a potential sixty one million votes could be cast today's germany looks to establish a new parliament here and bring you all the latest. in our other world headlines with me you know neal in moscow north korea warns that a missile strike on the u.s. mainland is quote inevitable for american bombers flying close to its coastline the president makes another swipe sweater plus. mass protests. in the spotless regional council will this week as it pushes for

independence. just after two pm here in the russian capital miss sunday september the twenty fourth my names you know neal with a mix of today's world developments on some of the bigger stories of the week first it is election day in germany with tens of millions of voters the signing the shape of the next parliament in europe's most powerful country for a look at what's at stake we can go live to berlin or need harvey standing by. we are on the banks of the river spray right in front of the building where the

german parliament sits that's where they're fighting for a seat inside that right style building where the bundestag will be deciding german politics for the next four years welcome so as the special coverage from berlin the polling stations were about the midpoint of the day now polling stations been open for five hours another five hours left the people to make up their minds a lot of people still undecided certainly from what we've heard from laced based polls now in the pre-election polls i believe mckelvie is looking pretty good to become chancellor for a fourth time she's been around for twelve years already so if you're one of the young people here in the country she's been around for ever.

time i remember she was always there i mean i can't really remember a time when she was like the chancellor and i don't even know who came before me. as only madonna's genuine good america said i think she was elected in two thousand and five for the first time i was like seven she's just been around forever she's always been an average she's been in power a long time. c.b.c. news content don't help us myself. i've never been an adult without under american governing. in two thousand and five she was elected for the first time i was only thirteen. i pierced my ear lobe. a boy from my school died in a traffic accident. in fukushima the grim outed people died. i went to mississippi for a year as an exchange student. black smoke today obama whites mccain barack obama

became the first black president. and i'm up that way. so when the big question today is will. of the four years taking up to sixteen years in office as chancellor one of the people hoping to. is martin chills the leader of the social democrats he's cast his vote already let's have a look at him this is him voting. in western germany this is a place where he was once so should get a lot of local support. throughout the campaign though there's been a lot of intrigue around some of the smaller parties who could play a big role and actually be kingmakers in forming a coalition in germany. to do can ski more on this. smaller parties have a very big say over the next to the german government and that's because there's

a split system here in germany where half of the votes of first past the post the other half are actually proportional representation so as long as the party gains more than five percent of the vote it can gain seats in the german parliament and could wield significant power in terms of forming a coalition over the next few weeks of course most people would take that anglo merkel's most and should still be the largest party in the next few years but how they will then go about forming a coalition to be the ruling party of germany will depend on. those smaller parties . in coalition government over the last four years but this has been an incredibly difficult election with both throwing mud at each other so whether they can mend fences and continue one coalition seen now if they can they will be reaching out to the smaller parties like. party f.t.p.

which are liberals the green party and also potentially now being thrown into the mix the suggestion that the right wing party the a.f.p. will gain seats for the very first time in this election although all of the parties have said that they will not form a coalition with the a.f.p. let's have a look now at some of the possible coalition partners that could germany over the next four years. the german parties really emerge with a solid majority from the elections so when it's over the try to make friends which is not easy after having tried hard to undermine this policy. but the good news is for the politicians you can always see we can keep our election promise because our coalition partners. which is not good news for the voters though might ask. when you basically get a program that you didn't vote for. there is no guarantee that what you would like

. the. politics to really turn out there is no guarantee that you will be in the majority. and therefore there is no guarantee that. politics. would kind of government might germany get. to twenty seventeen range of coalition. there's a combination known as the jamaica coalition if merkel. christian democratic union or c.d.u. partners with the business friendly free democratic party and the green. flag

is also possible if the greens and the social democrats manage to form a team. take the black out and replace it with the freedom across the party and. the traffic light coalition. least likely to form part of any coalition is germany's socialist left party it must be the wrong shade of the color red the left part is to radical by bigger

parties. a similar case but the opposite end of the spectrum is the alternative for germany branded as far right by critics. could be an interesting touch but so far german politics seems reluctant to rule over the coloring books lines. forming will be called then an earlier time of. political stability but the preparation of her voter. along a wide with having to a major party if they ever get up our presentation which we have heard. so as we heard that there's a whole range of policies taking part in sunday's election that's a good close look now in particular the free democratic party may only get around ten percent of the voters could still be part of a coalition. like

those since then with the. on the top in this would be in mostly. that i would have my money. so ahead of the candidates who are out of course is it expect on the campaign trail buying on dollars and trying to influence people who are still undecided but a lot of the good sort of leg work was done well in advance before the big day parties were pushing their agenda vod the form of some strike you post as we've

collected together some of the most interesting of them for you.

now political group that probably won't get invited to be part of a coalition is the controversial alternative for germany party frequently criticised for its strong immigration and islam stands spot that though is in third place according to the latest opinion polls discussed several issues with party spokesperson. if you come out of a party of this would be a great success if you imagine that last time we wouldn't even get five percent and now it's going to be something more than ten. policies some of the more talked about with the most publicly known ones of the. immigration the actual number of applications immigration topic asians in germany even though that rose dramatically two thousand forty two to two thousand sixteen dropped a lot this year so you're going to struggle to get support on that basis in the future you need to now come up with some new policies

a new way of enticing support of course all opponents always claim that we're a single issue proudly and that's all about bad racism that's not true it's just a little about illegal immigration the important point but we are also the only party rejecting the man made global warming we have the only party rejecting the supporting the traditional family we're the only party. rejecting rising energy costs so they are a lot of policy fields where we can make points in terms of the most popular parties and their leaders martin shields has been fiercely battling with throughout the election campaign but it actually seems like the to make and. a lot they agree on expands. choices choices choices to leave or to remain trapped in a clinton crowd and one of the money men test decision with global caution now it's germany's track must go to

a sure thing east north that much of a different take merkel's refugee policy nobody else has to have a clear stance on any refugee name which is that i will not accept it. and he is sure to mention those people bring also is more valuable than money that's what europe and leaves in the same story with europe they want more and more you wrong war union and russia and germany that we'll bury it will open old europeans who believe trans national democracy is the best model or else to stand up and break the silence shoots a former president of the european parliament. the leader of europe's powerhouse as i think it here we europeans have our things in our own hands i'll continue to maintain that the twenty seven member states must work intensively together for our future. the two even share

a dislike of if not hatred for the man in charge the cross the ocean. currents and the topic there are lots of concerns about the russians of the north korean dictator we need the united states of america as a peaceful holocaust but we have to bring them on the path of rationality and that means diplomatic solutions. that are troubling that we have with trump is that he is unpredictable in that sense who should we tool to not even a pre-election debate can get the two to clash spock's to fly what was supposed to be a jewel. looked more like a duet delicateness over. america . different from the. much more german we've put it the biggest difference between

killing who used to be or i guess the. ok i could talk about how i bring you live coverage of the german federal elections throughout the day but let's instead bring you live coverage now of people actually voting let's see some pictures. of the just over for forty five minutes or so for them to do it not too much action at the moment but there will be a light the bad weather has put a few of them off there will be we'll bring you all the updates and analysis throughout the dice they would love to.

put themselves. they did accept the reject. so if you want to present. yourself. to write. this is what. people are. interested is it.

ok let's get a check on more of today's main the world news no on the north korean foreign minister to say he's a missile strike on the u.s. mainland is in never to bill he was addressing the u.n. on a day that saw american bombers flying just off the east coast of the asian nation president trump fired back on twitter saying the foreign minister the country's leader will be iran much longer if they continue their rhetoric similar account reports from washington the crisis has escalated today even more after the u.s. flexed its military might according to the pentagon the u.s. sent b. one b. bombers from guam as well as f. fifteen fighter jets from okinawa japan on a mission in international airspace off the eastern coast of north korea. this is

the farthest north of the demilitarized zone that any u.s. fighter or bomber has flown and this century the pentagon says that this mission sends a clear message to the d.p. r. k. that the u.s. has many military options to defeat any threat this all comes amid heated dialogue between the two leaders both issuing installed on time sounding identical we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. no one other than trump himself is on a suicide mission if innocent american laws are because of a suicidal let's jump will be held inside responsible yes it looks like the north korean leader was particularly affected by trump's comments because the foreign minister responded saying that trumps actions were an irreversible mistake you

can't have med men out there shooting rockets all over the place with rocket man should have been handled a long time ago. you tried to insult the supreme dignity of my country by phone as a rocket but by doing so he committed the irreversible mistake of making a visit by rockets to the us mainland all the more an effort to pull russian foreign minister urged the us and north korea to end its saber rattling and engage in political dialogue accusing both leaders of behaving like a kindergarten children china and russia will continue to insist on a more reasonable approach in contrast to the emotional one we see now where they behave like children fighting each other in kindergarten and nobody can stop them with the tensions escalating and between both countries the situation remains quite unstable at the moment so it's unclear where this is all headed. living on this

time next week the spanish region of catalonia could be voting in a referendum on breaking away from spain suffered a sore rival cried face-off and the regional capital barsel. thank god we were was was and motions clearly running high there on whedon's the spanish authorities arrested fourteen senior counsel officials including a junior economy minister they were all charged with a misappropriation of phones breach of official juicing and disobedience are also being fined up to twelve thousand the euro for every day they continue organizing

the referendum protesters say they are determined to vote and will tolerate the authorities struck down a castle on leader say as madrid's actions are not of the question was are going to look at them when you're the catalonian government has been subjected to coordinated aggression from the police force of the spanish interior ministry yes but god god god god and we are here to defend our. future state as to the. very important part of our society the youngest so we need to make them conscious of what's governing here we're really going to put these to take this forward and to go all the way to independence you know my what spain is government spending. to police who will try to do i games that will be on the streets and we'll try to vote. well let's just run through the range of measures

madrid has used in an attempt to stop the referendum from taking place it declared the upcoming vote illegal conducted numerous raids to seize pro referendum material currently more than seven hundred members are under investigation over their support for the vote and the trades also announced plans to take control of catalonia as budget in order to ensure the money will be spent on the referendum here's how the events have unfolded since the first non-binding vote on independence took place in twenty forty angela was.

little. news not from afghanistan five civilians have been injured in an attack on a nato convoy there is coming to us from local media the us military say's there are no foreign troops among the casualties and that it will not change ongoing operations the attack comes less than a week after the u.s. defense secretary announced that three thousand more troops are to be sent to afghanistan that will bring the total number of american soldiers stationed in the country to fourteen thousand during a meeting with the afghan president donald trump praised the work of their soldiers . but working very hard our military is as you know. over there right now and doing really an incredible job more of leadership than fighting we're leading a lot of wonderful afghan troops who are fighting very hard you just discussing

that and a great progress is being made well this is the third attack this month in the country on the anniversary of the nine eleven attacks in the u.s. a suicide bomber blew himself up near an american convoy injuring five soldiers five days before the attack or targeted the by grammar a base on the outskirts of kabul the taliban claim responsibility for an afghan base political analysts we spoke to say that the taliban is all on the rise in the u.s. needs to change its strategy paula bones are getting more powerful the government is good on. the promise of the united states with three thousand additional forces that you know sending for training the afghan army i think it's proving to be of no use it's a provoking more tall of one force the. movements and attacks because the.

americans are not leaving the all the infidels are leaving afghanistan brother building strengthening their forces in afghanistan for. increasing the attacks on its own national forces the u.s. and nato has to change their strategy to was afghanistan. and instead of increasing their forces in afghanistan increase. their afghan. afghan ministry of defense but more helicopters more fighter jets and equipments for full fighting and warm. the weekly for no returns again and huff an hour for more world stories and indeed our special coverage of the german election taking place fly from berlin we've got a studio right there see you in around thirty. this

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was survival guide ecstacy just like all the stored simply. be sure you know there you go to the back. repatriation scheme look at the rest of seventy years. bill of the separate kaiser report. prescribe medication is widespread on the u.s. market and a frequent cause of death at that point in my life i just felt like everything was ashes. my family was literally coming unglued i had planned. to commit some site water or who has made antidepressants so commonly used we were doing what the doctors told us to do we were being responsible and what the real side effects. was is that what i did was done on

a cocktail of legal drugs. just because something's legal doesn't mean it's safe. to.