this is the w. news live 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 approve 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 turn out in moscow to cheer on vladimir putin he's hoping

to coast to an election victory in two weeks' time. and the bundesliga show follows after the news take to just be 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 does one hand this evening as volunteers started processing the ballots almost half a million do you thing s.p.d. members who are 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. leaders 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 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 ruins to 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. going to go under even our confidence as i went to one of the regional conferences and i really got the feeling from our leaders that they understand that mistakes were made and it's time for change but i

do suspect no one but many s.p.d. members still oppose another grand coalition desu by dick if we keep doing what we've been doing in a few months no one is going to ask what the s.p.d. a minister should negotiate if it just looks like everything's the same under mama . until just party members to 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 said 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.v.

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 i 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 say polling numbers how this could turn out they 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 see a 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 will be left very much alone she'll 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 on a clip come 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. youth wing. leading the charge to be. this deal 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 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 merkel's coalition governments they serve 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 a mildly 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 assault on the french embassy and military headquarters in the capital. jihadist gunmen were among the dead. slovakian 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 on italian organized crime in the back here before he was killed seventy times tahlia national is detained in connection with the murders have 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 their already massive terry of sand barriers and u.s. companies doing business there washington will simply apply a tax on their cars which freely pour into the u.s. on friday european commission chief said the e.u. was drawing up counter measures against leading us brands such as levi's and highly davidson. in two weeks the russians head to polls 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 man of 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 that immediate putin whose election victory is all but certain. he's a real man a strong president a great person but. russia's 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. do there yes. 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 moji movie was awarded not one but four received but it wasn't the only film to receive this special although every tom cruise was voted worst actor for his performance in the widely panned the mummy. and worst supporting actor for that went to mel gibson for his role in daddy's. 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 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 job to host the ceremony. there will be a. big scripted surprise and the show. will certainly 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 sheep of water which has 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 the borat. the big favorite for

best actor is gary oldman for his role as winston churchill in darkest hour. if. you had no way you should try the board my daughter angela frances mcdormand is up for best actress in three billboards being the siri she plays a mother who tries to shed light on her daughter's rape and murder in the middle of our god gave me. i know gee i think we're kind of abroad 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 tragedy comedy ladybird and then back to city college and then make you burn a hole yourself about expect everybody you know every. day you have the papers. less surprising though is meryl streep's best actress nomination for the post it

centers around the washington newspapers 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. that's a voter 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 militants protected them. it's a story of it so the geraghty 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 right. no we haven't forgotten the bundesliga all of saturday's goals from germany's top flight coming up after the break with mats home on the top much saw a light stick to conduct mind these two sides have been fierce rivals the bulls and

took the lead last season find out how the game and indeed abuse the bundesliga coming up right after the break. while you're watching news from berlin you can catch up with the latest news around the clock dot com thank you for watching. as long as. you know the banks. and so was the language of. speaking the truth. that matters g.w. made for mines just you know the cost fifty cents to feed the hungry child for one full day. if you want to.