germany decides the german election today and fifteen hundred you see right here on the w. . this is the w. news line from ballet and will it be four times in a row but i'm going to buckle germany and exit your government today and talked about the looks likely to become chancellor another time main challenger martin shields started off riding high in the polls for a look at how his campaign lost its momentum. and what's

a day in the far right party is on course to enter politics for the first time so what would that mean for german politics. and other news north korea ups the ante against the united states feeling young's foreign minister tells the u.n. an attack on america's mainland is now inevitable this after u.s. bombers fly near north korea in an unprecedented show of force. i'm phil gayle welcome to the program. polling stations are now open in german and germans are deciding what i'm going to who will sort of a false miss chancellor but more than sixty one million eligible voters polls give her c.d.u. party a comfortable lead she's likely to head up a new coalition but the far right alternatif and germany politics become a. force to be reckoned with and has the board just for the first time chancellor

merkel's a main challenger social democrat leader martin schultz i cast his vote earlier today and made this appeal to undecided voters. and. i think there are still people who are wondering who to vote for on election day. i hope many will choose to cost their vote for me and for my party. nick connelly has been out amongst the german people he joins us from central berlin welcome so you've been to a polling station this morning how was the turnout. good afternoon phil well it was pretty slow first year i was it's a dank day here on the streets of berlin polls open at eight and there wasn't much activity until the last hour and a half or so but then we saw lots of families turning out it was a residential area of central berlin to the primary school where the polling station was held it's worth remembering that turnout in germany is traditionally high in comparison with other western democracies it's never been below seventy

percent and the polls are expecting more than that this time around undecided voters seem to be the key to today's results. yes that's the million dollar question here not so much for the big two parties the conservatives and social democrats but for the smaller parties at the moment we have four parties in german in representing the german parliament that's the left party in the green party alongside those two big parties that are in coalition together at the moment the question is whether to give the f.t. feel to it for germany germany the right far right party will make it past the five percent hurdle and also the free democrats the liberal liberal economics party if they will also make it back to palm and if those two parties join the existing four parties we're going to see a very different bundestag and potentially some very different coalitions going ahead and what have been the big issues. well there hasn't really

been one standout issue the economy is doing very well the unemployment rate stayed at an all time low so that means that economics which is a bread and butter issue of election campaigns hasn't really been as prominent as we might have expected we've seen a lot of talk on fairness in terms of seeing getting that growth down to lower wage earners pay packets maybe also immigration asylum of the migration crisis of the last few years seen over a million people come into germany in the question of how to integrate those people but at the polling station we were talking to people there was a wide range of issues from climate change to schools funding so there was no real standout issue that and they still actually strictly old school pens and paper no computers. yes exactly bill this is a country that's still very much in love with the fax machine and other analog technologies so there's not much in the way of high tech wizardry going on here it's expected that more than three quarters people will still do the old fashioned

thing and go to their local school community center to vote in person although postal ballots are becoming more and more popular now pose the ballots close at five i think today when do we expect a result so we're not expecting any results released the first exit poll will come about half an hour after those ballots close and then a more conclusive result only at about midnight local time and as far as the conclusive result goes there's lots of horse trading that happens is there so even if we get a result we won't necessarily have a government by the end of today. that's right feel it all depends on how these some stack up and how the arithmetic of the bundestag stacks up who can set up a working coalition with a working majority with whom especially if we do end up seeing six parties in the pollen that means the smaller parties will be smaller than they are now so we might has see coalitions consisting of three parties rather than two specially since the

social democrats seem a little wary of continuing the so-called grand coalition of the two biggest party with the social democrats being the junior coalition partner to angela merkel's conservatives so it's really everything up to play for and a lot of uncertainty as to how this is going to look although it does seem given the polling data that angela merkel will stay chancellor beyond this polling data may come only in central berlin thank you. and of course we'll have full coverage across the day here on the d.w. news with the c.d.c.'s human the social democrats slated to be the to excuse me largest party is right third the race for third place is our latest opinion polls indicate that's likely to go to the far right alternative to germany if reality bears out those predictions and they will be the first far right party to enter germany's parliament for decades their opposition to migrants and islam could all could also shake up the political census. a.f.d. election posters leave little to the imagination new germans will make those

ourselves read this one burkas as this slogan we're into bikini's if there were any doubts about the alternative on offer it's islamophobia and anti immigrant stop islamification vote f.t. reads this post or i suppose a threat posed by islam in migrants has been a key campaign message for the f.t.c. lead candidates. politicked often an open borders the indiscriminate admission of people from other religions and cultures poses a grave threat to my civil liberties to the civil liberties of homosexuals and above all to the civil liberties of our still free society films are not fired as aircraft pilots vital is an economist who lives with a lesbian partner a swiss woman of sri lankan origin together they've adopted two children although i have to policy clearly states that a family needs a mother and a father vital even criticized the german government for introducing same sex

marriage. running mate alexander garland is a founding f.t. member he's drawn condemnation for racist statements about what tank a black soccer player who helped clinch the twenty fourteen world cup for germany people think he's a good footballer down and set last year but they don't want to what tang as a neighbor. the heir stevie hasn't always been a far right populist party and you come into the german political scene it was founded just four years ago back then it was a single issue set up campaigning against the euro and germany's contribution to the e.u. bailout fund for greece it almost got elected to the bundestag in twenty thirteen it ended up just shy of the five percent needed. but the f.t.c. electoral fortunes changed when chancellor merkel declared germany's borders open at the height of the migration crisis the party has transformed itself out an incredible speed into

a right wing extremist party with nationalist elements so in that respect it's a challenge for all democrats for a fellow democrat. wherever merkel went during the campaign she was booed by f.t. hecklers with a party in the bundestag she'd be facing vocal far right opponents from the opposition benches. north korea's foreign minister has said an attack on the us mainland is inevitable just hours after the us flew bombers close to the north's coast both sides of increased tensions this week overcome the angst nuclear program using speeches at the un general assembly to deliver some remarkable verbal blows earlier this week u.s. president donald trump took to the podium and threaten to destroy north korea now it's beyond youngster. for the second time this week the united nations podium was used to ratchet up the rhetoric between the u.s. and north korea young young's top diplomat really young who slammed the u.s.

president as a mentally deranged megalomaniac. president trump himself is the one on a suicide mission. in the case that innocent u.s. lives are lost because of this suicide attack trump will be held totally responsible. just hours earlier u.s. air force b. one b. bombers flew further north along the korean coast than ever before this century the pentagon described the flight in international airspace as a show of resolve and the military options at hand. for north korea all the more reason to pursue its nuclear program at the un foreign minister read defended it as the necessary answer to us aggression. the only response to violence is violence we will oppose the nuclear weapons of terror any with a nuclear weapons of justice. president trump took to twitter in response to

reserve dress writing that really a north korean leader kim jong un whom trump calls little rocket man won't be around much longer trump didn't spell out the substance of this threat. at the u.n. really also had harsh words for china and russia he accused the nuclear powers of offering irresponsible support for the u.s. with their economic sanctions hitting ordinary north koreans hard. these powers only want to defend their monopoly on nuclear weapons. meanwhile up to one hundred thousand people joined an anti american rally in the north korean capital on their banners a pledge to defend their leader with their lives. let's get more from our correspondent jason strother who joins us from the south korean capital seoul welcome jason so we've had north korean missile launches over japan now u.s.

bombers close to north korea this is gone from rhetoric to signs of action how is that tension being perceived there. all right phil well the south korean government is standing behind the u.s. is a fly over. in international waters off north korea's east coast of course south korea and the u.s. . have been allies for many decades ever since the korean war and. while i'm sure the fly over has not gone over well in beijing i believe here in seoul as well as in tokyo it's been welcomed just give us an idea of how big a daily it is as you say in international waters. right phil according to the pentagon this is the first time this century that new u.s. military aircraft fighter jets bombers have flown that north of the d.m.z.

even a broch obama flew stealth bombers here to south korea but they always stayed below the intercranial border but this is something different yesterday we had reports of a minor quake near north korea's nuclear test site. being confirmed as a nuclear explosion or a natural event. it would have pier cording to south korea's meteorological so that these were aftershocks tremors caused by the september third nuclear explosion that did trigger an earthquake now according to the meterological association here there are actually two tremors reported on saturday night there's been no detection of any sort of radioactive gases or under other indicators that this might have been another nuclear test jason strother in seoul thank you thank you phil. thousands of athletes

out on the streets of germany's capital for the marathon the elite runners like nearly forty four thousand competitors and fog a damp conditions the moisture made it tough for the top male athletes who are hoping to break the world record of just under two hours and three minutes in fact the last five world record setting times have been clocked in berlin when it ellie ellie would keep off kenya came close but missed the record is compacted gladys said shadow no one the women's rights. for the third invictus games for wounded veterans have sussed have started that eight day run into run time canada through competition the games have helped injured soldiers overcome trauma suffered in combat britain's prince harry helped launch the invictus games in twenty fourteen this year that will bring the veteran athletes from fifteen countries together in twelve adaptive sports as nearly six hundred injured and wounded servicemen and women competing for medals. is

a reminder of our top stories at this hour voting has begun in germany's parliamentary elections but incumbent i'm going to go to when i fall as chancellor i might challenge that martin shields has already cast his ballot although he's unlikely to win he could still end up in government task force coalition power. full coverage of that of course that throughout the day here on that day w. on t.v. and on the line have your next update at the top of the hour myself getting. your smart t.v. smarter d.w. for smart. what you want when you want to do extraordinary. you decide what's on sunday.