to express their views freely. d.w. dot com or to freedom. this is deja vu news live from berlin steve bannon loses his perch atop america's right wing media the former white house chief strategist stepped down the chairman of rightwing outlets breitbart news that's after he sharply criticize president trump in a controversial new book. also coming up mudslides in southern cal is out there in california leave at least thirteen people dead in carver top of destruction through

coastal towns already ravaged by wildfires. and just forty eight hours remain for talks on forming a new coalition government here in germany i'm going to calls conservative bloc on the social democrats must strike a deal for the country could be heading back to the polls. i'm sumi so much got it good to have you with us from white house insider to banish the outsider steve bannon has stepped down as executive chairman of the right wing breitbart news network the announcement comes less than a week after ben's withering criticism of trump and his family were published in a new book bannon had once been part of the u.s. leaders inner circle steering trumps america first foreign policy and his remarks appear to have cost him dearly. president donald trump lashed out at steve bannon

for comments made in michael wolff fire and fury inside the trump white house which questions the president's fitness for office bannon fell out of the president's five after it emerged he did tacked on a junior for twenty six day mating with a group of russians in the book by michael wolff bannon is quoted as saying. even if you thought that this was not treasonous unpatriotic or bad blank and i happen to think it's all of that you should have called the f.b.i. immediately. as i had called him disloyal and disgraceful the president brand his former chief strategist sloppy stave and apparent reference to balance often unkempt appearance and declared that he lost his mind when he was pushed out of the white house last august the president launched a scathing attack on twitter saying. michael wolff is a total loser they made up stories in order to sell this really boring and

untruthful book he'd use sloppy stayed bad and who cried when he got fired and begged for his job now sloppy stave is being dumped like a dog by almost everyone too bad. executive larry soul of said in the statement that patton was a valued part of our legacy and we will always be grateful for his contributions. let's talk more about the story with irwin collier from the john f. kennedy institute here in berlin or in thanks for joining us in the studio this feels like steve bennett's downfall yet first he was banished from the white house now he's stepping down from breitbart what happens well gosh what happened loose lips sink ships and i think it's you know when you look for tragic falls of these less than tragic figures. what you know ambition pride and i would see pride here he spoke to a correspondent and spoke far too much for his own good so that he became a liability for his own cause some of those comments appearing in michael wolf's

book fire and fury that has made the news or made the headlines of the past few days is this a win then for president trump i don't really know bannon in so many ways is like rest sputum and it took more than a single attempt on risk putin's life to remove him from the calculations date back to the time of the russian revolution here bannon is down i would never count someone like him out though what we see in the case of bannan as they say money talks and b.s. walks reach rebecca. oh gosh i forgot her last name from the. mercer foundation rebecca mercer excuse me rebecca mercer has withdrawn her financial support or woods remove her financial support of many of the causes associated with mr bannon ok and

that's going to and that makes all the difference in the world that's why without a financial backer yet without an angel in the background he's worthless so he said bannon is down but not necessarily out what do you think that means for the republicans going forward what i think it does have a very important consequence for the upcoming midterm elections in the following way. bannon was going to attack every republican who is not extreme these republican primaries are extremely important for determining the kind of republican to go up against democratic opposition since it looks like republicans could be swept from office in many will be swept from office in the coming elections it's very important to have moderate republicans running and they were threatened by bannon and his people does this change anything about the investigation into

possible russian interference in the u.s. election these are really two different streams and this is a very complicated set of issues so i you know what's happening with bannon is really something quite different i think. whether or not trump could handle this or not. doesn't depend on the existence of stephen bannon any idea what you think steve bannon will be doing next given that apparently his radio show has been cut it's not clear but you know he certainly has a tell all book inside of him and the band and spin could come out in such a book and i could imagine publishers would be offering him huge sums for his story but we certainly haven't heard the last of steve benen all right irwin call here with us in syria from the j.f.k. institute here in berlin thank you or when i've been here. now at least thirteen people are dead and twenty five injured after

a powerful rain storm triggered flash floods and mudslides in southern california thousands have fled their homes and rescue crews are trying to access blocked off areas in their search for survivors it's another catastrophe for coastal communities already devastated by recent wildfires they were still recovering from devastating wildfires here last month and now more destruction authorities warned residents of santa barbara to evacuate the area mother nature unleashed her fury just before dawn. and later for a train coming down the hill you know you could hear these boulders roll and. yeah the whole house was shaking i panicked i mean i was asleep and i was in my pants and i just said there's mud in the driveway there's mud in the driveway parishes are fences grew. ridges on.

this second nightmare to hit the region in weeks last month's wildfires destroyed vegetation on hillsides here leaving them susceptible to erosion and in this case mudslides rescue crews have been overwhelmed by the scale of the carnage. we had a very difficult time assessing the area and responding to many of those areas to assist those people. the only words i can really think of to describe what it looked like was it looked like a world war one battle from. the battlefield which some have narrowly escaped. hundreds remain trapped in the debris. now here in germany the party's trying to form a new coalition government are heading into the final stages of their exploratory talks there's currently a news blackout on those talks but leaked reports suggest uncle america's conservative bloc on the social democrats are compromising on campaign pledges as

they raced towards thursday's deadline one of the key negotiators even turned up to the talks this morning in a sports gear which had observers wondering whether he has the finish line in sight or if he's preparing for a marathon session over the next two days. more of the coalition talks with michelle acoustic at her parliamentary studios here in berlin. how are these talks progressing ahead of tomorrow's deadline. well as you can see with. what i'm sure it's arriving in the tracksuit bottoms or something working very hard. those small bits of information that we're getting out are issues that have been actually pretty much long in the making including a potential immigration law for highly skilled workers here and this is the democrats and the c.d.u. are still currently in this caretaker government together they've been seeing not seeing eye to eye on this for a very long time what we're still scarce on details on is what that actual

breakthrough could potentially be a working groups or fifteen working groups they are now reporting back to the party leadership in leaderships including german chancellor angela merkel and that's really where the deals are done that's where we stand now they have almost forty eight hours still to go and how much pressure is there on these parties michele have to deliver ahead of that deadline this is out of pressure because they all have something to lose they all lost support in those past elections the social democrats were seen as the big loser hence the reluctance to go in to get another so-called grand coalition with german chancellor angela merkel and they have to demonstrate that really staying like almost all political couple with the same partners together can still mean a change in how politics is done here in germany that's a very tall order particularly when it comes to the social democrats convincing their party convention on the twenty first of january and eventually also the grass roots of the social democrats who get to vote on whatever might come out of this if

the parties do reach an agreement when will we see a new government in place in berlin. that's the million dollar question so we have this posse convention that's assume that this is a democrat these is it goes along with this then we're still weeks i dare say even probably about two months plus away from actually having a new ground coalition if this fails and this potential for a minority government which is widely seen as a very unlikely if we have fresh elections we might be talking several months here leaning well into spring and summer and just briefly if you can we're just all of this leave chancellor merkel and her legacy. if she fails to put this coalition together this is a big blow for her we've talked about the beginning of the end very often before but this could well be something she can't recover from. correspondent michelle or cooper reporting here in berlin thank you very much now have the snowfall across

the swiss alps has cut off several villages and popular ski resorts stranding more than ten thousand holiday makers and some areas reported up to two metres of snow over a forty eight hour period that is cut off road and rail routes rescue crews have started helicopter evacuations authorities are also planning controlled explosions to blast away snow that poses an avalanche risk. the swiss mountain resort of say a mud is famous for its views of the matter horn but that iconic peak hasn't been seen in days the area had two meters of snow in a forty eight hour period lifts and runs of had to be closed and an estimated thirteen thousand people are stuck after snow closed mountain roads and blocked train tracks. and emergency helicopter a bridge was set up to ferry tourists out.

the entire region is now on high alert for avalanches. the avalanche warning is on level five the highest level streets are a high risk and closed as well as rail tracks will decide how we've lost the avalanches and after that we have to evaluate how to rebuild the connection from zero to vist began. to feel. the heavy snow falls have also cut off large parts of alpine france and italy the french ski resort of teen you was buried under more than a meter of snow a british skier is still missing after going out alone in the blizzard. is there authorities have put a curfew in place and ordered residents to stay indoors. we really recommend people to stay at home avalanche risk is high the second distance that has not been known since nine hundred seventy eight an avalanche tore through the village of lives.

residents describe the moment of impact. that you want. it's always impressive it's not pretty to see you think the house will explode when you see that it hits you in the guts. but i warn that's what we felt a big noise at first no tremor but a very big noise a huge growl and then i saw the cloud coming down so we went back down to the basement ok of me you. or thirty say no one was injured in the avalanche barriers bore the brunt firefighters are still working to clear the wreckage. meanwhile in the swiss resort a venue in the first men's world cup downhill trying run was cancelled because of the heavy snow and high winds.

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