mike pompeo has been sworn in as u.s. secretary of state just hours after the u.s. senate confirmed his nomination. he's heading to brussels for his first trip in office. nine people have died and flash flooding in israel. they were part of a group of 25 students that were hiking in a riverbed near the dead sea. several others were seriously injured in the incident. rescue crews are continuing to search for another hiker who is still missing. and now to history about to be made on the korean peninsula.

south korea is prepared to welcome north korean leader kim jong-il and -- kim jong-un for talks. the first to set foot in the south in more than 60 years. the peninsula has seen some dramatic diplomatic strides over recent weeks and the hope is that this meeting will significantly ease tensions. when he crosses this border marker to attend the inter-korean summit, it will be the first to set foot on south korean summit ended 60 years ago. hoping for a lifting of sanctions. this does not mean north korea plans to denuclearize.

professor of political science it's all national university believes that north korea will use its new weapon as a bargaining tool. >> if you are, you have a luxury to think about the economic issues. there is a security issue. >> some are skeptical that the summit is good news. >> there could be complete denuclearization and closing the test site. but we can't believe it. >> others see it as a cause for optimism. >> it can sometimes lead to a better outcome. that's why i think it's a good idea. >> obviously, it will take time.

we'll see if it's possible for north korea to become nuclear free. steps will have to be taken. >> as officials complete the final preparation for the summit, it is clear that achieving any official agreements -- but the summit is a breakthrough in itself. and if the meeting goes smoothly, it should lay the groundwork for something even more unusual. talks between north korea and the u.s. brent: joining me is a senior fellow at the asia program at the berlin-based think tank, the german council on foreign relations. good to have you on the program. the world watching this, waiting for history to be made tomorrow. why has north korea agreed to this summit to begin with? >> several factors are coming together. north korea has engaged in the escalation spiral that happened that came to the point that

there was a belief that they actually have a nuclear deterrent. conventional ways that can do severe harm in south korea. the president of south korea has announced that it would be very early, and all these factors coming together to the point that they are meeting. brent: is this summit going to be a rehearsal between kim jong-un and u.s. president donald trump? can we see it that way? >> absolutely not. this is about the two koreas. they need to learn how to communicate with each other and how to cooperate in an economy and on the military side. they also define how future talks can happen and what kind of performance it will be. in the best case, they prepare

the summit with the u.s. so it is more preparation. brent: north korea has reportedly said that denuclearization is on the table. why would the north give up its the guest bargaining chip? >> it is not exactly a bargaining chip. so there at the table, it will be clear that denuclearization can only be one part of the process and there will be a lot of things to be discussed and the security building that the u.s. needs to provide the necessary security for the north. brent: does kim jong-un believe that if the u.s. as you have a security guarantee from us, can he move with that? so much so that he can scrap his nuclear weapons program? >> it can be more difficult

because that part has failed. security guarantees. it is a deal that went through both houses. brent: if the u.s. president pulls the u.s. out of the nuclear deal, will that have repercussions for any deal with north korea and the u.s.? >> if there is no binding deal to be made, they would do that. brent: senior fellow at the berlin-based think tank, thank you very much. we appreciate your insights. another growing for facebook today. dano has that and all the business news.

>> british lawmakers are repeating a call for mark zuckerberg to come over a data breach. chief technology officer. he told the committee facebook will introduce new measures to boost advertising transparency in britain as it cracks down on manipulative political ads and the spread of fake news. handling the data scandal as a million facebook users have had their data harvested as they were connected to u.s. users. political consultancy cambridge analytica. the scandal hasn't hit facebook earnings yet. it sent the share price rocketing on thursday. >> at least so far, neither the users or the advertising dollars from the corporations are

vanishing when it comes to facebook. it has been a blowout quarter and the stock went through the roof, having the best day and more than two years. the semi conductor, also a big arrival and had a very strong quarter. it was up in the double digits. so far this earnings season, we have not really seen this strong earnings have translated into higher stock prices. that was different here on the thursday session with finally strong numbers that actually saw that stock price increase quite a bit. there has been a lot of discussion that yes, the first quarter for u.s. corporations is the hard court quarter. the big question remains how sustainable that is. at least for one day, wall street focused on the technology

field, rather strong, and therefore a strong reading on thursday from wall street. >> and the era of easy money could be ending for the u.s.. investors looking on with interest as the yield broke through a psychologically important 3% mark this week. companies will have to pay more tomorrow morning. jobs could push up prices of everyday goods. analysts believe the recent trend in bond yields indicates the united states could be inching towards a recession. think you very much for joining us. we are apparently teetering towards recession.

>> the flattening of the yield curve is consistent with a slowing economy and i do think that the significant flattening we have seen is sending some mixed messages. our take is that it's not the signal that it is giving. >> the yields could be coming towards alignment. what is the impact on companies and even the average consumer for the rising yield and government debt? >> it is more sensitive to interest rates in their mortgage payments.

extending the averages out. it shouldn't have a huge impact on the consumer. the economy is doing quite a bit better than it has. and what they want to do is try to snuff out financial conditions so that the recovery can be in a durable one. and really to move away from what was almost a decade emergency level of interest rate. >> the ten-year treasury yield has ticked back below 3% once again today. does this mean that we can stop worrying? that there isn't going to be a bloodbath?

>> i don't tnk there's going to be a bloodbath in bonds. i think for certain investors, 3% sort of provide some magical level. it certainly doesn't for us here . i think it is a ground number and it deserves some attention, but there is nothing that is so different between 295 at 305. certainly not for the economy. that is for sure. i think the other thing that we need to do is not just look at u.s. interest rates. reporter: right. >> i was looking at my runs this morning. when treasuries were trading at 3%, they were virtually 300 basis points over japanese bonds. the math is pretty simple because japanese bonds don't yield anything. same with german bonds. reporter: it looks like we could be in for a rough ride of fields continue to go up that it may not happen quite yet. thank you very much for that. >> thank you.

reporter: now back to brent. brent: after a short break, i will be back to to get through the day. we'll take a look at the movement from macron to merkel. in the white house. ♪

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