to the journalists. our series this week on double universe. this is the w. news live from berlin congo americal is reelection to her fourth term as german chancellor merkel windsurfer reelection bid by a slim margin attributes lower house of parliament but her victory puts an end to months of political paralysis will bring you live coverage and analysis. also coming up the world renowned physicist stephen hawking has done a good boy shows

a super hero to me i would pick superman and everything like that i don't know if. the confined to wheelchairs or motor neuron disease his groundbreaking work with black holes and relativity pushed the boundaries of human knowledge. and students sped up the fear you give you visits high school activists who are planning a walk up to protest mass shootings and call for tighter gun control. i'm simply so much going to thank you for joining us we begin here in berlin where i'm going michael has just been reelected for a fourth term as chancellor putting an end to months of political paralysis lawmakers in parliament voted narrowly in favor of her appointment this comes nearly six months after merkel's conservative bloc suffered a poor showing in the general election they struggled to form a government until the social democrats finally agreed to govern together again but

it isn't business as usual for the old partners makola shaken up her cabinet bringing in fresh faces and even some of her critics. let's go over to the germany where they were voting a little bit earlier our chief political editor michelle are standing by for us michelle and this vote has been a long time coming after months of gridlock here in berlin over forming a new government this must be a sigh of relief for chancellor merkel and her government absolutely in fact it's a sigh of relief for the entire political system here which now at least at the very least has clarity even the critics even the green party that failed to form that coalition together with the pro-business free democrats when you hear them speaking now they're just happy that this deal is over it's been almost six months or three and a half years left to go really this and now we can put a government together what we hear from all sides is that now germany is stable

again with stability of course having become the buzzword of this entire process of actually getting a government together after this period of uncertainty what happens next. what we saw in the process of. being really appointed signed into office spotted germany's president that's where she is right now she will come back here for her oath of office in the bundestag in germany's parliament then we'll see the appointment of the ministers and they will then in turn also be signed in to office by the german federal president to became such a key figure here when it came down to persuading the social democrat party to yet again go into another coalition with angela merkel something they had ruled out after that election defeat in september well that's history now and then we'll see the entire cabinet sworn in so by one thirty central european time the new

cabinet of german chancellor merkel will be up and ready and germany will be open for political business again it will be time to get down to business michel i couldna for us at the bundestag thank you very much. and here with us in studio is nina there from politics also following this vote for us earlier today at noon if we look at the numbers here coalition has three hundred ninety nine seats her conservative bloc and the social democrats three hundred sixty four lawmakers voted for her this morning to become chancellor again what does that say to you about how united this coalition government is behind her when she needed the absolute majority and if you look at the bundestag it has seven hundred and nine members of parliament so anglo-american needed three hundred fifty five she got nine votes more than she needed and yes that is a narrow margin but also in recent recent years that we've seen similar

results it's not a dramatic loss for uncle americal the share of politicians who vote against her is not dramatically different to. last time for example last time around and also i think it's interesting that for her what counts is that she was reelected in the first round and this is what matters at the end of the day nobody looks at which martin was there but do you see her going into this possibly last term week and i think she definitely is under a lot of pressure. has hinted at it and view that she has a point at some of her harshest critics into her government she has had to make major concessions she has had to hand over the finance ministry for example to the junior partner in the government that is seen as a major concession that the s.p.d. are now representing the finance ministry with all of our shows so at home she is tremendous pressure but like you say there are

a lot of issues on the table that need to be tackled and the good news is that germany does have a government yet well it's been in a holding pattern as we've said one hundred seventy one days since the september elections and that means the to do list has also been piling up let's take a look at some of the challenges that lie ahead for this new government. the moment it became official it took months of painful negotiations to get to this point then with one stroke of the pen this week chance america will find the starting gun for the new coalition to start work on its long political to do list first there's europe. french president manuel mccomb wants to work with germany on ambitious e.u. reforms but there may be trouble ahead while germany agrees in principle to his plans for a new e.u. finance minister merkel conservatives are strongly opposed to the eurozone have a good same budget. and if that doesn't keep the german government busy enough in

europe there's always breaks it time's running out for a deal with the u.k. due to leave the bloc in just over a year's time. next up u.s. german relations u.s. president donald trump has unnerved germany by raising the prospect of a trade war with europe his threatened tariffs on steel and aluminum could hit the german economy hard merkel wants talks about managing transamerica first ambitions may prove tricky. then this defense germany signed up to be part of a new e.u. defense union which could pave the way to for many european army but first the german armed forces are in need of modernization a new report has found that facing dramatic personnel and equipment shortages. and there is domestic concerns germany is lacking behind when it comes to digitalisation the coalition is promising to invest billions on a national broadband upgrade by twenty twenty five tackling appellation is another

high priority german cities of won the right to bans on the worst polluting diesel cars but what will that mean for germany's all important auto industry. finally refugee policy. possibly one of the most contentious issues facing the new coalition after. the success of the far right party and last year's election expect germany to get tougher on immigration the coalition's promise to keep the annual intake of new asylum seekers below two hundred twenty thousand. there's been a major cabinet shakeup in the new coalition into then new roles. you know we saw there are a very long to do list there's europe there's bragg's dealing with transatlantic relations to mention china not even mentioning china indeed is this fourth government under a chance americal up to these challenges. the report also hinted at it it's an

interesting mix of experienced people and fresh faces and so this will be interesting to watch how this plays out that you've got a few people who are just changing positions within the cabinet and some people who bring with them some street credibility like the new hopeful from the social democrats francisco who's. now m a o she used to be the mayor of a very difficult district of and she's got experience in finding pragmatic solutions in dealing with problems that come with migration so she's certainly somebody who can add new impetus to those policies that we should mention that chancellor merkel is just been reelected as chancellor and she now has to take this new government for but there is a progress or view that's supposed to be taking place halfway through what should we make of that halfway through means next year so they don't really have a long time to find out whether they can manage to square the circle because we

mustn't forget that all of the parties that are involved in this coalition deal now they have to try and do two things at the same time they have to reinvent themselves rejuvenating they have to bring new faces to the forefront and give them a stage where they can actually sign and at the same time they have to demonstrate unity and work together as a government while at the same time having these two different targeting groups because they need to win back votes of support so this is going to be extremely tricky so the next twelve months promise to be interesting interesting indeed neither has i from politics thank you very much for your analysis. for turning to our other breaking news story today a renowned british scientist stephen hawking has died at the age of seventy six his family says the physicist passed away peacefully in a sleep in the early hours of wednesday hawking will be remembered for his groundbreaking work in black holes and general relativity he also defied

expectations living for more than fifty years with a motor neuron disease let's have a look back at his life. stephen hawking showed the world the limitless possibilities of the mind trapped in a body crippled by illness he was one of the most well known scientists of our time from the seat of a wheelchair and with the help of a speech generating device the theoretical physicist and cosmologist fascinated people worldwide. talking faced his difficult physical condition with courage spirit and his trademark drive when it. shows a superhero took me i would pick superman everything that i am not. stephen hawking was born in oxford england on january eighth one thousand nine hundred forty two the oldest of four children. at seventeen he was awarded

a scholarship at oxford university he studied physics and chemistry he also joined the school's boat club and loved science fiction then at the age of twenty one destiny dealt him a cruel blow. which. the dark haired diagnosed me with veto s. or older who are going to see all three of you already in two or three years. all my life i have lived with the threat of an early. hocking focused on subjects he knew best and could manage it began working in the field of theoretical physics at cambridge university he researched areas that combined science philosophy and religion such as the origin of the universe. he was especially interested in black holes and studied the mysterious phenomenon for years.

he looked at what happens to the material sucked into these holes. he developed numerous theories but no definitive answers. one of his greatest discoveries was that black holes can disappear this revelation turned the scientific world on its head. in one thousand nine hundred eight he published a brief history of time the book sold millions of copies and was translated into dozens of languages and stephen hawking became a high profile public figure. he used his popularity to warn of the dangers of nuclear war and climate change. he saw the public debate to search for answers to other pressing questions of our time. hawking was actively interested in peace between israel and the palestinians. he called the u.s. led invasion of iraq in two thousand and three a war crime even inspired

a hollywood film about his relationship with his first wife. hawking received numerous awards and honors for his research and his efforts to open science to a broader audience. in two thousand and seven he fulfilled a dream when he went on a zero gravity flight it was the first time in thirty seven years that he could move without being in a wheelchair. and he did it he did cause a. fire could have got an awful lot of experience here i'd call. earlier a colleague of stephen hawking shared his memories with us. was an amazing physicist one of the brilliant one of the earth and twenty first century very intimidating for young lifestyle but he was also the reason carer you know he was incredibly

stubborn incredibly we'll all we had a wicked sense of humor the very first time i ever met him was at a visit of prince at a scots whisky tasting where after the banquet lots of is about together the samples and single malts got his and there was stephen he would not be left he would not let is reportedly ready to get in the way that any air rises entirely theoretical physicist sean carroll there remembering stephen hawking who died today at the age of seventy six. now to some other stories making news around the world sarah leone will hold a runoff vote for president on march twenty seventh after the first round of voting ended in a stalemate opposition leader julia smart out beyond where narrowly won the first round with forty three point three percent of the ballots he will face off against a governing party's candidate somewhere who took forty two point seven percent. turkey's president says his military is within hours of capturing the kurdish

enclave of offering in syria and caress launched a campaign to drive out kurdish fighters it considers to be terrorists up to three hundred fifty thousand civilians are believed to be trapped there and hundreds of thousands more in the surrounding region. philippines president barbara go to tear gas announced he is withdrawing his country from the international criminal court following its decision last month to investigate his deadly drug war thousands of suspects have been killed by police under crackdown he accuses the court of being used as a political tool against his country. it watching d.w. news still to come students joining up to say never again did any talks with high school activists set on putting an end to mass shootings in america. time to check on the markets with care had now and the departure of the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson yesterday card is rattling the markets yes you can say that soon is a rough day especially for asian equity says u.s.

president trump's firing spree signals more political uncertainty in the white house the new secretary of state mike compare was not because of talking of taking a hard line with china on trade in hong kong the hang seng index lost more than half a percent here investors are worried about donald trump seeking to impose tariffs on up to sixty billion dollars of chinese imports in the near future in japan stocks fell as well breaking a four day winning streak the nikkei index lost almost zero point nine percent so markets are going to the mercy of mr trump's not sure a decision making so how will the new secretary of state influence trade policy and what can germany do to prove improved trade relations with an increasingly hostile white house questions i discussed with. well i would think that these two factors that played a role in first of all there was of course a surprise element in the sec you know it took us all of it by surprise and that's

reflected in the market reaction why do this now when the president has and full with other issues like terrorists like you said. but then you know more broadly we have had a balance if you life of people in the administration that supports. the fairly hard economic nationalist line of the president and we have had some people that oppose the nationalist line and essentially multilateralist since it was muslim just was one of them as was gary cohen and so to have now the second important senior figure in the administration depart who in some sense counterbalanced trump a bit is a little bit of a new the new one the new foreign secretary he's more hawkish is yes so that is it just a problem of influence in trump really have influence on trade as well you know and it is i think the issue. with respect to perhaps less on trade

because they of course you know trump has demonstrated that even with tennis and still in the in the foreign ministry and as a secretary of state he was very happy to yes just go ahead with his decision so i don't think that's so much the issue but the issue is just generally the propensity . chance of of conflict of international conflict of which trade is one once and. i don't know who will be sworn in later today for a first term as chancellor what do you think is on top of her economic to do list mending relations with the u.s. . well i would agree that her main challenges are international at this point so we have a coalition agreement that i think correctly outlines a bunch of. domestic economic challenges and i think there's a reasonable job and outlining how they will be met like public investment. tax issues and so forth but i think the you know the two biggest challenges are indeed

trade at this point and europe of course no and i think what has happened in the last six or eight weeks is that the trade issue and relations with the us on the phone number one of the issues confronting the chancellor if you look at the rather big trade deficit with germany. and the rather high e.u. tariffs on. imposed from the u.s. does trump have a point you know. well he has half a point which is the only point if you like that from the demonstration in the obama administration completely agree with and they're really not very many just maybe the only one is that they are upset about the german surface and so on that in that sense he has a point or germany could do a reasonable things things that have been pointed out by the i.m.f. and the european commission is about multilateral institutions to reduce its servers other than that he does not have the parts of dickie the issue on on

tariffs effectively you know it we have some product lines where tariffs are high in the u.s. these are in europe for example on trucks much much higher in the u.s. than in europe we have other product lines like cars where tariffs are slightly higher in between you and this has to do with the history of those tariffs you know once again i thank you very much for this analysis and. on financial markets many people have cheered trump of the rising stock markets during the first year of his mistresses boss markets have become very jittery in recent weeks less cross over to calmer boos and standing by at the frankfurt stock exchange was the mood at the moment. she people in the financial world find it very difficult to get used to the new style in washington's white house and trump seems to have a point in some respect take china for example of the over capacities and price

dumping with chinese steel that's a problem also the autocratic way that the chinese that govern their economy and their markets but addressing this with import tariffs fighting for a better system of international trade with import tariffs simply doesn't make sense for the vast majority of people in the financial world added academics and that's what's causing the jitters and the fear of a trade war. so germany has a new government since today what can they do to lighten things up. actually a lot it would encourage business sentiment and sentiment on the markets very much if the government in berlin was able to provide leadership we have a breaks it to solve in europe and you know the european union as a whole has a whole bunch of problems to deal with if the government is. showed that it's able to solve those problems it would really be very good for the business

case the investment case germany and europe. and then from for thank you. to the u.s. now all eyes are on pennsylvania sumi and for a very good reason because there's been a very close election a neck and neck congressional elections us testing president donald trump's clout in the republican stronghold the democrat and first time candidate conor lam made a surprise strong showing against republican bricks echo new trumpet endorse ballots are still being counted with the result too close to call but that didn't stop lamb from declaring victory over his opponent and the vote is seen as a litmus test ahead of november's midterm elections. and one issue that is sure to polarize us voters is gun control the mass shooting one month ago at a high school in florida has reignited a passionate national debate seventeen people were killed in parkland florida by

a nineteen year old shooter armed with an assault rifle today american students across the country plan to stage a walkout to honor those victims and pressure lawmakers to reform gun laws. angry and sad that's how jordan joseph felt off to the park. that was when she decided it's time to get involved now jordan and her friends are putting the finishing touches on the walk out they're planning at their high school in arlington they want to honor the lives of the seven thousand people killed in florida and pressed lawmakers to tighten gun control. were purchased because everyone. kind of spread the message like this is ridiculous. going to schools if we can keep the focus on this to actually push through legislative change because that's what we need i think that's why the walkouts really important to keep the focus where it is. they said their motivation is genuine

fear that a shooting like the one in parkland could happen in their hometown hero that has become part of their everyday lives. it's really scary my younger sister goes to school with me and a couple weeks ago we had kind of event and medical emergency at our school but of course when they said lockdown drill over the announcement we thought it was school shooting because that's always where our minds girl and you know the first thing i thought about like where she is she ok and that's you know that's a ten it's a terrible terrible thing to think you know i couldn't concentrate for the rest of the day and it makes things really really hard when you're constantly worrying about your safety. they've been discussing different proposals and debate what has to be done. for instance establishing stricter background checks for gun buyers or a ban on assault weapons there are demanding that congress act now what they don't want is to see their teachers being armed i don't think arming teachers will do

anything i think will cause more accidents just i think it's ridiculous i can't believe anyone would think that teachers should be like having guns in the classroom and we're not going to fix the issue with more guns like that's just going to the situation worse. jordan and her friend say they know how politics work but they still hope that their generation can push lawmakers to crack down on gun violence they should listen to us they say or we will vote em out. a reminder now for our top stories at this hour german lawmakers have elected oncle america to a fourth term as chancellor only a slim majority supported her winning by just nine votes she's expected to be sworn in shortly ending almost six months of political uncertainty and world famous theoretical physicist stephen hawking has died hawking will be remembered for his

groundbreaking work on black holes in general relativity and for devout defying the limits of his disability hawking was seventy six years old. don't forget you can always get interviews on the go download or out from google play or from the app store that will give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications for any breaking news you can also use a day to send us your photos and your videos. thanks for watching everyone back in about thirty minutes.

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northwestern germany is full of stories. nicole flinch discovers what makes this city one of them. in sixty minutes. the top stories followed across social media share your comments and content and welcome to the team. starting out with some junk and instructions from a book. page of fourteen william coming to dream. we wanted to build a wind turbine to provide his village with electricity. the following comment when the business idea changed his lawyer the courage to call it much of an exciting journey the world began the big.

heroes story. and the windmill starting march twenty first in w. . hy there grace to have you on board let's have a look what's coming up and. walk still casing the seasons when. the. sun icon with a set of michael caine turns eighty six.