documentaries about open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera. we understand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you al-jazeera. italians are voting in that in a live action likely to be dominated by the far right and populist parties but a clear winner is some likely. hello there i'm jim mcdonald this is al jazeera live from london also coming up

more airstrikes on rebel held east of the hotel with syrian forces now seizing a quarter of the on clay and still no wait it's getting in. into investigation into interference in the u.s. presidential election extends to include the united arab emirates. because the final makes a comeback in colombia thousands of latin music lovers gather for the annual county fair. a warm welcome to the program it's been described as its league's most uncertain election in years one that could bring about a political gridlock polls close in four hours from now and the only thing that looks certain is that there will be no clear winner the empty stablish five star movement which is campaigned hard against corruption looks set to win the most but not enough to govern and it says it won't and to a coalition will be live in rome in just

a second but first let's look at how the voting has gone so far or as the as the story. as the time arrived 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 it's thirty one year old leader held several parts i'm jobes before even entering politics five stars inside a proposal is to create a citizens' block in opposition to the corrupt excesses of the political clubs 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 the want to. probably be camera defer political parties to transform into influence to do transformation in the reconfiguration of politico since them we doubt government responsibility.

the political bloc with the best chances this group led by the it's handily 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 mateo 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 stable governments many italians are revolted at the idea of berlusconi choosing the next prime minister so what then is 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 and all for many suspect that in the events of political stacey's he and the censor 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 barnsley al-jazeera wrote well the symbol for us then a dream so what chance then does berlusconi have of getting to choose who leads italy. well julie it's all open it's all up to play for really. the last opinion polls published two

weeks ago did put silvio berlusconi's foot's italia party together with its coalition partners ten percent or so ahead of the largest single party which was the five star movement so that that coalition of mr berlusconi was around thirty seven percent but if that translates to the same percentage in parliament behind us that won't be enough to have a majority government and those polls were suggesting that there would be a hung parliament then who would they turn to well people are starting already to talk about people breaking promises and doing deals for example there is the possibility that silvio berlusconi's coalition could start talking to the center left democratic party who've lost a lot of support during the campaign led by the former prime minister matteo renzi

. that's not to be ruled out but the five star party just a few days ago was saying that they're on polling was suggesting they'll do better than the opinion polls had suggested that they were going to. achieve a great breakthrough but most political analysts skeptical of them sticking to their red line of no deals no partners and being able to take power maybe as lawrence was saying in his package all along really they are happier to to maintain a hard line to be able to to to influence from out saw eat right now what we know is that turnout is fairly we think fairly strong it was fifty eight percent not what we originally originally reported but fifty eight percent as of seven pm eighteen g.m.t. there are many hours left. for people to vote it might slightly be. delayed because there was some there was

a hole to voting in some areas. in the i was going into monday morning there will be projections we hope which might tell us what will happen in the days to come get him bob of their lives at the latest from rome nadeem thank you. syrian government forces of seize more than a quarter of rebel held eastern culture near damascus more than six hundred forty people are reported to have been killed in the besieged enclave during the past two weeks the u.n. says the increase in violence is simply unacceptable in a whatever force from beirut neighboring lebanon. pro-government forces are advancing inside eastern 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 this placement 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 dumas she funny out road which would cut rebel supply lines cut off the main town of duma and split the opposition held pocket in half was the assault this 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 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 that is being reported in the u.s.

that the investigation into russian interference in the presidential election may have widened to include the influence of the united arab emirates and york times says investigators have been questioning george nader an american lebanese businessman there is an adviser to the crime prince of the u.a.e. well john hendren is live for us in washington d.c. hi there john so who is this man and what does it mean exactly for the mobile. well julie george nader is a thorn in president donald trump side at the moment trump has been telling everybody there's been no collusion and he has been talking about how this is going to be smaller investigation should be winding down by now but instead we see mueller expanding the investigation to include the u.a.e. and to do that he's looking at george nader and his role specifically whether there was any effort to peddle influence to buy political influence in the u.s. campaign presumably by funneling money into the trump campaign nader is

a lebanese american businessman who has been a shadowy figure in american diplomacy for many years back in the ninety's the clinton administration used him as a sort of back channel go-between to negotiate with syria well now he is said to represent the crown prince of abu dhabi the effective leader of the u.a.e. and he is a subject nader is of the miller investigation miller's been asking about that influence peddling this of course is exactly what donald trump does not want he wants this investigation to narrow down and trump is mil or rather his clearly broadening the investigation but that's what special counsels tend to do if you look at the clinton investigation back in the one nine hundred ninety s. kenneth starr was the special counsel in that case he was signed up to look into a land deal called whitewater in the end he ended up concluding that president clinton committed perjury by lying about of an affair with an intern that led to an impeachment process in which clinton was. cleared however that lasted years and

that is exactly what donald trump doesn't want right now nevertheless this inquiry looks like it is not going to end anytime soon it looks like it could go on for some time julie and so what does this all mean for jared because now the president some in law and of course his close aides you mentioned that according to the new york times he actually met with nato. that's right cushier met with nader and so did steve bannon and that's for question of this is bad news at the end of a bad news week earlier this week he launched his top secret clearance that means he can't even read much of the material he would need in order to fulfill his role as the top negotiator for middle east peace krishna was also named as in u.s. newspaper reports where intelligence officials said the diplomats from four other countries that because of his business ties he was an easy target for influence in those countries included mexico china israel and the united arab emirates so that

is a serious problem for question or it's upset a lot of people on capitol hill and this is what one democratic senator senator had to say today if it's true it's damning if it's true jared kushner 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 what george nader represents to donald trump is a sign that this moeller investigation is not narrowing down that it is in fact broadening lord knows it might go on to other countries as well it's exactly what

the president doesn't want and it's immediate bad news for jared christian or john hendren that life in washington d.c. junky. well there's much more to come on the program months of political uncertainty ended germany the social democrats voted with the coalition giving angela merkel a fourth term. and saudi arabia's crown prince of egypt on the first leg of his first foreign trip in his mean. hello and welcome to international weather forecast now across europe we're seeing milder air trying to replace the cold snowy weather that we've had trouble is of course we're going to get some flooding as a result of the melting of the snow put it across southwestern parts of the u.k. even see double digits in many western areas lot of rain though too and we've still

got rain across parts of italy with snow across the alps too but that's over the phone vengefully pushing milder air across other parts of europe there notice the cold air still hanging on across russia with a mix of minus eleven for moscow on the other side of the mediterranean we've got bruce wayne's the coastal parts of morocco algeria. push move further on the coast where the conditions are looking fine temperatures still in the upper twenty's in cairo as we head into chews day across more central and southern parts of africa we've got some heavy rain across east africa moments through kenya and tanzania towards uganda further towards the west a fine weather conditions here got to lagos nigeria plenty of sunshine and temperatures around the thirty degree mark as we head into southern parts of africa here we've got a tropical psycho's still give the threat of some heavy rain on the east coast amount aska otherwise across much of south africa it's looking fine just a chance of a shower for dover we're expecting a high here of twenty seven degrees. a

survivor of the genocide there are people who beg me to kill them when they're suffering but it didn't have the power to do who's dedicated his life to searching the woods for bones of the victims of the srebrenica massacre. will leave them here is due to all. you know hope of finally letting the past to rest and giving peace to the victims' families because you knew if i could just find a finger bone i could bury him. at this time on al jazeera. welcome back a combined of our top stories here on al-jazeera well to turn i would say sitting

at around fifty eight percent in its leaves election it's the most uncertain soaked in gears with no single party expected to win the force a percent needed to form a majority government. it's been reported in the us that the investigation into russian interference in the presidential election may have quite to include the influence of the united arab emirates new york times says investigators have been questioning george nader an american lebanese businessman was an adviser to the crime prince the. syrian forces of seize twenty five percent of rebel held east and pull to the military says it's close to splitting the all played into the u.n. says it will tend to send an aid convoy into the area on monday was refused permission on sunday. well ferrous up to the is a remember all of the white helmet so risky group and he spoke to us earlier from on sky he says no one is able to escape. nor out of it's them or

no on get out of is them all of us though for some some civilians just. run away from the areas. near the front lines and not all get out from used water so far and everyone tries to do it they'll be close one of the problem you will be shot by the us never thought that your own government so for the four hundred thousand people trapped inside the rebel held on clave the situation is still dire the u.n. says it wasn't able to get its convoy of forty eight trucks in to go to on sunday because permission wasn't given it says it will not try again on monday only one small convoy has entered this year with enough supplies for just seven thousand two hundred people well fighting stamets health facilities and shops increasing the price of even basic supplies like bread by two and a half thousand percent with a severe shortage of food water and electricity those who have remained there have

been forced to find new ways to survive as osama bin j accords be the alien mushrooms non-native species to eastern interview just a few kilometers from syria's capital damascus when the fish tightened in two thousand and thirteen food supplies rigs lost quickly one of the answers for growing protein needs was mushrooms after testing they were in poisonous biologists grew spores in the labs they taught people how to apply cold damp 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 they are wishing 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 thirty of. 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 a job it out to zero by the un to get the turkey syria border. germany social democrats have voted to approve their party going into another coalition given the conservative chance that a fourth term in office brings an end to months of political uncertainty that many

in the party aren't happy to be propping up another government from berlin domenic cole explained. 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 and the pragmatic need for germany to have a stable government on sunday the party's grass roots had their say it. will not annoying on the eyes it's thousand two hundred thirty nine thousand six hundred four is speedy maybe it's worth it yes one hundred twenty three thousand three hundred twenty nine is speedy means you know this represents a two thirds vote and one third all know that. this was a decision of the head not the heart many members agonized over their choices 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 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 strength we need to move forward as a party in government and to put our country on the right path it's good to get 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 defined . thirty percent or more of the vote 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 concentrate another coalition with anglo-american 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 came there a girl in. saudi arabia's crown prince is in cairo for a three day visit to meet with egyptian president. it's mama been someone's first foreign trip since becoming crime prince last year and then fly on to meet with leaders in the u.s. the u.k. saudi arabia and egypt are among the countries that imposed a blockade on qatar last year is following developments. this is one hundred percent man's first foreign trip as crown prince of saudi arabia and people might wonder why did he choose egypt as the first leg of the trip well from a sandy perspective there are two serious challenges in the region first of all iran which the saudis consider almost like an existential threat and the war in

yemen which continues with no indication that it might come to an end anytime soon so for the saudis the only way to contain iran's growing influence and to win the war in saudi arabia they need to rely on a strong ally in the region and this explains why they have been pouring billions of dollars into the egyptian economy and providing strong political assistance to the president of the c.c. if you look at the events shadel during that three day visit crown prince mohammed bin so many is going to meet with pope who was the second leader of the coptic christians in egypt and this is quite significant because crown prince will have a verse and i would like to show that he's young more to break into from a long tradition of strict interpretation of islam that has been prevailing in saudi arabia for decades he's going also to attend a performance of the opera in cairo along with the president at the has sisi.

only recently saudi arabia decided to invest sixty one billion dollars into intertainment industry in the kingdom and this is quite important for the leader because he says who he wants to introduce. major changes in the society and diversify of the economy he's basically wants to be seen as a young leader who is going to change saudi arabia they threw people have been injured in a car ramming incident northern israeli city of achree israeli police are describing it as a nationalistic attack the term peace used 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 minded the pavement and became a fast one man's been shot dead whilst attempting to storm a roadblock near the presidential compound two of the men involved in the attack

which happened in the capital good dougal managed to flee comes just two days after eight people were killed into an assaults on the military headquarters and the french embassy in the capital city became a fast as prime minister paul cabot's condemned the incidents as cowardly terrorist attacks 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 damage was in landslides have stopped the delivery of aid to isolated communities the quake destroyed or damaged the homes around seven thousand people others in the region are in desperate need of food water and sanitation. colombia's music scene is usually dominated by pop stars like luma and shit but in the city of cali thousands of people gather every year to celebrate old school vinyl records and revel in the region sneaks. ports from cal. scoring the bins searching for

their missing records or a rare treasure it might seem like a relic from a bygone age but not for the thousands who crowd columbia's traditional meeting of music lovers and collectors it's a georgia it's a twenty six the year it's a calling for all lovers of latin music salsa afro cuban all united by the same passion salsa music and vinyl records for six consecutive days fans about for a caribbean music gather to trade stories i think it's an alpha piece. they kept coming as the analog formats was replaced by c.b.s. first then digital and they're still at it now that finally seeing a worldwide resurgence. it's an old format which was presumed dead but it refuses to go away and actually it's coming back with force people are dusting off the records they had stored away the passion is back this is not. like the name for what i do these albums go for just

a few us dollars to up two hundred twenty some cases even more than one thousand u.s. dollars depending on how rare it is or how highly sought after by collectors and it's not only old nostalgics the an ad man this is part of a group of young salsa music aficionado's who arrived from new york she says these albums also remind her of her father thank you all despite me thank you very much that pickering thank you and what i want to do all right i want more anything by thank you and they were everything was very high profile for reclaiming thank you don beard from over all god in america our country no go. being close to that i've heard pretty much to remind you i want to tell you thanks for my role in my life and as night falls the meeting him never to believe turns into a record playing party with people shaking macas hitting on cow bells and dancing as collectors' polished their soon to be player to rarities for the excited crowd.

means the media now proud owner of five thousands of them says it's difficult to choose this favorite. they're all special to me but the music lover like the first harvest from it runs in our blood like a disease. no doubt it's a contagious but cheerful illness and one that won't let you stand still alexandra get the gist of it i can tell you well you can find out much more about the stories we're following on a website the address for that is the al-jazeera dot com. headlines on al-jazeera also turnout is sitting at around fifty eight percent and italy's election it's the most uncertain vote in gear is no single specked it's a win the forty percent needed to form a majority government anti establishment five star movement is expected to lead the

vote but has already vive not to go into coalition with any of its rivals but is in will people are starting already to talk about people breaking promises and doing deals for example there is the possibility that silvio berlusconi's coalition could start talking to the center left democratic party who've lost a lot of support during the campaign led by the former prime minister matteo renzi . that's not to be ruled out. syrian forces have seized a quarter of rebel held eastern after another night of airstrikes and shelling the military says its schools to splitting the own cave into well the six hundred forty people are reported to have been killed in the besieged a jury in the past two weeks u.n. says collective punishment of civilians is unacceptable the investigation into russian interference in the election of donald trump has reportedly been 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 advisor to the crown prince of the u.a.e. . german chancellor angela merkel center left rival social democrats have overwhelmingly voted to approve a new grand coalition with her conservatives that ends months of political on service and say nearly one hundred fifty thousand people are in urgent need of emergency supplies nearly a week after a deadly quake struck the highlands of papua new guinea damaged roads and landslides have prevented the delivery of aid amounts been shot dead in burkina faso whilst attempting to storm a roadblock here the presidential compound two other men involved in the attack which happened in the capital or good dougal managed to flee it happened two days after eight people were killed in twin assaults on the military headquarters and french embassy in the capital city those are your headlines you're up to date we

hope you stay with us. next and of course you can follow all our big stories on our web site at al-jazeera dot com but but. the war will. last. for many years people have been fleeing eritrea. a steady stream across the border

.