>> this is dw news live from berlin. germany's lockdown extended at least until the end of the month. chancellor merkel and state leaders also announced new, tougher restrictions including limits on trouble in coronavirus hotspots. also in the program, the u.s. state of georgia goes out to vote in two key runoff elections. at stake is control of the u.s. senate. and from embargo to embrace. saudi arabia and its allies

restore full relations with qatar, ending a damaging three-year diplomatic rift. ♪ i is phil gayle. welcome to the program. germany is extending its national coronavirus lockdown by three weeks to the end of january. the decision follows a meeting between chancellor angela merkel in the country's 16 state leaders, in which they've so agreed to further side restrictions on public life, including private gatherings. people living in places hardest hit by infection will also see their freedom of movement restricted. >> we call on all citizens to reduce their ctact to otrs to an absoluteinimum, d in an extension of current restrictions on private gatherings, people will only be allowed to meet those from their

own households, plus one other person froanother household. that is a significant reduction from the current rules of five people from two households. regarding the previously agreed strategy on what happens in areas with more than 200 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, we have decided on a further possible measure, which is limiting people's movement to a radius of 15 kilometers from their home, unless they have a compelling reason to do otherwise. these are, of course, doctors appointments which must be visited, tourist state troops in particular are not compelling reasons that tourist trips in particular are not compelling reasons. phil: let's get more from the chief political editor, michaela. welcome. tell us more about the decisions that came out of today's meeting. michaela: this signals clearly

that the government believes there are still yet worst times to come. angela merkel also stressed that the data was a bit shaky, that they had to decide on, and that there were grave concerns particularly looking towards britain, where this new strain of the virus is far more contagious than the car and dust than the -- than the current strain in germany. so, big concerns looking into the future. that is why this goes beyond those appeals we saw before christmas. there now will be legal measures in place essentially forcing people to give up those contacts, restricting even more how many people can gather. only one guest can come around 14, basically visiting one family. also, once again, the appeal to that already stricken economy to employers, to let people work from home. in three weeks, there will be the next gathering.

it has not been ruled out that we could see yet more restrictions put in place. phil: so how are germans likely to react? michaela: well, they are likely to at least accept it, many even welcome it. the polling here in germany has coasted -- has continuously shown support for yet more lockdowns, even going into these deeper and deeper lockdowns. recently, a significant amount of people even wanted a tougher lockdown. that is what is going to happen now. there is strong backing for the government, in particular the, for angela merkel, who only two months ago feel to get her state premiers behind that line the -- that line that was recommended by scientists to have a deep lockdown so it makes a real difference. now we are seeing that vaccinations are simply not being rolled out first -- fast enough on a large scale to make a difference in this pandemic. phil: but germany has started

its vaccination program. so how is the situation likely to have changed by the current deadline of the 31st of january? michaela: some 1.3 million doses were delivered to the state, the 16 states here in germany, by the end of the year. some 2.7 million more are expected until the end of the month. but there is a delay in getting these to the people, although the health minister insists it is largely going according to plan. the comparison with britain or the u.s., particularly israel, simply doesn't stand up to it right now. there are good reasons. political reasons, yes. one wanted to have a common line with europe. but also, the state will not have to pay up if anything goes wrong with those vaccines, because they went through a thorough process which is different to britain and the

u.s. who will have to pay up if something happens. having said that, germans are impatient, and there is no one strategy to get to that age group of 80-plus, sold more than just a few hiccups. in the vaccine still remaining a several lining, far from making the difference everybody's hoping for. phil: thank you for that, dw chief political editor, michaela kufner. now to the u.k. where the prime minister has acknowledged the sacrifices being made across the country, as any lockdown takes effect. people in england are under a new six-week stay-at-home order scotland, wales and northern ireland also imposed tougher measures, as the u.k. recorded more than 60,000 new coronavirus cases in a day. reporter: five days intohe new year, brits woke up with a covid home -- hangover. streets of no deserted, as in you highly contagious of the

virus has wreak havoc across the country, forcing england into its second strict lockdown since the start of the pandemic. >> you may only be home for limited reasons permitted in law, such as to shop for essentials, to work if you absolutely cannot work from home, to exercise, to seek medical assistance, such as getting a covid test, or to escape domestic abuse. phil: -- reporter: for many, a tough pill to swallow, but many agree there isn't a cure is there has been a 50% jump in covid hospitalizations. >> my view is that it is something that is to be done. the reality is that unfortunately, people will not take responsibility for themselves, then ultimately i suppose the central government has the responsibility to keep everybody safe. >> i definitely think it was the right decision. nhs hospitals are really full. it is definitely needed.

i just hope everyone doesn't struggle to much with having to be indoors again. reporter: the opposition is calling on the government to provide the aid needed for those affected. >> many parents will need support in the coming days because the schools are shut. businesses will need support because they will not be a book to operate. that package is to be in place as soon as possible, because compliance needs clear messaging but also support from people to make sure they can comply. reporter: in wales, where patients were among the first to receive the vaccine produced by astrazeneca, tough locked measures have been in place since december 20. hours before johnson's announcement, scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon, imposed similar restrictions. while northern's executive is expected to follow suit. british hospitals have more covid-19 patients than at the

height of the pandemic in spring. with resources low and staff of around, the prime minister warns the coming weeks could be the hardest yet. phil: as you can see, the new year continues to be dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, which spread across the world after emerging in the chinese city of wuhan. from the first confirmed fatality in january, to more than 1.8 million dead by the end of the year, here are the main developments in this global health emergency. reporter: the epicenter of a global disaster. the wuhan wet market in january 2020. her medically sealed off. . -- hermetically sealed off, but it was too late. the novel coronavirus had already spread to humans from animals sold here, setting off a deadly pandemic. the first covid-19 death was recorded on january 11. a month later, the disease had killed more people in china than the sars outbreak in thousand

three. with hospitals overflowing, wuhan, is city of 11 million, went into full lkdown. drastic social distancing measures allowed china to contain the virus. but by now, the pandemic had long spread beyond its borders, with europe becoming the next hotspot. by the end of march, italy had overtaken china as the worst-hit country. in the city of bergamo the army was called into cut off the coffins of those who perished in hospitals. when emergency wards run out of ventilators, doctors had to choose who was to live or to die. on april 9, the grim milestone, 100,000 covid-19 deaths worldwide. two days later, the u.s. registered the most coronavirus deaths in any country, a status it has maintained for the rest of the year. in new york, bodies piled up in

emergency storage outside hospitals. here, too, they were no longer able to cope with the caseload. of the lockdown sought to bring down case rates, the city that never sleeps ground to a halt. the spread slowed over the summer, but that did not stop the global covid-19 death toll from reaching one million in september. since then, colder weather has driven a resurgence in the virus. as the numbers keep raising the world is pinning its hopes on new developed vaccines to wrest control back from the virus. but with those is limited, it will be months yet before the glal immunization drive really takes off. phil: let's see how we got here, with a broader look at the situation with a senior scholar at the johns hopkins center for health security. will come back to dw, doctor --

welcome back. germany and a number of other foreign western countries are intensifying and extending its lockdown after later measures failed. our politicians generally too cautious about imposing severe restrictions, and perhaps only acting when they appear to have no further choice? >> i think in many cases what we find our politicians being reactive. lockdowns are evidencing of a policy of failure because if you can test, trace and isolate, you don't have to do lockdowns. we see countries, including the united states, where we go up and down. we have cases go up and then they have a lot done and they go down, but then nothing is done in between. there is no public health infrastructure built, no trace capacity, no home testing. then inevitably cases go up. this virus is with us so we have to come up with a sustainable approach and not try to do blanket ings temporarily and then not fixing the problem and

repeating the same mistake over and over again. phil: part of the german approach seems to be to get infection numbers down so they can reimpose the test and trace system put that back in place. we get the good news -- we got the vaccines, then we have the worst news, skyrocketing infections and deference and now more virulent mutations. there seems to be an inevitable cycle to this? >> right. it is not surprising when you look at this virus. we know coronavirus is can transmit efficiently. we are abo a year into this pandemic, so it is not the case that this is t only tool that politicians can run for, is a lockdown. you have to ask, what did they do for these 12 months? what is in their -- why isn't there test, trace, capacity in these countries? many countries thought magically that this would be able to go away, or they would be able to control it but if you don't have

the public health infrastructure to keep cases to a manageable level, if you don't have enough contact tracers, if you don't scale up vaccinations fast enough, this cycle will repeat itself over and over again. and this is not sustainable. phil: let's talk about lessons learned. one has to wonder, what do you think is the biggest lesson that we need to take from this pandemic in order to prepare or prevent the next? >> it is being proactive. this virus appeared in china december 31, 2019. most of the world give the virus major headstart, at least until febrry or march before they started to ask. if you give a virus that has efficient transmission capacity that level of a head start he will have undetected chains of transmission output your hospitals into crisis, so you have to act rapidly when a new virus is identified to make sure you have hospitals fortified, but you have tests, vaccine development, ppe.

no cntry realldid that except for a few asian countries. that is the lesson. if you don't follow up with the principles of fundamental parent is, you will be hit hard. we can't let this happen with the next pandemic. we have to move quickly with targeted public health interventions. phil: let's hope the lesson has been learned, dr. from the johns hopkins center for health security. >> thank you. phil: a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world. record in china has sentenced a former head of a state owned asset management company to death for taking bribes. lai xiaomin was also convicted of bigamist. the amount involved were in the hundreds of millions of dollars. china executes more people than any other country. iran has denied seizing a south korean oil tank in order to pressure seoul into releasing billions of dollars frozen because of u.s. sanctions over tehran's nuclear program.

iranian troops stormed the vessel in the persian gulf on monday, claiming it was breaching pollution laws. than as well as new parliament has met for its first session with president nicolas maduro's party having complete control of the national assembly. his united socialist party won more than 92% of the seats last month after opposition parties boycotted the election. pakistan's supreme court ordered authorities to rebuild an historic hindu temple that was burned down by a mob last week. the attack was widely condemned as an act of religious violence against the country's minority hindu population. authorities say they have arrested more than 100 people in connection with the attack. voting has begun in two key runoff elections in the u.s. state of georgia, and the stakes are high. the outcome in georgia will determine whether the senate is run by republicans or democrat. president trump was there to support the republican

incumbents, kelly loeffler and david perdue. president-elect joe biden was there to get the vote out for the democratic challengers. polls show the candidates neck and neck, and democrats need both seats for a majority in the senate in order to clear the way for joe biden's agenda. [cheers] let's bring in dw's carolina chimoy from our washington bureau. welcome. this is likely to be a close result, with a lot riding on the outcome. explain to us how much this vote in georgia can affect the national picture. carolina: this election is really crucial for biden's plans, for the president elect. if republicans win just one of the seats in the senate, the will have the majority. democrats on the other side, they would need both seats, because then in the case of an undecided bill, for example, the

vice president would have the last word. this is the case, this would be democrat vice president-elect kamala harris. so if the democratic candidates win today's election in georgia, the democrats will have a majority in the senate, and the house of representatives, meaning that the reforms he is planning to do will most likely get a green light in both chambers of congress. but if he does not, than democrats are going to have a blockade in the senate, and they will have to debate on each of the bills they want to pass. the senate is then going to have a much more difficult way to rule and to get his reforms down. phil: so this looks likely to be another record turnout. what is the thinking about which hardy might have the edge -- which party might have the edge? carolina: some of the voters that the been doing early voting for example or voting by mail

are traditionally democrats. traditionally, most of the voters who cast their ballot on election day, that means today, are republicans. this is also why the democrats are really cautious this time. they know that most of the voters who have already voted are from their party, democrats, but they will have to wait and see how many republicans turn out today. it will also be interesting to have an on republicans, who is not anymore supporting donald trump, for example, and if they are not, are they then going to vote for democrats or not going to cast their ballot at all? this might be indecisive point in the turnout. normally, turnout for a runoff election of this kind would not be that great or important, but today, all eyes are on georgia, because the selection will be crucial for the upcoming administration.

phil: meanwhile, president trump is still trying to overturn his defeat from november. how much of a shadow has that passed over today's events? carolina: it hasn't really cast a shadow on today's election in georgia, i would say, because both things are linked to each other. donald trump held a rally yesterday in georgia. besides talking about fraud and his conspiracy theories, he also said that this election in georgia will decide on the future of this country. this is probably the only thing he has in common with the democrats, because both parties know how important the election is in both sides are trying to motivate their people to go out and vote. besides that, donald trump is mobilizing his supporters to come to washington, d.c. tomorrow and purchased in march against the official results of the presidential election to be officially certified tomorrow by vice president mike pence here

in the u.s. senate. on my way to the studio, i met some of the trump supporters in the city. it is very important to mention that the recorded call between donald trump and georgia texas secretary of state, intimidating him, this will probably have a negative impact on georgia's election today. the republican party is divided not only in congress, but also their supporters are very divided. phil: thank you for that, carolina chimoy in washington. saudi arabia's crown prince has signed a deal to bring qatar back to a coalition of gulf allies. qatar's leader cosigned the agreement, ending three years of isolation from its neighbors. a number of gulf states cut ties with qatar three years ago, accusing it of supporting terrorism and being too close to iran. reporter: the him year of qatar arrived in saudi arabia to be beaten by the kingdoms crown prince -- the best to be created

by the kingdom's crown prince. sending a strong signal, today, we turn a new page. the shake had not attended a gulf summit since the qatar crisis began in 2017. not his country is being welcomed back into the fold. the sheikh was whisked to the summit vue ian ancient city. gulf leaders posed for photographs before sitting down to sign a declaration of solidarity and stability. saudi arabia has already announced it was lifting its embargo on qatar. on tuesday, riyadh said it was restoring full diplomatic ties. these efforts helped us reach the agreement of the statement that will be signed at this summit, where we affirm our golf, arab and islamic stability and strengthen the amicable relations between our countries

in order to serve the interests of their people. the declaration seeks to end the dispute which has isolated guitar for more than three years -- isolated qatar for more than three years. saudi arabia, the uae, egypt, and the rain, cut diplomatic ties with qatar. the accused ohio of supporting terrorist groups and of being too close to saudi arabia's arch foe, iran. saudi arabia and its allies located access to qatar by air, land, and se, leaving it completely cut off. a. doha said the embargo violated international law. the blockade countries issued 13 demands, despise qatar's vehement rejection of their allegations. the list included closing down broadcaster al jazeera, and downgrading ties with iran. fast-forward to 2021 and no sign of major concessions from qatar. so why the change of heart?

it is partly thanks to pressure from the outgoing u.s. administration. and pressure from the incoming one. joe biden is expected to take a firm stance toward saudi arabia, and to reengage with iran. but with riyadh asked to unify arab ranks, the declaration contains only a general pledge of solidarity. the uae has said more work is needed. while qatar is free from the blockade, full of reconciliation is by no means certain. ♪ phil: we start with an olympics super fan who is refusing to miss out. the 51-year-old has been to every summer games for the last 30 years. the tokyo resident is determined to attend the tournament scheduled to come to her hometown this year. many japanese believe the event should not go ahead because of the pandemic, but she is hoping

to keep her record unbroken. reporter: keoko ishikawa has donned her super attire for years. her outfit and matching headband starteout at thearcelona games in 1992. along the way, she has collected memorabilia in every game since. the tokyo olympics were postponed due to the pandemic, and just last month, tokyo organizers banned cheering in stadiums, which means -- [wilwhistleblowing] -- she will have to leave her whistle at home. even with the muted atmosphere of the games, she sees it as a symbol of hope. >> despite the difficulties, i want the turkey -- tokyo games to be a place where people around the world feel that the flame of hope was protected.

but humanity kept it alive. reporter: she plans to take part in the rcheduled torch relay. she is also looking forward to adding to her election of memorabilia. the tokyo games are set to open in under 200 days. phil: meanwhile, japan's top ranked sumo wrestler, haku ho, has tested positive for the coronavirus days before the start of the new year grand tournament. it is not clear whether the event will be postponed. a mongolian born wrestler, who is the longest-serving top-ranked sumo, known as a yokozuna, was tested after losing his sense of smell. earlier this year, another wrestler died after contracting covid-19.

a reminder of our top story at this hour -- german chancellor angela merkel and the leaders of the country's 16 states have announced the details of the new national coronavirus looked down. the current lockdown will be extended to the end of january, with tighter restrictions on social contacts for everyone and limits on movement for people in coronavirus hotspots. that is it. you are up-to-date. i will have more world news at the top ofhe hour. i will be back in just a moment to take you to the day. meantime, have a good day. ♪

you are watching 24 live from paris. crucial runoffs. voters go to the polls in the u.s. state of georgia with the u.s. senate hanging in the balance. the outcome will have huge implications for what joe biden can accomplish in the next four years. lockdown extended. germany prolongs its national stay-at-home order until the end of the month as cases of the coronavirus surge. the nation has already vaccinated hundreds of thousands, but doses are running short. france on alert. several cases of the new variant