city's. starting march tenth. this is the w. news line from berlin germany social democrats decide whether to team up once again with chancellor angela merkel's conservatives with hundreds of thousands of ballots now being counted party leaders are optimistic that members will accrue the deal so will germany finally get a 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 turnout in moscow to cheer on vladimir putin is hoping to close to an election victory in two weeks' time. and the bundesliga show follows after the news takes you to see the best of the action and all of saturday school. i'm edith kimani welcome to the program five months after the 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 party leaders won hands this evening as volunteers started processing the ballots almost half a million do you thing s.p.d. members were eligible to vote the results will be announced on sunday. but the

outcome of that vote isn't the only thing on s.p. d.v.d. as minds they know their party needs to rediscover its mission. 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 of 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. comes before stumbles we made a conscious decision to start this meeting before the votes were counted and could see if it also could see this does so and so for 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 but it's really going to go up on that in

our confidence because i went to one of the regional conferences and i really got the feeling from our leaders that things understand that mistakes were made and it's time for change but i decided no one but many s.p.d. members still oppose another grand coalition they mean 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 to vote yes they'll 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 but 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 is over the rest of the saving of a one hundred twenty volunteers down at the s.p.d. headquarters. counting 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 or nearly five years ago in fact when we were last voting 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 state 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 make us the 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 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've 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 speak your successor as the s.p.d. youth wing. leading the charge to read. this deal with chancellor merkel's conservatives why is the grand coalition is 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 the 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. time now for some of the other stories making news around the world amaldi based affiliate of al qaeda has claimed responsibility for twin attacks in neighboring book enough so that left sixteen people dead and scores wounded friday the group said it carried out the assaults on the french embassy and military headquarters in the capital. you had just gunmen were among the dead. slovakia hundreds of people attended the funeral of the journalist. here his fiance was shot dead in their home a week ago. was working on a story of the time an organized crime in the back here before he was killed

seventy tahlia nationals detained in connection with the murders had been released . by the u.s. secret service says the man has fatally shot himself next to the white house fence police and medical personnel swarmed the area which was quickly cordoned off president donald trump was in florida at the time of the shooting. saying with the u.s. president donald trump who has threatened to impose a tax on cars imported from europe now that's the e.u. retaliates against his plans for tariffs on imported steel and. said that if the e.u. wants to further increase the already massive terry of sand barriers and u.s. companies doing business there washington will simply apply a tax on their cars which freely poured into the u.s. on friday european commission chief said that he was drawing up counter measures against leading u.s. brands such as levi's and highly david. in two weeks the russians had two

pools for national elections now president putin faces no serious challenges and his reelection is not in doubt but that hasn't stopped him from campaigning in the past week his 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 their president at 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 the timea putin whose election victory is all but certain. he's a real man a strong 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 do there yes we out 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. where just a couple of hours actually away from the film industries biggest night we're talking about the oscars where films like get out lady bird and the shape of water are competing for the top awards including best picture but you know not every film gets such accolades and this movie for example looks cute but it hasn't gotten any oscar nominations at all in fact the emoji movie was considered so terrible it's

now received hollywood's most famous from around the razzie award for worst picture of twenty seventeen now that explains why this guy is looking rather sad well some point out it was just destiny for a movie that had you know these guys as main characters they moved your movie was awarded not one. but for raw use but it wasn't the only film to receive this special on a very tom cruise was voted worst actor for his performance in the widely panned the mummy. and worst supporting actor award that went to mel gibson for his role in daddy used to. and with the stars set to descend on hollywood for the oscars a tight race is shaping up for best picture a fairy tale romance and a dark murder mystery are vying for top honors here's a look at those films and some other contenders hoping for oscar glory sunday

evening. cast from braun freed from their molds then filed and polished to perfection. the final touch is a golden coating. oscar statuettes have been made this way since one nine hundred twenty nine these are the first steps in their journey from new york to los angeles its late night talk show star jimmy kimmel's joel to host the ceremony. there will be a. big go on scripted surprise in the show. feel session they want to avoid a nasty surprise like the one that happened last year confusion over an envelope led to the wrong film being named best picture this year it's the shape of water which is received the most nominations it tells the story of an unfair b.s. creature who falls in love with a meat cleaner while trapped in a us live or a tree. the big favorite for best actor is

gary oldman for his role as winston churchill in darkest hour. if. you'll go there you should try. my daughter angela frances mcdormand is up for best actress in three billboards lights a day being the siri she plays a mother who tries to shed light on her daughter's rape and murder. by god damn easter dinner. i know chief but i think we're kind of a broad where like oscar hopes to for this women series sharon in place a teenager who wants to escape from the banalities of life in suburban california in the trashy comedy ladybird and then back to city college and maybe you're going to pull yourself off and not expect everybody to know everything. do you have the papers. less surprising though is meryl streep's best actress nomination for the post it centers around the washington newspaper's decision to publish

a secret government report on the vietnam war during the presidency of richard nixon the film is also up for best picture. and that's a voter that is one of two german backed films hoping for an oscar the short film is based on a real life event when islamist terrorists stormed a bus on the border between somalia and kenya wanting to kill the christians on board the misl protected them. it's a story of it so all the diaries which knows no religious by injuries oh. god the. class of two not everyone here will be able to take home an oscar but many will count the nomination alone among their greatest achievements. no we haven't forgotten the been just the go all of saturday's goals from germany's top flight coming up after the break with matthau men the top much saw a life sick take on dark knight and these two sides have been fierce rivals since

the bulls and to the league last season find out how the game panned out indeed up using the bone to speak out which is coming up right after the break. well you're watching the news from berlin you can catch up with the latest news around the clock on the dot com thank you for. your support t.v. the smarter the t.w. for sure. what you watch when you want it up to date. ordinary. to decide what song some don't more than dot com smart be. sure that people come for you on facebook and twitter. to date and in touch.