bridge. trip. report starts nov seventeenth on g.w. . this is d w news live from berlin they do by the u.s. congress after voters deliver their first nationwide verdict on the trump presidency democrats captured the control of the house with their leader pledging changes in washington. for the democrats and republicans it's about restoring the constitution's checks and balances to the trump. voters

also elected a record number of women to congress but republicans make significant gains in the senate so what does this mixed message mean for the second half of the trump presidency. also coming up relief for families in cameroon dozens of children who were kidnapped and held hostage have been freed by their captors we'll have the latest from our correspondent. i'm sara kelley welcome to the program the days of republican control of the u.s. federal government are over in the first nationwide vote since president trumps election two years ago democrats have taken back the house of representatives but it's not quite the blue wave that they had hoped for republicans have actually expanded their majority in the senate and also. defeated strong democratic

challengers in some of the important state governor races so mixed results in a polarized nation but what could it mean for governing first let's look at the numbers here's how things stand right now in the house of representatives two hundred eighteen seats are now needed to take control and as you can see here democrats have already surpassed that goal with some races yet to be called and here's how the senate is looking the lighter shading is representing the seats that are not up for election in this particular round on top of that you can see the night's results however republicans now at fifty one seats which means that they have defended their majority so tuesday's voting it was characterized by high turnout in districts across the country it was billed as the most important midterm election in a generation with both sides democrats and republicans energized to cast ballots in support of their candidates. it may not have been

a blue weave but democrats have sent a message to washington. after a win in metropolitan and suburban america has left the party in control of the house of representatives. jubilant democrat leaders said they will reign in the polarizing president. and see you tomorrow will be a new day in america was here is here and now the power to win was. is already there are chemicals of republicans it's of their restoring the constitution's checks and balances to their companies was. was but it didn't all go to democrats way from tennessee to texas republicans won increasing their control of the senate the one time presidential hopeful ted cruz was among those

fending off challenges the lawyer says this was the president hilda results in a tweet calling them a tremendous success. and then there is the changing face of u.s. politics the record number of women elected twenty one year old alexandria. becomes the youngest woman ever sent to congress dave holland in new mexico was one of two needs of americans to win election show reste david a lesbian was the other. first moment meanwhile two moves loom women rushing to to leave and omar broke the mold in their campaigns. for the first time in the primary to represent our state in congress. the first. woman to marry.

the first refugee ever and i like to tell congress. the bigger picture do is a fresh gridlock in washington music to the ears of democrats maybe but a headache for trump. let's get more now on these election results i'm joined by irwin collyer professor of economics at bard college welcome are when you get a mixed picture here we know that we are now going to have a mixed congress we're going to have a check on the u.s. president on on president trump are we set for an even more hostile political environment what is this dynamic going to mean for governing the country ok i cannot imagine that things would get any hotter the divisions were there before the election they will continue after the election the difference of having the democrats controlling the house of congress is just enormous it means legislation

cannot occur without. the participation of the democrats it also means when it comes to congressional committee assignments and chairmanships. everything will be investigated if i were donald trump i would not be sleeping well knowing that many shoes can drop between now and two thousand and twenty. with the talk about women they're the big winners of this election we have to say we know now that the house of representatives is going to have the most number of women ever in history in the country what does it say about. the shifting dynamics in the country and also the mood at the moment sometimes people say barack obama was the natural reaction to george w. bush then you start thinking with a donald trump the reaction bringing people from outside the means for people who have up to now has not taken the jump into active politics running for office

women i think this is also a hillary. post bump if you will that. the feeling that women can and should participate in electorate elected office it's never been bigger and this is a trend that will continue let's talk about another trend because i mean if you look at just just as a candidate what he represents what he stands for many say that he stands for the preservation of a certain way of life in america a certain way of life in white america perhaps we have to say but the reality is that the demographics are changing in the country we have a younger electorate we also have a more diverse electorate that's something though that's not necessarily reflected at the moment when we look at the actual political outcomes yet why well i think part of it has to do with the fact that there is a huge division urban rural so the image over

the imaginary of america how it once was the sort of the cornfields and wheat fields of the midwest very you have far less diversity than you see in urban areas now being concentrated this diversity means gerrymandering is much more effective so you have a combination of many rural states that have two senators each plus you have this ability to gerrymander people of color of a recent immigration into democratic strongholds and i think it's that company. that makes it so hard for the democrats even when they have an enormous popular vote and to get to represent this is how it makes it hard for them actually if we just break down the numbers a little bit we look back at the twenty six thousand election we also look back at this current election where we see the democrats actually outperformed the republicans overall with the vote share but it didn't make a difference especially in the senate if they look there particularly where the

republicans are maintaining their big surety what's at play here and what is it likely to mean for the bigger election that's coming up twenty twenty one the presidency is at stake what's also important with the senate because only a third of the seats come up there's a bit of the law of the draw so there's going to be a different third much more vulnerability will be seen with the. republicans coming up that said these trends continue governorships flipping over in make big states flipping over to the democrats this will help slow down gerrymandering in the future. there's hope when collyer professor at bard college as always thank you welcome. let's get a quick check now of some other stories making news around the world an acclaimed russian film and theater director has appeared in a moscow court on embezzle mn charges. curry sarah brady coffee is accused of

misusing more than two million dollars of state funding for a future project his supporters say that he is the target of a crackdown on artistic independence under president vladimir putin. authorities in peru say that a former head of the national police force is under arrest accused of involvement in a baby trafficking ring the police chief is among fifteen people suspected of selling babies and children taken from four women gynecologists and a paediatrician were also detained in early morning raids. in cameroon seventy nine boarding school students who were taken hostage by separatists have been released reports say the kidnappers are still holding three adults taken from the school the children aged between eleven and seventeen were seized early on monday morning in bomb end the capital of the northwest region no single group has said that it carried out the kidnapping but separatist militias have been calling for a boycott let's get more on that we're joined by correspondent adrienne crease in

lagos so the children have been released as we mentioned what's the latest. well both the church and the authorities confirm that the children where released this night apparently they were taken by an identified gunman to a church near mend and then released their rights now we learn that the kids of course are still in shock they're all between eleven and thirteen year seventeen years old and currently a team of the local governors talking to them later on the local governors also scheduled to address the press because up until now we don't have any information on the circumstances of their release. it's not the first time that peoples have been kidnapped so why are the separatists targeting schools specifically. right most of the schools in the region have been closed for more than two years now after pressure from the separatists they've been trying to force schools

parents and kids not to go to school for two reasons one they want to force the government to get back to the negotiation table and the second point is they don't want the kids to go through the french speaking school system and that has led to a situation whereby for two years now most of the kids in the entire region haven't been able to go to school this actually shows that the separatists might be behind it to send a message to those remaining schools to close down but it is not clear because there's about ten separatist groups active in this region and none of them has declared responsibility and some of them even also said this is not right that this has happened so this has sparked a lot of debate in cameroon some people even argue that the governments might be behind the abduction to justify the force they're using against separatists and civilians in the region remember there's been a lot of reports on human rights abuses by the armed forces of cameroon in the past months but to be honest with you it's very difficult to find out the truth from this region it's not easy for journalists to get there i was there last month

during the election right now the authorities don't give any cretaceous for international journalists to get there and local journalists are not free to report under a very repressive regime of what's been running the country for thirty six years now i dream creation with the latest from lego thank you. motor sports now and formula one has announced that a new grand prix will be held in the vietnamese capital of her noise starting in april of twenty twenty the grand prix will join already well established asian races in singapore china and japan a tweet from f one called annoyed one of the most exciting cities in the world the street race through the heart of annoyance the first new grand prix to be confirmed since u.s. owners liberty media took over the sport last year. and in champions league soccer last night torben suffered their first

a few feet in any competition this season at the tacoma trade war wore it on their home crowd and ward on by their home crowd excuse me and best of the german club to nail the media has opened the scoring in the thirty third minute giving athletico a lead going into the break the second goal came from i think it goes captain. late in the match the two clubs are now level on points at the top of group a and here is dortmund captain captain marco explaining what went wrong. i think the way the game panned out was quite pitiful rose sure at the end of the ninety minutes you have to say they had the better chances and scored their goals so they deserved to win but the way we conceded the goals was completely unnecessary we controlled the game relatively well in the first twenty to twenty five minutes. you're watching news still to come on the program vital infrastructure will look at how

madagascar capital is looking to modernize its supply of drinking water almost half of which currently goes to waste. care heart has all but more in just about a minute's time you're watching news i'm sarah kelly in berlin don't forget you can get the latest on our web site w dot com and you can follow me on social media have a great day. everybody. where i come from we have to fight for a free press and was born and raised in a military dictatorship and just want to be shadow and if you newspapers when official information as a journalist i have walked off the streets like many can trust and the problems are always the same poor doomed social inequality

a lack of the freedom of the press and. we can afford to stay silent when it's.