this is bbc news, i'mjames reynolds — with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. decision day in georgia — the polls close in two runoff elections that'll decide the balance of power in the us senate. prosecutors in the us state of wisconsin say they won't bring criminal charges against the police officer who shot the black man, jacob blake, leaving him paralysed. and as a third lockdown is introduced in england, official figures suggest covid infected 1—in—50 of the population in the last week. hello, and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world. and stay with us for the latest

news and analysis from here and across the globe. voting hasjust ended — the balance of power in the us congress for the next two years is being decided in the state of georgia. joe biden won the state in the presidential election, but the two senate seats in georgia both went to run—offs. so here's a quick reminder why this race in georgia is so important. the senate currently stands at 50 republicans and 48 democrats. there are two vacant seats. if ossoff and warnock win their races, democrats would have a tie. then the vice president—elect kamala harris would have the deciding vote. and that would give democrats control of both chambers of congress and the white house, meaning mr biden‘s could get more of his agenda passed by the house and senate. he'd have more power. in atlanta, georgia for us

is the bbc‘s larry madowo. house voting been going? this isa house voting been going? this is a very hotly anticipated election. james, there is $833 million that's been spent on the selection. it's paid for a lot of advertisers everywhere, people can be found in the papers and television outside, even on dating apps, so you can see campaigns have been floating with voters, campaigns likejohn also off, kelly loeffler, david perdue and refile warnock all have a chance at going to the senate. polls just closed two minutes ago, so polls just closed two minutes ago, so we polls just closed two minutes ago, so we will start to see early results. counties are starting to upload the unofficial results into portals, so we should know who has won and lost in the hours ahead. i'm not looking for those results on dating apps, i'll look for you to tell them to me. we had one presidential

race, to runoffs— our people in georgia exhausted by voting?” georgia exhausted by voting?|j spoke georgia exhausted by voting?” spoke to one person who said yes. they just wanted spoke to one person who said yes. theyjust wanted to vote and get it done with because they've heard too much about this. there have been people knocking on doors repeatedly to remind them about the election, to offer them rides to voting centers, telling their friends to vote, sharing on social media. that's what that money has paid for, $833 million means these two races have been some of the most expensive in american history. and it feels like that because everywhere you go in the state, there are signs ofan you go in the state, there are signs of an election here, and an important one here. a lot of other people within those two respective parties have made a trip here. you've spent lots of time in georgia in the recent months. explain to us the importance of the state. so georgia flipped blue for the

presidential election in november, which is an important one because it had not voted for a democratic presidential candidate since 1992, and democrats now hope that same momentum can be carried forward in these two senate seats they hope to snatch away from the republicans. so for the republicans. so for the republicans who are hoping to approve this was a fluke, this was a one off and they can still rely on it being a red state, what's necessary here is democrats are laying on a 30—30 strategy. if they can get 30% of the white vote and make sure 30% of the black vote in the total turnout, than they can win this. which means that out of the numbers we will see today from people who voted today, republicans need at least 100,000 to win this seat. if it goes closer to 900,000,1 million, they rule when these seats very comfortably. however, all the bowling we've been seeing is it's a toss—up. it could go either direction, and not one —— if the democrats

when it, they'll take both seats. if the republicans win it, they will take both seats as well. when will we know the final results? all right, the question that keeps coming up, and i'm not sure i can answer it easily. laughter. early tomorrow morning by midmorning— i was here in the last election and it took a couple days. i wish i could've asked a more imaginative final question. i couldn't, asked a more imaginative final question. icouldn‘t, i'm sorry! larry, thank you so much. stay with us for all of the developments here on bbc news. in the meantime, why not take a look at our website. just log on to bbc.com/news an update now on a story which dominated the news last august and september — the shooting of a black man, jacob blake, by a police officer in the city

of kenosha in wisconsin. prosecutors have now confirmed that the officer involved, rusten sheskey, will face no charges in connection with the incident. mr blake was hit several times and left severely injured during a confrontation with police outside a house, after a woman called the emergency services to report her boyfriend, who she said was not allowed to be on the premises. the incident sparked days of violent clashes in kenosha and elsewhere — culminating in two protestors being allegedly shot dead by an armed civilian. 0ur north america correspondent, david willis, has the latest details. the local prosecutor there, michael gravely, has decided not to prosecute the officer who shot jacob blake seven times in the back. the officer's name is rusten sheskey — because mr blake was armed with a knife at the time of the incident, so the prosecutor believes that rusten sheskey could claim that he acted in self—defense by shooting mr blake, and therefore that the charge against him —

any charges brought against him would unlikely to stick in a court of law. i can tell you that that decision has proved controversial, as you might imagine. already, mr bla ke's lawyer has said that it sends "the wrong decision", as he puts it, to police officers throughout the united states. and members of mr blake's family have called for rusten sheskey to be sacked from the police force and brought to trial. in that story i was reading, i ended by saying the incident sparked days of violent clashing, culminating in two civilians being shot dead by a citizen. what's the latest on that civilian‘s legal process? coincidently, kyle rittenhouse, who is now 18 — he was 17 at the time — has pleaded not guilty to several charges resulting from the deaths of two people and the injury of another

person, following three nights of rioting that came after the jacob blake arrest, or attempted arrest there. and kyle rittenhouse is someone who crossed the border from neighbouring illinois, armed with a weapon which he used to shoot at people. he said it was in self—defense. now some conservatives here have hailed him as a patriot, but nonetheless, mr rittenhouse is facing very serious charges in connection with this. to the coronavirus pandemic — and an eye—catching statistic from the uk, where officials say an estimated 1—in—50 people living in private households was infected with covid—19 in the week between 27 december and 2 january. that estimate is backed up by the uk's latest set of coronavirus statistics. for the first time, the number of confirmed cases recorded in a single day has exceeded 60,000. it's an increase of nearly 2,000 on the previous figure.

the number of covid—related deaths registered on tuesday was 830. that compares to 407 on monday — though it is worth bearing in mind that there is often a lag in the report of deaths over the weekend. record numbers of people are in hospital with covid, putting huge strain on the nhs. and the government's advisers say some restrictions may still be needed next winter to keep the virus under control. here's our deputy political editor vicki young. that sinking feeling — here we go again. across the uk, a return to deserted streets, empty classrooms and closed shops. all hopes now pinned on a speedy vaccine roll—out. until then, what will life be like? like millions of parents, michelle will be juggling work and helping her son with home learning. coming to my studio means that my son has a little bit of a break from the flat. having him play football in the house, being away from his friends, managing

technology... it is a challenge. in altrincham market, all the traders are packing up again. all the stalls are now empty. it's like going back to where it was in march of last year. and for health workers, like naseem, it's going to be more long shifts and hospital. a national lockdown was unfortunately necessary. my advice to all of you out there — please take it seriously. you could die from it. no wonder the prime minister warned us the next few weeks would be the hardest yet but there was some positive news. we've now vaccinated over 1.1 million people in england, and over 1.3 million across the uk. and that includes more than 650,000 people over 80, which is 23% of all the over 80s in england. many think you waited too long

to bring in extra restrictions. how can they have confidence in your decision—making? it's been clear that the tier 4 measures were something that we wanted to evaluate. and, over the course of the days leading up to sunday, clearly, like everybody else in the country, we were hoping that we would start to see some impact. the chief medical officer said the country now faced a really serious emergency. if people don't take the stay at homes seriously, the risk at this point in time in the middle of winter with this new variant is extraordinarily high. what is going to happen over time is the risk level is gradually going to decrease and we will then get to a point where people say this level of risk is one that society is prepared to tolerate. and right down to almost no restrictions at all. we might have to bring a few in in the next winter, for example. mrjohnson's promised to give regular updates on the progress of the vaccination programme. the aim is inoculating

around 13 million people by mid—february. the labour leader said the nation must pull together. we now need the government to deliverfor the british people. and that means using this lockdown to establish a massive, immediate, and around—the—clock vaccination programme to deliver millions of doses a week by the end of this month. across the uk, schools are closed for most pupils and many exams cancelled. there is still uncertainty when that will change. the first minister of scotland said the new strain of coronavirus had driven everything off course. it is transmitting so much more quickly. this whole thing has always been a bit of a race with the virus. we now have the vaccines we hope can beat it so we have to up our game again to try to get ahead of it. the vaccines will help us do that but, while that's happening, we need to work harder to slow it down. the question we all want an answer to is when will these restrictions end ? borisjohnson has been guilty of overpromising in the past.

today, he made it clear it all depends on how smoothly the vaccination programme is rolled out. the pressure is on. ministers are desperate to see improvements soon but this is going to be a gradual process. vicki young, bbc news, westminster. let's look at the situation elsewhere in europe now — with several developments on tuesday afternoon. portugal's president has proposed extending the nationwide state of emergency, imposed due to the pandemic. italy has recorded more than 15,000 new infections on tuesday — up by 50% on monday's figure. there have been a total of more than 76 thousand deaths there — second in europe only to the uk. -- 76,000. armed police are accompanying deliveries of the vaccine. denmark is putting new limits on the number of people who can join a public gathering — dropping from ten to five — and is introducing a two—metre social distancing rule in public areas. and germany is extending its lockdown until at least the end of the month. people living in areas where in infection rates

are particularly high will be forbidden from travelling more than 15 kilometres from their home without good reason. here's chancellor angela merkel. translation: i have said again and again that the winter months, as the experts told us yesterday, are the months when the pandemic can be at its most virulent. with the combination of the mutated virus, which has already been detected here, it is absolutely necessary to take new measures. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: as tough new restrictions come into force in much of the uk, we ask if it'll help reduce the rate of transmission. 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, in spite 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 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... the polls are closing in the us state of georgia in two runoff elections that'll decide the balance of power in the senate. prosecutors in the us state of wisconsin say they won't bring criminal charges against the police officer who shot the black man,

jacob blake, leaving him paralysed. the tougher restrictions on people's lives are there to slow down the spread of the virus and bring down what's known as the r—number — that's the rate at which the infection spreads. 0ur science editor david shukman looks at how the rate of transmission can be slowed down. lockdowns have worked before, but will they work again now? the virus can only spread through human interaction, and when that's reduced, with scenes like this, the number of infections falls as well. but now there's the new variant, and its impact is still being investigated. we have no guarantee that the lockdown now announced will work. i think that's the challenge. we have seen in the last two weeks that cases in that critical age range, 11 to 18—year—olds, of the variant disease in places like london, the south east and the east of england, have started to come down. but the case numbers

of the new variant in the adult population continue to rise. a key measure of what the new lockdown has got to achieve is the r number. that's basically how easily the virus is spreading. last march, the number was three, meaning that if ten people were infected, they'd pass the virus to 30 others, who in turn would pass it to 90 more. so the disease was really escalating. now, the first lockdown last spring brought that right down to 0.6, meaning that if ten were infected, they would only infect six others. and whenever the r number is below one, it means the epidemic is shrinking. right now, we're back up to an estimated 1.3, and that's despite all the restrictions under the tier system — a measure of, partly, how infectious the new variant is. closing schools should help to reduce the spread of the virus, maybe by enough to stop the epidemic from growing. and some very early signs suggest that that may be happening already.

we are in a very difficult situation here. but i think, yes, my sort of assessment, initial assessment of the last few days, is that perhaps it does look like it's slowing, the rate of increase is slowing, which is very good news. but what if the new measures aren't enough? 0ne hope is that messaging about the risks will encourage people to follow the guidance more carefully. another is that with improvements in testing in recent months, we'll be better able to track the disease than we could early last year. and if the vaccination programme rolls out as planned, that will make all the difference. but we're not there yet. david shukman, bbc news. the pandemic has so far claimed the lives of more than 76,000 people in the uk. the scale of the losses means that a much wider community of family and friends has been dealing with grief and shock — a process made even harder in periods of lockdown when communication is made more difficult. jon kay has been talking

to hearing from two people who've been affected. i'd been with rob for 25 years. we met through a lonely—hearts club. colin lost his partner, rob, just before christmas. covid caused blood clots on his lungs. he was 56. rob was a very fun—loving person. # and we could be together baby... very outgoing, friends with absolutely everybody. it's rob here again, welcome to melbourne... this time last year, the couple were on the holiday of a lifetime. now colin faces the new year alone. the outpouring that we've had since his death, the messages i've had on facebook have been absolutely brilliant, and they've helped me through it all. when the pandemic began, rob decided to leave his desk job in the nhs to work as a nurse in a&e — helping covid patients.

his funeral cortege went past bristol southmead hospital. he wanted to be on the front line. he felt that he was more use doing things like that than being in research. i think i'm going to find things now very quiet. everything just seems empty. "i've tested positive for covid. " "breathing is ok. . . " in the days before christmas, rachel's auntiejan said she was coping fine, but her situation rapidly deteriorated. i then sadly messaged her on christmas day, not realising that when i messaged her, it never went through, she had actually passed. jan docker was 55, a special—needs teacher in london with no underlying health problems. it was the suddenness of her death that shocked her niece the most. i think people's perception of covid is that you get ill, there's warning, you will end up in icu, there's time to kind

of hopefully recover or say goodbye to loved ones. but in our case, it was sadly not to be. how has what happened to her affected the way you view this virus? i've seen how bad it can be for people. but it's not until you lose a loved one do you realise actually how dangerous this virus is. what would your message to people be from where you stand? all i can say to people is please, please obey the rules. i don't want anybody else to go through what i've gone through. and ijust hope that we come out of it soon. jon kay, bbc news, bristol. the agent of the hollywood actress tanya roberts has confirmed that she has died — a day after correcting reports quoting him as saying she had already passed away. mike pingel said she passsed away late on monday evening in the ceders—sinai medical center in los angeles.

she had suffered from complications due to an infection. tanya roberts, who was 65, was perhaps best known for her starring roll opposite roger moore in his last james bond film, a view to a kill, and her work in the charlie's angels tv series. when peter lowe retired last year, he decided to leave britain to visit his son in taiwan. then came the pandemic — and he was unable to return home. so, he turned his efforts to spearheading a clean—up campaign for the tamsui river. what started out as a one—man campaign to clean up the trash has now become a fully fledged movement. here's his story. i enjoy boating, always have. after i got stuck here, i thought, "i need to get

a boat sorted out," because obviously i wanted to go out and do some boat rowing on the river. so that's what i did. what i saw firstly was a beautiful river, beautiful wildlife, and a beautiful area. then i looked a little bit closer, and i started seeing rubbish in the river. plastic bottles, that kind of things, and also in the mangroves up here and down there. plastic hanging from the mangrove trees, and i thought, "this is a bit strange." so i thought we could do something about it, so i started collecting rubbish from the river. ifelt sad, actually, very, very sad, because i know the effects it has on wildlife.

i certainly thought that i don't want to waste my time in taiwan, that's for sure. my advice to people who are stuck in the same situation as me is to do something positive, do something meaningful. particularly towards saving and protecting the earth, really. christmas may be over, but the festive spirit lives on — even if if you have to under—water to find it. ahead of the christian festival of the epiphany, a spanish scuba diving club has installed an underwater nativity scene for charity. those who want to take part have to pay about $6

to receive a brief training course and an underwater "christening". only then can they paddle down to view the festive scene. 0n 6january, many children in spain wake up to a christmas tree surrounded by presents left by the three wise men the night before. to clarify, that part is back on dry land. a reminder of our top story... in the us state of georgia polls have closed in a race which will determine which party holds the balance of power in the senate. us media report the races are too close to call. the two republican candidates are facing stiff challenges but the party needs to retain just one of the seats to keep control of the upper chamber of congress. democrats are hoping that a large turnout among early voters will swing the poll in their favour. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @jamesbbcnews. we will see the final bit of

the us presidential election in congress when mike pence will announce the results in favour ofjoe biden. to stay with us. hello there. temperatures have been plummeting away in the night, especially across the glens of scotland, —10 or —11 celsius here. but there's just a hint as we go into next week that we're exchanging the cold wind we have at the moment for something a little milder coming in off the atlantic, but still quite a lot of stagnant cold air. and actually for the meantime, we've got that northeasterly or north—northeasterly again with us through the day ahead. so, icy to start with some snow showers around and some freezing fog, particularly scotland and northern ireland. these showers will have a little bit of winteriness in them as well, and temperatures are close enough to freezing to concern us with ice — and there are warnings out for ice in some areas. the details are on the website. so, really bitterly cold for some, that hard frost to start in the north. but wednesday sees a little ridge of high pressure for the north, still that feed of northeasterlies

bringing further showers initially into east anglia, the south east, and the channel islands. there mightjust be an easing in activity here as we go into the afternoon — still a peppering of wintery showers for northern and eastern parts of england. perhaps a fewer for eastern scotland and northern ireland but later in the day, we've got our next weather system approaching. but for many, despite some sunshine and a lot of dry weather around, it will stay cold particularly where the fog lingers, below freezing in these areas. but then through the evening and overnight, we have this coming into that cold air. so, readily turning to snow even at lower levels for scotland and for northern ireland. so, it won't be as harsh a frost here through the coming night but, nevertheless, we are likely to see more snow quite widely. and it will be a harsher frost further south for some and with freezing fog across central and southern areas, too. so, thursday, we'll see that fog slow to clear, stagnating in some areas. fewer showers for east anglia and the south east, and for the channel islands —

we've got the northerly instead which will push our weather front southwards. not a great deal of weather on it, but enough to give a light covering of snow, and then the cold air with snow showers follow behind. snow to low levels once again. so, even though we're bringing in a weather front inland off the atlantic, at that stage, it's not getting any warmer. but what we will find is high pressure builds in behind it. so, that will weaken our weather front and bring in some drier weather potentially as we head towards the weekend. just the hint that temperatures start to lift a little next week. but for the meantime, cold weather warnings on the website.

this is bbc news. the headlines... polls have closed in the us

state of georgia in a tight race which will determine which party will control the power in the senate. the two republican incumbents are facing stiff challenges but the party needs to retain just one of the seats to retain the upper chamber. prosecutors in the state of wisconsin say a policeman investigated over the shooting of the black manjacob blake in the city of kenosha last august will face no charges in connection with the incident. the shooting — by a white officer — left mr blake paralysed and sparked riots. british prime minister boris johnson says he had no choice but to impose a new lockdown in england — as figures suggest one—in—50 people is now infected, and one—in—30 in london. 0ne one in 0ne in15 one in 15 private households. for the first time — the uk has recorded more than 60,000 new infections in a single day. —— in 50. now on bbc news, hardtalk.