this is bbc news, i'm sally bundock with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. too close to call — the votes are being counted in the runoff elections that'll decide the balance of power in the us senate. the democrats need to win both races to take control and help joe biden implement his governing agenda. no charges for the white police officer who shot and paralysed a black man in the us state of wisconsin. dozens of pro—democracy politicians and activists are arrested in overnight raids by police in hong kong. gold, frankincense, myrrh, and face—masks — celebrating the feast of epiphany in the age of covid—19.

hello and welcome. crucial elections for georgia's two seats in the us senate are on a knife—edge. 95% of returns have been counted, but the outcome is uncertain. the democratic party challengers are separated from their republican rivals by less than a percentage point in the share of the vote. the republican party needs to retain just one of georgia's seats to keep control of the upper chamber of congress, where they would be able to constrain the legislative agenda of president—electjoe biden. georgia election official, gabriel stirling has just given an update on the counties yet to be counted saying more than 1.2 million people cast their votes on election

day, and the race remains incredibly close. as you can see, still a set of tight races out there, o'donnell has the largest lead among the republicans, perdue has a small lead, behind raphael warnock. fulton, and these larger counties will have big sways of votes that come m, big sways of votes that come in, that came in today, so keep that in mind as you are looking, we are expecting to come out. our north american correspondent has been checking the results are us are us through the night. republicans have set up an in—person victory party here in atla nta in—person victory party here in atlanta in case they win the night, while democrats are planning a virtual celebration, but we might not know the winner, at least certainly not tonight. it might go into tomorrow morning, possibly later. this will all come down to turnout, and we won't know the final two numbers until at least 1pm eastern, just after

6pm gmt when counties are required to report how many people actually turned up to vote on day to determine how many outstanding votes are still out there, so it will be quite a while. this was always going to be a close race, but with the early numbers in the races tightening and there are rated then — razor thin margins between the two candidates. the republican incumbents, david perdue, and kelly o'donnell aligned with donald trump, trying to overturn the vote, and that means they are all running on the georgia ticket against the challenges, on the democratic side, reverend raphael warnock and jon ossof, who have so far appear to have done well but it is too early to tell. the black turnout proved to be at least a percentage point, at least nine out of ten black voters are going to the democratic ticket, and whether that hits the 3030 range the democrats want we

will have to see. 30% of the blackbird will be told in the hours ahead, but overall, it has been an election, one of the most expensive in american history, $833 million spent here to determine if the democrats can get control of the us senate. it looks like both parties might win, or lose both parties might win, or lose both seats, however, there is also a likely split, with david perdue seen as a favourite to win back his seat againstjon 0ssof, and raphael warnock, the pastor of ebenezer baptist church, where the doctor martin luther king preached, if that's what happens, the republicans will have the control of the us senate. financial markets globally have been watching this very closely indeed because some strategists

argue a democratic double win would mean additional stimulus for the world's biggest economy, it could mean tax hikes, it could be more regulation, something we will be discussing in detail in our business coverage, but if you wa nt to business coverage, but if you want to get right up to date with the very latest when it comes to what is going on in georgia, do of course go to our website anytime. we will have up—to—date vote tallies, explaining to you why these run—off elections matter so much as well. go to bbc.com/news and follow the links. a lot more detail on this later on in the programme. mps will return to the house of commons today to vote on borisjohnson‘s new national coronavirus lockdown in england. the measures, which include school closures and a requirement for people to stay at home, except for essential reasons, have already become law. they were prompted by a huge increase in cases, with the latest figures suggesting 1 in 50 people in england is infected, and 1 in 30 in london.

the introduction of the tiers system in november prompted a rebellion by more than fifty tory mps. more on that in our business coverage, and the impact on retailers in particular. 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. 0ur correspondent danny vincent is in hong kong. danny, tell us more about these arrests. what we do know is in the early hours of this morning, a large number of activists and lawmakers were,

01’ activists and lawmakers were, orformer lawmakers, protesters, people that took ha rd protesters, people that took hard and stood in what was called a primary election last year, were all detained. it has been reported that they have been reported that they have been suspected of breaking the national security law, a new law introduced, or imposed, by beijing last year, and their arrests, if charged, underthe new law, it could mean they face potentially up to life in prison. activists feel that since the law was introduced, the city has seen somewhat of a unprecedented crackdown against people that oppose beijing, and in many ways it seems that today's arrests seems to represent a further crackdown, many activists feel that the authorities, the police there are now targeting the entire pro—democracy camp and simply trying to eliminate them. and when these new law was introduced, this was the fear, wasn't it? this was what would

happen in the nearfuture? wasn't it? this was what would happen in the near future? when the law was allegedly introduced, carrie lamb, the ceo of hong kong, said a relatively small number of people would be affected by this new law, but activists and pro—democracy campaigners feared that it could potentially affect a wide range of people across society, and if you look at the scale of people affected by these reported arrest today, they would say that is indeed the case. they have also been reporting that various media outlets have been contacted by the police and the police have asked them to hand over their files, there have been reports that the prominent activist joshua wong, who is now in prison, report that his home was also raided in the early hours of this morning. we have to leave it there but thank you danny vincent for telling us more about that, again, more on oui’ more about that, again, more on our website on our story, and among those arrested was james

tau, so many well—known opposition figures that have been arrested in hong kong. prosecutors in the state of wisconsin say a policeman arrested over the shooting of black man jagged blake will face no charges in connection with the incident. mr blake was set 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 was not allowed to be on the protest. the incident sparked today is violent clashes in kenosha, culminating with two protesters being shot at by armed civilian. here is the district attorney michael gravely. 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. page fernandez, policing policy advisor at the american civil liberties union questioned the district attorney's decision. in this country, the cases that we see a black people being shot by police. had jacob blue been wide, this would not have been wide, this would not have been the result. the prosecutor, defending his decision to press charges, in saying that there was a valid self defence claim, he continuously mentioned that jacob blake only had a knife, but officers had tasty multiple times, and he continuously mentioned that jacob blake times, and he continuously mentioned thatjacob blake on getting up.

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. let's get some of the day's other news. the european medicines agency will meet later to discuss approving a second coronavirus vaccine for use across the european union. the regulator, which has been criticised for moving more slowly than its global counterparts, will consider giving the green light to the us—made moderna vaccine for use across all 27 eu member countries. travelers to the uk from abroad could soon be required to show evidence of a recent negative coronavirus test to be allowed entry. the department for transport said it's one several measures being considered to prevent the spread of covid—19. it's already commonplace

in other countries. 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 stay with us on bbc news — still to come: going for gold — meet the olympic super fan hoping the tokyo games will take place 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 top story: the votes are being counted in the us state of georgia in two run—off elections that'll decide the balance of power in the senate. 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. doctor clayton kazan is the medical director of the los angeles county fire department. hejoins me now live for more of an insight into the situation and exactly what the ambulance directive means. thank you so much forjoining us on thank you so much forjoining us on the programme. i understand it is yourjob and you are in the thick of it. when it comes to ambulances, when they respond, what the decision—making is when they see a patient. talk us through this report that says they are having to make very difficult choices as to which patients are taken to hospital. these are taken to hospital. these are certainly are taken to hospital. these a re certainly really challenging times that we are in right now. the call volume for the ems system is way out and our hospitals are saturated. the directive that has been referred to with regard to patients with cardiac arrest was a misnomer. that directive is not saying that we do not resuscitate cardiac arrest patients. it is saying

that it encourages us to do it in the field, which is not a change. we have been encouraging that for more than ten yea rs encouraging that for more than ten years because patients in cardiac arrest have the best outcomes when they get resuscitation where they are, rather than being moved. this directive puts a reminder, it reiterates the point, that patients in cardiac arrest should receive a field resuscitation. if the field resuscitation, which could easily be 20 to a0 minutes, is not successful then there really is no purpose to transporting the patient because there is no opportunity for the patient to get a better outcome by being transported. the emergency departments are already saturated. talk us through the pressures you are under at the moment given the number is going up daily. under at the moment given the number is going up dailylj refer to it as a 3—headed beast that my department has to deal with. first, we have a large percentage of our workforce thatis percentage of our workforce that is sick with covid. at any

given point over the past month 1596 given point over the past month 15% of the workforce is out. when we get 20 or 30 back we lose 20 or 30 more. we have beenin lose 20 or 30 more. we have been ina lose 20 or 30 more. we have been in a plateau phase of trying to claw our way out. the second is that we are trying to deliver the vaccine. as of now the workforce has about a000 members. we have delivered 2700 vaccines and now we are beginning with the preparation for the second dose. that has been a big challenge because we do not have a lot of practitioners capable of delivering the vaccine. it has been very heavy. 0n delivering the vaccine. it has been very heavy. on top of that we are dealing with an ongoing ems crisis. the call volume is surging and cardiac arrest cases are going up. hospitals are so cases are going up. hospitals are so saturated we have a hard time getting the ambulances returned back into service. time getting the ambulances returned back into servicelj imagine returned back into service.” imagine you are absolutely exhausted. yes. in 20 years i have never seen anything like this. it has been an utterly exhausting year. everything we

do has been shaded with covid. we have had to regroup our entire bureau in my department and shift everything towards trying to get people vaccinated and back to work and come up with plans to try and get as many ambulances dug out of the hospitals as possible and back into the service. very best of luck with all of that. thank you so much for talking to us. it is good to talk to you. we will stay with the us now. we will stay with the us now. we will talk more about what is happening in georgia. it is on a knife edge in terms of the votes. it is a really important election race. david willis joins us from los angeles. do you think we could hear a result soon? i have to tell you that it doesn't look as though we are going to get a result eminently because the secretary of state in georgia, a man who

of state in georgia, a man who of course had that rather u nfortu nate of course had that rather unfortunate telephone conversation with donald trump on saturday afternoon, he has just said that there is probably another 50 minutes of counting to go on in georgia because it is past midnight and then he will give people a rest and reconvene in the morning to count the remainder of the votes. he said they should have a result by around noon local time. it doesn't appear that we will get a result in the next couple of hours and that means that this nailbiter goes on. it is very, very tired. latest figures suggest that the democrat raphael warnock is leading kelly loeffler, the republican, by the slimmest of majorities — less than a percentage point. meanwhile the republican david perdue and democratjon 0ssoff are

absolutely neck and neck at the moment. vital of course this election because the outcome will determine which party has control of the senate going into the new session of congress. currently of course the republicans have 51 seats in the upper house. if the democrats when both of these senate races in georgia then they will go 50—50 and the tie—breaking vote will come down to kamala harris, the vice president, who is of course advise democrat. i wonder if she knew she would be in that position if she was to run for vice president. in terms of the democrats, it would be historic if they were to win those seats? absolutely. it is more than 20 years since i democrat one “— than 20 years since i democrat one —— since a democrat won

estate seat in georgia and i have to say that the outcome of the presidential election took some by surprise. georgia has traditionally been a republican stronghold, but joe traditionally been a republican stronghold, butjoe biden won by the narrowest of margins backin by the narrowest of margins back in november — about 11,000 votes, just shy of 12,000 in fa ct — votes, just shy of 12,000 in fact — and now there is a feeling that it is potentially a swing state. a southern swing state in a way that a few could have imagined just a few years ago. thank you very much indeed. as we have already mentioned, we will keep viewers up—to—date on the results when they come in. we have to wait patiently. 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 facemasks. in normal times million back the streets across state 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 lovely processions in barcelona the three kings arrived by boat to deter any crowds. their grand landing can only be watched on tv. in the canary islands, tenerife's three kings were symbolically inoculated against covid—19 to send a message against hope as the vaccine begins to roll out in every region of spain. translation: the vaccine is the best gift that assigns has offered us so we can once again enjoy our friends, family and especially oui’ friends, 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 has been harderfor spanish in the spring, it has been harder for spanish children to be good this year. but in the capital, madrid, and around the country, where cu rfews 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 we 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 that it was still the most magical night of the year. 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.

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. kyoko 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 0lympics of 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 kyoko will definitely be there. she is more than ready, isn't she? she is poised for the 0lympic she? she is poised for the olympic games. now, we've got more detail on the situation in georgia coming up in the business coverage — and the implications for the biggest economy in the world and what that means for the global recovery that we hope for this year, but also look at our website as i've already mentioned. the tallies are taking up all the time. it also explains why this run—off is so

important. follow the links. as i've said, i'll be back in a moment with the top business stories. 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 warnings on the website.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. uk retail, hospitality and leisure businesses will receive new grants to help them keep afloat until spring, but they say it's not enough to save the high street. driving in the slow lane — uk car sales hits the brakes in 2020, as lockdowns take their toll. georgia on their minds — why the runoff elections in the southern us state are being closely watched by global investors.