our guest. managed by for. this is due to abuse the line from berlin germany social democrats decide whether to team up once again with chancellor angela merkel the conservatives with hundreds of thousands of ballots now being counted party leaders are optimistic that members will approve the deal total germany finally get a new government or could this be the start of a political crisis also coming up. a star studded rally for the russian president over one hundred thousand turned out to go to cheer on blood in me of

course is hoping to coast to an election victory in two weeks' time. it's been called a bonfire killing a mammoth winter storm batters the u.s. east coast at least five people have been killed the fierce weather has not talked power in more than a million homes. to the program five months after elections here in germany the wait for a new government could finally be over members of the center left social democrats have voted on whether or not to enter a new grand coalition with chancellor angela merkel's conservatives the last batch of completed ballots have now arrived at the s.p.d. headquarters almost half a million party members were eligible to vote and the results will be announced on sunday. the truck carrying the ballots arrived at the social democrats berlin

headquarters with a police escort but no fanfare. party bigwigs made a point of staying away gathering instead at a nearby hotel to discuss how to rejuvenate the party they want to show that regardless of how the rank and file have voted they recognize the need to strengthen the party's message. guns but most of those we made a conscious decision to start this meeting before the votes were counted and could see that that also could see this just for once show that we're taking a long hard look at whether our answers are also good enough for the future. party leaders say they want the rank and file like here a nuremberg to be part of this process. is really going to go under that are not confidence because i went to one of the regional conferences and i really got the feeling from our leaders the thing understand that mistakes were made and it's time for change but i disagree no one but many s.p.d.

members still oppose another grand coalition and assume by the kids if we keep doing what we've been doing in a few months no one is going to ask what the s.p.d. managed to negotiate if it just looks like everything's the same under mama. until just party members do vote to still be expecting the party leadership to make sure that doesn't happen it's missed the whole thing is coakley there won't be a negative result and i don't speculate about that at all on such a nice sunny day we should only expect good news. it's sad that a high percentage of the party members participated in the vote now one hundred twenty people will tabulate the results through the night under the watchful eyes of a notary public. for more on this i'm joined by political correspondent kate brady kate thanks for joining us so the counting of the ballots has begun what happens now exactly sorry that as i read the rest of the saving of a one hundred twenty volunteers down at the s.p.v. headquarters can. in saying all of those ballots now there were more than four

hundred sixty three thousand eligible s.p.d. party members who could vote on the future of this grand coalition between the social democrats and merkel's conservatives now four years ago you or nearly five years ago in fact when we were last very saying on it when the s.p.d. members were left voting on a grand coalition turnout was around seventy five percent and that's expected this time to be the same if not higher and is there any indication at all from the polling numbers how this could turn out really have no prognosis at the moment all of these ballots have been cast by post bar around two thousand by s.p.d. members who live abroad and they cast their ballots online now of course if tomorrow morning at nine o'clock we say yes result and then of course that will really not mean very much initial change in germany of course another grand coalition would mean the same coalition government as we have right now but no result it is what of course angela merkel especially will be fairing she would be

left very much alone she'd be out of coalition partners and then would be left with just two alternatives either a minority government which she said on several occasions already that she'd like to avoid at all costs all we could still even see new elections and what would you know a surprising no vote mean for chancellor merkel's position not just locally but in europe as well well already we started to see that this merkel era is really coming to an end and this is definitely going to be her final term in office and just a couple of weeks ago as well we saw a potential successor come into the limelight that was an eclipse karrenbauer who was appointed as the secretary general of the c.d.u. that's merkel's party so already even merkel herself is taking those steps to really groom a successor. and speaking of successors the s.p.d. as you swing. leading the charge to reject. still with chancellor merkel's conservatives why is the grand coalition so unpopular among some of these s.p.d.

members well it really comes down to this kind of profile and identity crisis that they see that they s.p.d. is facing right now very much like many of the social democratic parties across europe but what was even worse for germany social democrats was that for two of michael's coalition governments they've served with. conservatives and that's really had a bad effect on their profile now merkel moved her conservatives very much to the center and by doing so she was able to poach a lot of the s.p.d. proposals so you saw the s.p.d. the social democrats doing a lot of the legwork but not really profiting from it so right now a lot of party members of the s.p.d. party members are saying let's stand back and give ourselves time to renew and redefine our profile as a social democratic party well we wait to see what they'll decide on sunday kate

brady thank you for joining us. another european nation italy is heading to the polls tomorrow in an unpredictable election where migration has been the biggest issue the vote pits a right wing coalition led by former prime minister silvio berlusconi against a center left alliance led by another former prime minister material rancy the other main player is the anti establishment five star movement with polls pointing to no clear winner most observers expect a hung parliament. with less than a day to go until elections almost one in three italians still don't know who they'll vote for polls show that no party has a clear majority and have not decided and second theo's if i google. and i'm able to cite they don't know lease which is their right to vote for free money it's the first election under italy's complicated new electoral law which has increased the chances of a hung parliament across the country parties held rallies to make their final

pitches to voters former prime minister matteo renzi is pushing his track record he says his democratic party took italy out of economic crisis and helped desperate migrants. we are proud of having saved hundreds of thousands of human lives and not to have played on the fears of others but whose party is trailing behind those who have put fear of migrants at the heart of the campaign the extreme far right falls and way of all marched in rome raising their hands in nazi style salutes and demanding an end to immigration and other far right party leader formally the northern league has increased its support across the country they're in a coalition with the party of former prime minister silvio berlusconi the eighty one year old is barred from office but he may end up playing kingmaker. in the populist five star movement could gain the most votes though not enough to govern alone now we're going to do i just read one poll and i can say that we are just one

step away from victory. one step or a few days the results of this most unpredictable election may not be known until early next week. now to some of the other stories making news around the world i'm ali based affiliate of al qaeda has claimed responsibility for twin attacks in neighboring book enough aso that left sixteen people dead and scores wounded on friday the group said it carried out the assault on the french embassy and military headquarters in the capital. h. jihadist gunmen were among the dead. in slovakia hundreds of people attended the funeral of the journalist young could see here his fiance were shot dead in their home a week ago was working on a story on italian organized crime in slovakia before he was killed seventy tanya nationals detained in connection with the murders have been released. the white

house was placed on lockdown after a gunshot was heard a fish will say a man fatally shot himself on the north side of the complex police and medical personnel swarmed the area but president donald trump was not there at the time and he's spending the weekend at his mar-a lago resort in florida. in two weeks russians head to the polls for national elections president putin faces no serious challenges and his reelection isn't in doubt but that hasn't stopped him from campaigning in the past week he's boasted of russia's military might and sought to stoke nationalist fervor in moscow over one hundred thousand gathered for a star studded rally to support the president of the city's main sports complex. tickets to see russian pop star. usually cost up to one hundred seventy euros but on saturday more than one hundred thousand people saw him perform for free along

with a host of other russian celebrities an extravagant campaign rally for vladimir putin whose election victory is all but certain. he's a real man a strong president a great person but. russia is doing so much better than in the ninety's we have putin to thank for that. we were told to come here. as well as public sector workers the audience included delegation said from chechnya and other russian federation republics apache arctic backdrop for putin's latest appearance days after he set the course for a new arms race with washington on saturday he sought to whip up nationalist fervor . if we stand together i believe we will achieve stunning victories in the coming decades of the twenty first century we need to do that yes that there. the russian national anthem topped off an appearance of just seven minutes putin

seems confident that's enough to secure the support of voters in two weeks' time. a massive storm system has knocked out power for more than a million homes in the eastern united states the storm known as the northeast has pounded coastal areas of massive waves and caused widespread flooding inland residents had to deal with heavy snow at least five people have been killed by falling trees and branches and federal government offices in washington d.c. were closed for the day. a perfect storm battering the beach towns of massachusetts. here waves higher than two story buildings have flooded the coast. and left entire streets underwater. people that have been doing this longer than i i have been doing cannot recall a time in which we have seen such widespread spread flooding across our entire east

coast and into the north side of the cape winds topping eighty kilometers per hour slammed to the east coast from washington d.c. to boston around one point six million homes were left without power. at least five people including children have died hit by falling branches. while buffalo in upstate new york and several other cities were hit by heavy snowfall. airlines had to cancel more than two thousand eight hundred flights bringing major airports in the northeast to a near standstill. so we're just one day away from the film industries biggest night the oscars where films like get out lady bird and the shape of water are competing for the top awards including best picture but not

every film gets such accolades this movie for example hasn't got any oscar nominations at all in fact that you moji movie was considered so terrible it's now received hollywood's most famous frown the razzie award for worst picture of twenty seventeen not can we all collectively say sad face all some point out it was just destiny for a movie with you know these guys as main characters they merge the movie was awarded for rising but it wasn't the only film to see of the special on a tom cruise was voted worst actor for his performance in the widely panned the money and worst supporting actor role that went to mel gibson for his role in daddy's home to. that's all from the news this hour will be back in exactly forty five minutes to feel free to log on to our website w dot com for around the clock news and information you can also get our up for

google play off from the apple store and that will give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications you can also use the app to send us photos and videos. thank you for watching. where i come from we have to fight for a free press and was born and raised in a military dictatorship with just one t.v. shadow and if you newspapers with official information as a journalist i have walked off the streets of many cantors and they have problems are always the same color to social inequality a lack of the freedom of the press and. gun afford to stay silent when.