this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a ‘painful deal‘ — armenia's prime minister signs a peace treaty with azerbaijan and russia to end six weeks of fighting in nagorno—karabakh — but there's anger in the streets of yerevan. many armenians believe they should have fought till the end, they didn't believe they we re end, they didn't believe they were losing the war. a significant breakthrough — as an american pharmaceutical giant reveals a covid vaccine it says is more than 90% effective. the us attorney general, bill barr, authorises federal prosecutors to investigate possible irregularities in the presidential election — his top lawyer resigns in protest.

more brexit trouble for the uk government, as the house of lords kicks out their plan to protect trade. and, skull—diggery. the two million year old skull giving scientists insight into human evolution. hello and welcome. it isa it is a busy one, so let's get started. the armenian prime minister says he's signed what he called a "painful" peace treaty with azerbaijan to end the fighting in nagorno—karabakh. during more than a month of conflict the armenians have steadily lost territory. in this programme yesterday, we heard from the president of azerbaijan, ilham aliyev told the bbc

that his forces will stop fighting immediately if armenia withdraws from occupied territories surrounding the disputed enclave. mark lobel has the latest. azerbaijan's territorial gains have been armenian losses during over a month of heavy fighting, with devastating casualties on both sides. capturing the disputed region's second—largest town was not just a symbolic victory for azerbaijan, it may have been the decisive one, forcing armenia's prime minister into a climbdown. in a statement on facebook, armen sarkissian described the declaration is incredibly painful for both himself and his people, but he said it's the best possible ending after analysing the current military situation with experts. he prays the many martyrs who had died defending the fatherland, promising an address to the nation in the coming days.

there was added pressure on azerbaijan to reach a deal after it shot down this russian military helicopter over armenia. azerbaijan apologised to russia for killing two crewmembers and injuring a third in what they claimed was an accident. as part of the agreement, russia is now deploying around 2000 peacekeepers to the disputed area. translation: the azerbaijan republic and the republic of armenia will stop at their present position. internally displaced persons and refugees will return to nagorno—karabakh and the bordering areas. turkish peacekeepers are being called in as well to police the disputed area, that found itself once again in a regional tussle between turkey backed azerbaijan, which claims to have retaken land lost in the 90s, from russian backed armenia. following this deal,

armenia's prime minister described it as neither a victory nor defeat for his nation, promising victory in the end, but azerbaijan's president was insistent that armenia had capitulated. over the past month, there have been several false dawns, so this one will be watched closely. indeed, just hours after the signing, this was the scene in armenia's capital, as critics of the government stormed their offices. as we've been hearing around a thousand people have been killed during six weeks of the fighting. bbc russian correspondent juri maloveryan is in yerevan, the armenian capital. the crowd behind me is trying to storm the building of the government of armenia here in the centre of yerevan. the unrest started immediately after the statement on the end of the hostilities in nagorno—karabakh

was made public. and the conditions in which armenia agreed to stop the hostilities, for many armenians, they consider it as a capitulation. many armenians believe we should have fought to the end. they didn't believe they were losing the war. and this belief was fed by often misleading statements by the military. leading scientists are cautiously welcoming news of a new vaccine against coronavirus that's proved more than 90% effective in early results. the vaccine has been developed by pharma giant pfizer and its partner biontech, 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.

we can now speak to dr lloyd minor, dean of stanford school of medicine. hejoins us from stanford, california. thank you so much for being on the programme. this is being described in many ways a milestone vaccine, a great day for science and for humanity. give us your response to what has been discovered. thank you, it's good to be with you. i certainly think it is a milestone. it is an early milestone, there is still a lot more to be learned, as was announced today the participants in this study will continue to be followed but in later reported from 94 infected individuals, as you indicated, the evidence is that more than 90%, according to pfizer, have been protected by the vaccine. we don't know how that divides into those receiving placebo and those receiving vaccine, that wasn't announced by the company but based upon that and the nation, it appears that the

vast majority of those 94 individuals who did become infected were likely to have received the placebo, and thus far, as you have indicated, there have not been any adverse safety signals but pfizer still is wanting to continue this follow—up for the initial two month period and all of the, i think, more than 44,000 people enrolled in the trail, prior to moving forward with an application to the us fda for emergency use authorisation stopping the company has announced it will follow participants in the trail for at least a period of two years to monitorfor any late at least a period of two years to monitor for any late safety signals. as you mentioned in your answer there are still quite a few challenges ahead including swift emergent the approval of the vaccine, so how likely is it, do you think, that people around the world will be receiving this before the end of this year or even early next year? there are several things that need to

occui’. several things that need to occur. first, pfizer needs to com plete occur. first, pfizer needs to complete the initial tracking of the participants to make sure that there are no safety signals, in particular, this condition that can occur, rarely, but can occur with vaccines, that usually develops within the first two months, someone within the first two months, someone being vaccinated, and so someone being vaccinated, and so that will be one of the things that is being looked at. if the safety signals are still good, then we have production issues, and this vaccine has to be given in two doses, so we have to produce twice as many doses as needed to immunise people and finally and very importantly this vaccine has a cold chain requirement, that is, it has to be kept very cold until the time it is administered to people, —70 celsius. pfizer has planned for that in terms of how it will be shipped out but that is another limitation or complication in the widespread distribution of this vaccine. all right, i am

told we are out of time which isa shame, told we are out of time which is a shame, there so much more to talk about but thank you for joining us on the programme, and just to say, that in our business coverage and about 20 minutes time, we will be looking at some of the issues with regards to the vaccine, including the market reaction on financial markets where we saw a surge in the value of shares including those trading right now in asia, so all that to come in around 20 minutes. slovakia has just completed two consecutive weekends of nationwide covid testing — the first country in europe to test its entire population for the virus. the rapid antigen tests can show whether you have the virus within 15 minutes, although there's also a high rate of false negatives. however, other countries have been watching the operation closely, as rob cameron reports from prague in the neighbouring czech republic. slovakia's not the biggest

country in europe. its population is just country in europe. its population isjust 5.5 country in europe. its population is just 5.5 million people. but over the past two weekends, three quarters of them have been tested for the coronavirus in an operation spearheaded by the slovak armed forces, it was the only‘s biggest peacetime operation since the country became independent. translation: since the country became independent. translatiosz this difficult situation, we didn't run from the fight. we didn't run from the fight. we didn't desert the thinking ship, but we did everything in oui’ ship, but we did everything in our power to ship, but we did everything in oui’ power to save ship, but we did everything in our power to save this country. slovakia sees mass testing is the only alternative to another harsh lockdown, despite the enormous logistical and political challenges to an operation of this scale. a couple of days before testing, these challenges were still there and that's why there were maybe some pessimistic comments from some representatives and from some representatives and from the public. i think that now it's quite reasonable, it's

possible to do that, but it's not something we can repeat again and again. 3.6 million people were tested in the first weekend alone, and 38,000, mostly asymptomatic carriers, identified and isolated. positive cases are instructed to quarantine stopping the rest are largely free to go about their lives as normal, as long as they can present a certificate proving they have been tested. translation: certificate proving they have been tested. translatiosz certificate proving they have been tested. translation: if it is necessary then i guess we have to do it, otherwise they wouldn't even be able to go inside the shop. thatjust the way it is, but we had to do it. and other countries too are watching the slovak experiment, not just here watching the slovak experiment, notjust here in the czech republic but much further afield as well. nowhere else in the world other than i think slovakia recently... the uk, of course, has ten times slovakia's population and for

other countries, too, testing an entire nation would be extremely ambitious. but slova ks extremely ambitious. but slovaks themselves had their doubts before this operation and those doubts have now abated, so could this be the way forward, as governments everywhere look for a solution to this crisis? rob cameron, bbc news, prague. the british prime minister, borisjohnson suffered a heavy defeat on monday over a proposed law that would allow him to breach the terms of britain's european union exit treaty. the house of lords voted to remove a key clause which would give ministers the power to unilaterally override parts of the exit treaty relating to northern ireland. the government has vowed to reinstate then when the legislation returns to the commmons. the irish foreign minister, simon coveney, spoke to bbc newsnight‘s emma barnett and gave his reaction to the british goverment‘s defeat in the house of lords. it's not a surprise to us as an

irish government that the internal market bill or part five of the internal market bill is essentially being rejected by the house of lords, and it is as controversial a piece of legislation, it seems, within the uk as it is outside of the uk, and i think all five previous prime ministers have all come out to say, this is not good for britain and this is not a good course of action, we shouldn't be doing it, because effectively what the prime minister is proposing to do with this legislation is to deliberately threaten to break international law bypassing domestic legislation which effectively says if the eu doesn't give us what we want, in the negotiations around the implementation of the withdrawal agreement and in particular protocol on northern ireland and ireland, well then we're going to legislate to give british ministers the powers to do what they want to do anyway. and that has been a tactic that has really undermined trust in these

negotiations. if i may, undermined trust in these negotiations. ifi may, how confident are you that the government now drop those clauses that you speak of? well, look, the honest answer isa well, look, the honest answer is a just don't know what they are going to do in relation to the clauses. what we have been trying to do for the last number of weeks is to move away from the distraction of this legislation, which has caused such an undermining of trust in the overall negotiations, and to put it aside and instead focus on tray to solve the outstanding issues, because if we can solve those outstanding issues, that can allow us to put the protocol in place and can put the protocol in place and ca n allow put the protocol in place and can allow us to put our future relationship in place that includes a trade deal, well then, the elements of part five of the internal market bill will effectively become irreleva nt will effectively become irrelevant anyway, and can be quietly removed. stay with us on bbc news,

still to come: trump refuses to concede. biden starts building his team. we'll have the latest on the us election. 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 local 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 for so 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 when the ministers who'd long felt only begrudgingly accepted

among the ranks of clergy suddenly felt welcome. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: the armenian prime minister says he's signed a deal with the leaders of azerbaijan and russia to end the conflict in nagorno—karabakh. he described the deal as ‘inexpressibly painful‘. the first effective coronavirus vaccine has been developed, capable of preventing more than 90% of people from getting covid—i9 — according to preliminary findings. but experts warn of logistical challenges ahead. the us attorney general, bill barr, has taken the unusual step of authorising federal prosecutors to investigate possible irregularities in the presidential election. his move follows days of attacks on the election process from donald trump,

so far without any credible evidence. meanwhile, us president—electjoe biden has started asembling his team to prepare for taking over the presidency at the end of january. 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 2024. 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. let's speak to the bbc‘s david willis in los angeles. david, if we start with the attorney general, bill bach, to what extent has he said give legitimacy to —— bill barr,

give assent to legal activity in the selection? i have to say, the us general william bar in this regard, his action, is thought to be unprecedented. he has authorised federal prosecutors to look into any substantial claims of voter fraud. this is the sort of issue that is normally dealt with at state level but here we have a federal agency, potentially intervening in that process at a time when, of course, there are legal challenges mounted by the trump campaign ina challenges mounted by the trump campaign in a handful of so—called battleground states. what this has led to is the resignation of the man who is in charge of the justice department's collection crimes unit, a man called richard pilger. he said in his e—mail to the attorney general boulevard that this policy was an abrogation of the 40 years of noninterference that the us justice department has had in regards to election. what all

this does is punch as the us justice department into what could be an extremely lucky fight -- could be an extremely lucky fight —— plunges, they could go on for quite some weeks as we wait for the confirmation, if you like, the formal confirmation of this election result. in the meantime, the president is taking big choices and decisions in terms of sacking the defence secretary, just yesterday. just tell us more about what is going on within the white house as this all unfolds? well, donald trump hasn't been seen in public since last thursday, or hasn't made any public statements, i should say, since last thursday. he was seen on the golf course at the weekend but that sort of silence is, as you know, highly unusual for mr trump. he is, apparently, engaged in working out with his legal advisers what policy he should take moving forward and

it's thought there would be a series of campaign rallies designed to whip up support for his legal challenges, if you like. but it's very unusual not to hear from like. but it's very unusual not to hearfrom mr like. but it's very unusual not to hear from mr trump. like. but it's very unusual not to hearfrom mr trump. he is, as you've mentioned, said about sacking the defence secretary mark esper, he fired him by tweets today, saying that he was being, quote, exterminated. mr esper has clashed with donald trump in the past but he is not the only senior administration official, sally, who could be on his way out the door in the next few weeks running up to inauguration on the 20th of january. running up to inauguration on the 20th ofjanuary. ok, we will keep close eye as ever, david willis, thank you. time for the sport now. hello, i'm gavin ramjaun and this is your tuesday sport briefing. it's not quite the same at augusta in november. the masters should have taken place in the georgia spring in april, but the world's best golfers are getting used to very different conditions.

the defending champion is tiger woods. five of his 15 majors have come there. it's expected this time the course will be a lot wetter and the ball won't run as far, maybe favouring the bigger hitters. and, of course, they'll have to adjust to there being no fans. ido i do think there is an energy that comes of crowds, especially at majors. and there is always noise, like the rumblings or anything, even when it is quiet, no—one is cheering, there is always noise everywhere. i think, cheering, there is always noise everywhere. ithink, everybody has grown up watching golf with fans, with crowds, the masters with the patrons. it is just not there at the moment but, you know, hopefully soon it we back. ——it will be back. what an atp debut for czech teenagerjonas forejtek — the 19—year—old beat former us 0pen champion marin cilic in style in bulgaria at the sofia 0pen. he was playing in his first atp main draw and what a way to make a mark,

dismantling the former us open champion in just over an hour — 6—3, 6—2. up next for forejtek, the winner of roberto carballes baena, and richard gasquet — who play on tuesday. and you may have seen this on social media again. south korea's baseball bubbleboy lee raon returned to the field on monday. he threw out the first pitch before game one of the korean baseball organisation's playoff between the between champions doosan bears and the kt wiz. lee went viral earlier this year on kbo opening day when he arrived on the field in his bubble to promote social distancing, then threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the wiz. you can get all the latest sports news at our website — that's bbc.com/sport. but from me, gavin ramjau, and the rest of the sport team, that's your tuesday sport briefing. that is, thank you to govern and attain. let's highlight

this on bbc online which you can read in detail. it is fascinating, about a 2 million year old's goal of a human cousin unearthed. it is extraordinary to think that that's cold there is —— skull, is 29 years old. it was discovered north of johannesburg and froze more light on human evolution. apparently, the two species lived at the same time as the paranthasus robustus, lived at the same time as the para nthasus robustus, if lived at the same time as the paranthasus robustus, if i set up paranthasus robustus, if i set up properly. there's so much detail there. you can see there, among those who have found this extraordinary fossil. it was found in a quarry just north of johannesburg. i will be back in just a few moments time and we will have all of the top business stories, including a look at the strong market reaction to that news of a

possible covid—i9 vaccine. all thatis possible covid—i9 vaccine. all that is coming injust a possible covid—i9 vaccine. all that is coming in just a few minutes. do not go anywhere, i will see you in a moment. hello there, we've got a bit more murky weather to come over the next few hours. now, this weather watcher picture, i quite like it. this is the fourth rail bridge of course or at least half of it. the other half is subsumed beneath low cloud, the fog and the murk. futher southwards meanwhile, we've got these bands of rain crossing england and wales moving at a northeastward direction thanks to an area of low pressure. this weak low pressure is also drifting northeastwards. but some of this rain is actually washing the fog out of the atmosphere. so, it's not quite as murky as it has been. still some mist, still some low cloud. the really dense fog is away from that rain across northeast england, particularly eastern scotland and some patches through the central belt. and where it is worse, the fog, visibility down to 100 metres

so it is really quite dense. tricky travel conditions are to be expected if you're out and about over the next few hours. a mild night though and a mild start to tuesday. this little low pressure will continue to push its way northeastwards with a few more bursts of rain during the morning, a lot of cloud and remember the murky weather too for east scotland, northeast england. that mist and fog taking awhile to lift into low cloud. through the day though, i'm optimistic that we'll see an improvement in the weather. a little bit more in the way of sunshine breaking through the cloud. there will still be a few showers dotted around, mind you, into the afternoon but it's another mild one. temperatures 13—15 celsius. there'll be some further change in the weather midweek though. another area of low pressure is going to move in. this one is much more potent. this band of rain will get all of us, and the rain will become really quite heavy and squally. so, sudden heavy downpours and as well as that, it's going to be very windy as well with the strongest winds just rolling in on and ahead of the front. also becoming quite windyjust behind the front as it works and across the south coast of england.

now, the wind gusts could be stronger to bring down a few tree branches. so, 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. now, as that band of rain clears eastwards, we'll see something of an improvement in the weather to take us into thursday as this ridge of high pressure builds in behind us. that means that we'll have some descending air. that will break the cloud up nicely and will see the weather brighten up with some decent spells of sunshine. thursday probably the sunniest day of the week but then further changes on friday. more rain is on the way.

this is bbc news with the latest business headlines

for viewers in the uk and around the world. financial markets get an injection of hope. wall street hits a record high as investors react with euphoria to the vaccine breakthrough. game on! microsoft and sony gear up for battle, with both set to launch their latest gaming consoles this week. and india's circuses are laughing at their new found fame, after going online and pulling in the punters. it's one of those days when financial market make the headlines. they have rocketed on hopes

of a potential breakthrough