ayala services oh, be our guest at frankfurt airport city managed by fraud. ah ah ah, this is d w. news line from berlin. donald trump pleads not guilty in court in new york city. the former us president denies 34 counts of falsifying business records . the charges are linked to hush money allegedly pays to 3 people. also coming up, finland joins. nato finished black is raised as the alliance welcomes it's 31st

member on a day of ceremony and demotion in brussels. ah, i'm nichol further. welcome to the program. former you as president donald j trump has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in court in new york, trump showed little emotion entering the court building before denying 34 counts of falsifying business records. the charges are linked to hush money payments, allegedly main to 3 people. trump was driven to court in a motorcade from his trump tower complex in new york. is now heading back to his estates in mara lago in florida. and the judge and the case as trumps trial could begin next january and speaking after today's hearing, manhattan district attorney elvin bragg said everyone is equal before the law under

new york state law is a felony to falsify business records with intent to the fraud an intent to conceal another crime, that is exactly with this case is about $34.00 false statements made to cover up other crimes. these are felony crimes in new york state. no matter who you are. we cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct. t w. washington guarantee. venus paul has been following the story from new york and she told us more about the charges brought against donald trump. i was quite a day here nichol. we started really early and it was really intense helicopters, i still cruising over the court. i saw to simplify what's happened. the prosecutors are saying they're donald trump, are broke election law by falsifying business records to cover up bad information

about him. information which might have heard his chances to become elected as the president of the united states. many people here and probably around tonight is states and maybe even around the world. we're hoping for some bombshells today to be disclosed. they might be disappointed because we didn't really learn really very new things, but it still might be far too early, really to say, or what we are will be a kind of learning over the course of the next days. because this is just like the very 1st moment after we heard about the charges and the historic court appearance has drawn huge crowds. there was concern about possible altercations who was there today. and what did they have to say about this whole affair? read them a 100, so for people in front of the court house before donald trump arrived and they also were there when he was inside and they came,

many of them came really from outside new york. and as always, in these cases, you see those who are in support of donald trump, and those are very critical with him. i had the chance to talk with some of them. let's have a list of what they told me. and it's going to help them. absolutely. i mean listen, he was indeed he was an impeach. twice he was under investigation since he came down the elevator in 2016 and they couldn't find anything. so this is just a distraction from what's really going on in this country where the bank, i think this is a very serious moment right now. and it's wonderful that he is being held accountable for the crimes that he's committed. this is the 1st i'm sure of many indictments that's going to come his way. i want to make sure that president trump doesn't get, you know, run over by this attorney general brag. and, and it's politically motivated, which on against him,

i don't think it's going to hurt him. i think we, the people stand for trump and that's why we're here today. i think the da did his job. he followed the facts and facts led to an indictment. this wasn't a case where it was influenced was like donald trump took out a full page ads against 5 black kids and say, this should be executed. this wasn't the case, would have police officers lying on a record. he simply fall the refraction that led to indictment and now we have to let the process place up. oh, it already helped. i helped him yesterday, so it helped him the day before. so obviously it's going to help him today. he get a 10 percent boost in a bowls. rhonda santa got a 10 percent negative in the polls yesterday. so you see how we just, i heard that this is also one of these very divisive issues in the united states and he called and as little as we know what the outcome will be. we already know that this will be really a money machine for donald trump because he's always able to turn attention into dollar. it's like only 24 hours after the indictment was analysis. and friday,

his campaign at least says he was able to fundraise $4000000.00. so this is anyhow, what he's going to make out of this appearance here today at the courthouse behind me. and no such thing as bad felicity. that is one of his big mottoes in his pull. joining us from new york city. great speaking to you. let's take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world today. russian authorities have charged a 2006 year old woman with terrorism in connection with the bombing of a cafe and st. petersburg, last killed, influential pro war blogger, ludden to tar ski. the kremlin says ukraine was beyond the incident. keith denies all involvement. at least one person has been killed and dozens more injured in a train crash in the netherlands. authority say a high speed night train derailed after hitting construction equipment left on the track rail services on the busy route between laden and the hague. have been

canceled. fire has broken out and a renowned retail complex and bangladesh capital duck on the banga. bazaar is known for its cloth lenders and his home to 3000 shops. army units are helping fire fires . tackle the blaze. finland has become nato's 31st member. the alliance is headquarters in brussels, has seen a day of ceremony and emotion. finland's president described the occasion as historic and nato secretary general said. the expansion shows that russia's attempts to weaken the alliance of backfired. finland flag hoisted high over nato headquarters in brussels. and as anthem's ring out helsinki, waves good bye to 8 security policy of the past. a move prompt to directly by moscow's aggression toward you crate. the era military non alignment, you know that history has gone to an ent, new era figures. it's gone to re maximize his its own

security. so does finland. nato membership per strengthens our international position and to room for maneuver. nato allies take a collective defense pledge, under which an attack on one is viewed as an attack on all that means finished. troops are no bound to protect other members of the military alliance and finland, which shares a long border with russia. can no count on back up from nato allies like the united states, france and germany. this is the day of joy because sir finland is se gaining more security and nato is getting stronger by the membership of finland. but we plan that finland and sweden could join together. they couldn't sweden and finland both applied for membership last year. but no stock home has been left

standing on the sidelines. it spade held up by a political tiff after turkey accused. we didn't of offering safe haven to terrorists. hungary to has been holding out on ratification a source of frustration for the swedish foreign minister. we would like to see this happen as soon as possible. there is no reason for neither the turkish parliament over hungarian parliament to make any for further delays. russia use nato as a threat to its security. and once key of bard from ever joining, the alliance insists its door remains open. but there is no clarity on when ukraine may be invited to walk through it. for no nato nations said they'll keep arming t if. as this alliance grows from 30 to 31 pretty significant day for nato. that is why i asked our correspondent, terry shelton, brussels who's been at the headquarters all day long to walk us through the highlights. it definitely was a big day for nato. this is

a day that even 2 years ago we could not have imagined to happening in finland was, was quite content to be non aligned, militarily, believing that this was safest for it. sharing a border with russia and, and not wanting to invite more russian threats. at the same time, once russia invaded ukraine, all bets were off and felons entire perspective on its own security changed. so definitely washing that flag b be raised at nato headquarters to day. i think it, it was an emotional moment definitely for the fins, but also for a lot of people watching finland take this historic step. i know that everyone around me thought it was, it was very momentous. but the accession of finland also leaves a couple of other countries wanting to get into the alliance. wishing that they had joined along with finland and that's not to sweden is also ukraine, which has been promised that it will eventually become

a member of nato. let's hear what secretary general yann's children brake had to say to ukraine, which is asking to be let in as well. you, craig, move o'connor, i'm a member of the launched thesis, been stated again again, and i thought was on it's the same time. we all realize that for it to make any meaningful progress on this issue or the 1st step is to ensure that ukraine prevails as a sovereign in the foundation. and that's reason why a dollar's importance are providing unprecedented level of support and will continue to continue to do so on war. we are also are in constant litrell's contract with the ukrainians and also providing training. and terry rushes full scale invasion of ukraine prompted finland to abandon its decades old policy of non alignment and join nato. were the fins afraid they might be? next i went to finland shortly after the invasion,

to talk to them about this and in stories for d. w. and what they were saying at the time. and this was before they had made the decision to join the alliance, is that after the invasion of ukraine, it wasn't necessarily so that they believed russia would come after fin the next. but that they could no longer rule it out. and for decades, finland had been quite content to quit felt quite secure in his policy. it did not believe that russia would come across the border, but that was no longer certain after this invasion of ukraine. so in fact, even while they didn't, they weren't certain that russia would come after them next. and certainly with all of russia's military assets sent to wage war on ukraine, it wasn't going to be imminent. they simply felt they could no longer risk, not having the back up of other allies just in case. in the meantime, sweden is still on the waiting list, isn't what are their hopes of joining the defense align soon? all of the those answers lie in ankara because while hungary also has not yet ratified sweden's membership,

it the problem really lies with the turks and turkish president of type air to one has said he does not believe sweden has done enough to join the alliance. even as nato secretary general stilton burge and the other allies point out that sweden has fulfilled the pledges it made in a trilateral agreement made with turkey and finland at the madrid summit last july . so i think everyone thinks that there may be some loosening of the turkish position after the the elections in may. but that's the only hope now because sweden says it's done everything it can to change turkey's mind. now in finland, of course, wanted to join in order to to secure it's border, but they also bring a lot to the table. right. so what, what value does finland bring to nato now that it's a member? there are some very interesting things about finland in this respect. it is one of the best equipped militaries in all of europe,

perhaps in all the world because they intended to defend their territory alone forever. and so they were quite equipped to do this. all, all men of military age are trained, they remain in the reserves. many women as well. it has one of the largest artillery stockpiles in all of europe. and so finland, i has already trained with nato for decades. this that they're very interoperable with, with nato's military. in fact, it was almost instantaneous that finland passed all of the obligations, all of the requirements that nato has for a new member. it was simply getting the ratification of all 30 other members that has held up the membership until this day. but it was still the fastest succession process in nato's recent history, w corresponding terry schultz. many, thanks. and before we go, here's a quick reminder of the top story we're following for you at the sour, donald trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and

chords in new york. the charge is related to the alleged payment of hush money to $3.00 people before the 2016 presidential election. that's all from me for now. coming up after the break, the w business looks add why the asia pacific region is apparently doing better than other parts of the world. don't forget, there is more news and analysis on our website that is of course d, w dot com and you can find us on social media. our handle there is at d. w, and i'm to cough relation from all of us here and our berlin news when thank you so much for watching a tv highlights you every week in your in box subscribe. now with overcoming divisions.