the first time in a national opinion poll that says the social democrats launch a make or break so to enter another coalition government we'll get analysis. and there were more medals up for grabs at the winter olympics that's including in the ice dance competition where canada's graceful couple virtue and moir were vying for another gold will get you caught up on day eleven and sean chen. i'm sumi so misconduct good to have you with us the united nations says the syrian government must stop targeting civilians in the rebel held on klav eastern hotel. now the london based syrian observatory for human rights says that a government to air raids on eastern how to close to the syrian capital damascus has killed nearly one hundred fifty people since monday hundreds more were injured the suburb has been under siege by regime forces for more than four years. let's bring in i've not had died a syrian opposition activist who's been observing the situation from a turkey and not good to see you thank you for joining us you're in contact with people in how to what are they telling you and why is the syrian government attacking this area now. especially today with hitting more and more. people calling and you know crying describing the situation to be at the fic knowing these people have said by more than five years of siege when they say this situation is to get their stuff it means it's pretty much. in terms of how that is jean and its allies a good thing the civilians and leaving them absolutely no way to go i spoke to at least seven activists who had gathered in one room and developing a few stories on the ground they said more than ninety per cent of the people this is a force that on a summation ninety percent of the people just want to leave the problem here is the regime is not even allowing them to leave is not opening a single passage where no tamil civilians sick people all of those who need forward humanitarian aid able to escape i would like to share some of the numbers you know we have done that over the last two months this campaign has started on december twenty ninth with it so far out over seven hundred people were killed since done we have at least four documented god's attacks i can mention some of the dates of the thirteenth of january twenty second of january second. then number of cases documented in the way that they had a quiet immediate medical evacuation as all of a thousand civilians. were going to silence the sea going to american medical society and i just going to ask. there are reports here that the example is. that they are rushing wouldn't actually protect these people only seventeen of these seventy five shelters. you know able to basically ok provide protection. this is literally nothing when we know three hundred sixty five thousand people are trapped in this area no that isn't why they want this. back to question as this is very close to the moscow's it's the easiest and the shortest way to basically access the mosque is that it does not want a new presence of any kind of or any kind of opposition forces to be close to the mosque because they want to make this. seven years afford against their own people so we are expecting the worse on the day so can be very determined on they can get any cause and i sense but according to that statement fears all right we have to leave it there unfortunately are a syrian opposition activist who's been observing of the situation from turkey thank you had not. to hear me and i found now the deadly assault on the eastern hotel comes as fighting looks set to intensify on another front as well this time in the country's north on the border with turkey that turkish president to one says he plans to lay siege to aspirin that is in the northern part of the country here that's after holding talks with russia and iran to stop the deployment of syrian government forces in the region now a turkey first launched its offensive against kurdish militia in offering last month. an entire town in mourning this is become a familiar sight enough rain in recent weeks with residents regularly attending mass funerals for kurdish fighters killed in clashes with turkish troops. it's against this backdrop that syrian state t.v. reported on a move that could change the dynamic of the fighting the news anchor of this bulletin announcing that militias allied to the syrian government would soon arrive in a free in to help kurdish forces push back the turkish offensive. meanwhile in government held aleppo just south of a free syrian kurds have been demonstrating against the turkish offensive and in support of y p g fighters many of whom can be seen in the city. i know there is a syrian army and we are one the syrian people and we are one we are all one and we have one will. during a visit to jordan the turkish foreign minister said a deal wouldn't affect his country's resolve. for my future. if the syrian regime really does enter aspirin to cleanse kurdish militia then there's no problem however if it comes in to protect them then nothing and nobody can deter and stop the turkish army it's very clear. operation olive branch into a free names to cleanse these areas from terrorists. said. turkey is keen to avoid a kurdish stronghold on its southern border with syria so its own forces launched a major military offensive into a frame last month in a bid to expel the kurdish fighters that control the region the offensive has further complicated an already but will during web of alliances and rivalries in syria. we have with us she is the president of the european center for kurdish studies here in berlin thank you for joining us in our studio today we heard turkey's president ed was saying that he's talked to russia he's talked to iran and he's managed to stop the syrian government from its plans to send its own troops into this region northern syria into offering who are the real power brokers here well you already mentioned the reason i think this is turkey on the one hand and russia and iran on the other hand those different sectors have of courts of course different interests athene. the largest interest really is with turkey which wants to get rid of the y p g which is the syrian militia the p k k which are currently with a lot of arms which are provided by the united states in the syrian parts of. so turkey wants to get rid of them this way a freeness so important for turkey really the united states on the other hand which are also one of the poem of course they don't have no specific interest in a free and really i mean their military bases are not in a free but they are and they are in the us so they will just let everybody do what people really want to do there i think russia which is supporting the syrian regime of course but on the other hand if the syrian regime takes on not it's not of great importance for russia and iran again of course they also have an alliance with the u.k. with the y p g but again it's not the region which is important for them in the middle of all this is free and what is going to happen if nobody steps in to help the kurds there. well i think if the syrian regime doesn't get in now i think that turkey will stay there and try to get rich off the p.k. so if you have a look on a friend who is living there we see that we have about three hundred fifty thousand people living in a free and what yes to billions of of course civilians in a free and in the will address interestingly about one hundred thousand of them not kurds but arabs mostly refugees of course so this is the civilian number of population and then we have the y.p. ji they are the most syrian military branch of the p.k. which is for several years administering the region and many of the courts living there particularly would like to get rid of the why p.g. because some of it doesn't have a good record on human rights but of course they don't want to have turkey in there and they don't want to have the regime in there too but we've seen these very dramatic images earlier from eastern how to if there's a siege by turkish forces are we going to see the same thing happen enough rain actually i don't think so i mean you never know of course but until today turkey didn't go forward as for example the syrian regime did and they didn't go forward as for example in aleppo they didn't just bomb everything from a. president of the european center for kurdish studies thank you for joining us thank you. now some other stories making news around the world iran says it has located the wreckage of a plane that crashed into a mountain two days ago with sixty five people on board rescue workers will have to recover bodies from the debris by foot due to the rough terrain records show the plane only recently resumed service after spending six years in storage. in mozambique at least seventeen people have died after they were buried in a landslide of garbage authorities say heavy rain caused a mountain of trash and dumped in the capital market two to collapse onto surrounding houses officials believe more bodies could still be buried under the debris. authorities have worn new zealand's south island to take precautions out of a powerful storm the remnants of cyclon gto which battered tonga and samoa last week are expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain flights to and from the capital wellington have been cancelled. germany's right wing populist party the alternative for germany or a.s.d. has overtaken the social democrats for the first time in a national opinion poll the latest poll for the daily newspaper builder found that if an election were held now sixteen percent of voters would support the a.s.d. compared to fifteen point five percent who would vote for the social democrats now that party's numbers have been in freefall since the national election in september . and. local correspondent thomas sparrow is tracking the story for us hi thomas we have a far right wing party that's now the stricken second strongest rather in germany according to this poll this must be a shock for the established parties. it is sunni but we have to understand two key points when we think about this survey the first one is just only one out of many surveys that are carried out in germany most other surveys actually still put the social democrats behind the conservatives and the f.t. in third place and in fact this polling institute has been described in german media as being close to the a if the so on the one hundred has to be taken carefully but on the other hand it does reflect a wide trend in germany namely that crises that we've seen germany's traditional parties the conservatives on the one hundred social democrats on the other and at the same time obviously the rise of the on to immigrant let's not forget that the i.f.t. and the german parliament for the very first time in september and they did so by becoming the third biggest political force in the german parliament so certainly we have to see all these elements together when we try and understand this how has this anti immigrant party managed to continue gaining ground. they do so essentially sunni by tapping into people's fears on a wide range of areas obviously their key topic has been immigration that's the main reason why they managed to to get that support last year in germany's federal election after the migration crisis in this country but they strategy goes way beyond only migration they obviously reject what they believe is the establishment traditional political parties and they have been tapping into fears among the german population on a wide range of areas attracting voters from those established parties and also people who previously didn't go to vote in national elections so certainly that explains the rise of the a if the here in germany one of those established parties thomas is the social democrats why are they struggling so much to convince voters essentially because they lost profile after being called in to grand coalition with with angela merkel i'm going to my of course conservatives took the benefit if you will of a grand coalition where whereas the social democrats were seen as the minor party one that wasn't able to to pas many propose although they did manage to pass proposals but the credit was taken by the conservatives and they lost part of the their profile if you will the social democrats were seen as the home of germany's working class and that's something that if we look at regional elections for example they have certainly lost to a certain extent so the key element when we try to understand the social democrats is precisely that they seem to have lost their profile they seem to have lost that key word of the name social according to many people who who look at the party very closely. political correspondent thomas spare reporting for us thank you thomas. the news of that poll result comes just as the social democrats are launching a critical internal vote over whether to enter another coalition with america's conservatives this coalition deal has deeply divided the s.p.s. rank and file they've got a little over a week to cast their ballots and during that time those both for and against the deal will be making their cases it's a balance pitting the party establishment against its future leaders. nothing is more important for the social democrats over the next ten days and these kind of town hall meetings the party's grassroot is deeply divided as to whether they should agree to a grand coalition deal or not and the face of the rebellion against american led coalition is this young man kevin kuhn and the leader of the party is used to going he's trying to get members to vote no. on off i believe that we can explain to the people why a no vote to this grand coalition deal which i am calling for doesn't only mean i know but also a yes because if we're serious and pledge our word it can be a chance to create a different more social democratic policy to put it to someone while not as the face of the internal opposition the social democrats general secretary is rooting for a yes vote it's a first face of many tonight the debate civilized but passionate in the middle of the event news breaks for the first time the far right alternative for germany party has overtaken the s.p.d. in a national poll the new numbers are a disaster for the party but the pro coalition campaign thinks it's best to hold course this is this but this is the best way to tackle bad poll results to develop good concrete policies which improve people's everyday lives that's why i want us to vote for this and then quickly get a new government implementing policies i bet the s.p.d. will also be stronger against their. that is why the party's establishment will tour the country in the next week in support of the coalition deal passed referendums have been formalities but this time as the town hall shows the result is far from assured. i have two hearts beating in my chest one is for social democracy on the other hand i'm a citizen of this country and as a citizen i'm hoping to have a stable government and this is why i will vote for a grand coalition. because according to one system well even if your agenda just doesn't represent our general. you know any more pretty to look coalition of the old postpones all the important decisions do after twenty twenty five or it took a fatal decision such as the one on private protections most of them to my commercial division is simmering at the grassroots of germany's oldest poteen and it's this kind of opposition that in the end could still prevent germany from having a stable government anytime soon. you're watching d.w. news still to come we'll bring you up to date on the winter olympics including germany's buying showing the germans are close to the top of the medals table. but first could a trade war between the u.s. and the e.u. be in the air hello that's the question see me it seems that brussels is gearing up at least it's got some tactics up its sleeve authorities are getting ready to potentially slap high tariffs on american products including whiskey orange juice and motorcycles and that's if u.s. president donald trump carries out his threats to slap high tariffs on imported steel now u.s. secretary of commerce well ross has suggested the likelihood of stuffing a twenty four percent tariff on all steel imports will introducing a quota of china's already promised to retaliate by putting quotas on u.s. soil and other farm products and the e.u. has stated that it could implement tariffs on a targeted american products within days well correspondent mark hoffman is on the story for us max is this a symbolic move from brussels or can we expect them to follow through. well and they have repeatedly said that they would follow through and again today and i quote here we would take appropriate measures to react in case our exports are affected that's the fischel spokesperson of the e.u. commission so it's safe to say yes they would react in probably in a twofold way first of all by tariffs of their own on certain products you just mentioned some of the possibilities there and also by filing an official complaint with the world trade organization we're talking about some of those products max we had reports that they are products talkative from republican states is the e.u. interfering in what is u.s. domestic policy that moment in the what you referred to the harley-davidson from wisconsin and also the whiskey products jack daniels for example from tennessee and kentucky and those are products that are associated could be associated with some republican politicians or with a majority of republican voters i would be very very careful with that though it sounds like an awful lot of spin doctoring has been going on or some media may be focusing on that too much because as we understand those lists are old rather old at least and they were started in during the period of george w. bush and then maybe adapted but it just shows you know trade tussles aren't anything new between the european union and the united states of america and saying that they would really target republican voters that and they would be interfering with the message policies and you probably get no official here to confirm that information right there not new max it seems to me that we've been talking about the prospect of a trade war ever since donald trump put his foot poised over the threshold of the white house but halfway taken a step that all we needed that. well not only donald trump beforehand as well what we should not forget is that both areas together the european union and the united states of america account for roughly sixty percent of global g.d.p. the trade relations are hugely beneficial for both parts and even in the past you know when you had this well tussle over agricultural products that never accounted for more than two to three percent of the whole trade some of what was going on between the two regions now even if you would have these tariffs slapped on the european union which would have to happen for us and some experts think it's not going to happen because the main target here obviously is not the european union but china but let's say it happens even than could you call it a trade war definitely a huge maybe a big step back but a trade war that's a strong word all right our max hoffman and brussels thank you very much. well u.s. comic general motors recently announced plans to shut down a one of its full plants in south korea decision welcomed by u.s. president donald trump particular as an opportunity to criticize the free trade agreement with south korea now while some had expected a g.m. to close its remaining plants in south korea it looks like the u.s. call make it could be set to make a u. turn. g.m. is stuck between a rock and a hard place the calm make it doesn't want to be the target of washington's america first policies but it doesn't want to ruin its reputation in south korea eva. it's certainly our preference to stay and to fix the business and continue to be an important part of the green economy and. you know there's a lot of work to do to make that happen but i'm very i'm encouraged by the discussions that i'm optimistic. that that is an outcome that together we can achieve g.m. is now proposing to work with the korean government to keep the remaining factories open in exchange the comic i would benefit from financial support and tax benefits the factory closure announced last week is a sensitive topic here work has staged a protest which seoul was watching closely some people in south korea feel g.m. decision to close the factory was driven by washington's protectionist measures for now the korean government is proceeding with measures to support those affected the city of good sun where the factory is located is to be declared a crisis only. if a city is ignited unemployment directory closure will affect many lives. well staying away to south korea in time for an update on all the latest and take action and you know now we have a max mail from sports with us here as a guest to talk about the chang winter olympics a day levon was definitely a day for canada max we have virtue and moir they followed up on their record breaking ice dance tell us more about that yes on monday as you say they broke a record already in the short dance and then today it was time for the. it was actually before they broke a record the french actress and dion says of all a broken record in the short on school but then as we can see here the routine from virtue more than almost match that world record bringing vet tally to a world record score of two hundred six now. he actually retired and came back in twenty sixteen previously won gold and silver at the olympics and then retired they've come back and look how much it means to them when they find out they've broken the record and taken gold again this is spectacular performance they're happy canadians also because kasey sharp as she made her debut on the ski halfpipe yes she did she's just come off go to getting the bronze at the x. games this year and we can have a look at her routine it's quite spectacular really quite a dangerous sport but also incredible look at that jump we're going to see her full routine just after this and. like you said her first olympics and she wins gold right away the last last olympics gold went first to the point is appointing eleven and cassy shot actually has more reason to check because her sister also won gold yes she did win gold star in the snowboard slopestyle so very proud parents and very happy canadians eleven and must run in the family they're not just the canadians also the germans are pretty happy because they perform really well at these olympics yeah the second in the medals table just behind norway who have twenty eight medals germany have twenty and that's one more than they got in sochi and we still have quite a few days to go in this olympics the german confederations gold before them picks was nineteen plus x. as they put it so that's been achieved and what's impressive is that they've done in so many different sports figure skating by a long ski jump luge bald skeleton and nordic combination those of the medals they've scored so far the biggest hole was thirty six so they probably won't be getting that but they could match their biggest ever gold medal hole which is twelve currently there on ten so with a few more days to go they could match that certainly something to be proud of max on a more serious note there's been another case of a failed doping test of this a lympics tell us more about that yes yesterday we had the russian crucial netsky who's tested positive for meltdown him today it's slovenian high. player ziggo yeah glitch he has. tested positive for fenosa role which is a drug used to treat c o p d asthma and bronchitis. you can get something called a therapeutic use exemption if you for instance suffer from asthma this isn't the case as far as we know so far and has actually accepted the charge and is believed to be leaving the country very soon so as levine knocks out anyway and it wouldn't affect them anyway because you can only be disqualified as a team if two or more of your players test positive so far as on the ziva yeah glitch in the civilian team. next merrill from the database for it's wrapping up day eleven at the can check winter olympics thank you very much max thank you for. and we just have time for a minder of our top story that we're following out of the united nations has warned that syrian government forces should stop their assault on the rebel held enclave of eastern hotel near damascus the syrian observatory for human rights says that government air raids there have killed nearly one hundred fifty people since monday . thank you for watching good of you. must join such as. to. how do you chase the darkness away. how do you beckon spring. puts a carnival in d.c. every year hundreds of thousands follow the fragrance of flowers and lose themselves in the magic. come and join in. do. been sixty minutes on the dollar. the scars on the mug the pain still tangible. book for god's. former city. they have survived the two they also have a future. i really understand people who say they don't want to stay here. but i also admire people who want to stay here and who decided to create something . in peace time what needs to happen if tolerance and reconciliation are to stand a chance darkness cities after more starting march tenth on d w. your tuned to tomorrow today coming up. driving cars who's responsible on the roads. slow brain waves why deep sleep is crucial for memory. and.