this is bbc news with the latest headlines. death, violence and chaos in washington dc — four people die as president trump's supporters storm america's capitol building. the rioters were trying to stop us lawmakers approving the result of the presidential election, encouraged by mr trump's unproven claims of electoral fraud. this was a fraudulent election. but we cannot play into the hands of these people. we have to have peace. so go home, we love you, you're very special. this not dissent — it's disorder. it's chaos. it borders on sedition. in the face of the violence,

american lawmakers return to work and in the last few minutes they have endorsed the new president, joe biden. the report we make is that joe biden and kamala harris will be the president and the vice president, according to the ballots that have been given to us. applause what do you think about the events that have taken place in america? do get in touch. you can tweet me @annita—mcveigh using the hashtag #bbcyourquestions. in the uk, hundreds of gp surgeries begin offering the new oxford—astrazeneca covid vaccine. and, as millions of households get to grips with the return of online schooling, we look at efforts to help families without the laptops and computers they need to learn.

good morning and welcome to bbc news. four people are dead after hundreds of pro—donald trump supporters — some of them armed — ransacked the us capitol building in washington. the us congress has now certified joe biden‘s victory in the presidential election. protesters stormed congress, breaking into the senate chamber and the office of the house speaker, after being encouraged by the outgoing president's unproven claims of electoral fraud. a woman who was shot during the clashes died. police say three other people died from medical emergencies. two pipe bombs were found. 52 arrests were made. at least one senator, kelly loeffler of georgia, rescinded her objection to the certification

ofjoe biden. she was one of two republicans whose party lost two senate seats in georgia, and with it control of the senate. the vice—president, mike pence, who's chairing proceedings in the senate, condemned the violence. and in the strongest possible terms, he said. joe biden said the storming of congress bordered on sedition, while president trump issued a video message urging his supporters to go home, but continued to suggest that the election had been stolen from him. we have a number of reports this morning opened the first is from sarah campbell. the day democracy in the united states of america came under attack as never before. fired up by president trump's rhetoric and unfounded allegations of electoral fraud, the capitol building was stormed by his supporters. as politicians and staff inside the building fled to safety, security

officers, guns drawn, attempted to stop protesters entering the chamber. during the chaos, four people died, according to police, a woman from gunshot wounds and the other is due to medical emergencies. these images beamed around the world. those who took part were unrepentant. that it'sjust not how things are done in this country, lawlessness, storming buildings and that's what happened point of this country was not founded on stability, it was founded on a revolutionary activity. we became civil after the government realised they got overwhelmed. what happens now? i guess now we wait and see if they take us seriously because they saw how easily we were able to breach their defence. as a security try to regain control, the president—elect urged what he called the mob to pull back. what we are seeing are a small number of extremists, dedicated to

lawlessness. this is not descent, it is disorder, it is chaos, it borders on sedition —— dissent. and it must end, now. as the violence continued, president trump refused to condemn the protesters. this was a fraudulent election but we cannot play into the hands of these people. we have to have peace. so go home, we love you, you are very special. as the hours ticked by, reaction poured in from around the world which was watching on. borisjohnson tweeted. .. after a number of hours, the protesters were removed and the area around the capitol building secured. all over the world is looking at washington now and they saw people storming the capital...

washington now and they saw people storming the capital. . ii washington now and they saw people storming the capital... i hope they keep watching, we are the last hope for the world! at least in my mind and everything i have seen, we are free. the us congress was reconvened to confirm the outcome of the presidential election. trump's vice presidential election. trump's vice president vowed to continue the democratic process. the violence was quelled. that capitol is secured and the people's work continues. we condemn the violence that took place here in the strongest possible terms. the aftermath of what many are seeing as terms. the aftermath of what many are seeing as one terms. the aftermath of what many are seeing as one of america's darkest days. president tom's reaction is unknown, he has temporarily been banned from twitter and facebook and there was talk among his own party that the president, now accused of inciting violence, should be removed from office —— president trump. well, our correspondents aleem maqbool and lebo diseko were at capitol hill throughout the events of last night.

lebo was inside the capitol building when the rioters breached the building — we'll hearfrom her in a moment. but first, let's hear from aleem maqbool who was outside amongst the protestors as events unfolded. well, we are just outside the capitol building, as you can see, and just in the last few minutes, after a low of an hour or so, we heard sound bombs, we saw tear gas being deployed. and that was just to clear, you might be able to make out the top level, all of this stage and this scaffolding that was all set up for the inauguration in two weeks' time, the trump supporters took over all that area and there are still hundreds all round the building. they are right up the steps at the back of the building, right to the door of the capitol building which of course has been shut now. but no sense that people are suddenly going to leave in less than an hour when that curfew comes into force.

i've spoken to some of the very people who actually managed to enter into the building and the sense i was trying to get was as to whether this was something that was planned and i have spoken to several people now and none of them said it was part of the plan of the day, to actually get inside the building. they certainly said, all of them, that they felt inspired by the words of donald trump to march to the capitol, to take back their country. for them, they interpreted that as needing to really make their presence felt but they also, once they got here, they felt they could easily overwhelm security and get past security. we saw some confrontation but they all talk about security essentially stepping back and that's why some of them found themselves in the building. one of them described the fact that he then started to just knock on doors inside the capitol building and then found himself outside the chamber but left when security was beefed up inside. we saw another woman

who had injured her leg through crawling out of a window, to get back out of of the capitol building. but still, extraordinary scenes here as hundreds are still all over the capitol grounds. i was standing here when police came through and told us to stop broadcasting, cleared this area. we are in a part of the capitol that is used by members of the house of representatives. we were all moved into a tunnel and eventually into a cafeteria. other people were taken elsewhere. we were there, just watching these scenes play out in the seat of democracy in this country, seeing people trying to smash windows, getting into the building, this really striking image of police holding up two guns as they tried to stop people getting onto the chamber. we saw people having broken into nancy pelosi's office, their feet on her table. as we were watching this, we were there for several hours, i was speaking to people there.

i spoke to a couple of women who actually work on the floor, they are employees in the capitol, saying they are not allowed to touch where members sit like that, they are not allowed to touch their desks in that way and to see people climbing all over the house floor, jumping on the platforms there, they saw it as a real disrespect for the democratic institutions of this country. president trump has been banned from twitter and facebook but still has ways of getting his messages across. we have had a tweet from someone who is the white house deputy chief of staff of communications and director of social media and he is issuing a statement on behalf of president trump which we can show you now in reaction to the electoral certification. there it is, donald

trump saying, even though i totally disagree with the outcome of the election and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on january 20. nevertheless there will be an orderly transition onjanuary 20. i have always said we would continue oui’ have always said we would continue ourfight to have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted but while this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it is only the beginning of our fight to make america great again, he says. let's speak now to our us correspondent peter bowes. peter, fighting talk continuing from donald trump, he keeps using the word fight as he did in that speech to his followers before they stormed the capitol building yesterday in washington. and still no condemnation of the violence in that message, notably. yes, a typical bullish statement from the

president, perhaps the closest he has come to conceding the election, pledging an orderly transition of power but as you said, there is much he is not talking about in that statement, specifically the events of the past 2a hours where a lot of people, including some in his own party, believe it was the president who incited that violence in the first place by encouraging his supporters to march on the capitol building and we all know what happened next. update surged into the building and there was a tremendous amount of violence —— they surged. that is something the president is not addressing. to some extent, his statement will come as a relief to some americans, the fact that the president is finally acknowledging it is over for him at least as far as this term in office is concerned and mr biden will take overin is concerned and mr biden will take over ina is concerned and mr biden will take over in a couple of weeks. i think a lot of americans will be hoping, they have been nervous about these final few weeks and especially in the light of what has happened, but

perhaps hoping that that tone from the president will at least continue over the next couple of weeks. and that they will not be any more violence, the flames will not be fanned by the president in the way so many people think they have been in the past few weeks. given that he still has not condemned the violence, what is the republican party going to do with this? we saw some republican senators withdraw their objection to the certification ofjoe biden which hasjust officially happened in the last few minutes but others continued to object. will this be the start of a great fracturing within the party? i notice sarah palin has been on fox news in the last short while talking about the creation of a third party in the us. yes, and that is the big issue facing the republicans and i really don't think any of them have the answers. and a big part of it

depends on how donald trump behaves in the coming weeks, months and yea rs in the coming weeks, months and years as they figure out who will be their next presidential candidate. the problem for so many republicans is that they have relied on the president, he has been their leader, they have relied on him for their own fortunes, whether it has been standing in local elections, being re—elected into congress or the senate, they have had to follow president trump because they needed him to like them. he could easily damage any candidate that said the wrong thing about the president and as long as donald trump, as a former president, retained that power within the party, he will be a significant figure moving forward to future elections, the next big one of course being the mid—term elections in a couple of years time. on the other hand, if there is some sort of fracturing support and essentially a new party developing within a party that can develop

enough of a following in its own right, that could be the beginning of the end of donald trump and many republicans might see him as a liability, the fact that clearly he has been at the centre of what has been going on in the past few hours and the violence we have seen in washington, and they may come to the conclusion that it is not worth it any more, to be part of donald trump's team. a lot of questions about whether members of the republican party will continue to support him even though he is out of office in a couple of weeks, and what sort of influence he may or may not continue to have on the party. but what about impeachment? there is talk of that, plenty of people talking about it in the states and also briefly as to what is going to u nfold also briefly as to what is going to unfold in the next couple of weeks up unfold in the next couple of weeks up to the inauguration in terms of making sure that washington is secure and that transition doesn't happen in an orderly way. yes, i

think that a final issue is probably the key one for so many people because the glaring question from the last 2a hours is how on earth did this happen? when everybody had been expecting a major protest in the capital, in washington, as this joint session of congress was taking place, and yet security seem to be so lax and it was so easy for those protesters to get into the building. there will be a major investigation into that and it will be hugely surprising if heads do not roll as far as security officials are secure and within congress because of what happened. but the next task is to secure the capitol building and the centre of washington merely for the inauguration itself. this year, unlike previous inaugurations, it will be a very different and more scaled—down affair because of coronavirus. you will not hearjoe biden encouraging his supporters to

travel to washington to witness his inauguration so it will be much smaller and that will help in terms of security but nevertheless, it is a key issue. a state of emergency was declared earlier in the day because of what was happening and that has been extended to beyond the inauguration, such is the concern of local authorities in washington. thank you very much. as peter mentioned, in the past half hour, congress finished counting the electoral college votes and confirmed president—electjoe biden‘s despite the disruption and objections from republicans to election results in arizona and pennsylvania, members from both chambers were able to certify the electoral college more than iii hours after the process began. the undersigned, tellers on the part of the senate, tellers on the part of the senate, tellers on the part of the senate, tellers on the part of the house of representatives, report the following as a result of the ascertainment and counting of

the ascertainment and counting of the electoral vote for president and vice president of the united states for the term beginning of the 20th day of january 2021. the report we make is that joe day of january 2021. the report we make is thatjoe biden and kamala harris will be the president and the vice president, according to the ballots that have been given to us. applause the whole number of electors appointed to vote for president of the united states is 538, within that whole number, a majority is 274

and the votes for president of the united states are as follows. joseph bidenjunior, united states are as follows. joseph biden junior, of the united states are as follows. joseph bidenjunior, of the state of delaware, has received 306 votes. donaldj delaware, has received 306 votes. donald j trump of delaware, has received 306 votes. donald] trump of the state of florida has received 232 votes. the whole number of electors appointed to vote for vice president of the united states is 538, within that whole number, a majority is 270. the votes for vice president of the united states are as follows. kamala harris of the state of california has received 306 votes. michael p of the state of indiana has received 232 votes —— mike pence. the announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the senate shall be deemed as a sufficient declaration of the person is elected president and vice president of the united states. each for the term beginning on the 20th day ofjanuary 2021. it shall be entered together

with the list of the votes on the journals of the senate in the house of representatives. outgoing vice president mike pence confirming joe biden and kamala harris will be inaugurated on the 20th of january as the new president and vice president. amy pope has worked with president—electjoe biden as deputy homeland security advisor. shejoins us now, thank you she joins us now, thank you for joining us and ultimately, the process , joining us and ultimately, the process, although interrupted, has gone ahead. that is good news. it ultimately shows the institutions are stronger than this moment in time and they have really been tested over the last four years in so many ways. ultimately, the process will move forward as intended. i don't think it means that this is the end of the bumps in the road, we should anticipate that there might be more protests and they might be violence and there will be a testing of the various institutions but at least we are continuing and moving forward toward

the orderly transition of power. nonetheless, the test you speak up, none more show, shockingly, than the events of the last 12 hours or so at the capitol building, despite the language that president trump has been using, could you ever have imagined that would happen? no, i couldn't. for a number of reasons, one is that it is unfathomable to think of a president of the united states undermining the fundamental democratic process that we have for electing our leaders. that is number one. also from a security point of view, i spent a lot of time working with the us capitol police and members of the house and senate in my last on responding to security events, and there's a whole series of security plans in place, they are well exercised and extremely competent people and to have a moment in where we really saw the security plans fall apart to me is

very striking and troubling. a huge number of questions around what happened with the security there of course the former director of the ciajohn course the former director of the cia john brennan tweeted course the former director of the ciajohn brennan tweeted yesterday, one person is responsible for this isa one person is responsible for this is a real act of sedition, donaldj trump. he is an indelible blight on america's sole. political analyst said that it is possible and feasible that donald trump could be considered as an enemy of the state. do you think some sort of action will be taken against donald trump and if so, what, given in this latest tweet, sent via one of his officials in the white house, he yet again failed to condemn the violence? it is a very strong language and i would be shocked if there is some sort of response to suggest he is committing treason, i think that would only further

inflame his supporters and make the situation worse rather than better but a different issue here and that is the role of the members of congress. this is a time when republican and democratic members of congress need to come together and be absolutely unequivocal that this election took place under appropriate circumstances, that the results are appropriate and consistent with the law and not leave a ny consistent with the law and not leave any ambiguity for the trump supporters to seize upon. this is the protection of the democracy, thatis the protection of the democracy, that is not partisan, that it some where every single member of congress needs to come together in order to uphold their oath to protect the constitution of the united states. where do you see the republican party going with this? i discussed this with our correspondent because some republicans continued to object to the certification of joe republicans continued to object to the certification ofjoe biden and kamala harris, some withdrew that objection so is there a split developing in the party based on whether those lawmakers feel that

the continuing influence, potential continuing influence of donald trump might be crucial to their careers? to me that it is a very interesting question the killing because the republican party is being forced to come to terms with the direction they want to go —— particularly because. we have seen some fraying in the last few weeks, as they have been asked to undermine the outcome of the election and more recently as they work negotiating the outcome of they work negotiating the outcome of the coronavirus relief bill where there was a question about how much support to give to american citizens in terms of financial support. you are seeing the party really struggling with what its principles are, who it is going to be loyal to and that is something that they are going to add to come to terms with. if i'm mitch mcconnell, that's my most pressing concern when we get through inauguration day. to talk to you. amy pope who has worked with

president—electjoe biden —— good to talk to you. you have been sending in your thoughts. one says, the world watched a blatant attack on us democracy fuelled by the current president and his lies that caused delusion among his supporters. this one says, i'm horrified by the scenes from the capitol, donald trump is an appalling person and has incited people to behave undemocratically, a dark day for the usa and the world. this says, the damage he is doing in falsely leading people to believe fake claims is damaging the usa, the country is supposed to love. and a success , country is supposed to love. and a success, donald trump needs to be held accountable for the death of four people and face criminal charges and to be removed from office even if two weeks left. he is a disgrace. some of your comments in response to events in washington. we will bring you more from there but now let's talk about covid.

the oxford astrazeneca vaccine is being rolled out to general practices in england for the first time today. so far, all the jabs have been administered in hospitals. now the programme is due to be expanded to hundreds of community—based sites over the next few weeks. our health correspondent dominic hughes has more. already more than a million people have received their first vaccinations against the coronavirus. but the target of reaching 13 million of the most vulnerable by mid—february, is going to be tough to hit. unlike the pfizer vaccine, which needs to be stored at ultra—low temperatures, the oxford jab can be kept in regularfridges that every gp surgery has. it's also much easier to move, and so better suited for use in care homes and for those who can't leave the house. gps say they're ready to start administering the jab, despite some frustrations over supply. i just think we need some explanations. why has there been this hold—up? why are some practices getting it, and others — like mine —

not being given the vaccine? why doesn't someone tell us what is going on? in england, seven big vaccination centres are opening. over the next week, jabs will become available in more than 200 gp surgeries and hospitals, as well as through a pilot scheme involving local pharmacies. amid the grim news of rising infections, the pressures on hospitals, and a growing death toll, this is another ray of hope for the coming months. dominic hughes, bbc news. let's get some more now on this latest roll—out. i'm joined by professor markjit, who is a vaccine epidemiologist at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. very good to have you with us. how hopeful are you with this roll—out to general practice that we are going to see a significant increase in the rate of vaccination getting under way? it's good news, we now have two vaccines approved and licensed for use in the uk and one

of them does not require the very low temperatures that vaccine does so between the two of them, hopefully this will allow an increase at the rate at which vaccines are being rolled out and we can get it to more people —— the pfizer vaccine. doctor contact of mine are telling me, we have been discussing how a 15 minute observation period people after they have been vaccinated was going to be needed for both the pfizer biontech and oxford astrazeneca vaccine but it seems with the latter one that the 15 minute observation will not be required unless there is some indication before hunt that a person may need to be observed, for example if they had a history of allergic reaction —— some indication beforehand. that would suggest we could get through a lot more vaccinations more readily? yes, that would speed up the time taken to deliver the vaccines, certainly. pretty significant development but do you think it is sensible, to

remove the need to observe patients at this stage? there were no indications of any issues of anaphylactic shock with the astrazeneca vaccine and even for the pfizer vaccine, these are really very rare occurrences butjust to be very rare occurrences butjust to be very safe, the 15th minute observation period has been imposed. i would love to get your thoughts on where we are with supply of vaccines. i noticed a tweet over viewers will be familiar with doctor rosemary leonard, who said her group practices was told they would get their first delivery on the 28th of december, then the 4th of january, then the 11th of january and now they are being told they are the sixth wave and it will be the 13th, 14th or 15th of january. she said they are raring to go but have no vaccines. i notice on this particular thread that other doctors are saying exactly the same thing so

is there an issue with the supply and the manufacture and supply of the vaccines? i'm afraid you're going to have to talk to the people in charge of the supply in public health england, about those questions. is that a concern that you might have, though, that the aim of getting millions of people vaccinated by the middle of next month might not be achieved if we don't get the right supply going? i know that we will need to accelerate the rate at which the vaccine is being delivered in order to reach the targets of more than 10 million people by the end of february. but it is helpful, i am really hoping it is possible because it really is a race against time. the coronavirus is continuing to infect people, so it's really important we protect the most vulnerable people as soon as we can. professor, good to talk to you.

now it's time for a look at the weather with carol. hello again. some of us have seen some sleet and snow already this morning across northern ireland, scotland and also northern england. and there's more to come for northern ireland, southern scotland, and later into north wales. especially on high ground, but we will see some to lower levels. the freezing fog we have had this morning will be slow to lift, some of it lingering all day. that will peg back the temperatures, but in between there will be some sunshine and, increasingly, wintry showers will get down to sea level across the north of scotland and later the wind will pick up as well and be quite gusty, actually, not just today but tonight and tomorrow. tonight, what we think is going to happen, and there is a complication in the weather forecast, is we see further snow across northern england, wales, the north west midlands and some wintry showers coming in across the south—west. we will see a return also to some freezing fog patches forming and the risk of ice. but on saturday and friday

we are looking at a bit more in the way of dry weather except for in the north—west where it will rain but be milder. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... death, violence and chaos in washington, dc — four people die as president trump's supporters storm america's capitol building. the rioters were trying to stop us lawmakers approving the result of the presidential election — encouraged by mr trump's false claims of electoral fraud. in the face of the violence, american lawmakers return to work and in the last few minutes they have endorsed the new president, joe biden. in the uk, hundreds of gp surgeries begin offering the new oxford—astrazeneca covid vaccine. and, as millions of households get to grips with the return of online schooling we look at efforts to help families without the laptops and computers they need to learn.

sport now, and a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. good morning. there's something about the league cup that brings out the best in manchester city, because they are through to the final of this efl cup for a fourth season in a row. they beat city rivals manchester united in their semi final at old trafford, on a night that they also said goodbye to a club legend. andy swiss reports. a semifinal tinged with sadness. city players wearing the number eight of club legend colin bell, who died earlier this week. for his former team—mate mike summerbee, the emotion was plain to see. both city and united have been in impressive form recently, but neither could make a first breakthrough, although kevin de bruyne came close. just after the interval, though, city struck. john stones bundling it home, the first goal for his club since 2017.

not a bad time to score it. united had their own chances but bruno fernandes's waywardness summed up their night. yet another semifinal defeat for them, as fernandinho sealed city's victory in clinical fashion. through to their fourth league cup final in a row. another trophy is now in their sights. andy swiss, bbc news. today is quite remarkable, what we achieve, but today is an honour for us to dedicate this victory for all our groups of people, the players, the backroom staff, to colin bell and his family, for our manchester city fans. we miss him a lot. it's a great night for us, and especially for colin and his family. the coronavirus pandemic has started to have an impact on this weekend's fa cup ties. the interim derby manager, wayne rooney, and his entire first team squad will miss their third round game at chorley.

a number of players and staff have tested positive for the virus and their training ground has been closed. derby are going to use players from their under—23 and under—18 squads for the game instead. there are also doubts over southampton's game against shrewsbury. phil neville's role as the boss of great britain's women's team for the tokyo olympics is in doubt. that's because he's in talks to become manager of inter miami — the american club owned by his former manchester united team mate, david beckham. neville will step down as england manager injuly, but was set to take charge of team gb later that month. australia had the better of the opening day of the third test against india in sydney. there were fans in the stadium, despite concerns about rising rates of coronavirus. it was a good day for opener will pucovski, who scored 62 on his debut. australia 166 for 2 at close of play. there's a warning that the nation's

health is under major threat, after the uk went into a third lockdown. uk active — which is a trade body for the fitness industry — wants the government to "urgently" make a plan to keep people fit, with more than 7000 sports facilities now closed in lockdown. ministers in england say they're clear on the importance of fitness and wellbeing, but a former england cricket captain says more needs to be done. it's great for the mind, just to have ticked off that half an hour box. as i say, even if it's just a walk. to just go out on a walk with your parents or brother or sister, listen to a podcast, whatever it may be. just go out and walk and make sure you're being active. i just think it's so important for the mind. i think now is the time that we, as a country, draw the line in the sand and say, ok, from now on in, we want to be a fitter, healthier nation. and there are so many ways you can be creative and fit and active at

home. i was told yesterday, if you have a bag of sugar by the kettle, you can do some arm curling while it is boiling. if you make lots of tea during the day you'll get hundreds that's all the sport for now. the number of patients being treated for covid in hospitals across the uk has risen above 30,000. more than 1,000 deaths were reported in the latest 24—hour period — that's the highest since last april. our medical editor, fergus walsh, has been allowed to film inside one of london's busiest intensive care units and just to warn you, some viewers may find the images in this report upsetting. intensive care is under pressure like never before. after christmas, it just sort of hit me. i've seen a couple of people, within the short time i spent in hospital, they didn't make it.

from a relentless rise in covid admissions... how long can you keep going like this? at this pace i think we've got about a week. ..staff fear burnout. the nurses are broken. the physical and mental load is huge. the toll is immense. my emotions are all over the place. scared, sad, petrified. worried. this should be an operating theatre, but there's no surgery here. instead, it's been converted into an intensive care unit. the number of covid patients in london's hospitals has doubled in just two weeks. they are more stretched now than at the peak last april. we've got three times as many critically ill patients in this hospital than we normally have. and we've managed to stretch and spread to cover that,

but that can't go on forever. intensive care is expanding across university college hospital — a children's area now for desperately sick adults. every day, more wards are being transformed into icu, ready for the next influx. but senior staff are worried. we've got plans that we can expand for another week at this rate, but after that we really need to see it slow down, or we're going to see the care we can deliver suffer, i think. we would be running so thin on staff that we wouldn't. .. we physically couldn't look after critically ill patients. it will be ideal if we have more. covid has made this a winter like no other. attila is 67. over the holidays, coronvirus spread through his family. after christmas, it just sort of hit me. it just went bang. i just couldn't breathe at all.

i didn't think i would make it through. you're gasping. it is like there is no oxygen around. and... frightening? sorry? frightening? very, very frightening. very. there are three pregnant women in intensive care. rachel is due in five weeks. every mother puts her child before herself. both she and her baby are doing well. they can't do anything that will harm the baby, obviously, and they look after my baby so well. all the time coming and checking, monitoring that the baby's happy. you can't see — you're looking after two people in one. they're saving lives. the demands on staff are unrelenting — and on their families too.

alice has young children, cared for by grandparents in scotland during the first peak. in stage one, i sent my five and seven—year—old daughters away, because we weren't quite sure how we would manage, so i had my five—year—old in tears last night, at the thought of another lockdown, because she thought that meant i was sending her away again. she's most worried about the impact on nurses — the bedrock of care in icu. it's not uncommon at the moment that i've come to work, i have walked into the unit to find nurses crying. the physical and mental load is huge, and i am really worried that we're going to break a lot of nurses. and what about the doctors as well? and doctors, and doctors too. it's emotionally distressing for the staff, the things we are seeing. i mean, i'm used to seeing that

but this is different. intensive care nursing is highly specialised. usually, they're one—to—one with patients — now responsible for three, four orfive, with other staff filling the gaps. we're so stretched we have to prioritise, and prioritising care is not what the nhs that i grew up in, we shouldn't have to choose which patient gets what care first. ashleigh says she's never had to make decisions like this before. if people are asking for your help, you just don't know who to help first. the patients are losing their lives at a dramatic speed. we're notjust getting old people. this is young people that we're getting, people my age. i've reported from here several times during the pandemic, and i'm always struck by the professionalism and dedication of staff. but this is a system under strain like never before. the warning signs here couldn't be clearer. the nhs is now on the brink.

unless infection rates start to fall soon, then it could seriously impact patient care — and notjust for those with covid. it is a really serious consequence, and if we get to that point we can't offer anyone icu — not just covid patients, but, you know, anyone who has a traffic accident, or heart attack or a stroke or whatever it is, we just won't have any more capacity to take them in. for now, the trust is coping. cancer operations are continuing, though most non—urgent surgery is cancelled. the next few weeks could be the biggest challenge the nhs has faced in its history. and it will be its staff who will bear the brunt for all of us. studio: a truly sobering report from

fergus walsh. we can get more from the front line of the nhs. hugh montgomery is professor of intensive care medicine, ucl. he also sits on the council of the uk intensive care society. thank you for joining uk intensive care society. thank you forjoining us on bbc news today. what you are seeing at work, does that reflect the sort of pressures we see in that report? yes, i think every hospital is facing the same issue at the moment. you see on the daily news, the surge in people who are presenting with symptoms. it ends up hitting us a little later. most people will end up presenting to hospital some time between about day five and day ten of their illness. what you are seeing now is a steep rise, we see a week later, and we are already in trouble, which is why your colleagues and those we

have heard speaking now, are raising the alarm. unless this flattens off quickly, we are already very stretched across london and this can only get worse. how does what is happening now compared to the peak last year? there are far more. at the latest count we had 40% more people in with covid then we had in the first wave and that number is still going up. we are better organised and prepared this time around, we know what the disease is like. there are no magic bullets for this, only one drug has been shown to impact on this as yet and that is a steroid but you still have to treat 25 people to benefit one person, so it is not actually a game changer. the patients are every bit as sick and there are more of them. but we are better organised and at least we have the transport system in place to depress hospitals that are overwhelmed to move patients to other centres but there is limited capacity for that and we do not want to overburden that capacity. you are

better organised and know more about the disease than at the outset, but our outcomes for patients being compromised because of the pressure, through sheer numbers? it would seem if hospitals are being absolutely overburdened by numbers of patients then that same level of attention can't be given to each patient. that is always the danger. our staff are truly extraordinary and we should make clear, this is notjust an intensive care problem. emergency departments are hit very hard. patients who one year ago would be managed on an intensive care unit with noninvasively ventilator support, with prongs of the knows and a tight—fitting mask, those patients would normally be on intensive care one year ago and in most hospitals they are now managed on general wards by nurses who have to be trained up to manage those cases. those nurses and junior doctors as well are seriously stretched. it is notjust intensive ca re stretched. it is notjust intensive care but every element of the

hospital that is being pushed to the extreme. elements of intensive care medicine are migrating to general wards, is that what you are saying? that's right. and i think we are looking across the uk at that situation with people on general wards who would often be in intensive care. these are highly professional people in the nhs and they work exceptionally hard and are taking up that strain but there is a limit to the elasticity of the system in terms of how many staff we have. we can't grow new highly qualified acute medical nurses and doctors and intensive care doctors and nurses in weeks. these people ta ke yea rs and nurses in weeks. these people take years to train. would you want to see the nightingale hospital is being brought into play? there are questions about who would staff them. this was always the issue. i am notan them. this was always the issue. i am not an expert in that contingency planning. iam am not an expert in that contingency planning. i am glad contingency planning. i am glad contingency planning is there to expand beds and we certainly have bed spaces now,

and nightingale can supplement that. we have ventilators there now that already which were not there in the first wave. but the problem is a lwa ys first wave. but the problem is always numbers of nurses. an intensive care unit would normally have one nurse to one patient. but these patients are very sick, at the extreme end of the illness we manage in intensive care. this is notjust a lung disease, it affects the lungs, brain, skeletal system, livers and kidneys. nurses are often looking up three and four patients now. the difficulty this time round will be that in the first wave we we re will be that in the first wave we were able to suck incapacity from helpers, people moving from other specialities and coming in from the outside to help us. but that is much more difficult now when we have 40% more difficult now when we have 40% more patients. and we have staff off with sickness and isolating as well

so staff numbers are down across london. fundamentally you need all of us to do our bit to stop you and your colleagues becoming overburdened, even more so than you already are, and i realise the situation is already very difficult. what is your message to the public, both people who might deliberately flout the rules, or people who subconsciously or carelessly don't stick to the rules and are looking for short cuts and ways around them. what is your message today? just to please, please, please stick to the rules. this new variant of the virus is more contagious. it is highly contagious anyway but this one is 56% more infectious. avoid mass gatherings, stay in well ventilated areas, which means being outside if you are meeting one other person for your exercise or whatever it might be, and maintain that to me to distance, keep a mask on, and wash your hands regularly, and that

message seems not to be picked up by people. it can be transmitted when droplets land on solid surfaces, you touch them and perhaps eat a sandwich, you can become infected. we need to turn the taps off and you can do that. we cannot drain the bass quickly enough. patients coming in last a long time on the ward. they are there for a week or two and on intensive care they can be there for a month or two back. we have to turn the taps off now. i know this is terribly dull and we are all at our wits end with the virus outside. iam also our wits end with the virus outside. i am also a human being and i hate this as much as everyone does, but please, just stick to the rules for now. as i said to someone last week, this is our 1945. we know the armistice is coming out the war will end, and it will end this year to a large degree with a vaccine, but we have to soak this up for the coming months to get to the point where we can all be safe again. running into

a hail of bullets right now is not the way forward. professor, thank you for speaking to us today. we know how busy your time is at the moment. professor of intensive care, hugh montgomery, thank you. the home secretary priti patel has said it's right that police ‘act robustly‘ to enforce the new coronavirus lockdown. police leaders have this morning been explaining how the new restrictions will be monitored, under the principles of ‘engage, explain, encourage and enforce'. martin hewitt, chair of the national police chiefs‘ council, said the priority was stopping the transmission of the virus. whilst we will still be our adopting our approach of four es. we will still engage with people, explain and we will encourage. we are going to move more quickly to enforcement where people are blatantly breaching the rules. the rules now are very, very clear. similar to where we were back in the spring of last year. and everyone has a responsibility to follow those rules and we will play our part and deal,

particularly deal with those people who are blatantly breaching the rules and putting everyone‘s lives at risk. the home secretary insisted it was right that there were now ‘stringent‘ measures in place. the fact of the matter is, the police have been out every single day, enforcing the covid regulations and they have been using the methods of the four e5 in particular, to explain, encourage and now of course they are going to enforcement much quicker than they had done previously but actually, in a very similar way to which they had them in the spring to which they had done in the spring of last year. they will continue to enforce, they will continue to pursue egregious breaches of the coronavirus regulations and they have been doing that anyway. in the last two weeks over the christmas period we have seen something like over 800 fixed penalty notice fines being issued when it comes to egregious breaches and people breaching the regulations around covid.

the home secretary. three teenagers have been charged with murder and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm after a 13—year—old boy was stabbed to death in reading. oliver stephens, known as olly, was pronounced dead at bugs bottom fields, emmer green, on sunday. two boys and a girl, all aged 13 or 14, will appear in reading magistrates‘ court later today. two other boys, aged 13, have been released on bail. with schools closed to most children across the uk once more the challenges faced by disadvantaged pupils, who don‘t have the equipment they need, have reappeared. last summer local bbc radio‘s make a difference campaign saw thousands of old laptops and tablets donated by businesses and members of the public for schoolchildren across england and with the new lockdown in effect, the bbc is rebooting it‘s campaign. we can speak now to tim boyes, ceo of birmingham education partnership. thank you forjoining us. tell us more about the partnership and what exactly it is you do. thank you, the

partnership is six years old and it‘s an umbrella organisation that tries to look after all the schools in birmingham. we have responsibility for birmingham city council for school improvement but we try to do a lot more than that to make the very best of education in this important city. if you were to tell us in broad brush strokes the scale of the digital divide at the moment, what would you say? schools have been working very hard to try to supply disadvantaged pupils, especially since the first lockdown, with equipment they might need. the government, the prime minister certainly, has been talking in the last few days about getting these sorts of supplies to schools. what are you seeing? it's easy to be overwhelmed by big numbers, but to ta ke overwhelmed by big numbers, but to take a city like birmingham, we have something like a quarter of a million schoolchildren. and something like 40% of those will be

from families that are in some form of poverty. when we talk about pupil premium children or disadvantaged children, we are talking about children, we are talking about children with homes of an income of under £16,000 per year. when you consider how many overcrowded homes we have, we are looking at quieter few households with quite a few children in them. it‘s thought each one of those children could be sitting down right now in front of a live lesson, tuning in to the national academy and watching really good teaching and engaging with it and working in a productive way. it's and working in a productive way. it‘s not hard to spot that in a city like birmingham there are probably 100,000 children who are not getting the kind of equipment they need. put that across the country, where 22% of children are classified as disadvantaged, there are huge numbers of children. whilst the government has been trying to

distribute really large numbers of devices, we know on the ground that a kind of centralised distribution system is not scratching the surface. and unfortunately it doesn‘t always get to where it is most needed. the school that is quicker out of the blocks, and it is a first come first serve system sometimes, they might have done well if they are at the front of the queue, but there are schools at the back of the q queue, but there are schools at the back of the 0 who are crying out for help with devices and technology knowing that there are a lot of children at home who we are most concerned about falling behind, who are not able to access what is increasingly quite a good offer for distance learning. and it's about affordability to pay for wi—fi etc, it‘s not just about affordability to pay for wi—fi etc, it‘s notjust about delivering a physical device to a home. it‘s about getting children engaged, even if they have a device, compared to the sort of engagement you might get inaface the sort of engagement you might get in a face to face lesson in school. it's in a face to face lesson in school. it‘s really difficult to quantify. we know that pupils without these

devices are going to be disadvantaged in terms of their education. do you think they can catch up? i think, education. do you think they can catch up? ithink, as education. do you think they can catch up? i think, as with anything around this pandemic, we are managing damage limitation. what we have seen in birmingham, with raw food poverty, is that where schools can really engage well with families in need, the relationship between the family and school is strengthened. everything we can do to help and support families that are to help and support families that a re really to help and support families that are really struggling now is useful damage limitation. we are mitigating against really significant risks, and the risks to capable children, talented children, whojust are not accessing a decent education now, is considerable and it will be one with long—term damage. but anything we can do now, as you say, that doesn‘t just address device poverty, but more importantly the connectivity issue. we are getting reconditioned

la pto ps into issue. we are getting reconditioned laptops into homes for £100 a machine, but we need £300 for a year‘s connectivity. machine, but we need £300 for a year's connectivity. i am really sorry to interrupt you, we are almost out of time and i want to get our message across about how people can donate laptops. thank you so much for speaking to us and hopefully we can speak more. the ceo of birmingham education partnership, thank you. if you have a laptop or tablet that you want to donate then please go to bbc. co. uk/makeadifference where you can find details of charities who will help get them safely wiped and sent to the children that need them the most. now it‘s time for a look at the weather. hello again. some of us have seen some sleet and snow already this morning across northern ireland, scotland and also northern england. and there‘s more to come for northern ireland, southern scotland, and later into north wales. especially on high ground, but we will see some to lower levels. the freezing fog we have had this morning will be slow to lift, some of it lingering all day.

that will peg back the temperatures, but in between there will be some sunshine and, increasingly, wintry showers will get down to sea level across the north of scotland and later the wind will pick up as well and be quite gusty, actually, not just today but tonight and tomorrow. tonight, what we think is going to happen, and there is a complication in the weather forecast, is we see further snow across northern england, wales, the north west midlands and some wintry showers coming in across the south—west. we will see a return also to some freezing fog patches forming and the risk of ice. but on saturday and friday we are looking at a bit more in the way of dry weather except for in the north—west where it will rain but be milder.

this is bbc news — these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world. death, violence and chaos in washington dc — four people die as president trump‘s supporters storm america‘s capitol building. the rioters were trying to stop us lawmakers approving the result of the presidential election, encouraged by mr trump‘s false claims of electoral fraud. this was a fraudulent election. but we can't play into the hands of these people. we have to have peace. so go home, we love you, you're very special. this not dissent — it‘s disorder. it‘s chaos. it borders on sedition. in the face of the violence, american lawmakers return to work