this is utopia news live from berlin a breakthrough months in the making germany's one big step closer to getting a new government we're about to see a live pictures here from outside the headquarters of uncle americans party here the pictures i'm going marcos conservatives in the social democrats are set to announce that they've reached an agreement to form a new grand coalition after a marathon all night talks will bring you the latest.

i'm sorry so much going to thank you for joining us we begin with that breaking news here in berlin where it has now been confirmed that germany's two biggest political groups have reached an agreement on a coalition deal and go america's conservatives and the social democrats under martin shoals are set to form a new grand coalition government these are live pictures again from outside the the conservative headquarters here in berlin where we're waiting for them to come out and make a statement will be listening live to that as soon as that happens now this follows days of negotiations in which the two were deadlocked over issues like health care reform and labor law now today's agreements important to say it's still faces a vote where nearly five hundred thousand social democrat members will get to cast their ballots on this final agreement. and our political correspondent hans bryant has been following all of this for us he is outside the c.d.u. party headquarters for us hi hans this is a long awaited breakthrough what details have you been hearing there what do we

know about this agreement right now. well at the moment there has been some confirmation that an agreement has been reached from from the social democratic party but we haven't in fact yet had an official statement here behind me as you can see everybody is waiting there for say this official statement to be given but a lot of details have leaked out of the negotiations in the last oh and i think what we can say what is really new at the moment is the distribution of the ministries in a new government and here the social democrats will be given the foreign ministry the foreign minister will be a social democrat they will be controlling finance and they will also be given the labor ministry as well as a few other ministries obviously in the government this is i think one can say big achievement for the social democrats these are really very crucial ministries for any government and they're very crucial ministries for the issues that the social democrats have been trying to promote in these negotiations it has also been

decided it seems that the interior ministry will be given to the christian social union that is the bavarian sister party of i'm going to michael's conservatives so the interior minister will be from bavaria which is new in german politics in recent times this has been a ministry that i'm going to tackle cd you sell for itself has been controlling your highs of the details we know at the moment obviously yes we just want to ask you about those ministry post hunt if that is confirmed again these details are just preliminary reports that we're waiting to have confirmed but it does seem to be an indication that there was a lot of compromise that had to be made by chance americal i mean these are top ministries that the social democrats would be receiving. absolutely i one has to say that the current. finance minister or the finance the finance ministry in

recent years has also been controlled by i'm going to christian democrats so that has gone knowledge of the social democrats the interior minister used to be controlled by the christian democrats that's not go to the variances the party so indeed yes that seems that the christian democrats have made major concessions i'm going to marco yesterday when she came and into these talks was talking about painful compromises that might have to be made and one can probably say that these compromises in terms of the ministry's were very painful for the christian democrats to make. it was another all night marathon run a round of talks that leading up to this point what we believe to now have a breakthrough what were the final disagreements that they were trying to work out . well last night a document was leaked amongst the press here comprising one hundred sixty five pages of agreement that had been reached until then in other words

a very very large very detailed volume of agreement that had already been reached and what was left over was really just a handful two or three small book not two or three small issues about two or three crucial issues and these were health care reform which is something that the social democrats were pushing for and especially the discussion about whether or not temporary employment or fixed term contracts in germany would be called should be controlled further then there are the moment there is an issue on which the business friendly christian democrats the conservatives very reluctant to make any concessions we don't yet quite know what to deal as were made in these two crucial crucial areas then there was obviously the question of who was going to get what ministry and there was a question of money in these one hundred sixty five pages of agreement that were leaked yesterday a lot of promises have been made that will cost money and nobody has yet made the sums nobody has yet calculated exactly how much money all of this would cost and

whether that money was actually available also there we don't yet know exactly what the deal was that has been made but it seems very clear that a deal has indeed been reached now must be a sense of relief for these negotiating parties hands it's been more than four months since the elections and the pressure has only been rising every day. absolutely it's been a very very long time one has to say of course that after the elections in september there was an attempt to form a different kind of government a government with different parties the so-called make a coalition coalition it was called and that failed so this really edition of the grand coalition that has been ruling germany for the last four years negotiations for that only started in december so in a sense one can say there have been. performed all have been concluded fairly quickly but of course there are still

a few hurdles to be taken before we finally actually have a government that is taking up it's it's work and it will be another few weeks probably five or six weeks before that is finally the case and has that means also that the social democrats as we said their party members will have to vote on this agreement another three weeks till that will happen is that right. yes absolutely that is the major hurdle the social democrats the party and the party leadership have been very reluctant to enter another grand coalition and in fact have been forced by circumstances to take up these negotiations and have really had very heated discussions within the social democratic party of all the way they're all knocked out is and fact a good idea for the party but feeling in the social democratic party is that it has suffered during the past grand coalition during this government angle america in the last four years but the party's profile has in some sense disappeared that its issues have no longer been at the forefront and it has lost

a lot of verse as the election has seen has shown so there's a great reluctance among social democrats to enter another grand coalition party in order to make this possible has said to its members that all members are allowed to participate in a vote on whether or not to accept these coalition conditions that have now been hammered all day and that will take three weeks it will be a vote by mail by post it will take time it will take time to organize it will take time to college one is expecting that in three weeks time we'll have a decision from the social democratic party all right another big obstacle there ahead of us i hands brian to standing outside of the c.d.u. party headquarters as we have a breakthrough here in berlin germany is one big step closer to getting a new government and hans i will be watching closely there behind you while waiting for a members of the negotiating parties to come out and give their statements that will come back to a little bit later thank you hans. and we have our political editor nina hasa with

us here in studio to talk more about this story nina i wanted to ask you about what hans was just saying this sense of frustration among some of the social democrat party members also among some voters that there hasn't been a deal yet but also that this is not the coalition government they want to see again for some of our international viewers who might not understand that why is there such frustration i mean within the s.p.d. within the s.p.d. but also among voters who seem to believe that this is another continuation of the status quo. there is a lot of frustration people are beginning to feel that the political landscape has changed and that the more traditional parties are being challenged on the fringes we've got the right wing populist party if that has entered parliament and so in a way a speedy is finding itself in a position they can bridge they can't really sell this idea of entering yet another grand coalition with the conservatives to to their party base but they can also not

sell it to themselves to risk having fresh elections here because they know that in if there were fresh elections in germany then they risk losing even more voters who are dissatisfied there's a number of reasons for why people are dissatisfied with traditional parties but one is definitely also that the s.p.d. has lost or feels it has lost a sense of identity in the grand coalition with uncle america with ungrammatical being the winner essentially taking away lots of important key issues like the pension for mothers for example she sold it as think. it was an s.p.d. topic and lots of these things have happened in recent is. is that something that you see that as we can turn as well in this time i mean it's been more than four months and she has been known or built a reputation as a dealmaker someone who can bring together various sides and create deals negotiate

has she been weakened in this process you know i think what will be very interesting to watch today will be to see whether the c.s.u. so the even more conservative parts of the conservative right wing you lost. in bavaria whether they get the interior ministry reports are saying at the moment that the ministry the interior ministry could be expanded to include the source of the area which means the holy land and we know that the conservative group in the very of the conservative party in the varia they tend to have even stronger even harsher positions on issues like immigration on topics like refugees etc so if they get the interior ministry and that means that angle america really has made a lot of concessions and that is something definitely to watch you mention that the political landscape has changed and some of the frustration of the voters feel that

maybe the political parties haven't kept up how has germany changed and in particular in the past four months as these parties have been wrangling with each other. germany is still in a in a phase of change i think people are beginning to a knowledge that things can't go on the way they've always been germany is still of course a stable country we have do have an acting government so things are working ok but some people are accusing the government of not of lacking visions of just spending billions on vote on issues that would satisfy certain voter groups and not really bringing the country forward so is the difficult process germany is known as a country where you have consensus politics where all of the parties have to work together and yet it has taken so long to form a government has that changes german politics changed. when we saw the collapse of

the jamaica coalition the first coalition that the chancellor tried to build something or other parties with a prob with the business friendly f.t.p. and and the german greens that would have been a first in german history and then it collapsed and some people are saying maybe it just doesn't work anymore because the because people need clear on from traditional parties that they sconce census building in these times is not something it's something where the parties risk losing their own identity and this is why some people are saying that cost and lindt now the head of the f.t.p. the pro-business party pulled out of these talks he said we can't make a compromise to an extent that we lose our own identities so this is something that the s.p.d. was also very afraid of in these coalition talks which is why they had to have so many concessions from the conservatives and i think with these three ministries they are getting a bit closer to being able to sell this new deal this new grand coalition to their

party members but it's still far from clear whether they'll accept that deal have germans been losing patience and confidence in their leaders. what would you say if you look at the latest opinion polls and you know the two biggest parties the conservatives and also the social democrats are at their lowest point in terms of popularity in the post-war era you see the far right he has also been gaining ground is this a trend that we're going to see continue there is definitely what you were called something like a disillusionment with traditional political parties at the same time if you look at the big number of people who have entered the s.p.d. since martin schulz joined him on the level of politics it is also something that people are beginning to understand that they need to be become active themselves some people are saying experts that we've talked to that maybe really becoming

aware that things are changing but then not suffering to an extent that they really need to take to the streets the moment it's easy to blame political parties but you don't really need to take action yet or her viewers just joining us a reminder that we've had a breakthrough here in berlin it looks like the negotiating parties have reached an agreement to form a coalition government we are waiting for statements from those parties and from the lawmakers who have been involved in negotiations we do have a statement from a one member of america's conservative bloc alexander dop and i believe let's listen to what he said a short while ago to the media. or to him after all it's time for people to come out of the trenches. we can't just bury our heads in the sand we need to try to solve our problems openly. this is we've achieved that now and i think it was about time that we have the chance of forming a new government in germany. so today is

a good morning. all right that was alexander dover in to member of michael's conservative block speaking a short while ago and we will be a tracking all of those statements as they come to us and we'll be going live to them as well for now though we want to move on to some other news in taiwan rescue efforts are underway after a six point four magnitude earthquake killed at least five people and injured hundreds of others authorities say more than eighty people are still unaccounted for it's the second major quake to hit the island nation in recent days with more aftershocks fear. this building is still standing but the lower floors are crushed beneath its weight. firefighters are searching for any and every way in so they can find survivors and get them out to safety the quake hit on taiwan's east coast shortly before midnight tuesday it left several buildings listing dangerously near collapse including a military hospital and this hotel where an overnight worker was rescued from

inside. there was only me working the night shift i don't know what happened to the people upstairs. his son and grandson soon arrive. they are overjoyed to find him alive. but dozens of others are still missing rescue workers have reason to believe there are people alive and waiting to be freed from within the devastated hotel. that's giving hope to family and friends waiting anxiously outside. the younger brother in our family and we believe we know two people inside one is my older brother and the other his colleague. quitman and tested positive for life and. now the rescuers are trying to dig further down to look for them and that's the situation for. teams of engineers and firefighters are attempting to prop up the toppled buildings

and continue the search there's been two earthquakes in taiwan since sunday and several aftershocks the island is no stranger to powerful quakes it lies directly on the pacific ring of fire the u.n. warned recently the ring is active right now this time it's taiwan that's part of the brunt of its fury. and let's get more on the story with carolyn wang she said where the quake struck just two kilometers away from the city center carolyn thank you for joining us tell us about what you experienced when this earthquake struck overnight. ok well we have the enquirer for over twenty years usually we have many to seriousness of what are the cracks actually wanted people have got used to do our quacks but we have never had one that is why i guess this is so different because there were serious double quacks two days ago there were never the quick because small last night we were

a work by typically that night very big quake the big question was not terrible you know the earthquake was nice twenty one was moving more fiercely so what is this is gary is that dale what are a series of quacks we say aftershocks so to hoard night we scaled up out movies again and again every few minutes or so we couldn't sleep but we must get get ready to escape as i don't my neighbors i'm upstairs and when out of the house and they stay in and the car in the yard or in i was got into a their car to get warm but it was still cold out that we don't want to catch your clothes so we just a stay at their home inside a house and they kept alert rolling and i believe that we there most of it a really scary experience i want to ask you because you had a friend i understand inside of one of the buildings that fell and we seen such

dramatic pictures of these buildings what is she told you about what she experienced oh ok you had to she she maybe in the in tried deleting and the falling building and the she didn't say much but she changes you for concord she said that they days she's her father and her family get in the top a stroller and when the buildings are down the furniture grabs the door and they have her father pushing very hard and finally it pushes the door open and then the rescue teams that then. well you know i think it's an incredible story carolyn wishing you and your friends all the best and hoping that you all make it through ok and thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us. thank you and thank you. all right there was a carolyn wing joining us on that story in while lean now to some other stories making news around the world the u.s.

house of representatives has passed a bill to prevent a repeat of last month's government shutdown it extends funding for federal agencies until next month and must now be approved by the senate this after president trump said he would love to see another shutdown if democrats didn't agree on a deal on immigration a british court has rejected an attempt by wiki leaks founder julian assange to invalidate an arrest warrant against him the warrant to stem from a sexual assault case in sweden that has since been dropped voiding the warrant could have paved the way for his sons to leave the ecuadorian embassy in london where he has been holed up since two thousand and twelve the maldives president says the country's supreme court is attempting a coup against him yemi made the comments defending his recently declared state of emergency that's all former president and two supreme court judges arrested he is defying the court's order to release jailed opposition leaders. space x. has launched the world's most powerful rocket the falcon heavy word off the launch

pad on florida's cape canaveral it is the latest milestone for billionaire entrepreneur elon musk and his aerospace company and mark the occasion must ensure the rocket contains some very special cargo. three little i he said it was either going to be a great rocket launch or the best fireworks display ever be thankfully for a long mouse it was the former not least because the rocket was carrying one of his tesla sports cars. you know that this is the image of just joint exposure that you. get of that wheel about their daily lives in their life because a lot of the anything good that i miss you just is or inspiring as it once was here some fifty years ago and it provided the backdrop to missions to the moon now it could be about getting to mas be the spoken

heavy is special not just because of its power but also because of its price it can carry twice the weight of its closest rival about five double decker buses for a third of the cost so can have the will be the biggest rocket since the saturn five moon booster it's not quite that big but it's on the path to enabling that kind of exploration whether it's the moon or mars basically beyond low earth orbit and. much of the cost saving comes from being able to reuse the rocket boosters so this was a critical point in the launch when they successfully separated from the main rockets cheers erupted in mission control in california obliged to chew side beast is touching down perfectly on twin landing pads less than ten minutes after launch be.

cause for the cargo space x. imagine the piece of david bowie inspired fear itself which could have come straight out of the james bones playbook musk's cherry red tesla piloted by a mannequin in its. spacesuits blurring the lines between dreams reality and p.r. the company streams of this video of the car house learning through space following the launch. if all goes to plan attacks that will be thrust into a soda over it which will take it neymar. ok we're turning to our top story now and germany's biggest political groups have reached an agreement on forming a new coalition government let's get some on market reactions and business news with god now thank you we want to get to that in a minute but first after the bloodbath of monday and tuesday international markets have recovered strongly the dow closed in the green last night providing relief

faison stocks they saw a broad rebound as investors regain confidence and went bargain hunting after tumbling as much as seven percent on tuesday japanese stocks enjoyed a robust recovery upbeat corporate earnings from the likes of to you would have helped put more than anything else the bounce back in japan and other asian markets came as investors took cues from a rally on wall street late in the trading day after topping session there u.s. investors exchange panic for perspective following monday steep sell off sharp downturns can take the air out of a market that may have been doing well for too long and investors can move back in at more feasible prices but analysts warn it isn't exactly going to be back to smooth sailing going forward. from our perspective we had come far fast without. any rest along the way if you will. and this is

an opportunity for for investors to reconfirm not only their their investment thesis and their investment objectives but make sure that they're in a position for a potentially more volatile environment volatility may be making a comeback but improving growth prospects all over the mean very few were expecting a bear market or sustained period of falling stocks but just how volatile will that be. for many investors is literally the million dollar question. now returning to our top story the coalition talks the breakthrough in coalition talks here in germany and i would go straight to our financial correspondent who's standing by at the frankfurt stock exchange in front of a very volatile docks as we can see how is the markets reacting to the new the end of the coalition talks. here what a different scenario right now here at the stock market get hard yesterday everybody was fearing that we would see a major correction even

a crash that didn't happen and the market yet is upright now at the moment with zero point seven per cent you can see it very well in the background i guess also now the news coming over from berlin that most likely we are really going to see a real government and not any more transitional government is really helping as well because many experts in the past also for example the federal aviation of german industry i was really warning that the image of germany could be really damage with this situation and also as so much to talk also when you talk about a business on the european level breck's is still a very big topic with very difficult. negotiation talks as well so yeah investors are happy with this latest news coming from the capital danny we're

hearing reports that the finance ministry were one of the the second most important job in the government if you will will go to the social democrats and first it was said that the leader of the so social democrats. would be the finance minister but now it is actually shoals that might have been just a typo all of shows the current mayor of the city of hamburg what do people think that it will will that be good for business. yes some confusion of shaws or assurance now we are also getting unconfirmed reports that. the new foreign minister yeah all offshore the current of the current mayor of hamburg he has been already in the past holding a minister of position and guess how true that he was working as the labor minister actually he has a very good report taishan here among traders he has known i had an interview also with him some months ago he's a very analytical person and you have very respected here among traders very

interesting the last finance minister from the s.p.d. was actually hands i hear he was in office until two thousand and five by that time he was doing a major tax reform actually a lowering the corporate tax that's also what investors here are also hoping to happen but i guess it's not going to be any more the case just briefly look at yesterday's carnage of wall street how have markets recovered here in europe. well i can really tell you that investors are relieved that we well we saw this two percent plus last night on wall street and also here the market not any more in the red numbers i don't think we're going to see such a big plus as we have seen yesterday on vol street while the taishan is still a very big issue here at the moment a trader was telling me that with this current situation it's so hard to predict in

which direction really at the by the end of the day of the market is going but yes they are relieved that we didn't see a major correction or even a crash happening here at the stock exchange. burned frankfurt thank you very much . after wall street historic losses there's more on work coming konami news for the white house the u.s. straight gap surged to its highest level in nearly a decade during president donald trump's first year in office record imports triggered by strong domestic demand are the main reason according to government data released tuesday it's a sign of a healthy economy and a trend likely to continue as a massive tax cuts will reach american pockets this year but the news poses another challenge for the trump administration that has repeatedly criticized trade imbalances with germany for exam.