the few traces that remain of the existence of. the true. church january 11th on g.w. . this is g.w. news live from berlin the democratic party steps closer to control of the u.s. senate forever and raphael warnock wins his race on seating his republican rival george us author ronald 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 fisons agenda. also coming up

a fresh crackdown on dissent and tonkawa police arrest dozens of proto marci activists and former lawmakers this week is the biggest operation yet under the territory's tough new security law. and 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. i'm super someone's gotta thank you for joining us we start in the u.s. state of georgia where media are projecting a democratic win and one of 2 closely watched senate runoff elections the races have yet to be called officially but projections for democratic challenger raphael warnock ahead of the incumbent kelly reflected in the other contest democrat john off has taken a slim lead over republican david perdue democrats need to win both seats to take

control of the senate and help president elect joe biden advance his legislative agenda. if that result is confirmed the democrat raphael warnock would become the 1st black senator to be elected from the south here's what he said earlier. so i come before you tonight as a man who knows that the improbable journey that led me to this place in this is story of moment in america. could only happen here. we were told that we couldn't win this election. but tonight. we've proved that with full. hard work and the people by our side. anything. is possible we have a reporter aaron tilton with us now with the latest on the story aaron what can we say at this point about who has control of the senate well it's looking like

democrats are moving ever so cool ever 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 seen 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 republican state what does this tell us about the changing political landscape in

the u.s. well it basically points in fact that that the demographics the united states are changing we're seen in every increase. sooner mound of black and latino voters and asian american voters coming out in really affecting the outcomes of these elections and we're also seeing that this divide between the urban cities like atlanta in 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 up from the general election and that seems to has to a certain effect. tempered the outpouring of support from these smaller communities it may have caused many republicans to actually stay home and when we're talking about you know 10000 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 i 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 thank you for that 2nd now and some other headlines from around the world a british judge has denied bail to wiki leaks founder julian assange 2 days after blocking his extradition to the u.s. where he's wanted on espionage charges the judge said there were sufficient grounds to believe that assad but not turn up to court for a pending u.s. appeal if he were released from prison. north korean leader kim jong un has opened its 1st ruling party congress in 5 years then admitted that his economic plan has failed kim 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. the head of the greek orthodox church patriarch theo 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 it is the 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 allowed recorded the moment police arrived at his house. the arrests have left some residents stunned.

i think. just as. with the other countries. they are they middle child i feel very unhappy and it seems that even during the pandemic the government can still do so many things to terrorize people back up. but beijing denied it was clamping down on dissidents. and i. learned 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 year grass 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 ahead of the legislative elections scheduled for september. for more on the story we can speak now to leecher kyun hong kong politician and social activists use 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 and then this is tactics of the child is given regina to rule by fear and call and is so ex and measured political party all the world want to have a majority in the legislative council and primary election there's something very normal so what they charging these 50 free activists at the stations of 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 over all and 600000 people have participated in the as

a voter turnout so why the support to primary election exercise and down to code it you know some version of this really is very clear that the. cost of a while and that of a rest to terrorize people and also to cleanse out the opposition as they're casting a wide net i should say mr levy 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 our wrath and we will continue to 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 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 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 or private heath through 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 people eat the pro-democracy camp you know all 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 collusion with foreign policy so we we actually do not know what if the 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 the weather what we will try to continue to exercise our freedom our promise under the basic law even though we've been made the consequences we will have to leave it

there leecher qian hong kong pro-democracy activists thank you very much for joining us sunday. germany is extending its national coronavirus lock down by 3 weeks in an effort to reduce stubbornly high infection and death rates chance or machall and regional leaders also agreed to tighten some restrictions including curbs on social contacts and limit some people's movement in the worst affected areas germany's latest official numbers show over 21000 new infections and a 1000 deaths underscoring 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'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 shots and so the chancellor and state premiers have agreed an extended lockdown private meetings will be limited to the members of the 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 no clarity about when it might be lifted. so how do we measure how many people have died as a result of the pandemic 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 show we can see in the graphic at the we're going to pull up for you here now the gray line is the long term average deaths per week the red line is actual deaths in recent years you can see bumps that have occurred during severe influenza

seasons but there is then the huge spike in 2020 at the time of the 1st pope in $1000.00 wave and then another rise in november as the 2nd wave begins the difference between the 2 lines in 2020 is the excess mortality most likely caused by the pandemic let's get some perspective on this now with dr les investor guard in copenhagen he is the corner of your own will which as we said monitors european mortality rates good to have you with us let's talk 1st of all about the death rate and excess deaths in europe how big of an impact has the pandemic had. the pandemic has had a huge and will tell its impact in europe this year. so if we compare for instance to the let's tell it in in 2019 they have let's see rate is 5 times higher for the whole year. and so for the countries that we monitor the $26.00 countries we have

seen more than $300000.00 extra deaths this year with since have in $2900.00 we had an excess of only 70000 so it's a very significant extra excess motel it's occurred and you take a closer look at the numbers what do they tell you about who is dying from call 1000. so basically if you can see that this effects elderly so the group of 65 years and above have a much higher mortality rate than that younger and and significantly more it's worse in more than 85 years and older but even the younger groups between 45 to 64 they also have a quite a lot of excess mattel's so it's not only elderly ok that is troubling what the numbers say about how some european countries have done better than others why is that. you know that this perhaps i find most striking that some countries have seen

a hockey in the excess during the pandemic with us have been very bad effect that and if it did it basically tells us you know how quickly were countries able to control the spread of the virus how quickly did they start interventions and lockdowns you know that have had a huge impact on the spread of the virus and their faults and the the the matelote so you're saying the quicker a country has to react and the heart of the lockdown the fewer deaths is that correct. yes i think you can say that if you have it but you can shows a virus early on to prevent it exponentially increases quickly then you really avoid many severe cases and deaths if you wait the virus was spread more whitely in society and they stick most groups and then that's been also go up when governments across europe are trying to figure out which lever to pull to stop the spread of the moment so what are the most effective restrictions in your opinion is that mask wearing is a distancing

a is it staying home. is difficult to say which single intervention is the best and most effective i think is to meet the the combination of all these take all these events that you can have that you must put in place and they secondly the the adherence in the population to these there's restrictions do they do they take them all over seriously or what but that's a key mission i think we'll have to leave it there less of us to guide in copenhagen coordinator of euro momo thank you very much welcome. let's check in on some other developments in the pandemic now the u.s. has recorded its highest number of copan fatalities in a single 24 hour period so far with more than 3900 deaths reported by johns hopkins university tuesday a medical facilities in los angeles are struggling to cope with a surge of cases ambulance workers have been told they should not transport patients to hospital whose chances of survival are very low and here in europe the

netherlands has become the last 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 hide. and the head of the w.h.o. said he was very disappointed that china had blocked investigators from entering the country china correspondent my ts prodding us sent us 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 response to the pandemic a key element of its propaganda and any research or any news that highlight the mistakes made in the beginning a 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 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 kenya thousands of people in this close together interacting on a daily basis social distancing is almost impossible now that schools have reopened pupils a waiting in line to get in well you. can hear as one of the last countries in east africa to fully reopen at schools according to the world health organization prolonged school closures close risks for children from poor backgrounds like here in canberra 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 is very aware of the risk. didn't i mention jane is that when this but i had a child for coffee. not even coffee only even a common cause. because the many many garbage for me about. after they arrive they have the temperature measured and abortion senate ties the hands that's the new normal as kibera 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 wolf which is no excuse me for them because they have to be on their must throw to the voting day 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 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 haave told i would say we have been told the children are privileged that able to social dissent that able to. get medical treatment tweak she's not come on to everybody who lives are on the slab how do you think yeah i did think i was despite the measures virginia is just happy to be back at school was thank. now to a super fan who refuses to miss out 51 year old kyoko ishikawa has been to every summer olympic games in the last 30 years and the tokyo resident as

a term and 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 helping 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. we'll have to leave her whistle at home even with a muted atmosphere the tokyo games kyoko believes could serve as a symbol of hope i think i didn't get on the clue of that one and despite the

difficulties i want to take you games to be a place where people around the world feel that the flame of hope was protected. to come to do all that humanity kept to the life. that i know. d.c. koua 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 reminder now of our top stories georgia democrat raphael warnock has won a seat in the u.s. senate defeating republican incumbent kelly looks like george's other senate runoff race democrat john also has opened a slim lead over republican david. and authorities in hong kong have a rest and dozens of pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers it is the biggest

of crackdown in the chinese territory since a tough new security law was tossed into. coming up next on our environment show eco africa takes us to the un dearie wetlands in kenya and don't forget you can always go to our website e.w. dot com for all the latest news and information around the clock thank you for watching.

inside africa. south africa both. energy the initiative. for environmental. engineering katrina energy from florida and hydro power. is always energy. africa.

the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. how has the rate of infection been developing. what measures are being taken. what does the latest research say. information and context. the coronavirus of data the coded special monday to friday on w. like. germany with w anytime anyplace. the new.

video never says. we have the benefit of our. songs to sing along to download it is to come from super. to do a. varied course is put into active exercises the hard thing about i d w don't come slash don't lend on facebook in the us don't. lend german for free with the devil you. read a book that. dumb. hello and welcome to the environment magazine co-produced by n.t.v. in uganda china's t.v. in nigeria and in germany i am sundered to nokia and with me today i was always

a micro present a new to a 100 new how are you today i don't know that i am just fine thank you very much and i want all come to you are dear viewers out there we have a lot in store for you on today's program so let's take a quick look at what's lined up today. in senegal we visit some students who i think with the new solar car. in germany we have a push to make textiles on the look we saw through. can you know we learn once again how crucial it is to protect our water resources. first we had to the south of the continent south africa's energy comes almost exclusively from coal fired power plants which is a major factor behind rising air pollution and of an atheist the government has announced plans to significantly increase the use of renewable sources within 10 yes being solar wind or hydropower they micex of is being spearheaded by green cape

a nonprofit organization that provides assistance to innovative young green startups. one to go to protest heights academy school and camp town went on that without paying for the installation the system was financed by code funding platform their idea small investors buy ponies and earn an income from sending their atrocity to the school that is using them so far from cambridge is current funding part form equipped over 30 schools and companies within 5 years they plan to have more than $200.00 additional assistance. install it if you want to put money in solar panels for an environmental reason put them in south africa you're offsetting 8 times the carbon emissions by the side of an hour here's africa than it would do in germany for example and you're getting twice as much electricity out of it so it just makes

more sense to put a solar power where you create more social environmental and economic impact and for the school the sought damage is cheaper than power from the grid with investment as little as 4 euro's san extant is also open to people with less income in fact many of the pupils at party are how it's invested in the solar cells themselves when de haan is the school's former principal she says that aside from clint cheap energy the project also brings another benefit to me always that yeah kids are so excited allen is to actually get involved and interest in neuro things and actually buy still sells him sow's and see how the money would increase or decrease or whatever i mean it was it created a huge interest in near real excitement and then he says what do you want to teach our children for the features into premier or skills innovative models to fund and produce green energy gently need in south africa the government aims to produce a quarter of on electricity from renewables by 2030. general jones works for green

care a nonprofit organization committed to expanding the green sector together with other lobby groups the un made sure that and i just thought taps gained an important role in government plans to transition south africa to its renewables go to space. and they've said this this road to 20 cities in the road. it states it would be $20.00 gigawatts of renewable energy being procured and that comprises technologies within the renewable energy space but for the 1st time what is very interesting is that. they have. designated gigawatts of small scale generation in. to the inside of the police document i r.p. integrated resource plan aims to have small scale solar power solutions account for some 10 percent of south africa's top to energy mix then they are in effect as who

are looking to the question for have some on one big company developed an underwater pump powered by the ocean's waves it turns saltwater into drinking water while at the same time producing a constant source of energy that could power after 10 european i was told all year round is always energy. if we said we're looking at a whole range of waves that come from different areas there's a lot of stuff that's produced lightly by the local ones but there's an enormous amount of energy that's come from storms that could be thousands of miles away. there with pump is tied to a boy that leaks there with each wave that never movement pressure rises water to purify it and generator to cities at the same time for years the prototype unit was tested under water and is now back in the workshop for some maintenance work so far the unit has proven that the concept works the team says despite the challenges.

they confident that these systems are going to. be a big part of the solution and future is operating outside or when but working in conjunction with them the challenges with the ocean is that it's an expensive system to develop when there is very little funding available with sufficient funding the company could start you drag it pumps next year that would feed into the power grid the san extant card funding platform meanwhile has just received an additional $3000000.00 euros from one major investor powering on south africa's green energy transition. now it's off because of us you know we've all. from feature reports on research for the environment from electric cars to doing it yourself when turbines are recycling old laptop batteries they are the creations of inventive young minds on various countries hoping to make their visions reality let

is right near to and this week we have an innovation from cynical a group of young researches on a university in dhaka have been walking on the sun a poet they call for everyday use he's this week's doing give me. this is a. it was built by university students in dakar. it's powered by the sun. the idea was developed by students in canada. the technical drawings come from italy. the students in senegal put the pieces together. it has a range of 60 kilometers. they can negotiate bumpy surfaces. and carry 2 people or goods weighing up to 250

kilograms. more than half the population of senegal has no electricity. the majority live in rural areas. doesn't have many didn't provide power people need for their various endeavors in the field or for any other activity that requires electricity. is the answer to the problem. i said to. them. because the battery can be used to charge mobile phones. or to run a $500.00 watt water pump for a full 12 hours. and how about you if you're also doing your bit tell us about it visit our website. a tweet.

hash tag. we share your story. well roaming the countryside. for sheep or goats to graze. all of of the was. in their days it can be a hard life but for different reasons in different places in germany it is now a privately owned livestock has become increasingly rare another problem the price of what is so little it's not even selling but people would like to see these various textile put to good use. shepherd florian heise has brought his animals to rest in a green patch between warehouses and factories in the industrial ruhr area in western germany he's one of the few shepherds left in the country.

there are around a 1000 professional shepherds left in germany that's not so many really i don't know many young people who want to do this job i'll continue to do it with passion until i have to step down it's certainly a dying profession that nobody wants to do you don't make much money. for the boy. the sheep are eventually sold for their meat but unisa polities also pay shepherds to have their flocks graze on public land. but wool has become a losing business these days sales don't even cover the costs of having the sheep sheared so that's from a beautiful merino wool. i have merino sheep they still have the best quality wool i get over a euro per kilo. one colleagues of mine who have other breeds get a lot less they get $45.00 to $0.65 per kilo.

some of them don't sell it any more choosing to burn the world or toss it instead. they're going to. his wool goes to china where it's processed and ends up in bedding upholstery carpets and other textile products some of these end up back on the european market where they're sold at high prices that make split get a pop and furious is just a talent it's totally absurd buyers here purchase the wall and send it all the way to china for washing and it sent to paris where it's packaged and suddenly everyone wants it. gives you half it is a self-taught tailor. she initially trained to be a dental assistant now she's a businesswoman with a passion for wool she calls her product mosul tweed hamish mr mcmullan i wondered whether the wall from the sheep in our region was also suitable

for fabric and it turns out that it's very suitable for cloth and at that point i told myself that i do my best to save local wool. the cloth is made in germany soley from will out of the region she already has about 100 meters in stock the company produces vests caps and sport coats from the material. so most assigns . have to receive support from the viking fan spinning wheel. in a globalised textile market producing fabric regionally is difficult the production costs are too high the quantities to blow. for wool is processed here died and spun into yarn the vatican felt spinning wheel wants to promote local wool but has no illusions about the future of wool from germany of almost like you're sadly consumers today are not willing to pay higher prices at the retail level they're

more interested in getting new products faster they want to see trends and changes in fashion so the cost has to be low it would be nice if people could change their priorities see evidence until. you get a couple remains enthusiastic about her will in fabric it may be expensive but demand from high quality sustainable fashion is growing her mission is to eventually produce quantities approaching 10000 metres of her muzzle tweet. the next away had to go beyond which is home to africa's largest a stable forest in a funk population but sunday their numbers have increased dramatically in recent decades that's right sandra for pharmaceutical crops roaming elephants that may seem like good news but in fact the large animals are important for maintaining that because logical balance so why live authorities in locrian national park are

working to protect the elephant while helping the locals to protect their fields and their villages. for the and his anti-poaching team this is the easy part of the job not far from their station in low pay national park they're gathering data on flora and fauna. a family of elephants passed through here they ate here. and then they moved here with it and left their traces. thanks to the rangers the nature reserve has experienced no major wildlife crime in the last 2 years. low pay is one of 13 national parks established in cabo in 2002 it's a you know asco world heritage site and home to elephants panthers gorillas buffalo

and over 400 bird species these days the elephants pose more of a problem than the poachers do and important part of the work of the park manager and his team is communicating with the residents of the villages on the edges of the national park. we realized that the elephants were more or less fleeing the interior of the forest because of growing pressure from poachers from the sols unsolved west. thanks to fences that the park officials have set up around the villages the elephants are slowly retreating back into the forest. in 3 of the villages electric fences protect the plantations plus we've been going hungry for 2 years people were losing weight there wasn't enough to eat but this year we have enough again we have vegetables we've been able to harvest what we planted to get. the cooperation between the park.