until 10 with us now with the latest on the story erin what can we say at this point about who has control of the senate well it's looking like democrats are moving ever so clover more closely to control complete control the government during the biden ministration now multiple outlets united states have called the election already for the democratic challenger ruffo warnock and that puts the democrats within one seat of taking the senate now of course as you were saying earlier that basically would mean that joe biden could actually have carte blanche to push through his his agenda when he takes office on the 20th so now all eyes are really on the fight between john ourself and dave are doing at the moment john also is leading by around 910000 votes i mean it's a razor thin majority in the state so it does point to the fact that we're most likely to be seeing recounts moving forward but at the moment it seems like that needle is ticking slightly towards the democrats favor we're talking about the possibility of 2 democratic senators from georgia we know that the state went for joe biden the presidential election this is

a staunchly republican state what does this tell us about the changing political landscape in the u.s. well it basically points the fact that that the demographics the united states are changing we're seen in ever increasing amount of black and latino voters and asian american voters coming out in a really affecting the outcomes of these elections and we're also seeing that this divide between the urban cities like atlanta and the rural countryside is becoming more entrenched in big metropolitan areas tend to break for the democrats and more rural states are actually rural communities tend to vote for the republicans that's definitely a factor at play here in georgia but we also we can't forget the role of donald trump himself i mean he has refused to accept the election results from november of from the general election and that seems to have to a certain effect. tempered the outpouring of support from these smaller communities it may have caused many republicans to actually stay home and win. we're talking

about you know $10000.00 votes separating the 2 candidates that could have had a spoiler effect at the same time we're seeing that a lot of these more rural communities tend to be more in for old with trump as a candidate as opposed to the brand of the republicans and if our republican strategist that would really worry me when it comes to future elections down the road at the same time we can't lose sight of the fact that congress is now also preparing to certify the results of the presidential election this is usually a rubber stamp process but we know that nothing's as usual so what can we expect well. based on all media reports so far we do expect that mike pence the vice president will preside over a joint session of congress and he will ratify and certify the results from the general election november you know it is a typical boilerplate process usually there are a lot of fireworks associated with this but mike pence is facing incredible pressure from trump and of himself and to basically not recognize the results of the election and you know it's unprecedented pressure at this point but mike pence

has reportedly signal to the president that he's going to go through and certify the results but you know anything can happen right now in the united states 150 members of congress have said that they are also goes also going to side with the president so you know there's still the potential for some fireworks erin thank you very much if you. let's check in now on some other stories making headlines around the world also in the u.s. a prosecutor is in can no show 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 unrest in the city. north korean leader kim jong un has opened its 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 endemic but he promised new policies will achieve what he called a radical leap forward. the head of the greek orthodox church patriarchial felix

the 3rd has arrived in the west bank town of bethlehem to lead traditional christmas celebrations the festivities have gone ahead despite covert 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 and as a chinese territories biggest crackdown yet on the opposition under a new security law imposed by beijing. the dawn raids mark 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. just as. with the other countries. 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 someone 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 d.w. 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. that creation and the basic law itself so i'd say all the freedoms that i guarantee under the basic law and other international treaties are. activists are calling wednesday's sweeping arrests an attempt to further weaken the opposition and of the legislative elections scheduled for september. for more on the story we can speak now to leech of kyun hong kong politician and social activist who's joining us from hong kong mr levy we've seen

more than 50 arrests in one day what impact does this have on the territories pro-democracy movement. this is a dangerous of tactics of the chinese gov jean to do a biopsy and call and is so x. and that engine political party all of the world want to have a majority in the lead just a council and primary election there's something very normal so what they charging these 50 free activists at the station at the center of the primary election was that you know we together we tried to have a primary election and the primaries action is to get the majority and to getting the majority is undermining the government so it's so that's because although all parties want to do that and and actually thing is allowed under the basic law and ultimately all and 600000 people have participated in the as

a voter turnout so why the support to primary election exercise and out of the cold it no subversion is not really very clear that they are trying to cause better why and that of a rats so to terrorize people and also to cleanse out the opposition as they're casting a wide net i should say mr lee yourself are a politician and an activist you were arrested last year how do you consider leaving hong kong. no i would never leave hong kong because what we want to fight in hong kong for drugs for people for democracy and we believe that the people hong kong will not be silenced by this all these ridiculous acts of iraq 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 because a ship or a team that would not. on the control would and would not allow and the balance and power in and so side do so as they are now setting out to the people home call whether that promises of high autonomy the promise of self 102 system. this is joined that creation all of these are being created 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 left 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 through those they have disqualifier the teachers when we go out to mop for democracy freedom freedom we are now the i rest the force of inciting ego assembly when. 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 holocaust situation he was charged with collusion with foreign policy so we we actually do not know what is left of our freedom because at all when we try to exercise them you know we have consequences but right no matter what we will stay on and no matter what we will try to continue to exercise our freedom promised under the

basic law even though there may be consequences we will have to leave it there leach akiane hong kong pro-democracy activist thank you very much for joining us sunday. thank you for having me. now germany is extending its national coronavirus lockdown by 3 weeks in an effort to reduce stubbornly high infection and death rates chance i'm going to medical and regional leaders also agree to tighten some restrictions including curbs on social contacts and limits on people's movements in the worst affected areas germany's latest official figures showing over $21000.00 new infections and a 1000 deaths underscore the urgency of the situation germans have been feeling the effect of tougher corona restrictions since last year but the lockdown is about to get tighter still. 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 fastest spreading variant of the virus which could put massive strain on the health care system if it takes hold in germany. in some calm to the very 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 viz 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 no germans face down and know plenty about when it might be lifted. so how do we measure how many people have died as a result of the pentatonic one way is to look at changes in the number of deaths per year and agency called euro momo collects mortality data across european countries which we can see in this graphic we're going to pull up for you here the

gray line you see is the long term average deaths per week in the red line is actual deaths in recent years and you can see that bumps and have occurred during severe influenza seasons but you can also see there's a big spike in 2020 at the time of the 1st covert $1000.00 wave and then another rise in november as the 2nd wave began so the difference between the 2 lines in 2020 is the excess mortality most likely caused by the pen demick let's talk about this now with dr les investor guard in oss low he's the court nadir of euro which as we said monitors the european mortality rates good to have you with us help us parse this information so how much impact has the coronavirus the pen demick had on the death rate and access deaths in europe. that the core of our lives have had a huge impact on mortality in europe this year especially during the 1st wave in

the spring but now again we see a high excess mortality from the core of our lives and how do you actually calculate this out with the people who have been affected here because there's been a lot of discussion about who is the risk group which ages are more susceptible can you tell us more about what the highest risk groups are here. the highest risk groups are all the older populations so the older the higher mortality rates she. all are above 65 years but mainly even worse 85 years and plus and when you compare to previous influences seasons the mortality rate you're seeing during the 1st wave but now again is way higher than any intrinsic season how does the british groups and how does that compare to the mortality rate that we usually see in a given year where there isn't a pandemic. if you look at the end of

a normal winter influence a season for an average of the last 5 or 6 years you see about $8.00 to $10.00 times higher mortality rates this is during the 1st wave alone in turn to 20 and if you look at a mild season like in 1516 it was 20 times higher mortality rate and even if you compare to the very bad in princess season in 1718 in the winter b b c 4 times higher mortality rates from kuwait 19 then then back then. is some countries have higher death rates than others during the pandemic why do you think that is. i find it extremely striking to see how different different countries have had after all. some countries have seemed very low mortality or no excess at all and others have seen a very significant loss or let you and that the most. important factor will be how quickly countries decided to you know initiate restrictions and then

duck down to prevent the spread of their the barriers. you know leave it there than last at best a guard and also cordon it or of euro momo thank you very much for joining us thank you very much let's take a look now at some other developments in the pandemic the u.s. has reported its highest number of code fatalities in a single 24 hour period so far with more than 3900 deaths reported by johns hopkins university on tuesday a medical facilities in los angeles are struggling to cope with a surge of cases and ambulance workers have been told they should not transport patients to hospitals where chances of survival are very low here in europe the netherlands has become the 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 pandemic and will high and the head of the w.h.o.

said he was very disappointed that china had blocked investigators from entering the country china correspondent yes bringing us sent us his assessment of the dispute it is not clear what exactly caused china to refuse entry to the w h o 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 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 it's. 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 and 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.

kibera as one of the largest low income areas in nairobi here thousands of people 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 to leave 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 put children from poor backgrounds like here cara for example higher 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. of many changing. the windus but i had a child. not even only even

a common cause of the. diseases because the many many child age for me about. after they arrived to have the temperature measured and abortion senate ties the hands that's the new normal is to bear a primary school for girls $347.00 girls are expected 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 wedding of their masts wilfried she's no it's easy for them because they have to be on their mass production they've already so. same they're making they're telling you we need to create. this school is well placed to deal with covert restrictions as it can provide the water space and masks to 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

where trained by health officials some classes even have 2 teachers parents feel that children are safer here than at home we have utah and i would say we have a toll on the children of privilege that able to social descent that it will to. get medical treatment tweak she's not come on to everybody who believes that on this law was despite the measures virginia is just happy to be back at school was up. now to 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 intact.

kyoko ishikawa has done to her summer games super fan 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 olympics were postponed until this year due to the pandemic and just last month tokyo organizers banned cheering in stadiums which means. will have to leave her whistle at home even with a muted atmosphere the tokyo games hyo co believes could serve as a symbol of hope and think i didn't get on that. despite the difficulties i want the tech of games to be a place where people around the world feel that the flame of hope was protected. come to deal with that humanity kept it alive. not that i know

of. 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. let's get a quick reminder of our top stories on day w. georgia democrat raphael warnock has won a seat in the u.s. senate defeating republican incumbent kelly letter to georgia's other senate runoff race democrat sean also cause opened a slim lead over republican david project. and authorities on kong kong have arrested dozens of pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers it is the biggest crackdown on the chinese territory since a tough new security law was passed in june. you can always get you know if you news on the go just download or opt for google play or from the app store and that will give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push

notifications for any breaking news and if you are part of a new story you can also use the app to send us photos and videos of what is happening where you are. up next our business show maybe in germany stay tuned.

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