this is deja vu news live from berlin another head rolls at the trump white house attorney general jeff sessions hands in his resignation after being asked to step down by the u.s. president sessions removal could have far reaching implications for the russian broke. the news comes as trump sells the midterm elections as an historic success for his republican party they were take control of the senate even though they lost the house. and she was handpicked by germany's chancellor to take her place today the woman known as the a k k officially entered the race to be the next head of the

c.d.u. party will she be able to fend off the two other leading contenders for the top job . i'm sumi so much going to thank you for watching us u.s. attorney general jeff sessions has been forced out of office by president trump the move comes straight after the midterm elections president trump as long expressed frustration with sessions after he recused himself from the investigation into links between trump's presidential campaign and russia now trump tweeted that sessions the chief of staff matt whitaker will replace him until a permanent successor is chosen a democrats are now concerned that sessions removal may be a prelude to limiting or even ending the russian probe something they're warning would trigger a constitutional crisis. and let's go right to washington as my ish waiter is standing by following all of the latest developments for us hi my at this is coming

the day after the midterms was this expected. this was something that had been sort of in the back of the minds of everyone who had been watching the relationship between president trump and jeff sessions to tear and people were somewhat expecting jeff sessions to be out one way or another after the midterm to the fact that it's happening just the day after really hours after the ink dried on the results is somewhat extraordinary in terms of the timing extraordinary indeed my is there any concrete indication why sessions was fired now well we have to look back at the year and a half two years that session's was serving as attorney general trump regularly attacked him directly because of sessions of recusal from overseeing the russia investigation regularly called him beleaguered weak and was seemed

very frustrated over sessions inability and refusal to shut down the investigation this is an investigation the president is not fond of and wants to one way or another go away and so it's unclear right now whether sessions was fired or simply agreed to resign but he is now gone and that leaves a lot of questions not only who will take his place and how that person will relate to president tried but what will happen to this investigation that's right my and that is one of the biggest questions being asked not just by the democrats right now what does this mean for the future of this investigation into russian meddling of the twenty sixteen presidential election and the acting attorney general would occur is expected to oversee this probe visiting. exactly and it's unclear exactly when trump will get around to nominating a new attorney general because we do have this new congress that is going to come

into power in january but between now and january really trump could make a recess appointment and install someone as attorney general who is much more sympathetic to his views on the investigation and even if the investigation doesn't get fully shut down whoever the next attorney general is could starve it of funding or throw up other sorts of barriers to stop it from really fully functioning even if the investigation is allowed to conclude that attorney general could simply vary the results of the investigation not release them to the public not release them to the congress for review a lot at stake here if you are robert mueller right a lot of concerns there of the future of that i do want to ask you about the midterm elections of course the u.s. president has been selling this result as a major success and put it down to his campaigning in key battlegrounds the republicans look likely to expand their majority in the senate and also one key governor races of the democrats managed to win back the house of representatives but it wasn't quite the blue wave that many of them were hoping to see some

thinking on in typically bombastic fool posted of a historic victory in the midterms focusing primarily on republican gains in the senate he launched he shrugged off the democrats regaining the majority in the house of representatives though he did offer an olive branch of sorts now is the time for members of both parties to join to give. put partisanship aside and keep the american economic miracle going strong but that offer of bipartisanship was quickly undercut the turn turned competent as the president tussle with reporters and he threatens government gridlock if democrats pursue investigations into his administration. almost from the time i announced i was going to run they've been giving us this investigation for take a long time they got nothing zero you know why because there is nothing but they

can play their game but we can play better bracing for that contest is the democrats' jubilant times leader nancy pelosi she said voters wanted have a party to hold the trumpet ministration to account and fact to deliver. american people have put want to put an end to unchecked g.o.p. control of washington re storing again the checks and balances and the yes democrats are here to strengthen the institution in which we serve and not to have it be a rubber stamp for a president trump said this but palosi also promised efforts to work with republicans who will strive for bipartisanship we believe that we have a responsibility to seek common ground for the u.s. these midterm elections market tunning point but opinions differ on whether road goes from here many votes as a boy by the surge of representation for women and minorities well it's really exciting to see all the change and it's not just in new york it's all over the

country so you don't really have kaare fighting it out for others less optimistic i definitely think they'll be straight lock it more animosity and sadly you know that's what the tenor of the country is because on capitol hill two thoughts are turning to what my is ahead the twenty twenty presidential race starts now. all right maya we heard in that piece of president is selling this midterm election as a success is it does this do these results strengthen him or we could weaken its position . well the republicans expanding their hold on the senate and certainly nothing to sneeze at this will mean that getting confirmations of nominees through the senate will be much much easier and more far less likely to see this sort of bruising fight that we saw back in october over the nomination of brett kavanaugh to the supreme court that was really something that divided the congress and the

nation so that will be much easier for the president but it does mean more gridlock it's now house divided so to speak with the democrats holding one chamber and the republicans holding another now we did hear the president making these sorts of conciliatory gestures saying he's willing to work with democrats before the midterms he gave an interview saying oh i'd like to be a little bit softer in my tone sometimes i don't have a choice but it looks like even he's trying to to change his tune and as we saw the republicans did also pick up several governors' races that were highly highly contested so it's not inaccurate to say the republicans also had a good night for a democrats coming back from absolutely nothing to take back the house of congress something that they will be celebrating gains for the democrats in the house they're maya which ones do you think were the most significant. well we saw several clips of congressional districts that had been democrat that then

voted for trump and had. a new congress person elected who will now be a democrat and it's interesting to see the demographic changes that go along with that we've all we're also seeing as were going to speak on one of the most diverse houses of congress ever in the history of the country and and right now what is also significant is the republicans have lost what was considered their last urban district republicans are now purely representing suburban and rural america while the democrats are representing heavily urban areas and this is going to have huge implications moving forward not just for the house of representatives but for the senate because of the nature of way senators are elected if the democrats are only reaching people who live in cities and we have a whole swath of middle america that's not going to be represented by democrats and

solely by republicans my i want to talk to moment about one of the key success stories of these midterm elections a record number of women were elected to the house of representatives especially democrats. cortez is the youngest woman ever elected to congress and she won her new york district with nearly eighty percent of the vote. these young voters are waiting in line outside a new york club not to dance the night away but to celebrate a new political phenomenon. she's a candidate for the people and that's was really important she's somebody who's out here fighting for us who's like us alexandria county or cortez a democrat is the youngest woman ever elected to congress for many of the twenty nine year old politician is the polar opposite of donald trump she supports universal health care immigrants rights free education under for the bill housing those were the key issues for the seventy eight percent of voters in her district who backed her deepest challenges are not left and right they are not red and blue

they are top and bottom they are right and prods alexandria ocasio cortez is part of what's being called a rainbow waving congress with more seats going to women people of color and other minorities than ever before. and i think it's a profound message that in order for us to make sure that in order for us to make sure that our interests are being championed we need to have a seat at the table and that new voice might just shake up the democratic party's old guard to. my if this really is a significant development for the first time in history there will be one hundred women in the house next year what do you think is galvanize so many women to run and what do you think that might tell us about the shifting dynamics in the u.s. . this is something that women especially women who don't support president trump have been waiting for a sense really january twenty first of twenty seventeen which was the day after

president term was inaugurated in the day we saw that humongous women's march sweep not only washington d.c. but many major points around the world it's a reflection of a dissatisfaction with president trump's policies particularly among american women and his rhetoric and what people feel is the direction of the country that they don't agree with because not only is it a record number of women it's a highly diverse group of women we're seeing the first native american women come into congress the first muslim women from massachusetts they're seeing their very first african-american woman in congress is this new mixed group that is in direct answer to the much older whiter a male her guard of president trumps administration. to reporting for us from washington as always my own good to talk to you. meanwhile in florida more than one million people have just regained the right to

vote civil rights activists in the state have been celebrating their victory after the passing of amendment four it restores voting rights to felons who have completed their prison sentences six million people nationwide are unable to vote because of criminal records and a florida has the largest number of those citizens. we have our social media editor william cross with us well in what is a metaphor so this was a ballot measure to actually set the clock back to go back to two thousand and eleven the way things were before the pre the previous republican governor came into power. it affects as said one point four million x. felons these are people who've committed crimes that were not murders and not sex offenses so before it was pretty much you finish your to you do your time you get your vote back with this previous republican governor what would happen is he said of this thing called the office of executive clemency which essentially required x. felons to make their case for getting their vote back not just simply get it back

when serving time it was very and person impartial there weren't very good guidelines it was very much up to this this organization that was struck down earlier this year by a federal court when ex felons sued in that court and the judge ruled it unconstitutional violation of their fourteenth i'm an equal rights clause one of the leaders pushing for this for this ballot measure desmond mead we have a video of him expressing how things went yesterday and how he was feeling we probably have it here to show. so we. started. just. in the place. just. to go there were tears of joy. cheers i. so you have tears of joy this was passed with sixty five percent approval

which is not only a big number but a necessary number because it required a supermajority for it to pass so this is a really big deal for florida it's a big deal for florida the one point five million people this is representing or this affects that's ten percent of florida's adult population that is so far at this moment disenfranchised from voting that will now be able to vote among the black community in florida it's twenty percent of their adult population we have some statistics here from the prison policy initiative if florida were just a country it would actually outpace the united states in incarcerations more than eight hundred people per one hundred thousand in the population followed in by the united states and way ahead of some of our western allies you can see also how it affects minorities in particular we have in the next slide we have you know twenty five hundred per one hundred thousand black people in florida are incarcerated that's double or almost triple what we have in some of the white community and hispanic community and you know just to see the proportions of population to

a general population to incarceration the black community in florida is just sixteen percent of the overall state population yet they make up forty six percent of the prison population where is the white community is fifty eight percent of floridians and they have only forty one percent of the prison population so you could see some huge disparities that inversely affect black the black community and often lower income communities right now that we're seeing more than one million floridians re gaining the right to vote what is that going to mean for future elections well florida as many of us know is a weird state it's blue it's red it's blue it's red elections come down to hundreds or thousands of votes we saw that we all know the famous two thousand bush gore election that changed history forever by just a few thousand votes and we just look at this election but the governor and the senate race have come down to respectively fifty thousand and thirty thousand votes so when you think of adding one point four one point five million new voters the

roles that could have some huge huge impacts come two thousand and twenty eight really interesting stuff there social media editor really. thank you very much. well these midterms were followed with huge interest outside the u.s. but now the results are in few are expecting any major shift in trump's foreign policy and the kremlin said it saw no immediate prospects for better ties between russia and the u.s. china refused to comment directly on the result muted reactions to from brussels and berlin. decades of strong ties between germany and the u.s. have been strained since u.s. president donald trump was elected germany's foreign minister has often said berlin should be the voice of moderation when trump overstepped the mark he reiterated this in his reaction to the u.s. midterms let's. in the past two years the equilibrium in our partnership with the u.s. has shifted for the forseeable future that will not change following these elections germany's far right rejects this little old germany now draws the red lines for us

economic finance and trade policy they'll be laughing at that all the way from the potomac to tampa florida it's an absurd stance to take what he is going to put it in the german government is a dog's with trump on many issues these include the thousands of central american migrants trekking towards the us border the un's refugee policy and the global compact for migration which germany supports now that the democrats control the house of representatives they can block or delay domestic policies they disagree with but that's not necessarily good for germany it's current as it could even make things more difficult in all the transatlantic issues we have trade the division of international responsibilities security issues and much more because the republicans have actually increased their power in the senate where much of the country's foreign policy is decided to have to give not. a pretty common we have to expect the trample continue the divisive hate based politics of his term until now

withdrawing from international treaties as he has from the iranian nuclear deal and the parish climate agreement calm the united states elected a new congress but german u.s. relations are unlikely to get any less complicated. well donald trump is the middle of his first term as president and going medical is in her final term as chancellor and today one of michael's closest allies launched her campaign to lead the chancers conservative c.d.u. party her name is an eclectic company also known as a k k the position of city you leader is all important in germany the party leader is almost guaranteed a chance to become the next chancellor. she is. anointed successor. and it was the chancellor's legacy that the great crime carabao up on that first in his speech used as does. this is the end of an era in which there are many personal relationships as many personal experiences that i

connect with anglo-american. but this is also the end of an era that has changed and shaped the seaview years in a very special and lasting way the big. comeback or about was state premier of zala and before i'm going to merkel bruto to belin as secretary general of the c.d.u. in that position crum cohen has effectively been merkel's right hand woman but with many in the party disillusioned with merkel and her governing coalition her challenge will be to step out of merkel's shadow and shop and her own profile. today she said it was time to open a new chapter. yet she refused to criticize the chancellor's controversial immigration policy saying the challenge now is to find solutions. when somebody knocks on our door and we take their men and give them protection if

they then abuse that protection to commit crimes here how should we deal with that and those are the questions that people expect answers to but they don't text back to us to discuss three years later whether what happened in two thousand and fifteen was right or wrong with. america's refugee policy has come under heavy criticism not least from one of crime current beaus contenders for the party leadership. on who currently serves as health minister and her cabinet met with c.d.u. members in north rhine-westphalia on tuesday along with three melts who is also standing both is seen as more conservative than the chancellor and have vowed to move the c.d.u. further to the right the new leader will be elected at a party conference on the seventh of december. now some other stories making news around the world reports from pakistan suggest

a christian woman recent recently released from death row was out of jail and on the move but right now her status is not clear some officials say aasia b.b. has just been transferred to a facility in islamabad for security reasons but local media say authorities are preparing to fly her out of the country last week pakistan's supreme court acquitted her of blasphemy charges that triggered violent protests by islamist groups who want to see her publicly executed. in cameroon seventy nine boarding school students who were kidnapped by separatists have been released reports say the kidnappers are still holding three adult hostages from the school the children aged between eleven and seventeen were seized early monday morning in bomb end of the capital of the northwest region no single group says it carried out the kidnapping but separatist militias have been calling for us to boycott. in rwanda the country's leading political dissident has gone on trial diane reul ghara is

a vocal critic of president paul good for me a she's attacked him over his human rights record last year she was barred from running against him in elections which she won with more than ninety eight percent of the world gar appeared in court on wednesday along with her mother they're facing charges of inciting insurrection against the government with prosecutors seeking twenty two year jail sentences both women spent more than a year in prison before being released on bail last month were garra has dismissed the accusations calling them politically motivated a verdict from the high court is expected next month. to sports now and in football byron munich have edged closer to the champions league knockout stages with a two nil win over a ek athens rubber glove and scored both goals to ease the pressure on coach nico colebatch elsewhere manchester city made easy work of shakhtar donetsk but they'll have to wait to confirm their place in the last sixteen after hoffenheim last gasp equaliser in a two all draw with lille real madrid also enjoyed

a big win meanwhile manchester united stunned eventis with two late goals cancelling out a strike from christiane no we're not zero. boxing superstar floyd mayweather has canceled a planned fight with japanese kickboxer tend to kahwa saying he never agreed to an official bout on monday mayweather appeared at a press conference in tokyo to announce a fight scheduled for new year's eve but the undefeated boxing world champion wrote on instagram that he was quote blindsided by the arrangement thinking it was only for a small group of wealthy spectators mayweather added he had never heard of until this week. enjoy it your gramophone company celebrated its one hundred twentieth anniversary last evening in the berlin philharmonic hall with

a concert film featuring two of the world's classical mega stars the german violinist and us of what are seen here in rehearsals and the chinese pianist lang lang. minus ocean water is considered one of the greatest violinists of all time she's been recording for deutsche grammophon for forty years one third of the company's history so what makes the label some special in her opinion. this is a company which has a treasure chest of historic recordings and that is actually always the groundwork not only for music lovers in the audience but for young musicians they should go for oh check what early are. generations have have achieved have done have been dreaming off as intellectual concepts of pieces.

pianist lang lang has also recorded for deutsche grammophon at thirty six the chinese born musician represents a younger generation and has a strong appeal for young audiences he feels that classical music is still important in the modern age. classical really has been around for you know hundreds of years and been such. inspirational. emotional meaning been drawing a ball. park for and. when you listen to a classical music it makes all your sense senses are open you know and i know in that because we cannot just live in a world on the surface. with artists like lang lang and on his

a few more talk don't you come a phone is well positioned for the next one hundred twenty years. all right we just have time for a mind of our top stories here on d w u.s. attorney general jeff sessions has been forced out of his job session says he is stepping down as president donald trump's request she has been the target of trump's attacks since recusing himself from the investigation into links between trump's presidential campaign and russia. and president trump has attributed republican gains in the midterms to his campaigning trumps republicans lost control of the house but increased their senate majority. thanks for watching t.v. we're back at the top the hour.

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move the stories about motivational change makers taking their destinies into their own hands gently double using multimedia series for africa. d.w. dot com found. hi everybody welcome to another edition of your own lifestyle a year up and you know what christmas is knocking on our dos again and one topic in the show but we have a lot small besides. that sinking feeling a tale of a german world war two suffering.