this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. is this the breakthrough? us pharmaceutical giant, pfizer, says, it has a coronavirus vaccine that's more than 90% effective i've never felt professionally such a moment ofjoy, and we werejustjumping up and down in the chairs ofjoy for humanity, joy for medical advances to put an end to this dreadful pandemic. it comes as the us passes more than 10 million cases. joe biden sets up a special task force — and this is his message on face coverings. a mask is not a political statement. but it is a good way to start pulling the country together.

donald trump continues to claim the us election was stolen from him and refuses to concede — despite a lack of evidence. now he's sacked his defence secretary, mark esper. and, understanding the history of human evolution. we find out what a team of researchers have learned — after digging up a 2—million—year—old skull. leading scientists are cautiously welcoming news of a new vaccine against coronavirus that's proved more than 90% effective in early results. the vaccine, developed by pharma giant pfizer and its partner biontech, has been tested on nearly a4,000 people in six countries, with no safety concerns

being raised so far. some experts though point out that the announcement was made on the basis of very early analysis, with the vaccine not yet formally approved. our medical editor fergus walsh reports. this is a huge day for science, and perhaps the world. for the first time, a covid—19 vaccine has been shown to protect against the disease. plenty of caution is needed, but the preliminary results of the pfizer—biontech trial are highly promising. there were more than 43,000 volunteers on the trial, which began in july. half got the coronavirus vaccine, half a dummy, or placebo jab. interim results showed 94 of the volunteers fell ill with coronavirus — nearly all in the non—vaccinated group. as a result, pfizer says the vaccine is more than 90% effective. it's such a great day

for science and humanity. you know, i've never felt, professionally, such a moment ofjoy. and we werejustjumping up and down with joy for humanity, joy for medical advances, to put an end to this dreadful pandemic. the vaccine uses a tiny amount of the genetic sequence of the spike protein which sits on the surface of coronavirus. synthetic material, known as rna, is injected into muscle cells in the arm. this stimulates the creation of antibodies — y—shaped proteins, which should bind onto coronavirus, preventing future infections. killer t cells are also produced. these should identify and destroy cells which have become infected. scientists around the world have moved at an extraordinary pace to develop coronavirus vaccines. there are 47 in human trials. the uk government has advance orders for six of them,

including a0 million doses of the pfizer—biontech vaccine. that's enough to immunise 20 million people, as you need two doses. pfizer says by the end of the year, 50 million doses will be available globally, but only a minority will come here, to the uk. the government's also ordered 100 million doses of the oxford astrazeneca vaccine. we're still awaiting their results. it's thought around four million doses will be available here by the end of the year. at the number ten press briefing, there was a sense of cautious optimism. of a significant moment in the fight against covid. i have to say that this is really a very important scientific breakthrough. i'm certain of that. but the prime minister said there were several hurdles to clear before the vaccine could be used. and he urged people not to slacken their resolve.

we cannot let our enthusiasm tonight run away with us, folks. i'm very sorry to say this. it's more vital than ever now that we follow the basics, that we wait and see whether this vaccine lives up to its promise, we continue with the measures we have in place. and many scientists agree that we can't be sure yet if this vaccine is a game changer. these are very early results. what we really need to wait for is the longer term follow—up of all these participants in the trial to understand how effective this vaccine is say, four, six months after receiving the dose. pfizer will apply for emergency authorisation for the vaccine. if regulators give approval, the first doses could be used here before christmas. a small first step towards ending the pandemic. fergus walsh, bbc news.

i'm joined now by dr paul duprex, who's been working on a vaccine for the virus at the university of pittsburgh. thanks forjoining us here on bbc news. where are you on the optimism ladder? i think what you heard and it isa ladder? i think what you heard and it is a very good way to phrase this, we should be cautiously optimistic. but isn't it wonderful that we can be optimistic? because vaccine development is hard. vaccine development is slow. but vaccine development is slow. but vaccine development is slow. but vaccine development is beset by many, many hurdles and what we have today is interim early results from a vaccine modality that has never ever been licenced before. so i think cautious optimism is a really good phrase that we use for where we are today. it's great to see the world's vaccine community to come together

and develop these creative novel ways to deal with what is the scourge ways to deal with what is the scourge of humanity at the moment, covid—i9. scourge of humanity at the moment, covid-19. this is using a different technique as i understand it and forgive me i am not a scientist in the same way that you are obviously, but the rna technique, that is unusual isn't it compared to the way of the vaccines are put together? unusual is exactly the right word to use. unusual is exactly the right word to use. as ijust said we don't have a licenced rna vaccine. the rna is simply the genetic material from the virus which produces that spike protein, that sort of sticky out knob we bit that you see in those cartoons of the coronavirus. so what that messenger rna does is whenever it is injected into those cells, the rna is changed into spike proteins in those spy proteins are recognised by the immune system. the immune

system has a couple of arms. the first arm makes antibodies and again in your really nicely comprehensive report, you also heard a little bit about those killer cells. they recognise cells that are infected with the virus. so, yes, it is a com pletely with the virus. so, yes, it is a completely different way to make a vaccine. ifrom completely different way to make a vaccine. i from the very outset have been very excited to see where the rna vaccines and up. it was not a given that we would be here today. and the fact that this has worked as a really, really different modality is incredibly encouraging... but in efficacy rate of more than 90% is what you dream of, isn't it? yes, the virus that i have worked on for all of my professional life measles gets close to 90%, over 90% who are immunised with two doses have

protection. so absolutely it's incredibly encouraging but i think we have to balance that optimism with caution. remember what we don't know. what we don't know is how long that immune response will last. so, these are early days and that's the reality of a clinical trial that being able to look at those interim results is really great that 90%, over 90% of the people who have received that candidate vaccine were protected. that is a great achievement. but what we need to determine is how what they will be protected in the longer term and remember as well that what was assessed was people who had symptoms, coughs, fevers, losing sense of taste, etc all those things typical of coronavirus was that there were many other people in the tribe who weren't examined. so people in the child could be

infected but not showing symptoms. —— in the trial. what do we know? number one we know that it protects from the disease. it doesn't protect from the disease. it doesn't protect from the disease. it doesn't protect from the severe disease. that is yet to be find out. doesn't protect for one year, two years, five years? still to be found out. so that is why we really have to balance that optimism with a little bit of realism and not just optimism with a little bit of realism and notjust think optimism with a little bit of realism and not just think that optimism with a little bit of realism and notjust think that it's a done deal, that there is this magic bullet and that everything is fine. yes it is a great day. yes 90% is wonderful. the hurdle was set at 50%. but we just have to be a little bit ready to remember that it's early days. doctor paul duprex, thank you very much indeed for talking to us here on bbc news. breaking news of the come into us in the past few moments.

armenian prime minister says he's signed a deal with the leaders of azerbaijan and russia to end the military conflict in nagorno—karabakh. he promised to disclose details in the coming days. but described the deal as inexpressibly painful. the kremlin has also confirmed an agreement to end six weeks of conflict over the disputed region. 1,000 people have been killed so far during six weeks of the fighting there. let's go back to the united states because us president—electjoe biden has started assembling his team to prepare for taking over the presidency at the end of january. inauguration day january the 20th. he spent the day appointing members to his coronavirus task force. he said tackling the pandemic was key to rebuilding the us economy. the current occupant of the oval office, president trump, is still refusing to concede victory to mr biden. 0ur north america editor

jon sopel reports. donald trump at his rallies repeatedly said that once the election was over, you'd not hear much more about covid. covid, covid! covid, covid, covid, covid! a plane goes down, 500 people dead, they don't talk about it. it's covid, covid, covid, covid. by the way, on november 4th, you won't hear about it any more. it's true. covid! fat chance. there's a fresh infection outbreak at the white house... because we follow the science... ..with his chief of staff and the person leading the legal fight against the results among those to have gone down with it. 10 million americans have now been infected. and from the president—elect today, a markedly different message. it doesn't matter your party, your point of view. we could save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months. not democrat or republican lives, american lives. shares in the us have soared on news from pfizer on the vaccine,

an announcement welcomed byjoe biden and donald trump. but how the president must have wished it had come two weeks ago. the president spent the weekend playing golf, and while we know no more about his future, he today fired his defense secretary mark esper by tweet. well, not fired, he was terminated. donald trump hasn't spoken on camera since thursday, probably a record for this presidency. but his close aides are appearing, and to the question will he concede, this is the answer. that words not even in our vocabulary right now. we're going to go and pursue all of these legal means, all of the recount methods. we're going to continue exposing and investigating all these instances of fraud or abuse and make sure, again, that the american public can have full confidence in these elections. as donald trump vows to explore all legal avenues to continue the fight, some around him are beginning to consider another option. it is that he eventually concedes, but then runs again in 202a.

it's happened once before. in the late 19th century, president grover cleveland lost and fought again and won. with a crane appearing on the skyline today, it's perhaps confirmation that one way or another, donald trump is facing removal from the white house. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. inafew in a few minutes' time we will be going back to the united states to get more on that task force, the coronavirus task force thatjoe biden has announced a few hours ago. in the meantime let's bring some breaking news from the house of lords on the internal markets bill.

the house of lords have defeated in the house of lords over its controversial brexit bill which would allow ministers to override parts of the withdrawal agreement that was negotiated last year. peers voted by 433 to 165, a majority of 268, to remove a key clause from the uk internal market bill. that gave ministers the power to override parts of the exit treaty. a few month ago the government said it was breaking international law. but it was intended as a tidying up exercise. the government set a few hours ago that if that would happen, they were expecting the defeat that it would return to the commons and would be just resubmitted it would return to the commons and would bejust resubmitted by it would return to the commons and would be just resubmitted by the commons meaning it would go into what is known as ping—pong here where the commons and the lords just keeps on pinning things back to each other. that news just in the heavily —— heavy defeat of the internal markets bill. stay with us on bbc news, still to come... digging up the secrets

of human evolution. we speak to the husband and wife team who were part of a team that discovered a 2—million—year—old skull, and what it tells us about how humans evolved. the bombastic establishment outsider donald trump has defied the pollsters to take the keys to the oval office. i feel great about the election results. i voted for him because i genuinely believe that he cares about the country. it's keeping the candidate's name always in the public eye that counts. success or failure depends not only on public display but on the vocal campaign headquarters and the heavy routine work of their women volunteers. berliners from both east and west linked hands and danced around their liberated territory. and, with nobody to stop them, it wasn't long before the first attempts were made to destroy the structure itself. yasser arafat, who dominated the palestinian cause forso, long has died.

the palestinian authority has declared a state of mourning. after 17 years of discussion, the result was greeted with an outburst ofjoy. women ministers whom long felt only grudgingly accepted among the ranks of clergy suddenly felt welcome. this is bbc news. the latest headlines. american pharmaceuticals giant, pfizer, says, it has a vaccine that's more than 90% effective, in preventing coronavirus and the us passes ten million cases of coronavirus. joe biden has set up a special task force and called on americans to wear facemasks. let's stay with that story. the announcement by president electjoe biden of that advisory board.

i'm joined now by georges benjamin, he's the executive director of the american public health association. and hejoins us now. it is quite a big task force is in it? and i wonder what you made of some of the names on it because it includes rick breit who was the whistle—blower against president trump and how he first dealt with the pandemic. yeah, he isa first dealt with the pandemic. yeah, he is a smart guy who knows vaccines and he was on the inside and he knows how to make the system work. you also have an absolutely amazing epidemiologist and actually has done this kind of work for many infectious diseases here in the united states and in fact around the world. this is an extraordinarily strong advisory group. are any of these people on the task force though associated politically in terms of do they take a republican view or a democratic view on things 01’

view or a democratic view on things orare view or a democratic view on things or are theyjust independent scientists without any political affiliation? everybody has a bias politically probably but i can take that many of these people have been advising both democrat and republican administrations for many years... i asked the questions because the whole issue of coronavirus and facemasks have become so politicised. it has. and thatis become so politicised. it has. and that is unfortunate and we're going to have to make sure that we will follow the science and put together a very strong unified approach to doing this and i believe the american people will come along.- million cases according to thejohns hopkins university in the past few hours. is that shifting even the most sceptical us citizens about this virus? yeah, it is a big number andi this virus? yeah, it is a big number and i think it will and the tragedy is we are on track to get the other measure that we have had, over 4000 deaths. we have had 2000... we are

on track for that number to just explode over the next two months. but remember we have 230 main people. so this 10 million people who have been identified with covid—19 is a real problem. —— we have 230 million people. having said that, most americans have not yet experienced this disease. you say that but how many people will know of friends or family who have had this disease? that is a good question. i think what we are seeing is that number is growing but still very many people in this country have not personally been impacted by the disease is much as they have been impacted by theirjobs and by the economy. and the trashy is it will only get worse. what about the track and trace system because that isa track and trace system because that is a big discussion and big debate over here in the uk? how successful has that been state to state? over here in the uk? how successful has that been state to state ?m over here in the uk? how successful has that been state to state? it is not been as successful as we want at all and we have to really wrap that

up. iwas all and we have to really wrap that up. i was an er doctor many years ago so i have treated patients and what i can tell you for this kind of thing, prevention is the key. wearing a mask, wash her hands, keeping a distance and taking the vaccine once it is available. potentially very good news on that front in the past few hours here. georges benjamin, thank you very much indeed forjoining us here in bbc news. something completely different now. australian researchers say the discovery of a 2—million—year—old skull in south africa has uncovered a new chapter in the story of how humans evolved. the fossil belonged to a small—brained, large toothed male. it took a week to excavate and more than 300 hours to put back together — a bit like a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing and no picture to follow. now theirfindings have been published. i'm joined now from melbourne by the palaeoanthropologists who did just that —

la trobe university husband and wife team jesse martin and angeline leece. got it, finally, third time. i think i belong to the former, the small brain bargejaw her i belong to the former, the small brain barge jaw her before who should be made extinct in terms of my pronunciation. —— herbivore. congratulations, it happened a few months ago. angeline tell us what is s0 months ago. angeline tell us what is so significant about this and it is a different form of our species isn't it? talk us through it. yeah, s0 isn't it? talk us through it. yeah, so there is really two things that makes this so significant. the first is that it is so complete and so beautifully preserved which is just really uncommon in the fossil record. the second is that it actually represents a cousin species. it is not in our lineage. it isa

species. it is not in our lineage. it is a side branch but lived on the landscape at the same time as i would direct ancestor homo erectus. and how many different species were there, jesse? well, this is a really interesting time period 2 million years ago. we note that from the site that we... we had this other strange small sprain species... but from another site just on the road we know there is another species. it was really busy for human evolution to million years ago and it would have been a lot of competition for our earliest ancestors. and angeline the competition would have been what about, survival so if you are a meat eater, you are probably 0k about, survival so if you are a meat eater, you are probably ok because you could find different sources of meat but not if you were a herbivore? that is right and you mentioned that we had very small teeth while the others had very large teeth and that is completely

about dietary changes. so these three species are trained to live on the landscape and not outcompete each other where our ancestor, homo erectus was likely eating meat, the other was likely eating grasses and other was likely eating grasses and other hard foods so doing quite a lot of grinding and processing using those teeth. what was it by coming across a 2 million —year—old skull in pieces, jesse? what was the consistency? by the time i got it, it had artie been excavated from the site and the team has spent more thana week site and the team has spent more than a week removing it from the sentiment but when you get these fossils for the first time they sometimes have the consistency of what cardboard, really soft and fragile. so it is myjob when they're removed from the ground to ta ke they're removed from the ground to take that west little bit of sentiment off and i use just cinema practic —— practice straw and i have to sit that sediment up through my mouth it's good for the preservation of the fossil, not so good for my

dietary agitation which involves eating a lot of dirt while doing this. and where to replace thisjust briefly angeline in terms of fossil discoveries? how high up is it? it's amazing. it's amazing. most of the fossil record is just a single tooth here or there. to have something like this is very rare. we very lucky. we both good and jigsaws normally? if we weren't before, we said we are now. like a lot of people who are doing them as husband and wife teams and walked on, we have had a little bit of prior expense but i think we might tackle each excel proposal in the next few weeks to keep us handy in the time. congratulations to both you for going and finding this. jesse and angeline, thank you very much for joining us here in bbc news. that is it for this addition of bbc world news and indeed our domestic

news as well. we will be back in about half an hour. good evening. hello again. we've got some more murky weather with us at the moment, particularly across eastern scotland, with some dense fog patches, visibility down to 100 metres, some fog through the central belt and some fog as well across north east england. since the fourth real bridge or at least half of it. the other half is subsumed beneath the low cloud, the fog and the merc. for the southwards meanwhile we have these bands of rain crossing england and wales moving ina rain crossing england and wales moving in a northeastward direction thanks to an area of low—pressure facet this week low pressure is also drifting northeastward to put some of this rain is washing the fog of the atmosphere so not quite as murky as it has been. still some missing low cloud and really fog away from that rain across northeast england and particularly eastern scotland and particularly eastern scotland and patches through the central belt and patches through the central belt and where the fog is worse, the

visibility is down and tricky travel conditions are expected if you're out and about over the next few hours. a mild night and start to tuesday. this low pressure will push eastwards with a few more percent of rain during the morning. a wad of cloud and remember the murky weather for east scotland and northeast england, that missing fog ticking away to lift into low cloud. through the day i am optimistic we will see an improvement in the weather, more sunshine breaking through the cloud, there will still be a few showers into the afternoon but another mild one, temperatures 13—15 degrees. there will be further changes in the weather though. another area of low pressure m oves weather though. another area of low pressure moves in with a much more potent one with the span of rain getting office and the panda will become heavy and squally, sudden heavy downpours and as and as well as that it will be very windy as well with the strongest winds just running and on and ahead of the front also becoming quite windyjust behind the front as it works and across the south coast of england.

the wind gusts could be strong enough to bring down a few tree branches, we could see some localised disruption and this band of squally rain with strong gusty winds will continue to push eastwards as we go on through wednesday night. as that band of rain clears eastwards, we will see something of an improvement in the weather taking us into thursday as this ridge of high pressure built in behind us. that means we will have some descending air that will break the cloud up nicely and we perceive the cloud up nicely and we perceive the weather brighten up with some decent smells of sunshine. thursday probably the sunniest day of the weekend and for the changes on friday, more rain is on the way.

this is bbc world news. the headlines... the american pharmaceuticals giant pfizer says its experimental coronavirus vaccine has shown itself to be more than 90% effective in preventing infections. the company's chief executive said it marked a great day for humanity. as the number of us cases passes more than ten million, joe biden has set up a special covid task force. he's also urged more people to wear facemasks. donald trump has sacked his defence secretary mark esper. he gave no reason for the dismissal. the us republican senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is supporting donald trump's continued refusal to concede in the presidential election, but other republicans are not. those are the headlines on bbc news.