120-225-0000 over syria. oh. this is news coming to you live from berlin a political earthquake in german politics the woman tipped to succeed it. says she does not want the job and is resigning as party leader on a good come cut of mahler's announcement comes just days after met this conservative party or shaken over relations with the far right if tea party. also

coming up history's made of the oscars. paris such was the english language for the revealed word for best picture of south korean gong to be a good time director of the film we took trouble be correspondent about that historic night and funny but. and a tricky landing at london's heathrow airport as a storm disrupts travel and brings flooding to northern and central europe most of germany's into city of train networks remain suspended. how long of a will welcome to you on the cheap. we start with some breaking news in german politics the leader of the governing christian democratic union or the c.d.u. has said she is stepping down on a good company known as

a k k had been widely tipped to succeed when the chancellor retires in about 18 months. time but a decision to give up the party leadership means she will not now stand as the chancellor candidate on a gift card and bars decision comes after a tough year for her c.d.u. party leader. it was all smiles to begin with in december 28th and a click cramp carom hour was elected as merkel successor a cd quality leader the former solid state premier was merkel's handpicked air and firmly set her sights on one day filling her shoes as chancellor. her appointment as german defense minister soon after was a chance to prove her worth in a high office but within her 1st year a c.d.u. party leader cracks began to show after a number of gaffes a joke a carnival mocking gender neutral bathrooms sparked oprah from germany's l g b

t q i community did it to let the threat of the biggest lows toilets these are for men you can't get decide whether they want to stand or sit while peeing. while just weeks later a.k.k. came under fire again after she questioned how opinion is manufactured online following calls from german floggers to boycott her party in european elections. proposals to create an international security zone in syria were also badly received after social democrats said they hadn't been consulted before hand. over while losses for the conservatives in regional state elections added to her load of criticism but still she vowed to go on. via vala we want the best and the brightest minds in this party and everyone should get involved and if someone has a different opinion from me that's a living democracy we can grow with it and i want this union to grow to make us

stronger than we are today that's the aspiration that i bring to this party. but it was last week's scandal in the eastern state of thuringia the surge the final seed of doubt in a case of thora the arm of the c.d.u. overstepped party line and cooperation with the far right f.t. to elect the new state premier now following her karrenbauer his resignation the conservative c.d.u. is left with a familiar crisis wondering yet again who can succeed. and joining me now is the chief political editor michelle akutan or she is at the sea view headquarters. we should have 1st of all how much of a setback is the announcement by other good. for the american city of party. well i don't even know what the setback is big enough

a word it throws the party into what is truly a leadership crisis because once again i'm going to machall political brand appears to be what defines the sea in the conservative democratic union here in germany with many critics of course in the past having criticize merkel for having shifted the party further to the left of what she sees a centrist now that's something i'm afraid come come i wanted to solve she wanted to position herself as more conservative she wanted to bring those who have been flirting with the idea of cooperation with the far right party particularly in eastern stronghold states back into the center well and she didn't succeed in fact the c.d.u. wrote history books last week and that is on the rays of all irreversible also as the german chancellor put it by cooperating with the far right if the party whether it's a word coming or not but this crossed a red line and a great combo was exposed as someone who simply can't hold the party together bring

it the hind one party line that's her failure. to big question marks over who can succeed her and i'm going to machall sue's party leader that leadership she gave up more than a year ago looking for bigger than ever so from what you said we should have quite clearly a crisis for feeding your party but is it also a crisis for the government. know the government is stable in fact the conservative c.d.u. party under social democrats have had their own party woes the social democrats for once are now able to look at the c.d.u. they've had their own leadership issues so the central government is stable the trademark politics of anger mackall also continues of holding together a stable government but i'm going to machall declared herself that she won't run once again and the c.d.u. is now left without leadership to renew the party to redefine the whole question of

what is conservative and to really demonstrate that it has a roadmap which it did have until last week on what the end of the americal could look like in party terms once again we're talking about personnel and the c.d.u. party can talk about what it always said it wants which is actual party content and what conservative conservatism means in the years to come and surely a lot will depend on who becomes the new c.d.o. party media because whoever that person is could take the party into a very different direction. yes there's a couple of names circulating i mean last seen as likely contend. the now just. party grouping in those times. fruitless mantz is the man who was beaten by and if it come convolve who's now announced he will be stepping down he has given up his

commercial post with the black rock the largest investment company last week very interesting timing there this and announce that he will be more active so we expect him to throw his hat into the ring and span the health minister who also beat in that leadership race is another name that is mentioned but i understand that he is in no rush. to step forward because this could become toxic over the next couple of months somebody has to bring this party back together and whether that somebody will then definitely become chancellor candidate the one who did the legwork that's a very big question but indeed provided of course we're waiting to hear from the other great clam cotton ball at the sea the headquarters where you are and we'll get back to you as soon as they are developments michelle or thank you very much for that update for now. now the 92nd academy awards have made movie history in los angeles with the south korean film parasite becoming the 1st non english language

film to win the oscar for best picture but director june cool did not stop there he also picked up 3 other awards on a historic night. it was the big surprise of the night and they ask or goes to paris i was the 1st ever known english language movie to win best picture. since. south korean director bond junho news dot com are subtler about the gap between the rich and poor in modern day sol who's the big winner of the night. it earned a total of 4 awards including best director for bone junho who paid tribute to one of cinema's all time great directors and fellow nominees. are normal comes home to. thank you so much as i said when i was young and studying cinema

there was a saying that i cough deep into my heart which is the most personal is the most creative that quote to us from our great martin scorsese so they were thank you i will think until next morning thank you i really there were no upsets in the other big categories but the awards went to the hotly tipped favorites. and a comeback for rent. she took the best actress award for happy trail of judy garland in the film judy. take anything for depression for that is that it was. this the off in phoenix winning best actor for his mesmerizing performance as the joker in the dock origin story of one of the world's best known comic books the lens is

a joke to you. supporting actor awards went to laura dern for her role as a divorce lawyer and marriage story thank you were missing and brett pitt won his 1st acting oscar for his supporting both as a laidback stunt man in print and terran tino's once upon a time in hollywood. and the oscars wouldn't be the oscars without some political jiving it told me only have 45 seconds appear which is 45 seconds gordon said it gave john bolton this week. they were thinking maybe when does a movie about it in the end they don't do the right thing. i think there was also some good old fashioned fun. and plenty of entertainment. music legend elton john performing has. oscar winning of original song from the bio

pic rocket man. getting hollywood in the mood for the infamous oscars after parties. it's a big night in hollywood movie expert and entertainment correspondent scott rockslide joins us scott baio side won best picture how much of a surprise was this. yeah a huge surprise i mean this is my favorite film of the year but the oscars almost never agree with with with my picks so that was a huge surprise but all the smart money this year was on 917 the big prestigious world war one film from san mendez because this is sort of the kind of really glamorous. kind of movie that tends to win oscars and is seen as like the ultimate oscar winning 3 technical wards but all the big prizes went to your nose parasite and this is a surprise not just because it's the 1st foreign language film to win the 1st asian

film to win the best picture oscar but also because bungholes film is such a departure from what usually see at the oscars this is a it's a social satire that's also a thriller that almost becomes a horror film it really matches up john or is and it's incredibly socially relevant i mean it's really an allegory of capitalism and of the gap between rich and poor package an incredibly entertaining format and what i think it's interesting exciting this year is that often the oscars go for the safe toys as they go for sort of celebrating a kind of cinema of the past and this time they really picked what could be said about the future a global diverse cinema that really takes chances and take cinema in a new direction and it was huge applause when the announcement was made that it had won best picture now was the choice of biocide also an attempt to make the oscars more valid then there has been some criticism about the other awards which lacked

diversity. yes no definitely and i mean the the nominations in general this year were very undying versus still the oscars are still very much a very male very white club we only had one non white actor nominated all the acting categories no women nominated for in the best directing category the oscars the cademy which awards the oscars has tried to do something to correct this they spent a lot of time trying to get make their their membership more diverse and more global and this has shown up i think with both the nominations and the wins for parasites but i think there's still a long way to go and i think this is going to be a sea change after all parasites win or not i mean 2 years ago light which was a film with a all black cast won the oscar i thought that would mark a sea change in the oscars has really turned out that way so i'm very hopeful with parasites when but still not super optimistic and scott there's always something

else at these awards rich grabs attention it seems this time it wasn't this what was the message. yeah i mean a lot of people last night commented on the lack of female representation particularly the director category as i mentioned but the best comment on it i think was from oscar winner natalie portman who showed up on the red carpet with a dress and a cape and on the cape was embroidered the names of female directors who were snubbed and did not get an oscar nomination this year including graphic airway the french director and not to the op i thought was a brilliant statement on how women's voices have been silenced at this year's oscars right scott brock's but i do debbie's entertainment correspondent and movie expert thank you very much. let me now bring you up to date with some other stories making news around the world island's general elections delivered a surprise result left wing republican party action fan has won the largest share of the vote beating the 2 established centrist parties they both have drew out

a coalition rich in fan before the election because of its ties to the i r a paramilitary. people have be meeting at a shopping center in thailand to pay tribute to those who lost their lives after the country's worst of a mass shooting they left flowers and messages for the victims at least $29.00 people died when a thai sojo went on a shooting rampage on saturday. parts of eastern australia have been drenched by the heaviest rainfall in 3 decades it brought floods but also relief after months of devastating bushfires dows in blazes and replenishing water supplies in sydney a strong surf whipped up sea foam and swept away large sections of the beach. a major storm is bearing down on parts of northern and central europe after having battered the british isles the germany's entire longdistance real network was shut

down as a precaution although it has now started to reopen some 50000 households in the southern state of bavaria are without electricity in or most 100000 in the czech republic. a tricky landing at london's heathrow airport. battling hurricane force winds the plane manages to touchdown. before pulling up again. taking off is no easy around europe hundreds of flights were canceled. rail services have also been disrupted with chaotic scenes at london rail stations . i was so much more positive. so i'm now waiting for the next one and it's being delayed britain has borne the brunt of the storm with widespread flooding in towns and villages in the country's

north in ireland go away was forced to cancel the opening ceremony for its year as year pm capsule of culture and the aptly named wild atlantic way on the west coast took a pounding. germany has been hard hit to several people were injured as wind speeds surged beyond 170 kilometers per hour. in frankfurt the storm knocked a crane onto the roof of the city's cathedral. it's actually quite shocking because the crane fell you can hardly. huge hole like grass or historical buildings and one of the major buildings in frankfurt i was very shocked. and on germany's coast even those who saw the winds as a thrill soon realized the danger the storm is now moving east with more damage expected. has thirty's in china say more people are falling victim to the

coronavirus this is the death toll has exceeded 900 and that more than 40000 cases of the virus are now reported across the country now that after thousands of feet of allowed to disembark from the cruise ship in hong kong after a 4 day quarantine resulted in passengers testing negative for the virus but another true ship of japan remains in quarantine with over 100 confirmed cases. in germany now from beijing is correspondent. today workers are returning to their offices after the extended do not new year holidays what's the turnout like on lots of people going back to work. many shops remain closed many small businesses remain closed many people are not yet back in the cities where they work and many companies have also os they have people there their

employees not to come back to the office yet but if they can to just work remotely from home. chinese businesses and the economy is no where back to normal normal at all now schools and you know with versity is will remain closed for another few weeks also teaching remotely via the internet. so we are not talking about a country getting back to work we are at best talking about a country slowly starting to get back to work and that is we can see the street behind you is almost empty and the shops are closed all this must be hurting china's economy how concerned is managing about the disruption in business. the economy is always a major concern of the leadership in beijing and the growth rates are something that is close lee watched however getting this epidemic under control is the top

priority if the virus spreads further the harm to the economy might be even bigger but what we've seen is that some local governments have emphasized that they need to get back to work they have told other units in the party state that they should while maintaining caution not overdo their cautionary measures not overly homme the economy it is a concern for beijing but it is nothing that they can solve of course the goal of. preventing the virus from spreading and getting the economy back on track these 2 goals are at odds with each other and that is spilling in beijing thank you very much for this update from there. france is recorded just 6 cases of the coronavirus for chinese people and others in the east asian community there say

they are becoming targets of discrimination with many taking to social media to share their stories did obvious on their follicle vent about this is me in chinatown district to find out more a basement in paris is chinatown. these elaborate costumes were meant for the annual chinese new year parade the draws thousands of spectators but for the 1st time the event was called off the sea or suddenly turn was a regular participant blames the coronavirus and the stigma it's fueled certainly. was cancelled not out of fear of the corona virus but the fear of children being stigmatized with being told that children are coming back from school crying because they were singled out and made fun of they were insulted and called names so we didn't feel like celebrating that was being very tough it suddenly turned grew up in this neighborhood a melting pot known for its 960 s. high rise apartment blocks and dozens of east asian stores and restaurants the

frenchman is of chinese and cambodian descent and says he'd never really experienced racism openly in paris until a week ago. it was a. mess took the metro and as i sat down the person next to me got up and moved away and then he covered his mouth and nose with a scuff i realized it was a form of xenophobia and fear i was sad and shocked because it's far from being an isolated case accounts of prejudice avoidance and slows a piling up in france stalking the needs. here in southeastern paris the city's main chinatown which is home to large numbers of france's ition community the usually bustling neighborhood seems a bit subdued many residents a wary of speaking on camera but some are clearly rattled by incidents off with this abuse amid fears of the corona by a medium what a friend of mine who's asian was taunted and called a virus in the metro that's not very nice but. our customers wanted to know if our

waiters had chinese nationality even though ours is a vietnamese restaurant seeing asian faces didn't reassure them fitted to the potomac has really given free rein to racism against asians something which in france is not really talked about and not taken seriously that. the issue was revoked aerated across the french media on the banks of the river sin. journalist lynn lundahl has been following accounts by french asians have been targeted using the now popular hashtag i am not a virus looks like it's the french train. she has long campaign that gets them in france but nothing prepared her for these responses to an article on the coronavirus in china she translates into english you shouldn't have weird beast and this is normal they would do anything in that country the country is overcrowded to nature is doing its work this is horrible like people they have no empathy we're

just talking about sick people or them and then they will say say racist things like a virus is just a pretext for being hateful only i clear said she was trying to deal with little and has been speaking out against the hate on talk shows and on social media she's also hit out at sections of its own profession for example for this headline in the local newspaper warning of a yellow alert. so far france has recorded only a few cases of the corona bite was if the numbers go up the fear is the prejudice could spread just the smallest. 2 other news african union countries have begun a 2 day summit in if you focused on ways to promote peace on the continent south africa's president siddaramaiah took over the organizations rotating chair for the coming year he said he would put the priority on ending the long running conflicts in libya and founts of don. l g b

t groups in switzerland are celebrating after voters approved a law that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation the measure passed with 63 percent of the vote parliament passed the law 2 years ago but opponents forced a referendum on the issue. the u.s. military says 2 of its soldiers were killed and 6 others wounded when and afghan soldiers opened fire on them the incident took place in the province in eastern afghanistan they have gone defense ministry reports one of its soldiers was also killed and 3 others wounded. a russian quartet sentenced a group of 7 young activists to between 6 and 8 in prison on charges of terrorism and other counts the defendants were accused of planning bombings before. human rights activists and defense strongly criticized. the men have been tortured

into signing confessions. police have been cracking down shopping on protests in recent months now concern mothers have started campaigning against what they see as the government's heavy handed tactics. has this report. is a fighter as she had stored at the courthouse in northern moscow with her son her determination is palpable. and. have been accused of kicking a police officer at a protest last summer both men insist they are innocent but the court rejects their appeal and sentences them to several years in a prison camp the judgment it's their families hard is there to support her son was also put in prison after the moscow protests but was lucky after just a month in pretrial custody most charges against him were dropped and he was

released but sense of injustice hasn't gone away. strange today it should be the judge the state prosecutor the government who feel guilty. but instead it's us who feel guilty. who are released the parents because our children are free. there have been several mother's marches in moscow already including this one in february of last year now the protests have grown into a movement down with the police state they chant here. what is very bad when thousands took to the streets that authorized demonstrations in moscow last summer police crackdown heavily on the protesters government officials have also repeatedly warned of the dangers of a revolution. it's impossible to solve our problems on social networks or on the

streets of course people can express their opinion freely that's totally normal but people have to express their opinion within the framework of current laws otherwise our country will end up in a very dangerous situation. surveys conducted by an independent pollster show that the majority of russians now believe there are political prisoners in their country the human rights organization open russia is collecting money to provide legal assistance for them now talia conan is here with several mothers from the movement there are over $200.00 of them now with more joining all the time they send letters to the detainees and want to fight for their children together. what happened to us could happen to anyone here fighting for our children are fighting to protect everyone else in russia to. the author where of the potential force others movement could have natalee and her

fellow activists haven't so far managed to get permission to hold another protest so for now is sticking to russia's strict laws by protesting for justice on her own . you're watching the news coming to you live from a recap of the top story that we are funding feel this being a political bombshell in germany. who was seen as a likely successor to german chancellor angela merkel now says she doesn't want the job her decision comes just days after her party was shaken relations with the far right. now on the great. is due to make a press statement shortly i'm looking at pictures there the mikes the journalists are sitting there just waiting. to come out and address journalists meanwhile have with me a little correspondent kate brady kate while we wait to hear from the woman who's

known as. a kid in germany tell us how.