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 this is bbc news, the headlines: decide the balance of power votes are being counted in the us senate. 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 prosecutors in the us them control of both state of wisconsin say houses of congress, as well as the white house, they won't bring criminal charges against the police and give a biden presidency officer who shot the black man, much more power. jacob blake, leaving him paralysed. dozens of pro—democracy politicians and activists are arrested in overnight raids prosecutors in wisconsin by police in hong kong. are saying a police officer investigated over the shooting ambulance crews in los angeles are told not to transport hospital patients who may die — of jacob blake in the city as the city struggles to cope with the latest surge 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 of coronavirus. 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 voting in the us state of georgia has ended with the result deciding in a single day. the balance of power in congress for the next two years. it'll also define how much a biden presidency is able to accomplish. 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 ossoff 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.

republicans have set up an in—person victory party here in adelante in in—person victory party here in adela nte in case in—person victory party here in adelante in case they win the night while the democrats plan a virtual celebration. but we may not know the winner, certainly not tonight. it may go into tomorrow morning, possibly later. this will come down to turn out and we won't know the final turnout until 1pm eastern, that isjust know the final turnout until 1pm eastern, that is just after 6pm gmt when they are required to report how many people turned up on election day to determine how many outstanding votes are still out there so it will be quite a while. it was always going to be a close race but the race is tightening with these early votes. there are razor thin margins between the candidates. the republican incumbents, that is david perdue and senator kelly loeffler, they align with president trump and supported his unsuccessful attempt to overturn the vote and that means that they are running on a joint ticket against the challenges on the democratic

side, who have appeared to do well so far but it is too early to tell. elyce nine of ten black voters in this special election have elected the democratic ticket and whether thatis democratic ticket and whether that is the range that the democrats need, it remains to be seen because 30% of the white voters are for the democrat voters and with 30% of overall turnout being black will help determine the results. this election has been one of the most expensive in american history. $832 million was spent here to determine if the democrats can get control of the us senate. it looks like both parties may win or lose both parties may win or lose both seats. however there is also a likely split with david perdue a favourite to win back his seat againstjon ossoff and reverend warnock, the pastor of

a baptist church where the reverend doctor michael luther king preached, he is possibly going to win the other ticket leading to a split and if that happens then the republicans will have control of the us senate. 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 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. the decision is 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 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. reports from hong kong say around 50 pro— democracy politicians and activists have been arrested by police. activists say the detentions started in the early hours in a massive operation to round up suspected offenders under hong kong's controversial new security law. it's alleged they subverted state power by having taken part in a primary

election last year. the bbc‘s danny vincent joins us from hong kong. tell us more. what information do you have? in the early hours of this morning we began getting social media posts on various number of clinical groups and activists, social media accounts, some posting videos showing that police were entering some of the premises is of these activists and former lawmakers. since then there has been a long list of names of activists and lawmakers who have reportedly been detained. there is some suggestion that they have been detained and arrested under suspicion of breaking the new national security law. activists across the city feel that this is once again another example of a crackdown against the pro—democracy camp. since a national security law was

introduced we have seen a small but growing number of activists and even lawmakers attempt to successfully flee the territory. many people here describe the impact of the national security law refer to it as national security law refer to itasa national security law refer to it as a form of terror, that it is being used to scare people who attempt to pose —— oppose beijing. according to reports today, a larger number of pro—democracy activists and lawmakers have been targeted and arrested, potentially under this law. we are seeing reports of police searching the house of police searching the house of the detained activistjoshua wong and a raid on a law firm and police dressing news outlets to hand over information. quite a few names recognised among those detained and reports of an american lawyer arrested. that is right.

activists from every section of the activist community are now being attacked from lawmakers to journalists to former lawmakers to prominent activists. they feel this is a sweeping attack against the pro—democracy movement introduced six months ago under this new national security lawful. it seems that, with the current situation, it is difficult to know what the pro—democracy camp will do next. it certainly feels that people who tend to try to oppose or express opinions are in opposition to beijing, they feel they are being targeted by this new law. thank you very much for that, danny. stay with us on bbc news — still to come: going for gold — meet the olympic super fan hoping the tokyo games will go ahead as planned.

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 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. 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. elsewhere in europe, portugal's president has proposed extending the nationwide state of emergency.

whilst 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 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 15 kilometres 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 rollout 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 roll—out is going slower than we want. and it has us concerned that we're 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. washington has said the cyber—attack on us government agencies revealed in december was of russian inajoint statement, the national security adviser, the fbi and the intelligence services said the hack appears to have been aimed at gathering intelligence, and they described it as serious. earlier i spoke to cyber security expertjon bateman. he gave me his assessment on this statement by us intelligence bodies. well, what this statement shows today is that we are still very much in the early phases of this investigation, but the most urgent questions are which victims in the us government and the private

sector fell victim to this attack, what data was actually stolen and whether the hackers still have some kind of continuing foothold within networks that they could use for future cyber operations. sorry to interrupt you, but some sort of persistent access, that would be a continuing problem. that is right. that would be very serious indeed. those are the critical questions that actually have not yet been answered and were not answered today. what we did learn today is a bit more about the perpetrators and their motives. the us government is now saying that the attacks originated somewhere within russia, although that does stop short of actually blaming moscow, the russian government. and then calling this an intelligence gathering operation, although viewers should know that in cyberspace hackers can quickly pivot from an intelligence gathering operation to something more destructive. france is to slaughter more

than half a million ducks as it tries to contain a strain of bird flu. 0utbreaks have been reported across europe in recent weeks, prompting mass culls which have left many poultry farmers with nothing. courtney bembridge reports. duck breeder marilyn got a text message telling her that her last 300 ducklings were headed to the slaughterhouse. she is one of many producers in the south—west of france whose poultry are being killed to try to contain the bird flu. translation: until saturday morning there were a lot of ducks here, so we opened the door, load the ducts, take them to the lorry, loaded the cages, and then the laurie drives off with our income, and we are left with nothing. the age five and made bird flu has been spreading through europe in recent weeks and millions of birds have naughty been cold. reachesis birds have naughty been cold. reaches is believed that the current outbreak is being

spread to captive birds by wildfowl migrating for the winter. france's agriculture ministries has it plans to cull 600,000 birds by local producers fear that is just the beginning. translation: ithink we're going to see a million ducks slaughtered in the near future, since nothing can stop the virus today. the h5m8 is not known to be transmissible to humans by the economic cost will be significant. translation: this situation is very worrying, simply because we have numerous outbreaks. slaughtering is that a daily, intense, and breeders who find themselves without ducks overnight, without income. we are heading towards a human tragedy like we experienced in 2017. previous outbreaks of the avian flu led to the culling of tens of millions of birds.

today is the feast of epiphany or three kings', an essential part of christmas celebrations in spain. the annual parades were cancelled because of the pandemic, but across the country, even the coronavirus couldn't deprive children of their presents. daniel wittenberg reports. gold, frankincense, myrrh — and face masks. in normal times millions pack the streets across spain to greet the three kings and their gifts on the feast of epiphany. but this year even royalty had to get creative. instead of the usual lively processions, in barcelona the three kings arrived by boat to deter any crowds. the grand landing could only be watched on tv. in the canary islands, tenerife's three kings were symbolically inoculated against covid—19 to send a message of hope as the vaccine begins to roll out in every region of spain. translation: the vaccine is the best gift that science

has offered us so we can once again enjoy ourfriends, family, and especially our grandparents. having spent months out of school and even been completely barred from leaving the house for six weeks in the spring, it's been harder for spanish children to be good this year. but in the capital, madrid, and around the country, where curfews were cut short and families could meet in small groups, they were finally shown something to celebrate. translation: we know that 2020 has been a bit complicated, so balthazar, caspar, and i have decided to come, not only with thousands of gifts, but also with tons of excitement and hope that this 2021 will be much better. the pandemic may have rained on spain's parades, but the fireworks that lit up the skies made sure it was still the most magical night of the year. daniel wittenberg, bbc news.

a huge consequence of the coronavirus pandemic has been the postponement of major sporting events. arguably the biggest was the tokyo olympic games. assuming the various vaccination programmes go to plan, they're due to begin in july. which is good news for one very dedicated fan, as the bbc‘s tim allman explains. kyoko ishikawa loves the olympics. i mean, she really loves the olympics. for most of her adult life she has been flying the flag, or even a fan for the olympic spirit. translation: so many people get together from all across the world and stay in one city for a few weeks. then the city turns into a whole mix of people, diversity in such high concentration, that's only possible at the olympics. she has been to every summer games since 1992, travelling thousands of miles around the

world. she has tickets, mementos and memories, a lifetime of experience, but then came the pandemic, and the games were postponed. she believes that if, when they happen, they could well be the most significant olympics of them all. translation: despite them all. translation: despite the difficulties, i want the tokyo games to become a place where the people of the world feel that the flame of hope is protected. we human beings kept alive. fewer than 200 days now, and the 2020 games will hopefully take place one year later than planned. and you can be rest assured that she will definitely be there. just briefly a reminder of our top story, voting ended in the us state of georgia just over four and us state of georgia just over fourand a us state of georgia just over four and a half hours ago. this race will determine which party controls the senate, democrats are keen to oust to republicans which give them control of both

houses of congress as well as the white house, and give the biden presidency much more power. at the moment both races looking too close to call. much more for you on the bbc website and on our twitter feeds, thanks for watching. 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 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 00:28:32,305 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 warnings on the website.