david willis, bbc news, los angeles. has said he will ensure a safe inauguration of the new administration next week as security is ramped up across the nation. mike pence's remarks followed a briefing with the fbi director. president trump has issued an emergency declaration forwashington, running from monday until the ceremony on january 20. mr pence says they will ensure a smooth transition of power. our aim here, that the american people can be confident and that we will ensure that we have a safe inauguration, that president—electjoe biden and vice president—elect kamala harris are sworn in as the new president and vice president of the united states in a manner consistent with our history and tradition and in a way that gives honour to the american people and to the united states. 0ur north america correspondent david willis has been listening to mr biden�*s speech. hejoins us now he joins us now from hejoins us now from los angeles. you have been listening to those marks. how febrile is the mood in the us and part

let's talk now to our north america correspondent david willis. avid, looking at the senate runoff. how high are the stakes? they are very high, james. put simply, the outcome of the election, those senate elections in georgia tomorrow will determine which party, democrat or republican, has control of the upper house, the senate, currently they have 51 seats in that 100 seat chamber, where the democrats to win both of those georgia state senate seats, then the majority will be split 50—50, which would give the casting vote two, harris, the incoming vice president. and that would of course make life a lot easier for joe would of course make life a lot easier forjoe biden would of course make life a lot easier for joe biden —— would of course make life a lot easierforjoe biden —— kamala harris, when it comes to getting his progressive agenda through congress. where the republicans to win one of those two georgia seats, then they would retain the majority there in the upper house, and that would of course make life much more difficult for course make

david willis, bbc news, los angeles. david willis, bbc news, los angeles.hs have been reported in the worst snowstorms to hit spain for up to half a century. storm filomena has blanketed parts of the country in heavy snow , of the country in heavy snow, causing disruption and travel chaos. the capital madrid, one of the worst affected areas, is set to see up to 20cm of snow in the next 2a hours. with all the sport now, here's gavin ra mjaun at the bbc sport centre. good afternoon. it's fa cup third round weekend — six games are under way already and we start with one of the pick of the ties. it's national league north club, chorley, who are in round three for the first time. against championship club derby county who have had to field a youth side due to a covid outbreak in the first team. forward connor hall putting them ahead afterjust ten minutes. it's 1—0 at half time. national league club boreham wood are also in the third round for the first time. in the third round for the first time, but their hopes of causing a shock against millwall have taken a b

let's get more from our correspondent david willis in los angeles. david.has been breaking in the last few minutes, in the last half—hour or so. just bring us up—to—date with what on earth going on. welcome i have to say, if you go to his twitter account, you will now see just a bland twitter account, you will now seejust a bland message twitter account, you will now see just a bland message saying account suspended. this is an astonishing blow to president trump, who, of course, had 88 million followers on twitter. it was his preferred means of getting his message out, of course, to the faithful. and twitter is saying that it has permanently suspended his account fearing further incitement of violence. the twitter statement goes on. after close review of recent tweets from the donald trump account in the context around them, we are permanently suspending the account due to the risk of further incitement. now, of course, they have flagged, as it were, numerous tweets in recent months from donald trump, basically questioning the veracity of the claims that h

david willis there.mpting to circumnavigate the ban by tweeting from different accounts, but twitter keeps thwarting him. his campaign handle @teamtrump has now also been suspended, and tweets sent from mr trump‘ official government account @potus were immediately removed. earlier, i spoke to sarah miller from the think tank the american economic liberties project, and i asked her if this was becoming a game of cat and mouse. it does seem like that. this is happening in real time. in addition to twitter taking down tweets from his official potus account, we see google play blocking access to a right—wing social media site as well, and apple threatening to do the same. so this is happening as we are talking, kind of unfolding in real time. let's step back a bit. isn't america meant to be the land of the 1st amendment in which free speech, however obnoxious, comes before censorship? well, i will say this. twitter is a private company. facebook is a private company. google and youtube are private companies.

david willis, bbc news, los angeles. of the us programme at chatham house. thank you for being with us. we have talked to you so much over the course of this year. give me your perspective on the events we saw on wednesday and what might be the longer term indications of that?|j think longer term indications of that?” think they were deeply disturbing. watching them in real time, many of us were watching them in real time, many of us were stunned. not because we didn't expect protests and some might turn violent, but nobody imagined quite what we would see. it was also difficult to tell what was happening. in the days since, we have seen video clips from inside the capitol. we have seen the scales of violence. there were many elements gathered in the mall and in the capital. some were supporters of trump but were peacefully protesting. then there was a disturbing deep far right using violence and inside the capital. now, we have seen people having to ta ke now, we have seen people having to take a clear view as to whethe

david willis there.ent, muhammadu buhari, has sacked all four of the country's top military officials. he's given no explanation, but security has been worsening across much of nigeria. mark lobel reports. rifle—wielding kidnappers storm this orphanage on saturday, abducting eight children in nigeria's capital, they�* re demanding ra nsoms. the police are calling for calm. it's part of a worrying trend. last month, over 300 boys were taken from this boarding school in the nigerian president's home state. and over 100 of the kidnapped chibok girls are still missing, despite global appeals for the release seven years ago. in a series of tweets, president buhari bowed to pressure from political allies and critics alike, to clear out his long—serving top brass. in one fell swoop, replacing the heads of the army, navy, airforce, and his chief of defence. it's welcome news for these internally displaced nigerians in the country's dangerous north—east region, living in fear during a decade of terror, brought up

david willis, bbc news, los angeles. 0ur correspondent lebo diseko is in washington for us.ng he has a dozen days left in office? very interestingly the washington post got hold of a memo that was sent from mitch mcconnell, the leader of the republicans in the senate to his republican senators that said by law they are not allowed to start any such proceedings until january they are not allowed to start any such proceedings untiljanuary the 20th, inauguration day. the concern forjoe biden and you'll notice if you listen to his press conference yesterday he was very careful when his language around this, if this does go ahead and the impeachment trial does go ahead, he can't get his cabinets confirmed until it is done and dusted and that is a concern for him. you heard him saying he thinks the best way of removing donald trump is by swearing him in and that a decision to impeach him is not for him. he is pressing home the priorities that he wa nts to pressing home the priorities that he wants to be getting on with. there isa wants to be getting on with. there is a possibility

david willis, bbc news, los angeles. to dr brian klaas, an associate professor of global politics at ucl, and a columinist at the washington post. how much actual power do you think president trump still has. we have seen nancy pelosi already move to try and limit any military power he might have, obviously people are worried about any action he might ta ke worried about any action he might take in the next few days? well he is extraordinarily powerful. he has the formal authority over the most powerful country in the world and the president has been deemed unfit to manage a social media account, but is still in charge of the world's most powerful nuclear arsenal. that is why there are calls for him to resign or be removed from office. that could be in from a second impeachment. on how much military authority he still has, i have been reading it is perhaps you know unwise to say it is a nuclear button, because that is not how it works and there are many steps before any military action could be taken by any president. is

david willis there.rgence of a new coronavirus variant in brazil has led britain to ban all arrivals from south america from friday. travel from portugal and cape verde is also being banned because of their close links with brazil. the country has the second highest death toll from the virus in the world, after the united states, but it's not in lockdown. brazil's health minister has warned hospitals are close to collapse in one of the main cities, manaus. katy watson reports. manaus, say experts, is a city on the point of collapse. these images were filmed by members of the public and doctors, and given to us by the doctors union. evidence, they say, of the struggles manaus is going through. hospitals with patients lying next to a body bag. 0thers lying on the floor, waiting for treatment. a curfew has now been declared across the state and there are reports that oxygen is also running out. at the same time, scientists are working around the clock to understand the new variant. some of those mutations i

can speak more to our american correspondent, david willis. d?— where they are up to with this process, david? well, that move than to invoke _ process, david? well, that move than to invoke the _ process, david? well, that move than to invoke the 25th - than to invoke the 25th amendment was purely symbolic on the part of house democrats, it really stood no chance of getting off the ground, not least because the vice president, mike pence, had said that he would not go along with it. but what it does do is it sets the stage for a vote later today on impeaching donald trump for the second time in the course of his presidency, on the grounds of inciting insurrection in connection with the violence that the us estate the violence that the us estate the us capitol last week. there are several prominent republicans who have come forward already to say that they will be supporting that called for impeachment, among them, liz cheney, who is a senior republican and the daughter of the former vice president, dick cheney. she issued a very strongly worde

david willis, thanks so much.atar and its gulf neighbours appears to be at an end. this is the moment which suggested the relatonship was changing, when the emir of qatar embraced the saudi crown prince as he arrived in saudi arabia. they then went on to attend a summit, at which full diplomatic relations were restored. saudi arabia, the uae and bahrain imposed an embargo on qatar in 2017, over allegations about supporting terrorism — which qatar denied. when peter lowe retired last year, he decided to leave britain to visit his son in taiwan. then came the pandemic — and he was unable to return home. so, he turned his efforts to spearheading a clean—up campaign for the tamsui river. what started out as a one—man campaign to clean up the trash has now become a fully fledged movement. here's his story. i enjoy boating, always have. after i got stuck here, i thought, "i need to get a boat sorted out," because obviously i wanted to go out and do some boat running. so that's what i did. what i saw firstly was a beauti

david willis, bbc news, los angeles.an photographed carrying us house speaker nancy pelosi's lectin from the house of representatives during the house of representatives during the rice on wednesday. according to florida prison records he was arrested late on friday night. that's right during the riot on wednesday. his name is adam and he is being held in... countyjailand he is being investigated over the suggestions. he was an warrant from the federal government on friday night and he is being held just outside tampa in florida. we bring more of course any charges that come out of the fight on wednesday as we receive news of them. —— that come out of the riots on wednesday as we receive news of them. i've been speaking to our washington correspondent, lebo diseko about whether the democrats will succeed in ther attempts to impeach president trump from office. the washington post got hold of a memo that apparently was sent from mitch mcconnell, the leader of the republicans in senate to his republican senators, that said

violence , following the storming of the us congress on wednesday. 0ur north america correspondent, david willisonger has access to one of his most valued assets — twitter. donald trump's preferred platform for picking fights, settling scores and promoting conspiracy theories has blocked him for good. president trump has been blamed for fomenting the protests that led to the deaths of five people at the us capitol on wednesday, and twitter believes his continued use of the platform could stoke further violence in the run—up tojoe biden‘s inauguration in 11 days' time. facebook having already banned donald trump for the remainder of his term in office, the president is looking increasingly isolated, facing multiple resignations, and with members of his own party deserting him, some are concerned about what he might do next. in the final tweet before his account was closed, he said one thing he won't be doing is attending his successor‘s swearing in, breaking with a tradition stretching back more than 150 years. joe biden said he was fine with that, and called mr trump a "national embarrassment."

david willis, bbc news, los angeles. the headlines on bbc news...vice in a new campaign in the uk urging people to abide by lockdown rules. a boeing 737, believed to be carrying more than 62 people, has gone missing after take—off in indonesia. donald trump is banned permanently from twitter because of concerns his tweets could incite more violence. the number of children being referred to the nhs with series mental health problems has reached a record high. the royal college of psychiatrists says school closures, cancelled exams and lockdowns have threatened a mental health crisis that could pague young people for years to come. that could plague young people for years to come. let's speak to dr bernadka dubicka, chair of the child & adolescent faculty at the royal college of psychiatrists. thank you very much for being with us on thank you very much for being with us on bbc news. let me ask you first of all, the work you have done looking at the state of child and adolescent mental health over the last year or so in particular, what kind of cumula

david willis, bbc news, los angeles. the chair of republicans 0verseas here in the uk — who says she can no longer stand in support of trump's presidency given his recent actions and behaviour since november's election. sarah elliott, have you been supporting trump up until this week? yes, andi supporting trump up until this week? yes, and i have done so on your show, during the election. i did not initially vote for him in 2016, but i approved of many of his notable accomplishments throughout his presidency and i supported him in 2020. this week, it has changed? it has changed since november's election for me. it is amazing to me how he has personally sabotaged his own legacy. and i did not think he was capable of doing that because i thought he would have enough self interest and ego to want to preserve it, but the way he behaved after the election, after the electoral couege election, after the electoral college met, december 14, and certify the election, he did not prove his cases of fraud, and any infighting with th

david willis, bbc news, los angeles.aused a countrywide blackout...the country was plunged into darkness around an hour ago. 0ur pakistan correspondent, secunder kermani is in islamabad — by candlelight. thank you very much for taking the time tojoin us and thank you very much for taking the time to join us and obviously for using up precious charging your phone. how unusual is this for an entire country to go into a blackout? pakistan has had problems with electricity supply in the past but this is very unusual. i have beenin but this is very unusual. i have been in pakistan coming up to four yea rs been in pakistan coming up to four years now and we have certainly seen nothing on this scale. around an hour ago, about midnight local time, homes across the country had suddenly had their power supply cut. we have had reports from every major city from every province of outages. it does seem that the is to fully nationwide blackout. now, the power minister, 0mar ayoob has said that the cause of this was under investigation

david willis there.tish court ruling which prevents the wikileaks founderjulian assange from being extradited. the us wants him to stand trial for publishing classified documents. but a judge at the old bailey in london said concerns over his mental health meant the extradition could not proceed. 0ur diplomatic correspondent james landale reports. free julian assange! julian assange has long attracted loyal supporters, and this was their reaction outside the old bailey as they heard the news. no extradition — yeah! for more than a decade, the wikileaks founder has resisted extradition, spending seven years holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london, before being removed almost two years ago and detained in belmarsh prison. the us authorities want him to face 18 charges, mostly of espionage, relating to his alleged role in the leaking of thousands of secret military documents. many focused on the wars in afghanistan and iraq, including this video appearing to show a us helicopter firing on civilians in

david willis, thank you so much.hree democratic members of congress said they'd bring articles of impeachment against president trump on monday. the lawmakers began drafting the measure as they sheltered in place during the riots on wednesday. the white house says any moves towards impeachment would ‘only serve to further divide our great country'. for his part, president trump says he won't attend joe biden‘s inauguration injust 12 days' time. mr biden said he's fine with that, calling the current president is an ‘embarrasment‘ to the office. here's our north america editorjon sopel. you can see already that the democrats are planning to draw up articles of impeachment, to impeach him a second time in the house. apparently, this is being planned when the raid on the congress was taking place. and they are going to accuse donald trump of intention to cause an insurrection. so that's that. there is also nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house, she has been in touch with the commander of the us military to say that the

david willis, bbc news, los angeles.s associate professor of global politics at university college london and a washington post columnist. i asked him how much power president trump would have in his remaining 11 days in office. well, he is still extraordinarily powerful. i mean, he has the formal authority over the most powerful country in the world and that matters. and we are in an extraordinary moment we are the president has been deemed unfit to manage the social media account, but is still for 11 more days in charge of the world's most powerful nuclear arsenal. and so, you know, i think this is why there is a lot of calls for trump to resign, and barring that, which is unlikely, for trump to be removed from office — either from the 25th amendment, which would result from the vice president and the cabinet taking action, or from a second impeachment attempt led by the house that will be launched early next week. and just on sort of how much military authority he still has, we have been reading it is perhaps unwise t

david willis is in los angeles. f all, tell us more about this huge stimulus plan and what it could do for the american economy. sally, president _ the american economy. sally, president biden _ the american economy. sally, president biden has _ the american economy. sally, president biden has made - president biden has made combating the coronavirus pandemic here his number one priority. in the four days he has been in office, he has already introduced a raft of measures, executive orders designed to combat the spread of the pandemic, including a mandate on the wearing of masks in us federal buildings. he has also made clear that he intends to reimpose a ban on travellers from the uk, ireland and most of europe. those people coming into the us, that dan was to have been lifted under donald trump's presidency. mr biden believes this is not the time to do that. and you mentioned, that vast bill, nearly $2 trillion thatjoe biden would like to see past which would include measures for more vaccinations, more coronavirus

david willis, bbc news, los angeles.e ban in 2017 citing what he called �*tremendous medical costs and disruption'. but the biden administration says a comprehensive study found transgender people had very little impact on the military�*s healthcare spending, or its effectiveness. janet yellen has been confirmed as the first—ever female us treasury secretary in a senate vote. ms yellen who headed the us central bank from 2014 to 2018, earlier won bipartisan support from members of the senate finance committee. she'll be responsible for guiding the biden administration's economic response to the pandemic. the biden administration's economic at her confirmation hearing on 19th january, ms yellen urged congress to approve trillions more in pandemic relief and economic stimulus, saying that lawmakers should "act big" without worrying about national debt. the delay between a person contracting coronavirus and then being admitted to hospital means that despite a fall in cases, the pressure on the nhs continues to grow. with di

david willis reports.eaking point, as cases have spiralled to around 200,000 a day, food banks are inundated as the collapsing economy has caused many businesses to lay off their workers. joe biden promised to make combating the coronavirus his number one priority, and less than a week to go before taking office, he has unveiled a plan aimed at containing the virus and getting the economy back on track. one that will cost this country nearly $2 trillion. we not only have an economic imperative to act now, i believe we have a moral obligation. in this pandemic, in america, we cannot let people go hungry, we cannot let people get evicted, we cannot watch nurses, educators and others lose theirjobs — we so badly need them. we must act now and act decisively. a month after the first shots were administered here, america's vaccination programme is off to a sluggish start. mr biden is pledging billions of dollars to expand testing and vaccination efforts and enable schools to reopen safely by the spring. he is a

david willis reports.is having a devastating effect. hospitals are at breaking point, as cases have spiralled to around 200,000 a day, food banks are inundated as the collapsing economy has caused many businesses to lay off their workers. joe biden promised to make combating the coronavirus his number one priority, and less than a week to go before taking office, he has unveiled a plan aimed at containing the virus and getting the economy back on track. one that will cost this country nearly $2 trillion. we not only have an economic imperative to act now, i believe we have a moral obligation. in this pandemic, in america, we cannot let people go hungry, we cannot let people get evicted, we cannot watch nurses, educators and others lose theirjobs — we so badly need them. we must act now and act decisively. a month after the first shots were administered here, america's vaccination programme is off to a sluggish start. mr biden is pledging billions of dollars to expand testing and vaccination efforts and ena

david willis reports.company because the risk of further incitement to violence. president trump has been blamed for fomenting the protests which led to the depths of five people at the us capitol on wednesday, and twitter believes his continued use of its platform could stoke further violence in the run—up tojoe biden's inauguration in 11 days time stop president's sun, donald jr, biden's inauguration in 11 days time stop president's sun, donaldjr, on his twitter account, said free speech no longer existed in america, and the ban orwellian. and in a tweet swiftly deleted from his official white house account, mr trump said he was now looking into the possibility of creating his own social media platform. facebook, having already banned donald trump for the remainder of his term in office, the president is looking increasingly isolated. facing multiple resignations and with members of his own party deserting him, some are concerned about what he might do next. in the final suite before his account was clos

our north america correspondent, david willis has the latest.part of last year mike, and itapplied to travellers from brazil, and from much of europe, coming into the united states, and was imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. today, president trump declared his intention to lift that ban, starting from next week, some six days after he leaves office. not so fast said the incoming biden administration, their spokeswoman said they had no such plans to lift that ban, and of course, combating the coronavirus is the number one priority of the incoming president, joe biden. mr trump of course has been under pressure from the airlines, some of them had lost about 95% of their business, as far as europe was concerned anyway, because of that ban. two days ahead of the inauguration ofjoe biden as the 46th us president, the tightest security measures in recent memory are in place in washington. officials are determined to prevent any repeat of the events of january 6th, when the capitol was stormed by a pro—trump mob in a failed bid to prevent mr

david willis joins us from los angeles. do you think we could hear a result soon?g 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 de

let's talk now to our north america correspondent david willis.rump ‘s rally overnight and also biden's last—minute visit to georgia? sally, donald trump used this rally to reiterate his belief that the election was stolen from him. he called election officials in the state of georgia crooked, corrupt and incompetent and he sought to relitigate familiar concerns that he has raised in the past about such things as misplaced valets and miss performing election machinery and so on. despite the fact that georgia election official earlier in the day had on through all of those point by point and disavow them. donald trump made the point that an outcome of this election could be crucial, the turnout could be crucial to the turnout could be crucial to the way this election goes and, indeed, there are signs that the democrats are rather pleased with the fact that there has been a healthy turnout early on among young and like voters. republican voters tend to turn out on the day of the election itself. but some senior republicans are a little concerned tha

two protestors being allegedly shot dead by an armed civilian. 0ur north america correspondent, david willisecutor there, michael gravely, has decided not to prosecute the officer who shot jacob blake seven times in the back. the officer's name is rusten sheskey — because mr blake was armed with a knife at the time of the incident, so the prosecutor believes that rusten sheskey could claim that he acted in self—defense by shooting mr blake, and therefore that the charge against him — any charges brought against him would unlikely to stick in a court of law. i can tell you that that decision has proved controversial, as you might imagine. already, mr bla ke's lawyer has said that it sends "the wrong decision", as he puts it, to police officers throughout the united states. and members of mr blake's family have called for rusten sheskey to be sacked from the police force and brought to trial. in that story i was reading, i ended by saying the incident sparked days of violent clashing, culminating in two civilians being shot dead by a citizen. what's the latest on that civilian‘s legal process?

violence following the storming of the us congress on wednesday. 0ur north america correspondent, david willisof his most valued assets — twitter. donald trump's preferred platform for picking fights, settling scores and promoting conspiracy theories has blocked him for good, citing what the company called: "the risk of further incitement of violence". president trump has been blamed for fomenting the protest that led to the death of five people at the us capital on wednesday and twitter believes his continued use of its platform could stoke further violence in the run—up tojoe biden‘s inauguration in 11 days' time. the president's son donjr on his twitter account said: "free speech no longer exists in america". and called the ban "orwellian". in a tweet swiftly deleted from his official white house account, mr trump said he was now looking into the possibility of creating his own social media platform. facebook, having already banned donald trump for the remainder of his term in office, the president is looking increasingly isolated. facing multiple resignations and with members of his own pa

david willis, bbc news, los angeles.uri, director of the us programme at chatham house. welcome to you, as ever. joe biden had already talked, hadn't he, about his plan to try and combat the virus, 100 million vaccines in his plan to try and combat the virus,100 million vaccines in his 100 days in office, his first 100 days, people wearing masks, getting children back to school, boosting the economy. this to $1 trillion package, what sort of inroads could that make and is he going to be able to get that through congress quite easily? to get that through congress quite easil ? ~ ., . ~' to get that through congress quite easil ? ~ ., ., ,, ., easily? well, it would make an extraordinary _ easily? well, it would make an extraordinary difference, i easily? well, it would make an i extraordinary difference, remember, congress has been fighting over this and only managed to agree a very small portion of it at the last minute. after many months of deep partisanship, so the question now, as you rightly say, is will he be able t

here's our north america correspondent, david willis.ermanently banned from his preferred platform of communication. mr trump has, of course, long said he mistrusts the mainstream or, as he calls it, ‘lamestream' media, preferring instead to talk over its head directly to his supporters. and as you say, there are 88 million people who follow him on that platform, twitter. well, ashort while ago, the authorities at twitter said he was being permanent band after close review of recent tweets from his account in the context surrounding them. they go on to say: of course, there was a 12—hour block placed on mr trump's account earlier in the week following that mass rally and the violence on the capitol, around the capitol, and now it seems that the preferred platform for mr trump is permanently closed to him, james. we normally, of course, hearfrom him on twitter, so how are we now going to hearfrom him? is hejust going to borrow someone else‘s phone and their account, or just migrate everything to tiktok? that is a very interesting question

live now to our north america correspondent david willis in los angeles. up—to—date on this. four months after the shooting of jason blake the local prosecutor in kenosha cou nty local prosecutor in kenosha county decided there will be no criminal charges brought against the officer who fired those seven shots into mr blake's back those seven shots into mr bla ke's back and those seven shots into mr blake's back and side. the officer in question, rusten sheskey, says that he acted in self—defence because mr blake was wielding a knife. that is a somewhat disputed claim, i might add, but the prosecutor feels that because the officer would claim in court the defence of self defence, that he would be unable to make a charge stick, a criminal charge against the officer stick. so, thatis against the officer stick. so, that is a very controversial decision in indeed. jason blake was paralysed from the waist down after being shot in front of three of his children. they are preparing for protests in kenosha county tonight. 500 members of the state national guard ha

our north america correspondent david willis has more on the stimulus package announced by the us president—electden, in a remarkable speech, spoke about the suffering of millions of americans. he said his stimulus plan could lead to 18 million well—paying jobs and he said the health of the nation was at stake. and this is a country with more cases, more deaths from the coronavirus than any other in the world and there is no question it is hurting very badly — the unemployment figures recently bear that out. and mr biden�*s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan would basically resuscitate the ailing american economy and ramp up coronavirus testing and vaccination. now, the measures include increasing stimulus payments to $2000 from the current $600, extending unemployment benefits and increasing support for small business, and he has also pledged more than $400 billion to tackling the coronavirus via a national vaccination programme, expanded testing and helping schools to reopen safely. mr biden was heavily critical of the trump administration's handling of the coronavirus and said its vaccination program

david willis, bbc news, los angeles. ordered another lockdown across england, starting this week. since the start of the pandemic, the government committed to providing laptops for the students who would normally struggle to access online learning but is there enough support now? joining me now isjohn skurr who is the headteacher of university academy keighley in west yorkshire. very good to have you with us and thank you for your time. approximately 700 students and 100 teachers but how ready are you for this lockdown and the challenges ahead? we have had a plan in preparation from september that we started and we predicted this could happen. actually immobilising that plan is a challenge and takes a few days but our students will receive a blended approach to learning independent tasks set for them and they have live lessons starting next week and throughout the whole of lockdown. the problem we have is that our community is a very diverse and multicultural community and will not always have the resources available. in

david willis, bbc news, los angeles.ms yellen who headed the us central bank from 2014 to 2018, earlier won bipartisan support from members of the senate finance committee. she'll be responsible for guiding the biden administration's economic response to the pandemic. at her confirmation hearing on 19 january, ms yellen urged congress to approve trillions more in pandemic relief and economic stimulus, saying that lawmakers should "act big" without worrying about national debt. more than three hundred global companies and organisations have urged world leaders to classify seafarers as keyworkers so they are no longer stranded at sea because of the pandemic. about 200—thousand sea—men and women have played a crucial role in keeping global trade flowing, but many have been stuck at sea for months. twitter is asking its users for help in combating fake news. the company has announced a pilot that allows people to submit notes on tweets that may be false or misleading. the initiative, named �*birdwatch', is being trialled amo

but he was defeated by 55 votes to a5. 0ur north american correspondent david willis has the details.olutely right, mike, that vote to abandon the trial completely was rejected, despite having the support not only of rand paul but the former senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell. the vote went 55 to a5, so the impeachment trial, the second senate impeachment trial of donald trump, is set to go ahead in two weeks' time. but the implications are that it will be quite a battle for the democrats to secure donald trump's conviction on a trial of incitement of insurrection. they need a two—thirds majority in the senate. that would mean that 17 senate republicans would have to, if you like, cross the aisle, and even joe biden last night said he thought that was unlikely. the republicans, many of them, are still very loyal to donald trump and he made clear last night in a statement, that he's going nowhere as far as his political influence in the republican party is concerned. so, a lot of people in the party don't want to upset him. just a quick footnote, though, by the way, mike, in regar

let's speak now to our north america correspondent david willis.to security in just first of all, we will come to security injust a first of all, we will come to security in just a second, but the travel ban has been lifted. that's right, the travel ban that was brought into effect in the early part of last year mike, and itapplied the early part of last year mike, and it applied to travellers from brazil, and from much of europe, coming into the united states, and imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. today, president trump declared his intention to lift that abound, starting from next week, some six days after he leaves office. not so fast, said the incoming biden administration, their spokeswoman said they had no such plans to lift that band, and of course, combating the coronavirus is the number one priority of the incoming president, joe biden. mr trump of course has been under pressure from the airlines, some of them had lost about 95% of their business, as far as europe was concerned anyway, because of that band. just returning _ beca

two protestors being allegedly shot dead by an armed civilian. 0ur north american correspondent, david willisore. four months after the shooting of jacob blake the local prosecutor in kenosha county decided there will be no criminal charges brought against the officer who fired those seven shots into mr blake's back and side. the officer in question, rusten sheskey, says that he acted in self—defence because mr blake was wielding a knife. that is a somewhat disputed claim, i might add, but the prosecutor feels that because the officer would claim in court the defence of self defence, that he would be unable to make a charge stick, a criminal charge against the officer, stick. so that is a very controversial decision indeed. jacob blake was left paralysed from the waist down after being shot in front of three of his children. they are preparing for protests in kenosha county tonight. 500 members of the state national guard have been drafted in in anticipation of possible violence. we can talk now to paige fernandez who is policing policy advisor at the american civil liberties union. she joins

the bbc�*s david willis joins us from la. you think the important takeaway is from that speech? joe biden in a remarkable speech spoke about the suffering of millions of americans. he said his stimulus plan could lead to 18 million well paying jobs and he said the health of the nation was at stake. and this is a country where more cases, more deaths from the coronavirus than any other in the world and there is no question it is hurting very badly the unemployment figures and figures recently bear that out. this $1.9 trillion stimulus plan would a sickly resuscitate the ailing american economy and ramp up coronavirus testing and vaccination. the measures include increasing stimulus payments to $2000 from the current $600, extending unemployment benefits and increasing support for small business and he has also pledged more than $400 billion to tackling the coronavirus via a national vaccination programme, expanded testing and helping schools to reopen safely. mr biden was heavily critical of the trump administration's handling

the bbc�*s david willis joins us from la. ground up across the whole of the country.— the whole of the country. that is riuht. in the whole of the country. that is right- in the _ the whole of the country. that is right. in the words _ the whole of the country. that is right. in the words of— the whole of the country. that is right. in the words of one - right. in the words of one commentator, the capitol complex resembles the green zone in baghdad. it is a shrouded in a seven foot high fence, metal detectors have been brought in and security personnel are everywhere. we learn today that the national mall, traditionally the key vantage point for visitors to dc hoping to observe the inauguration proceedings will actually be close on the day of the inauguration itself. by then, 21,000 armed national guard officers are expected to be on duty in washington, dc. there will be more troops on the ground we are told in the us currently has in iraq and afghanistan combined. staggering when ou afghanistan combined. staggering when you

david willis, bbc news, los angeles.ital after an earthquake struck the island of sulwesi, leaving 35 people dead. the 6.2—magnitude quake came just hours after an earlier, smaller tremor. hundreds of people were injured and thousands displaced by the quake, which hit towns on the west of the island the hardest. tanya dendrinos reports. searching through the rubble, this is the aftermath of a 6.2 magnitude earthquake which struck the indonesian island of sulawesi around 1 am on friday. hours after a smaller quake was recorded. the panic palpable here. authorities trying to create some space for medical teams after a person was pulled from the wreckage. thousands left their homes fleeing to safety when they felt the tremor, which lasted for around seven seconds. no tsunami warning was issued, but the damage from the earthquake is clear to see. multiple buildings have collapsed, including a hospital. the death toll has continued to climb and hundreds have been injured. for now, though, the focus remains on finding anyone s

let's speak now to our north america correspondent david willis.body were thinking, planning a business trip to the united states from europe or brazil, should they shouldn't they? how things stand? the? they? how things stand? they shouldn't. _ they? how things stand? they shouldn't, not _ they? how things stand? they shouldn't, not at _ they? how things stand? they shouldn't, not at the - they? how things stand? they shouldn't, not at the moment| shouldn't, not at the moment and perhaps quite for quite some time. all of this begs the question, why would an outgoing president seek to change policy on the coronavirus pandemic just two days before he acquits the post? normally, of course, an order like this would not be issued without some sort of negotiation with the incoming president. of course, nothing about the last four years has been particularly orthodox. donald trump has been under intense pressure, we know, from the airline industry here, the hospitality industry, which has been decimated, as far as revenue is concerned, because of these t