this is d.w. news live from berlin germany social democrats decide whether to team up once again with chancellor angela merkel's conservatives with hundreds of thousands of ballots now being counted party leaders are optimistic that members will approve the deal so will jenny finally get a new government or could this be the start of a political crisis also coming up. election day is on the horizon in its political parties have made their final appeal to voters who cast their ballots tomorrow but with no clear frontrunner who will italians choose to navigate their

country's turbulent political landscape. it's been called a bomb inside clone a mammoth winter storm battered the u.s. east coast accused five people have been killed the fierce weather has knocked out power in more than a million homes. i'm you money welcome to the program five months after the elections here in germany the wait for a new government could finally be over members of the center left social democrats have voted on whether or not to enter a new grand coalition with chancellor angela merkel's conservatives now the last batch of completed ballots have now arrived at the s.p.d. headquarters almost half a million party members were eligible to vote and the results will be announced on

sunday. the truck carrying the ballots arrived at the social democrats berlin headquarters with a police escort but no fanfare. party bigwigs made a point of staying away gathering instead at a nearby hotel to discuss how to rejuvenate the party they want to show that regardless of how the rank and file have voted they recognize the need to strengthen the party's message. guns but most of those we made a conscious decision to start this meeting before the votes were counted and that also could see just just how and so for show that we're taking a long hard look at whether our answers are also good enough for the future. party leaders say they want the rank and file like here a nurnberg to be part of this process. is really going to find that even our confidence because i went to one of the regional conferences and i really got the feeling from our leaders the thing understand that mistakes were made and it's time for change of this but i decided no one but many s.p.d.

members still oppose another grand coalition and assume by the kids if we keep doing what we've been doing in a few months no one is going to ask what the s.p.d. managed to negotiate if it just looks like everything's the same under mama. until just party members to vote yes they'll be expecting the party leadership to make sure that doesn't happen it's moved to the hall from the coakley there won't be a negative result and i don't speculate about that at all hundred twenty people will tabulate the results through the night under the watchful eyes of a notary public. for more on this i'm joined by political correspondent kate brady kate thanks for joining us so the counting of the ballots has begun what happens now exactly sorry that is over the rest of the saving of a one hundred twenty volunteers down at the s.p.d. headquarters counting all of those ballots that were more than four hundred sixty three thousand eligible s.p.d. posh members who could vote on the future of this grand coalition between the

social democrats and michael's conservatives now four years ago it was nearly five years ago in fact when we were last vice saying on it when the s.p.d. . members were left voting on a grand coalition turnout was around seventy five percent and that's expected this time to be the same if not higher and is there any indication at all from the polling numbers how this could turn out i really have no prognosis at the moment all of these ballots have been cast by post bar around two thousand by s.p.d. members who live abroad and they cast their ballots online now of course if tomorrow morning at nine o'clock we see a yes result and then of course that will really not mean very much initial change in germany of course another grand coalition would mean the same coalition government as we have right now but no result is what of course angela merkel especially will be fairing she would be left very much alone she'd be out of a coalition partners and then would be left with just two alternatives either

a minority government which she said on several occasions already that she'd like to avoid at all costs all we could still even see new elections and what would you know a surprising no vote mean for chancellor merkel's position not just locally but in europe as well well already we've started to see that this merkel era is really coming to an end and this is definitely going to be her final term in office and just a couple of weeks ago as well we saw a potential successor come into the limelight that was an eclipse karrenbauer who was appointed as the secretary general of the c.d.u. that's merkel's party so already even merkel herself is taking those steps to really groom a successor. and speaking of successors the s.p.d. as you swing. leading the charge to reject this deal with chancellor merkel's conservatives why is the grand coalition so unpopular among some of these s.p.d. members well it really comes down to this kind of profile and identity

crisis that they see that the s.p.d. is facing right now very much like many of the social democratic parties across your. but what was even worse for germany social democrats was that for two of michael's coalition governments they've served with the. conservatives and that's really had a bad effect on their profile now merkel moved her conservatives very much to the center and by doing so she was able to poach a lot of the s.p.d. proposals so you saw the s.p.d. the social democrats doing a lot of the legwork but not really profiting from it so right now a lot of party members of the s.p.d. party members are saying let's stand back and give ourselves time to renew and redefine our profile as a social democratic party well we wait to see what they'll decide on sunday kate brady thank you for joining us. another european nation italy is

actually heading to the polls tomorrow in an unpredictable election where migration has been the biggest issue now the vote pits a right wing coalition led by former prime minister silvio berlusconi against a center left alliance led by another former prime minister material. the other main player is the anti establishment five star movement with polls pointing to no clear winner most observers expect a hung parliament. with less than a day to go until elections almost one in three italians still don't know who they'll vote for polls show that no party has a clear majority and have not decided and so can feel as if i go home. and they will decide they don't know which is which is their right to vote for free money it's the first election under italy's complicated new electoral law which has increased the chances of a hung parliament across the country parties held rallies to make their final pitches to voters former prime minister motto renzi is pushing his track record he

says his democratic party took italy out of economic crisis and helped desperate migrants. we are proud of having saved hundreds of thousands of human lives and not to have played on the fears of others but his party is trailing behind those who have put fear of migrants at the heart of the campaign the extreme far right fall is a new way of all marched in rome raising their hands in nazi style salutes and demanding an end to immigration and other far right party leader formally the northern league has increased its support across the country. they're in a coalition with the party of former prime minister silvio berlusconi the eighty one year old is barred from office but he may end up playing kingmaker. in the populist five star movement could gain the most votes though not enough to govern alone now being on it i just read one poll and i can say that we are just one step away from victory. one step or

a few days the results of this most unpredictable election may not be known until early next week. let's now have a look at some of the other stories making news around the world in slovakia hundreds of people attended the funeral of the journalist young could see here his fiance were found dead in their home a week ago could see what is working on a story on italian organized crime in slovakia before he was killed seventy tahlia nationals detained in connection with the murders have been released. thousands of people have taken to the streets in berlin to protest turkey's military operation in the syrian region of afrin kurdish and german groups organized the rally in our anchor launched the offensive in january saying the regions kurdish white militia is a terrorist group linked to kurdish insurgents in turkey. voters in switzerland

will decide whether to scrap mandatory fees for public television and radio on sunday opponents of the license fee you say residents shouldn't have to pay for public broadcasting if they don't watch or listen to it but the government says scrapping them would harm the quality and flew right through reality of the media. a massive storm system has knocked out power for more than a million homes in the eastern united states the storm known as north east or has found of course store areas of massive waves and caused widespread flooding well inland residents had to deal with heavy snow at least five people have been killed by falling trees or branches and federal government offices in washington d.c. were closed for the day. thanks. battering the beach towns of massachusetts. here waves higher than two story buildings have flooded the coast. and left entire streets underwater.

people that have been doing this longer than i i have been doing cannot recall a time in which we have seen such widespread spread flooding across our entire east coast and into the north side of the cape winds topping ac kilometers per hour slammed to the east coast from washington d.c. to boston around one point six million homes were left without power. at least five people including children have died by falling branches. while buffalo in upstate new york and several of the cities were hit by heavy snow fall. airlines had to cancel more than two thousand eight hundred flights bringing major

airports in the northeast to a near standstill. a major decision today for football's roommate cuz i fab now they've given the green light to the use of video technology the system is now set to be employed at the world cup in russia the video assistant referee system uses instant replays and has been trialled in the bundesliga and other top leagues the trial has proven controversial on many occasions but despite the teething problems football officials have voted for it to become a permanent fixture. he was once called the world's most eligible bachelor the last surviving male north and white rhino his name is sudan and he lives under twenty four hour god in a conservancy in kenya but his recently gotten an infection and sudan's keepers fear that the future of these beautiful creatures may be in jeopardy. good.

tender loving care for a dying specious at this canyon conservancy these northern white rhinos are constantly under the rangers watch but even this might not save the sub species from extinction the only living male sedan is struggling to recover from a leg infection he's too frail and could not be filmed or photographed together with these two females sudan is the last surviving specimen of northern white rhino keepers say his illness is age related he's forty five in human terms that's over one hundred years old and feeling so sad about him. with him is a very gentle rain situation right now is not good condition because of it. but we have done enough. for him as recently as a few decades ago over two thousand northern white rhinos were roaming across east

and central africa but like other rhino groups their numbers have dwindled due to poachers and loss of habitat now scientists hope to avoid extinction by using female sodden white dryness a closely related subspecies has sarah gates to carry northern white rhino embryos to birth. don't forget you can always get you news on the go it's really easy just download from google play also on that awful story and that will give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications for any breaking news and you can also use it to send us photos and videos. of you watching the news live from berlin looking back in exactly forty five minutes but in the meantime going to a website called for wrong the called news and information you can also follow us

on social media we are news thank you for watching. german week. any time any place.