this is bbc news, the headlines: at least 11 republican senators say they will join this is bbc news. president trump in refusing welcome if you're watching here to accept the official results of the us presidential election in the uk or around the globe. that named joe biden the winner by eight million votes. i'm lewis vaughan jones. the group have repeated unproven allegations of fraud our top stories: in november‘s poll. in india, health workers and volunteers have taken part a group of republican senators say they will support president trump and refuse in a nationwide rehearsal to accept the official result to test its preparedness of the us presidential for mass immunisation election. against covid—nineteen in india, tens of thousands as a second vaccine is recommended for emergency use. of health workers take part india‘s government hopes to vaccinate at least in a one day mass 300 million people immunisation rehearsal. meanwhile in the uk, as coronavirus cases surge, by the middle of 2021. teaching unions in england demand a two—week closure of schools. the government is coming under intense pressure from teaching unions who want to keep schools and heading off—piste. in england closed for the first as a number of european countries shut their slopes two weeks of the new term. to skiers, switzerland decides the profession‘s calling for the delay because of the rapid spread of the new to go the other direction. coronavirus variant.

11 us senators say they'll refuse to certinyoe biden‘s victory in the presidential election, unless there's an investigation into alleged voter fraud. courts in several us states have thrown out a series of challenges to the result. meanwhile campaigning has intensified in georgia ahead of tuesday's special senate election. paul hawkins reports. the inauguration stage is being built, yet with 17 days to go untiljoe biden becomes president, some are still challenging the result. on wednesday the upper house of congress, the senate, controlled by republicans, with officially certified the election results. but almost a dozen republican senators led by ted cruz have said they intend to vote to reject electors from states facing unproven allegations of election fraud.

that's despite the two most senior republican senators, including, mitch mcconnell, urging them not to. they've publicly accepted the election result. so today i want to congratulate president—electjoe biden. they also argue the certification is ceremonial. there is virtually no chance that the challenge by ted cruz and co will make any difference. but the fact that they are going through with it, despite the warnings, shows how divided the republican party is over loyalty to president trump and loyalty to the party. instead, all republican hopes will be on keeping control of the senate. on tuesday, two republican senators are facing re—election in georgia. david perdue, a big trump supporter, is up against democrat john ossoff. and after four years of hatred and racism and division and bigotry, georgia is going to make a statement about love and decency and compassion and unity. democrat raphael warnock, meanwhile, will hope to take the seat of republican senator kelly loeffler.

are you ready to show america that georgia's a red state? the polling suggests both races are very tight indeed. should the democrats take both seats in georgia, then the senate will be tied at 50 seats each, with vice president—elect kamala harris getting the deciding vote. but if the republicans take just one of those seats in georgia, they keep control of the senate, and that would make life more difficult for president—elect joe biden. but it would also give him the opportunity to showcase his self—declared skills as a negotiator, a ao—year veteran of the senate, who thinks he can bridge america's fiercely partisan divide. paul hawkins, bbc news. jon seaton is a republican strategist. he told me more about this latest move by some us senators. well, look, i think what's going to happen is that on 6 january the electoral college results will be certified,

once and for all, and on 20 januaryjoe biden will be inaugurated as the president of the united states and i think that everything else going on right now — there's a little bit of political theatre and a little bit of political gamesmanship, but at the end of the day it will not have any real impact on who becomes president of the united states on 20 january. so you say political gamesmanship there. what's the motivation behind the senators throwing their support for donald trump? well, i learned a long time ago not to request or try to speculate on someone‘s motivation, but i do think it's unquestionable, we're talking about it right now, it has gotten them a little bit of media, if you will, a little bit of publicity, i am sure has helped their campaign coffers and brought more people into their campaigns. you will note a number of people who signed the letter are considering a run for president in 202a. and others may wish to potentially avoid a primary. so, it really could run the gamut of the why, but like i said, i don't anticipate it having any real material outcome.

the election was decided in november and the electors have cast their votes and 6 january will still be a formality, albeit with a little bit more gamesmanship, like i said, than maybe past years. what about the long—term impact here, are you worried about that gentle day—in, day—out undermining of the democratic process? you know, ithink it's a fair question. i do worry somewhat about norms being changed or challenged or, in some cases, broken. i think that's one thing that, love him or hate him, president trump absolutely prided himself on, and it will be interesting to see how the country responds, whether there will be a course correction or things are moving in that direction. i think one thing we can see is a number ofjudges who, as you mentioned, throughout the court cases that were brought were trump appointees, were republican judges. and so the system, it did work, and it continues to work, and i expect that most

americans have, i think, moved on, they have accepted the results and expect, as most of us do, that the election is over and joe biden will be president on 20 january. does this also show the power and and influence donald trump remains within the republican party, despite the fact he is out of the office with just a few more days to go, his influence on the party and hold certain elements of the party is still there? there is no question that donald trump remains the loudest voice in the room, if you will. he is still the titular head of the republican party. again, once he's out of office, it remains to be seen how long that endures, but right now i think you are absolutely right and i think the party is very much tied to him and his brand and interested, like a lot of people, to see if that continues

to endure once he does leave the white house in a few weeks. and just while i have you here, before i let you go, can we have a quick look at georgia, that crucial senate race there, two senate seats. does this play into it at all? i think at this point a lot of the — as i say, the cake may be baked, the republicans have a very, very strong ground game in georgia. i expect it to be close. but i do think that, ultimately, both incumbent republican senators are going to be re—elected and, you know, we will find out in a couple of days. my expectation is the vast majority of voters are casting their ballot based on who they want to see represent them in the united states senate. and i think republicans and democrats are quite motivated, but what we are seeing and hearing about on the ground and are seeing in terms of the most recent surge

of republican votes in terms of the early vote, i expect a narrow but a victory for both republican incumbents. jon seaton there. let's get some of the day's other news. suspected islamist militants in niger have attacked two villages near the border with mali, killing at least 56 people. more than 20 others were injured in the tillaberi region, which has been under a state of emergency since 2017. a fourth body has now been found by rescuers at the site of a massive landslip in norway. emergency teams are still searching for six people, who've been missing since the hillside collapsed in the village of ask, 25 kilometres north of oslo on wednesday. freezing conditions are hindering the operation. the chinese foreign minister, wang yi, has claimed the coronavirus pandemic began in multiple parts of the world, notjust in china. he said this theory was backed up by increasing amounts of research.

the world health organization has said the first cases were detected in the chinese city of wuhan. israel has vaccinated more than a million people against coronavirus, the highest rate in the world. the authorities are delivering jabs to about 150,000 people a day, with priority given to the over—60s, health workers and people who are clinically vulnerable. india has been rehearsing how it plans to vaccinate 300 million people against covid—19 by the middle of this year. on saturday, tens of thousands of health workers and volunteers took part in a one day rehearsal for mass immunisation. a second coronavirus vaccine has now been recommended for emergency use in india. unlike the astrazeneca jab, it's being made by a localfirm. anbarasan ethirajan reports from delhi. volunteers waiting for their turn in a massive rehearsal for the immunisation drive. it will be almost real, except that those standing here will not get the dose. the indian government wants to ensure a glitch—free coronavirus immunisation programme.

this mammoth exercise is essential as the country wants to inoculate 300 million people by the middle of this year. so, if you have any health conditions, you will not be given the vaccine. so, a full verification if you are healthy and fit, you'll be sent for the vaccination. after vaccination, you will be sent to the observation room. in the observation room, minimum 30 minutes you'll have to wait over there, to see if you have any complications or anything. an expert panel has recommended two vaccines, one by astrazeneca—oxford university and the second one jointly developed by an indian company and a state—run research body. both involve two doses, and the authorities want to keep enough vaccines at their disposal before the real exercise. but, both are cost—effective and locally manufactured. still, some are doubtful about the efficacy of the vaccines. translation: i'm not that comfortable taking the vaccine, but i get it — this could offer is the cure, but it's not yet confirmed. elsewhere, they're using

the vaccine and there are still unsolved problems, so i think if people are getting better after they quarantine by staying at home, it's still the best option. the government says the aim of the trial immunisation drive is also to remove misconceptions about the vaccine. it wants the country to get back to normal so that the economy can be revived. for that to happen, it is aware that it needs to conduct a successful vaccination programme. saturday's exercise will play a crucial role in achieving that goal. anbarasan ethirajan, bbc news, delhi. hospitals in the uk have begun receiving stocks of the oxford — astrazeneca vaccine that's to be rolled out on monday. more than half a million doses will be available for rollout. the body which advises the british government on immunisation, has been defending the decision to delay giving people their second dose of the pfizer vaccine, so that many more people can

receive an initial jab. councils and teaching unions in england are continuing to pile pressure on the uk government, calling for primary schools to be kept closed to the majority of pupils after the christmas holidays. teaching unions have told primary school staff it is unsafe to return to work because of rising coronavirus cases. our political correspondent chris mason has more. this is brighton, where primary schools were due to reopen this week after the christmas holidays. but now the local authority is advising that they shouldn't, and has asked the education secretary to intervene to. we've asked that written to gavin williamson to ask him to close our primary schools in line with the decision that he has made in london and other areas, but what we have also done is written to schools directly

ourselves, and ask them to, or advised them, but we think the right decision is for them to move to remote learning on monday, and only be open for children of key workers and our most vulnerable children as well. and this is birmingham, whether city council has it will support any primary school had teachers who decide to shift to learning from home, and this morning, local leaders in liverpool are calling for another national lockdown. they argue the current tiered system in england isn't working. we feel that to curb this virus, particularly with the new strain, it is really important that we tackle it head on, proactive rather than reactive, when things get really bad, not a lockdown would help to resolve that. the government's default position is that schools in england should remain open wherever possible. but with some local authorities saying that schools should close and the biggest teaching union telling its members that it is not safe for them to go to work, what happens next? is

not entirely in ministers‘ hands. how many more councils could suggest schools closed for most pupils? how many teachers will turn up in classrooms? union leaders are in touch with one another this weekend, co—ordinating their actions. the department for education says it will only move to remote schooling as a last resort. the pandemic robbed us of many things in 2020, not least certainty. it is going to do the same thing again for many parents and pupils. for the first few months of this year, at least. chris mason, bbc news. this is bbc news. our main stories: a group of republican senators say they will support president trump and refuse to accept the official result of the us presidential election. in india, tens of thousands of health workers and volunteers take part in a one—day mass

immunisation rehearsal. an appeals court in the us has lifted a stay of execution on the only woman awaiting the death sentence at a federal level. lisa montgomery could be executed beforejoe biden takes office as president, although further legal challenges are expected. she was found guilty of killing a pregnant woman in 2004, and stealing her unborn baby to pass off as her own. cassandra stubbs is director of the american civil liberties union capital punishment project. she told me how the death penalty system works. the us is an outlier in that it still has the death penalty and it‘s really kind of arbitrarily applied in this country. it‘s applied in some states, half the states don‘t actively use the death penalty in america, but half the states have it, and within those states, that‘s where most of the death sentences are, there are about 2,500 people on death row who were sentenced in a state. in addition to the state

system, there is a federal death penalty where the federal government seeks a death sentence and there are about 50 federal death row prisoners, so it‘s a much smaller portion of the people in the united states who face execution. and what we‘re talking now is the federal, the national level cases, and what‘s been happening over recent years with federal cases and what has changed now? the federal government has carried out very, very few executions ever, historically. there have been no executions at all in the last 17 years until this year. and the trump administration made the decision to go forward with executions, even though we are in the middle of a pandemic and even though public health officials really warned that what we would see, in fact, and sadly, tragically has happened, that by carrying out federal executions, restarting federal executions, that there would be outbreaks of covid—19 at the prison where these federal executions occur.

the federal prisoners are mostly all held in a men‘s prison in indiana, in terre haute, indiana, and beginning injuly of this year the federal government has carried out ten executions in 2020. that was a remarkable pace that really putjust incredible and terrible pressure on the courts and all of the players who were involved. i see. and the case we highlighted here is lisa montgomery. do you believe there is a chance that could be avoided? absolutely. lisa montgomery has a very, very powerful clemency case, that she is asking the president to commute her sentence and not carry out her execution. lisa montgomery has an unbelievably tragic personal history. she was gang raped and, really, sold by her mother to pay for rent as a young child.

she faced incredibly tragic trauma and sexual abuse and as a result she‘s had lifelong mental illness. these are not facts that anyone disputes, so there has been a number of people around the country who have risen up and really around the world who are calling on president trump to commute her life sentence. i just want to get your thoughts very quickly — what difference it will make whenjoe biden takes over? well, we are expecting an enormous difference, a seachange. president—elect biden ran on a platform of being opposed to the death penalty and promised to work against the federal death penalty, to end the federal death penalty once and for all, so we do not expect president biden to carry out executions during a pandemic. we don‘t expect him to carry out executions at all and we think that he will work to end this abomination. the homes of the two most powerfulfigures in the us

congress, mitch mcconnell and many pelosi, have both been attacked and vandalised. fake blood and a severed pig‘s head were left outside mrs pelosi‘s house in san francisco, which was also daubed with graffiti. senator mcconnell‘s home in kentucky had slogans sprayed on it, referring to the failure of congress to increase coronavirus stimulus payments to american households. several european countries have announced further coronavirus restrictions, including slovakia, which has begun a new lockdown and closed ski facilities. but, in switzerland and one or two other countries, skiers are taking to the slopes, albeit under new guidelines. sylvia lennan—spence reports. hitting the slopes, european style. from this ski resort in southern romania to a packed car park in austria where thousands rushed to take advantage of the perfect skiing weather. from resorts in andorra, open exclusively to residents... ..to the dizzy heights

in switzerland. while a number of european countries including france and italy closed their ski resorts, switzerland was one of those that bucked the trend and kept most of its open. there are noticeably fewer skiers. normal peak times would see around 20,000 people on the slopes. now, there are only around 8,000. translation: the loss of turnover over the holiday season will be $8—9 million. this is also because we had gone even further with the guest quarters than we had to. among other things, we only put 500 tickets on sale per day instead of 5,000 as in other years. as is the norm these days, masks are compulsory. not only in closed spaces, such as mountain trains and cable cars, but also open air chairlifts as well as in queues. translation: it's fine like this, it‘s better than before. i do feel safe.

the gondola is full but so is public transport, it‘s the same. translation: i'm aware that it's not the best idea. an accident can happen and there's enough going on in the hospitals at the moment. security guards on hand to check if skiers are standing too close. france has said it will reopen ski lifts next week, while italy has pushed back the opening of its resorts until later in the month. until then, for these in switzerland, the snow must go on. sylvia lennan—spence, bbc news. next, the fashion industry was hit hard by the pandemic and many high—street shops closed after seeing their sales plummet. but the last 12 months have also seen a rise in the selling of vintage, upcycled and secondhand fashion.

helene daoupha rs looks at what‘s driving this change in consumer behaviour. living through the pandemic means more time spent at home, often looking out to a world on standby. a moment to self reflect a nd standby. a moment to self reflect and change old habits. for many, the wardrobe was the first to take a hit. i have definitely, definitely, consciously reduced what i buy, how much i buy, really assessed what i need, and it‘s basically, not as many as i had before, and without going to the office and doing stuff like that, i don‘t need to wear as much stuff anymore. increasing numbers of people actually started selling their used clothes, a way to make extra cash and embrace more sustainable circular fashion. this is the office of rethread, it sells second—hand clothes online. i started with a little

local child, putting out a message on facebook and groups, and people refer their friends and people refer their friends and families, barely spending anything on marketing, essentially, we have been really busy since then. from what happened behind closed doors in people‘s wardrobes during lockdown to the way the fashion industry works, there isa gap, fashion industry works, there is a gap, you might say. but consumers‘ habits are externally powerful in driving change and we are now seeing many luxury brands of fashion designers embracing the more sustainable approach. french fashion designer marin has based her whole creative concept and business model around up cycling used garments. she has been particularly successful in the recent months. when we started it was successful, but not too much, i must say, and i have seen a much, i must say, and i have seen a really big shift from

february and march onwards, where you can see the attraction where people want to dress ina attraction where people want to dress in a renovated garment. companies have taken advantage of this consumer behaviour. the real reel made $380 million in revenue in 2019, they authenticate and distribute second—hand garments. the brands themselves are waking up to this market. a good healthy resale price supports the primary market. it took a while for some brands to really understand that, not all brands are there, but most brands do understand if someone buys it maintains its value, customers will actually make that choice versus buying something similar that does not take its value. buying and reselling clothes is nothing new, but the growth online in 2020 has led resale websites and brands to embrace this trend as an expanding and

lucrative business. however, an industry that is so associated with changing trends and fast fashion and cheap, disposable clothing, may find sustainability is one look that is difficult to pull off. helene daouphars, bbc news. greta thunberg, whose campaigning changed the global narrative on climate change, is celebrating her 18th birthday today. in an interview with the sunday times newspaper, the activist says she has given up buying new clothes and doesn‘t need to fly to be happy, but she does not think it‘s selfish to have children. bolsonaro has flouted covid—19 restrictions by swimming at a beach on new year‘s day. he was quickly surrounded by well—wishers. he spent weeks in

isolation after contracting covid—19 in the summer. that‘s it from me. you can get me on twitter. i am lewis vaughan jones, and this is bbc world news. bye—bye. hello. it‘s been a cold, wintry start to 2021 and that theme is set to continue, at least for the next week or so. temperatures still below average. this was the picture on saturday afternoon in wakefield, quite a lot of lying snow around for many parts of northern england, parts of scotland, into wales, western england, the midlands as well. and over the next few days, it‘s going to stay cold with further wintry showers at times, certainly we‘re all going to be seeing some ice or some frost around. a cold start to your sunday morning with sub zero temperatures for many areas. as low as —5 or —6 across parts of western scotland first thing. now, after that cold frosty start, the weather is looking generally settled, high pressure in charge of our weather, but we will have the breeze coming in from a north—easterly direction as it blows over the north sea, it will bring in some showers and some showers will be across parts of scotland northeast england as well, one or two further south into wales

and the midlands. mainly sleet and snow confined to higher ground, largely rain at low levels — particularly for the southeast of england and east anglia, some heavy rain showers here and also for the channel islands as well likely to see some rain on it through the day. and while temperatures reach around four or six degrees, it will feel colder with the wind chill so the breeze making it feel closer to freezing during sunday afternoon for many of us. heading into monday and high pressure still with us sitting to the north of the uk, we‘ve still got that north easterly breeze into monday as well. so, many places looking dry with some sunshine, but there will be some wintry showers and parts of southern scotland and northern england, perhaps one or two for northern ireland and wales and the southeast of england once again could see some rain showers. it could turn to sleet and snow over the high ground with any of the heavier bursts. temperatures only about four to six degrees but feeling closer to freezing once again

when you add on the effect of that wind chill on monday. a very similar day into tuesday as well. we‘ve still got a northeasterly breeze with us, some rain showers for the south—east of england and flurries elsewhere, but a lot of dry weather on the cards in the sunshine, still feeling cold with temperatures around three to five degrees on their warmest on tuesday and looking ahead to the remainder of the coming week, it stays cold, temperature still below freezing, some sunshine and things looking like they are turning more unsettled later in the week. bye— bye. months of this year, at least. 00:28:44,987 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 chris mason, bbc news.