as the few traces that remain of their existence we call them the children. starch january 11th on d w. this is t w news coming to life from the democratic party steps closer to control of the u.s. senate forever and raphael warnock wins the election through the chamber and seating his republican rival george's father ralph race has also turned in the democrats favor the party needs to win both to gain a majority in the senate and clear the way for president elect biden's agenda also

coming up a fresh crackdown on dissent in hong kong police arrest dozens of pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers this week is the biggest operation yet under the territory's new security law. plus a sports fan of olympic 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 u.s. media are projecting a democratic win in one of 2 closely watched senate runoff elections the races have yet to be called officially but projections put democratic challenger raphael

warnock ahead of incumbent kelly locklear in the other contest democrats also has taken a slim lead over repub. david perdue democrats need to win both seats to take control of the senate and help president elect joe biden advance his legislative agenda. well if the result is confirmed democrat rafael one would become the 1st black senator in georgia's history here's what he said just a short while ago. so i come before you tonight as a man who knows that the improbable journey that led me to this place in this is storage moment in america. could only happen here. we were told that we couldn't when this election. but tonight. we've proved that with hope. hard work and the people by our side. anything. is

possible. porter stacy bivins is with us here she's from she's part of our u.s. election team an extremely close race to see which of the results that we have so far tell us about who's going to control the senate well. if things go the way they seem it looks like it will be easier for joe biden to have to achieve his agenda. but aside from that i would just like to just take a moment and say that this is a very historic moment. the son of poor parents who grew up in the projects. is now the reverend of the church that was the spiritual home of martin luther king jr and civil rights icon john lewis is now the 1st black senator to represent a southern state that was once a part of the confederacy and it's just really amazing when you look at the past in

the present and you see the historical connections and something that's really powerful and mention in john lewis the other candidate and the race the democrat. he was a protege of john lewis and and so now he might also when he's leading and his race so there's just it's just a really historic moment and it's just shows the trajectory of georgia and that biden winning georgia wasn't a fluke and that the ground game was very important and they're still just one of those races so far has been been called so we still have to see if that 2nd seat is really going to go to the democrats or not it's so incredibly close what about the voters in georgia in terms of who's supporting the democrats who's supporting the republicans give us a breakdown of how the demographics are involved and you know in terms of of. distribution of votes right well there's definitely a shift in georgia is a it's

a red state or it has red state d.n.a. but there's been a lot yeah republican d.n.a. but there is a lot of shifts people from the north and other more progressive states have moved in to pop it more populous areas and and georgia and you saw this when the. votes were coming in how all of a sudden there was a huge shift and more in act one and then there was another huge shift and. john also with in the lead so it's because of these demographic shifts but also the biggest thing the biggest contributor was donald trump just his antics it turned off those suburban voters who live in big places like atlanta and it depressed the republican vote because he told people that you can't trust it so he was the biggest contributor definitely a factor in this senate race that's not the only story of course this these 2

senate races from georgia right now we've got something happening in washington because there is the vote in georgia happen just as congress is meeting to validate the results of the presidential election what can we expect there right the electoral college it's supposed to be a ceremonial thing and donald trump has tried to push the vice president to keep the to not to allow this vote to continue which would be unconstitutional so there are $104.00 representatives and about a dozen senators that are protesting this vote and while that's happening on the floor and there's nothing that's going to happen the vote is going to be codified it's going to happen but out on the streets there's going to be protesters and people who are pro-choice who are saying you know stop stealing the vote so big day in the united states politics a bit when you have the leisure saying thank you so much you're welcome. say look

at some other stories making headlines for staying in the u.s. prosecutors in kanawha wisconsin i 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 and his shooting sparked days of unrest in the city the 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 faced huge challenges including the coronavirus pandemic but he promised new policies would achieve what he called a radical leap forward. authorities in hong kong have staged their biggest crackdown against the pro-democracy camp since beijing imposed controversial security legislation last year more than 50 leading opposition activists were arrested in early morning police raids

a government minister said they were detained for planning to quote paralyze and overthrow the city government among those arrested was former lawmaker. i'm joined now by glacier qualms she's a pro-democracy activist in hamburg thank you for being with us this morning ms kwan 50 arrests in one day is this an attempt to wipe out hong kong as pro-democracy movement once and for all. i think this is a friendship be understood as hong kong's version of kajang event or the checkers of slack you're trying to $77.00 kind of similar event i think the government is trying to create a chilling effect amount myself on society and of course trying to silence the opposition that has been trying to. fight against china's and holocaust governments while asian of human rights and hindering that process of democracy and how come and i think 50 something reza is a huge number is the largest largescale of the rest since the movement has started

last year and actually the whole or best. reasonable at all were you expecting this was this were these arrests anticipated. as a retaliation of a primary election being held in 2900 july yes this is expected but it still came very worrying and very concerning as the number of her vest is so high how do you think this will affect the opposition in hong kong in the run up to the to the elections that are scheduled later this year i think this defense actually implies that the legislative council will be nothing more than about her stamp from now on because i sense the disqualification of actors later senate candidates the election they were supposed to be held last year we can see that beijing doesn't even want to tolerate the existence of so-called lie opposition what beijing wants us to

compliance to its regime so i do not think that even if there is an election this year it would be a democratic one and a genuine democracy election. what's left of the democratic freedoms and basic rights that people in hong kong used to enjoy. from my perspective i'd say nothing's left the promise of one country 2 system of high autonomy has been broken since the national security law has been implemented all the address and all the crackdowns following the implementation of the off the law is actually nation that time at the british sign over time factor a nation on the basic law itself so i'd say all the freedoms that i guarantee under the basic law and under international treaties are gone and that was pro-democracy activist glacier. talking to me a short while ago from hamburg well germany is extending its national credit hours

locked down by 3 weeks in an effort to reduce stubbornly high infection and death rates chancel a grammatical and reason leaders also agreed to tighten some restrictions including curbs on social contacts and the limits on people's movements in the worst affected regions germany's latest official figures showing over $21000.00 new infections and a 1000 deaths underscore the urgency of the situation jim and have been feeling the effect of tough a corona risk region since last year but the lockdown is about to get tight us still. we've heard people say 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. shelf than. 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 shits 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 set to be approved but it's expected to be many months before enough people are immunized for now germans face a longer look down and know plenty about when it might be lifted. now in 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 one 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 dawned her summer games superfan attire every 4 years perch are

definitely outfit and hace maki had been 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 a muted atmosphere of the tokyo games hyo co 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 the tech games to be a place where people around the world feel that the flame of hope was protected the country do you want that humanity kept it alive. 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 d.w. news coming to you live from berlin up next our documentary on vincent but in golf course and get all the latest news and information around the clock on our web site that's t w dot com i'm terry marsh and thanks for watching. and you hear me now i guess we can you can handle stansted sounds that will bring your uncle imam rauf as you've never had to have before surprised to cells with what is possible who is medical relief brought. up through people who are on the way meyer.