CNN news 2015-03-18 加文本

cnn news 2015-03-18

CARL AZUZ, HOST: It`s great to see you this Monday.

I`m Carl Azuz for cnn STUDENT NEWS.

Today`s current events coverage starts in the South Pacific. Vanuatu is an island country there with a population of about 267,000 people. One natural threat to the nation are cyclones. They can strike anywhere from December to April, a devastating category five storm named Cyclone Pam came ashore over the weekend.

It hit populated areas, destroying homes and crops, causing a state of emergency and leaving thousands with nothing and nowhere to go.

At least 90 percent of the homes in Vanuatu`s capital were badly damaged.

Help is coming in from Australia, about 1,000 miles away. New Zealand and other countries are also sending supplies.

Because Vanuatu is a poor nation, where many people live in thatched houses, aide workers say they`re dealing with something worse than a worst case scenario.

From the South Pacific, we`re moving to the Middle East now, where a significant election is taking place. Israel is going to the polls tomorrow. It`s a very close race. Two of the major issues being debated include the nation`s economy and defense. And the U.S. government has taken an interest.

With relations strained between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, some Democrats are working with a group that`s trying to get Netanyahu voted out, while some Republicans are trying to help him stay in.

Israelis aren`t voting directly for their prime minister, though.

OREN LIEBERMANN, cnn CORRESPONDENT: Israeli politics is all about where you sit in this room. This is the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, the legislative branch of the government. And of the 120 seats here below me, the most important seat is right at the center of that U. That`s the prime minister`s seat.

But it`s all the seats around that one that determine who gets to sit there.

Israeli Elections Explained

LIEBERMANN: Here in Israel, voters don`t pick a particular politician. Instead, they vote for a political party. But no one party will win an outright majority. In fact, the most successful part in the upcoming elections may win as few as 25 seats, less than a quarter.

So what happens here is that right after the elections, all of the political parties meet with the president. And they tell the president this is who we want for prime minister, this is who we`d like to work with in the upcoming government.

That person then has a chance to put together a coalition government, to put together a majority of the seats here through political wheeling and dealing and trading political favors for support.

Because of the way this works, winning the most seats doesn`t guarantee that you`re the next prime minister if you can`t make the right deals.

Now, technically, 61 seats is enough here in the Knesset. But most prime ministers want more than that. They want a coalition of 65 or 66 seats, just so they have a more secure administration.

Oftentimes in Israeli politics, it can come down to one or two of the smaller parties in the upcoming election to decide which way the election goes. Because they can sometimes have that influence, these smaller parties are called the king makers. And they determine who gets to sit in the prime minister`s seat and who doesn`t.