hash tag germany decides the german election september twenty fourth starting at fifteen hundred u.t.c. right here on the tell me. this is d w news live from berlin germany prepares for an election that could change the country's political landscape with chancellor angela merkel holding a clear lead in polls ahead of sunday's vote the big question is which of germany's smaller parties will finish third we have coverage of the final day of campaigning

also coming up in our broadcast is who they're both you know the in this is their work not only my parents work but also my grandparents thank god we're at least alive yourself in the gezi three days after mexico's massive earthquake remote communities are still waiting for help to visit one village that's digging itself out of the rubble. all right. hello and welcome i'm at herman it is good to have you with us german chancellor angela merkel and her challenger. are out on their final day of campaigning before germans go to the polls on sunday and america looks poised to enter a fourth term in office. it was on a walkabout she was meeting voters in her own constituency of kind of stalled in northeastern germany looks like folks were happy to meet or take

a few self it's. over more i am now joined by our political correspondents hans cons here in the studio and joining us remotely in a moment will be rebecca who is martin schulz is a final campaign rally in western germany and there she is hans let's start with you the latest polls continue to give merkel c.d.u. a double digit lead a commanding lead is this trust in merkel or in the cd there are a lot of loyalty to you who would simply vote for their party even though their number has been reduced in recent years but it is also a fact that i'm going to as a person is respected by voters from across almost across the entire political spectrum certainly they are voters in the social democratic field that supporter and even people from green party the environmentalist party. feel that

market is doing a good job and may well give the if they have. the right rebecca let me turn things over to you for a moment you know martin schultz it looked like he might be gaining the trust of german voters several months ago that has evaporated he's slated to lose and lose badly what went wrong for him and the s.p.d. . well i'm going to try you again because i thought seems like the line didn't work for us there much in schultz it looks like he is going to lose and lose this election badly. what has gone wrong for him and the social democrats. well it appears we are not coming through in and i'm going to continue with hans over here. what is it about the german political scene and uncle america's place in

it that makes it so hard for anyone else to challenge it's always difficult to challenge someone who's been in power for a long time the challenge always is a bit of a disadvantage for an anglo-american of case she has been governing this country for twelve years now and she's very well established she's quite well respected as we sit across the political spectrum and i think there is this element of stability of continuity that is playing an important role at the moment one has the sense that all over the world things are less stable than they used to be we're talking now about north korea about also about the situation for instance with crimea the relations to russia the united states president not being quite the kind of person that one used to have. under these circumstances i think there are many voters who say let's stick with what we've got what we know what's reliable and that sense of continuity is something that plays into america's hands well at the same time that

voters are sticking with merkel some of them are abandoning other parties such as the s.p.d. or the greens perhaps i mean i don't want to say that this is just voters moving from those blocks into the f.d.a. i think it's a bit more complicated than that but what is what is the source of this growing popularity for the f.t. the f.t. they may well come in third place in this election yes indeed i think that's really the most interesting question about this election at this time you could say that the alternative for germany the right wing populist simply that is the kind of normalization of the situation in germany because if you look around germany at all other countries in this region they all have right wing populist projects that are quite strong in some countries such as poland and hungary they're even in government into. money that has not been the case because there has been a very strong to do against right wing politics after germany's nazi history and i think this to boo has now dropped as

a result there are people that are actually going into this party or voting for this party out of protest against the establishment against the established parties and that is definitely going to change has already changed german politics german political dialogue it's become a lot more was for us a lot more role and there is some dollars about how strong democratic democratic institutions are going to be because the right wing populist have said that they are participating in elections but they don't seem to particularly support parliamentary process all right i understand that our interview guest to broadcasting from the s.p.d. is with us at this point rebecca i suppose you can hear me now let's talk a little bit about this issue has it relates to the f.a.q. about that excellent i'm sure it wasn't your problem. when you go ahead i mean it seems to me that schultz the sort of wearing down of an establishment party like the s.p.d.

some of that benefit has gone to the far right what could could schultz have done more to challenge merkel and take some of those voters away from the protest vote of the f a s d. i think that was one on the one of the biggest challenges actually that the s.p.d. has faced is that a lot of people haven't been able out of the voters here haven't been able to differentiate really between the c.d.u. and the ass p.d. and the. american c.s.u. coalition the grand coalition and the bundestag and a lot of people are saying that that was a really big problem and why why they're so on the fence and they said that in the past four years there hasn't been a lot of change change is one of the main words that i've been hearing that things have not been changing and that people are looking for a change and so people are turning away from a stablish many parties like the s.p.d. like the c.d.u. and there are they're looking for alternatives including going towards the

alternative for germany the a.f.d. all right because john meyer and of course want to be with us in the studio thanks for the talk. right we can move on now to some other news iran claims it has successfully tested a new medium range missile it's not clear exactly when that launch took place but the announcement came just days after u.s. president donald trump sharply criticized iran's government and threatened to demand changes to the international agreement on iran's nuclear program. iran claims its latest medium range ballistic missile can carry several warheads as far as two thousand kilometers state t.v. showed footage of the launch from an unspecified location within iran. a day earlier the new missile was the star attraction at a military parade in the capital tehran a defiant president rouhani insists iran does not need permission to develop its

missile program. the market whether the western powers want it or not iran will defend the world's innocence we will increase our defense power in any form we deem necessary as well as upgrading the missile systems we will also strengthen naval ground and air forces. u.s. president donald trump has already threatened to pull out of the existing u.n. agreement limiting iran's nuclear program but earlier this week at the u.n. trump delivered a scathing criticism of iran. the arraign government masks a corrupt dictatorship behind the false guise of a democracy it has turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence bloodshed and chaos.

tiran says it's rockets and not designed to carry nuclear weapons but the challenge is there trump will announce next month whether the u.s. is pulling out of the iran nuclear deal. well after hurricane maria ravaged to rico earlier this week the island is now facing a possible new disaster officials have urged the evacuation of up to seventy thousand people in the country's west after experts warned that a dam could collapse a drainpipe in the nearly one hundred year old wow talk a dam had already failed and led to flash flooding downstream heavy rain brought on by hurricane maria filled the lake behind a dam with two wants water. in mexico meanwhile the death toll from tuesday's massive massive earthquake has now reached two hundred ninety five and hopes are fading that any more people will be found alive international media has largely focused on mexico city where most of the fatalities occurred but hundreds of

communities south of the capital also suffered heavy damage and if yet to get help from the government. reports. this is. a small village about one hundred kilometers southeast from mexico city the church here had to close its doors after the earthquake most houses are built with breaks made of matter and known as a job this made them specially vulnerable. knots of houses made of adobe have collapsed apparently were exactly on the earthquake fault line most houses here owned and made of adobe. let e.c.s. house was also completely destroyed she knows it will have to be torn down except to do that this is a huge loss for us emotionally too but now are even more united more than ever. her neighbor got him out the eunice is still trying to salvage things of value from

the rubble. used to just have a roof may have these big dried leaves we brought down from the mountains. so when they finally got a tiled roof that was a huge improvement for our parents. and. the devastated house is much more than a loss for him. this is their work not only my parents' work but also my grandparents thank god we're at least alive. his daughter sania was born and grew up in this house. i was born here i lived in my childhood i have beautiful memories. now she'll have to help her father rebuild it government help has barely arrived in the perry ferry of mexico city the main help here comes from civilians. among those arriving to help our students and teaching staff from

universities and schools in other towns and cities look at it danielle is going to we didn't want to stand around doing nothing we were planning to go to mexico city but then we noticed the villages in the countryside were much more in need of our help so here we are. this village has never witnessed such destruction the people here were lucky they have been spared that they suffered in mexican capital. and here everyone hopes to have a home again. very soon or a two one just like a football and a shocker in munich last night by in munich were hosting a lowly evolved organ all seem to be on schedule after all your robins shot was deflected into the net to make it to nil for goalkeeping which you'll see right here brought both sport back. that mistake plus a beautiful header by danielle davi in the eighty second minute a stunning two two draw for the wolves and second at second place. or it's on in

march the big day in berlin not only for voting but for the berlin marathon where the two top tier runners the world strongly believe that a world record could be broken tens of thousands were running the forty two point two kilometer course. neuer was. is the man in charge he always has been these are members of the barely enough starter a running group in suburban going about. that's where the press berlin marathon took place away from west berlin city center the event wasn't taken seriously in those days. young twenty six enough to tarnish you hundred eighty six runners took part in one nine hundred seventy four it was a sensation back then because usually only for the or sixty would run in marathons . from two hundred eighty six back then to forty four thousand on sunday and an elite few will be aiming again for a world record. i'm looking for

a full four for the most of the police population people who love sport second this most of course still under four cause. there's a high possibility that we are really going to have a lot of. because if you try to get the kind of approach everybody wants that it's not even about getting open and it's just a running away from yeah or as for that amateur runners they've been training for perhaps yes but simply crossing the finish line for many would serve as one of the sporting.