this is t w news coming to you live from berlin germany reports of its highest daily death rate from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic in one of the worst affected parts of the country the eastern state of saxony it's not just hospitals that are working to capacity crematoriums are also struggling to keep up with the surge and it's also coming out relief in sight for truck drivers stranded in southern england as france lifts its credit risk blockade france will allow truckers to crawl space provided if they test negative 90. and the buyers reaches

the last code 903 continent on earth a research station in tempe arctic those who did break chile's military says 36 people are affected despite bases being under strict orangey. and israel heads for its 4th election in 2 years prime minister benjamin netanyahu says feel when israel's longest serving leader could face a stiff challenge from a former ally. hello i'm terry martin good to have you with us germany has reported 962 deaths from corona virus in the past 24 hours the country's highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic a grim milestone. comes

a week after germany type measures in a bid to contain the spread of virus during an upcoming holiday period in other countries hard hit by the 2nd wave of actions it's not just hospitals that are struggling to cope. they have been working round the clock at mice incriminatory i'm the coronavirus means have had to deal with many more bodies this year. this year old coffins have covered 19 victims inside with a safety precautions in place it's nearly impossible to have direct contact with the dead and cannot come. here in the state of saxony maximum capacity that half the coffins have a coronavirus stick a highly infectious the state premier is warning residents the next 10 weeks will be the most difficult. and it. will be

a 3rd wave the question is how high. and everyone who is dealing with this is war and that how much higher than the current pick it will climb. the number of new infections might last be leveling out to people in mice and one at ces from their late is just kind of great there were no clear rules no one is going outside anymore people are infecting their own families some people are following all the rules and others a coming up with their own theories they say there is no corona virus. but every day there are more coffins in the criminal containing the bodies of covered 19 victims. france has technically lifted its coronavirus blockade and will now allow truck drivers stranded in southern england to cross into the country but they 1st have to test negative for covert 19 france is also allowing passengers from you countries to travel from

britain borders were closed to travelers from the u.k. on sunday after a fast spreading coronavirus variant was identified there britain says it will take $2.00 to $3.00 days to process the current backlog of vehicles. what a way to spend the last days before christmas hundreds of trucks queued on the road to dover in a line that stretches on and on and on for dozens of kilometers some pulled over into the service stations it's here we need. not log on to from germany. we want to spend christmas at home with our family it will be very bad if we can't. my wife has been really upset since she found out about all this but what can i do often. these drivers couldn't have known the french quarter would suddenly slam shut on sunday since they've been stranded here so i'm forced to literally live life on the road their anger growing as the hours pass. away and here they predate the

people you see here. what. the closure of dover didn't just her drivers one 5th of all goods bound for britain pass through the ports supermarkets and warned of short as is of basic goods if the port had remained closed much longer a key demand from france before reopening its border was testing the drivers getting those tests up for money you know can happen relatively quickly but in terms of the details of that that is something that both the transport sector in his counterpart will be discussing right now so i don't want to speculate in terms of you know the nature of the tested and how soon that could be up from one. all truckers will now be tested but that is said to be a huge logistical challenge with thousands stuck on various roads and time is of the essence only when test results come back negative when the stranded truckers finally be allowed to head home. chile's military says the

credit iris has reached a research station in antarctica at least 36 people have been in their binondo hagan's base. earlier this month the announcement means the pandemic has reached every continent on earth and arctic bases have been under strict quarantine. antarctica one of the last truly pristine places on earth several nations maintain research centers here chile's but not a higgins base is permanently staffed and run by its military until now research is on the continent thought that largely escaped the coronavirus pandemic then chile's military announced the 1st cases. of their p.c. artists showed that 36 men tested positive for covert 19 of which 26 were army personnel and 10 were civilians from a contracting company doing shared maintenance work. army officials

confirmed and up to 21 people aboard a navy supply ship had been infected and one more case was detected at the nearby research village with a navy ship docked surrounded by icebergs and oceans the research stations here are some of the most remote on the planet. the arrival of the virus is concerning doctors they fear it could be much more dangerous in such harsh conditions. i mchugh nick was you thinking we know that exposure to extreme weather affects a person's physiology when we see isolation the change in seasonal lives with that seasonal sensitivity can also be immunosuppressive we know there are several components that may further affect people and lower their immune systems in extreme conditions especially with the work they do with it. but so far

none of the infected a said to be experiencing serious complications. and with no other countries having reported any cases there is hope that the outbreak could be containable. us president donald trump has threatened to reject a new coronavirus relief package passed by congress on monday the $900000000000.00 bipartisan bill was approved after months of wrangling between democrats and republicans trump has called on congress to amend the bill saying they should increase funding for individuals and small businesses the president is due to leave office on january 20th but as we'll hear in this clip he still refuses to concede election defeat however the bill they are now planning to send back to my desk is much different than anticipated it really is a disgrace congress found plenty of money for foreign countries lobbyists and special interests while sending the bare minimum to the american people who need it

it wasn't their fault it was shite is fault i am asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculous lilo $600.00 to $2000.00 or $4000.00 for a couple or else the next administration will have to deliver a covert relief package and maybe that it ministration will be me. or washington correspondent in as paul is following the story for she sent us this is us. after weeks of negotiations and late nights on capitol hill between members of congress president old trump is now threatening to kill the much needed coronavirus stimulus bill republicans and democrats have been scrambling to pull together legislations that will deliver cash directly to americans extend unemployment relieve and put a temporary hold on the fictions but much like donald trump's whole presidency

nothing goes by the book while millions of americans continue to struggle and face poverty trump has decided to use his last days in the white house to cause more chaos and uncertainty in the lives of the most needy trump has been largely absent in any negotiations and has not shown a villainous to even show up when the american people need him the most and now in the 11th hour trump is once again not just hurting his constituency but the party that he has claimed his own if you do science to veto this bill republicans could lose the senate when voters head to the polls in georgia on general 5th trump may have lost but he's bringing everyone down with him. let's take a look at some other stories making headlines around the world today u.s. president all from has announced so wave of pardons including 4 former government

contractors convicted of killing unarmed iraqi civilians also pardoned former republican congressman found guilty of corruption and a former campaign aide convicted of lying under oath during an investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election. commercial flights between israel and morocco started after the countries agreed to normalize relations the 1st flight from tel aviv arrived in rabat carrying a delegation including u.s. envoy jared cushion it's the latest diplomatic deal between the jewish state and arab nations 5 protests from palestine. israel is set to hold its 4th election in 2 years in march after parliament failed to meet a deadline to pass a budget prime minister binyamin netanyahu says he will win that poll but he is engaged in a corruption trial and faces public anger over his handling of the current virus

pandemic and now has blamed the budget deadlock on his coalition partner defense minister any guns they formed a unity government in may after 3 inconclusive elections guns had been set to take over from netanyahu but their failure to agree a budget means that will no longer happen. well joining me now is our correspondent tanya kramer in jerusalem tanya tell us more about why these snap elections have been called now. well basically this unity government or coalition government couldn't agree on the state budget for 2020 so the deadline expired at midnight and that man the knesset had to disperse or to dissolve and that automatically triggered it's now early elections which will be held in march and this comes just 7 months after this unity government was formed basically an emergency government to deal with the corona

pandemic but they couldn't agree on nearly anything. they also accused kept on accusing each other of breaking coalition agreements q zing between that and yeah you could party and who and why it's a penny gun so for many israelis this government came to a natural and but it also means they have to get go again to the polls for forest time within 2 years and prime minister been in many netanyahu course going to stand again and what do these fluxions mean for him. well if you look at the polls right now and of course it's still early on this would basically play out within the political right netanyahu is a good party is doing quite well he dropped a bit in the latest polls but what is different this time is the field of

contenders arrival of mr netanyahu is only could party just formed a new party this also the party of naftali bennett who is doing quite well at the polls and of course the. blue and white party that was a real strong contender in the last 3 elections and then eventually formed a coalition partner they are doing very poorly so what some commentators here are saying it's again an election that rather focuses on the pro netanyahu vote or against netanyahu and less on issues that are important to israelis like the economy like the handling of the pandemic or the vaccination program that has just started so but it's still early on i have to say it's still 90 days to go to the elections and a lot of things can happen within those 3 months of trying to thank you very much the w.'s tanya kramer there in jerusalem. you're watching d.w. news coming up next chris coworker with d.w. business will be here over to you get all the latest news information around the

clock on our web site that's t w dot com i'm terry martin in berlin you'll find me on twitter at t.m. news stream thanks ringless. the story of producer and propaganda. they were called the right mind bastards born after the 1st world war. their mothers were germans living in the occupied rhineland their father's soldiers from the front.