polls have closed in the us state of georgia in a tight race that they won't bring criminal will determine which party charges against the police will control the officer who shot the black man, jacob blake, leaving him power paralysed. in the senate. as a third lockdown democrats are keen to oust the is introduced in england, republicans which would give officialfigures suggest covid infected one in 50 of the population them control of both houses of in the last week. and why the disappearing congress and the white house glaciers of bolivia are having a which would givejoe biden more power. profound prosecutors in the state of wisconsin say affect a policeman investigated over the shooting of the black man jacob blake in the city on of kenosha last august will face no charges in crops connection with the incident. the shooting by a white officer left mr blake and paralysed and sparked riots. british prime minister boris johnson says he had no irrigation. choice but to impose a new lockdown in england, as figures suggest one—in—50 hello to you. people are now infected, and one in 30 in london. voting in the us state for the first time, the uk has recorded more of georgia ended just an hour ago and with those votes the balance of power in congress for the next two years will have been decided. that will also define how much a biden presidency is able to accomplish. no confirmed results yet, butjoe biden won the state in the presidential election —

but the two senate seats in georgia both went 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 raphael warnock win their races, democrats would have a tie. then 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 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. you have spent a lot of time in georgia. how is it looking?m is looking too close to call at this stage even though the polls have closed. it is too early to tell who will be the winner because it has essentially been a joint ticket for the republicans, david perdue and kelly left now running together against the

what they have been calling radical left, the democratic candidatesjon radical left, the democratic candidates jon ossoff and i radical left, the democratic candidatesjon ossoff and i am missing the name on the pole day, the reverend warnock, from the same church where martin luther preached, and they are mounting a very strong challenge in this expensive race where $833 million has been spent trying to win these seats. right now the exit polls say it is too close to call. it won't be one republican or one democrat. the exit polls point to the fact that if it goes in one direction it could be both seats to the democrats or the republicans. the turnout is likely to be crucial. republicans have been very good in georgia at getting boats out. i'll be likely to see the same pattern we saw the

presidential election where the picture changes, with the difference between absentee and in—person voting? difference between absentee and in-person voting? absolutely, because so far it is widely believed that the democrats have a huge advantage in the early voting. about 60% of those who voted in the november election voted in this election and that favours democrats, so the turnout for today's voting is crucial for the republicans and some modelling suggests if there is a turnout of 800,000 than the republicans easily win back those seats. if turnout falls below that, there is cause to worry, so falls below that, there is cause to worry, so turnout is where it lives and dies for the democrats here. they need to get a 30—30 strategy, so they need 30% of the white vote and the turnout needs to be 30% of the turnout needs to be 30% of the black vote but if it doesn't happen then it is only in the republican favour. because of president trump rhetoric about voter fraud he claims he won the election and that could repress republican

turnout and work to the advantage of the democrats. there has been enormous push by the democrats to register black voters in particular. they have. indeed the governor lost in 2018. then there was work in a grassroots campaign to register new votes, many of them black, and she was credited with turning georgia blue in november when they voted forjoe biden and the first democratic presidential candidate since 1992. they are hoping to see how that tra nslates hoping to see how that translates into voters in this specific special election where like you mentioned republicans need to turn out more, or the whiter voters need to show up more than democrats, however younger black voters have been showing up at this election and if enough of them do that may be the democrats have a chance. for the moment, thank you very much. voting is due to end in georgia at 7pm local time, that's midnight gmt — less than an hour from now — and we'll bring you all of the developments live

here on bbc world news. and in the meantime, why not take a look at our website where, among other things, we have this article explaining just why these two senate seats are so important and how the maths is stacking up in american politics. just log on to bbc.com/news we say voting and are about an hour ago. prosecutors in the american state of wisconsin say a policeman investigated over the shooting of the black man jacob blake in the city of kenosha last august 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. live now to our north america correspondent david willis in los angeles. just bring us up—to—date

on this. four months after the shooting of jason blake the local prosecutor in kenosha cou nty local prosecutor in kenosha county decided there will be no criminal charges brought against the officer who fired those seven shots into mr blake's back those seven shots into mr bla ke's back and those seven shots into mr blake's back and side. the officer in question, rusten sheskey, says that he acted in self—defence because mr blake was wielding a knife. that is a somewhat disputed claim, i might add, but the prosecutor feels that because the officer would claim in court the defence of self defence, that he would be unable to make a charge stick, a criminal charge against the officer stick. so, thatis against the officer stick. so, that is a very controversial decision in indeed. jason blake was paralysed from the waist

down after being shot in front of three of his children. they are preparing for protests in kenosha county tonight. 500 members of the state national guard have been drafted in in anticipation of a possible —— possible violence. as you were saying, there was a lot of unhappiness when it originally happened. there is likely to be a lot of unhappiness about this. is this the end of it? is there any challenge to this decision? there is likely to be a lot of challenge on the part of those who represent jason blake, not least his lawyer, benjamin crump, who issued a statement just after the word came down that the prosecutor was clearing the officer accused of shooting jason blake. benjamin crump said this sends the wrong message to police officers throughout the country and members of jason blake's country and members of jason bla ke's family have country and members of jason

blake's family have called for the officer to be brought before the courts and sacked from the force. meanwhile there we re from the force. meanwhile there were protests after that shooting incident and one person, kyle rittenhouse, who was 17 years old at the time, was 17 years old at the time, was among those who join those protests in a vigilante type way. he fired his rifle and shot dead two protesters in the days after the shooting of jason blake. he has been charged with sex crimes including homicide. today he pleaded not guilty to all of them. thank you very much indeed. let's get some of the day's other news: north korean leader kimjong—un has admitted his economic plan for the country has failed. speaking as he opened a rare meeting of his party congress he also said that mistakes had to be boldly admitted. the gathering in pyeonchang is only the second to be held in the last a0 years and will be watched closely

by analysts for any reference to the us presidential election. at least four people have been killed in flash floods in the bolivian city of sucre. a heavy downpour sent water sweeping through several streets, with blocked drains making the flooding worse. a number of vehicles, including buses, were swept away. bolivia's president luis arsay has offered his condolences to the victims. 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. her best known role was starring opposite roger moore in his last james bond film, a view to a kill, and her work in the charlie's angels tv series. every part of the united kingdom is now in lockdown with people being urged to stay at home as the scale of the public health emergency becomes even more daunting. such is the depth of the covid crisis that the lockdown measures are widely expected to remain in force until march. the number of new cases reported in the uk in the last

24—hour period is more than 60,000 for the first time since the pandemic started. but there is some progress as more than 1.3 million people in the uk have been given the first dose of a covid vaccine, including a quarter of all people over 80 in england. 0ur deputy political editor vicki young reports. 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. 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 round—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 over 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 that 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. just to round up the picture elsewhere in europe: portugal's president has proposed extending the nationwide state of emergency. italy has recorded more than 15,000 new infections — up by 50% on monday's figure. 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 10 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: a rowing revolutionary. the british man stranded in taiwan who decided to clean up the local environment. 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: the polls have closed 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 saudi arabia's foreign minister has said that full diplomatic relations have been restored between qatar and the four nations that have been boycotting it. the agreement was signed at the gulf cooperation council summit in saudi arabia

after more than three years in which saudi arabia, the uae, bahrain and egypt have tried to isolate qatar over accusations that it sponsored terrorism — which qatar denied. the rift had economic consequences across the region, as well as weakening unity among gulf states amid rising tensions with iran. ellen wald is a expert on the arab gulf region and the author of "saudi, inc: the arabian kingdom's pursuit of profit and power". it and that is how they spin it. that this is an accomplishment. jared kushner was on the accords the braut israel and the uae and nations in the region to sign these

peace accords. but i think one of the other issues to look at here is what purpose did this rift serve saudi arabia? saudi arabia was the instigator here and it was not serving saudi arabia all that much politically. the benefit to the saudi monarchy was really the ability to use animosity against qatar to stir up nationalist sentiment and pro regime, pro— monarchy sentiment. so the kingdom used this reason to arrest people that they did not want speaking. they used it against two prominent members of saudi society. they said that one woman was involved in treason involving qatar and also a prominent cleric who they said spoke out against

the rift. so it really was used to stir up national sentiment and crackdown internally but the question to look at is if this will benefit saudi arabia going forward and, perhaps, the a nswer forward and, perhaps, the answer they saw was no. so nobody was really benefiting much from this and it was about time for it to happen. where do we go from here? what does it mean for qatar? there is definitely a fit for qatar because they were cut off from much of its trade in the uae and it was basically stuck with the run as a trading partner and also saudi arabia galvanised other arab nations to support it. egypt was kind of pulled in to get on this anti— qatar baggage. it did do much for stopping terrorism? it does not seem like it has.

didit further saudi interests in yemen? no. didit further issues with the run? it is not done all that much and in that respect except to be something that saudi arabia could hold up and say we are anti— iran and doing something about it, the truth is that it was not doing much and, in fact, it created problems for the united states because the us airbase is in qatar because the saudis kicked them out years ago. glaciers in bolivian mountains are a vital source of water for some of the most populated cities in the country. they also feed rivers used for irrigation of crops and agriculture. but now scientists warn some of them are disappearing much faster than initially anticipated. sergi forcada reports. they are one of the wonders of 0livia's majestic mountains but rising temperatures are eating away at them. this glacier

predicted to last until 2025 is melting so quick lee it could disappear at any time. scientists who monitor so the iglesia say it has been reduced to just iglesia say it has been reduced tojust a square iglesia say it has been reduced to just a square kilometre. where once there was an icy field, now there are rocks, some exposed for the first time. translation: the glacier has been shrinking by between 25 and 30 metres each year from the 19705 until the present day. since then we have seen the lake has receded by up to 800 metres. although the glacier has been receding for centuries, the fast changing climate has accelerated the proce55 climate has accelerated the process and it has been reduced by over 50% in just a few decades. translation: in the 16th and 17th centuries, we call that the little ice age, the iglesia went as far as —— the iglesia went as far as —— the glacier went as far as we are now in the area was covered is. it has been melting over

a long period of time. the reduction of the ice mass is pressuring already 5tre55ed water re5ou rces pressuring already 5tre55ed water resources in bolivia's urban areas and it has an impact on agriculture and farming. translation: it has not rained for months. i think it is because of climate change. in november we had a cold snap for two weeks and our key my production die. another i5 key my production die. another is so dry it has dried the king why. the message from scientist comes with evidence of what has already happened to other glaciers in bolivia. still a 5triking view but with no ice to be seen. 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 cleanup 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 and always have. i thought i needed to get a boat so i couldn't get out and do some rowing on the water so and do some rowing on the water so that is what i did. firstly what i saw was a beautiful river and beautiful wildlife and a beautiful area. but then looking closer i started to see rubbish in the river. plastic portals in that kind of thing. and also in the mangroves. plastic hanging from mangrove trees and i thought it was strange. i thought we could do something about it. at

the very start, i know the effects it has on wildlife. i certainly thought that i do not want to waste my time in taiwan, that is for certain. my advice for people stuck in the 5ame advice for people stuck in the same situation as me is to do something positive and meaningful, particularly

towards saving and protecting the earth, really. that is peter lowe and his taiwanese cleanup campaign. a reminder of our main story, poll5 reminder of our main story, polls closed in the us state of georgia 90 minutes ago and the votes are being counted two run—off elections for the senate will determine what whether immigrants are republicans hold the balance of power in the senate. networks are power in the senate. networks a re currently reporting both races too close to call. the republican party needs to retain ju5t to call. the republican party needs to retain just a single seat to keep control of the senate where they would work to constrain the legislative attem pts constrain the legislative atte m pts of constrain the legislative attempts of joe constrain the legislative attempts ofjoe biden. much writing then on what is going on in georgia and we will bring it to you as soon as we have it. -- it to you as soon as we have it. —— much riding then. hello there. temperatures have been plummeting away in the night, especially across the glen5 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 winterine55 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 wintry 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 that will determine which party will control the power in the senate. democrats are keen to oust the republicans which would give them control of both houses of congress and the white house which would givejoe biden more power. prosecutors in the state of wisconsin say a policeman investigated over

the shooting of the black man