welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: 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. as a third lockdown is introduced in england, officialfigures suggest covid infected 1 in 50 of the population in the last week. los angeles struggles to cope with the latest surge of coronavirus — officials warn they could see more than 1,000 deaths per day.

voting in the us state 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. joe biden won the state in november's presidential election, but the two senate seats in georgia both went to run—offs. here's a quick reminder why this race in georgia is so important. in the senate there are currently 50 republicans and 48 democrats. there are two vacant seats. ifjon 0ssoff and the reverend raphael warnock win their races, democrats would be tied for power. then the vice president—elect kamala harris, a democrat of course, 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. the bbc‘s larry madowo is in atlanta, georgia.

we are starting to see more results come in, 56% of the vote, we expect the birds to come in, and the democrats have a slight lead and both of those races are. wheezyjon 0ssof with about 87,000 votes more than his challenger in that race, and also in the other race, and also in the other race we see raphael warnock with about 70,000 votes more than senator kelly, so essentiallyjon 0ssof than senator kelly, so essentially jon 0ssof is beating perdue, and we see both democrats leading, but this is a point to lead, so almost meaningless at this stage because there are still a lot of votes to count and this could all change, especially when the boat start to come in from the more republican leaning northern counties in georgia. let's talk about the process involved, a lot of money, $833 million has been spent on this race, and there has been attention from other states, texas, florida, and as

far as california, we have a democratic canvasser who far as california, we have a democratic ca nvasser who came in from florida, why did you come here? i came because i felt like i had to do something, something to protect american democracy that i feel is threatened right now. why do you think american democracy was threatened? i think mostly because over decades the republican party has done so much to make life so much harder for americans, much to make life so much harderforamericans, overthe past few decades, for the last four years, i think it is very clear that they are trying to suppress votes and suppressed democracy itself, so i think it's really important that we at least have two democratic senators who can maybe help joe biden with that narrow majority, begin to restore american democracy. interesting you say that because the republicans message consistently in this race is that the democrats, raphael

warnock and jon 0ssof are radical leftists who will introduce socialism and destroy the american way of life. right, though, i feel like that's part of the problem, this misinformation. ifeel like that is exactly what they would like voters to think, and they would like to do everything they can simultaneously to keep them away from the polls, and that is why here in georgia, it wasn't so easy to vote, you had to, you couldn't vote early up until election day, they stopped early voting for a week before election day, for example, that was not necessary. so all the way from california, there is a criticism of liberals like you coming from neighbouring states and thinking you know what is good for georgia. what do you make of that? i don't feel like this is like just about georgia, i think this is about a much larger federal issue, this is a much, this is all

about our country, really, and we are altogether, so i don't think it's about californians telling georgians anything. i didn't tell georgians how to vote, i didn't go and to convince the republicans to vote democrat, i only stayed with democratic voters to try to tell them, don't think your vote doesn't count because it really does and it is super important today. thank you laurie, who was a democratic canvasser here. president trump has consistently assailed the integrity of the boat and some republican voters have felt that their vote didn't matter and they didn't want to vote, we will know if that was suppressing any republican votes when we know the results, possibly in the morning because all through this nightmare be counting them. you will hear from the secretary of state's offers, but they have informed them of how important this is, them of how important this is, the national attention and it is important to finish it as quickly as possible. at the moment it is looking as if the republican turnout is

substantially down, but nothing there confirms of course he we will bring you all the developments live here at bbc news, but in the meantime, take a look at our website, among other things, we had this article explain just why these two senate seats are so important and how the maths is stacking up generally in american politics. 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 closly 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. 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. here's kenosha county district attorney, michael graveley. it is my decision now that i announce today before you, that

no kenosha law enforcement officer in this case will be charged with any criminal offence, based on the fact and the laws as i will describe them to you now. is decision that no charge will be filed. i'm going to also tell you, just because i think it is important, that no charge will be filed against jacob blake important, that no charge will be filed againstjacob blake in regards to this incident as well. earlier i spoke to paige fernandez, policing policy adviser at the american civil liberties union. i asked her if the decision would have been the same if the victim had been white, and not black. that is an interesting question and it is hard to say, because in this country the cases that we continuously see are cases of black people getting killed at the hands of police. quite frankly, i do not believe that, had jacob blake been white, this would have been the result. in the prosecutor defending his decision to not press charges, in saying that there was a valid self defence claim, he continuously mentioned that jacob blake not only had a knife but that officers had tased him multiple times and he continuously mentioned

that jacob blake kept getting up and he pulled on these racist tropes that we've seen throughout us history of angry black man having superhuman strength and posing a threat and being dangerous and that justifying an officer's actions. no, i don't think this would be the same case if jacob blake was white, but i also think it's important to recognise that our criminal legal system is designed to protect officers and not black lives. i guess we have to note of course that the figures say that black people are three times more likely than white people to be killed by police. is this the end of the process? is there any appeal against this decision? there could be an appeal and the family might be pursuing a civil lawsuit. however, those are incredibly challenging because, again, the criminal legal

system is truly designed to protect officers and to shield them from any form of accountability. and while today, if the officer had been charged, there might be a semblance ofjustice, i think it's important for us to remember thatjustice would have beenjacob blake never being shot in the first place. there was an uproar of course about the incident. several people died in the shooting. kyle rittenhouse is facing six charges including first—degree reckless homicide. now we hear that the governor of wisconsin has called the national guard to deal with anticipated protests. how do you read that? i think it is inappropriate. we do not need a militarised response to protest. research consistently shows that when you have a militarised response to protests it escalates confrontations instead of deescalating. the only reason law enforcement should ever be present

at demonstrations is to facilitate the exercise of the first amendment rights, but we have seen over the past seven months that when law enforcement is present, or when the national guard is sent, tensions are heightened and people are injured and hurt. it is inappropriate for them to be sent out and it is unjustified. page fernandez of the american civil liberties union. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: how kenya is betting on genetically modified cotton to revive a sector that once supported hundreds of thousands of farmers in the country. 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 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 votes are being counted 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. 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. 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 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 over promising 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. 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 percent 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 ten to 5 — 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 15km from their home without good reason. ambulance workers in los angeles have been told not to transport hospital patients who have extremely low chances of survival. the directive comes as officials warn the region could soon hit more than 1,000 covid—related deaths per day, with hospitals overrun with patients. la public health confirming the county has reached more than 11,000 deaths. meanwhile, concerns have also been raised about the roll—out of the vaccine. i don't think anybody knows exactly how many people have been vaccinated in la county. not enough. i don't even believe all of our healthcare workers have been vaccinated yet. the rollout is going slower than we want. and it has us slower than we want. and it has us concerned that we are going

to fall way behind. dr anne rimoin, an infectious disease epidemiologist and professor at ucla fielding school of public health, joined me a short time ago to explain just how critical the situation is. we're having tsunami of cases of covid here in los angeles county and our hospitals are really very much feeling the strain. we have almost 8,000 people hospitalised with covid—19, just in la county alone. and our hospitals are really stretched to the limit. ambulances are circling, waiting for hours to be able to offload patients, so even if you can get an ambulance to take you to the hospital you have to wait for care. this is a problem not only for those people who are coming in with covid—19 and complications from covid—19, but if you're sick with anything, if you need emergency medical care, if you have a stroke, if you have a heart attack, if you have appendicitis, if you get into a car accident care is going to be difficult to get because it's not only

about the number of beds we have here it's about infrastructure, it's about a lack of oxygen being available, and it's about a lack of staff. so we're in very dire straits. yes, as medics have seen around the world, what happens with covid impacts all sorts of other patients, people sick with all kinds of other problems. this is very tough for ambulance workers, literally making life and death decisions. absolutely. anybody who's on the front line is definitely having to make very difficult decisions right now and working really stretched to the nth degree. and the problem is that this has been going on for months, but now with all of this fatigue on top of it, now they're hitting the hardest part of the pandemic to date and what we know that is people have been getting together for the holidays, we don't have terrific compliance here in los angeles county — or in many places — and so we anticipate that this is only the beginning of what could end up being a very, very dark january.

we are told there are also concerns about the roll—out of the vaccine. can you see a way through this, some way to bring the numbers down? well, i mean, listen, we had this incredible, fast, getting this vaccine out of development and into freezers, but the problem is that there hasn't been funding from the federal government to the states to now be able to get these vaccines deployed into the population. you know, i've spent my entire career working places like the democratic republic of the congo and working on max vaccination programmes and i think, you know, here in the united states we're not used to it and it's a lot of logistics. this did start of the christmas holidays and so one of the rings that i can see is that i think that we will start to work out some of the issues with the logistics and it will get better, but this has been a rough start.

the epidemiologist dr anne rimoin there. kenya is betting on the introduction of genetically modified cotton to revive a sector that once supported hundreds of thousands of farmers in the country. cotton farming was a common way of life in the 1980s, but low prices, poor quality of seeds and mismanagement of factories saw farmers abandon the crop altogether. the bbc‘s charles gitonga travelled to western kenya to find out more. this year represents the last year of the once booming cotton industry in kenya. it was the epicentre of cotton production in the 19805 in the western pa rt in the 19805 in the western part of this country. at its peak, the east african nation produced 38,000 tons of seed cotton, but that was in 1985 in production today is not a

fraction of that amount. this man stopped farming the crop when a nearby government factory closed down and into left her with heavy losses and effects on health —— this woman. i am still taking the drugs for my low pressure today. becau5e what took place in 2007, it was not all good. but matthew is here to give up on the only ca5h but matthew is here to give up on the only cash crop he has known for three decades, however the size of his farm and the cotton has been shrinking over the years. we are taken to a nearby cotton january, owned by a local farmer's cooperative. the facility was constructed nearly ten yea r5 facility was constructed nearly ten years ago at a cost of $70,000 us. it has been years since any cotton wa5 ginned here. but in eldridge town, 160

mile5 here. but in eldridge town, 160 miles from nairobi, a5 publicly owned textile factory is teeming with activity. the company was revived ju5t teeming with activity. the company was revived just three years ago, having collapsed in the early 2000. a5 managing directors a5 the early 2000. a5 managing directors as the factory is now beaming light of hope for cotton farmers in the region. it has been dead for more than ten years. what we're doing to bring that glory back is to be able to give farmers free seeds to entice them to buy cotton. the government of kenya plans to introduce genetically modified cotton to its farmers, the agricultural organisation 5ay5 the agricultural organisation says the new variety is not prone to common pe5t5 says the new variety is not prone to common pests and farmers will own more. charles has been the last 20 years of his career researching on the crop and dispelling myth5 on po55ible environmental and health risks. it has no effect, absolutely no effect. negative effect on the farmer, on

animal5, effect on the farmer, on animals, on the soil. there is only one thing that has changed in the cotton plant. that is being resistant. can you still farfrom reaching being resistant. can you still far from reaching its being resistant. can you still farfrom reaching its potential of growing 200,000 tons of cotton every year. the bulk of what is processed in the country today is imported from neighbouring uganda and tanzania. today is the feast of epiphany — or three kings, an essential —— we will round—up that manias for you. voting in georgia ended about three hours ago. early 5ugge5tion5 ended about three hours ago. early suggestions are that the turn—out for the republicans i5 quite down. that could have an impact. the whole point of the5e impact. the whole point of these two senate run—offs a5 they could decide the balance of power in congress for the next two yea r5 of power in congress for the next two years and that will define ju5t next two years and that will define just how next two years and that will definejust how much next two years and that will define just how much a biden presidency i5 define just how much a biden presidency is able to accomplish. this is a state presidency is able to accomplish. this is a 5tatejoe biden one in november's presidential election for the two senate 5eat5 presidential election for the two senate seats in georgia both went to run—offs. in the senate there are currently 50 republicans, 48 democrats, and

two va ca nt republicans, 48 democrats, and two vacant 5eat5, if the republicans win their races democrat —— of the democrats when their seats they will be tied for power. we shall see. thank you for watching. 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 wintrine55 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 northea5terlies bringing further showers initially into east anglia, the south—east, and the channel islands.

there mightjust be an ea5ing 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 linger5, 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 har5h a frost here through the coming night but, nevertheless, we are likely to see more snow quite widely. and it will be a har5her frost further south for some and with freezing fog across central and southern area5, 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 votes are being counted in the us state of georgia in a tight race which will determine which party controls the senate. democrats are keen to oust two republicans, which would give them control of both houses of congress, as well as the white house, and give a biden presidency much more power. prosecutors in wi5con5in are saying a police officer investigated over the shooting of jacob blake in the city of kenosha last august will face no charges. the shooting — by a white officer — left mr blake, a black man, 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—fifty people is now infected — and one—in—thirty in london. for the first time — the uk has recorded more than 60,000 new infections in a single day. today is the feast of epiphany or ‘three kings' —