this is newsnight from germany is extended until at least the. state leaders also announce new tougher restrictions including limits on travel in coronavirus hotspots also on the program the u.s. state of georgia goes out to vote in 2 kings but often actions at stake is control of the u.s. senate. and from the go to embrace saudi arabia and it's stylised restored full relations with. a damaging 3 year diplomatic mission.

i'm phil gal welcome to the program. germany is extending its national coronavirus lock down by 3 weeks to me and january the decision follows a meeting between chance of our. country's 16 state leaders which they also were grateful for the tightened some restrictions on public life including private gatherings of people living in places hardest hit by infection will also see their freedom of movement restricted is the chancellor. calling all citizens to reduce their contacts to others to an absolute minimum and an extension of the congress traditions on private gatherings people will only be allowed to meet those from their own households plus one other person from another household you know but

even. that's a significant reduction from the contrary a 5 people from 2 households holes they are muslim because of regarding the previously agreed strategy on what happens in areas with more than $200.00 infections per 100000 inhabitants. we've decided on a further possible measure which is limiting people's movement to a radius of 15 kilometers from the home unless they have a compelling reason to do otherwise these are of course doctors appointments or places of employment which must be visited tourist day trips in particular are not compelling reasons to get kind 15 or let's get more on this from database chief political editor. welcome because tell us more about the decisions that came out of today's meeting. well this clearly signals that the government believes that there are still yet worse times to come under the mantle also stressed that

the data was a bit shaky that they had to decide on and that there were grave concerns particular looking towards britain where this new strain of the virus is far more contagious than the corona strain that is currently seen mostly in germany so big concerns looking into the future and that's why this goes beyond those appeals we saw before christmas that the now it will be also illegal measures in place essentially forcing people to give up those contacts restricting even more how many people can gather only one guest can come round for tea basically visiting one family and also once again the appeal to that already stricken economy here to employers to let people work from home in 3 weeks there will be the next gathering and clearly it's not being ruled out that we could see yet more restrictions put in place so how are germans likely to react. well they are actually likely to at

least accept it many even welcome it the polling here in germany has continuously shown support for yet more restrictions folded lockdowns we've seen going into this deeper and deeper lockdown recently people a significant amount of people even wanted a tougher lock down that's what's going to happen now so there's strong backing for the government in particular machall who only 2 months ago failed to get state premiers behind the line that was recommended by scientists all along to have an early deep lockdown so it doesn't have to last too long and so it makes a real difference now we're seeing that those vaccinations are simply not being rolled out fast enough as a large scale enough to make a real difference. that's really hard started it's vaccination program so how is the situation likely to have changed by the current

a deadline of the 31st of january. well some $1300000.00 doses were delivered to the states and 16 states here and by the end of the year some $2700000.00 more are expected until the end of the month but there is a delay in getting this to the people although the health minister insists that it is lousy going according to plan the comparison with britain or the us israel simply doesn't stand up to it right now there are good reasons political reasons yes one wanted to have a common line with europe but also the states will not have to pay out if anything goes wrong with those vaccines because they went through a process which is the difference to britain and the us who will have to pay up if something happens having said that germans are impatient and there is no $1.00

strategy to get to that age group of 80 plus so more than just a few hiccups and the vaccine still remaining silver lining fall for making that big difference everybody's hoping for thank you for the. chief political action. to be ok where prime minister barak's johnson has acknowledged the sacrifices being made across the country as a new lock down takes effect people in england are under a new 6 week stay at home order scotland wales and northern ireland have also imposed tough measures as the u.k. records more than 60000 new coronavirus cases in a day. 5 days into the new year brits woke up with a covert hangover the. streets once bustling now all but to serve as a few highly contagious period of the by recess retallack throughout the country forcing england into its 2nd straight lockdown since the start of the pandemic.

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 skate domestic abuse. for many pill to swallow but most agree there is no where the cure as england has seen a 50 percent jump in covered hospitalizations since christmas day. my view he said i think it's something that needs to be done to. people take responsibility for themselves then ultimately i suppose the central government has responsibly. yeah i definitely think it was the right decision. i just hope that everyone. again so the opposition is calling on the

government to provide the 8 needed for those affected. by the parents support in the coming days because the schools are shot businesses will need support because they won't be able to operate the package needs to be put in place as soon as possible because compliance needs clear messaging but also support for people to make sure that they comply in wales where patients were among the 1st to receive the u.k. 2nd approved vaccine produced by astra zeneca tough lockdown measures happen in place since the 20th of december. before johnson's announcement scotland's 1st minister nicholas sturgeon imposed similar restrictions while north and ireland's executive is expected to follow suit. british hospitals now have more cobra 1000 patients than at the height of the spring with resources slow and staff

overwhelmed the prime minister warns the coming weeks could be the hardest yet. say the new year continues to be dominated by be corona virus pandemic which spread across the world after emerging in the chinese city. from the 1st confirmed fatality last january to more than 1800000. a year you know the main developments in this global health emergency. the epicenter of a global disaster the wu hand went to market in january 2020 paramedic least sealed off but it was too late. the novel coronavirus had already spread to humans from animal saltier setting off a deadly pandemic the 1st corporate 19 death was recorded in wu han on january 11th a month later the disease had killed more people in china than the sars outbreak in 2003 with hospitals overflowing on

a city of 11000000 went into through a lockdown drastic social distancing measures allowed china to contain the virus. but by no the pandemic had long spread beyond its borders with europe becoming the next hot spot by the end of march italy had overtaken china as the washed hit country in the city of bell the army was called in to cart off the coffins of those who perished in the hospitals when emergency wards ran out of ventilators doctors had to choose who was to live or to die. on me from 9th a grim milestone 100000 corporate 1000 deaths worldwide 2 days later the us registered the most coronavirus deaths in any country status it maintained for the rest of the year in new york bodies piled up in a marriage in sea storage outside hospitals here too there were no longer able to

cope with the caseload as a lockdown sought to bring down spiraling infection rates the city that never sleeps grown to a halt. the spread slowed over the summer but that did not stop the global corporate 19 death toll from reaching 1000000 in september sense then colder weather has driven a result of the virus. as the numbers keep rising the world is pinning its hopes on newly developed vaccines to wrest control back from the virus. but with doses limited it will be months yet before the global immunization drive really takes off . let's see how we got here and where we go from here we'll take a broader look at the situation with the i mentioned delta is a senior scholar at the johns hopkins center for health security welcome back to d.w. dr we're talking on a day when germany's followed a number of other western countries in intensifying and extending its lock down the

lights of measures failed politicians generally too cautious about imposing severe restrictions or perhaps only acting when they appear to have no other choice i think in in many cases what we find our politicians are being reactive and you have to remember that lock downs are in evidence of a policy of failure because if you can test trace and isolate like countries like taiwan have done you don't have to do large deals but clearly we see countries including in the united states where we see we kind of go up and down where we have cases go up and then they have a lock down they go down but then nothing is done in between there's no public health infrastructure built there is no test trace isolate capacity there's no home testing all that doesn't occur and then cases inevitably go up you have to remember this virus is here it's with us so we have to come up with a sustainable approach and not usually trying to do blanket things temporarily and then not fixing the problem in the same thing repeating the same mistake over and over again it's a part of the german approach seems to be to try and get infection numbers down so

that they can reimpose they test and trace system. put that back in place but we got the good news we got the vaccines and then we have the worst news we get the skyrocketing infections and death rates and now more virulent new tell you so that seems to be sort of psycho inevitable cycle to this. right and i think it's not surprising when you look at this virus that we know that coronaviruses can transmit efficiently and now we're about a year into this pandemic so i think it's really not the case that this is the only tool that politicians can run for is it is a lockdown i think you have to ask what did they do all of these these 12 months why isn't there test trace isolate capacity in many countries this was all predictable we knew that this was going to continue to plague us and i think many countries thought magically that this would go away or that they would be able to control it but a virus like this is unforgiving and if you don't have the public health infrastructure to keep cases to a manageable level if you don't have enough contact tracers if you don't scale up

backs a nation fast enough this same cycle will continue to repeat itself over and over again and it is not sustainable so let's let's see about let's talk about the lessons learned because one has to wonder what do you think is the biggest lesson that we need to take from this pandemic in order to prepare or prevent the next it's being proactive this virus appear in china it was discovered in china december 31st 2019 and most of the world gave the virus a major head start at least until february or march before they started to act if you give a virus that has efficient transmission capacity that level of a head start you're going to have undetected chains of transmission that put your hospitals into crisis so you have to act very rapidly when a new virus is identified to make sure you have hospitals fortified that you have tests that you will start vaccine development that you have enough personal protective equipment but no country really did that except for a few asian countries and i think that's the lesson is that if you don't follow

tried and true principles of pandemic preparedness you will be hit hard and you can't we can't let this happen with the next pandemic we have to move into action very quickly with targeted public health interventions and this sort of the lessons from bad to thank you for talking to us dr doctor a belgian from the jones hope consent for health security thank you. we'll take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world a court in china has sentenced the former head of a state owned asset management company to death for taking bribes lies ya man was also convicted of bigamy the court said the sums involved were in the hundreds of millions of dollars china executes more people than any other country. iran has denied to seizing a south korean oil tanker in order to pressure soul into releasing billions of dollars frozen because of u.s. sanctions over tehran's nuclear program iranian troops of a storm a vessel in the persian gulf on monday claiming it was breaching pollution rules.

as well as new parliament as bradford's 1st session with president nicolas maduro his party gnome's complete control of the national assembly is united socialist party won more than 92 percent of seats last month after the opposition parties boycotted the elections. he's done supreme court has ordered the authorities to rebuild a historic hindu temple that was burnt down by a mob last week the attack was widely condemned as an act of religious violence against the country's minority hindu population or thoughts is say they have arrested more than 100 people in connection with the attack. voting has begun to run off elections in the us state of georgia and the stakes are high the outcome in georgia will determine whether the senate is run by republicans or democrats president trump was in was there to support republican company. we heard you president elect joe biden was there to get the votes out for their democratic

challengers polls show the candidates neck and neck and democrats need both seats for a majority in the senate in order to clear the way for joe biden suggest. let's bring in de doublers carolyn carolyn a chamorro from washington bureau welcome karlene this is likely to be a close result with a lot riding on the outcome just explain to us how much this vote in georgia is affect can affect the national picture. this election in georgia is really crucial for plans for the president elect and if the republicans win just one of the seats in the senate they will have the majority there the democrats on the other side they would need both the seats because then in the case of and decided bill for example the vice president would have the last word and this is the case this would be democrat rice president elect come on harry's so if

we're not going to also if the democrat candidates win today's election in georgia president elect joe biden will have the majority in the senate and in the house of representatives meaning that the reformers and he's planning to do will most likely get a green light in both chambers of the congress but if he doesn't then the democrats are going to have a blockade in the senate and they will have to bait on each of the bills they want to pass the president is going to have a much more difficult way of course to to rule and to get his reforms done so this looks like another record turnout what is the thinking about which party might have been a huge. most of the voters said half being doing early voting for example or that have been voting by mail are traditionally democrats and traditionally most of the voters who go out and cast their ballot on election day

that means today are republicans and so this is also why. the democrats are really cautious this time and they know most of the voters who have already voted are from their party democrats by they will have to wait and see how many republicans turn out today and it is also going to be interesting to have an eye on the republicans who is not. anymore supporting donald trump for example and if they're not supporting donald trump are they going to vote for democrats or are they just knocks going to cast their ballot at all this might really be a decisive pined for the turnout in georgia selection today and normally the turnout for a runoff of this kind would not be that great i'm not that important but of course today all eyes are on georgia because this election is going to be crucial for the upcoming administration we had while president trump is still trying to overturn his defeat from november and much of the shadow cost of today's events.

well it hasn't really cast a shadow on today's election and george i would say because both things are like the link to each other donald trump held a rally yesterday in georgia as he said and besides talking about fraud and his conspiracy theories and he also said that this election in georgia will be side on the future of this country and this is probably the only thing he has in common with with the democrats because both parties know how important this election in georgia is and both sides are trying to motivate their people to go out and vote but besides that donald trump is mobilizing also his supporters to come to washington d.c. tomorrow 8 and protest and march against the official results of the presidential election to be officially certified tomorrow by the vice president mike pence here in the u.s. senate on my way to the studio for example i already met some of these tribes

supporters who are here in the city it is also very important to mention that the recorded call between president trump and georgia us secretary of state. wards intimidating him that this is going to probably going to have a negative impact on georgia selection today the republican party is divided back down not only the congress and also their supporters are very divided i think that's telling you that you're going washington saudi arabia's crown prince assigned a deal to bring qatar back into a coalition of goals allies cosily that come signing the agreement ending 3 years of isolation from its neighbors a number of goals states. 3 years ago using it of supporting terrorism and being too close to iran. the emir of qatar arrived in saudi arabia to be greeted by the kingdom's crying prince this moment sent into an embrace violating coronavirus guidelines sending a strong signal today we turn

a new page. shake to mean been hammered are funny had not attended a golf summit since the qatar crisis began in 2017 now his country is being welcomed back into the fold. this shake was whisked through the saudi desert to the shimmering summit venue in the agent city of our own. gulf leaders posed for photographs before sitting down to sign a declaration of solidarity and stability saudi arabia had already announced it was lifting its in bargo on qatar on tuesday riyadh said it was restoring full diplomatic ties that these efforts helped us reach the agreement of the are all a statement that will be signed in summit where we affirm our gulf arab and islamic solidarity and stability and strengthen the amicable relations between our countries in order to serve the interests of their people that. the

declaration seeks to end the dispute which is isolated cut off for more than 3 years in june 2017 saudi arabia the united arab emirates egypt and bahrain cut diplomatic ties with qatar they accused of supporting terrorist groups and of being too close to saudi arabia's arch faute iran. saudi arabia and its allies blockaded access to qatar by air land and sea leaving it completely cut off doha said the embargo violated international law. the blockading countries is huge 13 demands despite qatar's vehement rejection of their allegations the list included closing down broadcast al-jazeera and grading ties with iran. fast forward to 2021 and no sign of major concessions from qatar so why the change of heart it's partly thanks to pressure from the outgoing us administration. and pressure from

the incoming one joe biden is expected to take a firm a stance toward saudi arabia and to reengage with iran. but while riyadh seeks to unify arab ranks the declaration contains only a general pledge of solidarity the united arab emirates to sec more work is needed while qatar is freed from the blockade full reconciliation is by no means certain. i would start with a lympics supervisor who is refusing to miss out 51 year old. has been to every summer games for the last 30 years and the tokyo resident is determined to attend the tournament should you want to come to a home town this year but in japanese the navy event should not go ahead because of the pandemic but coca is hoping to keep a record unbroken. kyoko

ishikawa has done her summer games superfan attire every 4 years perch additional outfit in hachi marquee had been started out at the barcelona games in 1902 and along the way she's collected memorabilia at every game since the tokyo olympics were postponed until this year due to the pandemic and just last month tokyo organizers banned cheering in stadiums which means. we'll have to leave her whistle at home even with the muted atmosphere the tokyo games kyoko believes could serve as a symbol of hope. i think i didn't get hung up on that one and despite the difficulties i want the techie games to be a place where people around the world feel that the flame of hope was protected. country do you want that humanity kept alive. that i know.

d.c. kowa plans to take part in the rescheduled torch relay she's also looking forward to adding to her collection of memorabilia the tokyo games are set to open in under 200 days. it was a pounds top run to a sumo wrestler how cool ho has tested positive for corona virus a days before the start of the new year grand total mint in tokyo on sunday it's not clear yet whether the 15 day ad will be postponed mongolian born how cool holmes the longest serving top ranked sumo known as a yokozuna was tested after losing his sense of smell early this year 38 year old sumo. died after contracting company take. his reminder about top story at this hour german chancellor i'm going to machall on

the leaders of the country 16 states have announced details of new national coronavirus and measures the current lockdown will be extended to the end of january with tighter restrictions on social contacts for everyone on limits on movements of people in corona vons australians. that's it you're up to date on a whole world news of the top of the hour up in fact in just a moment to take you through the day went on a good there. young

moroccan emigrants. they know the police will stop the. they know that the road is not a solution. they know their flight could be fatal. but going back to using not an option. i'm on and rabbiting are stuck in the

spanish border area alongside other young people there waiting for a chance that will probably never come. shattered dreams starts january 18th on t w. every day counts for us and for our planet. global ideas is on its way to bring you more conservation. how do we make see the screen. how can we protect habitats. we can make a difference. the line to us the environmental series in global $3000.00 on t.w. and online and mentone push muslims us thrown out of the us right now climate change event off the story. faces a life lesson when photos from one week. how much worse can really get.

we still have time to ask i'm going. to subscribe to more news like this. another day another political storm gathering of the united states as republicans and democrats throw money and bodies at the crucial georgia runoff and trump diehards promise to object to congress certify the electoral college presidential result these may be the dying days of his presidency but donald trump is refusing to go quietly i'm phil gramm in berlin and this is the day.