you're watching a special edition of. berlin and these are live pictures from london big ben striking 10 o'clock in the evening in london which means polling stations have just closed in britain's general election the fate of bricks it tonight. will prime minister boris johnson's conservatives clinch the majority they need to take britain out of the e.u. or things jeremy corbin's the labor party pull off a surprise upset our coverage of the u.k. election begins now.

i'm burnt off it's good to have you with those polls have just closed in britain's general election counting ballots will go on throughout the night with the 1st race is not expected to be called for at least an hour or so but british media have just released their 1st exit polls giving indications of the outcome they are pointing to a massive massive lead for worse johnson's conservative. all right to break all of this day on tonight so i'm joined here at the big table by you came politics analysts to my right here is rob much and by my colleague roger evans both of these gentlemen of course hailing from the u.k. and barbara vessel she is standing by for us in london barbara i want to start with you tell us 1st of all where you are and let's talk about these 1st numbers what do

you make up. down in front of the red line which is right opposite across 3 from downing street downing street to the seat of the prime minister and just a bit off the road is the problem parliament when it's sitting dark tonight because no parliamentarians are yet so the 1st indications for a big lead by the tories that is boris johnson wish he'd that's really what he wanted this is what he wanted to achieve to sort of take rex it through the way he likes it the way he thought it should go that means that britain is going to be out by the 31st off of january and he also promised that the country would be completely released from the european union at the end of next year something that many say is not doable but that is this problem is so if these figures hold true if

this really comes to pass bar a strong free will be the happiest man in london maybe even then the whole of the u.k. tonight you know the happiest man in london roger i mean he will be if these numbers are true we're getting right now 300 $68.00 for the conservatives $191.00 for labor i mean that's a reason for for johnson to be happy i mean the. absolutely over the moon of that result to be honest brant is a staggering majority way beyond what anything any of the polls were predicting so i can just give you an indication of the very latest as you go poll we came much to day or 2 ago when. predicting a majority of 28 for the conservatives he would talk about a majority of 86 a majority of 86 i mean is. under the circumstances a landslide and i think will be a shock result if this is this result pans out and it's very very unexpected and the world will agree. there will be seeing boris johnson in 10 downing street for

the next 5 years but i think we'll be seeing germany resigning tomorrow. for our viewers. is this such a big upset well because of the last few days we had seen or at least the polls that said labor have been closing the gap of course we know the polls been from the past you know but this would be enormous for the conservatives saying i don't know whether boris johnson next for he is but he would certainly be that of the period to push through by the end of january next year and i think i agree that would be untenable and if we want to try an analysis of these numbers at this early stage is this a clear rejection of very very important that we stress for all of our viewers that this is a 1st exit poll right exit polls have been wrong before nonetheless i would be very very surprised if an exit poll was so wrong that we did not go conservative

majority by tomorrow morning when all the votes have been counted. however i don't think it's i think it's possible to really say war has caused this result one thing i will say though is that i do think boris johnson's message throughout this and campaign has been reduced to just 3 words i mean really campaign has been 3 words and those 3 words have been get. and my feeling is from the people i've spoken to in the u.k. i have many family and from many friends there is that even people who actually opposed to bragg's it at this stage feel just get it over with. just please get it over with and i think that's why that message of get in it's still simplicity seems to really struck a nerve with many people in britain who feel whether they agree with gregg's yes let's get it i mean we've heard that time and time again haven't we that breaks it is going to keep people home or it's going to send people in waves to the polls i

think he's just broken it down to the very simple populist message 3 words and people are all just i think sick and tired and that is so much apathy now that they just simply want to get it done get it over with and then be able to move on because there are all these 3 other pressing domestic problems that something that people have to address then further down the line but you know when we talk about breaks so often here we know that it's not it's not a buy neary issue i mean it's a very complex and complicated issue so if he let's let's assume that boris johnson has been able to make political capital out of this simplifying it what happens then come january when he's supposed to deliver breaks that by january 31st of course the simplistic messaging. is indeed very simplistic because what he means by that is almost 31st of january 2020 britain will leave the european union and

technically i would say based on this result is what's going to happen britain will leave the european union but initially nothing much will really change because that's where the negotiations begin for the over reaching the overarching trade deal between britain and the european union and of course you know we've heard comments today that that's going to take years and. what will be interesting to see is whether the british public all satisfied with what happens on january 31st and say oh a budget is done now or whether then the realisation comes oh actually brags it's not done until we've left the european union but there's still a 1000 problems to resolve there was a lot of coverage of what the conservatives were doing that they were targeting. especially in the north strongholds that seen strong support for. hoping to basically flip these areas would you say that these numbers are going to give an indication that i think they have i think he said properly managed. heartland i think bob is it would have to wait and see how the the numbers and out but i think he has managed to do that with those disenchanted labor voters who had voted to

leave and you know also want to see the whole process done and dusted this being disenchanted in the u.k. is it a 2 way street though i mean if we and we've been talking about a country where conservatives have been disenchanted because of what has or has not happened with brights it as well as labor. i think everyone here in this enchanted with with what's going on and simply because it's been dragged on for so long and the people who voted in favor of bragg's it feel that they have been betrayed they feel that they won the referendum fair and square they voted for as not been delivered on but also many people who voted against it as i say i think also feel well there was a referendum we did have a vote of course we can argue about whether the vote was was carried out whether the choices that we've given with whether the way that the public is informed about what breaks it really means one can talk about all of those things but the end of the day there was a vote it was a very close vote but 52 percent of the population voted in favor of bragg's it and

even if you win the 48 cents many of those people in the 48 percent of the many fareed strongly feel they wanted to stop drugs and many probably feel well yeah i think i mean obviously we've heard the last few weeks and months especially now the last few days leading up to the election that people want to see the the democratic vote which it was yesterday that honors and i think you know that's that's a big part of it we've asked many times here how much do the this is a party still mean in the u.k. because we hear all the time political deal line meant. it's not easy to predict what people are going to vote based on their party affiliation. do you agree with that i mean is that what you hear back home to that labor is not necessarily labor any more. well actually i would say the german money fest the moment she's elected was an extremely labor money fest it was a very left wing manifesto it promised a kind of. scale of investments regeneration the like of which the country wouldn't

have seen in the last 70 years or so and that's not going to happen now and that's something else that i think you might want to talk by in the course of the evening what the result means beyond breaks it for the country but what you're absolutely right brant is that is that the issue of drugs has been so all dominating over the last 5 years and it does cross party lines i mean. you know we've seen the people expelled from the conservative party because they opposed the brags that line that boris johnson has taken we've seen squabbles within the labor party there is no clear. tory and she brags it is labor or anything like that it goes across party lines and i think that is something that boris johnson has clearly been able to come up with lies in on this campaign and as you know we've got the exit poll numbers now that we can show our viewers and see if we can bring that graphic up and take a look at it if we can here it is so. this is what we're looking at right now projected results 368 seats for conservatives labor 191 symphony 55

is you could tell us what this means for the lib dems as m.p. for example in these numbers. well i think i mean the lib dems i mean when joyce winston the they needed to kind of there was a lot of hope that she would give a big boost to that if. they haven't again been able to follow through i think again it's been quite disingenuous she was the one who said they if they were armed she did claim that he'd become prime minister which i think. you see that but i think they. again they were the ones who said they would vote. 50 and i think that was just trying to get a populist message which which has resonated is just not realistic i mean let's go back to barbara v's old. in london barbara i mean these numbers here this is very strong for the conservatives. does that mean we can just forget about all the talk

about a 2nd referendum. yeah i mean that's that's done and this is what he wanted a strong majority to push through and yes you mentioned get it done that was his new. again and more on this only message during this election campaign i mean whatever the question he was that was put to him all he answered was and variations kept breaks it down and then the potential of this country would be unleashed or suddenly the affluence of what appears suddenly i mean he didn't go into any further detail really and the tory many many tests so that they presented 2 weeks ago is a deliberately very e.q. nice on this grex a critique that is everywhere and there is another aspect of course is that in britain as in many other european countries the traditional party affiliation the

tribal feeling that somebody is labor or somebody is conservative i mean that has broken down and so it will be really interesting once the counts are in to see where boris johnson sort of gained. voters new voters what happened to the youth of that labor had really counted on and so there's a lot of detail to look at past one main aspect of course of this seems to me that the strength of course johnson is the weakness of jeremy corrigan you had 2 party leaders that were those in their own ways quite unpopular but it turned out that jeremy corbin was much more unpopular than boris johnson but you're standing outside in the cold in the december darkness and i know there was a lot of concern that holding this election in december the 1st time that's happened in almost a 100 years in the u.k. was going to mean a lower voter turnout which usually disproportionately kids labor harder than the

conservatives i mean do you think the bet has been a factor this go around. we have to see you have to look at the exact figures for this we saw long lines today at the polling stations and people did go to the polls and when you talk to them it was like. we don't like this and now the election needs to be done so it was more like a sense of civic duty and this is important and this is somehow our fate our future is tied to the selection so we have to do this and so it seems that even johnson and the conservatives even managed to mobilize people in this bad weather it was raining all day and is that they still did go to the polls and that we have to sort of figure out what we want to do is so yes they had clever a message and yes. in the end struck a chord more than jeremy corbin could and yes this is devastating for labor because

they had hoped that they could sort of push through the issues that this the things people really care about that are really important to the public services that are in a devastating state here the n.h.s. the health system and many other issues the trains and wherever you look there's so many things to do politically and the country has been in a complete standstill for to use of trees of maize rain as so all this was pushed aside by bricks it and it is going to come back up after the election after people see ok we're out of the european union and now what there might be a big disillusionment and a big frustration coming up next year yeah that's the future that is amazing it isn't it roger that britain butter issues if the numbers are telling they didn't really matter to the voters as much as brick should. it's genuine you still missing

brands and in a way. was offering to the country was like. christmas for the next 5 years because he was really promising the world you know everything from cutting taxes building hospitals revamping the national health service concentration on public service all of the things that barbara just been speaking about and it is almost. i. think that the voters have said or we don't want all of that what we want is you want to get breaks it down and it's flabbergasting in a way. completely agree with what barbara says in that it's not that boris johnson is massively popular he's not massively popular some people really do like him but a lot of people really really feel unhappy about having to vote conservative it's a vote for boris johnson as prime minister i think he's absolutely right jeremy corbin is much more unpopular than boris johnson is that would seem to be what this

result is suggesting i think interestingly all those things that just mentioned labor manifesto to really boost welfare and then in the schools one of the major leading fiscal institutes actually said. it would work it would create jobs. but it just goes to show how massive really. another point i think is really worth mentioning britain which is the environments in which this elation has taken place in the u.k. you have to remember that we in the united kingdom does have a broadly right wing press and a very very pro breaks it press for largely under foreign ownership by the way and you know that is also the message that people have been getting you know there are very few well 2 i think newspapers will big daily newspapers the labor supporting and the rest of it i'm pro boris johnson so you know what one must never forget is the environments in which the campaign has taken place but nonetheless i. had these

results because i felt that. it was promising was something that might indeed captivate capture the imagination of voters it clearly has and. will have to be very many question. why and why they failed and i think it will be because of germany. where you have spent years as well covering brussels covering the european union covering. there you are what do you think the leaders of the e.u. are thinking as they see these numbers. you know they're going to see that 1st chance and has the majority's to sort of go straight ahead was what he had planned and there might even be something like relief because what would have been their chance if to start all over again have another referendum or have another hung parliament that sort of tries to sort of creep forward or sideways or backwards or wherever and so it would have been dragging this whole issue would

have been dragging on and on and on for months on end and they're fed up with it they really want to get rid of this so even though there is sadness of course nobody wants written to leave but it's indeed to be done in the end if they really want to so rather you know have the pain quicker and be done with it because then of course everybody knows that brussels what happens will be the next stage that will be much more difficult much more painful and that's where the real battles will be fought about the new relationship about the trade agreement that was britain and all the illusions that for sure that had been peddling here during the election campaign and more as they go into those bubbles are going to burst and so it's going to be an interesting year but what about the donald. approach to all of this he would want to have seen a 2nd referendum and to see that not happen and that you can state in the e.u. do you think that type of. is has that been lost.

you know he was one of those i mean there were foot of course a few european politicians who said yeah we up with nobody really wanted this i mean this was sort of a shock to cross the vote and fact is now this referendum and everything that happened after it afterwards and so but in the end they came to the point they said this is so destructive because they spotted what happened within the united kingdom they saw how polarized the country is how split it is. much bitterness how much hatred they have brought up and so they've said this is corrosive we want this over you know in a way they also want breaks it done because they want to sort of turn to a new chapter and just start among themselves and feel that their own issues you know we're getting the 1st reactions to from the leader of labor been saying that we knew that this was going to be a tough fight and

a challenge and if these 1st numbers reflect what's the result the results are going to be they're looking at a huge loss and a big victory for the conservatives. in london barbara thank you and to my colleagues right here at the big table both of you gentlemen thank you very much. let's look at the numbers one more time here is a breakdown for you 368 for the tories 191 for labor 13 for the lib dems 55 for the s. in p. one for the greens and 3 for others you see right there 3 of the. art in other news germany has hit back at us plans to punish construction companies working on a controversial pipeline project the nord stream to pipeline will carry russian natural gas to germany via the baltic sea washington says that is a security risk because it makes europe more dependent on russia for linin says

that the 10000000000 euro pipeline is vital to its energy needs today the german foreign minister who must said that european energy policy is decided here in europe not in the u.s. . the u.s. plans to impose sanctions on companies and individuals involved in the pipeline project that includes german as well as other european companies the penalties include travel bans and asset freezes companies continuing with north stream 2 could find themselves cut off from doing business in the u.s. u.s. lawmakers fear the pipeline could give moscow greater leverage over the german and e.u. energy markets german politicians disagree we in europe think we can decide. for ourselves about our own energy security and diversity and i personally do not buy the argument by the united states saying we are making ourselves more dependent or maybe even completely dependent by russian oil and gas deliveries russia's gas

pramono some authority stake in the 1200 kilometer long pipeline which will transport natural gas under the baltic sea from russia directly to germany circumventing ukraine and other eastern european countries the project is more than 90 percent complete and is scheduled to start operating in may. 2020 north stream 2 has the potential to double the amount of natural gas germany imports from russia the country needs more gas to ensure energy supplies remain stable as it phases out the use of coal and nuclear power and as germany goes green policy makers here suspect washington is also worried about the business angle of north stream too. he was obligated to see the us produces liquid for charlie and gas using the fracking methods the carbon footprint is worse than color and they have trouble selling it to him on the european market because they aren't competitive that develops peace

and whatever the u.s. motives president trump says he will sign the bill into law and implemented as soon as possible. in new zealand a recovery mission has been launched to retrieve the bodies of 8 victims of a volcanic eruption on fucker we white island off the eastern coast of the country it is a risky operation scientists have warned that gas is on the island after monday's eruption are so toxic and corrosive that a single inhalation one breath could be fatal the operation is going ahead despite the risk of more eruptions. here's a round of now of the other stories that are making headlines around the world polling stations have closed you know after a tense presidential election in some cities protestors attempted to disrupt voting in an election that they see is aimed at keeping the established political system in place argyria has been in limbo for months since protests helped alst one time president abilities beautifully. so-called islamic state says it carried out the

attack that killed at least 71 government troops in western asia air this week the one time assault in the village in knots near the border with mali was the deadliest this have mounted in the region this year in india protests against a controversial citizenship law have turned violent a hospital in the northeastern state of psalm says that 2 people died of gunshot wounds the wall which was passed by parliament on wednesday has been criticized as favoring non muslim migrants for fast track to citizenship. well there was one there like she's a phenomenon that was neither the size of nor divisive but it did have some bite it wasn't just people heading to the polling stations it took their furry friends with them to take a look you could say it has become a poor little issue hash tag dogs at polling stations are once again

a popular feature on social media and the politicians seem to be catching on to matter of london city come literally took the lead early on polling day with his golden retriever. mary. make sure. that he was not sidelined green party co-leader jonathan took his don't want us to the fighting teeth. whether boris will be hounded from office or his own seat remains to be seen but he now the last looked relaxed with his jack russell dillon as he went to the polling station and his best friend went inside with him to cast his vote before boris emerged to pose with his pitch for pictures. 7 for a 1st tour is that. we will find out soon who ends up top dog to lead the u.k. . all right you've been watching a special edition of the w. newsline but from berlin our coverage of the u.k.

election and the results will continue throughout the evening stay right here up next the conflict zone sebastian interviews hons at the toll on their heads up the vatican's child protection center will be back at the top of the hour see if.

into the conflict zone with jim sebastian. my guest this week period is the jesuit priest father hans solo who is a media experts closer to abuse them over kludgy is the boss he goes serious about real shit for what it continues to provide opportunity as cover for priests who commit these awful awful close conflicts. next d.w. . i'm not going to think out of the well i just. sometimes i am but i stand up and whimper the research evidence thinks deep into the german culture of looking at the

stereotype classics figures think the future of the country that i not. needed to take for this drama. it's all about who. knew i might show join me to meet the gentleman fundi w. . post. it was the speech of his life tramp's she's passed certainly she's the most difficult. speech by calling dresden on december 19th 1909. shortly after the front of the right of the chancellor addresses the people of east germany and the movie's tense the common clamorous for german unity journalist peter on the board was just seen. 30 years later she looks back on the most interesting. stories december 19th d w. i featured in

half and people just don't believe the church the catholic church is not a monolithic block new rules this year on the holocaust her and the sexual abuse in the catholic have failed to stop this 5 victims groups which still insist that the innocents are at risk from credit for. my guest this week here in rome is the jesuit priest father funds sold out who is a leading expert on such abuse among the kludgy is the vatican serious about real change or will continue to provide opportunity i'm called up to priests.