Hello, this is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news, seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Valerie Saunderson. And in the early hours of Wednesday, the 6th of January, these are our main stories. The World Health Organization warns about the way vaccines are used as Germany extends its coronavirus lockdown in the US state of Georgia. A run off election for two seats is taking place, which will decide whether the Democrats or Republicans control the Senate. Changing focus. A search and rescue operation a week after a landslide buries homes in a village in Norway.

Also in this podcast, the world's music festivals try to work out how they can take place this year despite the pandemic, with some countries offering help if plans are disrupted.

Other countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland, they turn around and said, well, actually, if you have to close because of covid, we will pay all your supplies.

The Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the leaders of Germany's 16 states have agreed to extend a coronavirus lockdown until the end of the month. The restrictions, which had seen schools and non-essential shops closed, had been due to expire on Sunday. The leaders also agreed to strengthen measures for reducing the number of houseguests to one and limiting movement in badly affected areas to a 15 kilometer radius from home.

Mrs. Merkel explained the reasons they are opposing the spending less than what we have been able to lower the number of cases over the past weeks, and the new mutations make it unclear how the situation will develop. Therefore, all citizens must limit their contacts to an absolute minimum.

Our correspondent in Berlin, Jenny Hill, was listening to the chancellor's news conference. I asked her why extending the lockdown is necessary.

Case numbers here and in particular, deaths have been rising, soaring in recent weeks and months. It was no surprise, I think, to anyone that Angela Merkel, first of all, said the current restrictions in place. That means the closure of shops, schools, restaurants, bars, arts and leisure facilities will be extended until the end of this month. But there are going to be tougher restrictions to first of all, members of one household will now be allowed to meet with just one person from another household and people living in particularly badly affected areas, areas where there are more than 200 infections per 100000 residents over a seven day period.

Those people will now be confined to a 15 kilometre radius around their homes. They won't be able to travel further than that unless they have a valid reason.

And what about schools and shops and that kind of thing? Those businesses will remain shut. There were restrictions introduced in two stages towards the end of last year. First of all, restaurants, bars, gyms, leisure facilities, theaters and so on. All of those have been closed since the start of November. Then just before Christmas, the schools were closed to other non-essential food shops. All of that is going to stay in place.

And what about the pressure on hospitals?

Yes, Angela Merkel repeated. You know what we've known for a while here saying that intensive care stations here are edging towards being overwhelmed. She said that they were and very strongly in what she described as the border area where they're getting towards being overwhelmed is actually not so much a question of beds. I understand it's more to do with the fact that trained staff are there's a shortage of trained staff to actually staff those those stations. So that, of course, like in so many other countries, is the real concern here, that once health care facilities become overwhelmed, then, you know, you really have a huge problem on your hands.

And it's worth pointing out, actually, that Mrs Merkel again emphasised this. But scientists in recent days have warned that whilst we have in the last few days seen infection rates appear to be dropping off, it may simply be that that's due to cases going unreported during the Christmas holidays, no administrative delays and so on. And so Mrs Merkel said it is not yet possible to assess the impact of those restrictions imposed at the end of last year. And that's one of the very strong reasons that we're not only seeing restrictions extended, but actually we're seeing them being tightened.

To Jenny Hill here in Britain, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, has appeared at a news conference to underline the scale of the challenge facing the country. Mr Johnston confirmed that one in 50 people in England are now infected with the coronavirus, with 60000 new covered cases in just 24 hours. One approach being adopted is to extend the interval between giving the first and second doses of the Fizer biotech vaccine. Up to 12 weeks, but now the World Health Organization has cautioned against the tactic.

It says the interval should be three to four weeks or six in an emergency. Imogen Fox reports from Geneva.

The show knows the UK with soring case numbers is facing an enormous challenge. But today its scientists said their decisions must be based on hard evidence. The efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine was not tested with a delay of 12 weeks between doses. No one knows what, if any, protection it would offer after such a delay. Therefore, the scientists said they could not recommend this. Instead, they urged an interval of three to four weeks with a higher limit of six weeks in emergencies.

Meanwhile, WHL experts heading to China to investigate the origins of the virus have had their mission delayed again, apparently because China had not processed their entry permits. The WTO said it was very disappointed and had already been in touch with Beijing to insist on the importance of the investigation.

Imagine folks in the U.S. state of Georgia, voters have been casting their ballots in a runoff election for two seats that will decide whether the Democrats or Republicans are in control of the Senate. The vote comes just two weeks ahead of the inauguration of President elect Joe Biden. Georgia has been solidly Republican since the 1990s, but a surge in support from the African-American community helped Mr. Biden win the state back in November. Several black voters said they hoped today's election is the start of a new chapter for Georgia.

We need change and not only in Georgia, but in the United States and people of color are going to get treated fairly. I just want to see all of the good things that these candidates are talking about to come into fruition and know that I was a part of it. Every Georgia should get out here vote so you can be a part of history, whichever way it turns out. That way you can feel good about exercising your right.

And I heard more about the race from our correspondent, Larry Medawar, who's in the state capital, Atlanta, Georgia.

So far, the turnout is very muted. We've been hearing from the secretary of state's office, which runs the elections, and they're telling us the average time across the state is just one minute. That compares to about a week's time of three minutes in the general election nine weeks ago. They're expecting that when the polls close at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, which is just after midnight GMT, that we should start to know in about half an hour how the state has voted for the two Senate runoffs.

And that should pretty much hold steady for the rest of the night.

Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump campaign for last minute votes in this state. President Trump said he believes these races are fixed. I mean, how is that playing with the voters? Do you think that is a concern for Republicans here, that President Trump's rhetoric about voter fraud might depress turnout and even some within the secretary of state's office fear that because he's held onto this message that the vote was stolen from him, that he won Georgia, even though he did not, that there are people now who believe among the Republicans in Georgia that their vote doesn't count and they don't need to come out and vote in this election.

And even at President Trump's rally yesterday in north Georgia in 2000, when he mentioned David Perdue and he mentioned Kelly LaFleur, the crowd has started to chant, fight for Trump, fight for Trump. So they feel that they have not been sufficiently supportive of President Trump's efforts to try and turn the election in favor of him. And some of the Republican base might not turn out to vote for the two Senate seats here because of their dissatisfaction with what happened in the presidential race.

And I mean, this is crucial, isn't it, this runoff? It is absolutely critical, because if the Democrats take both of these seats, they will have control of the US Senate and that will be a 50 50 between Democrats and Republicans. And the vice president, Kamala Harris, will be able to cast a vote to break a tie. If the Republicans keep even one seat, then they have majority control of the Senate and they will effectively frustrate President elect Joe Biden's legislative agenda there, will make it hard to pass any signature legislative achievement and essentially make it sort of like President Obama's term when the Republicans, Mitch McConnell leading them, tried to block every single thing he tried to achieve.

And that's what they intend to do. If they win at least one of these seats, there's a possibility that they could even win both and hang onto both of these seats. And it'll make it significantly harder for Joe Biden to pass anything, even something as simple as passing extra support for those who've been suffering because of the coronavirus in the way it's wrecked the economy Larry.

Murder in Atlanta. Australia's Northern Territory is infamous for its deadly animals like crocodiles, snakes and spiders, and for its larger than life characters like Crocodile Dundee. Now, the naked exploits of one fugitive has fascinated residents.

Henry Bello has more to fishermen in a small boat, was searching for crabs among the mangrove trees when they heard. The faint cry for help, there was a sense of urgency as fatal crocodile attacks are common in these waters, but they were not prepared to find a completely naked man covered in mud and mosquito bites clinging to a tree branch above the water to evade the deadly reptiles.

He was desperate for food and water, telling the two fishermen who filmed their approach that he'd spent four days eating molluscs just to survive what he'd been doing.

I've been eating snails and hell, I'll call an ambulance. I will get your name out there. Have you got any water? They might. We got water for you, bro.

It is still unclear why the 40 year old man was naked or how he managed to get so deep into the dangerous swamp without a boat. But police believe he breached bail after being charged with armed robbery. The two fishermen initially thought he was hung over from an out of control New Year's Eve celebration and handed him a cold beer. They promised to stay in touch, but reconsidered when they realized he was a wanted man who is now chained to a hospital bed with two police guards.

Henry Bello.

Coming up. Washington releases new details about his cyber espionage attack on the U.S. government.

A week after a landslide buried homes in a village in Norway, a search and rescue operation has changed focus. Three people are still unaccounted for, but officials now say they've given up hope of finding anyone still alive. Tofu burgers from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation told us more.

The police announced that they are not expecting to find any more survivors. They have found seven people deceased and three are still missing. But it's very cold here in Norway today. The temperature has fallen. It's about minus eight Celsius at the site. And it's been a very difficult operation for the rescuers.

And tell us about the bodies of those they've found with the seven that they have found. Among them is a family of three, a mother, a father, and the two year old daughter all found dead in the remains of their home. There's also a 31 year old man who a lot of people knew he was very involved in sponsoring sports in Norway. And they are still searching for a mother and her 13 year old daughter. And the father in that family was able to make it out and have been waiting to hear about his family.

There are some really heart wrenching stories also from a lot of the people in the other homes, because this is a close knit community. A lot of people knew their neighbors and a lot of people did not know what to do now as they have been evacuated and it's not safe to move back.

And what about those who've been evacuated? Where are they? Well, they are trying to find homes. There's been an outpouring of help coming from the nearby community. People have been offering up apartments and houses for people to rent. But there are still a number of evacuees living in a hotel close to the Oslo airport. And today they actually found a case of called it in that hotel. So some of those people will have to be tested and perhaps move to other locations and any more risk of landslides.

Well, the experts are saying that there's very, very low risk of more slides in the area. But, of course, there's a lot of talk here now about other communities built on similar ground in YELDHAM. Experts said that there was a very low risk, even though this was sort of a high risk area for mudslides. They said that it was safe to build new homes there 15 years ago, but they will certainly be a large investigation after this.

And I think it was a change or affect the building standards around the country back to Libya.

Yes, Washington has released new details about an operation described as the worst cyber espionage attack ever to target the U.S. government. Our security correspondent, Gordon Corera, tell me more.

Well, this was a statement from US intelligence agencies who say they formed a task force to investigate it. Quite significant in a few points. One is that for the first time, they say it was likely Russian in origin. They don't quite say the Russian state, but they do point the finger at Russia, which, of course, has denied it. Donald Trump, President Trump had suggested perhaps it might have been China when it first emerged last month, and that was actually contradicted by his own secretary of state and attorney general and now it appears by US intelligence agencies.

I think the other thing that's significant here is they say fewer than 10 US government agencies have been affected, although they suggest it's still ongoing. And I think you get a sense that this is a massive espionage campaign, one aimed at gathering intelligence in a very targeted way, which is a hallmark of the way Russian intelligence has worked in the past.

Do we know how damaging it's been then? It's hugely damaging, I think. For the US in the sense that they were breached four months without knowing it and because they still don't know how much damage was done in terms of how much data was stolen and whether other companies or organizations might also have had their data stolen. So I think in a sense, it's the unknown to this and the scale of it, which which is most damaging almost for the morale of the US.

The actual intelligence damage, I think, at the moment is is hard to quantify, but certainly could be serious. But as I said, it is classic espionage. This wasn't an attack aimed to to disrupt or destroy systems. This was intelligence gathering, espionage, something that the US itself also engages in.

Gordon Corera reports from Mali say more than 20 people were killed in an air strike on a wedding party on Sunday. The attack happened in the village of Banti in the central Mopti region. French, Malian and other forces carry out regular strikes in the region to combat an Islamist insurgency there. Here's Mary Harper.

Villagers said a helicopter flew in low of the wedding party, opening fire on the guests. It was broad daylight. Children are said to be among the dead. A health worker and a local cultural organization have confirmed the killings. Separately, France says it killed dozens of jihadists in an airstrike in central Mali. French military sources say no wedding was involved and that the strike was carried out after careful research and tracking of the militants. Five French soldiers have been killed in suspected jihadist attacks in Mali in recent days.

Mary Harper JAMA was one of the world's highest profile billionaires, a Chinese tycoon and co-founder of the tech firm Alibaba. But Jamma hasn't been seen or heard from, at least in public, for more than two months. And there's speculation he may have fallen out in some way with the leadership in Beijing. Dexter Roberts is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Asia Security Initiative and author of the book The Myth of Chinese Capitalism. Tim Franks asked him what he makes of Mr.

Moore's disappearance.

Well, it's clear that he's not in a good situation. The fact is, we don't know where Jayakumar is and he hasn't appeared for what to some months. There have been rumors that he's fled the country. He's in Singapore on a fake passport. I don't think that's likely. There are rumors that he could be incarcerated in China. Probably most likely he's keeping his head low. There have been credible reports. He's been told not to leave the country and trying to figure out how to get himself and his companies out of this mess.

And if it is the case that he has in some way fallen out of favor rather than he's decided to take this extended holiday. What is it, do you think, that might have provoked displeasure in the Chinese Communist Party leadership?

Well, Jack Ma, the founder and the until recently the chairman of Alibaba, is he's a very colorful, charismatic character in China, is China's most famous entrepreneur. He memorably, ah, you like to dress up at company parties memorably. Once as Michael Jackson, he was comfortable fraternizing with global CEOs at Davos in Switzerland.

At the same time, he's prided himself on ruffling the feathers amongst China's bureaucrats. And he's been walking this fine line between creating this innovative business that has disrupted traditional industries through China, including the bricks and mortar retail and the state run banking system, while at the same time occasionally pledging his fealty to the government and the party. It appears that this fine line that he's been walking is no longer acceptable under the present leadership in China.

Dexter Roberts speaking to Tim Franks as the UK goes back into lockdown, its nightlife and festival industry says it's on the edge of collapse and is asking for some of the support seen in other countries. Last month, Germany announced a fund of more than three billion dollars to cover losses from cancellations, and other countries have introduced measures to encourage large scale events. Stephanie Prentis has compiled this report.

The sound of roaring crowds. And of tens of thousands of people close together singing, dancing and hugging, it's all somewhat unimaginable in the new pandemic landscape. And with the coronavirus situation still so unstable, industry insiders are warning that music venues and music festivals can't just keep holding on. Sasha Lord is a founder of one of the UK's biggest festivals, Parklife, and today spoke at a parliamentary inquiry to ask for the sort of help seen across Europe.

The biggest thing for us, actually, is insurance. We will not get cover for konbit insurance. However, other countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland, they turn around and said, well, actually, if you have to close because of covid, we will pay all your suppliers and artists. Today I attended a select committee in Parliament. My big task was to actually say to this government, please, will you back a coronavirus cancellation insurance scheme?

Globally, festivals are worth billions of dollars and the UK has a major slice of the market, with events adding an estimated two point three billion in value to the British economy each year and supporting 85000 jobs. All eyes are now on Glastonbury, the jewel in its crown, which attracts people from all over the world each summer, as well as the biggest talent in the business.

Its organizer, Emily Eavis, is still insisting it will go ahead in June, the Spice Girl Mel B told the BBC this week she doesn't see it happening.

I know that Glastonbury is being canceled. So a lot of like big stage performances are kind of on hold again this year, which is sad. But we've got to get this virus under control, I guess.

Experts today have said April will be the deadline for festivals in the UK to decide whether to cancel, but that some may even have to decide by the end of January.

And aside from the money at stake, many insiders say the magic of the music festival has to be preserved with Paul Reed, who heads up independent festivals in the U.K., pointing out that in his words, once we get beyond this, there's going to be an incredible appetite for these events and that there'll be a gaping cultural gap left by the loss of most of the UK's 975 festivals.

Oh, the killers, Mr. Brightside ending that report from Stephanie Prentis, and that's it from us for now. But there'll be an updated version of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast, all of the topics covered in it, send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC Dot 08.

UK studio manager was Mike Adler, the producer. Terry Egan, the editor. As always, Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson and her next time. Bye.