it was am am. north and south korea launched their first formal talks in two years after donald trump claimed his tough stance on pyongyang made the meeting possible. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu faces mass protests over corruption allegations with thousands marching in the streets of tel aviv. and a new coalition talks are in full swing in germany as angela merkel attempts to end what sunday the country's worst political crisis in years.

i'm kate partridge and you're watching the latest headlines here at r.t. international thank you for joining us. north and south korea have just started their first official talks in two years the negotiations are taking place in the demilitarized zone between the two countries that have been recent signs of progress january's asserted saw the reopening of a cross border telephone line and the following day donald trump delayed the annual military drills with seoul until after next month's winter olympics in south korea . well that's now across to our reporter caleb maupin caleb hi there sorry what more can you tell us about these talks between north and south korea. well at this point we understand the talks have begun in the shared border village in the demilitarized zone between the two countries now at this point it's not clear what's going to be discussed we know that one agenda item will be the upcoming

winter olympic games however at this point we have heard that south korea's a unification minister has actually talked about using the talks as an opportunity to ease the tensions on the korean peninsula now the tensions have been high in the recent weeks let's take a overview of recent events on the korean peninsula. now at this point when it was floated the possibility of talks it was immediately jumped on by the south korean administration unlike their predecessors the moon administration has always favored

a more diplomatic approach to dealing with the north now the possibility of talks came as kind of a surprise in an unexpected statement by north korea's leader on new years in his new year's remarks kim jong un floated the possibility of talks with south korea this is what we heard from kim jong un in his new year's statement. one glitch if the south really wants reconsideration and unity we will keep open the doors for talks contact and exchange to everyone including the south korean administration opposition parties groups from various fields and policies and individuals. now at this point after it was a stablished that this dialogue would be taking place we heard from the u.s. leader donald trump now we first heard from him on twitter and then later we heard from him in comments to the press and he said that it is his hard line diplomatic approach and his interactions with north korea that are responsible for the fact

that these talks are now taking place this is trump a. lot of people have said a lot of people have written that without my rhetoric and without my tough stance and such a stance i mean this is this is what has to be done if it has to be done that they wouldn't be talking about olympics that they wouldn't be talking right now. here of strategic patience with the north korean regime has failed united states is prepared to use the full range of our capabilities to defend ourselves and our allies we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea little rocket man rocket fuel for the american economy is a sick puppy. now it's interesting the donald trump takes credit for these talks taking place as unlike previous negotiations that have happened in the past few decades the usa does not have

a seat at the table as the whole world watches the shared border village it's only the two koreas that are participating in the negotiations so we'll all be waiting to see what happens and to hear what was discussed at this meeting it's a pivotal meeting all eyes are on the korean peninsula and on the demilitarized zone where this dialogue is taking place in lieu of the upcoming olympic games. for two to what they have to say thank you very much thank you now human rights for ericsson one team believes the talks will reduce the risk of a military confrontation. i think it's a step back from a military solution because there is no military solution it other than death and destruction of hundreds of thousands or a million people or more in the long run both sides would benefit from peace whether there are people within each government that have an objective to maintain this conflict to maintain the battle state there probably are however you know so

it's hard to say put north korea into one camp however i see what can come from the talks is a type of peace. treaty and the type of situation where these countries can learn to live in peace and that's only going to come from building relationships. thousands of people have marched through the streets of tel aviv demanding the resignation of israel's prime minister binyamin netanyahu due to allegations of corruption what i'd guess the of reports. was. for six weeks now its release have been demonstrating against the prime minister

the crime minister as they've affectionately nicknamed him not just in tel aviv the capital but now growing all over israel proper and always been here for the last three years everybody is talking about him it's coming up all the time to the media . there is a feeling that the government is corrupt and puts its interests before those of citizens that the. government is corrupt ten out of them are tired i think is going to get elected again that's enough. there are two publicly known cases against netanyahu in the first his wife and he alleged to have accepted illicit gifts tobacco and alcohol from a hollywood billionaire luxurious champagne for the lady and fine cigars for the gentleman case number two netanyahu reportedly struck a deal with a major newspaper where in return for more favorable coverage he would weaken

a rival newspaper using his office and powers as prime minister serious allegations stuff like this has put people in jail you think bebe's scared if there will be recommendations by police to endure so here's a fact i doubt the public knows the vast majority of police recommendations in with nothing more than sixty percent of police recommendations are thrown out here of course denies everything just like his predecessor who'd all met also denied ever taking bribes even as he was handcuffed and convoyed off to jail b.b. doesn't care police can recommend whatever they want it's only if the state prosecutors decide to act will he face trouble and he seems sure they won't they knew a year ago even before the investigation why did it take a year and

a waste of time and public funds there's more of course questions about netanyahu is connections how bibi's cousin ended up in the middle of a controversial billion dollar deal to buy german submarines you know how these things happen but isn't it amazing how a man can be so flippant about corruption allegations against him and so righteous about corruption allegations against him. by this bridge iranians are pouring into the streets they seek freedom they seek justice i wish the iranian people success in their noble quest for freedom and you know. this. against other corrupted riches like you learn but you try to manipulate. criticism against him it is really the. government releases

still months away from issuing an official recommendation on whether to try to netanyahu or not but b.b.'s allies as striking back they've passed through legislation that would be the police for making any public recommendations on whether people should be taken to court that then yahoo's a survivor israel's longest serving prime minister he has weathered and survived plenty of scandals and next time this law will make it even easier under the israeli law the prime minister does not have to resign even if he is indicted and even when he's standing trial only after he has been convicted in a certain district court in jerusalem and after he's appeal has been denied by the high court which could take two years or so but this is only beleaguered

point from the public and political point of view there will be a lot of pressure on him to resign or at least step aside for a while once he's indicted. new coalition talks have kicked off in germany want seen as angle of merkel's last chance to form a majority government devoid yet another election the social democrats and the ruling christian. pratik union will now have five days to enter into a so-called grand coalition and both sides seem confident of success forming an alliance with the social democrats is the only option left for. previous coalition talks with the green party and the free democrats collapsed two months ago the political crisis is seen by some as the worst in germany for years in the sizes up chances of resolving it to put together a coalition it takes

a match angle has been desperate to make any match she hoped her party could match with the greens but that plan also required matching with the d.p. or the free democrats or rights why appear to but no it's a match pop ups and go all those got it right with the green party but she's still in favor of using coal power plus her transport minister in the old government called the greens tofu that has fallen into our meat when it comes to the f d p these folks were nowhere near matching with deep divisions in how to deal with tax a solemn and environmental policies. we will not abandon our vote for a policy with which we are not convinced it is better not to govern than to govern badly so that was it for the so called to make

a call that talks. one guy quit using the coalition building up all together but then signed up again. we are not entering a grand coalition we said this clearly in this room after the elections and we still stand by this. time politics that's why these tools necessary to meet the great challenges facing the world europe. so angle crossed paths with park there swipe left or swipe right the conservative leader is having another go at matching with the social democrats but here again angle may find herself matchless here's why. migration was much less of an issue in twenty third thing when agreeing on the c.d.u. s.p.d. grand coalition was no sweat today it's one of the main if not the number one issue

for germans to worry about the success of the right wing force the conservative blog to get more tough on asylum seekers something the social democrats refuse to accept. instead what they'd love to accept it actually push for is more integration after all the s.p.d. leader wants to see the knotted states of europe and while angle as c.d.u. as moore has it in the very end wing of her block is turning increasingly euro skeptic you don't invite hungary's leader slash. viktor orban to a party summit for nothing. then there's the issue of how much to spend on the army the conservatives are seeking more military spending to reach the nato target of two percent of g.d.p. the social democrats though say that's not what germany needs if eventually these things are nuff to cause a mismatch angola merkel may end up in real trouble as the prospect

of yet another election looms recent opinion polls show more than half of all germans are against merkel running again earlier we spoke to geo political analyst right now not for us who believes a rerun is much more likely than people think the trust in the great coalition is beginning to diminish quite considerably and german population there is already much of a majority of people calling for new elections as recent polls have shown a good negotiator would have seen much earlier one of the three or four or even negotiating parties worse why i'm to represent the different points that were gathered to flow in the question and obviously angela merkel failed at that point she did not realize how bad the situation was perceived on

behalf of liberals i can imagine that work will be replaced. even if there are new elections already in twenty eight. vice president of the german bundestag recently said he was in favor of limiting the chancellor's term in office to eight or ten years calling it the hardest job in the country and amid the political uncertainty some are speculating merkel may not run again if the latest coalition talks fail the media has already lined up potential successors.

so. what is it for on the right. well have any of you ever seen a circus with a flat roof. are you an expert in german wine. vending if we were the wine tell us now yes it's pretty easy to distinguish between brad i am quite why. the u.s. government has created a video game to help teachers deal with school shootings that story and more after

the break. that's. what politicians do sometimes. they put themselves on the line. they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. some want to be preached.

to the right to be that's what the flag three of the morning people are. interested always in the logs. there should. come back the national security agency in the united states is facing troubling times numbers of employees leaving the service are increasing dramatically a former n.s.a. technical director turned whistleblower william binney think staff can no longer work in the conditions the agency creates. the internally in n.s.a. see their program called see something say something about employees your fellow workers so they've got the workers inside n.s.a. watching the they other workers so that they can get their what their objective is

to get somebody to tell them about someone who might be another edward snowden so that was the whole program that's what that's all about so i'm sure that that creates a very hostile you know kind of. a bad work environment that destroys the morale of the people do it work doing the work there i mean can you it's like you were in the middle of the i was in the original program set up by the stasi to they did the same thing in east germany so i mean well when you i mean anybody who had a vendetta or some gripe against someone else could say something about them you know and without giving their names and just to report them for something just to get them into trouble and have difficulty so i mean that just sets up a very bad work environment. they have to encourage you know creativity and independence and get get get the fear of actually trying to do something out of the employee so they're not afraid to try things i mean when you have people watching you all the time for some kind of slip up i mean that kind of

that kind of makes you an inhibited that kind of says i don't want to try to do things because somebody might perceive it incorrectly and if they do and i get reported i get in trouble so you know that's that's a very bad thing for them to be doing so they need to correct that they need to they need to also out a magically audited on what they're doing so that you know congress can really know what's happening and then people can really know and so can the justice department they're doing illegal things like violating the constitution of the united states which are currently doing now. so they need to correct all of that and then that will create a better work environment and actually see that big get the people who are working there to see that they're actually doing positive things. well i mean i don't see them succeeding at stopping terrorism anyway i mean the only thing they stop for this set ups that the f.b.i. does you know they entrap people as far as the the attacks that have really been planned by terrorists or people who are in there who are intending harm to people i

mean they haven't stopped this for any of them that i know of because xander general alexander former director there and claim to the judiciary committee in the senate that they've stopped fifty four attacks and he was challenged by senator leahy to prove it and he couldn't prove any of them so i mean the point is the thing that they're doing is unconstitutional illegal it's crimes against the laws of the united states and they need to stop that that would change some of the way the the work and employees working there would perceive the the job and the charter and the duties inside in a say the u.s. army on department of homeland security have developed a virtual reality training game to simulate shootings in schools it's intended for teachers and first responders helping them stay ahead of a potential tragedy. the feeling could.

well there being two hundred seventy five school shootings in the u.s. in the past five years an average of almost want to weak this year already there have been two reported firearm incidents in schools while nearly a third of all my shooting in the u.s. since the year two thousand have taken place in schools here's a reminder of some of the deadliest.

we also two experts how effective this new school shooting simulation maybe in helping to curb the problem. we have to really understand that we do live in a day and age when children are going to have to understand this at a younger age than we would have liked then we were probably raised with and because of that you know it is good to utilize technology in order to train them to either defend themselves against it or defend others against this and just to be ready for it because sometimes the worst things will happen when children or those in it's a choice should have absolutely no idea how to handle what is happening that provides teachers with at least some information in order to repair any of that that they're actually use and so on their school and what that does is it is assumed that the assaults will come up there will be more socks and dare i say this there will be

there will be more shooting there will be more bashing and schools across the united states we have seen this and there's nothing that tells me that that's simply not true will technology and video games make decisions safer i don't know i hope it will but here's what i do know i know that we have seen mass shooting after mass shooting after back shooting children in the united states but we're working in the schools with young students to help them understand the modern threats of that time and to better prepare with that to know exactly what to do in the case of the current modern threat happiness upon their school in this case it is school shootings the united states and so you know teachers first responders being able to take part in the simulations is going to help them better train their students for what to do in the event of a school shooting but this is to some degree and acceptance that that is the ongoing reality and that the only true response the only thing that the u.s. can do at this point is simply to prepare teachers for what is coming rather than

to find a legitimate alternative to stopping those actual shootings themselves. now you might think a successful businessman has better things to do than spend his days picking litter up off the streets but not when you're a man on a mission. thank you thank you. i don't know. how to. get there but i think it doesn't matter how much money you give to your british you're poor you always need to pass on the positive image of his son wanted to it doesn't matter how old you guys are. going to. need to be on the night before so someone drops litter in public i would use them

to pick it up and not to do it again because i collect trash to remind and persuade others. to use a few times but if ten percent of citizens were like him our environment would be much better. show machine i believe that if i could assist the environment would you better keep doing this is long as i keep you even when i'm seventy eighty years old. well for more on these and plenty of other stories then go to our website ati dot com otherwise i'll be back with the latest headlines at the top of the. level was selling you on the idea that dropping bombs brings police to the chickenhawk forcing you to fight the battle of the few socks for the tell you the fluffy gossip the public by falsehood was a day. off about advertising how do you think you are not cool enough to buy their

products for if. these are the hawks that we and all of our audience will watch. the two thousand and eight economic crisis turns some countries into pagans these are the countries with we korea colonies that needed austerity policies if you are in a situation of flow bloat even the recession austerity is a very bad idea it doesn't work and it makes millions of people very unhappy those who are unemployed see their wages decline often almost a decade how good are the results to see all of the new york city's will by the people a play out of which the wider world beat people with your daughter june a choice a lady who traded beautiful blue she still climate was i mean to for legal.

challenge nothing more than this she did not was always think it's the family intend on getting out. while the same measure is still in place to one of the consequences used to weaken blue bird flu dismantle who will first do one of those was the truth reconsider this is the consequences are actually quite acceptable to the decision makers. when lawmakers manufacture consent instinctive public wealth. when the room in closest to protect themselves. with the financial merry go round lifts only the one percent told. the time to

ignore middle of the room signals. room clean real news room the world.