Federer announces he wont play at the french open thats after the 20 time grand slam champion reveals he has undergone surgery. Is President Donald Trump says his longtime adviser roger stone has a very good chance of exoneration after he was sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in prison story was convicted last year of lying to congress witness tampering and obstructing the investigation into russian interference in the 26000 president ial election prosecutors originally recommended a sentence of up to 9 years in jail that was later reversed by the Justice Department after the president publicly he complained the president has responded to a sentencing accusing the jury foreman of being anti trump and tainting the case this is a woman who was in person totally now i dont know if this is a fact but she had a horrible social media account the things she said on the account were unbelievable she didnt reveal that when she was chosen. And shes i guess from what i hear a very strong woman a very dominant person so she can get people to do whatever she wants and she got on then she became the 4 person 4 woman on the jury and i assume they asked her a question you have any bias javelin she didnt say that so is that a defrauding of the court john hendren joins us live from washington d. C. John thats just the latest intervention in this trial by the president walk us through whats happened. Well roger stone faces 3 years 4 months 2 years unsupervised release and a 20000. 00 fine and its entirely possible he might not serve any of that 1st of all he has asked for a retrial based on juror bias you just heard the president explaining why that might be the case today that the president was in las vegas and he said roger has a very good chance of exoneration in my opinion but the president also went further and he suggested that he might just hint stone 1st of all he had retreated in the past 24 hours a fox news host who suggested that trump could end all of this with a pardon for stone but trump today said hes not going to do that right now he went on to say im going to watch the process im going to watch it very closely and at some point im going to make a determination but roger stone needs to be treated fairly and this has not been a fair process so the original sentence recommendation by the prosecutors was 7 to 9 years and thats just based on adding up statutory guidelines for how much time a person should get for each of these crimes President Trump then tweeted that that was a miscarriage of justice bill bart the attorney general then reversed that sentence recommendation will that upset those prosecutors all 4 of the prosecutors in that case quit and then the new prosecutor came in and said actually for this 3 to 4 years is more common now stone is requesting a retrial on jury bias and the president is hinting that he might go ahead and pardon him but not yet lorne and what the judge have to say about the sentencing and what was right just as response. Well theres been a pretty tough judge and she came out and said that this was a very unusual case with the attorney general personally intervening with the president s comments she said she took into account the request for leniency by stones friends and family. I would not judge joan as a person she would leave that to a higher power the judge said that stone was sentence not for standing up for the president but for covering up for him and stone went on after after all of this happened stone simply stood up and said thank you very much i have nothing to say so this case goes on hes obviously keeping quiet as he hopes to get this retrial but that judge seems shes been pretty tough all along shes been very critical of the prosecution in one case she looked at the new prosecutor today and said you may know less about his case than anybody else here and went on to ask him why he was there he said that there was some miscommunication within the just to put Justice Department and he apologized for the confusion 100 thank you very much indeed Scott Thompson is a fellow in government studies at the Brookings Institution he joins us live from washington d. C. Thanks very much for being with us so this is an extraordinary case in many ways isnt it trump was it indirectly criticized by the attorney general for intervening in the case but then he carried on doing that hes done it again since the sentencing what you make of the latest intervention. You know its very hard to tell because really the impact of these things depends on how the actors are receiving them judge action certainly said i didnt take the president s tweeting into account in determining my sentence and we can take or i think at face value on that we hope we dont really know same with the attorney general he said i reached the conclusion that the initial recommendation regarding roger stone was too harsh before the president s tweets but again we have no way to know whether thats true or not maybe there are some records he could produce to verify that but it seems very unlikely hell choose to do so instead it all really comes down to the credibility of these Different Actors but i do think attorney general bars core point remains true which is that certainly gives people more reason to question his credibility his autonomy the degree to which hes respecting the rule of law when you have the president tweeting these things that are clearly trying to direct the way these decisions are happening for reasons that have nothing to do with the law and how damaging do you think will this through or surrounding the cases for the reputation of the Justice System in the u. S. I think its problematic in a number of different cards but at the same time is kind of constrained to these sorts of sets of cases i think its highly problematic for attorney general barr and some of the political in the Justice Department whose decisions have come under scrutiny rightfully because of the way theyve approached cases that have a clear political relationship with the president recommending a lower sense for roger stone framing the moeller report in a way that was really not consistent with its findings during the press release before it was publicly released these different steps really bring into question their autonomy one comes to matters relating to the president now thats not all matters the Justice Department does the Justice Department has a lot of professional prosecutors who work hard to approach their jobs in a rifle way and its not clear that the president s machinations have impacted that in your run of the mill cases but certainly when it comes to the Justice Departments ability to fairly investigate and approach people who are in tension with the Trump Administration this brings it into question or certainly it brings into question at the point where you see these in your political leaders intervening on the president s behalf and to what about the possibility of a pardon. How likely is that. Judge jackson has put the president in a difficult position what comes to the pardon question if he had given stone a sentence more along with the government originally asked for 7 to 9 years perhaps President Trump could have said thats been agreed just abuse of discretion that is way too high a sentence im going to pardon him or commute his sentence alternatively instead she has gone well below those guidelines well below what even the revised Justice Department position was clearly devising yet still given a substantial sentence of 3 months 3 years 4 months in prison that puts the present a difficult position he doesnt have a clean narrative to say that roger stone wasnt treated fairly because clearly judge jackson did take his arguments and the various factors he raised in his counsel raise into account in reaching this judgment nonetheless the president has raised various ways that t. Thinks the proceedings against own were unfair or that the outcome should change and while thats not really what pardons are supposed to be used for it may very well be the route that he ultimately pursues to say i dont buy that this is the right outcome and im going to change it thank you very much indeed to scott hundreds of us and senate. Germanys president has called on people to refrain from using ostracizing and vilifying language that paves the way for violence. John meyer made the comments at a vigil for the victims of wednesdays shooting in the western city of how now that left 9 people dead Authorities Say theyre treating the instant as terrorism following the discovery of an online document by the shooter containing conspiracy theories and racist views dominic kane reports from berlin. This is where the shooting started one of 2 she shouldve asked to be targeted which were known to be frequented by members of the Kurdish Community the 43 year old perpetrator made his way into each place and then opened fire indiscriminately on innocent people finally fleeing the scene in a car to go home and kill his own mother before then taking his own life the shock of the local community is mirrored by that of government ministers who confirmed their primary line of inquiry its what i listen to norm going to do that everything is being done to clarify up to the last detail the background of these horrific killings there are many indications at the moment that the perpetrator acted on right wing extremist rice has marj us out of hatred towards people of other origins religion or parents. This is not the 1st violent attack to be associated with the far right criminals in recent times. The 27 year old man is currently on trial for the murder of 2 people outside a synagogue in the city of last autumn. And last summer the christian democrat mare of a western german city was shot dead by a person with known links to the far right theres little doubt that far right violence is on the increase in this country and something many mainstream politicians have been warning about now some are wondering how many more people must suffer before society takes this threat seriously dominic kane aljazeera berlin. Jamnia seen a sharp rise in the number of far right attacks since 2015 when the country took in more than 1000000 refugees and migrants government figures show there were nearly 9000 attacks by far right groups and individuals in the 1st half of last year thats an increase of 1000. 00 compared to the same period the year before germanys Domestic Intelligence agency estimates there are around 24000. 00 right wing extremists in germany about half of whom a potentially violent last week 12 men were arrested for planning attacks against muslims Asylum Seekers and politician as well he speak now to political analyst well he put from berlin over skype thanks very much indeed for being with us so what do you think of the fact is behind this rise of far right history mr violence well we are currently in a situation where thinking about right wing extremism is in this book load of various levels of public debate we see a rise of the ultimate you would watch languages right we party a mishmash of people with different motifs some of them are purely racists and nazis and outside of the democratic spectrum but there are also people who are simply concerned about developments in germany in recent times what they. Are cheve is a development of a new political culture in which addressing things in a way that was unthinkable were in public in germany changed the Political Climate that seems to breed consequences of that terrible situation north last night and the 2 previous ones that have been mentioned in your report and the government has promised more Police Offices and so on well as that is on that that effort is making a difference. Well of course everyone you know a moment of shock is asking for what we have to take action and its important that the state authority shows that they try everything they can on the other hand if we look at the motivation of everyone whos attacking the open society then it is a fundamental motivation to make the open society to destroy itself by restricting increased them rights and by transforming an open society into Something Like completely state this should not happen and it would be the end of the lifestyle of the wests that we embrace and approach and to what aside from the the kind of measures that you suggest might catch elfrida what measures are being brought in to tackle the ideology behind extremist right wing badens when what has been done before would have been no one but also happened a few months ago is that we have to think about what happens in the echo chamber as that our different problem democratic discourse is what to do with hate speech on facebook and all the other social media this is something that have been addressed they plea we also see more investigations within traditional systems that and police and the army to investigate what kind of mindset exists there and how can we address the root causes of a different way of thinking about the other an open society is about who are listen this is something germany was proud of and it needs to be addressed the poil things get out of control in terms of you just get back to what youre talking about the f. D. A. And their role in all this i mean do you think that they reflect what people think or do you think that the fact they are now in the parliament actually emboldens people who have the in the extreme way of putting their views across you know resorting to extreme violence. Well there once in the ultimate team of for doing good are against Democratic Institutions that are against what germany stands for they learned from the success of populists and right wing charismatic leaders in other countries and apply it to the situation in germany they play with fire they oppressed peoples figures they looked all around the other they think that there is Something Like a superiority of the children once that exists in variations weve seen this with practice it weve seen this with good will that in the netherlands when we look in france and make America Great again speaks a similar language well i put thank you very much indeed to feel felt instantly and very welcome. Many more still to come on aljazeera news hour including. Israels Prime Minister pledges to build a new midsized city on illegally occupied land. A new front line in the corona Virus Outbreak dozens of people are infected in one of south koreas largest cities. And a top former official is charged with accepting bribes as coming up in support. Turkey says too that soldiers have been killed and 5 injured in air strikes near syrias province its military has been shelling Syrian Government positions in the northwestern city of. The government captured the city for rebels 2 weeks ago as part of its push to retake the last rebel held area turkish president rich uptight about one has issued an ultimatum for syrian troops to pull out or face retaliation. Has been following the situation from near the Syrian Border and how top. Syrian National Army which is the Rebel Alliance backed by turkey said awhile ago that it took control full control of the town of nehru and continued its advance into but this was denied by the Syrian Government which says that its still in control of. Also much of the town of neda but its been an extraordinary day with this sudden offensive into those areas taken over by the syrian army about 2 weeks ago the turkey has said that 2 of its soldiers were killed but that it retaliated killing 50 syrian soldiers destroying many vehicles that the situation remains quite particular following the statement yesterday by a president as a player that his warning to the Syrian Government was the final warning that if they dont push back from those areas behind the Turkish Military outpost then turkey with further intensify its military involvement in syria. Israels Prime Minister has approved more than 2000 new settler homes in occupied East JerusalemBenjamin Netanyahu says he also intends to approve a further 4000. 00 residential units in another settlement in the same area a spokesperson for the palestinian president has condemned netanyahu as move as a systematic destruction of plans for 2 state solution the settlements are built in violation of International Law or a force that is in west jerusalem explains one if there was announcement is politically motivated. Well making this announcement Benjamin Netanyahu hailed an expansion of the city connecting he said all parts of a united jerusalem so very much in accordance with what was announced by the trumpet ministration just a few days ago in the trump peace plan. A united jerusalem under israeli sovereignty and that neo doing all he can to try to enact portions of that on the ground it seems specifically in this announcement 2200. 00 Housing Units in the illegal israeli settlement of har homa built on land occupied sort of south east of jerusalem in after the 1967 war more controversially apparently lifting a selfimposed restriction on building in another area give up hama toss nearby to the west of hamas 4000 units being promised there 3004 jewish israelis 1004 palestinians but that is controversial because it would link in any future palestinian state possibly the city of bethlehem with East Jerusalem as part of the capital which the palestinians want for their future state so this is something which is very much in accordance with the trump plan Benjamin