the few traces that remain of their existence. on d. w. . this is news coming to you live from berlin awaiting the outcomes of 2 crucial elections in the us state of georgia the runoff votes will decide which party controls the u.s. senate and with nearly all votes counters the margins remain. also coming up germany extends its coronavirus lockdown until the end of january chancellor merkel and regional leaders also announce new tougher restrictions including limits on

movement in hard hit areas. plus. dimensions. she's attended all the summer olympic games for the last 30 years and she's hoping to continue her spectating streak this year in tokyo. hello i'm terry martin good to have you with us we begin in the u.s. state of georgia where republican senators and their democratic challengers are neck and neck in twin elections with only 3 percent of ballots left to be counted democratic candidates raphael warnock and john also are trying to unseat republicans david perdue and kelly loved democrats need to win both races to take control of the senate which would help president elect joe biden at bent's his

legislative agenda. the eyes of the nation fixed on georgia as millions went to the polls on election day after a long buildup and a record number of early ballots cast these voters finally had the chance to make their voices heard. i usually vote republican across the board but this time i went democratic. thought that they were more capable ok about it but no machine we want these should become normal here. and tell us if you would share with us he voted republican. in just one well i think that they have the sharpest ideas for running the country including jindal for knocking out soft can you tell us a little easy what you. want to i want her bring your deal on the government health care i want everyone to bring back their spending and i think it's time for not

just georgia but american exchange. with control of the senate hanging in the balance the candidates were still on the campaign trail on tuesday one last appeal to get out the vote georgia voters have never had more power than you have today that's the reason the whole world is watching us in georgia that's the reason everybody needs to get out to the polls and make their voices heard but as the vote began to be tallied on election night results revealed a race that was still too close to call. our correspondent oversell it is in georgia state capital atlanta all of her just how close are these races. it is a very close race terry but you know once donald trump starts tweeting that some ballots turned mysteriously then you know the democrats are in the lead and that's exactly what's happening here right now one of the 2 democratic candidates raphael

warnock delivered a speech a little while ago the races were not called yet but he sounded very confident in the other democratic race when the other race between democratic candidate john also in the republican incumbent david produced looks like a virtual tie right now but the polls outstanding are largely in those counties that are leading democrat leaning democratic so the democrats are hoping that they could repeat their of victory of november victory in a very introduction only republican state any idea over when we can expect a conclusive result in these races this is the crucial question of course we might all know it tonight some counties have already said that they would continue counting tomorrow so it really depends then how high the leads in those counties will be how many votes will of course be left to be counted then in addition if it's not

a clear and decisive result then on wednesday we will have to wait until all the absentee ballots are counted the military ballots of those who are of brought us well and that might take until friday. these elections of course will determine the balance of power in washington that's why everyone's watching so closely tell us exactly what's at stake here. so technically it's about the majority incentive but of course there are some more to that is this is really about the fate of the biden presidency joe biden wants to undo a many policies of the trump era in order to be able to do that he needs control over senate so if the democrats don't win those 2 runoff races here in georgia they will not have this majority and therefore the republicans will be able to obstruct them and that would make joe biden a weak president from the day he takes office over thank you very much that was all over sound it from atlanta georgia.

check on some of the other stories making headlines around the world today saying in the u.s. prosecutors in cannot of wisconsin say they will not file criminal charges against the police officer who shot and seriously wounded a black man last august jacob blake was hit several times in the back as officers were trying to arrest him the shooting sparked days of one rest in the city. police in hong kong have arrested more than 50 leading opposition activists on suspicion of bile aiding the city's new national security law so biggest crackdown since beijing imposed the controversial legislation last year among those arrested was former lawmaker chuck ting. a north korean leader kim jong un has opened his 1st ruling party congress in 5 years and admitted that his economic plan has failed him said his country faces huge challenges including the coronavirus pandemic but

he promised new policies would it chief what he called a radical leap forward. and as well as new parliament has met for its 1st session with president nicolas maduro his party had almost complete control of the national assembly is united socialist party won more than 92 percent of seats a month ago after the opposition parties led by one quite by one byte of boy court of elections a plan to maintain a parallel parliament in. germany is extending its national coronavirus lock down by 3 weeks in an effort to reduce stubbornly high infection and death rates the decision follows a meeting between chance of going to medical in the country 16 state leaders where they also agreed to tighten some restrictions including curbs on social contacts and limits on people's movement in the worst affected areas. germans have been feeling the effect of tougher corona restrictions since last year but the lockdown

is about to get tighter still to avoid people we're going to extend the measures which we agreed in december until the 31st of january and in some areas we will have to introduce even tougher measures. shelton. infection numbers have not dropped as sharply as hoped and there is a new fear of the faster spreading variant of the virus which could put massive strain on the health care system if it takes hold in germany. in some context there is really major concern about the virus mutation if it's true that mutated viruses tend to displace the existing strains of the more aggressive we could be facing difficult times ahead what's happened in great britain shows we must not underestimate this kind frontal shots and so the chancellor and state premiers have agreed an extended lockdown private meetings will be limited to the members of

a household and only one other person where infections are high people will be told to stay within 15 kilometers of their home schools and many shops will remain closed and people arriving from outside germany will need a corona test and have to spend at least 5 days in quarantine restricting movement infection hotspots could prevent a repeat of scenes like these at the weekend when hundreds of people ignored police warnings and headed for ski slopes but so far it's not clear how all the new rules will be enforced. hopes for progress in rolling back the pandemic now rests on vaccination new vaccines are said to be approved but it's expected to be many months before enough people are immunized for now german space down and know plenty about when it might be lifted. our political correspondent julia so delhi is

covering this story julia tell us more about the new restrictions being imposed in germany definitely we are seeing some tougher restrictions some that we hadn't seen yet in germany or some that we only saw in the 1st phase of the pandemic in the spring namely the limitation to contacts only one person outside the household until now people from 2 households could meet up to 5 people in total and that was excluding children under 14 also in terms of contacts of movements a limitation the limits of a 15 kilometer radius far from a person's house is something that we hadn't seen before already before these new restrictions it was advise not to go on day trips for example or to leave the house for reasons that were not strictly important but now the new restrictions are going one step further and limiting movement further how are people reacting in

germany to these tougher measures because that's really quite extraordinary restricting mobility in that way. well people were certainly expecting the lockdown to be extended the numbers aren't looking good so that was to be expected recent polls show that 2 thirds of german were also in favor of a lockdown that was in place until now to be extended according to that same poll 24 percent of germans were in favor of tougher measures to be implemented now looking at the state leaders who agreed to this overall plan for the next few weeks some of them are already backtracking or looking away from some of the measures like a return to school for children some are looking at children going back to school already in january while others are considering not going ahead with. a limitation

. so there is. whether people are completely for the stricter measures is it clear julia. measures will stay in place. at the moment they are set in place until the end of january chancellor angela merkel and the state premiers are set to meet again on january 25th to reassess the situation and see how to proceed the situation now is a little uncertain in the sense that the numbers that we are seeing are fluctuating we see high numbers some days in lower numbers other that is due to a lag in reporting over the holidays but also too few were testing over over the holiday period and american cited experts who said a clear idea on the data will be available around january 17th so there will have to be a reevaluation of what the situation looks like at the end of the month and there could be further measures implemented also for february if the situation doesn't

improve she thinks that was due to political correspondent. now to the world of sports and a super fan who refuses to miss out 51 year old kyoko ishikawa has been to every summer olympic games in the past 30 years and the tokyo resident is determined to attend the ones scheduled to come to her hometown this year many japanese believe the event should not go ahead because of the pandemic but kyoko is hoping to keep her record unbroken. kyoko ishikawa has done her summer games superfan attire every 4 years her traditional outfit and hace maki headband started out at the barcelona games in 1902 and along the way she's collected memorabilia at every game since the tokyo

lympics 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 believes could serve as a symbol of hope i think i did i mean doesn't that mean that when it despite the difficulties i want to tell games to be a place where people around the world feel that the flame of hope was protected. come to do with that humanity kept it alive. could it not that i know the. 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. you're watching t.v.

news live from berlin we've got business for you coming up next with rob watts and of course you can always visit our website dot com there you'll find all the latest stories and information and we're on twitter too and instagram d w news i'm terry marshal thanks for. what secrets lie behind. discover new adventures in 360 degree. and explore fascinating world heritage sites. d.w. world heritage 360 get the map now. the fight against

the corona virus pandemic. how has the rate of infection been developing.