this is bbc news. i'm mike embley with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. new national lockdowns in england and scotland as a surge in cases of the new coronavirus variant threatens to overwhelm this is bbc news. the headlines: england and scotland have been ordered into new lockdowns the health systems. to contain a surge in virus cases threatening to overwhelm the health systems. france speeds up its schools will be closed to most vaccination programme pupils, also non—essential after a sluggish start draws retail and hospitality. an angry rebuke from president macron. borisjohnson has said going down to the wire the weeks ahead will be in georgia, democrats the hardest yet, as a more and republicans hold rallies infectious variant spreads ahead of a runoff vote to control the senate. across the country. donald trump and joe biden are campaigning in georgia ahead of two crucial runoff votes for the senate on tuesday. the democrats need to win both seats to gain control of the senate, giving them overall control of congress, as well as the white house. the us justice department is to appeal against the uk court decision not to extradite borisjohnson has warned the wikilea ks founder, the coming weeks will be julian assange.

the hardest yet as he announced another national lockdown for england. thejudge said there was a real risk of suicide, the uk is seeing a surge in an american maximum in coronavirus cases and patient numbers, security prison. but the prime minister said he believed the country julian assange is wanted on 18 was entering "the last phase of the struggle". charges relating to the release of half a million secret he's instructed people to stay government files. at home, although there are some exceptions such as going out to medical now on bbc news, robert chelsea appointments and for was hit by a drunk essential shopping. our political editor driver, sustaining third—degree burns on over half of his body. laura kuennsberg reports. in 2019 he became the first african american recipient since the pandemic began last year, the whole united kingdom has been engaged in a great national effort to fight covid. .. an effort that isn't over, not even close, as downing street pointed the finger of blame at the new variant spreading fast. as i speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from covid than at any time since the start of the pandemic. with most of the country already under extreme measures, it's clear that we need to do more. that means the government is once again instructing you to stay at home. that includes children,

who he said should go to school just this morning. our kitchen tables or shared sofas become offices and classrooms again. primary schools, secondary schools and colleges across england must move to remote provision from tomorrow, except for vulnerable children and the children of key workers. this might feel agonisingly familiar but there is one big difference. we're now rolling out the biggest vaccination programme in our history. by the middle of february, if things go well, and with a fair wind in our sails, we expect to have offered the first vaccine dose to everyone in the four top priority groups. nearly 1a million offers planned to the most vulnerable and most elderly. the doors could be unlocked in about six weeks but there is a list of big ifs. if the roll—out of the vaccine programme continues to be successful, if deaths start to fall as the vaccine takes effect, and critically,

if everyone plays their part by following the rules, then i hope we can steadily move out of lockdown, reopening schools after the february half term and starting cautiously to move regions down the tiers. i want to say to everyone right across the uk that i know how tough this is. but now, more than ever, we must pull together. the weeks ahead will be the hardest yet but i really do believe that we're entering the last phase of the struggle, because with everyjab that goes into our arms, we are tilting the odds against covid and in favour of the british people. so with the force of the law, most of life will retreat again behind closed doors. chairs on tables, empty streets, silent dinner halls —

corridors falling quiet in every corner of the uk. good morning, everybody. this time, the hope a needle in millions of arms provides a way out of all of this, but the lockdown we'll live through first is far from being a quick sting. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. new curbs have also just come into force in scotland. the first minister, nicola sturgeon, has ordered people to stay at home, except for essential reasons, and schools to remain closed until next month. two democrat congressmen have called on the fbi to investigate donald trump's phone call to the top election official in georgia. they say the president's request to georgia's secretary of state, brad raffensperger, to find enough votes to overturn joe biden‘s victory in the state, broke election law. the former us defense secretary william cohen had this to say regarding that phone call.

it is a continuation of who he is and who he has been, namely he uses intimidation, spates of lawsuits, anything he can to bend people to his will, even breaking the law. i believe it is a criminalact in making that allegation or suggestion to involve a secretary of state to commit an act in of itself would be a crime. so this is not only bizarre but highly, i would say impeachable if we were still at that stage but it is highly unethical and it's an abuse of power that we haven't seen before in this level. donald trump and president—electjoe biden have both been campaigning in georgia ahead of tuesday's crucial run—off vote for two senate seats. our correspondent, nomia iqbal, has more from atlanta.

georgia is almost the last battle for the losing president. this normally republican state picture baden in november and since then donald trump has demanded recou nts donald trump has demanded recounts here, he has gone up to the republican leadership including the governor, and now a top election official in this astonishing phone call. the democrats have seized on this with one official hair calling for a criminal investigation. donald trump is not done with georgie at. he is holding a rally tonight to drum up support for his republican candidates who are trying to win two seats in the senate. donald trump has called those races also illegal and invalid, and that's worried some republicans because the logic goes if republican voters believe the president and think that their votes won't be accurately counted, will they turn out and vote? that could had an advantage to the democratic party because if their candidates window senate seats, then it meansjoe biden‘s presidency is off to a powerful start to a powerful

start. the democrats need to win both of the senate seats in georgia in order to control the senate, which would give them overall control of congress. let's hear what the president—elect had to say about the importance of these runoff elections. unlike any time in my career, one state, one state can change the course, not just for the next four years but for the next generation. let's bring you some live pictures now from dalton in georgia where mr trump is holding a rally. he hasjust he has just arrived, he hasjust arrived, you he has just arrived, you see the link awaits him there, and we can speak to andrew gillespie. political science professor at emory university in atlanta where she joins us from now. thank you very much for your time. a strictly nonpolitical answer. who will win in georgia? we don't know, the poles are statistically within the margin of error, it's too close to call, the outcome is likely going to be close one way or the other. georgia is

complicated, particularly these two senate seats. it's a really complicated picture. georgia is in the midst of a partisan transition, so it went from being reliably democratically reliably republican, now demographic changes are ushering and era of new competitiveness so it does not guarantee republicans or democrats clear, consistent victories but it does portend very close election results and nailbiter is an alternating democratic and republican victories, so we really do have to see what tomorrow's election results bring because it could go either way. it so much more competitive because of what mr trump would see as fraud, but many other people would say is a surge in voter registrations. more effort to resist voter suppression, simply more activism by the democrats. yes, the population in georgia has become increasingly nonwhite and nonwhite voters are more likely to be democratic than republican. even displayed

voter suppression efforts, we are seeing people of colour register and turn out to vote at greater numbers, and we are also seeing them be joined at greater numbers, and we are also seeing them bejoined by liberal way to voters, and what we have seen happen in georgia and other statewide elections as the margins between democratic and republican candidates have been narrowing over the course of the last decade, and so it was only a matter of time before democrats actually started to reach parity in elections and if they doa parity in elections and if they do a good job turning up people to vote, they will at least be competitive, and have a possibility to be able to pull offa possibility to be able to pull off a victory. professor, even if more african—americans, age and americans, hispanic people are registering to vote on voting, that is not enough to turn georgia democratic, is it? know, so those three groups together comprise about 36% of georgia's electorate so you still need wide voters in order to win, so in the presidential election, joe biden got 30% of the wide boat, which is enough

combined with strong minority turn out and democratic voting to be able to produce a majority, and so, if something like that happens tomorrow, that will putjohn and raphael in pretty good stead. you have any sense of how mr trump is make various interventions have played voters? i think the big concern is on the margins, and ina concern is on the margins, and in a close race the turnout of every person matters, and in particular, democrats are trying to drive their score up by turning out infrequent voters, people who you are not usually count on to turn out in a run—off election, so this would include first—time voters, new voters, and people who only vote in presidential elections. the types of voters that donald trump also turned out to vote on the republican side, and they may be the most impressionable and susceptible to discussions that they should boycott the election results or the results of the election are

fraudulent, so the concern among republican applicants is they are making it harder to get the vote out. i'm not sure if the rally matters as much as the behind—the—scenes field operations so if republicans are knocking on doors and making phone calls or sending text messages to their voters to make sure they turn out to vote, they have an opportunity to offset the confusing message from president trump. would you say that there are lessons from georgia for political activists on both sides? particularly in the south? in this senate race there were unlimited resources, and what we saw from those unlimited resources is that actually was able to buy the material, by the resources, by the human capital to be able to do thejob of the human capital to be able to do the job of trying to touch every voter in the state multiple times, and when you have that type of sustained effort, when you have that type

of outreach effort, it yields greater turnout. with reserve respect to the changing demographic, georgia is different from its neighbours in that it has a much more multicultural and racially diverse electorate, it also has, even though it is a small portion of the population, more wide voters who are willing to bow democratic elections, so thatis bow democratic elections, so that is why you see georgia become more electorally competitive as opposed to neighbouring states like alabama, for instance, or south carolina. thank you so much. new york governor andrew cuomo says his state has found its first case of the more infectious virus variant, first detected in the uk. it's raising concerns over the healthcare system should it spread rapidly in the state. mr cuomo has also told hospitals to speed up vaccinations or face a fine or loss of future supplies. any provider who does not use the vaccine could be fined up to $100,000 going forward. they have to use the allocation within seven days, otherwise they can be removed from future distribution. i don't want the

vaccine in a refrigerator or freezer, i wanted vaccine in a refrigerator or freezer, iwanted in vaccine in a refrigerator or freezer, i wanted in somebody‘s arm. i spoke recently to an epidemiologist and assistant professor at columbia university and asked him how consenting it is for the health system in new york to have a confirmed case of the variant. it is concerning that we have identified the new mutant strain here in new york, meaning that it is likely to be spreading in the community and therefore, as we know, 50—70% more transmissible than the standard sars—cov—2 virus and that will have a rapid increase in the number of cases and start to strain our healthcare system. thus far new york has been able to cope, in large measure because we have been through the worst of this in march and april last year but if this continues apace, i fear that our healthcare system will face the same sort of strain and the same sort of potential rationing of care that we see in places like la county and others.

so it is quite concerning. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: we report from south africa, where scientists fear a new variant found there, could be resistant to vaccines. the japanese people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief! after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow despite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. around the world, people have been paying tribute to the iconic rock star

david bowie who sold 140 million albums in a career that spanned half a century. his family announced overnight that he had died of cancer at the age of 69. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai, has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: new national lockdowns in england and scotland as a surge in cases of the new coronavirus variant threatens to overwhelm the health system. new york's hospitals are ordered to speed up vaccinations, as the state records its first case of the mutation. france is accelerating its vaccination programme after a slow initial roll—out which has drawn an angry rebuke from president emmanuel macron. he's set a target for a million people to be innoculated

by the end of the month but efforts may be complicated by widespread vaccine skepticism. courtney bembridge reports. front—page news and front of people's minds as the health minister visited a vaccination centre in paris. he was stopped bya centre in paris. he was stopped by a dock who told him elderly patients were waiting to be vaccinated. translation: you can tell them it is soon. for the moment you are getting vaccinated because you have priority but soon it will be their turn and you will be able to protect them. france has been slow off the mark in the first week of the vaccination campaign, just over 500 people had the jab. regional leaders say there is too much red tape. translation: all the doctors wrote to me and tell me they are available, even on weekends, but we still do not have the direct eaves to set up these logistics. the health minister says vaccinations have been ramped up this week and

thousands more have now had the vaccine. translation: we are multiplying the number of centres by four which means that there will be about 100 hospitals that will offer vaccination. but the numbers are still low compared to more than1 million are still low compared to more than 1 million in are still low compared to more than1 million in the uk and more than 200,000 in germany. the sluggish start has irritated president emmanuel macron. the newspaper quoted him as saying the pace was like afamily him as saying the pace was like a family stroll which was not worthy of the moment nor of the french. emmanuel macron's target is1 million people vaccinated by the end of january and the government says that many doses will be available by the end of the week. but the vaccine will not be mandatory and france is one of the most and —— faxing sceptical countries in the world. a recent survey showed just 40% of french citizens would get the vaccine if it we re would get the vaccine if it were available. translation: the french population has a lwa ys the french population has always been anti— vaccinations. we see that here when we do the flu jabs. every year it is a

mess. it is up to us as doctors to convince them that here the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. that is clear. but some do not need any convincing. have you just been vaccinated? yes, i have been vaccinated. how did it go? very well. i get the vaccination as soon as possible. i work in the health sector, i am an ambulance driver and health sector, i am an ambulance driverandl health sector, i am an ambulance driver and i would like to be vaccinated. france is among europe's hardest hit countries. its death toll is above 65,000, just behind italy in the uk. and with an election looming next year, the stakes could not be higherfor emmanuel macron. much of the rapid spread of the virus in the uk is being put down to the new form of the coronavirus, which is far easier to catch. but it's not the only mutation which is causing concern. a variant found in south africa is also worrying virologists — as andrew harding reports from johannesburg. move! a strict new lockdown across south africa, complete with a night—time curfew

with a total ban on the sale of alcohol. the authorities here are struggling to contain an aggressive new variant of the virus. that variant, just like the one in britain, has made covid—19 far easier to catch and to transmit. you see how short of breath you are, eh? the result — hospitals are filling up fast, and precious oxygen supplies are running low. early evidence suggests the virus here is probably no more transmissible or more deadly than the british variant. but that's still being tested. so the jury is still out, we still don't have a definitive answer, but generally viruses evolve to become more transmissible but less virulent. hopefully, this virus will obey that same dictum. say ah... but there is another worry. while britain's virus has one significant mutation, south africa's has three, including one that might make the virus more resistant

to current vaccines. the concern in south africa is that a variant that has been identified has got at least three mutations, which could potentially impact on the antibody that is induced by the vaccine to neutralise the virus. so it's a serious concern. i think it is a theoretical concern at this point in time, and hopefully over the course of the next few weeks will have a clear answer. the good news is that south african scientists are now working fast to get that answer. the bad news is that there is a significant risk that the virus here has changed to give itself at least a partial resistance to the current vaccines. still, experts say adjusting those vaccines should be relatively easy. in the meantime, a second wave of infections continues to spread fast across south africa. andrew harding, bbc

news, johannesburg. america's department ofjustice says it is extremely disappointed by a british court ruling which prevents the wikileaks founderjulian assange from being extradited. the us wants him to stand trial for publishing classified documents. but a judge at the old bailey in london said concerns over his mental health meant the extradition could not proceed. our diplomatic correspondent james landale reports. free julian assange! julian assange has long attracted loyal supporters, and this was their reaction outside the old bailey as they heard the news. no extradition — yeah! for more than a decade, the wikilea ks founder has resisted extradition, spending seven years holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london, before being removed almost two years ago and detained in belmarsh prison.

the us authorities want him to face 18 charges, mostly of espionage, relating to his alleged role in the leaking of thousands of secret military documents. many focused on the wars in afghanistan and iraq, including this video appearing to show a us helicopter firing on civilians in baghdad. to some, mr assange is a champion of free speech who revealed war crimes. to others, a law breaker who endangered the lives of us agents. and today, after years of legal battles, he was driven into court to hear his fate. from the dock, he listened as districtjudge vanessa baraitser dismissed his defence that the us charges were political and a threat to media freedom. but when it came to his mental health and depression, she ruled that, in a us high—security prison, "the risk that mr assange will commit suicide is a substantial one, and as such it would be oppressive to extradite him to the united states. " on hearing the ruling, mr assange simply wiped his brow. his partner and mother of his two sons,

stella morris, burst into tears. we are pleased that the court has recognised the seriousness and inhumanity of what he has endured and what he faces. but let's not forget the indictment in the us has not been dropped. the us department ofjustice said it was extremely disappointed and would appeal against the ruling. mr assange was remanded in custody ahead of a bail application later this week. james landale, bbc news. the queue waiting foreign minister is saying that saudi arabia will reopen airspace land and sea borders to qatar. there has been a long—running dispute between kotara and of its golf neighbours. saudi arabia led a coalition of countries that cut ties with the nation in 2017. an agreement aimed at ending the rift is to be signed on tuesday

according to a white house official. commuters in moscow had something of a surprise as they returned to work after the new year break. for the first time in decades — female drivers have been allowed on the city's metro system. it follows a recent change in the law that lets women take up dozens of professions that had previously been deemed too dangerous. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. beneath the streets of moscow, a social revolution is taking place. the most shocking of science for some, a woman at the controls of an underground train. one dozen female employees already worked on the city's rail network, now they are fully qualified drivers full of translation: we believe that in this day and age eve ryo ne that in this day and age everyone should have a choice to work wherever he or she wa nts, to work wherever he or she wants, no matter their sex full we are happy that moscow metro has allowed an opportunity to the women who worked here to get a new profession. a new

profession but an old one, two. women were actually allowed to drive underground trains in moscow all the way back to the 19305. but moscow all the way back to the 1930s. but then the soviet union banned them from this and hundreds of other professions, said to be harmful or dangerous stop now that man has been overturned, they will notjust be train drivers. they can now drive lorries, tractors and serve on—board ships. but there are still dozens of that are prohibited. so far, only internal candidates have been allowed to apply that moscow metro promises but soon the jobs will be open to anyone to do these women are notjust drivers. they are also pioneers. we have more for you on all news, national and international, any time on the bbc website or on our twitter feed. you can get in touch with me and most of the tween —— tea m me and most of the tween —— team on twitter. thank you for

watching, please come again. hello. well, let's see what the weather is up to on tuesday. and in summary, not an awful lot of change. it's going to stay pretty cold and in fact over the next few days, you can see that cold air sitting over europe. and the nagging north—to—north—easterly wind will keep things very chilly here in the uk. so, let's summarise the week ahead. got a lot of cold weather on the way, overnight frosts, additionally windy in the south and along the north sea coast, and on top of that, rain, sleet, a bit of snow, some ice around as well. as far as the rain's concerned, it looks as though the wettest place will be east anglia and the south east, and that's because of the wind direction. it'll be blowing out of the north—east and the showers will keep coming to this same place. so, we could see 20—50 mm of rain

over the next couple of days — so, some big puddles there. anyway, back to the here and now. so, here are the temperatures early in the morning — freezing or below in most towns and cities. here is that north—easterly wind blowing across the north sea, and you can see those showers affecting east anglia and the south east. can be quite grey and wet both in the morning and in the afternoon here. elsewhere, i think a mixture of sunshine, and occasional rain, and wintry showers. but the further west you are, the better the weather will be. belfast, ithink, swansea, plymouth in for some sunshine but chilly, 3—5 celsius briefly in the afternoon, and then very quickly, those temperatures will drop during the course of the late afternoon and evening. and you can see, that north—easterly wind continues through the course of tuesday and also into wednesday. and that weather pattern is pretty evident here. you can see the isobars pointing out at the north—east, due south—west, and that's how the wind blows. so, once again on wednesday, it's copycat conditions. again, that extreme south—eastern portion of the uk can be quite grey and wet at times with those persistent showers. best of the weather will be in the west, but notice a weather front‘s

approaching there, the far north—west of scotland. so, some rain there, i think, for our friends in stornoway. but still wednesday night, we're expecting another widespread frost across the uk. temperatures in many areas will be well below freezing, down to —5 even, in bigger towns and cities, and you can see how chilly it remains in some of the bigger cities over the next few days. 00:28:27,798 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 that's it for me, bye—bye.