this is g w news live from berlin tonight and uncertain future here in germany plans for the error after chancellor angela merkel have suddenly falls apart the woman tipped to take over says she is no longer in the running a shocking announcement. coming by our insists her decision will not endanger the present government stability also coming up syria's assad regime stepping up its

offensive in its live province the last stronghold of anti-government rebels rebels are backed by turkey and the death toll from the chinese coronavirus approaches a 1000 reports tonight from. residents in china saying that the virus has led to an album of racial discrimination. it's good to have you with us it is not the future that the german chancellor had planned tonight the woman widely tipped to succeed chancellor angela merkel says she has changed her mind she will not seek to become the german chancellor in next year's elections on a great crumb cohen bowers who's known as a k k is

a stepping aside following events last week that broke a political taboo here in germany her conservative c.d.u. party for the 1st time worked with the far right alternative for germany party to win a regional election a taboo too far that put a k k has credibility as party leader into question. on the compound gave little notice before informing party leaders of her decision she was long chancellor angela merkel's hand-picked successor now she won't be her party's candidate for chancellor and plans to step down as party chief she says to see to use decision 2 years ago to separate the role of chancellor candidate and party leader was a mistake. as how this issue is in the unison target that the leadership question is still unresolved to this very day specific a the issue of who will be the party's candidate for chancellor. we haven't been able to find a solution despite 2 party conventions and apparently some people don't want to

resolve this issue. believes the cd you could pick a new party leader at its convention in december she's planning to stay on as defense minister her decision was apparently one she took alone. even chancellor merkel didn't find out about comic-con barres plans to step down until monday morning. and site i'm quite sure i respect this decision picked. but i must also say i regret that it's come to this. like you imagine that this was not an easy decision for an incorrect crap are imbalanced in fact you can find this former c.d.u. parliamentary party leader feels like math is being honored as a potential successor to comp. in 2018 he narrowly lost the party leadership vote to her. both amin lush at the state premier of north rhine-westphalia and german

health minister jens spawn are also in the running the tumult in the c.d.u. also has their coalition partner the social democrats worried. that the cd you can't agree on its future direction and has been without a real leader for a long time. what seen as the future of the c.d.u. . announcing she's stepping back after only one year as party chief her decision means the c.d.u. will likely be busy for months deciding on a new leader. status now that our political correspondent simon young he is here in berlin on the story for us tonight good evening to you so i mean so this is a crisis for the c.d.u. party without question is it also a crisis for germany's ruling coalition government. well it certainly has the potential to be that brenda obviously and a great crime karen bauer herself said today that she doesn't see any threat to the stability of the government but other senior figures like peter out mild the

christian democrat economy minister he says this is a very serious situation. and you know a lot of people are saying well. it's necessary for everyone now within the christian democratic family to come together and try and assert some stability and indeed the social democrats those of the coalition partners in angle america's national government have been applying the pressure a little bit of non-doing that the c.d.u. show what's the line between it and the far right so they are tempted to make a little bit of political capital with this having said that there are likely to want to bring down the government i think and abandon the coalition because they themselves are electorally very weak so at the moment i think the government will limp all the far right if the party you know it appears to be

profiting by having the withdrawal of a k.k. as party leader but who else simon benefits from a k.k.k. stepping down. well as i say the social democrats will seek to pull themselves out they're presenting themselves as the party now thats needed to sort of watch out the conservatives don't move too far to the right or don't flirt with the far right party the a.f.d. then of course the other people who can regard themselves as somehow beneficiaries of today's events all of those christian democrats who are rivals of a k.k.k. she wanted to succeed angle a medical and possibly go on to run for chancellor next year in the elections well you know there are several people as we saw in that report who waiting in the wings for their chance to step up so they of course will see her demise as

a win for them and simon this question of who will run to become the next chancellor it's all this uncertainty into the political equation here in germany and we know that germans don't like that will the question of who will run for chance or will it weaken the c.d.u. party well i think it will you know the c.s.u. libertarian conservative leaders said you know they can't have months of uncertainty well as a search for a new leader and a decision about he's going to be the chancellor candidate rumbles on that would be very damaging he said and i think you know there's a battle for the soul of the conservative party there are those on the right wing you say mikkel is taking the party too far to the left and the fear is all that that battle that's been lighting for for

a long time may now break out into the open our political correspondent simon young . aminta stage in german politics sunday think you are. the turkish military has struck and quote neutralized more than $100.00 military personnel in the syrian province of the shelling was retaliation for a syrian strike earlier in the day in which 5 turkish troops died the assad regime is now on the offensive in the province the last stronghold of anti government forces in syria the past week has seen a significant escalation in tensions between syria and turkey syrian forces last week killed a number of turkish troops as part of its campaign to retake the province and for more on this now we want to bring in our correspondent dorian jones he's standing by in istanbul good evening to you dorian the turkish armed forces are being hit directly by 0 an army is this kind of

a benchmark in this escalation. it is certainly is a very serious escalation as you said this is the latest attack fatal attack on turkish soldiers and again forces were very swift to retaliate bombarding dozens of sites it remains on the clear whether that will be an awful will turkey carry on its offensive targeting syrian regime forces but what it is clear is such a turkey is can continuing to reinforce its military presence in italy following last week's attack it deployed over $250.00 armored vehicles and tanks along with reportedly thousands of turkish soldiers those reinforcements are now continuing with seeing pictures of train loads of arm up being the rail down to the syrian border we're getting reports that possibly another brigade of turkish forces will be sent into italy and with this continuing escalation of clashes with the syrian

regime and is continuing reinforcing of turkish presence in syria this brings the the possibility of a all out confrontation between damascus regime forces. and the right now a delegation from russia. for talks on the situation in libya what do you expect from those talks. the turkish foreign minister speaking today he said that the talks on saturday yielded no results the underarm korea was has happened in the latest round of talks today but we do have several reports that while those talks were going on the syrian regime did talk at turkish forces now that will not go down well and they will see this is further evidence of capable of reining in the masks which it is backing with its military have power and. will to be very concerned at the possibility that will get engaged in a full scale conflict with the syrian regime at the moment russian air force aki

ping the turkish forces planes out of syrian airspace you had local media reports saying that up today a turkish fighter jet was escorted away from the syrian airspace will turkey continue to accept the dominance of russian and full storm anything serious of its base while its forces on the ground becoming increasingly vulnerable to attack that brings a possibility of a clash between turkish and russian forces if the recall way back in 2015 did down a russian fight to bring in a new period of approach to 2 countries working to resolve the syrian conflict to live without reproach montanists cooperation continues in the present situation is very unclear our correspondent in jones for the latest tonight from in stamboul dorian thank you. well here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world ireland's left wing nationalist party shin fein says it wants a major role in the country's next government that after a record election result the party led by mary lou one the popular vote beating

both the centrist parties now they've previously refused to work with sinn fein but the center right fianna fall is no longer possible coalition. a russian horde has sentenced 7 young activists to prison terms of up to 18 years the defendants were accused of planning to carry out bomb attacks during the 20. human rights activists criticize the case saying that the men were tortured into signing confessions african union leaders are promising the organization will play a greater role in resolving conflicts on the continent in the future they made that pledge at the end you will african union summit in addis ababa the bloc of specially wants to boost efforts to end the crisis in libya by supporting the un led peace process there. the death toll from the corona

virus outbreak in china is nearing 1000 with another 40000 cases reported nationwide as the lunar new year holiday comes to an end many chinese are choosing to stay at home rather than returning to work others are getting back to work despite fears of the virus spreading. back to work in beijing with temperatures scans and breathing masks despite the heightened precautions beijing residents say life must go on. then. i think we can just act like nothing happened my companies prepared some protective gear for us like mosques that life goes on anyway how can we stop going outside or stop working simply because of fear of disease we can't do that through militiamen. chinese president xi jinping has largely kept

a low profile but on monday he visited the treatment and prevention research center and toured a residential neighborhood. in this special period you should remain confident we'll be able to. eventually. national experts including a team from the world health organization have arrived to observe. well we welcome experts from countries including the united states to participate in the joint expert inspection group we believe that sufficient communication between all sides will produce suitable arrangements for the work of the inspection group in china. and will hog the city where the outbreak started officials have mobilized tens of thousands of workers to aid in prevention quarantines are still in effect across much of the city. this will happen hospital is home to 3 babies born to mothers who had the virus.

and the mother's condition had worsened 2 days before being admitted to the hospital and an emergency says erin section was done. outside workers and trucks roam the city spraying disinfectant it's clear that in wuhan at least the crisis is far from over. business news with katie ferguson is up next stick around she'll be right back. w.'s talk show. strong opinions clear positions from international perspectives stuff like every week we get to the point on our current topic.

committed. to this point.