in a country beset by poverty and lack of infrastructure. sometimes we risk our own lives in taking these roads miscarry saving lives is a dangerous job it's about seeing the trucks on a good twenty four hours there are patients waiting for these medicines for most of the things like start risk so we can go one of the gang stops some vehicles on the road but they can do it with. risky guinea at this time on al jazeera. italians head to the polls for an election in which the far right and populist politics all set to dominates but a clear winner is unlikely. although i'm seated some this is al jazeera live from london also coming up more airstrikes

hit rebel held eastern ghouta syrian forces have now sees a quarter of the enclave and still no way is getting in. months of political uncertainty and in germany the social democrats boettcher we knew the coalition given them going mirco a fourth term as chancellor and hollywood gears up for its biggest night splits off issues of race and gender overshadowing the movies out the oscar. italians are voting in national elections which could reshape the country's political scene no single party is expected to win the forty percent needed to form a majority government anti establishment five star movement is expected to lead the votes but has already vowed not to go into coalition with any of its rivals let me live in rome in just a moment but first a look at how voting is going so far as lois lane reports. as the time arrives for

voters to make their minds up there was every sign there were as many people who simply couldn't decide as those with any sort of conviction the policy making much of the running is the and see politician party its thirty one year old leader held several parts i'm jobes before even entering politics five stars entire proposal is to create a citizens' block in opposition to the corrupt excesses of the political class but five-star vowed not to do a coalition deal with anyone else and in a country which you can't do government without a coalition it leads many to wonder if they would prefer not to be in government at all they want to. probably be camera defer political parties to transform into influence to do transformation in the reconfiguration of we need to go since them we doubt government responsibility.

the political bloc with the best chance is this group led by the it's only youthful silvio berlusconi the eighty one year old appears to hold a magnetic attraction for his far right allies which have campaigned entirely around identity politics blaming the european union for what they see as an invasion of black people and muslims from over the mediterranean. the dream scenario for the anti establishment right wing is this man is prime minister matteo salvini wants mass deportations it's really first he says the entitlement cannot simply go to dave and 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 on offer many suspect that in the events of political stacey's he and the center 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. could well hold the key to unlocking the confusion the fact that the european union might look to him as their best guarantor of stability says much about the state of politics lawrence lee al-jazeera wrote. and we can take you straight to long live to milan where the northern league. that is was just mentioning there in his report is actually casting his vote in milan and some fred let's go live straightaway to rome when a dame barbara is standing by him any kind of sense yet as to the level of turnout and who indeed might be in favor depending on how many people tend.

to say we do have a rough idea of early voting at midday local time so. about five hours after the polls open turnout was put nationally at around twenty percent significantly higher. then the last time it's really held a general election but talking to people here it's not clear who a high turnout might benefit all vote as you heard in lawrence's report the five star movement present themselves as a fresh alternative to the old system it's not clear by any means that the people but they're really reaching out to the younger voters it's not clear whether in fact. turnout figures depend on. their success will depend on the young turning out in large numbers there are many different

permutations i think what everybody is aware of soup is that there have been there's been a lot of tension during this campaign there have even been physical attacks involving some candidates on the far right and far left activists as well there was an incident in which. a person who stood for selvi needs northern league previously went on a shooting spree in a central italian town and injured six immigrants that was a reminder of the tensions around the issue of immigration which many parties have made one of their key campaigning themes so lots and lots of passionate things passionate discussions during their campaign i'm not sure whether that will translate into big turnout or not right now the allow us to go before the polls close what sort of time a us to making we might get some sense of who might have done well in this what's

being billed as a three way split her vote. sorry to sound like a broken record soup but we don't really know we know the polls will close at twenty three eleven pm local time that's twenty two g.m.t. but we've heard in the last few hours that there have been delays in voting polling stations not just here in the capital but in another town called alessandro north of here because there were problems with the ballot papers there are different kind of ballot paper they're supposed to be harder. to really to fraud basically so there have been delays and also people in line to vote when the official deadline happens at eleven pm do get the right to cause the ballots so those delays might have a knock on effect beyond that people are saying that the permutations are so difficult all of these different alliances that it could be not just hours but days before we

have any idea who's going to be governing italy you can never sound like a broken record the dame thanks very much for that update coming live for us from rome. so when government forces have seen more than a quarter of rebel held a single turn a damascus more than six hundred forty people are reported to have been killed in the besieged and claim during the past two weeks the u.n. says the increasing violence is simply unacceptable they know how the reports from beirut in neighboring lebanon. pro-government forces are advancing inside eastern huta they are moving in from the eastern side forcing people to pack whatever they can and move to other areas away from the frontlines people are seeking shelter in towns closer to the center displacement is adding to their suffering. the ground

offensive began just over a week ago the territory taken is not heavily populated it's mainly farmlands which are hard to defend pro-government forces want to control the do mushy phony out road which would cut rebel supply lines cut off the main town of duma and split the opposition held pocket in half. the assault is not just from the ground airstrikes and shelling are targeting towns throughout the besieged rebel stronghold the bombing may have lessened since the five hour daily pause in the fighting ordered by the russian government came into effect on tuesday but civilians continue to be killed. it's one of the deadliest offensives in the almost eight year conflict the death toll is now more than six hundred fifty rebels have been retaliated by firing mortars into the syrian capital killing almost thirty people in the past two weeks the ability of the opposition to threaten damascus is one of the reasons why the pro-government alliance wants to recapture eastern huta

it is the last major opposition controlled area close to the government seat of power if pro-government forces take it then there will be only one small pocket of territory south of the capital out of the government's control and the pro-government alliance is making it clear not only in its words but in its actions that it is not ready to compromise and it is pushing for a military victory despite pleas from humanitarian organizations aid hasn't reached the almost four hundred thousand people believed to be in eastern huta the united nations was hoping to deliver food and medical supplies on sunday now it says that won't happen this isn't the first time restricting humanitarian access to a besieged population has been used as a weapon of war. said. beirut. almost a week after a deadly quake struck the highlands of papua new guinea nearly one hundred fifty

thousand people remain in urgent need of emergency supplies damaged roads and landslides have stopped the delivery of aid to isolated communities the quake destroyed all damage to homes of around seven thousand people all of us in the region are in desperate need of food water and sanitation. in became a fast so one man has been shot dead while attempting to storm a roadblock near the presidential compound two other men involved in the attack which happened in the capital were going to go and managed to flee it comes just two days after eight people were killed in twenty thoughts on the military headquarters and french embassy. but in a fast as prime minister condemned the attacks as cowardly. germany is social democrats have voted to approve their party going into another coalition giving the conservative chancellor a fourth term in office it brings an end to months of political uncertainty but many in the party are happy to be propping up another government from berlin

dominic came reports. for much of the past six months since the federal election failed to find a clear winner the social democrats have appeared divided stuck between the ideological desire to oppose angle america's and the pragmatic need for germany to have a stable government on sunday the party's grass roots had their say that. it's vital not annoying on the eyes it's thousand two hundred thirty nine thousand six hundred four is speedy members voted yes one hundred twenty three thousand three hundred twenty nine in speedy members voted no this represents a two thirds yes vote and one third of those. this was a decision of the head not the heart many members agonized over their choice some feared how the electorate will perceive another grand coalition in the weeks leading up to the vote the party youth movement was vociferously opposed saying election losers should lick their wounds and not work with angle america but the

politician who is likely to be the next finance minister welcome to sunday's result . we now have clarity s.p.d. will join the next government our party did not make this decision lightly like this will now give us the strings queen. to move forward as a party in government and to put our country on the right path. but some analysts believe it's questionable whether that path will benefit the social democrats long term brand is social justice but it has to be more in order to actually be over twenty over thirty percent because what they're claiming for they still want to be a fox pattaya and what does that label mean it actually means or how is it defied thirty percent and more of the votes and they're far away from that in the end the party's members have decided to put the interests of the country above the interests of their party but the point to make here as they contemplate another

coalition with angular mackerels christian democrats is it's now many many years since their party has been in a position to win an election and to provide the chancellor as a social democrats dominant county al-jazeera girl and. still to come on the program china's parliament prepares to vote on changing the constitution they're shifting paying in stay in power possibly for life and we'll tell you about the court case that's testing freedom of speech in all. hello there we're seeing a great change in the weather across the eastern parts of china we're seeing some fairly warm weather at the moment look at that nineteen degrees in shanghai that nineteen degrees though is accompanied by some heavy rain as well but that systems are moving through it's moving its way eastwards and behind it the winds are going

to change direction going to work down from the north and that's going to bring in some far cooler air we're looking at a maximum just of ten degrees there and choose day at least that ten degrees should be accompanied by some dry weather the next system though is already beginning to build out towards the west and on the northern edge of that we're seeing that turn to snow as we head out towards india we're seeing somewhat weather here you can see it will work its way through parts of pakistan as well and just across the northern parts of india that could give us a very heavy downpours lots of thunder lightning too it's going to be every pulse and appall as well on monday and giving some snow as you might expect further south are largely fine and dry for most of us across southern india is just across sri lanka where there's still the chance of seeing just one or two showers as we head through the next few days for the arabian peninsula well here there's a little bit of cloud just to the north of joe hart looks like doha should stay fine though the temperatures are rising once more we get to around twenty nine or thirty over the next few days.

the only nation ever hit by an atomic bomb once again braces for the worst. when he explores life in japan under three years nuclear threat at this time when al jazeera. hold the benefit of people so bad to see the importance of. witness documentaries that open your eyes at this time on al-jazeera. come back remind our all the top stories here on al-jazeera italians are voting in

national elections which could reshape the country's political scene no single party is expected to win the forty percent needed to form a majority government syrian forces have seized twenty five percent of rebel held. after another night of airstrikes and shelling a minute she says it's close to spacing the enclave into german chancellor angela merkel's essential left rivals the social democrats have overwhelmingly voted to approve a new grounds coalition with her conservatives bringing an end to months of political uncertainty. spain imported in the us of the investigation into russian interference in the presidential election may have widened to include the influence of the united arab emirates the new york times says investigators have been questioning george nader an american lebanese businessman who's an adviser to the crown prince of the u. john hendren is live for us in washington d.c.

so john tell us a bit more about this george nader and what indeed needs to the whole. well the more probe is now looking into the connections between the u.a.e. and the u.s. specifically with george nader they're looking at whether money was funneled from the u.s. into the trump campaign head of the election and whether there has been undue influence by the u.a.e. at a time when the u.s. policy has tilted toward that nation netter himself a is a lebanese american businessman who's been on the fringes of diplomacy for many years he was used by the clinton administration is a back channel with syria in the one nine hundred ninety s. and then after the iraq war began in two thousand and three he was pushing business for blackwater that's the business this security business run by erik prince erik prince just happens to be the brother of betsy device that was president trump's education secretary now prince is has also been named in news reports as trying to

form an unofficial back channel between president trump and vladimir putin held a meeting in the seychelles with a russian official that was reportedly backed by the u.a.e. or range by the u.a.e. so miller is apparently widening this probe beyond russian influence into the american election he's looking now into influence by the u.a.e. and other nations and natter has met specifically with jared krishna that is particularly interesting because it has been reported that other nations have been caught talking about how they feel that cushion or is vulnerable to influence because of his business ties and specifically israel the u.a.e. mexico and china are reported to have been overheard commenting about this so that puts the trumpet ministration in a bit of a bind expanding the probe puts cushion or in a potentially bad position and also steve bannon who has also met with nader i mean dave jericho they're already being looked at quite considerably and there's lots of

questions about his security clearance now with regards to his closeness to the president if this indeed is true what could this mean to his position. or that's right sue cushion or had a bad week he lost his top secret security clearance last week that means it's hard for him to carry out his portfolio which includes negotiating peace in the middle east at a time when he can't even get the intelligence reports about what is going on there the concern here would be that questioners companies have been looking for money to finance his real estate empire if there was ever any overlap between money coming from the u.a.e. or from the middle east toward questioner at a time when u.s. policy has tilted in favor of the u.a.e. that would be a very serious problem and exactly the kind of thing that robert mueller will be looking into so this is potentially paris perilous rather for jared cushion or at a time when he's already vulnerable that came up on the sunday talk shows today

this is what one senator had to say if it's true it's damning if it's true gerrard has to go for many of us the fall of the middle east closely we could not understand why the trumpet ministration was so firmly taking the saudis side in this dispute between the saudis the m roddy's and the qataris because the united states has very important interests in qatar at the top of the list are thousands of u.s. troops that are stationed in a base there and so to so firmly take the side of the saudis against the countries potentially resulting in the downward spiral of the qatari economy put thousands of americans at risk. so this just adds smoke to all of the smoke swirling around the trumpet administration due to ties with russia now potential ties with the u.a.e. and what muller is looking at is whether there is fire that means some kind of direct connection that means some kind of exchange was made that trump knew about

the connections with russia or that jerad cushion or made some kind of a deal with the united arab emirates so this is going to play out over the coming months and the broadening of this probe suggests it could go on for some time many thanks john hendren there from a smoky washington d.c. saudi arabia's crown prince is in cairo for a three day visit to meet his egyptian president of the fattah el-sisi it's mohamed been silenced first foreign trip since becoming crown prince last year when fly on to meet with leaders in the u.s. the u.k. and the radio and egypt are among the countries that imposed a blockade on cattle last june and least three people have been injured in a car ramming incident in the northern israeli city of acre israeli police are describing it as a nationalistic attack a term police use to describe politically motivated attacks against israelis by palestinians they say an arab israeli attempted to run over

a border policeman crashed into another car and mounted a side will journalists from the polls largest newspaper have been charged with contempt of court after they published stories that were critical of the chief justice the case against the county put daily is being seen as an attack on press freedom sabrina has more from the capital katmandu. riot police were deployed outside the supreme court as representatives of nepal's largest newspaper the county daily arrived for the hearing security was tight and court authorities strict about who else would be allowed in so the sharma's the newspaper's editor would remember. and this is not only a case of conduct but of a larger case of press freedom in nepal this will set a precedent on how widely ordinarily the constitutional guarantee of free speech will be understood. because people daily published a series of reports alleging that the parts chief justice but actually used fake

documents and falsified his date of birth the mandatory age retirement is sixty five the chief justice says that the stories are a tad on the judiciary system with imaginary facts and objectionable language the supreme court however already has an ongoing investigation against the chief justice on the alleged charges of fake documents. chief justice perjury had issued an order for the newspaper to appear on charges of contempt of court he also ordered the press council a press watchdog body with government appointed members to presents a news against him constitutional experts say this sets a dangerous trend. is very important part of this even if. it isn't a christian there may be some sort of. talk about. limiting

the role of. the respect of the us abuse of those come in with regard to this pronouncement with regard to the recent behavior although previously people actually sat on his own case despite being implicated in it do other judges presided on sunday the hearing was adjourned until monday it's been a stretched out his era when do. a monday china's parliament will hold its annual meeting where is expected to rubber stamp changes to the constitution moving any limits on how long the president can stay in power the plans were first announced a week ago and they're being seen as a huge power grab by xi jinping which could see him ruling china for the rest of his life from beijing eighteen 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's 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 dallas. this hasn't happened in china or other countries before if you change the constitution itis that is 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 protesters have taken to the streets of london calling for gender equality

ahead of international women's day on thursday dubbed march for women the aim is to highlight the inequality women and girls face around the world the cities their city can with atlee event he's vowing to make london the best city in the world to be a woman. and the oscars will be getting underway in a few hours time an event that's usually filled with skill and the celebration of the year's big screen successes but this year's ceremony has been overshadowed by sexual harassment allegations and cause for greater diversity in the film industry what reynolds reports from los angeles. this hollywood readies for its big night in new study casts harsh light on a lack of racial 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 accustomed to hollywood self 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 it 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 me two movements are broken the culture of silence

complicity and enabling 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 robert oulds al-jazeera los angeles. let's get you up to speed with the headlines now and al-jazeera italians are voting in national elections which could reshape the country's political scene no single party is expected to win the forty percent needed to form a majority government the anti establishment five star movement is expected to lead the vote that has already vowed not to go into coalition with any of its rivals

they deem barbour is in rome and says there have been issues with ballot papers at some polling stations. have been delays and also people in law even to vote when the official deadline happens eleven pm do get the right to cause the ballot so those delays might have a knock on effect beyond that people are saying that the permutations are so difficult all of these different alliances that it could be not just hours but days before we have any idea who's going to be governing italy syrian forces have seized twenty five percent of rebel held eastern ghouta after another night of air strikes and shelling a minute she says it's close to splitting the enclave into more than six hundred forty people have reported being killed in the besieged enclave jaring in the past two weeks the u.n. says collective punishment of civilians is unacceptable nearly one hundred fifty thousand people are in urgent need of emergency supplies in a week after

a deadly quake struck the highlands of papua new guinea damaged roads and landslides have prevented the delivery of aid. a man has been shot dead in bikin a fast so tempting to storm a roadblock near the presidential compound two of the men involved in the attack which happened in the capital ouagadougou managed to flee it happened two days after eight people were killed twenty assaults on the military headquarters and the french embassy in marketing the. german chancellor angela merkel's center left rivals the social democrats have overwhelmingly voted to approve a new grand coalition with her conservatives it turns months of political uncertainty the mastication into russian interference in the election of donald trump reportedly being widened to include the united arab emirates the new york times says investigators have been questioning george nader an american lebanese businessman who's an adviser to the crown prince of the you. you speak with the

headlines but stay with a fair analogy there are one no one aced is coming up next. for the first time in decades is a palpable fear of the new you egypt. with north korean missiles landing close to japan's shores relations between the two countries are.