with media trends constantly changing listening post analyzes how the news is being covered. and as more people around the world struggle to find clean drinking leaders and research in this government in brazil to address. march on al-jazeera. on counting the cost the italian job what the next government has to do when it comes to the economy the first drop a frosty reception in the u.k. plus we'll explain what five g.'s is all about and if it even matches counting the cost at this time. the polls open in italy and one of the most uncertain elections with. his expected to make game.

hello welcome to our live from. the syrian government advances in eastern guta as people there find new ways to deal with a food shortage. south korea says it will send a special delegation to the north for the first time in eleven years. abuse of power sexual harassment that has really led the conversation in the industry throughout the oscar campaign season the dark side of hollywood threatens to overshadow the movie world's biggest night of the year. the polls of indian italy but it could be some time before the country's leadership is decided no single party appears to be on track to gain the required forty

percent to form a government let's take a closer look now at the main players the democratic party of the p.d.s. led by former prime minister material renzi it's pretty europe and pro immigrant part has failed to engage younger voters luigi demaio is the prime ministerial pick of the five star movement that's an anti-establishment anti corruption party wish looks set to secure a high vote led by matt taylor salvini the lega party is euro skeptic in its anti immigrant and the former prime minister silvio berlusconi he's back in the spotlight with the center right forza italia party he can't hold public office because of a tax fraud conviction but mr berlusconi could become the kingmaker let's go live now to the italian capital rome and talk to lawrence the our correspondent there saw a very confused picture them free talons as they go to the polls. well

yes it is and it's generally held that the most likely outcome big partly because of the way the voting system here has been organized is no government a hung parliament as it's called which would be a real mess for the country that's the third biggest economy in the euro zone after all but there is still a chance despite that the italy in the coming days or perhaps weeks could have a really hard right wing governments and even though most people seem to think this election is a bit of a mess the people who are most excited about this are the global anti establishment hard right wing so for example donald trump's old friend steve bannon is reportedly in rome overseeing the election of a very hard right figures across europe have been tweeting their excitements and their support for matteo cell vini from the league party he's the man that they want to be the next prime minister on an identity hereon right wing platform of deporting hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants who've come over the sea

from the mediterranean of course that would be a highly embarrassing outcome for the european union and as amazing as it sounds the the elites in brussels would probably wants silvio berlusconi the disgraced former prime minister to be the king maker the man to pick a prime minister who's more palatable to brussels than somebody like solving the so it is really a mess about this time tomorrow morning will have a bit of a clearer picture as to which way it's going to go but for now here's a look at some of the complicating factors in this election. it's as much about the state of politics here the party making all the running is the anti politician party it's thirty one year old leader held several part time jobs before entering politics five stars in time proposal is to create a citizens' bloc in opposition to the corrupt excesses of the political. but five star have vowed not to do a coalition deal with anyone else in a country in which you can't do government without

a coalition it leads many to. i wonder if they would prefer not to gain the government. they want. probably because defer to political parties to transform into influencing transformation in their be configuration of them we doubt government responsibility to. the political bloc with the best chance is this group led by the it's homely view silvio berlusconi the eighty one year old appears to hold a magnetic attraction for his far right allies who campaigned entirely around identity politics blaming the european union for what they see as an invasion of black people and muslims over the mediterranean. for if they gain power they claim they would deport four hundred thousand people to libya hardly a ringing endorsement of the european union's supposed liberals or.

that anyone who arrives here illegally must be sent back if we keep welcoming them and look after them the state will collapse it doesn't work economically or socially. but if the polls are accurate the far right might not get enough votes for a stable government many italians are revolted at the idea of berlusconi choosing the next prime minister so what then. it's hardly unusual for italian politicians to promise one thing and then change their minds and even though silvio berlusconi insists his right wing coalition is the only one many suspected in the events of political stacey's he in the sense a left might do a deal for a sort of grand coalition supposedly for the good of italy but even that would only be a temporary measure with a view to even more elections. all of it reflects a bigger malays in european politics from rome to london and berlin there's

a lack of confidence no clear direction barnsley al-jazeera road. the syrian government says it sees more territory in the rebel held district of eastern ghouta after another night of deadly airstrikes in shelling more than six hundred forty people are now believed to have been killed in the besieged on klav over the last two weeks rebel mortar fire can reach the center of the capital damascus so control of the area is a government priority the syrian observatory for human rights reports that government forces are now retaken ten percent of eastern go to in an offensive from the east let's go live now to neighboring beirut and our correspondent there is enough harder so the government seems to have pushed on rather successfully in its campaign to retake this bothersome area and it seems very much as though anything coming from new york in a un declaration of

a cease fire has absolutely no impact whatsoever. yes that's correct martin quite significant gains on the ground like you mentioned ten percent of the enclaves territory that is according to the syrian observatory for human rights the pro-government alliance really intense fighting on the ground they have pushed from the eastern flank of this besieged enclave taking a number of. sounds but i have to mention that this area the areas that they have taken are mainly farmlands and small towns it's not really a very built up area not heavily populated and that's why fighting an advancing really is easier then when you are battling for example rebels in an urban neighborhood for example so they've taken more ground the rebels still remaining defiant saying this is not significant we will continue fighting but undoubtedly they have taken this ground the ground offensive began approximately a week ago and two weeks ago the bombing campaign began more than the six hundred

fifty people killed civilians killed in this ongoing campaign and like you mentioned that cease fire which was adopted by the u.n. security council last saturday doing nothing really to stop the violence on the ground nor were these declared five hour humanitarian polls is they don't seem to be benefiting any of the estimated four hundred thousand residents of eastern. well yes it is six of the pause in the fighting that was ordered by the russian government there is no doubt that the bombardment there's less intensity the bombardment and we have civilian continued to be killed but the difference is now since the passing the fighting came into effect approximately thirty are killed every single day before the person the fighting up to eighty people were being killed but nevertheless civilians continue to die and you know the situation is becoming unbearable because of the lack of food the lack of medical supplies the

united nations saying that one thousand people need to be evacuated to receive proper medical care and eighty five of those people well it is a question of life or death if they are not evacuated right away so the situation unbearable for the civilians inside definitely part of a military tactic that the government has used in the past a tactic that has worked in the most recent example was in aleppo the northern city of aleppo in two thousand and sixteen so this bombing campaign continuing this criticism coming especially from western nations zain thanks for that live in beirut was. alluding to residents in eastern go to face a severe shortage of food and medicine have been forced to find innovative new ways to survive when all supply lines have been blown out more on that now from a summer binge of aid use in gaziantep near the turkey syria border these are alien mushrooms non-native species to eastern india just a few kilometers from syria's capital damascus when the siege typed in two thousand

and thirteen food supplies rigs lost quickly one of the answers for growing protein needs was mushrooms after testing they weren't poisonous biologists grew spores in the labs they taught people how to cycle down better kitchen waste and shot from green so everyone with a small dark room could become a farmer. by last year charity workers say they were producing close to two tons of mushrooms every day i want to hazard you need the right environment and tools after we succeeded in production it became an independent project to provide the spores for a good time it was difficult for people to go from the staple bread rice and meat to mushrooms but when a kilo of salt costs thirty three dollars a kilo of flour costs six dollars and a kilo rice is that eleven dollars a kilo hungry people don't have much choice another problem with fuel because it hasn't had electricity for nearly five years they really used all glass to make

solar panels as sources of heat and to generate electricity those with a little advance scientific knowledge built a bio gas plant which became a continuous cost effective source for clean energy. well there is an agricultural region east of damascus so people also grew some food but at the risk of ongoing airstrikes and shelling from the syrian government side however these were small projects which couldn't get into the needs of almost four hundred thousand residents of east good for most of the supplies through a lucrative war trade via tunnels and government checkpoints this war economy and extortion like tax pushed prices multiple times to what they are on the other side of damascus. we have seen misses his home in the after escaping the siege he runs a charity which helped to fund training and set up new projects he feels abandoned by the un and others who he says should be doing more than just advocacy they are calling they are begging. but they don't do any serious things

to. have been in this area. which is maybe the worst the worst season in the last one hundred. since the one nine hundred february onslaught many of the projects have been destroyed in the relentless bombardment people say it's been a tough life under siege but they will not give up their lands to what this is an army of iranian militias and russian soldiers and if given the chance they want to rebuild what's been destroyed with or without any outside help some of the job it does is iraq as the on top of the turkey syria border. an advisor to the crown prince of the u.a.e. has reportedly become a focus in the u.s. special counsel's investigation into meddling in the two of the sixteen presidential election then you'll times is reporting that george nada has been questioned over possible attempts by the united arab emirates to buy political

influence in the trumpet ministration is believed to regularly visited the white house in two of the seventeen the latest developments suggest special counsel robert mueller has broadened his investigation beyond russian interference. south korea has announced plans for a special envoy to visit the north it's in response to an invitation presenting by kim jong un sr during her visit to the pier on chang lympics can go live now to rob mcbride our correspondent who's in the south korean capital seoul so it seems very much as are the south koreans don't want to lose any momentum on this have responded swiftly to the invitation and are sending a high level delegation. that's right martin this delegation is being led by two ministry level intelligence officials one of them is an expert in korea and u.s. relations the other is an expert in into korean relations so it seems as though this delegation has

a jewel purpose first of all they will be looking at the possibility of establishing communications dialogue between pyongyang and washington what preconditions need to exist for that to happen but also as you mentioned they're following up on the next stage and into korean dialogue and in particular the anticipated visit of south korean president moon jay in following the invitation that was presented by kim jong un sister when she came for the opening of the olympics this delegation leaves tomorrow monday they are there for two days they then come back to seoul to brief officials here and then straight away go to washington to brief officials there on what progress has or has not been made in every mind and then rub is if one were needed this being a three way relationship between the united states south korea and the north what specifically do we think is the remit then is it denuclearization of the korean peninsula or is it possibly talking about reunification between the two koreas.

very much so all those seem to be possibilities that people here in south korea at least are talking about but it does point up the difference in approach between south korea and the united states when it comes to north korea the u.s. position still is that north korea should not be rewarded with dialogue unless it first of all commits to denuclearize ation increasingly it seems amid all the goodwill over the olympics and we have the paralympics starting here in a few days time the position of the south koreans it seems to be far more pragmatic that let's have talks first and see where they go there is some concern amongst more conservative hawkish elements here in south korea and also in the u.s. that as far as the north koreans are concerned they have probably been forced into that taking this more accommodating stance been forced to the negotiating table by the sanctions that are beginning to bite but the suspicion is that they are using

this whole process to go through the south koreans possibly to undermine some of those sanctions trying to undermine the whole process of maximum pressure itself marty government bride live in seoul thank you very much. we've got a lot more to come here at al-jazeera including the german chancellor angela merkel she's awaiting her rival parties vote on a possible coalition which could decide to her political future. constitutional changes will be high on the agenda is china's leaders meet for the annual national people's congress. hello and welcome back the worse the snow is gone from many parts of europe but we still have some snowfall to contend with particular across parts of russia for the

next twenty four hours some really cold air still entrenched across that part of the world out towards the west we call our low pressure system bring in marta air up from the southwest visibility problems and then melting snow being the issue so flooding could well be a significant problem across parts of the u.k. so although conditions generally through the course of monday central parts of europe say not as cold as i have been by any means but still pretty disturbed weather down through the adriatic into parts of the balkans on the other side of the mediterranean resort a few showers affecting coastal parts volunteer in tunis here with some bruce winds come further along the coastline is looking fine and car is looking pretty warm of the moment temperatures there well on into the thirty's as the flow comes up from the desert southwest heading into central parts of africa we've still some heavy showers across parts of east africa through uganda towards good bond congo much of west africa though looks it should be largely dry and fine plenty of sunshine for i cry and down and highs of thirty two then into southern portions of africa as

tropical cyclone running close to madagascar otherwise fine and south africa twenty three in cape town. hard.

to take a look at the top stories here at. the poles of a vintage in italy but it could be some time before the country's leadership is decided no single policy appears on track to gain the required forty percent to form a government. the syrian government's reportedly seize ten percent of rebel territory in eastern guta after another night of air strikes and shelling more than six hundred forty people have been killed in the last two weeks a sixth day of a russian ledge humanitarian poles is currently under way. south korea has announced plans for a special envoy to visit the north the delegation will leave on monday it's in response to an invitation by kim jong un sr during her visit to the olympics. that monday's session of china's poland could be its most influential in decades

the national people's congress is being asked to amend the constitution so the president xi jinping can serve more than two terms in office china correspondent adrian brown reports. in the ceremonial heart of beijing china's political season is about to start but it will be different this year delegates to the national people's congress are being asked to do something they've never had to before approve a change to the constitution that restricts presidents to two terms dissenting voices are rare in today's china yet in the run up to this n.p.c. there's been token criticism over the proposed amendment. most of the modern countries in the world adopt this two term presidency that's why people find it unbelievable that if she is going to stay in power more than two terms president she is likely to get his way the n.p.c. is viewed as

a largely rubber stamp body controlled by the ruling communist party and has never voted down a proposal from party leaders. the change will further consolidate she's power as he is also party chief and head of the military and in october his name was in shrines in the constitution elevating him to the status of chairman mao like president xi jinping wants to make his country great again and he often talks about the rejuvenation of the chinese nation he now believes he's the only leader that can make that happen there are no opinion polls in china so it's not possible to gauge what the public thinks about all of this a few people in beijing though were willing to share their views and surprisingly they weren't all positive. when they were out of miami or janice. this hasn't happened in china or other countries before if you change the constitution itis that it's back to the old days when i living back when. he should be president for

more than two terms even he serves seeks i would support him. china today is a one party state dominated now by one man adrian brown al jazeera beijing germans are awaiting the final result of a referendum that could end months of political deadlock votes cast by hundreds of thousands of members of the social democratic party are being counted and the result is expected within the next hour or so to decide whether the party joins a government coalition led by chancellor angela merkel dominic kane reports. thursday night in leipzig and for the social democrats the hot topic is coalition across germany the party members are deciding if they want to work with anger merkel's christian democrats again young members like benyamin are clear.

because of his tone in him. there's no grand vision in this grand coalition and i think we can only develop as an opposition party i think it's not logical that the election losers build the new government contrast that with the views of older members like christoph yaps he's proud of his fifty years as a social democrat and says pragmatism is important i was also. a list i think i'm a realist i don't want germany to become insignificant in europe we need to contribute in a way that makes our continent grow together and we can only do that with a government here that has a stable majority certainly that's the view of the party machine reaching this point has already cost the leader martin shirts his job his designated successor and their knowledge has tried hard to gain support for the deal which many members feel is one of the head not the heart kevin out has led the campaign against

another grand coalition and has encouraged thousands of people to join the party to vote it down vanish that's pretty high we've been in a grand coalition for four years and our election performances keep getting weaker so when we've just had our worst ever result it's time to ask if this is the right way to make our party strong again. the only opinion poll taken of the party membership so far suggests a small yes vote at the same time the party's popularity is lower now than in september's election of the parties torn in the membership is torn people are insecure or what actually would help the s.p.d. to survive. all of which brings us back to sunday's vote a yes will mean angular merkel remains as chancellor but with leading social democrats in important cabinet posts a no will mean she probably remains as chancellor but with no majority in

parliament no social democrats in cabinet and facing the possibility of new elections down the line dominic cain al-jazeera berlin and al qaeda linked group has claimed responsibility for friday's attack in became a fast as capital was the french embassy and army headquarters were targeted leaving sixteen people including eight gunmen dead nicholas hark reports. when a taxi packed with explosives drove past was fetching water raman was sorting out his stall and quander was clearing his shop none of them noticed the attackers nor did members of rick enough or so on forces who let the taxi of the attackers enter their headquarters and the subsequent explosion sent them and the country into panic at the same time another attack was underway targeting the french embassy and its cultural center french special forces were deployed after hours of fighting all the attackers were shot dead. about islam and was leamy has claimed responsibility

for the attack. they say it's in retaliation for the bombing by french forces that killed one of the group's leaders in february. sorry sitting in this video on the right was killed in that attack them brooklyn afonso is home to a french military base and has increasingly been targeted by fighters in the sale of the market people are returning to work with mixed feelings this is actually opening up there i'm not scared i'm not going to let the attacker put me in a state of fear just some but it feels uneasy because the reality is brooke you know fastow is in the middle of a security crisis government officials visit the army headquarters the intensity of the explosion shattered the windows of neighboring buildings every flu hundreds of meters into the air bullet holes pockmark the building this is supposed to be one of the safest and most secure place in this country and yet it's inside this building that most people lost their lives on the prime minister is talking to the

troops outside police have cordoned off this area and are hundreds of people standing there in shock and they have one question how could this attack take place in such secured in safe areas visiting the scene the prime minister described what he called applicable in sign but he tried to reassure the public sometime muscling that we have to stay united against this war that is being imposed on us i am convinced we will win we weren't allowed in the hospital where the injured mostly soldiers are being treated their friends and relatives are worried we're hearing they will survive there is a sense of despair that broke in a farce or has become another frontline to an expanding conflict affecting millions of people across the sahara nicholas hawk al-jazeera. now the red carpets are rolled out for hollywood's biggest night the oscars on sunday the first since the

me two campaign highlighted sexual harassment and gender pay and equality but those aren't the only issues facing the industry. is hollywood ready for its big need a new study casts harsh light on the lack of rachel in gender diversity in the film industry michael tran helped write the twenty eight team hollywood diversity report on most arenas that we look at you know writers directors actors and cetera you would have to you know double or triple the numbers of women and minorities in those fields to get a proportional representation with the u.s. population the numbers are not news to industry insiders but may surprise the movie going public accustom to hollywood some promoted image hollywood does think of itself as a liberal place as a progressive place and that's an important thing to believe in those values but we're here to provide the data to make sure that that hollywood lives up to the values that are purports the entertainment industry is in the throes of

a cultural revolution in this year's award season hollywood professionals are talking less about the films that have been nominated and more about sexual harassment lack of diversity and an equal pay for women in the movie industry it really has consistently been since the beginning of october and all the revelations about harvey weinstein and others in hollywood abuse of power sexual harassment that has really led the conversation in the industry throughout the oscar campaign season the time's up and need to movements are broken in the culture of silence complicity and it may billing that lasted for so long you've heard a lot of stars and some agents and others involved in the industry commenting on exactly how much they did or didn't know it different times in a way because the responsibility and some level of enabling was so widespread across. the industry on the eve of its annual celebration hollywood finds itself

with little to celebrate rob reynolds. take a look at the top stories. the polls have opened in but it could be some time before the leadership is decided no single policy appears on track to gain the required forty percent to form a government the syrian government's reportedly ten percent of rebel territory in eastern guta after another night of air strikes and shelling a russian led five hour humanitarian palls is underway for a sixth day at least six hundred forty people have been killed in the besieged on klav in the last two weeks south korea has announced plans for a special envoy to visit the north the five person delegation will leave the two days of talks on monday it's in response to an invitation presented by kim jong un sr during her visit to the. germany is awaiting the results of

a referendum that couldn't months of political deadlock in europe's largest economy ballots cast by hundreds of thousands of members of the social democratic party are being counted with the result expected within the hour it will decide whether the party will join a government coalition led by chancellor angela merkel. an advisor to the crown prince of the u.a.e. has reportedly become a focus in the u.s. special council's investigation into meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election the new york times is reporting that george nada has been questioned over possible attempts by the united arab emirates to buy political influence in the trumpet ministration the latest development suggest special counsel robert mueller has broadened his investigation beyond russian interference. an al qaeda affiliate says it was behind the attack that killed sixteen people and became

a fast so on friday the attackers targeted army headquarters and the french embassy in the capital. all right up to date those are the latest headlines for us here at al-jazeera coming up next it's inside story. east and the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the. al-jazeera. two attacks in the heart of book in apostles capital it happened despite a regional mitchell that's meant to prevent such attacks campaign walking into. this is inside story.