succumbs to own. this is d. w. news coming to you live from berlin make or break talks here in germany as a deadline looms for parties trying to form a new government a supporting eight hours remain for uncle america's conservatives to strike a deal with their hoped for partners the social democrats failure could trigger new elections also coming up mudslides in southern california lead at least thirteen

people dead and carve a path of destruction through coastal towns already ravaged by wildfires. and stranded in the alps more than ten thousand holidaymakers are holed up as heavy snow fall and avalanches cut all villages and ski resorts. flowing terry marchant good to have you with us. here in germany the clock is running for the political parties locked in exploratory talks to form a new coalition government the talks are confidential but leaked reports suggest under michael's conservative block and the social democrats have reached agreement on climate policy and migration but s.p.d. leader martin schultz refused to comment as he headed into today's negotiations all parties have agreed to a news blackout ahead of thursday's deadline if they reach agreement by then the

next step will be entering full coalition talks well for more on those coalition exploratory talks let's bring in our parliamentary studios here in berlin and barbara basal in brussels first to you. how are these talks going and do you think that the delegates to these talks are going to be able to strike a deal by to morrow's deadline. well that's a big question i mean the deal that we're talking about would just be an agreement to actually then enter more detailed talks in talking about actually going ahead and forming a coalition together so this is green on the very beginnings of it martin chills the s.p.d. that we saw in those pictures that he said that they said he had a joint interest to make this work well no kidding i mean he was quoted last week by german daily build saying that if this doesn't really come together his political future could be on the line so could actually the political future of

german chancellor angela merkel has been credited with this stability germany so represents within the european union but certainly there is growing impatience here and many to actually get a government together and a brussels to has a lot of projects it would like to tackle with germany that can actually decide things well let's go over to barbara in brussels so it's been more than three months since the election barbara could be easter before czerny finally gets a government what impact is germany's current lack of political leadership heaven on only e.u. . so far the impact hasn't really been very strong because there we have to see this is a big machinery and it keeps turning and clanking on the administration works on as if nothing happened however part of that is of course that no big decisions have to be made since october the talks for instance were just sort of evolved to divorce

rangelands and there was no a particular political struggle behind that everybody was pretty much on one page however that is going to change now as we have beginning to think about euro zone reforms the pet project of cuomo and as micaela said we need a government in berlin that can make decisions actively and that not just sort of be a bystander and so nothing can really go on if doesn't get its stuff together relatively soon became a both camps to spitting in these talks to conservatives and social democrats they were punished at the polls in september some analysts say that their losses were a direct consequence of being in the coalition with each other or the parties running a huge political risk if they reenter that coalition. one it is a risk but it's a lot size is one of the macro really has no other mathematical option if she wants

a majority coalition in the german in the stock and the social democrats who initially had ruled out once again going into this so-called grand coalition are entering these talks reluctantly but this is by no means popular at the party base and that's the real crunch here whether the s.p.d. party base will in the end vote in favor of the continuation of the current grand coalition it will have the final say on this and finally barbara if these talks in berlin fails some say will be the end of chancellor merkel's political career is brussels prepared for such a change in berlin having some in brussels will have palpitations because you have to consider terry that many people here haven't known any of the german leader other than america and also people have come through so much with her the the eurozone crisis we saw the greek crisis we saw the ukraine crisis to name just

a few and so that would be the end of an era people have become accustomed to her since her style of government and basically there would be a strong disorientation if i were to leave her post barbara basler in brussels may killer here in berlin thank you both very much. now to some of the other stories making news around the world south korea's president has said he's willing to meet his north korean counterpart kim jong il and under certain conditions and said denuclearization of the korean peninsula would be his goal in any talks with the north his comments came a day after the first time level talks between north and south korea in two years french actress catherine dinner of has criticized the meet to movement saying men should be free to proposition women in an open letter published in president warns of a new puritanism as a result of the recent surge of sexual harassment scandals and at least thirteen

people are dead and twenty five injured after a powerful rainstorm triggered flash floods and mudslides in southern california thousands of 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 who've been hit hard by recent natural disasters. 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. it sounded like your freight 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. i just think there's no time like there's not in the driveway

and says our band says. 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. former white house chief strategist steve batten has stepped down as head of the right wing breitbart

news network the platform he used to promote his nationalist views the announcement comes less than a week after bannon's withering criticism of president trump and his family were published in a new book and it had once been part of the u.s. leaders inner circle steering trumps american first america first foreign policy but that his remarks appear to have cost him dearly. well for more on the story now join in studio by boris for money is a professor of political science at bard college here in berlin good morning to you boris now this looks like the downfall of a very prominent figure in washington state that and he's put it pushed out of the white house first and now he's stepping down as executive chairman of breitbart news network a very significant news network in the u.s. what's behind his demise well it seems like he underestimated the backlash that would be coming from the from the white house maybe also underestimated at the time talking to michael wolff it's not exactly clear the author of the book fire and

fury it's not exactly clear if these these statements were officially opened up by him so be that as it may it seems like he underestimated the results the mercer family that supported him financially for a long time has a step back because it was fueling legal exposure other political supporters of his have to back his support of roy moore in alabama backfired so his his political base has been diminishing ever since august and i think this is the long term result of it ok so there are multiple reasons for bet and bennett's fall but he was a key figure in the ultra right movement shaping public opinion and engineering to some degree president trump's victory election victory what impact will his departure have on american politics you know i think that's a very important point he's been a governor as inferior that was able to mobilize the viper when the ultra right wing and have them turn up for the vote and support trump it's certain that this

was an important aspect of his when we shouldn't forget that the other on the other hand however that many people stayed home that was another story but it's true he needed these votes and. the question is if with the congressional elections that are coming up the same type of support will be coming from the right conservative ultra. right for trump that we've seen so far and i wanted to ask you about these midterm elections that are coming up very important for congress watching there's a lot happening in washington right now a slew of resignations and investigations what's the situation for the republicans right now ahead of midterm elections given all of this turbulence well the midterm elections are always a bad situation for the party that supports the president or the president comes the part the president comes from in the last twenty maternal election it's eighteen times the opposing party has taken away the midterm election so it doesn't

look good for the republicans on the same time at the same time the republicans have been able to redistrict in a way that the congress isn't even very easily taken away by the democrats and the democrats have not have won a lot of senate seats which means that most of the senate seats that are up for election are helped by the democrats so it's not quite as simple as it might look force thank you so much boris foreman professor of political science at berlin's bard college thank you. heavy snowfall across the swiss alps has cut off several villages and popular ski resorts stranding more than ten thousand holiday makers some areas reported up to two metres of snow after a forty eight hour period that has cut off roads and rail routes rescue crews have started helicopter evacuations authorities are also planning controlled explosions to blast away snow that poses an avalanche wrist. 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 have had to be closed and an estimated thirteen thousand people are stuck after snow closed mountain roads and blocked train tracks. an 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 blast the avalanches and after that we have to evaluate how to rebuild the connection from zero to visit again. to. the heavy snow falls have also cut off large parts of alpine france and italy the french ski

resort of teemu was buried under more than a meter of snow a british skier is still missing after going out alone in the blizzard. that 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 have not been known since nine hundred seventy eight an avalanche tore through the village of lives. residents describe the moment of impact. 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. we felt a big noise at first but a very big noise a huge and then i saw the cloud coming down so we went back down to the basement.

authorities 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 down hole training run was cancelled because of the heavy snow and high winds. its way news for now go up next with business stay with us for. the d.w. media center see it find it here it discovery. video and audio podcast and language courses in the g.w. media center at media center dot d.w. dot com. sustainable protection for the earth

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