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 jacob 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 are now infected, and one in 30 in london. for the first time, the uk has recorded more than 60,000 new infections in a single day.

as schools most pupils ministers confirm that this yea r‘s ministers confirm that this year's gcses and a—levels are being cancelled. scotland and scotla nd being cancelled. scotland and scotland and wales announced the cancellation of major schools. some exams including b—techs are going at all there is talk of cancelling those two. 0ur education correspondent has been talking to those who were due to sit exams in summer. a daunting walk into the exam room and for millions of stu d e nts room and for millions of students there has been confusion over whether they will take place. it is just nerve—racking because i have not sat the mocks so it brings back the memories of the exams. the exam is due to go ahead next week but the gcse exams have been cancelled. next week but the gcse exams have been cancelledlj next week but the gcse exams have been cancelled. i am really stressed and it has been

ha rd to really stressed and it has been hard to get up in the morning. it has been remote learning and the disruption has been getting worse seeing as the disruption has been getting worse seeing as more the disruption has been getting worse seeing as more people are getting covid. it has been really ha rd. getting covid. it has been really hard. we haven't even cove red really hard. we haven't even covered half of the a—levels. max bamford covered half of the a—levels. max ba mford is covered half of the a—levels. max bamford is doing a—levels and he has been revising for mocks which were due to take place in two weeks but have been cancelled. the issue is that there are people out there who have not done as well in assessments in school and coueges assessments in school and colleges as they would have liked who were relying on exams and mocks later in the year to get the grades that they needed, but then there are students who have done really well who want teacher assessed grades, so whether you do some form of assessment or teacher assessed grades, there will always be half of the students who won't be happy with it.|j only had a couple of weeks. astrid finley understands the pressures and anxieties. she did a—levels last year when the controversial mathematical model was used to determine

grades but was eventually scrapped and replaced with teacher assessments. she is using her experience to reassure students like max who are worried about their futures. we went through the algorithm system put in place by the government and obviously that was not effective at all, so that was not effective at all, so hopefully having gone through that there is a new year group of kids who have a bit more of an effective way to produce these grades. tomorrow the government will outline how stu d e nts the government will outline how students will be assessed and graded. for students like max the anxious wait for results day has been replaced with anxiety about what results will based on. now to the travel show team to uncover the hidden sides to some of the world's favourite hidden holiday hotspots.

this week, we're in kazakhstan... the view from the top! ..a vast country in the middle of central asia, full of stunning landscapes and nomadic traditions. you can feel the fish tugging on the net. nature and the great outdoors have always been central to the kazakh people's way of life... birds chirping, fish jumping, sun setting — i get it. ..and i'm here to explore how they are now combining both ancient and modern ways to stay in touch with their wild side. grunts. it feels good to make the sound, i don't know what to say. woo! this is a lot of fun! theme music plays

i've arrived in kazakhstan‘s biggest city of almaty. once, back when the country was still part of the ussr, and long before that, it was the capital city. now things have changed here. back in 1991, it was the last soviet republic to declare independence, ten days before the collapse of the union. since then, it's been under the rule of president nazarbayev, who moved the capital north to the purpose—built

city of astana. one thing is clear, however — this country has undergone a tumultuous period. but through it all, nature has continued to play a vital role for the once nomadic people here, and for travellers who visit. you start to get a sense of that at the green bazaar. there's been a market here since before soviet times. this is fermented horse milk, which has been around since the nomadic times, and they say it is a cure for tuberculosis. oh, it's a strong taste. the aftertaste is almost like you're smoking a cigar. i don't know why, but that's exactly what it tastes like. very sharp, though. very intense taste. ah! some russian influences have remained, but some of the old kazakh traditions that had been suppressed under the soviets are once again bubbling to the surface — like faith in tengriism, calling on nature through shamans, known as baksys.

arman, my friend! i wanted to find a baksy, so i'm meeting up with someone who says he can get me an introduction. can you tell me a bit about what exactly a baksy is? ba ksy are spiritual servants who are create by nature to help people. these days, in modern culture, do people still go see a baksy? yes, of course. it is part of our life. if official medicine, european medicine, don't helps, people go to baksy. well, arman, i can't say i know what to expect, but i feel ready. arman takes me to a far corner of the city and an old, unmarked apartment block. let's go. so we're on our way up to the baksy‘s apartment, should will be waiting for us outside the door.

not entirely what i expected. are we here? this. come in. welcome. bells ring. chanting. we have just arrived here in the baksy‘s apartment and we've arrived in the middle of some kind of ceremony. there are two ladies who are getting their souls cleaned, i guess — it's hard to know what's going on. chanting and grunting. bells ring. this is extremely intense. can you explain to me a bit of what is happening right now?

like an exorcism? yes, yes. each baksy is different, and this one incorporates elements of islam, kazakhstan‘s most followed religion. drums beat. there is a power in this room i can't describe right now. i have never experienced anything like this. so now, it's my turn. having witnessed the devotion vera had to the process, i feel it wouldn't be right to go through it all without the same belief, so we agree on just a blessing for my journey.

but then, unexpectedly, i seem to be getting the full treatment. growling and grunting. bell rings. it feels good to make the sound, i don't know what to say. he is coaxing an experience along, it's very powerful. as the process continues, the baksy calls on the totem animals, as they did many years ago here. growls. hisses.

i might not believe in everything that is happening here, but i do like to open myself to the experience as a traveller. all i can say is i know i feel something. although many muslims here frown on these ancient ceremonies, for some kazakhs, they are a direct link to their nomadic past. it's the world's ninth largest country, but kazakhstan is also one of the most sparsely populated. its people were traditionally nomadic, with their lives tied to their environment. today, travellers come to explore its relatively untouched landscapes. i want to find out more of the kazakhstani people's

relationship with nature today, so i'm heading east to the aral sea, the world's fourth—largest lake — or at least, that's what it was. welcome to the dusty streets of zhalanash. if you can believe it, this used to be a bustling fishing village. but if you come over here and you look down at the ground, you can see what used to be the bottom of the aral sea. there's not much fishing going on now. it's been called one of the world's biggest environmental disasters. the sea which stretches the border between kazakhstan and uzbekistan was once about the size of ireland. back in the 1960s, the immense stretch of water began to dry up. around 90% of it was wiped off the map and with it,

the livelihoods of many of the people who lived on the sea's produce. i'd heard that here in kazakhstan, the sea was actually coming back, and it was bringing travellers too, so off i go in search of the aral sea, across miles of the old seabed. i've arranged to meet a guide in this region. he wanted me to see the full extent of what the sea, which was actually a large lake, once was, thousands of years before it dried up in the 20th century. the view from the top!

what caused it to recede so far? the flow of water was diverted to feed the soviet cotton industry. uzbekistan still remains one of the world's top producers of cotton, but while the uzbek side of the sea remains mostly lost, recent interventions have meant the north aral sea in kazakhstan is returning.

approaching the shore, one of the biggest draws for travellers has been the eerie sight of shipwrecks scattered across the old sea bed. spiderwebs everywhere. here we are. the aral sea. at one time, it was the fourth largest inland lake in the world and soon, it will reclaim that title. i made it. birds chirping, fish jumping, sun setting — i get it. i get it now. it's a beautiful place.

good morning! this is where we spent the night last night. it might look like we're in the desert but it's actually — it's very cold this morning. the bedding was just a simple roll—out pillow mat on the ground with some blankets. but this is a fisherman‘s house and we're up so early this morning because they're going to take us this morning to catch some fish. they are quite chipper. myself, i'm working on it. but it should be a good day. chuckles. my hosts tell me that i am not the first traveller to stay with them following the sea's return, though not all of them choose the early morning fishing run. the sun has not yet crested over the horizon of the kazakh steppe. today we are fishing and on the fishing team we have one sleepy, inexperienced travel show presenter. we have edige... hello. ..who you know already. we have 0mirserik, our fisherman, and his father in the back. these are our boats.

0ut there, there's a lot of fish and the plan is today to catch ‘em and bring them back to shore. engine roars 0k, we're maybe 100 metres offshore. we've encountered the first net. so from what i understand, the net was put out last night, right before sunset and it stays out until sunrise and they come and they pull it back in and every day is quite a surprise, but it seems that over the years, there's been more and more in the nets almost every single day. ok, so it's my turn to give this a shot — pulling in the net. it's — it's not too hard, actually. it's interesting because it's like when you are fishing with a reel, you can feel the fish tugging on the net.

you must love it out here. so we've been pulling the net for about 30 minutes now. the basket‘s almost full so i think we're probably getting near to the end. we've caught a lot of fish. and besides the amount,

they're — they're big fish. myself, being a traveller, connecting with people is always very special and here, you can tell that there's a lot ofjoy in the job this morning. it's not my normal life, being out here covered in fish scales in a boat but for them, it is, and you can tell that they absolutely love it — especially when they can bring in a haul like this. i wanted to see how kazakhstan‘s relationship with nature is changing, so i'm meeting up with a mountain guide back in almaty. she's agreed to take me out to some of the places she likes to explore. we begin at the location of one of the country's most impressive historical sites. oh, wow! they look almost like paintings! actually, it's a petroglyphs of the bronze age, which is 3,500 years old.

and these cliffs are covered with petroglyphs, right? this isn't the only site? yeah, exactly. there are many sites. it's many sites. it's about 5000 carvings here. wow. it was discovered in 1957 by archaeologist maksimova and it's more than 5,000 carvings on the rocks in this area. and this is the central part which is very significant and very important at that date, because people were speaking from here and it was a — served as a pantheon. so you can clearly hear what they were talking about, like, down in the valley, where the people and crowds were standing and listening. so here we see the 12 dancing men which is doing the ritual dance, and here, it's a woman which is giving birth to a child. as you walk around the site, it's amazing how many carvings you see here. this here is the club? yeah.

karla tells me it's thought they believed the more animals they carved into the rocks, the more animals they would successfully hunt. it adds so much to the experience here today, being able to come just in touching distance of things that are so old. i'm used to multiple layers of security — men standing there, making sure that you don't breathe on art like this. but being able to see every little chip out of the stone really makes it special. but what karla really wanted to show me was how some people are mixing old kazakhstan with the new — sandboarding on kazakhstan‘s most famous singing sand dune. famous because under the right conditions, the dune makes a humming sound, almost like an organ. humming

wow! it's huge! i can see the little dust devils twisting up the sides. it almost looks alive. the skin of the dune, sweeping back and forth like a snake. and i heard that it almost is — it actually moves. in the past 150 years, it has moved three metres. slowly, but it is moving. it really is incredible. chuckles i don't know how we're going to snowboard down it! laughs along for the ride was karla's friend and olympic kazakhstan snowboard trainer yelena. the dune stretches for 3km and reaches a height of 150 metres and let me tell you, it might look placid from a distance but it is an entirely other story once you're up there.

it's a little bit windy today but we're on the singing sands and i guess that's always how it is here. for myself, i have gone snowboarding before. what are some differences with sandboarding ? 0k. lean back, yeah? that being said, it was comforting knowing that i'll be going slower than on snow. and also the cool thing about a sand dune is there's no trees! so, i mean, i guess it's safer, right? no doubt, though, this is definitely the definition of an extreme sport. and here i am, strapped in. i — i think i'm ready. woo! great start!

playful music this way, yeah? like this? oh, and then the board comes — oh! playful music continues laughs woo! this is a lot of fun! though i promise you that you get sand in a lot of places you do not want sand. one of those places is your mouth. i've got — i've got a bit of a crunch in my teeth right now. but woo, it is a rush! karla's about to come down. she's standing up. she looks excited but a little bit nervous. you got it, karla! yeah! but before long, we're starting to get the hang of it. surfing music plays

this is a lot of work. pants what's incredible, though, is when you come down, as the sand starts to avalanche, you can feel it shaking and reverberating underneath the board. it's very cool — it sings as you come down. we've got our final round from the very, very top — if — if i can — i can make it! let's stay here and take a break for a sec.

yeah! and with that, my trip to kazakhstan is at an end. and what a ride it was. hello there. temperatures have been plummeting away in the night, especially across the glens of scotland, —10 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 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 with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. my name's mike embley. decision day in georgia — the votes are being counted 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. us intelligence agencies confirm they believe russia was behind the serious cyber attack on government agencies revealed last month. los angeles struggles to cope with the latest surge of coronavirus. 0fficials warn they could see more than 1,000 deaths per day.