this is news coming to you live from berlin. election rally with balance of power in washington at stake joe biden tells voters in the state of georgia they can chart the country's course for a generation by electing 2 democrats to the senate and repeating unfounded claims urges what he calls a republican victory so big the democrats can't steal. also coming up british prime minister boris johnson puts england back into a hard lock down test run a virus infections surge he warns hospitals are under more pressure than it any

time since the start of the pandemic. and germany ready to extend its down as leaders meet to map the path through the. hello i'm terry march and good to have you with us u.s. president donald trump has repeated unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud on the eve of a senate runoff election taking place in the state of georgia trump made the claims had an election rally in support of 2 republican candidates trying to fend off a strong challenge by democratic rivals u.s. president elect joe biden also campaigned in georgia if both democrats win both seats they will control both chambers of congress. a final pitch to voters that could reshape politics in georgia and the nation the head of tuesday's

vote democrats raphael warnock and john asaf were confident of victory. george's but this is a bit too is this is. just. what will the customer is coming to. both candidates also getting a late assist from the president elect joe biden's ability to implement his political agenda would be boosted by democratic victories here the power the power is learning in your hands unlike any time in my career one story one story can chart the course not just for the next 4 years but for the next generation. democrats may also be hoping to capitalize on recent comments from donald trump on sunday audio emerged of the u.s. president pressuring the state's top election official to alter the state's

presidential election results citing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. no all i want to do is as i use one of my. 11780. which is one more that we have. because we won this night. on the eve of the runoff georgia's secretary of state dismissed trump's claims once again. it's just been a big canard it's been a red herring people trying to blame shift and find excuses why they didn't turn their people out to win as a republican i'm disappointed with those results. but trump isn't backing down the u.s. president flew to georgia to campaign for the state's republican senate candidates he once more refused to acknowledge his election. it. was thank you very much georgia by the way there is no way we are sure to this.

was there were but his time in the white house may soon be ending but donald trump seems determined not to go quietly. stated by evans from our u.s. elections team is here with us good to see you stacey so this doubleheader right all in georgia is happening under extraordinary circumstances not least because of donald trump's efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election what impact is trump having on these senate races and georgia well it's not just the senate race it's just overall we're watching an american president chip away at democracy by accepting experienced peers he theories and misinformation and he's doing it to selfishly hung hold on to power and this phone call was amazing because we heard donald trump in his own words 1st try to control

then bully then threaten the secretary of state into finding him 11000 votes it's really unbelievable and how this is played out though in the senate races in georgia let's to really to tell because the election hasn't started just yet but tom's base is his base right so they're going to come out and vote for him no matter what there was early voting already the democrats have come up relatively strong 3000000 people have already voted there's 5 and a half 1000000 people that are registered in georgia so we'll have to see but his supporters say that they make excuses for why he's done with me and said what he said and democrats say they're going to come out because ok these senate races in georgia are hugely important everyone agrees on that cerberus what exactly. is at stake in these elections and well the course of the united states it's not it's a set stake yes joe biden has won the election but he needs help from the senate so

when you're looking at in order to further his agenda so when you're looking at health care handling kovac the economy the environment his nominations for his cabinet those positions aren't set in stone yet he needs approval from senate from the senate to make it happen and then during his presidency there will be federal judges that positions that might open up and who knows what will happen with the supreme court so for the democrats this is very important to stop the gridlock and for the republicans if they don't want the country to go as far left as they fear it will be they need these votes ok so the democrats are hoping to get a majority in the senate so they can help biden with his with his legislative agenda georgia is a traditional republican stronghold so why do democrats think they can flip these 2 senate seats well the ground game is a very strong number one they were able to flip. the presidential race for joe biden and they've been on the ground for so long for over

a decade they've been working really hard states the abrams who lost her girl tauriel race and 2016. has been very effective in getting more black and brown people to the polls that they feel that georgia is and play to extinction thank you so much for your insights so she begins from our u.s. election time. now to some of the other stories making headlines around the world today saudi arabia is opening its air sea and land borders with qatar it's a 1st step towards ending a diplomatic crisis that has deeply divided u.s. allies in the region since 2017 the lifting of the embargo paves the way for qataris ruler to attend tuesday's summit of gulf leaders in saudi arabia. in the central african republic president. to adela has won a 2nd term according to official results he secured more than 53 percent of the vote in in the vote held on december 27th the election was disrupted by rebel

groups the u.s. justice department says it will appeal after a british court rejected a request to extradite with the leaks founder julian a song the leader of the drug judge rather said it was at extreme he was a good at explaining risk of suicide faces espionage charges in the u.s. for publishing a trove of secret government documents and a decade ago one of the oil why british prime minister boris johnson has announce it now it's a new nationwide lockdown for england lasting until at least mid february to combat a fast spreading new coronavirus berry and it follows a warning from england's chief medical officer that without action the country's health system could be overwhelmed in the coming weeks. desperate times call for desperate measures with boris johnson announcing england would move into its national lockdown similarly strict to the 1st one that began last march that means

the government is once again instructing you to stay at home. you may only leave home for limited reasons permitted in law such as too short for essentials to work if you absolutely cannot work from home to exercise to seek medical assistance such as getting a test or to escape domestic abuse. with england experiencing a 50 percent jump in the number of patients in hospital with covert 900 since christmas day scientists hospitals teachers unions and opposition politicians have all called for decisive action in recent weeks. many parents support in the coming days because the schools are shut businesses will need support because they won't be able to operate that package needs to be put in place the soonest possible because compliance needs you know clear messaging but also support

for people to make sure that they can comply. in wales where patients were among the 1st to receive the u.k.'s 2nd approved vaccine produced by astra zeneca tough lock down measures have been in place since the 20th of december. hours before johnson's announcement scotland's 1st minister nicolas sturgeon imposed similar restrictions while northern ireland's executives are expected to follow suit. british hospitals now have more covert 19 patients than at the height of the pandemic in spring with resources low and stuff overwhelmed. so. many. things aren't expected to improve immediately in spring it took nearly 3 weeks

after the introduction of the lockdown for hospitalizations to reach their peak. and while england imposes a strict lockdown germany may be looking to extend its chancellor angela merkel meets with regional leaders in coming hours in the coming hours to discuss extending coronavirus restrictions as infection rates across the country remain high current measures keeping stores schools and services closed have been in place across germany since mid december the lockdown was due to and next week reports say german lawmakers have agreed to extend the current measures to last until the end of the month. let's bring in political correspondent julie saw deli here in chile a germany's 16 federal states have a lot of authority to set their own policies what can we expect them to agree on in their meeting with chancellor merkel today. we see quite some consensus building

around of the need to extend the current lockdown in place we expect it to be extended until the end of january most likely without much fuss but there are some other points that might be a bit trickier to decide upon especially looking at schools and child care now schools have mostly remain open in germany throughout the fall they have at 1st been close with the current lockdown mid december and they are expected to remain close until january 10th calls are growing for schools may remain closed even longer or to only open partially and the 16 culture and education ministers of the states have come up with a plan that they're proposing to only go back to school in phases so the younger children 1st and then gradually the older students but only partially some students in class and some students at home so this issue might be a little tougher to find agreement on and states could also go it alone on the

issue again a lot of things have already been closed since the beginning of november bars restaurants all leisure facilities and schools and shops have been closed since mid december yet infection rates remain high is it safe to say the government's strategy in tackling the 2nd wave of the pandemic has failed so far. well one thing we should keep in mind is that currently it's hard to have a clear idea of the numbers because over the holiday period there are some reporting lags in terms of numbers of deaths and of new cases so at the moment numbers are fluctuating we haven't seen them drop significantly so it will still take some time to see what the numbers are actually doing want to point though is the incidence rate of cases at the moment here in germany there are 139 cases per 100000 inhabitants over 7 days the aim is to bring that number down below 50 and

that is clearly still far away and that's why the states and the federal government are considering keeping the restrictions in place. germany vaccination program which been criticized for being slow and chaotic were expectations too high on going into the vaccination. that's what the critics are claiming here in germany. health minister young spawn is claiming the opposite he says that expectations are being met the issue with the doses and. critics are saying that not enough vaccine was ordered he's claiming that enough was ordered the issue was that it wasn't delivered and produced because of production lags due also to the high requests of vaccines around the world vaccinations and there is already the go they are saying that those. are not coming in or they could administer more if they were there but the health minister said what was meant to

be delivered by the end of the year of 2020 was delivered and the expects for more 1000000 more doses by the end of january so he is optimistic that the program will be carried out judy thank you very much correspondent julia so deadly. you're watching and v.w. news business is next with rob watts. immigrants. know the police will stop but. they know that the road is not the solution. they know their flight could be. going back.