a very warm welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: golfing legend tiger woods crashes his car in los angeles. he's undergoing emergency surgery for multiple injuries. the interior was more or less intact, which kind of gave him the cushion to survive what otherwise would have been a fatal crash. us security officials in charge of defending the us capitol during last month's riot blame intelligence failures. these criminals came prepared for war, they came with their own radio system to co—ordinate the attack, and climbing gear and other equipment to defeat the capitol�*s security features. i am sickened by what i witnesses that day. and anger outside georgia's government buildings after the arrest of the opposition leader, nika melia.

the american golfing legend, tiger woods, has been undergoing emergency surgery on his legs, after being involved in a serious car accident in los angeles. the la county sheriff said tiger woods�* car had hit a central reservation and ended up several hundred feet from the road. police say he had been travelling at greater—than —normal speed. paul hawkins reports. this was the scene that greeted paramedics and firefighters on tuesday morning. tiger woods pulled from the wreckage of his car, conscious but with multiple leg injuries. there was no evidence of impairment. the vehicle travelled several hundred feet from the centre divider at the intersection and rested on the west side of the road, in the brush. it sustained major damage, the vehicle, you've seen all the images of that. 2a hours earlier, the 35

year—old was playing golf with former nba star, dwayne wade. good. i'm not good. we're getting better. we're getting better, so everybody be on the lookout. i got some lessons today from what i think is the goat, tiger woods. thank you, brother. appreciate it. by "goat", he means greatest of all time, and few would argue with that — notjust in golf, but sport as a whole. think mohammed ali, michaeljordan or lionel messi — a man of colour in a largely white sport. the first black winner of the us masters in 1997 and its youngest at 21, he dominated the sport for the next decade, becoming an icon and a role model. i'm tiger woods. i am tiger woods. but in 2009, he was involved in a car crash, which eventually led to admissions of infidelity and the breakdown of his marriage. i had affairs, i cheated.

what i did is not acceptable, and i am the only person to blame. he sought rehab for sex addiction. his career nosedived, not helped by ongoing back injuries which eventually required four operations. in 2017, he pleaded guilty to reckless driving, after he was found asleep at the wheel of his car. he had five prescription drugs in his system, from spinal fusion surgery. there were times when i physically didn't know if i could get out of bed. over the next two years, the rehabilitation of his back and his career culminated in winning the masters in 2019. it ended an 11—year wait for a major title, his 15th. 0nlyjack nicholas had won more, with 18. tiger woods has been written off before, but he defied the odds. after this latest incident, this comeback could be his greatest. paul hawkins, bbc news. 0ur correspondent in los angeles, david willis, told us more of the detail.

0fficials here, mike, are saying that tiger woods is very lucky to be alive. he is luxury hyundai suv crossed into the central reservation, obliterating a sign there. it then hit a curb and a tree, before rolling over several times, and leaving him several hundred feet from the road, and they are saying that speed may well have been a factor in this accident. these are winding roads with picturesque coastal views but people apparently do tend to take them at quite a high clip and it does appear that may have been something that tiger woods was doing today. now, they are saying he's suffering serious leg injuries, but the los angeles times is reporting that those injuries include a shattered ankle and two leg fractures, one of them a compound fracture. tiger woods was able to

converse with rescue workers. when they reached him he was conscious at the time but he is, as i say, in a serious but stable condition officially tonight here in los angeles with hospital officials giving no update on his condition. i think authorities are saying there is no evidence he was impaired but there are bound to be questions though about someone with his history, leaving a hotel early in the morning at greater—than—normal speed. that's right. this is a man who's been involved in a number of car accidents over the years, of course. most notably back in 2009 when he was basically found asleep in his car. that led to allegations of marital infidelity. there were similar allegations in 2017. he said that he had been

taking a prescription painkiller, vicodin, and that is why he had fallen asleep behind the wheel but it doesn seem to be something of a pattern. and tiger woods had said as recently as this last weekend that he was hoping, as recently as this last weekend, that he was hoping, having gone through surgery for the fifth time only a few weeks ago, hoping to be back in action in time for the masters tournament in augusta, georgia, injust seven weeks time. that now seems extremely unlikely, mike. let's get some of the day's other news: police in ecuador say they are working to control an outbreak of rioting in three differentjails in which at least 75 prisoners have died. almost forty of the deaths have occurred in the maximum security section of the prison in the city of cuenca. president lenin moreno said the violence was gang—related and organised within the prisons. one of the three men accused of murdering

the maltese journalist, daphne caruana galizia, has been sentenced to 15 years in jail, after suddenly changing his plea to guilty. vincent muscat admitted involvement in the car bombing which killed the investigative reporter. a prominent maltese businessman, yorgen fenech, is currently awaiting trial for planning the assassination. the french actor gerard depardieu has been put under formal investigation for alleged rape and sexual assault of a young actress. according to the paris prosecutor's office the charges date back to 2018. the 70 year—old has always denied the charges. queen elizabeth's husband, the duke of edinburgh, is being treated for an undisclosed infection, but is, according to his son prince edward, "a lot better". prince philip, who's 99, is set to spend several more days under observation, after being admitted to hospital a week ago when he felt unwell. two us senate committees investigating the storming of the capitol building in washington dc on the 6th of january

have been told that intelligence failures contributed to the breach. lawmakers have begun trying to get to the bottom of what happened. this is what the former sergeant—at—arms of the house of representatives said about the intelligence reports he'd received in the days leading up to the riot: safety was always paramount when making security plans forjanuary 6th. we did discuss whether the intelligence warranted having troops at the capitol. that was the issue, and the collective judgement at that time was no, the intelligence did not warrant that. if the chief or any other security leader had expressed doubt about our readiness without the national guard, i would not have hesitated to request them. the us capitol police chief echoed that blaming federal law enforcement and the defense department for intelligence failures ahead of the riot. as recent as tuesday, january 5th, during a meeting i hosted with my executive team, the capitol police board, and a dozen of the top law enforcement and military officials from dc, no entity, including the fbi,

provided any new intelligence regarding january 6th. it should be also noted that the secretary of homeland security did not issue an elevated or imminent alert in reference to the events at the united states capitol on january 6th. at the united states capitol on january 6th. we properly planned for a mass demonstration, with possible violence — what we got was a military—style co—ordinated assault on my officers and a violent takeover of the capitol building. vera bergengruen is washington correspondent for time magazine. it does look likely there will be a more bipartisan enquiry. what are the point of these hearings and what are the headlines for you? i hearings and what are the headlines for you?- hearings and what are the headlines for you? i think they really want _ headlines for you? i think they really want to _ headlines for you? i think they really want to put _ headlines for you? i think they really want to put it _ headlines for you? i think they really want to put it out - headlines for you? i think they really want to put it out into i really want to put it out into the public, a more comprehensive overview of the security measures and have americans hear directly from these three former officials. that was the point of today's.

but there was a lot of finger—pointing and deflecting of responsibility and not learning much new. that will have to come in some different, more closed setting. there was a lot of blaming of an intelligence failure went really, we wrote a story the day before that clearly showed online movement, a lot of chatter on social media, posters for this event that called to storm the capitol. it just does not seem right. they seem to blame a lot on intelligence from really everybody knew this was going to happen stop it really should have been very obvious, it was there. right, it was there and they refer to a lot, a phrase of the failure of imagination, which is similar to what they

used after 9/11. the new there was going to be a large number of people but they never thought they would attack the capitol and said they did not have the security in place. they seem to be less afraid of white trump supporters. if it would have been black lives matter supporters it have been different. . , ., ., ., different. that is what a lot of peeple — different. that is what a lot of people pointed - different. that is what a lot of people pointed to. - different. that is what a lot of people pointed to. in - of people pointed to. in washington over the summer we saw massive police response to black lives matter protest. police presence, helicopters overhead displacing people. after that, there was a part of the reluctance, it was very political issue, after what happened in the summer so in a way they made highlight of that as well. ~ ., ., , ., ~' way they made highlight of that as well. ~ ., ., ~ ., as well. what do you think of the chances _ as well. what do you think of the chances of _ as well. what do you think of the chances of bipartisan - the chances of bipartisan investigation come up with something everyone will believe in the current climate?—

in the current climate? there is a massive _ in the current climate? there is a massive push _ in the current climate? there is a massive push for- in the current climate? there is a massive push for that, i is a massive push for that, including among some republicans because they want this put behind them. there's so many competitive narratives and more importantly why it happened at all. it's a republicans are trying to focus on a more bipartisan commission on a more bipartisan commission on what actually happened whereas democrats wanted to look at the past decade of partisanship and my donald trump was able to rile up the crowd like that, how it happened in the first place. it looks likely there is going to be some kind of bipartisan commission. the 9/11 commission was very successful but this is a much more patterson issue. it seems impossible to ever fully take partisanship out of it but one of the things they're going to try is to put former

lawmakers on to diffuse some of that. �* ., .., , lawmakers on to diffuse some of that. �* ., , ., ,, lawmakers on to diffuse some of that. ., , ., ,,, that. and of course congress is already felt _ that. and of course congress is already felt to _ that. and of course congress is already felt to commit - that. and of course congress is already felt to commit mr - that. and of course congress is. already felt to commit mr trump for all of that. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: let the games commence — tokyo says the delayed 0lympics will open this summer. prince charles has chosen his bride. the prince proposed to lady diana spencer three weeks ago. she accepted, she says, without hesitation. as revolutions go, this had its fair share of bullets. a climax in the night outside the gates of mr marcos' sanctuary malaca nang — the name itself symbolising one of the cruellest regimes of modern asia. the world's first clone has been produced of an adult mammal. scientists in scotland have produced a sheep called dolly using a cell from another sheep. warren beatty and faye dunaway announced to the world - that the winner of best film was la la land. . the only trouble was it wasn't. the mistake was only put right in the middle of gushing -

speeches by the team - behind the modern musical. not for 20 years have locusts been seen in such numbers in this part of africa. some of the swarms have been ten miles long. this is the last time the public will see this pope. very soon, for the sake of the credibility and authority of the next pope, benedict xvi will, in his own words, be hidden from the world for the rest of his life. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: golfing legend tiger woods is undergoing emergency surgery for multiple injuries after a serious car accident in los angeles. top us officials testify — as they try to explain the law enforcement failures which led to the deadly riots in the capitol. let's turn to georgia in eastern europe now, where the opposition has demanded the release

of the country's leading opposition politician, forcefully arrested on tuesday. the authorities have described nika melia as a criminal while western diplomats have criticised his arrest as a backward step on georgia's path towards democracy. the bbc�*s rayhan demytrie sent this report from the capital tbilisi. at dawn on tuesday, police surrounded the offices of georgia's main opposition party, united national movement. they forced their way into arrest its leader, nika melia... shouting. ..who had been seeking shelter inside the party headquarters for the past seven days. crowds gathered in central tbilisi to protest the arrest of mr melia. charges against the opposition politician relate to his role in anti—government protests two years ago. last week, parliament

stripped him of his political immunity and an arrest warrant was issued. but an unexpected decision by prime minister giorgi gakharia to resign over the matter had temporarily put mr melia's arrest on hold. the resignation of the country's prime minister last week, he said was aimed at easing tensions in the country, however, the decision by his successor to push ahead with this arrest may have made things worse. the new prime minister praised the police for carrying out the special operation. translation: nika melia is a criminal. | he has previous convictions. this is the second case in connection with which the police arrested him as a result of a highly professional special operation. the arrest of nika melia comes at a time of deepening political crisis. georgia's opposition is boycotting the parliament in protest against last year's election which they say was fraudulent. the country's international

partners have urged dialogue. the keywords for today more than ever is about de—escalation and about coming back to negotiations, trying to diffuse the current tensions which we find very concerning. the opposition has pledged to return to the streets until their leader is released and the government agrees to hold fresh elections. rayhan demytrie, bbc news, tbilisi. here, the head of the competition and markets authority has described australia's proposed regulation of big tech platforms as �*sensible', and suggested the uk should follow a similar path. dr andrea coscelli said the dominance of facebook and google in the advertising world was also a problem. he's been speaking with our media editor amol rajan. the western web today is based on free and open access. you don't pay for links.

but the price of that freedom is that we leave personal data trails that are monetised by the likes of google and facebook, giant advertising companies. in a rare broadcast interview, the boss of the competition and markets authority said that google's 90% share of the uk's search advertisement market is a problem and then he turned to facebook... there is a £55 billion, according to your own cma figures, £5.5 billion display advertising market in the uk, facebook has more than 50% of that. is that too much? yes. why? when companies have too much economic power that creates a number of distortions. first for competitors, secondly for consumers. some level potentially in terms of the political process, as well, in some cases. 0vernight, australia and facebook reached

a compromise over a new law to force it and google to pay news publishers more for their content. facebook had blocked news content in the row but that's now being restored. under a new deal, there will be mediation to agreed payments before any final arbitration kicks in. i think the australian approach is a sensible one, which is to try to force the companies into proper commercial negotiations with a backstop or possible intervention by a regulator. the tech giants argue that publishers choose to be on their platform because they derive value from it. they can build an audience to whom they can sell adverts. we don't ask car—makers to pay radio stations each time they play on a car radio, so why ask tech platforms to pay journalists? the answer, at least according to an emergening consensus, ——emerging consensus, is that our public information system, the media, is too precious and too damaged to be left to a californian duopoly. but what if britain did follow the route that australia

is taking and facebook pulled news services from uk users? i think it would be pretty serious. i think it would be unlikely that facebook would do it, given what has happened in australia and the aftermath of that. i think potentially the uk should introduce a regulation to potentially prevent this type of action by facebook as part of legislation. what does that reveal about the imbalance in power between individual global organisations, companies, and democratic, sovereign nations? yeah, i think it's a very worrisome development and i think it really shows that we need to urgently do something to reduce this imbalance of power. amol rajan, bbc news. japan's newly appointed 0lympic chief says tokyo is pressing ahead with plans to open the delayed 0lympics onjuly 23rd. seiko hashimoto says she believes the games can be held safely despite the ongoing covid pandemic. but questions remain as rupert wingfield—hayes reports.

lucia and atkin are a very long way from home. the south sudan olympic team arrived here in japan long before any of us had heard of covid—19. for a year and a half, they've been stuck here, training and hoping — hoping that the olympics will happen. for this years, i hope 0lympic to be held because we are waiting for it for so long, one year and something, and we are farfrom ourfamily so we hope that it will be held onjuly. the good news is that despitejust losing its controversial chief, the tokyo olympic committee is adamant rumours the games will be cancelled are not true. no—one has ever discussed such options among us. ioc, ipc tokyo 2020, the national tokyo government,

all the authorities, we are absolutely focused on delivering the games this summer. so, it really does seem that the japanese government and the olympic committee are now determined to go ahead with the olympics in some form this year, almost regardless of what happens now with the covid pandemic. the problem for them is that many, many experts and the overwhelming majority of the japanese public think that is a very bad idea. translation: i don't think so. covid is farfrom over and preparation to stop infection is not complete. translation: i don't think it's possible - to hold olympics this year. we don't know when the pandemic will end. i don't think it is manageable. there is record reports about the variant - already circulatingj in the community. on top of that, vaccinel roll—out will be delayed substantially injapan, all of which will lead l to a kind of suggestion that olympics will be really, - really challenging.

over here is the corona area. this is the front line injapan's war against covid. last month, this unit was overflowing with very sick patients as japan was hit by a third wave of the virus. dr fujitani is now worried a new strain entering japan from abroad could unleash a fourth wave. at this time, we don't know enough about this, that the new vaccination really works for new strains. and if there is no evidence before starting the olympics, if new strains come to japan, it could really be disastrous. the key now to hosting the olympics should be vaccinations, but even

the staff in this covid unit don't know when they will get their first shot. meanwhile, the rest ofjapan is being told it will have to wait until april or even may for mass vaccinations to begin. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in tokyo. ten orangutans have reentered the wild in indonesia, following a lengthy release operation that was complicated by the threat of covid—19. tiffaney sweeney reports. ten orangutans have been safely airlifted back to their natural habitat on indonesia's borneo island. there was a total of five males, and a mother of two babies and two other females — all released with assistance from indonesian conservation agencies. they were transported by helicopter to avoid land that could have exposed them to coronavirus. the bornean orangutans had all been in captivity before their rescue. this was their first release into the wild for a year.

they include manua, a 19—year—old female who had been repatriated from thailand. translation: during rehabilitation, manua| showed excellent progress. she was easy to socialise with other orangutans and actively explored the whole island on her own. it's estimated there arejust 100,000 bornean orangutans left in the wild. they have suffered from illegal poaching, destruction of habitat and cash crops. this has meant more than half the population has been depleted over the past 60 years. these apes are the lucky ones and are now settling into their new home and starting their new life in the wild. tiffaney sweeney, bbc news. hooray. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter —

i'm @bbc mike embley. wednesday is set to be an exceptionally mild day, particularly where you get to see a little bit of brightness, but even if you keep cloud and outbreaks of rain. that was the picture in the scottish borders during tuesday. there's more rain to come on wednesday courtesy of this pipeline of cloud ploughing in from the southwest. first part of the day still brings met office amber warnings in force for parts of central and southern scotland. rain also affecting north—west england and wales. some patchy rain elsewhere. a few clear breaks, too, but a very mild start to the day. quite a windy start as well, although the winds will be easing just a little as we go through the day. we'll see those outbreaks

of rain continuing across parts of northwest england, parts of northwest wales, heading into southern and central scotland. a little bit brighter for parts of northern ireland and certainly the north of scotland, some sunny spells here, and where it stays dry and fairly bright with hazy sunshine for central and eastern parts of england, temperatures will get all the way up to 15, 16 or 17 degrees. as we head through wednesday night into thursday, this band of cloud and increasingly light and patchy rain will sink southeastward across england and wales. clearer skies behind with some showers. 0vernight lows between five and ten degrees. as this weather front lingers in the southeast corner during thursday, it will continue to bring cloud and some outbreaks of rain. but for the most part, thursday, actually, not a bad looking day — some good spells of sunshine. the winds will be a little lighter, particularly down towards the south. still quite breezy further north where there will be some showers, which mayjoin together into slightly longer spells of rain across northern scotland at times. temperatures down a little bit on wednesday's values, but still above where they should be at this time of year.

into friday, there could be fog patches around first thing, particularly for central and southern parts of the uk. the odd spot of rain just skipping across the far north of scotland, but otherwise, a dry day. that early fog lifting to leave some spells of sunshine, and top temperatures between ten and 12 degrees. then, as we head into the weekend, high pressure will be firmly in charge of the weather. frontal systems maybe just grazing close to northern scotland, perhaps northern ireland, giving a little bit of rain here, but generally, the weekend will be drier with lighter winds. the nights, though, will be quite chilly, and that could lead to some patches of fog.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the american golfing legend tiger woods has been involved in a car accident in los angeles. he suffered multiple injuries to both legs and has been having surgery. the la county sheriff says the car hit a central reservation and ended up several hundred feet from the road. two committees of the us senate are investigating last month's deadly riots at the capitol building, by supporters of donald trump. police and security officials are blaming failures in collecting intelligence leading up to 6january. there's been conflicting testimony as to whether the national guard was requested. protestors have ta ken to the streets of the georgian capitaltbilisi, demanding the release of the country's leading opposition politician, forcefully arrested on tuesday. the authorities have described

nika melia as a criminal while, western diplomats have criticised his arrest as a backward step on georgia's path towards democracy. unemployment has risen to its highest rate in nearly five years, hitting 5.1% in the three months to december. the figures suggest younger workers are bearing the brunt of job losses. our business correspondent sarah corker reports from blackpool, which has one of the highest rates of unemployment for young people. for nine months of the year, blackpool lives or dies on the tourism trade. but the sound of the seagulls is now louder than the screams from the roller—coasters. the owners of blackpool tower and other major attractions here say lockdown has taken away many of the jobs young people relied on. 65% of our workforce is under the age of 2a, so it has really hit them hard. it has been devastating for them.

so, last year when we normally would