this is news coming to you live from berlin change on the horizon for one of asia's most visible gay community same sex couples in thailand get ready to exercise their rights a civic partnership but they say a new long sought to come in in force an early twenty nine team all the shores of the apology they want with heterosexual couples also coming up authorities in indonesia fear of another eruption from the. volcano even a second tsunami that's as powerful tremors other parts of the country as far as

three thousand kilometers away. and tensions rise in the democratic republic of congo ahead of sunday's delayed presidential election opposition candidates called for a general strike after authorities pushed back even further in one of their key strongholds . hello i'm turning martin welcome to the program thailand is preparing to see in the new year with a groundbreaking change to its laws on same sex relationships under legislation set to be approved in early twenty nineteen it could become the first asian country to legalize same sex unions that would be a big step forward for the country's gay community but some say the law doesn't go far enough in meeting their demand for equality. with heterosexual couples. these

two want to be in perfect union and not only in their workout routine. into chinda and. more than just training buddies the pair for the love twelve years ago and they've been together ever since. three times a week they start their day with a workout helps their bodies and their relationships stay in shape. on the go all the time working. i think the only time we actually get to spend together quality time is during morning workouts like. woody is a well known t.v. presenter in thailand for more than a decade he's been in the public eye when he came out four years ago it made big headlines not all of them current. feels thailand still has a long way to go towards full acceptance of sexual minorities. he welcomes the new

build as an awakening fatah society. people just started talking about this seriously over the past year i thought proof. it was civil partnership ok so do gays who need to get married and the conversations out there. never talked about this. not. activist she acknowledges that a civil union would bring some improvements for same sex couples for example when it comes to succession at the same time like many activists she feels the move could entrenched this status a second class citizens. by itself if they. so. be. because you cannot adopt.

a fact which is a huge move. on from my pilot so instead of taking baby steps to take some rights i would call for a full right to live with woody and take a different view of what they feel thailand isn't ready for a full marriage equality demanding all much just result in achieving nothing. if you push too hard. you might be aggravating the people that are living here now so it's about knocking the doors opening the doors one by one it's a first step i think it's a very important first step and if we if we manage to get this first step right we will still be the very first in asia or in southeast asia to get that and i think that. it's on its own is such an achievement both for thailand for the region it's something we can be proud of most of the heavy lifting is done what's left now is

the votes in palm and should the civil union bill pass would he and want to be among the first same sex couples in thailand to legally todd not. to intern asia now where the country is still recovering from saturday's tsunami and remains on alert for the risk of another on thursday authorities increased the threat level from the crocodile volcano to the second highest possible and widened the no go zone around the volcano meanwhile residents of badly affected by. island searched the debris of their destroyed homes or anything salvageable. let's cross over to our correspondent emma santos who is been covering this story for days now she joins us from a field kitchen for a back we saw in the west java town of. ana how is the relief effort going in the

wake of last weekend's devastating tsunami. well terry this is one of the relief efforts that are going on here in this field kitchen and this is one of the many field kitchens that they're around here and this is where dozens of volunteers are working twenty four hour shifts so that they can hot meals for the evacuees on my right. behind me women are chopping vegetables. and other protein like fish that could be packed to about two thousand five hundred evacuees we've talked to the evacuees and they say they're tired but tired of the canned goods and hot needles and in the cases like this one they've lost so much the warmth of comfort of a hot meal makes so much of a difference to them i'm sure. bracing for the possibility of another volcanic eruption which could trigger another tsunami how are people

dealing with. it people are on high alert talk to locals you talk to people everybody around here says that they just have to be on high alert and very vigilant they are ready at any point in time to seek shelter and refuge in higher ground so they're keeping their eyes and ears on the news and they're ready to move at any point in time that they need to be they wish they could go back to normal life but at this moment they cannot they have to be. more than four hundred people were killed in last weekend more than one hundred fifty people are still missing i understand is there any hope of finding more survivors. search and rescue operations continue as we've talked to the authorities but extreme weather conditions are making it very difficult over the last couple of days that we've been here and every day and sometimes the rains are so strong that they. would

switch already previously. these further hampered this rescue operation but people are still hopeful people are still looking. what's the situation for those who lost their relatives and homes in saturday's disaster how are they going to deal with this situation. many are still in evacuation centers like the mosques are in public space says some of them are. living with relatives we've seen homes where there are as many as ten families squeezed in they say that it's really tight and it's not very comfortable but at least they are within the safety of their loved ones and they're all together and accounted for ana thank you so much that was our correspondent on a sun tell us there on your west java. now some of

the other stories making headlines around the world today the u.s. government shutdown is set to extend into the new year after convening for just a few minutes the senate adjourned until next week but there's no sign of a compromise over president tribe's demands for money to build a wall at the mexican border. in surely protesters have attacked police amid growing controversy over the recent shooting of a young indigenous man police allegedly shot the unarmed him up while he was driving a tractor on thursday chile's president the country's police chief to resign over the killing. and the german military is drawing up plans to recruit foreigners as it struggles to fill its ranks the proposal would see e.u. nationals in specialist roles such as medical doctors according to reports polls of talented romanians living in germany will be salt records.

and in new york residents forced on when the sky over manhattan started to glow a bright blue but eerie sight prompted fears on social media of an alien invasion but the as well nation proved more monday in a transformer fire at a local power plant. place of clashed with demonstrators in the democratic republic of congo the clashes occurred in the east of the country where authorities have suspended voting in sunday's elections citing security concerns and in a vote. police fired live ammunition and tear gas at the demonstrators who say the decision to delay voting was politically motivated the regions excluded from sunday's vote are considered hotbeds of opposition to longtime president joseph kabila. makeshift barricades burned in protest

a bad omen for sunday's already contentious presidential election in a country that hasn't held a peaceful one since independence from belgium in one nine hundred sixty now residents in and around benny a city in northeastern democratic republic of the congo may not pass their votes until march the country's electoral commission says that's due to the severe ebola outbreak and rebel fighting that's plagued the area more than one million of forty million registered voters could be affected by the delay protesters however see the decision has more to do with politics than safety bottled up with just a need to get us another president who will govern this country and if that doesn't happen we shall create chaos starting from today until a solution is found if it calls for us to die then so be it the last i know not who the president he so angry at is joseph kabila in power since two thousand and one and now stepping aside the ebola affected region getting its vote postponed is

a stronghold for opposition to could be the and his preferred candidate emmanuel ramadani should dari. should dari faces twenty one opposition candidates martin fire you though is one of the leading contenders. i. think we can see. the. electoral favorite is also the target of european union sanctions he and more than a dozen other congolese officials stand accused by the e.u. of obstructing the electoral process and related human rights violations in retaliation the congolese government has opted to egypt the e.u. and bassett are giving him forty eight hours to get out that leave sunday's election already two years behind schedule largely without international observers mostly because they've been denied accreditation more protests against the

electoral commission's decision are planned for today opposition parties have called for a general strike was. now if you follow european football you know that the sport can generate billions of dollars in revenue money that has led to a booming industry and well paid players but that reality does not represent the rest of the footballing world and the african nation of ball in for example trying to make ends meet is a daily struggle even for professional football player. who's. just gabbing nice football club f.c. . actress and it's hard to find anything out of place just a bunch of professional footballers training. but imagine playing on an empty stomach sees these players fast fighting what can i say i fight

sometimes to come to train without having eaten a telus yes coach with hungry we didn't eat. living off football this increasingly difficult in cup on even for professional playoffs many teams knock the basics and pass go months without payment. i've been playing football and go bowling for at least three. is really hard we can no longer live without the salary and as you can see we don't even have a jersey because i think. the country's economic problems have had a trickle down effect the knack of funding and poor organization have created a chaotic situation. the real problem is that the state is putting money into sports and not have a right places and it doesn't necessarily go to a right person for most of these playoffs football is their only source of income that they continue to play even if their next paycheck is hanging by

a thread. that's all your news from your watching d.w. coming to you live from point have more news for you at the top of the hour and of course you can get all the latest news and information on our web site that said d.w. dot com thanks for watching. her first day at school in the jungle. her first climbing lesson in the doors grandma was arrives. joining a regular turn on her journey back to freedom. in our interactive documentary. an orangutan returns home on the w dot com arena tanks.