this is t w news coming to you live from berlin pressure builds on british prime minister theresa may a day ahead of a crunch vote in parliament on her breaks it to pour steel she's expected to make a last ditch call to lawmakers to back her unpopular exit plan or risk what she calls that have to stroll think no deal breakers also coming up stabs him on staying in shape the mayor of the police city of dallas in a critical condition after being attacked at a charity fundraiser event citizens who are donating money to help save his life.

and austria and germany brace for more extreme weather emergency crews are preparing for up to a meter of fresh snow that's as the death toll from winter storm speeds rise. with. hello i'm terry march and welcome to the program british prime minister theresa may is to make a final appeal to lawmakers today to back her unpopular deal to leave the european union the deal is expected to be defeated in a vote in parliament to morrow in a speech later today may well say m.p.'s have a duty to implement the results of the referendum and she will also say that people space in democracy will suffer what she describes as catastrophic harm if lawmakers fail to support the agree. in a moment we'll have more on the view. a break is it from here in germany and in

brussels but first a look at how tensions are threatening to boil over on the streets of london. they outside parliament every day trying to sway politicians but they are no longer alone enough a campaign stuff to disown protest action tensions are clearly running high in westminster we've had these pro european protesters here for months now it's a new phenomenon just a few meters down the road with people who are actually protesting for breaks it. they're not as numerous as the pro europeans but they're equally determined. these pricks at campaigners are afraid that politicians might decide on a soft brakes it keeping too many ties to the e.u. they want to cut loose completely we can definitely survive in a geo almost every economic model says the g.d.p. will go down do you think it's

a prize worth paying yeah with the british people i think we can do it and freshens a strong country i think we can definitely survive. but if you're sure you're wrong you know they're not always right they always say things which are not right and maybe this time they're wrong as well. around the corner other courage of motorists to show their support. but. they are convinced even if mays agreement doesn't get approved there will be some form of cooperation between london and the e.u. . we don't have to have a deal to sell things to germany i will say i have an audi car it's very old but i have an audi car i will still buy out the cars you don't you don't need to do you can imagine the heads of say he spends b.m.w. vote for going to now day except doing britain some new putting one hundred percent tariff on a cause that turned around the chancellor inside know we want a deal to mark same with the french wine producers or italian wine producers it's

not since there will be a trade deal no matter what that's the firm belief of the sleeve comparing us but what's most important to them britain needs to get out and foster than anything else in monster betrayal. what are the major sticking points for many british lawmakers opposed to teresa mayes frags the deal is the irish backstop that's the group that's the agreement that would avoid a physical border between northern ireland which is part of the u.k. and the republic of ireland which is and will remain a member of the e.u. the european union is expected to publish a letter today giving new assurances on the temporary nature of a backstop. well for more i'm joined now from brussels by. first of all tell us more about this letter concerning the irish backstop

terry you've already explained the i respect stuff and that's quite important here because mainly that is the message or message of this letter i.e. saying look we really only want the backs of as a guarantee that there will be no hard border between the republic of ireland and northern ireland and we do not want it as a trap to keep the u.k. to force the u.k. to stay within the customs unions and parts of the internal market that's the idea of the backstop make sure there is no hard border but do not artificially keep the u.k. tracked in this customs union and that is the concern of many brits a tears in the parliament and that is why many have said we have to vote against this deal even if we want a deal we need to vote against it because that's a real threat here ok so the backstop remains an issue if theresa may does not get this deal through parliament one possible outcome is that britain will seek to delay its formal exit from the european union beyond the march twenty ninth

deadline with the e.u. allow that. that is the understanding here as well and from what i have heard from diplomats and insiders in this negotiation process is there is a willingness to provide extra time it needs unanimity and it needs a request from the u.k. unity on the part of the e.u. but they were would be willing to give a few months if the the reason for that is is promising if it really would make sense from the e.u.'s perspective one of the reasons could be a new referendum the e.u. has always made clear they do want to keep the u.k. they never wanted the u.k. out so that could be a good reason and it really depends on what the u.k.'s leader or what the parliament would say to the you why they would need this time i think two months extra wouldn't wouldn't be something that you once but it could be on the table to avoid a hard cliff edge breakfast ok well let's think about that scenario maybe the departure

of britain from the e.u. would be delayed but european parliamentary elections are scheduled for the end of may what impact will the did let would a delay of the u.k.'s departure have on the election process. this is of course the big sticking point here giving a longer than a two month extension because it would lead into the new legislative of a new parliament maybe into the election it would would it what without doubt create a mess but the case has never been here and saw a number of scenarios are on the table because after all the new members have joined the european union in the process of an election and there were examples of a second great and the peace now is that also applies for a country that intends to leave or maybe not to leave that will be the big question but without doubt the e.u. will be very keen to avoid a longer then a longer extension that would lead into that period of the new parliament also

because the seats of the new parliament have all be already been redistributed the newly balanced so if you have an election member states will have more seats and then if the u.k. suddenly decides they want to stay that will have to be recalculated and that's a scenario the e.u. does not want to see care thank you very much bring us up to date did matters there in brussels. the mayor of the polish city of sgt is in critical condition after being stabbed at a charity event citizens are giving blood helped save the life of. is a leading figure in poland's opposition movement in the city that gave birth to solitary soul varity trade union almost forty years ago sunday's event was part of a nationwide campaign to raise funds to provide medical equipment for hospitals. moments before the attack america dunst praising the fundraising effort for children in need as

a demo of it looked out at thousands of people. lunged at him with a knife. using. the attack and then remained on stage shouting that he blamed them as form a party for wrongfully imprisoning him. before he was tackled to the ground. he was holding a knife in his right hand and yelled that he'd spent five years in jail because of the mayor's old party. he said his name that he'd been in prison in was tortured we don't know how he managed to get on the stage. police have arrested the suspect who they said was a twenty seven year old with a wreck order violent crime. in our priority is fighting to get her the parapet treat her could get so close to the mirror we knew he used to pass that said press on it. was rushed to hospital in

a critical condition with wounds to the heart and abdomen and underwent hours of surgery. has been left in shock by the attack on this popular politician. now let's catch up on some other stories making news around the world today indonesian authorities say they have found the cockpit voice recorder from the lion air jet which crashed into the java sea last october killing all one hundred eighty nine people on board although it's broken into two pieces it may still be useful in shedding light on the cause of the crash. and iranian military cargo plane has crashed near the country's capital tehran iran's army said fifteen of the sixteen people aboard were killed an aviation spokesman said the plane flying from kyrgyzstan overshot the runway and hit a building during landing after the pilot chose the wrong runway. and greek

prime minister alexis tsipras says he will call a confidence vote in parliament after his defense minister resigned all stems from a deal to end a long running dispute with neighboring macedonia over its own name come into office and his party are key part of suppresses alliance whose support is needed to approve the deal. more than two hundred fifty soldiers and firefighters have been deployed to dig out a ski resort in austria the operation comes as alpine regions struggle to cope with record snow falls the troops are going to help uncover the town of hong kong where it's been snowing nonstop for more than seven days in town was evacuated already a week ago urgency workers say the mission is dangerous as the risk of avalanche is at its highest level. our reporter m e n s if is traveling the alps covering the snow chaos there for ascent he joins us today from the town of into a towel on in austria about fifty kilometers south of solace for me what's the snow

situation right now in austria. well terry as you can see it snowed again last night it's snowing right now nobody knows when this is going to let up and there are about seventeen thousand people in austria right now that are snowed in that means they're completely cut off from the outside world i know one of these places right now over tower one of the most popular ski resorts in austria as you can see the road is closed here they just let in some emergency personnel so that means the road is passable the reason they've closed it is because of the weight of trees could cause that there's the danger of the trees snapping falling on the road some trees fell last night i've heard but also the danger of avalanches we're in the mountains right now there are slopes out here and the avalanche warning level is four out of five now up at the ski resort people are still skiing. we talked to the. authorities up there and they said that it is safe to ski if you stay on the

slopes don't go off the slopes and of course don't drive on this road right now because of the danger of avalanches and the three thousand people who are up there they are not permanently closed in the usually open the roads for a few hours a day to let people out but again it's not because of the possibility of the roads it's because of the danger of avalanches and trees fall but this is an extreme situation there in how our authorities dealing with it i understand there's already been a number of fatalities. that's right. yeah just yesterday three germans were killed and i will ensure there was a rescue mission that they had to call off because of the dangerous conditions in the snow actually spent a day with the austrian military they told me that they are working around the clock to deal with the situation that prepared to go out on emergency search and rescue missions they're clearing roads clearing routes they also have three helicopters there but they can use on rescue missions and they also use those

downwash trees like what i was explaining earlier with the trees i collect snow. they get heavy and they could snap off helicopters hover over that creating a wind that blows the snow off but it's it's not certain that they can do that right now because the trees are extremely wet because of the wet snow that has fallen in the last day. briefly is there any relief in sight what's the forecast. well the forecast is more snow it could rain again there could be sun tomorrow in some places don't forget every place in austria is different because of the mountainous regions but rain and sun does not mean good news for a lot of places the snow will sit on roofs get heavier with the rain could make the roof collapse if they're not cleared off but hopefully this will let up soon. it's weather so there's really no telling i mean thank you so much for bringing us up to date amy and assert there in austria. now to

thailand where it's been nearly five years since the army there took control of the country following a political crisis military leaders have been promising a return to civilian rule ever since but now they've pushed back the date for elections yet again just one month before they were due to take place that's brought people up on to the streets of bangkok. was there to hear their demands. they've had enough enough of thailand's military rulers enough of seeing their rights curtailed enough of promised elections being pushed back time and time again . now these protesters in the heart of bangkok say they won't back down until the government makes good on its promise to let the people have their say we're living with the parliament that has no opposition opposition for the last five years

without any you know good governance are any no opposition liking in the parliament so the this election is very important for thailand not only to go back to democracy but also reduced on the country back again after five years and to get their rights as citizens back in the past five years the military government has used its powers to stop critics from speaking out. until recently protests like this one were prohibited by the strict assembly lot pilots military dictatorship put in place now that law has been lifted but in spite of that demonstrators are still telling me that they're being harassed by the authorities that if i can do that in the desert. and you get tied up on this and find me not that he's good. at titles like. that's put me on the kill the funny thing is. but

these tactics aren't activists the way they're afraid the government could play for time until the election deadline. constitution expires then there would be no telling when tide's would get to vote again. reporting their washington's ambassador to berlin has issued a stark warning to german companies over a controversial pipeline that was supply russian gas to germany while bypassing eastern european countries richard grinnell reputed reportedly wrote to several companies involved in the construction of the north stream two pipeline reminding them of u.s. sanctions on the russian energy sector also criticized the project on social media the us has long opposed north stream saying it undermines europeans security.

before that let's bring in our political correspondent simon the un high summit so who exactly did the u.s. ambassador write to and what's in the letter yet this is not the first time that the u.s. ambassador in jim has been making these public comments criticizing the no stream to project but it's the first time he seems to have addressed himself directly to you jim in businesses like vince's holland unit there are involved in this construction and there are many other specialists who would be difficult to replace if they decided to see to pull out as a result of this pressure he's saying that string to a because it increases german and european dependence on russian gas that it undermines security in europe and ukraine and i can just give you another quote from what he's been saying mr grinnell says i request on behalf of my government and a your company consider the danger this project represents to european energy security

as well as the reputational costs. and sanctions risks associated with it so a pretty strong language i think there from the top diplomat north stream through this pipeline project worth billions of euros it's already underway construction is underway why would the u.s. want to impose sanctions on the firms that are building it what does the how does the u.s. stand to gain from that well i mean the u.s. like some european countries it has to be said has has as i mentioned got these criticisms to teach it criticism essentially of this project they say that it means of the russia will have more power more leverage that it will operate to the disadvantage in particular of ukraine through which much russian gas currently flows to europe and it will essentially reward putin's russia or is the american see it for you know for the pressure and the bad behavior that they've undertaken recently it has to be said on the other hand many said may say that the americans

are keen to sell their own gas into the european market something they say they've had trouble to do lightly because it's very expensive ambassador grinnell he has ruffled quite a few feathers since taking over his post here in berlin this is not the first time that he's drawn the ire of sherman politicians is that that's true he's irritated a lot of people for instance he saved right back at the beginning when he took over as u.s. u.s. ambassador he had the german company should immediately cease doing business with the wrong you know that was a scene is a is a really really serious intervention a nice he's tweeted a lot of other things he talked about you seeing his role as empowering far right policies across europe so certainly he's had some controversy he's as you might expect from a close confidant of donald trump simon thank you so much political correspondent

simon you know. found almost thirty years on from the deadly hillsborough stadium disaster in england the police commander there who was in charge faces trial starting today those were remains the worst stadium related disaster in english history where a fatal crash inside the stadium left ninety six people dead and the trial comes after a long campaign to fight a police cover up david duncan field was the commander on the day of the tragedy he faces multiple charges of gross negligence and manslaughter and has pleaded not guilty to all counts. the australian open tennis tournament is underway and former champion maria sharapova has shown no mercy against british qualifier harriet darts sharp over one six love six love in just over an hour meantime germany's. number two seed cruised past so beany is polonia how it's all

about won the tournament in twenty sixteen on the men's side world number two rafael nidal struggled a bit against australia as james duckworth before winning in three sets. business news and fresh economic figures from china or else the sporting markets are not happy that's right terry hong kong's hang seng index for example was down today offer official data show that china's exports dropped by more than four percent in december compared to the same period a year before its the biggest drop in two years china's global trade was also signed last year according to chinese customs figures crucially china's trade surplus with the u.s. jumps by more than seventeen percent from sci fi is that the u.s. president on a truck might feel the need to crank up the heat in the simmering trade conflict between the world's two biggest economies china's weak imports also worry analysts raising concerns the world economy might be on track for a slowdown. signs of an economic slowdown in china have been hard to miss

and since the beginning of the year the effects are being felt elsewhere too in britain last week jack your landrover said it's causing four thousand five hundred jobs due to a dramatic drop off in sales in china. there was also a sharp selloff on global equity markets when apple issued a profit warning to you to flocking i phone sales in the world's second largest economy shares in other companies heavily invested in china also dropped after word got out that demand to soften. the global economy only nine seems to be waking up to the fact that growth is slowing fast in china. g.d.p. growth by some accounts will drop to just over six percent by next year. china will remain a fast growing economy compared to many other nations but a slowdown now means a lot more than it would have a couple of decades ago that's because back then china's searching economy

accounted for only a small part of global economic performance but today it's nearly twenty percent that means china's growth doesn't have to cool too much before things get really haase in the countries who do business with this. market's mostly in the red reacting to those news from china let's bring in our financial correspondent who's at the front of the strange expect similar investor sentiment in europe. well gary let me tell you that investors yeah they gained some hold the last week when the trading we hear from the exit is for an even bigger fear factor for investors at the moment investors are prepared that prime minister to resign may well most likely not get her breck's a deal through parliament tomorrow that brings lots of uncertainty certainly for investors and yes china is certainly another fear factor here for the investors

they are not really hopeful that we are going to get a solution in the ongoing a trade conflict these talks are set to continue by the end of the month and this big surplus that we are seeing right now is certainly not going to help during those talks. kyra back to china the sharpest drop in expert figures in two years how is that seen on the markets is the boom in china truly over. well the chinese economy certainly is still growing on a record level when you compare this to many other countries but yes we do believe that the big boom with record after record that this trend is most likely coming to an end or might have stopped already the ongoing trade conflict with the u.s. and these high terrors inforced by the trump administration with now doubts have harmed the growth of china and there are lots of industries which have been struggling mostly their cars sector is really being hit hard at the moment at the

moment car sales numbers have been dropping consumer spending is down it seems that the chinese population is more reluctant at the moment to do make investments. for thank you. and danielle mentioned that brags it is invested now a survey by the british business lobby group the c.b.i. shows that demand for britain's financial services sector has dropped for the first time in five years. breaks it was cited as the reason only last week the head of the city of london corporation said no deal breakers it could spot chaos in stock markets and london up to twelve thousand jobs now the survey from the young consultancy says that banks and money managers are already planning to move one trillion dollars worth of assets from the u.k. to other parts of the. the second time in two weeks the hong kong. pacific experienced

a glitch in its booking system along customers to get first class tickets from hong kong to portugal for example for just over one thousand five hundred dollars instead of the sixteen thousand dollars charge. on the tickets will be looking into how the cost of mistake happened not the first. of the airlines booking system was hacked jeopardizing the personal information of almost ten million passengers. and that's it you're up to date. live from berlin there's more news coming the top off the out on stage. to mark the day all science magazine is up next.

surgery in virtual reality. system researchers in dresden are developing a special b.r. headset a mock it will help surgeons plan procedures more effectively. the technology could revolutionize the operating room and reduce risks to patients. tomorrow today next on d w. farmland it has been called ethiopia's green gold the country has an abundant supply and leases it to an international group for giants the government is after high export

revenues and the corporations high profit margins but not everyone benefits from the booming business of the summing up of the country dead donkey no hard nosed in forty five minutes on d w. how to. discover a good concept discover it with the bauhaus. school of legends off to one hundred gives the ideals of the boss a more relevant today than they were the hundred years ago visionaries friendships things to come of all of the past people understood design is a way of shaping society. with ideas that are part of.

our house world this week on t w. welcome to tomorrow today the science show on d w coming up. today we contemplate head spinning changes the earth's magnetic field is shifting and weakening what effects could that have. and we report on an innovative new drug that fights a very common virus it's developed his scoop the twenty eight hundred german future prize but first to investigate how virtual reality might be able to help people be on.