this is news live from then after months of deadlock is in the german government now inside chancellor angela merkel says she hopes to form a ruling coalition by. this have potential partners the social democrats face a battle as leader martin schultz tries to win over skeptical members. also on the program the african union demands an apology from donald trump expressing its

outrage at the u.s. president's alleged use of derogatory comments to describe the continent. and in german soccer the business league is back with the top of the table clash second place shall be hoping to continue their on the run as they face like six tonight. i've. learned welcome my name is christopher spring it thanks for joining us german chancellor angela merkel says she hopes to form a new government by east that is off to her conservatives reached agreement with the social democrats yesterday on launching a formal coalition talks a previous attempt remember to form a coalition with smaller parties failed late last year friday's breakthrough has eased months of political uncertainty here in germany there are however still several huddles to have come. social democrats leader martin short's still has

a lot of selling to do he's asking the party's executive to back formal coalition talks with merkel's conservatives at a special conference later this month he'll then have to convince the party's rank and file to give their approval to the final agreement the party's youth group plans to lobby hard against another grand coalition. so chancellor merkel's bid deforming new government already the longest coalition building process in post-war germany is likely to drag on for weeks if not months. nevertheless many of christian democrats are upbeat. appear to be the results are good for our country the chancellor negotiated very well but the social democrats also achieved a good deal if we come together it will be good for the country too and this is i'm . going to say that. germany's european partners including neighbors friends and

austria have also been expressing relief that a coalition appears to be in the works. but in germany itself reaction is mixed the largest opposition party the far right f.d.a. has criticized the coalition plans. to simply deny fear will get a bad government the last four years have shown that things have been going downhill in a number of areas. and since this coalition of losers wants to stay in power i fear more of the same instance of. many voters simply want the politicians in berlin to get on with the business of governing. i think it would be good to have a grand coalition soon the one we had in the last few years wasn't bad and it's better than your next no that's too expensive germany still needs to be stable like . they many solve their interior conflicts and find out ways to work together and be a good thing for everyone especially in current situation. but whether or not

germany is led by another grand coalition won't be certain until social democrat members of the final deal a thumbs up. for more now our political correspondent simon young with me in the studio simon is there actually a possibility that the two sides the conservatives in the social democrats could seal a coalition agreement only to see the espy's members voted down where yes indeed there is a huge amount of frustration and disappointment to what's been agreed so far among the rank and file members of the s.p.d. and of course they've been offered their say on any ultimate coalition program that's going to be put forward but even before that in a week's time they'll be a special conference of s.p.d. delegates from around the country to be aust where they're going to greenlight the full coalition talks could follow you know on the left wing within the party are already mobilizing against it they say there's not enough in this preliminary

agreement to be the basis of a social democrat policies the leader of the youth section of the s.p.d. says he's going to travel around the country even as his party leader is doing the same to drum up support he says he's going to find people who oppose this agreement so there's a long way to go within the s.p.d. before this can be done let's go briefly into the detail of that document you just mentioned the twenty eight page document setting out the cornerstones of a potential coalition agreement that was the result of these exploratory talks is there enough in that document for martin schulz the leader of the social democrats to take the. his members and argue that yes we should enter a coalition with angela merkel's conservatives says there is he says the eighty percent of the s.p.d. election program is in they still came and he can see a clear way forward to a new grand coalition and there are some social democrat policies in there you know things like more help for young families boosting job creation schemes help for the

on the long term unemployed stabilizing the pension system on the other side people are saying it doesn't go far enough you know the tax system they say will remain unfair germany's health care system will remain unfair and they also say limiting immigration in the way that set out here is just pandering to the far right so you've got a lot of pro and a lot of anti and that's all going to be thrashed out in the party meetings in the next couple of weeks so it's on a knife edge essentially i think it is there could be there's a chance they could be a new government quite a good chance i suppose right now but equally we could find our way back to new elections because america has said she doesn't want to rule in a government of conservatives along with out of a coalition power be the minority government option. and she's not going to go for that when she's repeatedly said she doesn't want to govern alone just as a conservative government and she wants coalition partners so she may have to go

back to the country and you know get another mandate the question would be of course will the voters do anything different from what they did last september ok so i mean young from our political desk many thanks. turning to other news now the african union is demanding an apology from donald trump over his alleged use of an expletive to describe countries on the continent has decided not to repeat that explained the president is alleged to have used it during a meeting on immigration at the white house referring to high and african nations as quote asshole countries trans been fiercely criticized with some people calling the comment racist the president himself has denied using the term sometimes the president said killing is unwittingly troublesome on friday he made an appearance with the nephew of martin luther king jr in honor of the famous american civil rights campaigner just as accusations of racism were being hurled at him from around the world at

a meeting of republican and democrat senators on thursday the president is alleged to have said. why are we having all these people from s. dot dot dot whole countries come here. this was trump's alleged angry reaction to a compromise proposed by senators on immigration reform we're willing to restrict the so-called green card lottery but want to retain limited protected status for people from el salvador haiti and certain countries in africa can't report on trump's comment unleashed ridge in sorry but there's no other word one can use but racist. you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents shit holes whose entire populations who are not white therefore not welcome on twitter trump said he never said anything derogatory about haiti that the democrats had made it up and that he ought to record meetings in future but by then the remarks had already made headlines around the world. ok time now to catch up on some of the other stories

making news around the world three catholic churches in the chilean capital santiago have been five ball just days before pope francis is due to visit the country it taxes left behind pamphlets containing direct threats to the pope abortion rights activists also demonstrated against the pope's visit to the front of santiago's main cathedral. the death toll from a mudslide in malta seato california has risen to eighteen and firefighters are still searching for another seven people have been missing since tuesday emergency services have ordered the remaining residents to evacuate they want to bring in additional heavy equipment and to intensify the search. and in saudi arabia there's been a first for female sports fans with ortiz allowing women to watch a football match for the first time the move is part of a series of reforms easing restrictions on women starting in june women will also

be allowed to drive. now and choose your own thoughts he's arrested another one hundred fifty people yesterday bringing the total number of those detained this week to almost eight hundred since monday protests have been flaring up across the country with demonstrators demanding an end to new austerity measures and to tax increases the violence has prompted fears of a fresh political crisis in the run up to sunday's anniversary of the twenty left an arab spring uprising. we reject the new financial law it's what these protest is telling the government but so far no make his own spiking away from the missions. that were hopes the twenty eleven revolution would improve people's circumstances but many say change has materialized for the frustration with fresh price increases for many goods and new taxes they've taken to the streets since monday. this law is starving us it's

depriving us of our money. and it's marginalizing us. you want to we're protesting peacefully here we're not trying to overthrow the government we want this unjust law to be scrapped. the tunisian government has already evolved not to back down on the austerity measures and tax increases it also accuse the opposition of sticking violent protests. hundreds of protesters have so far been arrested. this is. the situation here in tunis in the capital city of tunisia has a largely calm down the main railway this afternoon was peaceful as well be the few scuffles between police and protesters but nothing compared to previous days previous nights now whether this is going to change and and the violent protests

are going to fare up again up until sunday when tunisia celebrates or marks the seventh anniversary of arab spring nobody knows how one fact is here to say that a lot of peaceful protesters are saying and activists are saying they're ready to take to the streets as long as the finance law that's been introduced in january first is not dropped. the wait is over the winter break has come and gone in the bundesliga is now underway again things started with another victory for reigning champions by in munich playing last night away against leverkusen it was a case of business as usual for the bavarians. martina's got by an off to a flyer in the thirty second minute after frankly very then made it to live a person's kevin fall and pulled one back from leave the cruise but then a spectacular free kick from from a sport that has made it three one sing the points for buying the result keeps them

on track for a record sixth consecutive time. the big game today sees light say sjostrom shall cut both clubs starting the second half of the season competing for a champions league spot there shall come and in the first half in better form after an unbeaten run of eleven games like say shall i ever have one of the strongest home records in the league. the winter break has done shellcode good to have been a long time since the entire squad trained together one of their new year's resolutions is to get more dangerous in front of goal coach to many go to disco sees room for improvement in the second place side. in some games we were missing verticality in some games we had a lot of possession we really kept our opponents on their feet but at a certain moment we were lacking the change of tempo necessary to attack the opponent's goal to get. a new arrival on loan from eventis marco pierre should help

in that department the croatian winter has great acceleration and strength in the tackle he could make his debut as a starter against leipsic aqua's because our market was a quality player i knew we have a lot of quality players and so we have to see who will play against leipzig marco is definitely one of many options. at rb leipzig rumors that gainey and midfield star not could move to liverpool six months earlier than agreed have hung over their preparations but they're confident they can be chuck says he says. this isn't the first time a team having such a good run has paid us a visit hoffenheim are undefeated when they came to town at this point last year. we're going to need to put on a chopping performance. only two point separate leipzig and shaka in the table in their first clash of the second season half they both want to stay in the

mix at the top. a top story for you german chancellor angela merkel has said she hopes a new government will be in place by the major breakthrough an exploratory talks between have conservatives and the social democrats germany has been without a government since elections in september. you're watching news in berlin move. in. meantime don't forget you can always get the latest updates from our web site that's the w dot com up next night proves. this month in germany is a strong country. that we have achieved so much we can do this and if something him to resign we must overcome it in the. going where it's uncomfortable global news that matters t.w. made for mines.

oh no we have walked out all flowers and we can look.