really check out our podcast so you can get it wherever you go your pockets can also find us and. science. this is d.w. news live from berlin the democratic party steps closer to control of the u.s. senate reverend raphael warnock wins his race on seating his republican rival george as other one off has also shifted in the democrats favor the party needs to win both seats to gain a majority in the senate and advance president elect biden said. 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 tough new security. and germany extends its coronavirus lockdown until the end of january chancellor merkel and regional leaders also announced new tougher restrictions including limits on movement in the hard hit areas. i'm sumi so much god it's good to have you with us we start in the u.s. state of georgia where media are projecting a democratic win and one of the 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 lefler in the other contest democrat john asafa taken a slim lead over. republican david perdue democrats need to win both seats to take

a troll the senate and to help president elect joe biden advances legislative agenda. now if the result is confirmed democrats are rochelle warnock would become the 1st black senator to be elected from the south here's what he said a little 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 historic moment in america. could only happen here. we were told that we couldn't win this election. but tonight. we've proved that with hope. hard work and the people by our side. anything. is possible. reporter erin tell tin is following this story for us hi aaron thanks for joining us at this point what can we say about the control of the senate right now

while it appears right now the democrats are easing towards ever so slightly complete control of the senate and what that actually means is just remind our viewers is when joe biden takes office on the 20th the democrats will control the white house and the house of representatives but the republicans still have the ability if they control the senate to block his agenda moving forward so these runoff elections are incredibly important for the democrats because it speaks to their ability in the 1st 2 years of the biden ministration to really kind of set the agenda and so far with multiple outlets actually calling the race for war it does appear that he's going to be the 1st black senator from the great state of georgia it does appear that the democrats are moving slightly closer towards complete control of the government moving forward that being said his opponent killer florida has basically refused to admit defeat so far saying that she is going to continue to fight so we're most likely going to be looking at recounts moving forward which is something we've been fortunate become quite used to in the

last several months so right now all eyes are actually going to the producer also from race i mean john also is currently ahead slightly by around 8 or 9000 votes voting isn't going on right now and they're going to continue it tomorrow but it does look like we're also going to be looking towards recounts they're moving forward but if these tendencies keep up it does appear that democrats are using closer towards control complete control of the government moving forward we mentioned if confirmed this would be an historic win for raphael warnock the 1st black senator elected from the south and we're also seeing a very good chance as you said for john astafy 2 democratic senators from a state that's traditionally been very public and that could be possible what does it tell us about how politics how the landscape is changing in the u.s. well i think what we're seeing right now is some of the trends from the general election kind of continuing on in the microcosm of georgia you have to remember the united states is becoming ever more diverse country were seen. more consistent populations of black latino asian voters really kind of dominating the election cycle and you know traditionally they do tend to break for the democrats they do

tend to lean more left in their affiliations however that means said there have been some exceptions this time around but generally they are a more consistent democratic voter and what we're also really seeing kind of take effect in georgia is this rural urban split where larger cities like atlanta traditionally vote for the democrats and more rural populations smaller towns tend to vote for the republicans and we're really kind of seen that in this vote as well that being said you have to think about the role of donald trump in this election now he has so far refused to accept the results of the general election and some republican strategists have seen that's actually gone to a certain extent to suppress republican voters and at the same time it's fired up the democratic base is which is kind of exasperated that rural urban split and i think what we're also seeing is that a lot of rule voters are actually more interested in donald trump as a personality than the republican brand in and of itself and you know if i'm a republican strategist that would worry me moving forward in this election all

right to be a reporter erin tilton joining us in our studio thank you for that analysis thank you. now prosecutors in the u.s. state of wisconsin say they will not file criminal charges against the police officer who shot a black man last august in the city of can no shop jacob blake was hit several times in the back as he tried to enter his vehicle civil rights advocates criticize the decision and say they are ready to reignite protests that rocked the city last year. in oldest when the shooting of a resident jacob blake prompted protests in the wisconsin city. police were responding to a domestic dispute when they shot up the 29 year old hitting him 4 times blake was left power lies from the waist down. this week smaller demonstrations preceded the prosecutor's announcement. that. months of reviewing the evidence prosecutors will not meet the demands of protest as. no

law enforcement officer in this case will be charged with a criminal offense this is not a case where there will be any dispute about any of the factual circumstances of this case except for one piece of the law and that is self-defense police say blake had a knife and fired the shots as they feared he would use it his lawyer says he was attempting to break up a fight between 2 women and his family now aim to seek justice in washington d.c. . battle must go in front of congress it must go to senate we must abide lynch the right for policemen to be seen on a higher plane. citizens of the united states you cannot have a bill of rights for the bullies and then have a bill of rights for the people at the height of the protests in august during

clashes between protesters and militias teenager col recent house opened fire with an assault rifle killing 2 men and we're doing enough. now 18 he has pleaded not guilty to all charges including homicide. our thanks very much not guilty pleas to all counts meanwhile the state's governor has mobilized 500 national guard troops while connotes his city council has given the may merge and see powers to deal with potential unrest thoughts get around now of some other headlines from around the world 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 is facing huge challenges including the coronavirus pandemic but he promised new policies will achieve what he called a radical leap forward. and ahead of the greek orthodox church patriarch the

3rd has arrived in the west bank town of bethlehem to lead traditional christmas celebrations the festive seventy's have gone ahead despite cold restrictions in the palestinian territory and a huge drop in visitor numbers. police in hong kong have arrested $53.00 pro-democracy activists a government minister said they were detained for planning to quote paralyze and overthrow the city government it is the chinese territories biggest crackdown yet on the opposition under a new security law imposed by beijing. the dawn raids marked a sharp escalation of hong kong's crackdown on the opposition dozens of prominent pro-democracy campaigners were arrested at private homes law firms and media outlets. former lawmaker lambchop ting recorded the moment police arrived at his house. the arrests have left some residents stunned.

i think one thing just as. with the other countries. are they meddle i feel very unhappy and it seems that even during the pandemic the government can still do so many things to terrorize people. but beijing denied it was clamping down on dissidents. and so on in the normal rights and freedoms enjoyed by the hong kong people have not been affected what may be affected is the freedom of some external forces and individuals to collude with each other to attempt to undermine china's stability and security. when the engine that. the detainees stand accused of trying to overthrow the government after they held unofficial primaries last july to field candidates ahead of elections to hong kong's legislative council under the one country 2 systems policy hong kong was

given greater autonomy when it was handed back to china from britain in 1997 the agreement expires in 2047 but one pro-democracy activist told that beijing security law has rendered that agreement meaningless. all the arrests and all the crackdowns following the implementation of the law is actually a file ation of the protests simon creation and the basic law itself so i'd say all the freedoms that i guarantee under the basic law and other international meetings are. activists are calling wednesday's sweeping arrests an attempt to further weaken the opposition head of the legislative elections scheduled for september. for more on the story we can speak now to leach of hong kong politician and social activist who's joining us from hong kong mr lee

we've seen more than 50 arrests in one day what impact does this have on the territories pro-democracy movements. there is a dangerous of tactics of trying this governor of gene to group by fear in hong kong and is so ever served in that region political party all the world want to have a majority in the legislative council and primary election is something very normal so what they charging these 50 free activists participation of this been off the primary election was that you know we together we tried to have a primary election and the primary election is to get a majority and to get in the majority it is undermining the government so it's so f. so because all go all party want to do that and and everything is allow on the

basic law and the law and 600000 people have participate in the as a voter turnout so is why the support to primary election exercise and on do you call it you know some version of it is not really very clear today that they are trying to cause a very wide net of a rest so we have to paralyze people and also to cleanse out the opposition as they're casting a wide net i should say mr lee ears sell for a politician and an activist you were arrested last year have you considered leaving hong kong. no i would never leave hong kong because we want to fight in hong kong for drugs for people for democracy and we believe that the people hong kong would not be silenced by this all these ridiculous act of our wrath and we will continue the fight and. actually we are fighting for

democracy and freedom and and this is actually good also for china and why they are trying to suppress us because they are those that pay to ship routine that would not. under control and would not allow any balance and power in and so side view so as they are now setting out the people home call when that promises of high autonomy the promise of 100 to system. this is joined that creation all of these are being and what we want actually is to what was promised to us ok you know we spoke to an activist a little bit earlier and you call china a dictatorship regime this activist told us that there are essentially no freedoms last under the basic law in hong kong do you agree what is left of those freedoms.

thank you no one knows what it was left of the freedom because you know like peaches trying to teach the students they have disqualifier the teachers when we go out to mop for democracy and freedom freedom we are now the i rest the force of inciting ego assembly when the week the pro-democracy camp no or when i was a primary election they called it something and when jimmy lied only of apple daily you know creeped out his comments on the whole whole situation he was charged with foreign policy so we we actually do not know what if left off our freedom and because at all when we try to exercise them you know we have consequences but right no matter what we will stay on and the weather what we will try to continue

to exercise our freedom promised under the basic law even though there may be a consequence we will have to leave it there leecher qian hong kong pro-democracy activists thank you very much for joining us sunday. thank you for having it now germany is extending its national coronavirus lock down by 3 weeks and an effort to reduce stubbornly high infection and death rates chance until america and regional leaders also agree to tighten some restrictions including curbs on social contacts and limits on people's movements in the worst affected regions germany's latest official figures showing over $21000.00 new insight and factions and a 1000 deaths underscore the situations urgency germans have been feeling the effect of tougher corona restrictions since last year but the lockdown is about to get tighter still. if. 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. shaphan. 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 in 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 bees 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 damage now vaccination. set to be approved but it's expected to be many months before enough people are immunized for now germans face down and no plan about when it might be lifted. our political correspondent julie deli is on the story for us hi julia how much tougher are these new restrictions. or these new restrictions basically bring us back to a situation as it was in the spring during the 1st wave of the coronavirus and the

1st lockdown measures were implemented for example schools schools were closed during the spring they were instead kept open after summer and during the fall it was seen as a priority for the government to try to keep schools open as long as possible to guarantee a right to education and to also not overwhelm parents with child care but the situation now is so serious that the closure of schools as is seen as unavoidable at the same time the limitation of contacts to only one person outside the household is the same as in the spring what we see now being explicitly put into the regulations by the government is the limitation to movement one can go further than 15 kilometers from home in areas where that are considered hotspots and this is something we hadn't seen before there was an invitation not to travel when not really necessary one could not stay in hotels for tourism reasons but now there

seem to have been a step forward in trying to live in limit movement in these hot spot areas and those are around 7 areas across the country and what do germans think of these measures. well we've seen a positive reaction from the doctors the german medical association said the measures are sensible move to try to prevent the hospitals from becoming further overwhelmed and if we look at polls recent polls show that germans were expecting in its extension of the current lockdown about 2 thirds of germans a saw that as favorable but only 24 percent were in favor of harsher restrictions we also see state premiers who agreed on this common nationwide approach that will come into effect starting next week starting to walk back on what was has been the site and some are now saying that they might open schools already in january while others are calling into question whether the movement limitation is enforceable due

to be used to live so delhi thank you ok let's take a look now at some other developments in the pandemic the u.s. has recorded its highest number of coded fatalities in a single 24 hour period so far with more than $3900.00 deaths reported by johns hopkins university of tuesday japan has reported a record number of new delhi cases it is set to declare a month long state of emergency for tokyo's greater metropolitan area starting saturday here in europe the netherlands has become the less last you country to start vaccinating against the virus and china has denied entry to a team from the world health organization trying to investigate the origins of the pentagon make on the head of the w.h.o. said he was very disappointed that china had blocked investigators from entering the country are china correspondent much as been innocent as his assessment of the dispute. it is not clear what exactly caused china to refuse entry to the w. h.

experts but what is very clear is that the chinese government is keeping tight control over any research into the origins of the virus china has made it successful in response to the pandemic a key element of its propaganda and any research or any news that highlight the mistakes made in the beginning are strictly sense that millions of children are back in the classroom in kenya for the 1st time since last march when the government closed schools in response to the pandemic students in grades $48.12 returned in october so they could prepare for exams now all primary and high school students have returned visited one school in nairobi on the 1st day back. to barrow as one of the largest low income areas in there will be here thousands of people who live close together interacting on a daily basis social distancing is almost impossible now that schools have reopened

pupils are waiting in line to get in. kenya as one of the last countries in east africa to fully reopen its schools according to the world health organization prolonged school closures plus risks for children from poor backgrounds like here in canberra for example high rates of teen pregnancies porn attrition and dropouts some of the reasons why the kenyan government said it was time to finally fully reopen schools. janet ones is excited to finally bring her daughter virginia back to school yet she's very aware of the risk. didn't i mention training is that when this but i had a child for coffee. not even on an even a common cause. because the many many i'll bake about. after they arrive they have the temperature measured and abortion senate ties the hands that's the new normal it up primary school for girls

$347.00 girls are expected in the next few days divided into classes of roughly 20 pupils a distance of one meter can be maintained but still there are challenges. to their wearing of their masks full features no it's easy for them because they have to be on their most throat and they've already so inflamed they're making they're telling you we need to create. this school as well place to deal with covert restrictions as it can provide the water space and masks with their pupils for free many other schools in kenya cannot it's possible because it belongs to shuffle an international organization that's funded mainly by private american donors teachers you know were trained by health officials some classes even have 2 teachers parents feel that children are safer here than at home we haave told i would say we have been told the children are pregnant that able to such will descend that able to.

get medical treatment twitches not come on to everybody who lives are on the slab how do you think you are was despite the measures virginia is just happy to be back at school was. now to the story of 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 intact. kyoko ishikawa has done her summer games superfan attire every 4 years her traditional outfit in hachi 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 olympics were postponed until this year due to the pandemic and just last month tokyo organizers banned cheering in stadiums which means. she. will have to leave her whistle at home even with the muted atmosphere of the tokyo games kyoko believes could serve as a symbol of hope i think i didn't even get on the clue of that one and 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. to come to do it but humanity kept it alive. not 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's coming up on d w germany's boardrooms are still dominated by men now the country will go choir a large companies to include more women rob was will be looking into that on d w business in just a minute stated. electric

emission free assistance to sustainable future of mobility the wheel is a. more and least it was the late ninety's appears to be floating in the brakes on the ballot many ordinary cars for believing more are back on the block there are

really no alternatives. in germany. 60 minutes d.w. . you know that 77 percent. are younger but thanks a lot. that's me and me and. a lot of time all voices 100. 77 percent. from politics to flash from housing boom boom boom town this is where. the 77 percent. this weekend on the g.w. . wrong emigrants. the police will stop them. they know that the road is not the solution.

they know their flight could be fatal. going back to using not an option. i'm on and are stuck in the spanish border area. other young people there waiting for a chance that will probably never come. shattered dreams starts january 18th on t.w. . thanks. president trumka continues his attack on chinese tech banning the use of apps meanwhile the new york stock exchange council was the delisting of 3 of china's tech firms try to understand the mixed signals coming from the u.s. also coming up. germany is extending its coronavirus knockdowns more restrictions

on people and businesses the 1st german ton of instigates a quota for women in leadership positions.