keith this is due to all the news coming to you live from birmingham unloved and unemployed germany's social democrats oust their leader martin sure just deal's off to you to go see to their return to coalition government what's more he loses out on the post of foreign minister and ask our political correspondent why now also coming up south korea officially kicks off the two thousand and eighteen winter olympics fireworks filled the sky over the host city pyong chung but they do not bring cheer for everyone a final ruling bars dozens of russian athletes from the competition. and this

olympics brings the first ever visit to south korea by a member of the north's ruling dentistry kim jong un's sister what's behind a diplomatic trip across the border. you. own a warm welcome to you i'm under thought she the leader of germany's social democrats martin schultz says he'll no longer seek the post of foreign minister in a future grand coalition government or any other post in the new cabinet on wednesday schultz a spot he struck a deal with chancellor angela merkel's conservatives should give up the s.p.v. leadership and announced his intention to take the post of foreign minister but that ambition grew strong criticism from s.p.d. members who must ratify the coalition deal in

a vote show said he'd made the decision to ensure the success of that vote. now martin schultz wrote i will not be taking up a post in the german government sincerely hope this will end the debate within the s.p.d. about who does what we are all in politics for the people of this country that means my personal ambitions must come second to the interests of the party. from i'm joined now by our political correspondent of the sparrow thomas he heard what should i have to say but how much of a surprise is this development well it is a surprise because he had announced only a few days ago that he wanted to become the next foreign minister however it seemed that within the s.p.d. the debate about personnel about who took what office took precedence over the

debate about the content within those one hundred seventy seven pages the coalition deal that was agreed to between the conservatives on the social democrats and that debate the fact that the social democrats were debating on personnel issues or not specifically on the matters within that coalition deal definitely prompted martin chose to make that announcement today which is indeed a very difficult announcement for him let's not forget i'm rita that only a year ago he was announced as the new leader of the s.p.d. after getting one hundred percent of the votes of the delegates of the social democrats however after that his party lost three regional elections then had a very bad result at the federal election in september then martin shows lost the party leadership and now he's also left this idea of becoming the next foreign minister so indeed a very bad year for martin short and a very difficult moment for the social democrats the current acting foreign

minister sigman garbage and also from the s.p.d. has alluded to divisions within the party and this is what he had to say he said it is sad to see the lack of respect we now have for each other in the s.p.d. and how little a previously made promise now means obviously a two must god bill is very disgruntled the question is did martin should step aside or was he pushed. well there are some within the s.p.d. who are actually saying already that gobbler should remain. foreign minister let's remember that gabriele is among the most popular politicians here in germany his approval ratings are very high and many in the s.p.d. see him as a very good foreign minister however he was obvious that is appointed by the fact that martin chose wanted that poses foreign minister himself now when you ask whether he was actually ousted or he made that decision it's a bit of both the obviously announce

a decision himself but that decision was triggered by the debate within the s.p.d. about personnel instead of a debate about content now martin should also said this his decision was based partly on the s.p.d. vote on the coalition agreement next month so what impact will his departure have on that votes do you think well he's specifically saying that he hopes it won't have a major impact that he's taking that decision in order to make sure that that yes vote can actually happen the party leadership and martin shows want that vote to be positive but it is still obviously not sure whether that will be the case because many members of the social democrats who will have the final say regarding this coalition deal are very skeptical about that deal and they simply have said that the s.p.d. should not be part of another grand coalition that it's place after the very difficult decision of the very difficult result is of temba should be in the opposition are not in another government with angela merkel thomas perez thank you

very much for that analysis. to other news on the twenty third winter olympics have officially opened with an extravagant ceremony in south korea president declared the two thousand and eighteen winter games with fireworks going off chunk the three pounds an athlete's rum and ninety two countries entered the packed stadium during the opening ceremony the games have had to overcome multiple hurdles ahead of a winter sports most prestigious event the o.c. and the athletes would be looking to put behind all their troubles and celebrating the start of the olympics by putting the spotlight back on sport. meanwhile the court of arbitration for sport of class has turned down an appeal by forty seven russian athletes and coaches to compete at the games that are the russians had been

banned from taking part in the international olympic committee or over state sponsored doping in sochi four years ago they argued they'd been wrongly excluded from the games but the court of arbitration for sport said the i.o.c. is decision was not unfair or discriminatory. now these games also have a historic political aspect a high level government delegation to north korea is attended the opening ceremonies officials from a young child include younger and i beg your pardon include john your john this is just north korean leader kim jong un she's the first member of north korea's ruling in the city to visit the south officially the two countries are still at war but these olympics appear to have started a forward relations at the opening ceremony athletes from the two countries walked side by side under a unity flag. joining me now is jason strother our correspondent

he's in ghana in south korea just in to what extent is the presence of a kim or your jong adama. ating events that. right well we're seeing pictures of she and president mungy and shaking hands ahead of the opening ceremony there are more images of. president moon kid kim jong as well as kim young the second in command in the north korean regime as long as as well as vice president mike pence all sitting in the same room watching the ceremony together so it's certainly a big deal this is the first time that a family member of the ruling kim clan has ever come to south korea and read this and leave the delegation from the u.s. headed by vice president mike pence was there any diplomatic will clinton if. well local media is reporting that at a dinner reception that was held prior to the opening ceremony vice president pence

made a very brief appearance he more or less avoided it mr kim young who's. basically the second man in charge in north korea. tenses office says that there was a scheduling conflict but it's being read here is more or less a snub now that the olympics have begun jason is it a sense of excitement on the korean peninsula which is they ran down. the hostile division between the north and south. right i think the opening ceremony considering how well it went off it is changing minds leading up to the games there was sort of some apathy toward the olympics and even some anger about north and south korean athletes forming a unified women's ice hockey team but it was quite a spectacle what we saw tonight and. it was it was well underscored

by great uplifting korean music and seeing the unified athletes come into the stadium together marching under a flag unified korean flag that very well could change hearts and minds jason strother in south korea thank you very much for that thank you. let me i'll bring you up to date but some other stories making news around the want u.s. president donald trump assigned a billion to no increase in the federal budget and ending a brief government shutdown the senate and the house of representatives have previously passed the bill it will fund the government through march twenty third and increase overall spending limits over the next to the. rescue operations in taiwan have started to wind down after a devastating six point four magnitude earthquake rocked an area around the eastern

city if while in this week the death toll now stands at dead with five people still missing. the reuters news agency says an investigation is the massacre of ten men by me and muscling has led to the detention of two if its report has one known and. awaiting trial on charges of illegal possession of state secrets while reporting on the ongoing crisis in the hine state. that opponents in the u.k. have launched a campaign aiming to persuade britons that a second referendum on membership is needed campaigners argue there should be a final vote on the deal. this time voters would know what a future outside that would actually look like but few people believe bridge city can be stopped. stephen grey is determined. to tell men to stop. every day he said stop shop right opposite

parliament he's taking time off work until he achieves his goal that is the lords every window is one of the lord's offices they. are not going to let them forget we're here with a new study suggests that some who voted for breakfast now regret their decision that's extra motivation for stephen breyer and others like him should there be another vote for the people they're going to have an end goal they're going to see a charge of what they are actually voting for there has been a slight shift in public opinion and marginally more people would now vote to stay within the e.u. however the shift has not been dramatic enough to persuade many m.p.'s here in the house of parliament to actively campaign for a second referendum. it would be up to members of parliament to pass legislation for another referendum vera hobhouse is a liberal democrat m.p.

her party is one of the smaller ones and they are campaigning to overturn bracks it the leadership of both big political parties are committed to what appears to be more and more hard and the people need to understand whether that is really what they want do they want to have the travel restrictions to work restrictions are there actually happy that our economy might go down the too many pro european campaigns lobby online rather than in front of parliament they're often run by young people posting with hashtags like e.u. flag maffia. and there are petitions to parliament too. but outside one of london's big universities feelings amongst the mostly empty bricks of students are mixed as to whether they would like to have another say. we've already made a decision i think we might as well stick with something like well and sort of changing our minds off what for i think a second chance is what we currently need so i think it would be really beneficial

i was on the main side but i believe that we've already had wandered by a second debate is just going to speak to more people often for surgery for and it's never going to and even here in central london where the overwhelming majority voted to stay within the e.u. people are not too enthusiastic about another referendum and more bricks are leaving areas outside the capital the idea finds even less traction. so it seems likely that stephen breyer will remain a rather lonely voice outside parliament for the time being but that does not deter him in the slightest right. in business to stocks opened high on wall street as traitors look to make up for recent losses the dow jones industrial average was up nearly three hundred points in early trading u.s. stocks suffered a record breaking losses this week with the dow forming more than one thousand

points twice due to investor concerns of a high interest rates and rising bond yields many analysts believe the volatility is likely to continue.