an act of youthful defiance. your turn next door also in the school will be arrested neutral with four in the morning the electric shock treatment was the worst that triggered a revolution. the arrest of those children sparked it all of which became a battle without and that was the beginning from the interior of. the boy who started the syrian war this time on al jazeera. polls close initially selection likely to be dominated by the far right and populist parties but unlikely to produce a clear winner. of their own barbarous era this is al jazeera live from london also coming up on the

program more airstrikes on rebel held eastern with syrian forces now seizing up water of young klavan still no aid is getting in. the investigation into interference and the u.s. presidential election expands to include the united arab emirates and hollywood gears up for its biggest night but our issues of race and gender overshadowing the movies at the oscars. polls have now closed in what's being described as italy's most uncertain election in years one that could bring about a political gridlock that the only thing that looks certain is that there will be no clear winner the m.p.'s that wish one five star movement which has campaigned hard against corruption looks set to win the most votes but not enough to govern and it says that i want to enter into a coalition with any other party. so let's get straight to nadine bob those are the

five star gathering in rome for us we are expecting those exit polls now there are they have been wrong in the past exit polls in italy and actually i think we are still getting we're getting some right now and this is for the senate so let me just tell you what the exit polls say now so the five star movement between twenty nine to thirty two percent. the democratic let's party between twenty and twenty three point five percent berlusconi's party between thirteen and sixteen percent the northern league between thirteen and sixteen percent and the brothers of italy between four and six percent that was expected so these are very provisionary exit polls this is just for the senate in italy of course there is both the senate and the chamber in the senate only people above

twenty five twenty five years old and above can votes it tends to be perhaps a little bit more conservative a little bit more leaning to the right so what we can see there is a five star movement to doing as well as had been predicted there between twenty nine and thirty two percent and what's interesting is that berlusconi's party for and the league the anti immigrant party led by mateo vini pretty much exactly the same and these are exit polls but they have them both between thirteen and sixteen percent which i guess means that in a potential of rightwing coalition it wouldn't necessarily be. a party who decides who would become prime minister and i were a long way away from any kind of definite. definite conclusion about potential future governments and those are just the results for the senate we are still expecting exit polls for the chamber which have just come in now so for the

five star movement very similar figures twenty nine point five to thirty two point five the left wing party between twenty and twenty three again that was expected and even there even there the difference between party and the leak actually there isn't one twelve point five to fifteen point five both the parties so even the exit poll for the chamber shows that berlusconi's party and the anti immigrant league party to be. almost exactly the same. so let's go to nadine barber who is at a meeting of the five star movement i'm guessing that they were also i guess they're digesting these exit polls which of just coming to us in the past. few minutes nadeem not particularly reliable they have been very very wrong in the past

but it does show a very strong five star movement and it does show party forces and the anti immigrant leg up party led by my posts of vini with exactly the same number of votes pretty much which means it's not necessarily. party who decide who would become the prime minister in the case of a center right coalition but tell us a little bit about reaction there at that congregation of the five star movement presumably they're happy. barbara it's quite a muted atmosphere here we're waiting for the arrival of major figures and m.p.'s and party leaders from the five star movement. there was a there's a screen in the corner giving people those exit polls as you were saying exit posed to be taken with a pinch of salt. judging on previous elections but they seem to if

correct bear out the predictions that the five star have become the largest single party in the lower chamber of parliament but interestingly what you were saying was that it looks like. silvio berlusconi's party and their election allies the northern league seem to be neck and neck which would indicate that in fact if most political analysis expectations are made in other words that that coalition has the strongest chance of forming a government in the event of a hung parliament that it could be the. northern the the league party the former northern league who then tried to impose their candidate as prime minister and that would be matteo silvino he's in his early forty's he's a very outspoken person on the subject of immigration he says he's

a nationalist he rejects the epithet of racists that some of his critics throw at him but he has said that he wants to start deporting hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers we've arrived in italy in the last few years so very very interesting if that does actually happen barbara. and the team these are exit polls we've mentioned just in a few hours time we're going to get some predictions which will be more reliable when are we likely to get the final results because of course polls of clothes. but people are still voting now anyone who was in the queue at at twenty two g.m.t. will be allowed to vote. that's right any one allowed to anyone who was in the queue at the official deadline does gets accustomed ballot but also there might be a knock on effect from delays in voting in certain polling stations here in rome

but also in a town in the north as well because there was deemed to be a problem with the ballots so that might have to lay things out might have pushed out pushed everything forward if you see what i mean so that people vote later into the night but. really what we're looking for are the projections which are expected perhaps in a couple of hours from now certainly those will give us a stronger indication as to the makeup of the. lower chamber of parliament what it won't do though unless there's a big surprise and for example five star have done well enough to to get near to that forty percent threshold then what it won't do is to tell us who is going to form the next government there are likely to be days if not longer of coalition talks of alliance building to try to to see who can work together five star say

they won't enter into any coalition with anybody that remains to be seen from the other parties it still remains a possibility that if they're not strong enough on their own the right center right coalition on the bonus kone could start talking to the center left on the matteo renzi under a so-called grand coalition that's something that not many voters would like to see because that really would be a return just to politics as it always has been in terms of the same faces but it remains possible. and. we've been latest now from rome. dean for the moment thank you and here in the studio we're joined by for that eagle sun teams an italian political analyst for the eurasia group now you've had a look at these exit polls we have to say that they're not particularly reliable they've been very wrong in the past however from looking at what you're seeing what jumps out at you you know that you had to mention that it would be wrong i think about too much faith in these numbers particularly so this time around given that the electoral system has actually changed recently and it's quite complex so we

have to wait until we get not just a final results but also the actual distribution of seats in parliament which is crucial for any kind of coalition making of course but these results so far seem to be more or less in line with expectations the only surprise potentially is slightly better than expected performance by the far right the northern league which could make it more difficult for serialist going to build this right wing coalition which i think has always been his is first option right so feeling that you know we could still get an agreement potentially but if the right doesn't have the numbers to form a coalition in parliament then the you know the usual fallback option but it that way will be another grand coalition as was just mentioned but what's very interesting is that the taliban's going to party in the league which is the entity immigrant parts that i am a test of the new both in the chamber and senate have exactly the same projection which means if they were to form a right wing coalition and it was corny can't be prime minister because of his conviction then actually it would be fair enough for most of the me to say well i would want to be prime minister which i guess would be a last scenario that the e.u.

for example would want to see yeah that's right i think in any case you know there's been a number of similar question governments in the past with what they tell you in the northern league but what they thought there was always the bigger party of the two and in any case i think this is likely to change this time around so the northern league with have more say in what such a government would do to be honest i still struggle to see bill is going to accepting this sort of junior partner role because of the so beany so if they can agree on finding a compromise prime minister i think an agreement is still possible otherwise as i said i think bill is going is more likely to look to the center left in order to form a government. and i guess it just confirms that the left the democratic party might terence's party and the pride the current party because the prime minister gentleman is obviously from the party to democratic or just languishing at about twenty percent you know and there's really no surprise i'm afraid the been struggling in the polls for a long time there's a lot of incumbent fatigue if i could put it that way and also don't seem so if i think has made a string really of

a political mistake recently starting with the referendum in twenty sixteen which was his you know sort of flexion of policy proposal which he lost and pave the way for his demise as prime minister resignation and more recently pushing through this new electoral system which was meant to help the democratic party but in fact it looks as if may have done just the opposite. for the moment for the eco sunday thank you let me just remind the viewers that the exit polls have come in for the italian election they are not particularly reliable but they do show the five star movement being by quite a stretch the biggest single party and also in the right wing coalition issues berlusconi's party force italia pretty much neck and neck with the league which is the anti immigration party led the by day or something apart from that not very many surprises and of course we're not going to get the official results of the final results until later on on monday morning and of course then they'll be at the

time to form a government and that may take a lot longer than just a few hours. now syria's president bashar al assad has this missed western reports about the humanitarian situation in eastern as a dictionary of lies. the most western official spoke about the use of chemical weapons and it's come back a few days later to say we have no proof so they are damaging their credibility costing over these allegations with their own words therefore i repeat that these words are only propagations and we cannot take it seriously these words are used as an excuse to hit the syrian army. well assad has also promised to continue with the military offensive on the rebel held enclave near the capital despite reports more than six hundred forty people have been killed in the past two weeks so how to reports from beirut in 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 front lines 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 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. it's 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 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. and as the book is live for us in washington d.c. it tell us a little bit more about george need or himself and what this means for the wider mueller probe well barbara george nader is really no stranger to washington he's been sort of a shadowy fringe player here over the last three decades he was a back channel negotiator with syria during the clinton administration and more

recently he's become an advisor to the u.a.e. he's also been a frequent visitor to the white house since president trump took office and this is at a time when the president has been praising the u.a.e. for its fight against terrorism and has been siding with it and saudi arabia in that blockade against qatar now what does this mean as far as the more investigation is concerned will it sounds like the special council is now casting his net out even farther he's not just focusing on whether russia tried to influence the election and influence the administration it looks like he's now looking at other countries and as well and that could mean that this probe could go on for several more months casting a long dark shadow over this of ministration and what about jared cushnie and what does it mean for him. well he apparently met with nader in the

white house so that casts some suspicion on him he's also come under very intense scrutiny recently lost a security clearance but people have been looking at his business ties his family's business ties and whether or not that opens up him to influence with other countries especially given his position as the special envoy in the middle east and in fact one senator raised that this morning during an appearance on the sunday morning talk shows if it's true it's damning if it's true cushion or 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 now president trump said a couple of months ago that he thought that this probe would end fairly soon but it certainly doesn't look that way now it looks like it could go on for several more months in estabrook with the latest from washington dan thank you. the months of political uncertainty have ended in germany the social democrats vote as a coalition giving angle a miracle a fourth term as chancellor. welcome back we'll start by look at weather conditions across australia and for many days

now we've had this line of cloud gives some really severe storms across parts of queens an exceptional rainfall falling here still the risk of some flooding the great changes expected showers across the top and generally darwin the scene wanted to downpours across western australia snowy looking fine is looking pretty hot there with person temperature of thirty six degrees celsius actually warmer than alice springs was a move of forecaster in to choose day thirty seven is the max from here we mow across southeastern areas temperatures which you'd expect into the mid twenty's for melbourne and for sydney so across into new zealand seen a few showers effect on the western side of both north and south island but generally through the course of monday it's looking dry and fine we do get more of a southwesterly flow beginning to push up across the south on and so temperatures starting to fall away maybe one or two showers developing but north on a silicon temperature of twenty five in or clint some quite heavy snowfall expected across parts of japan on this frontal system with some really heavy rain further towards a sound see the contrast in temperatures there subzero just the north but twenty

there for osaka but if you head on through to choose the system should be clear cold air pushing in so temperatures in tokyo dropped to twelve degrees celsius. i am doing this on the benefit of saddam people. so bad they see all the our guys. who witness documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera.

reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera legs and polls suggest a hung parliament in the italian elections the five star movement is the largest single party leading the vote with between twenty nine and thirty two percent of the center right coalition would have altogether between thirty three and thirty six just slightly in front of the five star movement show you some live pictures now coming out over oh now that's headquarters of the five star movement we are expecting the party. the person of the party chose would be would have been the prime minister would be the prime minister who knows but

certainly the candidate for the five star movement. for him to speak the five star movement didn't even exist eight years ago now the biggest party in the italian election an anti establishment party but so far the center right coalition. does. between thirty three to thirty six percent of. the headlines syria's president bashar al assad western reports about the humanitarian situation in eastern as a dictionary of law is syrian forces of seize twenty five percent of rebel held eastern in the military says it's close. to. it's 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 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.

germany's social democrats have voted to approve their party going into another coalition giving the conservative chancellor angela merkel a four fourth term in office it brings an end to months of political uncertainty but many in the party aren't happy to be propping up another merkel government dominic can reports from berlin 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. that annoying on the eyes is thousand two hundred thirty nine thousand six hundred four is speedy members voted yes one hundred twenty three thousand three hundred twenty nine is speedy members voted no this represents

a two thirds 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 welcomed sunday's result. we now have clarity s.p.d. will join the next government our party did not make this decision lightly 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 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 fights and what does that label mean it actually means or how is it defined thirty percent and more of the vote and they're far away from that in the end the parties 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 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 al-jazeera. the oscars are getting underway in a few hours time an event that's usually filled with glitz glamour and the celebration of the year's big screen successes this year's ceremony has. been overshadowed by sexual harassment allegations and calls for greater diversity in the film and the story joins us live now from los angeles robin how do you think the ceremony will deal or mark these allegations and scandals.

well first barbara that's the question everybody wants to build here on the red carpet in hollywood and throughout the industry i think it's definitely unavoidable you are certain to hear at least the master of ceremonies the comedian jimmy kimmel make reference to the disgraced producer harvey weinstein weinstein sometimes referred to as the elephant who's not in the room always a fixture here on the red carpet this year of course cast out of the circle of power in hollywood and i think that you'll hear some of the presenters also talk about the need to move with the times up there with all movements that began actually in the entertainment industry and then widened out to other walks of life but. some people in hollywood leave the deputies each. others took place and sold so many people knew about it so many people kept it as kind of

a family secret almost that it might be tricky for the stars to get up on stage and . you know sort of spout a righteous indignation for fear of being called out for us. and of rob obviously those issues that will i would guess the mark to in the ceremony but let's focus on the films themselves who are the front runners. great lineup of fields this year but it's some of the consensus forming around the field of the shape of water that picture and its director guillermo del toro of mexico are expected to. i mean best picture and best director respectively the film garner thirteen oscar nominations altogether. and there are. also fairly high rates has been the. best female

actor. now it's expected that that ward at this point is going to go to frances mcdormand who start as the grief stricken and angry formidable mother in the film three billboards outside of being missouri others a chance also that. the. the she's with is a chance also that the best female actor seeing a supporting role domination will be a tight race this year we have the. supporting actor of in. the shape of water mary j. sorry. that that there will be indeed a lot of. discussion about the b. to move and. the other movements here and we'll have to see how the winning numbers come out that yeah we can see in the red carpet behind you certainly the actresses

not all wearing black like they did for the golden globes and other awards ceremonies so very interesting to see how the awards to mark and me too for the moment have a brand of journalism to restrict thank you. for speaking of me to protesters of taking to the streets of london calling for gender equality ahead of international women's day on thursday dubbed the march for women the aim is to highlight the inequality that women and girls face around the world the city's mayor said the economist at the event vowing to make london the best city in the world were to be open and you know. and now the headlines on al-jazeera exit polls suggest a hung parliament in the italian elections the five star movement is the largest single party leading the vote with between twenty nine to thirty two percent it has

already ruled out forming a coalition government that has campaigned hard against corruption well italian political analyst he says a number of coalition options are possible. these results so far seem to be more or less in line with expectations the only surprise potentially is slightly better than expected performance by the far right the northern league which could make it more difficult for serialist going to build this right wing coalition which i think has always been his is first option so feeling that you know we could still get an agreement potentially but if the right doesn't have the numbers to form a coalition in parliament then the you know the usual fallback option to put it that way will be another grand coalition. syrian forces have seized the quarter of rebel held eastern who after another night of airstrikes and shelling the military says it's close to splitting the enclave into 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 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 a george nader an american lebanese businessman who's an adviser to the crown prince of the un. german chancellor angela merkel's center left rivals the social democrats have overwhelmingly voted to approve a new grand coalition with her conservatives this sends months of political uncertainty. 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 guinean damaged roads and landslides have prevented the delivery of. and the oscars are getting underway in a few hours time an event that's usually filled with glitz and glamour in the celebration of the year's big screen success says this year's ceremony will undoubtedly be overshadowed by sexual harassment allegations and calls for greater

diversity in the film industry that said i'll see you tomorrow coming up next witness. 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. you want to know my.