negotiations here in berlin our political correspondent thomas sparrow on the story for us tonight thomas thank you very much. well still ahead on the day rocco after isis in the syrian city the memories of atrocities are as fresh as the views of ruins are watching how do you begin to rebuild society and the state which state alaska woman who's committed to doing just that and she is armed with lots of hope . every five years in china the communist party congress takes place in china's great political show that speaks to all the people with the voice of one and only one party or today's chinese president xi jinping continued that tradition but he also offered words unusually critical of the nation's future she also pledged to open the country's economy even further and he said he will pursue a policy of zero tolerance when it comes to corruption.

sparrow thomas this is the first time in post-war germany we're seeing a right wing party of this size this seriousness in parliament walkaway expect. well brian we're standing here at the german parliament not far away from the members of parliament meeting and that is indeed a question that many people here have asked what can we expect when it comes to to this group the a.f.d. in parliament and how the other parties also will react to their presence here the traditional parties if you will are facing a very big dilemma and that is well on the one hand they can't ignore the a f t after all they got twelve point six percent of the vote in the german election there's a third biggest force here in the german parliament on the other hand they also can't react to every single provocation by the way if these are trying to for to find that middle point will be the big challenge for the parties here there's obviously there's been a lot of comment here about the possibility that debates will be shifted to the right of the political spectrum and that's obviously something that some of the trad

sparrow for us this morning thanks very much for those insights thomas. at least twelve people are dead many more are missing after a boat carrying river refugees capsized near the coast of bangladesh the victims were fleeing the ongoing government crackdown in myanmar hundreds of thousands have managed to make it to bangladesh but authorities there are struggling to cope with the sheer scale of the crisis. from above the scale of the roof hinge a refugee crisis is jolting. thousands of makeshift tents and shacks lined the camp in bangladesh more than half a million range of fleeing violence in myanmar have set up camp here. on the ground the situation is desperate long queues for food have become commonplace even with aid agencies handing out provisions some of the routine just say they're living on one meal a day. local volunteer groups are helping to meet the growing demand. and we as a group are very happy that coming from a small place we could collect and give out food to these hungry people if they stay here for a longer time we will send another t

and that is a view that has also been echoed by the frame democrats let's bring in now thomas sparrow who you can see is out on the streets of berlin he has been following these talks for us and he joins us now for his as always expert analysis thomas so we hear that both the free democrats and merkel's conservatives appear to be happy with the results of their first meeting does that mean that they've made some real progress here. not necessarily in fact obviously they did say that the talks had been constructive that they had been able to discuss a series of issues that both parties are interested in but that does not necessarily mean that they made real progress in fact the goal of this first meeting which took place right behind me here was to try and set the ground for negotiations that everyone involved already knows will take a long time in fact one of the participants in that first meeting said that if the distance between germany and jamaica is around eight thousand kilometers jamaica referring to the colors of the jamaican flag which also represent the colors of the parties

and for more on this let's bring in our political correspondent thomas sparrow who is standing by in our parliamentary studio hello to you thomas i want to begin first with those clear calls from within angela merkel's conservative bloc for a move to the right however it seems as if the chancellor is not in favor of turning well and that's because of the debates in the conservative bloc in the c.d.u. c.s.u. because one of the main elements of. success in the past few years has been that shift of party to the center of the political spectrum the essential political spectrum where she has been able to take away some of the key debates of other parties for example at the same time however it is important to stress that in the recent federal elections the conservative bloc lost nearly a million votes to the far right alternative for germany so there's a clear need a clear debate within the c.d.u. c.s.u. to try and find ways in which they could probably get some of those votes back so that's a debate that you have in the conservative bloc on the one hand how to keep that profile being in

you have a political correspondent thomas sparrow is monitoring those discussions in berlin and joins us now so thomas how much pressure is angela merkel under to make this unusual coalition work. she's under a lot of pressure sorrow there's no doubt about that we just have to think about the challenge that she has because she has to bring together four parties that afford against each other in the recent election and there are diametrically opposed you know wide range of areas there are twelve issues that they're discussing right here behind me issues ranging from taxes to family policy to energy policy to foreign policy to policies on europe i mean basically you name it and they will be discussing it right here behind me on many of these issues these parties could not be more different you have the conservative bloc in particular anglo-american sister party from bavaria the c.s.u. on the right you have the environmentalists greens you have the pro-business f a d.p. they're all obviously interested in defending their own ideas but in some point they will obviously have to to compromi

well earlier i spoke with a political correspondent thomas sparrow and asked him if it was a positive sign that the talks ended earlier than expected. well sorry if there's something clear about this first big round of talks among all four parties involved is that now the differences are on the table that's something that we heard from some of the participants are the meeting although they did signal that in some areas they had been able to find some common ground for example development aid. the conversation there what they said afterwards was all about the clear differences that there are there's still a long way to go the differences became evident during the talks that there are topics where they won't be able to find agreement easily so i think after a very long day where they met for many hours today the parties just simply realized how big of a challenge this will be given those massive rifts that we are seeing thomas why are these talks such a challenge for angela merkel because i mean germany is traditionally governed by a coalition well but just imagine this. has to put toge

sparrow from our d.w. politics department and michele a cover who is standing by for us in hanover michelle let's start with you what kind of government are we likely to see here in lower saxony. well that depends on how those results turn out in the end you just mentioned the social democrats who triumph tonight there's no other way of putting it after being so defeated in the general elections now if they indeed manage to get that one c. that seems to be shaky to form that majority and get a credible majority in lower saxony as parliament then it could be a rest so called red green coalition of social democrats and the green party but that really depends now on how that final count looks like and that's really what everybody's waiting here with bated breath whether this political marriage of love could take place once again here in lower saxony all that or whether it would be time to forge a political alliance not even of convenience but of the city all right so that's what's going on in lower saxony but

sparrow here in berlin thanks to both of you very much. on is to kenya now where an election rerun is underway and that's very high tensions and calls by the opposition leader to boycott the entire process some polling stations in opposition areas have not even opened as a result in nairobi police have been firing tear gas and clashes with supporters of opposition leader raul loading i think it says today's vote is a quarter sham voting proceeded in areas where president hu kenyatta has support but fewer voters were turning out in comparison to the election in august the kenyan supreme court fired that election because of irregularities and illegalities in the process. and catherine oman the joins us now from a polling station in the kenyan capital nairobi i'm just hearing that that we can get that uplink in right now it looks like we have or in fact we have the sound as well and catherine hear us. know ok we can't get that up right now we'll try and just a bit to get it back we're going to go to some other stories making the news at this

for the very latest on the story let's cross over now to our political correspondent thomas sparrow thomas chancellor machall has said time and time again that she's against any limit two hundred thousand has been the magical number there is she now backing down. brian in a way she is backing down in particular after this agreement that was reached yesterday it's seen as a concession to the sister party the c. as you head of the very difficult coalition talks but very important for. two it's one if you look at the wording of the agreement it clearly state that it's a it's a goal that they want to reach and second it is a goal that they want to reach that is absolutely not set in stone in other words depending on the national all the international context that limits could be moved up or down and also for going to merkel something very important is the agreement does not include the german word or back then that's the upper limit for the number of refugees and this is the word that has obviously determined the whole debate and the whole confrontation between the c.s.u. and the c.d.u. in the

sparrow for us this morning thanks very much for those insights thomas. now for some of the other stories making the news the international committee of the red cross is set to drastically reduce its operations in afghanistan the aid group said it was forced to take the decision after attacks that killed seven of its staff members this year. u.s. vice president mike pence has walked out of an american football game after some players know during the national anthem the players were staging a silent protest against racial injustice part of a movement that began a year ago then said he would not dignify any event that disrespects the u.s. national anthem flag or the country soldiers. the oscar winning hollywood movie producer harvey weinstein has been fired from his production company following allegations of sexual harassment the producer of movies like shakespeare and love in the king's speech is accused of sexually harassing female poison actresses including actually judd over a number of years. as to turkey now where a group of human rights activists co

sparrow and thomas this is the first time in in post-war history that we're seeing a far right party of this size in the parliament what can we expect is it going to get acrimonious. yeah i think so brian it it does seem that that will be the case will have a divided parliament and we will have many of the debates shifted to the right that's something that most analysts agree on it's interesting to see how the f.t. will present its proposals how it will perform in the german parliament but it will also be interesting to see how the other parties react to those proposals they have a big dilemma because on the one hand they can't simply ignore what the f.t. says after all that the third biggest party in parliament under twelve point six percent of the german electorate voted for the a.v. so other parties can just simply ignore them on the other hand they can't react to every single provocation because that could boost the profile of the a if they aren't precisely shift these debates to the right and that's something that most of the other parties want to avoid so when we look at what t

sparrow in berlin i began by asking what evidence there is against. well very little in fact and that's been one of the major criticism of this case that the prosecutor's evidence that they have published appears to. many observers describe as absurd they say that most of the evidence is publications made by amnesty international prosecutors. that this whole case centers on these human rights activists seeking to create a civil uprising against the turkish president. and they say that that was very similar to what conspirators had done in the past to the islamic clerics. evidence . that does appear to be very little other than criticizing publications that criticize the president evidence that. there is to be absolutely none other than that he was attending this meeting maybe even a tweet which said turn off your mobile phone and enjoy the boat ride to the island where the meeting was being held that they say the prosecutors in the case of conspiracy so a lot of criticism that these charges and even more that there appears to be very little evidence t

i'm joined here in the studio by thomas sparrow from our politics department and i've also got michelle a cook in our reporting for us live from hanover we'll be speaking to her in just a minute. thomas let's start with you tell us about lower saxony what kind of place is it why does this vote matter so much lower saxony is one of germany's biggest states and in fact the election was not supposed to happen right now just off the federal election but one m p one local m.p. changed her allegiance from the green party to the c.d.u. and that meant that the governing coalition in lower saxony lost its parliamentary majority and that meant that they have to have this election right now and as you said this could obviously set the tone and the mood for the debate here in berlin after and thomas i understand that we do now have the first results and it is some bad news for america and her christian democrats these are exit polls we're going to share the now with you the city you party is coming in second with thirty five percent of the vote based on our exit polling data the social democrats or

and for more on a poll in our political correspondent thomas sparrow he is following the talks forest good evening to you thomas so after this first day can we talk about any type of progress being made. i think there was initial progress brant this was the first time that these parties formally met after the election and they were actually just trying to find out where their priorities lie what i've of policies what type of red lines if any they have but it is clear that they have still a long long way to go before they can find some common ground one of the participants said after the talks that they all knew what they were looking for but they didn't know what they would find in the end so this just gives you an idea of what type of problems here we're looking at anglo american who is leading these talks has the huge task of trying to make friends trying to make allies out of political parties that in many cases are diametrically opposed and obviously this is a process brant that will take a very long time. what we said at the beginning of the sure you know you've got probably titi

or for more on this i'm joined here in the studio by thomas sparrow from w.'s parliamentary studios thomas welcome we also have reporter michelle a cook dinner and had over standing by to bring us the latest michelle a good start there how is the reaction to this blow for miracles conservative c.d.u. . well the most interesting one is from the cd use condoms him mr else who's money who basically said that with way more than thirty percent almost thirty five percent the c.d.u. sees itself also carrying responsibility in whatever role that might be so that signals that the c.d.u. here might be open for a so-called grand coalition that's the one that was just voted down so severely in the general elections in germany and these are some excellent since give the social democrats used often. in the general elections but they make the rubik's cube of german coalition building that much more complicated to see the rubik's cube of german coalition building thomas i know you want to jump on this because policy nerds like yourself have been watching the stocks in these l

sparrow who is standing by in our parliamentary studios in berlin hi thomas german chancellor angela merkel has said time and time again that she is against a cap we seem to hear her reiterate if there is this deal with the c.s.u. is this being seen as a cap and is she therefore backing down. well it is probably being seen as a cop by members of the c.s.u. but certainly not by angela merkel in fact if you look at the agreement there is no mention of the word or by currency that's a german word for limits which has in fact described the whole problem between the sea the you and the sea as you in recent months and years and that's i mean that was very important for you could also say that it was very important for horses a hole for the head of the c s u to have that number the two hundred thousand that you mentioned there so from that perspective you can say that they managed to find common ground but it's more of a sort of parameter that they're looking at it's not a fixed limit and as you mentioned as well it's something that could go that could be changed if necessary if the conditi

political correspondent to thomas sparrow who's monitoring those discussions so welcome thomas germany is traditionally governed by coalition so while these talks are posing such problems for i'm going to merkel. well because you have parties from very different parts of the political spectrum everything ranging from a cause sister party the c.s.u. on the right of the political spectrum to the green on the left of the political spectrum on the business friendly f.t.p. failed this is a huge challenge for i'm going to her cause she has to somehow make allies out of parties that are normally diametrically opposed on a wide range of issues and that wide range of issues is precisely what they're trying to discuss here right behind me they have twelve issues on the agenda everything from taxes to education to family policy you name it basically every important topic in germany is one where the four parties involved here are discussing and one where they have to find some sort of compromise for that possible future coalition a particularly contentious issue is dealing with the million plus re

sparrow from the politics desk and our correspondent michelle cool down is also standing by for us in hanover. let's start with you what sort of government could be formed at this point. well what the social democrats who are the clear winners here certainly hope hoping for is that the final numbers and we might not learn that until well into monday might after all produce a continuation option for the social democrats and the green party who are currently just one seat short now failing that it would get incredibly complicated with the free democrats opposed business few democrats already ruling out going into coalition with the greens and the social democrats basically gets complicated almost as complicated as it currently is in berlin where of course this signal is being heard very clearly that the christian democrats who did win in the end in those general elections despite suffering losses had a far way down here in the opinion polls where they were leading until just a couple weeks ago to then be beaten by the social democrats who now of course are getting this late boost after

there's not cross over to our political correspondent thomas sparrow journalist a can you tell us more about this movement well this case that we're talking about now i'm ready to shed light on this movement that for some time had been mostly known to insiders to authorities here in germany they are loosely organized rather fragmented but they do share the belief that there's a conspiracy theory they believe in the conspiracy theory that says that the federal republic of germany are such does not legally exist because germany did not sign a peace treaty with the allies after world war two and are such they don't recognize the state apparatus and many of the state institutions if we talk about numbers there they also are very there but authorities have said that there are around fifteen thousand people attached in some way or another to this movement they've identified nine hundred of them as right wing extremists and they say that about a thousand of them can legally process arms so how did you receive is this your group for germany. well members of the opposition i've criticized the u

sparrow thomas this is the first time in a modern german history that we're seeing a far right party at this level in the german parliament what can we expect. well we can expect initially many of the debates to be shifted to the right but we can also see that for some of the other parties in the german parliament the appearance of the a.f.d. the arrival of the poses a very big dilemma and that dilemma is how to react to them they can't simply ignore the provocations after all brian as you yourself said they're the third biggest party in parliament and they were voted for by twelve point six percent of the electorate on the other hand they contract to every provocation they hear from the f.t. because that could boost the profile of the f.t. and that would certainly move the debate even more to the right when we look at what they really would like to do the other parties so obviously there's a big dilemma for the traditional parties here in the bornless stock and that's one of the very interesting aspects that we will see in the next few years what the f.t. will do and how the other p

i did earlier political correspondent thomas sparrow is monitoring those discussions in bouton welcome thomas explain to us what's going on here because it is usual for germany to be governed by a coalition so why all of these discussions so difficult. well because a type of the correlation that we would be we would see here is something that germany has not seen at a federal level and the parties here represent very different segments of the political spectrum where the environmentalists greens or the pro-business f.t.p. or angela merkel's conservative bloc including the sister party the c.s.u. on the right of the political spectrum and all these different parties have to come to the same table have to discuss the issues that they believe are important and more importantly they have to try and find some sort of common ground there are twelve issues on the agenda not only for today but also for the next few weeks because something is going to take a long time fail and those topics range from family matters to taxes to europe to foreign policy to security i mean you name the topic and i

sparrow and i asked him whether the greens and the three democrats found any common ground today but i think the idea sorry to be honest was to try and see where there was a possibility of finding common ground this is only the first meeting between these two parties and as we saw in our report the key word i would say is minimum level of trust that's precisely what they were trying to find today it was not about finding a compromise on those very tricky issues that we saw in our report are something that will come in the process in the next few weeks and months for now it was a first meeting trying to set the framework for what will come next and what will come next are very difficult negotiations not only between the two parties that held talks today but between all parties involved in this possible coalition so what sort of timetable are we likely looking at here thomas. well the first big event if you will will be tomorrow there will be more than fifty politicians of all parties involved talking right behind where we're standing of all parties trying to find what i mentioned just

sparrow who is at the bundestag and has been listening to the address made by both gun show let me start with you thomas now i've heard trouble in many forms and many locations but never in his incarnation as a president of the bundestag he sounded positively statesman like to me what did you make of his speech. i agree with you on ridge i think it was a very powerful speech as well he specifically mentioned the new aspect of this german parliament and how those new aspects also reflect reflect changes in society as a whole and one aspect that i found particularly important about his speech was when he said that it's important to debate and discuss even when there are different opinions or in fact different opinions should be promoted but there's also important to try and find a compromise and do so also by respecting certain rules and that was something that i found particularly important because it is obviously a message to the new members of the of the german parliament namely the a.f.d. it has been said on many occasions that they plan to shift the debate to the right and that's some

sarah: we will bring in political correspondent thomas sparrow who has been monitoring the discussions. the first full round of talks has just ended, earlier than expected, is that a positive sign? thomas: if there is something clear about the first round of talks among all four parties is that now the differences are on the table. it is something we heard from other participants after the meeting, although they did signal in some areas they had been able to find some common ground, for example, development aid. the conversation, whether they said afterwards was all about the clear differences that there are and there is still a long way to go. the differences became evident during the talks, that there are topics they will not be able to find agreement easily. but after a long day, today the parties simply realized how big of a challenge it will be. sarah: given the massive riffs we are seeing, why are these talks such a challenge for angela merkel? germany is traditionally governed by coalition. thomas: imagine this, angela merkel have to put together a coalition of parties that are

very much for your reporting thomas. well meantime as the chance as party looks for common ground after the election its poor showing in one region has already claimed one casualty one of the cd use key figures says that he is stepping down saxony state premier stanislav tillis says that his state needs new leadership to meet future challenges this after the far right date pushed his party into second place and stayed in last month's general election it was a major embarrassment for the sitting here as saxony had long been a party stronghold. well have a look now at some other stories making news around the world police have conducted dozens of raids across germany to gather evidence against the hell's angels biker gang they seized items including motorcycles and computers the gang has been active in germany since the early one nine hundred seventy s. some members have been implicated in crimes including selling weapons extortion and murder. the head of kenya's election commission has said that it will be difficult to gu

sparrow who is standing by with the late very latest from our parliamentary studio so you know as we just saw there thomas chancellor angela merkel saying time and time again that she is against this cap that is what she has done in the past. is she backing down now how is this being seen here in germany. well it's more of a goal or a reference point if you will there is obviously that number of two hundred thousand which will certainly please the c.s.u. the bavarian sister party random or calls c.d.u. but there's no mention in that agreement of the word or back then so that's the sort of term in german referring to the cap on refugees that has been the. reason why the c.d.u. on this year's you have had problems in the last few months and years and that's not even mentioned there so that's something that will obviously please i'm going to go so you can probably say that both horse a hole for the leader of the c.s.u. and anger merkel managed to get what they wanted some sort of goal of guideline in that number but at the same time no reference. limits that is set in stone as you yours

sparrow thank you. spain's prime minister used today's summit in brussels to inform e.u. leaders that his government has reached a critical point in its efforts to hold catalonia as bid for independence that it was seeking emergency powers such as taking control of the region's health care and policing meanwhile catherine president carter's push tomorrow warned that any such move could result in a unilateral declaration of independence. i spoke of that point about to catalonia with benefits from the business desk not sit by them thank you very much it's german i think. not from catalonia ok. catalan leaders say if the banks can shift their headquarters out of the region they can simply withdraw their savings independent supporters have been storming some a.t.m. in quite an unusual protest in other cases the response to the rallying cry has been lackluster. withdrawing money has become a form of protest in catalonia separatists are determined to show their discontent with banks like unsober dell which ha

sparrow thank you. now to some of the other stories making news around the world the czechs have begun voting in a two day parliamentary election that is expected to hand power to a populist billionaire frontrunner andre babbage has pledged to stamp out corruption boost investment and keep out refugees but he's on or movement is likely to need coalition partners to form a new government. iraqi forces have retaken control of the last kurdish held area of kirkuk province this after baghdad rejected a referendum on kurdish independence losing the region in northern iraq has half the oil production in kurdish controlled in the carriage controlled territory making independence even less likely. new drone footage from graco has revealed the devastation caused by weeks of fighting between u.s. backed forces and militants from the islamic state group entire neighborhoods have been leveled with little sign of civilian life u.s. backed forces of officially declared victory liberation from liberation from i was fo

sparrow here in berlin thanks to both of you very much. it's to kenya now where an election rerun is underway in this high tensions and calls by the opposition leader to boycott the entire process some polling stations in opposition eerie areas have not opened as a result and the opposition leader raila dingoes says today's vote is a sham voting proceeded in areas where president hu can jada has support but fewer voters were turning out in comparison to the election in august the kenyan supreme court nala five that election because of illegalities and what it called irregularities in the process. ok let's bring in our correspondent now catherine wander she joins us from a polling station in the kenyan capital nairobi catherine we have polling stations open for a number of hours now can you fill us in on the latest. well we're seeing a lot of a lot more people trickling into the particular polling station that i'm at in fact if i could just paint a picture this polling station is about a ten minute walk from cuber which is the informal sett

and for more let's cross over to our political correspondent thomas sparrow who is standing by for us outside of the building where those talks took place today thomas welcome to you the first talks have on this potential coalition partnership fair to say that they made progress today. they made initial progress thus that way i would summarize the talks and i would say initial progress because they met they started discussing what possible topics they are interested in what proposals they have and also how the actual negotiations will take place in other words and what sort of format and what working groups there will be here and there but i wouldn't say that they have made substantial progress on the something that you could also read between the lines when some of the members of the participants came out and spoke to the press this often and this evening and to that something that's particularly clear one of the participants for example said that they all knew what they were looking for but they still didn't know what they would find out at the end another one for example said that'

sparrow our political correspondent he's at the german bundestag where parliamentarians are voting for the next speaker of the house and on as the president of the bundestag was. to moscow i wonder if you can hear me it is quite a lot loud and noisy there tell us first how is the parliamentary president chosen in the bundestag. some raters you can probably see it's incredibly chaotic here in this particular case obviously everyone is expecting the election of the next president of the german parliament obviously it's expected that this will be involved scheuer and one of the reasons why. was at least announced as a possible president as a candidate for this post is obviously a because of his experience he has been in the german parliament for decades and is the. politician with an extreme amount of experience as well in this in this regard and it also has to do with obviously the presence of the alternative for germany in the german parliament for the very first time traditional parties in particular obviously the conservative bloc wanted to to nominate a candidate that could be obviou

sparrow from our just outside the parliamentary society office where these talks are due to start or have started already but tell me until march that the parties involved differ hugely and. practically they are the opposite ends of the political spectrum on some issues is this supposed to work . well with a lot of work on rita there's no doubt about that in the meeting here just behind me there are more than fifty people involved they've already agreed on five more meetings in the next few weeks they've agreed on twelve topics that they will be focusing on and obviously that will involve a lot of work and above all also compromise these parties as you mention are from different parts of the political spectrum ranging from anglo merkel's sister party the c.s.u. from bavaria on the right of the political spectrum to the green party which is more on the left of the political spectrum they have very different political interests and trying to find common ground in those very different political interests is the main reason why they're meeting here right now and what about the issue of r