from the party to flash from housing boom boom town this is where. the 77 percent. this weekend d.w. . this is news and these are our top stories british prime minister boris johnson has announced a new nationwide lockdown for england until at least mid february to combat a fast spreading new coronavirus variant he told people to stay is home and said that all schools and non-essential shops will close england's chief medical officer has warned that without action the country's health system could be overwhelmed in the coming weeks. and saudi arabia is opening its as sea and land borders with

qatar it's a 1st step towards ending a 3 year diplomatic crisis that has deeply divided u.s. allies in the region the lifting off the embargo paves the way for catch us ruler to attend tuesday's summit of gulf leaders inside the arabia. supporters of julian assange on shah celebrating a london court decision to reject the united states request to extradite the wiki leaks founder the judge said extradition would be oppressive and damage the australians of mental health. would have face faced up to 175 years in prison if convicted. this is news from berlin follow us on twitter on instagram d w news or visit our website w dot com. the u.s. government wants julian assange is to face charges that could see him jail for up

to 175 years for leaking secret documents 10 years ago he's a lawyer say the government only wants him because he revealed evidence of u.s. war crimes and human rights abuses well today a british judge cited mostly with the u.s. government but still refused his extradition because of mr songs his fragile mental health so what happens next i'm phil gayle and this is the day. today is a victory for julian it's a victory and. everybody everyone that works this as today security is the 1st step towards justice in this case it is time to be united states to shut down extraordinary prosecution which has massive free speech. not. with strong arm got.

underscoring the right approach. for experience. mr president tear down means business enough is enough we've had enough of this free julian. crap. also on the day trump on tape the u.s. president of precious they talk and action official in the u.s. state of georgia to find him enough votes to overturn his election loss we took the call. conversation he did most of the talking with the most listening but i didn't want to make the data that he has is just plain wrong. welcome to the day a british judge has ruled that wiki leaks founder julian assange is cannot be extradited to the united states to face espionage charges the judge said that at. addition would be oppressive to mr soldier's mental health the u.s.

says it will appeal to julian associates an australian citizen sheltering in britain from the us government and could face prison sentences of up to 175 years. no sooner had trickled out of the court room and his supporters began celebrating and chanting. the static that after 10 years of legal fights they had some form of victory. we welcome today's decision we are relieved that mr sands will not be extradited to the united states we share concerns about his health and his mental health we have been highlighting this for quite some time that he has been vulnerable that we have we have stated and i'll repeat today that his extradition was a possible matter of life or death. earlier songes team began the day with low expectations. of his fiance had called on donald trump to pardon the father of her 2 children. he arrived at the court in the back

of this high security back. inside the courtroom the judge dismissed most of us on his defense but she conceded that his mental health was such that to extradite him would be oppressive. to so many people legal battle began with a video that shocked the world classified footage of u.s. apache attack helicopters killing iraqi civilians and journalists released by a song that will shape an understanding of what the past 6 years avoids being why. the u.s. accused him and wiki leaks of being enemy combatants. for the past decade 3 feet in fear in asuncion always maintained he was a journalist. the saga is not over yet the u.s. government said it will appeal today's decision. well today's court ruling follows

the highly critical finding signals that the un special rapporteur on torture he sounded the alarm on the state of julian associates health after visiting him in britain's belmarsh high security prison with a team of doctors today on twitter mr saunders lawyer or not i feel or i thought the un team for their efforts saying it and probably saved the wiki leaks founder as life nils meltzer spoke with the w today and told us what prompted him to get involved in this case. in the beginning i refused to actually get into this case because i was very much marked by the same prejudices that the broader public has been affected by through the mainstream press reporting on this response for 10 years it was only when i started to actually look into pieces of evidence to see that that whole narrative that has been spread about him for so long. was not supported by evidence and that's what triggered my interest in this case and i then visited him together with

a medical team in belmarsh prison and we found that he showed all the symptoms that are typical for persons that have been exposed to psychological torture for a prolonged period of time it's important to clarify that obviously modern forms of torture. that cannot be compared to the kind of medieval forms of physical torture . is very much a cumulative process off the stabilising people through isolation. and really a sion itself judicial harassment which and i mean by this judicial proceedings that are not based on law but they're being conducted for political purposes we're profit dual rights are systematically being violated and so the person is being destabilized systematically they're seeing that in many countries in the world many regimes that try to use torture methods that don't be physical process and in the end it breaks a person and we actually have a confirmation of that precise process in the today's judgment because it confirms

that julian a found mental health is so fragile today that he cannot even be extradited to the u.s. without risking his suicide and that actually confirms that his mental health has deteriorated dramatically and that's also what we have observed together with my medical t. . well nils meltzer is also urging donald trump to pardon julia so much during his final weeks as president that call has been echoed by another man but u.s. prosecutors are keen to extradite edward snowden today on twitter mr snowden welcomed the u.k. decision saying let this be the end of it. and with less than 3 weeks left of his presidency don't trump apparently still hopes to overturn his election defeat to joe biden over the weekend a recording emerged of mr trump pressing officials in georgia to change the outcome

of the state's presidential election georgia has already counted its ballots 3 times and has certified biden's win by $11779.00 votes but donald trump remains adamant that he won the race is an excerpt of that call a play by the washington post no luck at all i want to do is as i use one of. the. 11780 loves which is one more that we have because we want to say the people of yours you're angry at the people that can't hear anything and there's nothing wrong with saying that you know. 2 2 that you've recalculated well mr president determines that you have is the data you have is wrong phone call has outraged democrats and even a few republicans several lawmakers have called for the f.b.i. to open a criminal investigation and mr trump's comments also drew condemnation from vice

president elect kamel harris. certainly then. and it was. buz powered by the president and the united. well let's pick that up with gloria j. brown marshall who's an associate professor of constitutional law at the city university of new york's john jay college of criminal justice her latest book is called she took justice the black woman law and power she joins us from new york city you know welcome back to d.w. so did president trump to do anything illegal in that call to broad raffensperger not so much illegal and that she abused his power as president he wasn't preach this time about this time last year so this would have been an impeachable offense

the problem is he's heard it the law he presented evidence to make it appear is though he was asking based on evidence not just abuse of power so therefore even though some people have said it was an out in out crime i would have to say constitutionally it was an abuse of power was it a criminal misuse of power i think it might be difficult but i do believe that when he says the american people and the people of georgia are outraged they're outraged with his behavior and his desperation and not so much outraged by the fact that he's still trying to cling onto power and he deserves it i think he is the usual when it comes to that ok now as part of this call mr trump warns the georgia's republican secretary of state that by refusing to recalculate the presidential vote in the state he would deter fellow republicans from voting in tuesday's runoff

senate elections why is of the georgia runoff. taking up so much political oxygen. because in this country there are $100.00 senators and right now it would be a $5050.00 split in the senate with democrats and republicans having equal power in the senate the senators sit for 6 years and want term 6 year terms and so therefore for the next 6 years there would be equal power in the senate and a democratic controlled house and a democrat in the white house and sell the senate has been backing up george not just what georgia has been doing as far as some of the republican controlled you know maneuverings and clinical circles but has been backing down trump and backing out a very conservative agenda backing these conservative u.s.

supreme court justices it would be a turn around well turn around for power ok so when we heard in that call in that subset that are out there we heard brad ruff and specter standing up to the president and lot of people saying that he's a hero but his critics are saying that this is a man who has presided over a state election system that has disenfranchised black and brown voters it's not fair yes it is and here is you know basically the roosters have come home because the republicans especially have been following almost in a cult like fashion and jim jones kept enough chaos and down truck to the point in which now they're they've been falling over the precipice and so the same people who were willing to disenfranchise african-americans latinos and other voters of color have now found this this dog is going back to bite them and bring them so sorry to interrupt you but briefly what did they do in georgia to disenfranchise.

they did 3 major things one they had a limited number of places for people to vote so the lines were hours long to vote in this democracy on the hill the 2nd thing they did was to make sure that people had to have photo id they had to make sure that they had the exact same signature on the signature line that they had been initially started to vote and it could have been 20 years ago they filled out the voter registration card and the last thing they did was to send out this information about the canvas well beyond anything you would find in unusual for the gore campaign so that this information everything that took place was supposed to undermine the black voters and of course find people with felony convictions and try to disenfranchise them from voting so there was a lot that went into the undermining of the black vote and that's why i've these places and lands that the true a philadelphia places where there are majority black voters they were the ones who

voted for biden and that's why they're the focus of donald trump's revenge so given the how divided and indeed finely balanced the u.s. political system is out of the moment when he's president joe biden will have to fight for every vote every piece of legislation he wants to pass what's he going to have to sacrifice what are the big things he'll have to sacrifice to get a little guy. that's why these 2 senators in georgia are so important because if he has a republican controlled senate he won't get anything done nothing will be able to get passed but if you can do something about climate change if you can make decisions about criminal justice reform we need national criminal justice reform to keep these by police officers from murdering people of color in particular african-americans and change criminal justice laws we need to make sure that when it comes to this the coronavirus we have no leadership we're being dot we're dying

in such high numbers of being you know has cast aside for the most part are cast aside and donald trump focuses on stealing the white house and people are dying by by a 1000 sometimes 3000 a day so we need something to happen with coronavirus there's so much that needs to be done and hopefully we can get back to the economy that's falling apart so he might just get a little bit done but it's a lot more and we'll be able to get done in the last 2 months since we've had this election thank you for joining us good talking to gloria jay brown marshall from the john jay college of criminal justice thank you. tuesday is a special runoff election will decide whether joe biden can push his agenda through congress democrats will soon hold the white house on the house of representatives but if republicans control the senate and likely to frustrate the new president at every turn so here's the current balance of power in the senate where republicans

have a 51 of the 100 seats democrats and 2 independent allies hold 48 seats so to take power in the senate democrats need to win both of the ga seats currently off for grabs where vice president elect to come a couple harvests at deciding vote that would create a majority of $51.00. a closer look at the contestants in that georgia runoff 2 democrats john asaf and raphael warnock and 2 republicans they've had enough and that kelly. and david you so the polls show the party's neck and neck with the democrats having a slight advantage so d.w. so all of a solid reports now from georgia on this crucial vote. it's people like julius hall who the democrats are now pinning their hopes on these among thousands of activists getting out the vote across georgia. african americans

might be the decisive force in this runoff you know and. it's and they're trying to get there by the get out and vote we've been behind so long in this country. and so when you get a sense of you were on the rise and things are happening where we are there is some inclusion and then you get the clown that takes office for 4 years which is donald trump now we get rid of him and we feel like we can over again. john also as one of 2 democratic candidates it's a race the 33 year old senate hopeful must win for the democrats to gain control of congress. right now. in america because the stakes are high and so are his goals for. establishing health care as a human right in the united states investing in clean and renewable energy to

create jobs and solve the environmental crisis passing a new civil rights act to secure equal justice for all regardless of the race the runoff is a big corporate unity full democratic hopeful john also in his attempt to unseat the republican incumbent david perdue but the runnels remain a neck and neck race in georgia. has been a republican stronghold for decades until now also who knows the fate of the biden presidency lies in his hands. on the republican side senator ted cruz wants to stop congress from certifying biden's victory he's under fire from democrats for his push to throw out the election results and he's rallying for turnout in georgia . and. i've got faith and confidence in the middle women of georgia i think the people of georgia believe in commonsense values they believe in low taxes low regulations and

lots of jobs and i think the people of georgia want to see a check and a balance on the extreme left wing. former trump campaign manager core $11.00 ski took the stage among several other big republican names like former senior white house adviser kelly and calling with. the spaces remain half empty after weeks of baseless claims of all voter fraud some conservatives are skeptical about the electoral process all of us are concerned that is our event going to count doesn't matter because i really do believe that that just like with the national election there's a chance that they are going to be able to manipulate the dominion south or machines again here in gwinnett county georgia right now and i've lived here for 30 years and there is no way on god's green earth that this county went democrat in the general election. less republican turnout more democratic turnout

a scenario that activists julius hall is hoping for on election day. after the i think kingdom which is facing a severe wave of coverage infections which threatens to overwhelm its public health system that has prompted the government to take additional action to combat a new fast spreading coronavirus variant he said i scotland imposed tight new measures now u.k. prime minister blair is johnson has announced a national lockdown for england until at least the middle of february as i speak to you tonight our hospitals around the more pressure from the any time since the start of the pandemic with most of the country already under extreme measures it's clear that we need to do together to bring these new variant under control

while our vaccines are rolled out in england we was there for going to a national lockdown which is tough enough to contain this berry and that means the government is once again instructing you to stay at home while the new restrictions care the end of a day that started with a glimmer of hope for the arrival of a 2nd covered 19 vaccine in the u.k. the shot was developed in coordination in cooperation between oxford university and british pharmaceutical company astra zeneca it could prove to have an edge for some countries who are struggling to deploy mass immunizations. a milestone for britain as it became the 1st country to administer the oxford astra zeneca vaccine more than half a 1000000 doses have been made available for the 1st 24 hours alone it comes as britain struggles with a surge in corona virus infections including

a highly contagious variant this 82 year old was 1st in the queue for the jab. goal of the vaccine is over take 2 radio minute to minute. get him back to normal lawyer. you know all this forces turn. and it was a proud moment for this oxford alumnus who was next in line. is it's wonderful and it's good to be able to tell all the people who want to hear this it's going to go away quickly and as quickly as you can. britain has called it a scientific triumph the shot is less expensive and is easier to store than other covert 19 vaccines. but some are proceeding with caution it has yet to be approved in the e.u. and france's data for the job is insufficient you spoke with

a viral just in the u.k. who said the information has not been made available. to date at that media group for this vaccine is only belonging to the government that is not publicly available and according to the government is like this that if the 1st nose is given the person there is around 70 percent of the k.c. and then if it is the 2nd those given that it will be around 80 percent efficacy. actually months but that is something that we haven't seen the debt as so therefore all is in the air and we don't really know how as a case just would it be particularly. the european medicines agency has said it is unlikely that the astra zeneca vaccine will be approved for the e.u. in january. here in germany media reports are suggesting the country's about to extend its lockdown till the end of january this is ahead of a meeting between chancellor i'm going to machall and the country's 16 regional

leaders on tuesday weeks of tougher restrictions have so far failed to bring down infection rates many parts of public life including restaurants shops on schools remain closed. monday was meant to be the 1st day back at school after the christmas holidays but classrooms across germany remained empty most students saw their vacation time extended until january 10th well others attended classes virtually calls are growing across the country 1st schools to stay closed even longer or to only open partially in berlin opinions on the matter very. thank you i have 2 children myself one in high school and one in elementary school i think schools should remain closed a little longer even though it's difficult for us parents. perhaps we can find a good balance with some learning at home and others allowed to be in school. i think that as long as the lockdown stays in place and i expect it will be extended

children should stay at home. hope for a return to normal lives with the vaccine germany has so far administered almost 266000 jobs but the government is coming under pressure it's vaccination program has been criticized for being slow and chaotic but ektachrome or the man who coordinated the construction of berlin 6 vaccination centers says he would like to see more doses available. we clearly don't have an effect seems for all vaccination centers to be operational my hope or my expectation is that we'll have a lot of vaccine doses soon on the one hand though it was also good to be able to phase in the vaccination centers in phases one after the other but if you initial problems are to be expected. germany is still under lockdown and will remain so for at least another week chancellor unget american will meet with the state premiers

on tuesday to this site on the way forward new cases and deaths have remained high over the holiday period and the situation in germany is hospitals is very difficult all signs point to an extension of the current lockdown. and that was the day as ever they conversation continues online your honour's on twitter at the w. news don't forget to use the hash tag of the day have a good day give us a sense. boy . oh boy.

the from. the christmas season has come tony i'm obviously gay and everything is almost back to. triumph minds doesn't stand a chance dog of the day i'm also a. bit string winning away in christmas and there's just no end to shocks me. on.

his life and the work i have been romanticized and market internationally vincent van gough we take a look at the man behind the legend. who was. how did he become. in a world wide phenomenon on the 138 enter 1st 3 of his dad vincent van goth superstar. in 45 minutes on d w. the story of prejudice and propaganda. they were called the rhineland bastards. their mothers were germans living in the occupied rhineland their father's soldiers from the french colonies. up in

a climate of national pride and racism. list documentary examines the few traces that remain of their existence because the joke . starts january 11th d w. i am. happy.