this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the uk health secretary, matt hancock, says he's told the national health service to be ready to start vaccinating people against covid—19 from the beginning of december — with wider immunisation to follow. my central expectation is that the mass roll—out of this vaccine, is it considered, will be in the first part of next year. what are your thoughts or questions about the vaccine and the speed at which it might be delivered to the public? get in touch on that or if you have any other thoughts on today's stories on twitter @annita—mcveigh or by using the #bbcyourquestions. the chief palestinian negotiator saeb erekat has died at the age of 65, due to covid—19 complications.

the us attorney—general takes the unusual step of authorising federal prosecutors to investigate allegations of voter fraud in last week's presidential election. the uk unemployment rate rises to 4.8% in the three months to september — compared with 4.5% in august — with redundancies reaching a record high. the education standards body for england — ofsted — warns that some children have regressed in basic skills and learning during the pandemic. and coming up this hour... researchers say the discovery of a two—million—year—old skull in south africa has uncovered a new chapter in the story of human evolution.

hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world — and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. we'll bring more on the vaccine news in a moment, but first our breaking news that the chief palestinian negotiator saeb erekat has died at the age of 65. he had suffered serious health problems for several years before contracting coronavirus last month. he was being treated in hospital in jerusalem. with us now is our middle east correspondent tom bateman. town, mr erekat announced just about a month ago that he had contracted covid—19, he had had a lung transplant just three years covid—19, he had had a lung transplantjust three years ago so clearly that lead to complications in his treatment for the owners? he had that lung transplant three years ago in the states and he had been in

self—isolation, he said himself, in his home city ofjericho in the occupied west bank ever since then. wenlock turns to kernel the coronavirus he said in a meeting that i attended that everyone else now understood how he felt, because he was immunosuppressa nt now understood how he felt, because he was immunosuppressant had to effectively not see people and all that time since the lung transplant, but the news emerged over a month ago that he had contracted coronavirus. he was kept at home for a short while but around three weeks ago he was taken to hospital in jerusalem. that in itself was not uncontroversial, that is an israeli one hospital but he wanted and he is the lifetime peace negotiator for the lifetime peace negotiator for the palestinians. but that hospital offered exceptional medical treatment. they have released a statement in which they said he was put on a long house machine —— he

was put on a lung—heart machine to treat him, it seemed to be successful for a time that he suffered multi—organ failure and was pronounced dead this morning. tributes are being paid, alex denny president mahmoud abbas said he is deeply saddened and described it as a great loss for the palestinian people —— palestinian president mahmoud abbas. chief negotiator in peace talks for two and a half decades, put into context for us the role that saeb erekat played in the middle east, please? it marks a generation of palestinian leaders who had managed successfully to bring the ambition for palestinian statehood into the international community and gain legitimacy. the crucial period for that was from the madrid peace conference in the early 19905 up to the landmark oslo

accords of the net 19905, and saeb erekat was one of the key architects in that, he served under the then palestinian leader yasser arafat. he remains one of the key figures in terms of talking to the israelis, usually under american arbitration, usually under american arbitration, usually under american arbitration, usually under the clinton administration in the 19905 which led to the signing of the landmark oslo accords. that gained international legitimacy for the plo, for x factor, the party of mr erekat and yasser arafat, and it was the starting point for a palestinian state in the west bank, in gaza. —— for fatah, the party of mr erekat. the oslo accords were only meant to

last for five years, that was the original idea, in advance of the full palestinian state, that has never happened and the moment at which (inaudible) is one of increasing isolation for the palestinian leadership. the gabba has been a boycott of relations between the palestinian leadership and the americans but limited change pudsey biting presidency coming into place which see a return to some of the pre—trump era discussions, but his passing comes at a critical time for the palestinian leadership about where they go next for his life is not ambition. tom bateman, thank you, we will have more for you on the death of saeb erekat throughout the death of saeb erekat throughout the morning. now two developments in the morning. now two developments in the uk with regard to a possible

coronavirus vaccine. here in the uk, health secretary, matt hancock, says he's told the nhs to be ready to begin vaccinating people against covid—19 from the beginning of december. mr hancock said further mass vaccination would begin by the spring and he hoped by the summer, the bulk of the vaccine would have been deployed — but he stressed the jab would only be given if the government was confident it was clinically safe. doctors say they ‘stand ready‘ to start vaccinating — with proposals being drawn up for clinics to run for seven days a week. the british medical association said mass vaccination centres could be used "in a similar way to testing centres". john mcmanus reports. is it a game changer, or is it too early to be optimistic? the announcement by pfizer yesterday was greeted with almostjubilation. after a year in which 50 million people worldwide have been infected, and in which more than 1.2 million have died, it's easy to see why so many view this vaccine as an answer to their prayers. it's believed to be more than 90% effective, and the government has ordered lio million doses, enough to immunize 20 million people who'll need two jabs each.

and this couple helped make it happen. ugur sahin and ozlem tureci are both children of turkish immigrants who now own biontech, the german firm which worked with pfizer on the vaccine. the government admits the roll—out will be a logistical challenge but says it is prepared. we will be working with the nhs and the support of the armed forces seven days a week, over weekends and bank holidays, to get this rolled out into people's arms as quickly as possible, and i can tell you that today i will be announcing £150 million of support for gps and the programme of roll—out which is very much led by the nhs will be absolutely critical. but new opportunities bring new challenges. the safety of the vaccine needs to be assured before it gets regulatory approval. pfizer has indicated it will apply

for this in the us later this month. it is still not known how long any immunity may last and decisions need to be made about who can have it first, with care home residents and workers likely to be at the top of the list. if it emerges that the vaccine needs to be taken annually than an information campaign similar to the one for seasonal flu jabs will need to be rolled out and it will need to tackle any misinformation. it is likely the vaccine will be targeted on those who are elderly or vulnerable for other reasons and it is not yet clear that we will want to vaccinate, for example, all the schoolchildren and teenagers. i think these things need to be worked out depending on the nature of the vaccines. a limited number of people might get the vaccine this year, but for everybody else, the advice is still that facemasks, hand washing and social distancing are still the best protection.

let's return to the news that the chief palestinian negotiator saeb erekat has died at the age of 65. he had suffered serious health problems for several years before contracting coronavirus last month. he was being treated in hospital in jerusalem. joining me now from ramallah is dr mustafa ba rghouti. a palestinian politician and a friend of saeb erekat. thank you very much forjoining us today as we take stock of this news. saeb erekat had, i think, tweeted a few weeks ago, he had with deals that he had this virus and he tweeted that, god willing, things we re tweeted that, god willing, things were undermanned, where his words, things are under control. —— things we re things are under control. —— things were on the mend. at given his health conditions, this was a very

tough battle he was fighting? we feel the loss, his family, for anybody it is a great loss and we as his friends and colleagues feel this big loss. saeb was a fighter for palestinian rights —— for palestinian rights —— for palestinian rights, he was a well—known diplomat, he was established, he led lots of negotiations on behalf of the palestinians and was involved in the plo, so it is a big loss for everybody but i must say he did not stop working, even when he knew he was risking his life, given the spread of the coronavirus. u nfortu nately spread of the coronavirus. unfortunately he is now another victim of this horrible virus. let's hope there will be a possibility of controlling this pandemic so we will not have more losses. but dr erekat

will be remembered for his struggle, he has participated in palestinian struggle since he was a student and then for many years as a teacher in universities, also as a diplomat and an activist in the plo, and we feel that this is a big loss, it will be difficult to replace him. at our struggle has to continue. our deep condolences are to his family, his colleagues, all the palestinian groups in the plo and especially to his party, fatah. for many years he had been seeking a two state solution and has recently as the summer solution and has recently as the summer he criticised various countries for their decisions to formalise ties with israel, he criticised for example the uae for formalising ties with israel, saying it was a killer blow to his ambitions for this two state

solution. especially taking into account the issues i have been with president trump and his approach to dealing with the middle east, now we have a new president in america, do you think that saeb erekat would have thought it held the promise. movement? everybody thinks so. i think the disappearance of president trump isa think the disappearance of president trump is a big relief not only to the palestinian people but the peoples of the whole world, because u nfortu nately we have peoples of the whole world, because unfortunately we have witnessed during his period very serious recidivist policies which have affected things from the global environment to the world health organization, to the rule of law and international law. at the biggest degree of damage was made to the palestinian issue because netanyahu's palestinian issue because neta nyahu's plan of palestinian issue because netanyahu's plan of the deal of the century is nothing but liquidating

palestinian rights. i hope the new administration will follow a different path. we want to see immediately israel stopping the pi’ocess immediately israel stopping the process of building settlements, because that would kill the possibility of the two state solution. we want to see the reversal of the acceptance of the annexation ofjerusalem and the golan heights, which violates international law. there is an opportunity here that we hope the new administration will use, but the last thing we want is to go back to an endless, useless negotiation that leads to nothing and that keeps preprep “— leads to nothing and that keeps preprep —— keeps procrastinating the possibility of our solution. we want peace, not just a possibility of our solution. we want peace, notjust a piece process. dr mustafa barghouti, thank you very much for your thoughts on the news that saeb erekat has died.

i'm joined now by dr husam zomlot, who is the ambasssador and head of the palestinian mission to the uk. thank you for your time. your thoughts on the news that saeb erekat has died and how you would sum up his role in peace negotiations. decades? he was the architect of the middle east peace process and the hope for ending the conflict and realising the dream of peace, two states, allying with international rules. it is really a sad day for his immediate family, a sad day for his immediate family, a sad day for palestine, a sad day for all our international friends who had hoped for a successful peace agreement. it is a big loss for us, the palestinians. this leader has spent literally his entire life serving his nation, defending the rights of his people in every form

one can imagine, be it with his political party, fatah, which has lost one of its most popular leaders, be it our umbrella organisations which represents all palestinians and was seeking legitimate representations. his hands always reach to everybody but his heart is always strong when it comes to the principles under very legitimate rights of the palestinian people. it is a very, very sad loss ata people. it is a very, very sad loss at a very particular moments when we needed the most. he was a close friend of mine and i personally file severe sense of loss. our middle east correspondence 18 minutes ago was saying that mr erekat was emblematic of a generation of leaders with very strong ambitions

for palestinian statehood and a two state solution, and obviously relations with israel have been at a pretty big low recently, haven't they? who takes up the mantle from saeb erekat, g you think? presumably, with his wealth of experience, he will be very hard to replace? he will be very hard to replace. this is notjust about the position, it is about the person and the belief, the commitment, the energy. he had endless energy. i was the ambassador to washington when he had the lung transplant, i witnessed that moment, i went with him to the operating theatre and i saw that fight in him, he never gives up and it will be truly difficult to replace him. but nbn is palestine is a living nation and we will have

many generations who would take up that flame and continue our march towards freedom —— but, in the end, palestine is a living nation. they will be light between comedy objectives, and the goals of dr erekat and the many decades he had worked in that fight. there will be people who will carry on, however, the person, saeb erekat, the leader, saeb erekat, the official, saeb erekat, the peacemaker, saeb erekat, the freedom fighter will be missed for many years to come. ambassador, thank you. dr husam zomlot, head of the palestinian nation to the uk, thank you for your time. 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—elect joe biden has started asembling his team to prepare for taking over the presidency at the end of january. david willis reports. joe biden is wasting little time preparing for his ascent to the white house, announcing the line—up of a task force to deal with an issue that could dominate the early days of his presidency, the coronavirus, and holding his first call as president—elect with a foreign leader, canada's justin trudeau. as the call was taking place, donald trump, who, since the election result was announced has only been seen on the golf course, was firing his defence secretary mark esper, terminating him, in the words of the president. it is thought other high—profile administration officials could soon follow mr esper out the door. the president has yet to concede the election and his team is mounting legal challenges in multiple states.

the top republican in the us congress told lawmakers mr trump was fully entitled to contest the outcome. the core principle here is not complicated. in the united states of america, all legal ballots must be counted, any illegal ballots must not be counted. the process should be transparent or observable by all sides and the courts are here to work through concerns. and after meeting with mitch mcconnell, the attorney general, bill barr, announced that the us justice department would be involving itself in investigations into voterfraud. that as the president set about attacking his former ally, fox news, and other media outlets, accusing them of tampering with the election by broadcasting polls that he said had been inaccurate. fox later cut off the white house press secretary as she sought to explain donald trump's refusal to concede.

you don't take these positions because you want an honest election. you don't oppose an audit of the vote because you want an accurate count. you don't oppose our efforts at sunlight and transparency because you have nothing to hide. you take these positions because you are welcoming fraud and you are welcoming illegal voting. studio: whoa, whoa, whoa. ijust think we have to be very clear, she is charging that the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. unless she has more details to back that up, i can't in good countenance continue showing you this. it all points to a messy and rancorous transition period with less than ten weeks to go before inauguration day. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. well, we can get more on this probe into alleged voting irregularities from ciara torres—spelliscy who is professor of law at stetson university. thank you very much for talking to

us on thank you very much for talking to us on bbc news. your reaction to what william barr is doing, escalating the legal challenges from state—level to schedule? what will this mean for the transition? the department ofjustice always has the ability to look into allegations of fraud in federal elections, but so far there is no evidence of widespread fraud. and, in fact, in this letter to prosecutors, william barr urges the idea that they should not be investigating fanciful claims and doesn't mention any evidence of irregularities himself. a previous guest we spoke to said that was just to provide him with some kind of cover and that in fact he is trying to basically enable, in his words, president trump to delay the

transition. would you agree with that? trump seems to want to litigate a win he could not get at the ballot box. so far the american courts have dismissed almost all of his cases. i am confident in the courts, iam his cases. i am confident in the courts, i am less confident in what attorney general barr is up to. you are confident in the courts, does that mean the supreme court if it got to that level? i think so. number one, it might not get to that level, the us supreme court has control over it jotted so level, the us supreme court has control over itjotted so it does not have to take all of its cases and traditionally it has turned to 90 to 95% of the cases which act for cert, which is asking for the supreme cert, which is asking for the supreme court to hear the case. joe biden is going about his business in the way one would expect the

president—elect to do, but with donald trump yet to concede and legal challenges continuing, how is that effecting the transition compared to what would be happening in more usual circumstances? there is nothing in the constitution that requires the loser to concede, but i think it would be much betterfor the country as trump conceded and it would be much smootherfor the transition of trump conceded. would be much smootherfor the transition of trump concededm means that the biden harris team are not getting access to certain federalfunding not getting access to certain federal funding and intelligence information that they would be expecting to see right now?m information that they would be expecting to see right now? it is down to a gsa erekat he has not signed a particular letter. —— a gsa peer across. “— signed a particular letter. —— a gsa peer across. —— bureaucrats. that is

the general service administration? basically they have to sign something to say the transition is happening? exactly. and because of these ongoing court cases, it may not be entirely clear to that bureaucrats that we have a clear winner. what happens if this goes on for quite a few more weeks, we get to the day where the electoral couege to the day where the electoral college meets, donald trump is potentially refusing to admit he has lost, has not conceded. there has never been a situation like this. will he eventually vacates the white house or will somebody close to him, perhaps a family member, persuade him that it is what he has to do is none of these cases come to anything? and no evidence has been presented so far. constitutionally the man who gets to hundred and 70 electoral college votes will be the

next president. that does not look like it will be donald trump. whether he concedes or not, he cannot stay in the white house. whether he concedes or not, he cannot stay in the white housem will be very interesting to watch how the next few weeks and felt. professor ciara torres—spelliscy from stetson university, thank you for your time. it's the second day of a three—day online conference aimed at mobilising international finance to get behind the efforts to tackle climate change. the green horizon summit, organised by the city of london, was the idea of the former governor of the bank of england, mark carney, who's now a un special envoy on climate action and finance. let's speak now to professor corinne le quere, from the university of east anglia. she is a climate scientist and oceanographer. great to have you with us, professor. let's begin with something uk chancellor rishi sunak was talking about, the idea that companies listed on the stock exchange would now have to start

reporting what they are doing in terms of being green, being more carbon neutral, trying to get towards being carbon you chill. you think that is a really good place to start on getting big money and big finance engaged? yes, thank you. yes, it is a good place to start. it is really important that all the big actors including businesses play their role, are active in tackling climate change in following the glove or the country's ambition to reduce emissions to net zero very quickly —— in following the government or the country's ambition. we need to have all the sectors of the economy bending towards these zero emissions very, very quickly. so definitely

designated place to start. those decisions are extremely important, society has tens of billions of investments to make in the next 30 yea rs investments to make in the next 30 years to get there. when it comes to rebuilding greener, which lots of politicians and leaders have been talking about, what evidence is there of that happening in the first wave of this virus, there was lots of discussion because people were not flying it was benefiting the environment, but on the other side of the equations you have lots of single—use plastics being used, so how is the situation balancing right now in terms of the impact of this pandemic on the environment? we have seen pandemic on the environment? we have seen really drastic changes this year. at the peak of the pandemic, the first wave in april, the global emissions dropped by 17% and 30% in

the uk. when the consignment is between the two weights the emissions are already back up, all because the changes associated with the covid crisis, they are mostly from people not using their cars, from people not using their cars, from constraints on behaviour, but they are not changes, what we call structural changes. nothing has really changed during the pandemic, we have the same roads, same cars, same heating systems and it —— and it is those investments we need to have the drop in emissions we had seen have the drop in emissions we had seen this yet but continues yeah yeah, but for good reasons, reasons are touted for jobs yeah, but for good reasons, reasons are touted forjobs and health and will take is still a strong economy —— but continue year on year. cop26

was supposed to take place this year, that un leaders climate conference, it is taking place next year instead. how did you think the green horizon summit will feed into that? especially taking into account that? especially taking into account thatjoe biden had said he will sign an executive order bringing the usa back into the paris climate accord? absolutely, this is a critical and interesting momentum and opportunity to tackle climate change. we have the us president—elect making climate change a priority of his administration but we have also china, south korea, japan just recently making very important announcements on their ambition to tackle climate change with net zero objectives, like the uk and europe. with cop26 objectives, like the uk and europe. with co p26 coming objectives, like the uk and europe. with cop26 coming next year we are

about to see countries really coming forward with a new commitment and activated tides with the investment made to get out of the covid pandemic, if cells can be aligns with tackling climate change, we purge really see a changing trajectory towards something that is far more positive with respect to climate change and the environment. really interesting to hear your thoughts on that green horizon summit taking place, sites from the university of east anglia, thank you. will feel his loss let me bring you some of the tweets you have been sending about the vaccine that we heard about yesterday. melanie says what is the gender distribution of the vaccine trial member, have any potential differences to the vaccine by male and female bodies been investigated?

a really interesting question there, she wonders will this be safe for pregnant people and baby, all really good questions. then we have on twitter, the naysle one says are the pharmaceutical companies immune for liability? how can we regard it as safe if they are unaccountable? then we have another one saying jonathan van tam yesterday stated that the mhra the regulatory authority is fiercely independent and will need time the look at the vaccine trial data once it is completed. that will ta ke data once it is completed. that will take time. so why does matt hancock think it will be available in a few weeks? think it will be available in a few wee ks ? lots think it will be available in a few weeks? lots of questions from you, good to hear some of those and your thought on that. keep sending them in orany of thought on that. keep sending them in or any of the other stories and use the hashtag bbc your questions.

let's bring you more on our breaking news this hour, that the chief palestinian negotiator saeb erekat has died at the age of 65. he had suffered serious health problems for several years before contracting coronavirus last month. he was being treated in hospital in jerusalem. yolande knell looks back on his life. you might not have known his name, but you will have seen his face. for three decades, whenever palestinian and israeli leaders met, saeb erekat took a prominent place. the president urged... fluent in english, he studied in the us and the uk, before becoming a key figure in the secular fatah movement back in the occupied west bank. in 1991 he drew attention wearing his palestinian kaffir scarf at the madrid peace conference. he was close to the palestinian leader yasser arafat,

and with the breakthroughs oslo peace accords he became a peace negotiator. sticking to the job after president mahmoud abbas took over through rounds of on and off talks. a viable two state solution... he was a strong advocate of the two state solution, the long—standing international formula for peace abandoned by the trump administration. he opposed arab gulf states normalising relations with israel, but remained a moderate voice. and the only way to have peace in this region is to solve the palestinian question. it is to solve the israeli palestinian conflict. to end the israeli occupation. saeb erekat had a lung transplant in the us in 2017, and had earlier survived a heart attack. his health deteriorated soon after testing positive for covid—19. palestinians will feel his loss strongly, at a time when relations with israel are at a new low and prospects for the creation of an independent palestinian state the goal of his life's work look increasingly dim.

let's join the health and social care select committee, where dido harding, the chair of the nhs test and trace is facing questions from mps. she has been asked about the budget. let us listen? . given i can write to give you some of the detail, i don't have that split in my head. you must have a sense of it. is it mostly national, mostly local? the reason i don't have the sense in my headis reason i don't have the sense in my head is that the contact tracing approach we have, is a genuine team of teams, so, the test and trace budget i refer to, is the nhs test and trace budget which is separate from the public health england budget and the health protection teams in public health england are ina teams in public health england are in a central component of our contact tracing and in turn separate from the local authority resource, and so we would need to put the

three together for you. but crucial policy question in contact tracing is whether this is done nationally, or whether it is done locally. now, surely you must have a feel, deploying the budget, you are chair of nhs test and trace, do you put most into the national effort as it we re most into the national effort as it were or most into the local effort? i don't think either is the right approach. i think it is an and, not an either or. a5 approach. i think it is an and, not an either or. as i think previous witnesses have said this morning, we, when ijoined test and trace at the beginning of may, we were in the midst of standing up a very large national contact tracing effort. since ijoined we have been looking to integrate that and work in real partnership with health protection teams in public health england and local authorities, so it has been moving over time, and i local authorities, so it has been moving overtime, and i am

local authorities, so it has been moving over time, and i am very supportive of that locally led nationally supported model for contact tracing. it is clear there isa team contact tracing. it is clear there is a team to work together but nevertheless you must know that you pay the national team in one way, and you reimburse the costs of local authorities and local public health england teams through different budgets and other way, surely you must have some visibility as to whether noes of the money going on the national part of the team, if i can put it that way and the rest on the local. i don't have the numbers in front of me, i am happy to write and share the detail with you and the committee, but the point i am trying to make is that there are a number of different parts in this tea m number of different parts in this team of teams, and it is important that we are funding all of them not just one, and i have got direct control over mart of that but not awe of it. thank you forjoining us, cani awe of it. thank you forjoining us, can i start by recognising the biggest single achievement of the whole test and trace programme which is to get up to a capacity of

500,000 tests a day, which you achieved last week, which i think makes it the biggest or one of the biggest in europe as a testing programme. you will know that one of the main reasons that we invested from the summer on in big expansion of testing and contact tracing was to try to avoid a second national lockdown, and indeed in places that have done testing and tracing, korea, singapore, taiwan and so on, they have avoided any national lockdowns at all, they didn't even have the first one but we have gone into our sec one. why do you think it is you weren't able to stem the tide even despite the ex exenion that we had? -- extension. extension. if if i give you an operational view and defer to soup san. i think firstly i would say, that this second lockdown as we go into it, we go into it in a

different way than the first lockdown. the r number, the rate of infect hundred is significantly lower than in march. over 3 in march and somewhere between 1 and 1.5 across the country today. and i think that is in no small part due to the way in society we are changed behaviours so we are wearing facemasks we are keeping a distance, washing our hands in a way we didn't understand in february. test and trace exits. it is haase to differentiate the change between the two but the rate of growth of infection is slower than it was in that first wave and our ability to understand where the disease is spreading fast is so much better thanit spreading fast is so much better than it was. so we are able and have been able through the summer and into the autumn, to act more locally and regionally, that wasn't available to us, but, to answer your question directly, i am afraid much asi question directly, i am afraid much as i would love that testing and tracing on its own would be a silver

bullet to holding back the tide of covid, unfortunately the evidence in the uk and in every other country in europe that is not the case, that actually the way that we have to tackle the disease is through a variety of different interventions and we are one of the ways, not the only way. i don't know if sue can can elaborate more on the scientific evidence than i. dr hopkins thank you forjoining u i am trying to understand why it is that east asian countries have been able to avoid notjust a second lockdown but countries have been able to avoid not just a second lockdown but even a second wave, not just a second lockdown but even a second wave, many not just a second lockdown but even a second wave, many people would say that test and trace is a key reason they have been able to do that, why is it we haven't been successful in making that happen here?|j is it we haven't been successful in making that happen here? i think there is a couple of elms, i think there is a couple of elms, i think the first is we never got down to the first is we never got down to the very small numbers they did, so single figures in many of the countries, low ones —— hundreds in other, that even when we had very low numbers over the summer there

we re low numbers over the summer there were undecked cases in the population and we reek mice the role of asymptomatic transmission, that has been recognised from the start, that has been clearly more obvious over the latter few months, and we know that now because the ons survey tells us when they detect the number of cases they do, by testing a large amount of the population, that only one third of those cases are being tested and detected through symptomatic testing that we have offered, so that means there is a large number out there who are not coming forward for testing or have or asymptomatic and potentially transmitting and that means that we need to constantly reiterate and keep the distance and keep our contacts low, and one of the reasons why discussions such as liverpool and where we are trying to find the undetected cases in the population, will become more important as we try and slow the spread. thank you. can

i come back to you dido harding, i wa nt i come back to you dido harding, i want to explore what, and what susan hopkins said about the level of transmission being heren here, if i go through a bit of maths so the ons say at the moment there is about 52,000 new infections a day, your own data says there is 3.4 contacts per infection although it may be higher than that. that is what your data says. theoretically cub should be asking 177,000 people to quarantine every day but you don't find out about those infection, you find out about those infection, you find out about a third of them, you only reach 60% of the contacts and only reach 60% of the contacts and only 20% of those isolate, so what that means is instead of the theoretical maximum of 177,000 people quarantine, which would be the ideal scenario, actually it is

less than 5,000, which is about 3% of the total thee are the cathedral maximum. is that maths right? let me ta ke maximum. is that maths right? let me take you through each piece because i would challenge a couple of the assumptions you have made. i wouldn't challenge the overall direction of travel, there is considerable drop off in any test and trace system, you won't get 100% at each stage, if you take each, i think, firstly, the most, the most channelling estimate is exactly how many people are getting the disease each day, and as you say central estimate from the ons of circa 50,000 at the moment, the one thing you know is disease is moving, either up or down. we are reaching, we are finding circa 20—25,000 cases a day, so it is more than your third, it is somewhere between through the course of test and trace's existence in the last sixth months it has moved round between 40 and 50%. it is at the higher end of

that at the moment, of the percentage of positive cases we find, so you are right, and as susan allieded to, one of the biggest challenges of disease is hunting out people, finding people who have the disease, who don't know they have it. so agree at that point. then the persevenage of people of contacts we reach, again your assumption is a bit low, so on average, if i take last week we contacted 77.8% of contacts last week we contacted 77.8% of co nta cts for last week we contacted 77.8% of contacts for whom we had contact detail, no system can reach people whose contact details we don't have. and so, you know, again, that has been reasonably constant through the course of the last five, six month, actually as the scale has grown, just to give you a sense of the scale, the first week in august we reached 18,000 people, and asked them to isolate. last week we reached 311,000 people. so that is a 17 fold growth since the beginning of august. and while i take your

point, that we need to continue improving that percentage and as we work more with local authorities we are seeing that start to grow, i think as the director of public health for darwin said they are at 87% through a combination of national and local. nonetheless, 87% through a combination of nationaland local. nonetheless, i am trying to unpick the maths a bit. i think you are being slightly pessimistic, the system is reaching more, but you do highlight, let me go to the isolation point as well, there are a number of different surveys , there are a number of different surveys, and we live, i am pleased with live in a liberal democracy, where it is quite hard to track where it is quite hard to track where people are every day, so all of the data we have on compliance with isolation is based on people reporting what they have done. there area number of reporting what they have done. there are a number of different surveys that, that have been done and you have quoted again probably the most pessimistic, to quote the chief medical officer, chris whitty, i don't think you should think of

isolation as a black—and—white one zero thing, the evidence we have in test and trace is the majority of people are trying very hard to comply when they are asked to. when they are not it is because they might havejust they are not it is because they might have just popped tout get fresh air, or if they have gone anywhere, they have gone to buy emergency prescriptions or food they didn't know how else to get. we have got a number of surveys we are running an our latest one, and we, this is unqa data, but surveys we ran to the middle of september shows 54% of people telling us they didn't leave home during the period they we re leave home during the period they were asked to isolate, so not 100% but it is better than the other surveys , but it is better than the other surveys, so but it is better than the other surveys, so it is hard to put a finger on that, and i would like to sort of, if you sum up, the system gets better and better, the better we get at finding people who have the disease, so the more we are scaling testing, the more we are

using mass testing to find asymptomatic cases it gets better and better and the more all of us play our part in isolating, when we are asked to, the more effective the whole testing an tracing will be. thank you. i didn't deliberately look for the most pessimistic numbersl look for the most pessimistic numbers i was looking at the latest reported numbers but i am willing to acce pt reported numbers but i am willing to accept it might be better than that, but, even if it is higher than 3% of the people you would potentially wa nt the people you would potentially want to quarantine, it is probably not going to be much more than 10%, it may certainly won't be more than 20%, and it would been reasonable to expect 100% compliance considering you don't know about a number of the cases but i am wondering if the fact that less than one in five of the people we would want to quarantine are doing so is o people we would want to quarantine are doing so is 0 why sage said on 215t are doing so is 0 why sage said on 21st september the whole programme is only having a marginal impact on the transmission of the disease.

again, i would just push back gently and say that, we shouldn't be expecting testing and tracing to account for 100% of the fight against covid. and clearly if we were, identifying absolutely eve ryo ne were, identifying absolutely everyone and everyone was isolating it would, that is not realistic in any country in the world for any disease. this is one of, i think the prime minister called it on saturday evening, one of the rays of sunshine, it is not the only one. it isa sunshine, it is not the only one. it is a tool and if it's a tool that contributes to you know, 20% plus of ourfight against contributes to you know, 20% plus of our fight against covid it is a hugely valuable and important tool, andi hugely valuable and important tool, and i describe it as our second line of defence, our first line of defence is actually our own behaviour, the social distancing, wearing of masks, washing hands, the harsh reality is that that first line of defence and that second line of defence on their own, have not been enough to prevent a second wave, which is and that is true across the whole of europe, which is why we have to keep expanding our

testing, improving our tracing, and, but also why we have to comply with various retrickions as well. and that is dido harding in charge of test and trace in england appearing before the health and social care select committee. asked about the budget for test and trace, she said she was supportive of locally led nationally supported model for contract tracing but said that testing and tracing on its own is not a silver bullet to deal with the virus. she said there, just in the virus. she said there, just in the last few moments, the system gets better the more we get better at finding out who is positive and who has been in contact with that positive case but you know know in the most recent figures they were the most recent figures they were the poorest figures so far for test and trace in terms of the number of close contacts of positive cases who

had been reached, fewer than 60%, sage recommended at least 80% of klose contacts of positive cases need to be traced, in order for the. is to be affected and let me tell you that coverage of that select committee continues on bbc parliament but of course we will bring you any more details of that and key lines from that hearing as we get them. 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. yesterday, the president of azerbaijan, ilham aliyev, told us 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 one month of heavy fighting with devastating casualties on both sides.

capturing the disputed region's second largest town of shusha was not just a symbolic victory for azerbaijan, it may have been the decisive one, forcing armenia's prime minister into a climb—down. in a statement on facebook, nikol pashinyan described the declaration as incredibly painful for both himself and his people. but he said it is the best possible ending after analysing the current military situation with experts. he praised 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 said it mistakenly shot down this russian military helicopter over armenia, killing two of its crew. as part of the agreement, russia is now deploying around 2,000 peacekeepers to the disputed area.

translation: the azerbaijan republic and the republic of armenia will stop at their present positions. internally displaced persons and refugees will return to nagorno—karabakh and the bordering areas. turkish peacekeepers are being called in too 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 ‘905, from russian—backed armenia. following the signing of this deal, armenia's prime minister described it as neither a victory nor a defeat, but he still promised victory in the end. in contrast, azerbaijan's president was insistent, armenia had capitulated. over the past month, there have been several false dawns, so this one will be watched cautiously. indeed, just hours after the signing, this was the scene in armenia's capital yerevan as thousands of critics of the deal

who thought they could have won the war stormed government buildings and filled the streets. feeling betrayed rather than buoyed by the peace deal and calling for their prime minister to go. mark lobel, bbc news. australian researchers say the discovery of a two—million year old skull in south africa has uncovered a new chapter in the story of human evolution. drimolen fossil caves are in the middle of the cradle of humankind, the world heritage site just north ofjohannesburg. gail maclellan reports. say hello to a two million—year—old man. quite a bit like us, but with bigger teeth and a smaller brain. he was found at the drimolen caves site, an area busy with fossil

remains of our ancient ancestors. often just a single tooth might be found, but this old chap is almost complete and well preserved. there's really two things that make this thing so significant. the first is that it is so complete and so beautifully preserved, which is just really uncommon in fossil records. the second is that it actually represents a cousin species. it is not in our lineage, it is a side branch, but it lived on the landscape at the same time as our direct ancestor homo erectus. putting the skull together is rather like working on a 3d jigsaw puzzle, with some pieces missing and no idea at all of what the eventual picture might be. but that's not the worst of it. when you get these fossils for the first time, they sometimes have the consistency of wet cardboard — they are really soft and they are really, really fragile. so it is myjob when they are removed from the ground to take that last bit of sediment off. and i actually use just a normal plastic straw, and i have to suck the sediment up from that straw into my mouth. so it's really, really good

for the preservation of the fossil, not so good for my dietary adaptation, which involves eating a lot of dirt. paranthropus robustus had to contend with sabertooth cats, leopards, hyenas and competition from species with smaller teeth but bigger brains, us. we eventually outlived him. gail maclellan, bbc news. the news in the last hour of the death of the palestinian negotiator saeb erekat who has died aged 65, in a hospital in jerusalem saeb erekat who has died aged 65, in a hospital injerusalem of covid—19 complications, he was loyal to the late palestinian leader yasser after fat, secretary—general of the plo and for the last two—and—a—half decades, had been the chief palestinian negotiator in peace talks with israel. saeb erekat dying

of complications of covid—19 at the age of 65. you are watching bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with carole. hello again. yesterday, temperatures in parts of wales got up to 18 degrees. today, we are looking at highs of round about 16 degrees somewhere in the south—east. still above average, but not as mild as it was yesterday. forecast is a fairly cloudy one and a damp one, but it should brighten up later. we've got some showers courtesy of this weather front drifting towards the east, and then later in the day this next area of low pressure, with these fronts bringing us some rain and gusty winds. now we've had a lot of low cloud and fog this morning. that will break and lift, and we will see some sunny skies develop through the afternoon, with fewer showers than yesterday, but you could catch the odd sharp one somewhere in the south—east.

temperatures ranging from 11 in the north to 15 or 16 as we sweep down towards the south. then, as we head on through the evening and overnight, what you will find is the cloud will build, the wind will strengthen and then we will see the arrival of some rain coming in across northern ireland and also western scotland. in lighter winds in the south—east, and clear skies, here we could see mist and fog patches reform. generally speaking, we are looking at a comparatively mild night. so, as we go through the course of tomorrow, we have got this low pressure with its weather front, and it is very slowly going to be moving south—east wards. you can see the isobars around it, that is telling you it is going to be windy, so after a bright start in the south—east, cloud will build ahead of this weather front, the wind will strengthen ahead of it, very gusty winds through the irish sea and western areas, amongst this squally band of rain, and then behind that too, it will still be pretty windy. tomorrow's top temperatures, 10 to about 14 degrees. as we move from wednesday into thursday, eventually that band of rain moves away from the south—east. we have got a little transient ridge of high pressure, settling things down,

but you can already see the next front waiting in the wings. so, first front clears, we see a lot of dry weather, a fair bit of sunshine, and then the next front comes in from the west, strengthening winds once again, thicker cloud and also some rain. temperatures nine to 13 or 14 degrees. that won't feel too bad if you are out of the wind and in the sunshine. as for friday and saturday, into the weekend, it will continue cloudy, windy and wet at times, but it looks like we will see something brighter on sunday.

this is bbc news. i'm joanna gosling. the headlines at 11:00. the health secretary, matt hancock, says he's told the nhs to be ready to start vaccinating people against covid—19 from the beginning of december — with wider immunisation to follow. my central expectation is that the mass roll—out of this vaccine, will, if it comes good, will be in the first part of next year. the latest weekly coronavirus death figure for england and wales passes 1,000 — for the first time sincejune. the education standards body for england, ofsted, warns that some children have regressed in basic skills and learning during the pandemic. the unemployment rate rises to 4.8% in the three months to september with redundancies reaching a record high. the chief palestinian

negotiator saeb erekat has died at the age of 65, due to covid—19 complications. the us attorney—general takes the unusual step of authorising federal prosecutors to investigate allegations of voter fraud in last week's presidential election. and coming up this hour... researchers say the discovery of a two—million—year—old skull in south africa has uncovered a new chapter in the story of human evolution. good morning. the health secretary, matt hancock, says he's told the nhs to be ready to begin vaccinating people against covid—19 from

the beginning of december. he said further mass vaccination would begin by the spring and he hoped by the summer, the bulk of the vaccine would have been deployed — but he stressed the jab would only be given if the government was confident it was clinically safe. doctors say they ‘stand ready‘ to start vaccinating — with proposals being drawn up for clinics to run for seven days a week. the british medical association said mass vaccination centres could be used "in a similar way to testing centres". john mcmanus reports. is it a game changer, or is it too early to be optimistic? the announcement by pfizer yesterday was greeted with almostjubilation. after a year in which 50 million people worldwide have been infected, and in which more than 1.2 million have died, it‘s easy to see why so many view this vaccine as an answer to their prayers. it‘s believed to be more than 90% effective, and the government has ordered 40 million doses, enough to immunize 20 million people who‘ll need two jabs each.

and this couple helped make it happen. ugur sahin and ozlem tureci are both children of turkish immigrants who now own biontech, the german firm which worked with pfizer on the vaccine. the government admits the roll—out will be a logistical challenge but says it is prepared. we will be working with the nhs and the support of the armed forces seven days a week, over weekends and bank holidays, to get this rolled out into people‘s arms as quickly as possible, and i can tell you that today i will be announcing £150 million of support for gps and the programme of roll—out which is very much led by the nhs will be absolutely critical. but new opportunities bring new challenges. the safety of the vaccine needs to be assured before it gets regulatory approval. pfizer has indicated it will apply

for this in the us later this month. it is still not known how long any immunity may last and decisions need to be made about who can have it first, with care home residents and workers likely to be at the top of the list. if it emerges that the vaccine needs to be taken annually than an information campaign similar to the one for seasonal flu jabs will need to be rolled out and it will need to tackle any misinformation. it is likely the vaccine will be targeted on those who are elderly or vulnerable for other reasons and it is not yet clear that we will want to vaccinate, for example, all the schoolchildren and teenagers. i think these things need to be worked out depending on the nature of the vaccines. a limited number of people might get the vaccine this year, but for everybody else, the advice is still that facemasks, hand washing and social distancing are still the best protection.

john mcmanus, bbc news. we can speak now to dr richard vautrey, the chair of the british medical association‘s gp committee for england. can you outline how the seven day a week clinics would work? we are still working with nhs england on the arrangements but in all likelihood, practice is working together in their local communities will designate a site that is appropriate for vaccination and work together over the coming months to ensure that people do get vaccinated as quickly and as practically possible. this will be a mammoth challenge that practices will face and we need the patience of our patients and we need the local support from nhs bodies to help us to do this. obviously with it being rolled out in waves in terms of the most vulnerable and those working on the front line first, people would need to wait to be invited to be able to go to the centres? that is

absolutely right. we are almost certainly going to start with those who are most vulnerable, those in ca re who are most vulnerable, those in care homes, also immunising care workers and nhs workers who are on the front line. sadly, we have seen too many of our colleagues die from this deadly infection, we need to protect them. we will probably immunise those in their 805, those in the 70s immunise those in their 805, those in the 705 so people will be invited gradually over the coming months, but we will try to do this as quickly as possible, but first we need the vaccine to come through and then we need it to come through in sufficient quantities to be able to use. will it take away from regular gp services? there is a real challenge at the moment, general practice right across the country is under huge pressure. we are already facing the needs of large numbers of people who are suffering from covid related symptoms, as well as the many symptoms who have winter —related illnesses or chronic diseases they have lived with for

many years. we are having to do all of that at the same time is running the biggest flu campaign we have ever done. practices are daunted, but we are very successful at delivering mass vaccinations. we know that with the right support we can do it, but we need everybody to be patient as we go about this important task for our patients and for the nation. you said you are daunted by the prospect ofjuggling everything, but is the reality going to be that either people may stay away from gp practices because they feel they cannot go, or they literally cannot get there? because that has been happening to an extent already. we understand over the last few months patients have been worried about coming to the practice when it is necessary to do so. we have been offering telephone consultations for our patients and now we are actually contacting and consulting with far more patients than ever we would normally be the case at this time of year. practices are already providing as good a possible service to their patients,

they are open every day providing services to their patients. but this is another big task, we will need to work together, not just with local practices, but with other bodies as well to prioritise our workload and the priority will be protecting our vulnerable patients from covid—19. research has indicated that people do worried about vaccines, this is a new vaccine that has come through quickly, what would you say to somebody who might be given the chance to have the vaccine and say actually, they don‘t want it? chance to have the vaccine and say actually, they don't want it? this is why we have to be cautious. clearly, it is good news that pfizer have been able to come forward with their particular vaccine and show it is effective. other companies will be doing that soon, i am sure. then it needs to go through the regulatory process. we need to be absolutely confident the necessary checks and balances have been put in place. we not only have an effective vaccine, we have a safe vaccine. once we have seen evidence of that, andi once we have seen evidence of that, and i am sure it will come very

soon, we and i am sure it will come very soon, we can and i am sure it will come very soon, we can be absolutely confident we are giving something very beneficial to our patients. we have seen beneficial to our patients. we have seen this with other vaccines over the years, from small cox and mmr to control measles and the flu jab. vaccinations have saved many lives and i‘m sure this vaccine will be equally important, not least protecting our vulnerable patients, but enabling the nation to get back to some degree normality. what you described of assurances of a vaccine going through all the stages it needs to go through before it goes out for wide use, it just needs to go through before it goes out for wide use, itjust won‘t get out for wide use, itjust won‘t get out there unless it has gone through the stages, but even in spite of that they will be people who say they are worried about it. he mentioned the effectiveness of mmr, a lot of parents don‘t give their kids mmr because they are worried about it? the vast majority of pa rents about it? the vast majority of parents do give their children mmr and they protect them against not just measles but mumps and rubella as well. it is a vitally important

vaccine and it is sad some choose not to, because it does leave their children vulnerable to serious illnesses. we might not see these illnesses. we might not see these illnesses as commonly as we used to do, but they remain very serious infections and we know we have an effective vaccine and we know the evidence is it is extremely safe and people should use it, as well as the other vaccines are promote. we would not give or promote any vaccine to any patient if we were not absolutely confident it would be in their best interests at the best interests of their family and friends as well to have it. he very much forjoining us. coming up at 3.30 we‘ll answer your questions on development, trials, delivery and impact of a covid—19 vaccine. i‘ll bejoined by dr elisabetta groppelli, from st george‘s university of london and dr bharat pankhania for the university of exeter medical school. you can get involved by sending your questions to ‘yourquestions@bbc.co.uk‘ or tweeting us using the hash tag bbc your questions.

the number of people dying continues to be above normal levels for this time of year — new figures from national statistics agencies show the number of deaths across the uk were more than 11% higher than expected in the final week of october. deaths linked to covid—19 account for all of the extra deaths, and more. to take a closer look now at those latest figures, i‘m joined by our health correspondent nick triggle. talk us through the figures. we know from the government‘s daily figures the number of covid deaths have been going up for the past couple of months. this data from the uk national statistic bodies looks at all deaths, deaths linked to covid and the other debts that are taking place. they show, if we can see a chart, they show the number of deaths in the week, the last week of october, which is higher than normal. the covid deaths are shaded

in red. there were 12,500 deaths and nearly 1600 linked to covid. up by 500 the week before. covid does account for all of the excess deaths and more. what we can see is the deaths are growing more slowly than they were in the spring when we saw that big peak in the first wave, the number of deaths and were twice what was expected. we are going into winter, which obviously brings different challenges for the nhs compared with what happened first time round, what are the stats indicating? these figures are a reality check after yesterday‘s good news with the vaccine. in the press briefing last night, the deputy chief medical officer, professor jonathan van tam made it clear the vaccine would not help with the winter wave and the pressures we are seeing on the nhs because of the time it takes to roll out and we are still waiting for regulatory

approval. 13,000 patients at the peak in the spring, there were 20,000 patients. the nhs is trying to keep some of the routine work, more of the cancer treatments going. already we are seeing some hospitals having to cancel some of the nonurgent work. the pressures are very acute and we are only in november. despite yesterday‘s good news, we should be braced for a very difficult winter. there have been claims that the second wave has already peaked, what did the statistics show? it is interesting, before lock there were some signs the levels of infection were stabilising. we know the official monitoring programme run by the office for national statistics show that by the end of october infections were stabilising. we are seeing something similar in the official figures seeing something similar in the officialfigures for seeing something similar in the official figures for the number is coming forward testing positive around the country. they are hovering around the 22,000 a day on average. it suggests it may have

peaked before lockdown, the regional tier programme might have slow the spread of the virus. government advisers are concerned that it wasn‘t going to come down quick enough and that is why they introduced lockdown. what we should see in the next couple of weeks is infection levels really coming down, rather than just plateauing, hopefully coming down during lockdown. thank you. cheshire police says it has re—arrested a health care professional as part of an investigation into deaths of babies at a neonatal unit. the woman arrested is understood to be nurse lucy letby, who was previously arrested in 2018 and 2019. police say the woman has been re—arrested on suspicion of murder in relation to the deaths of eight babies and the attempted murder of nine babies at the countess of chester hospital. there‘s a warning that the pandemic has caused most children in england to fall behind with their learning, and for some their social skills have also been impacted.

the education watchdog ofsted found some young children have forgotten how to use a knife and fork or have regressed back to using nappies. our education correspondent dan johnson reports. when the pandemic closed schools, we knew learning had paused to some degree, but now there‘s evidence many children went backwards, even losing basic skills like using a knife and fork. ofsted visited 900 schools, colleges, nurseries and social care providers over the last two months and found some older children have lost reading, writing and maths ability. and there were signs of greater mental distress, including eating disorders and self—harm. the report describes three broad groups. the hardest hit young children have gone backwards, losing words and numbers, as well as some basic skills like potty training. the majority have slipped back to some degree, having lost school time and learning during lockdown.

but there are some who‘ve had a more positive experience, benefiting from more time with supportive families. the impact of the pandemic has combined with children‘s existing circumstances, and those with special educational needs have been especially badly affected. a third of schools have seen a rise in children being educated at home, which ofsted says raises concern about their progress and well—being. the report highlights the continued hard work of teachers, and says it‘s good schools and nurseries are open during england‘s current lockdown. the department for education said getting all children back into full time learning was a priority, with £1 billion being spent helping them catch up. dan johnson, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news... the health secretary, matt hancock, says he‘s told the nhs to be ready to start vaccinating people against covid—19 from the beginning of december — with wider immunisation to follow the latest weekly coronavirus

death figure for england and wales passes 1,000 — for the first time sincejune. the education standards body for england ofsted — warns that some children have regressed in basic skills and learning during the pandemic. the chief palestinian negotiator saeb erekat has died at the age of 65. he had suffered serious health problems for several years before contracting coronavirus last month. he was being treated in hospital in jerusalem. yolande knell looks back on his life. you might not have known his name, but you will have seen his face. for three decades, whenever palestinian and israeli leaders met, saeb erekat took a prominent place. fluent in english, he studied at the us and the uk before becoming a key figure in the secular fatah movement back in the occupied west bank. in 1991, he drew attention, wearing his palestinian kaffiyeh scarf

at the madrid peace conference. he was close to the palestinian leader, yasser arafat. and with the breakthrough oslo peace accords, he became a peace negotiator, sticking to the job after president mahmoud abbas took over through rounds of on and off talks. a viable two state solution is the only way... he was a strong advocate of the two state solution, the long—standing international formula for peace abandoned by the trump administration. he opposed arab gulf states normalising relations with israel, but remained a moderate voice. the only way to have peace in this region is to solve the palestinian question. is to solve the israeli—palestinian conflict. it is to end the israeli occupation. saeb erekat had a lung transplant in the us in 2017 and had earlier survived a heart attack. his health deteriorated soon after testing positive for covid—19. palestinians will feel his loss

strongly, at a time when relations with israel are at a new low and prospects for the creation of an independent palestinian state, the goal of his life‘s work, looking increasingly dim. yolande knell, bbc news. 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—elect joe biden has started asembling his team to prepare for taking over the presidency at the end of january. david willis reports. did no time in forming a task force to help the coronavirus and as

president—elect, has reached out to trustjustin trudeau. and donald trump has only been seen on the golf course, was firing his defence secretary. terminating him in the words of the president, it‘s thought other high—profile administration officials could soon follow him out the door. the president has yet to concede the election and his team is mounting legal challenges in multiple states. the top republican in the us congress told lawmakers mr trump was fully entitled to contest the outcome. the principle here is not complicated. in the united states of america, all legal ballots must be counted and any illegal ballads must not be counted. the process should be transparent or observable by all sides and the courts are here to work through

concerns. after meeting with mitch mcconnell, the attorney general, bill barr announced the usjustice department would be involving itself in investigations into voterfraud. that, as the president set about attacking his former ally, fox news and other media outlets, accusing them with tampering with the election by broadcasting polls that he said had been inaccurate. fox later cut off the white house press secretary as she sought to explain donald trump‘s refusal to concede. you don‘t take these positions because you want an honest election. you don‘t oppose an audit of the vote because you want an accurate count. we don‘t oppose our effort at sunlight and transparency because you have nothing to hide. you take these positions because you are welcoming fraud and you are welcoming fraud and you are welcoming illegal voting. welcoming fraud and you are welcoming illegal votinglj welcoming fraud and you are welcoming illegalvoting. i think welcoming fraud and you are welcoming illegal voting. i think we have to be very clear, she is charging up the other side of welcoming fraud and illegal voting unless she has more details to back that up, i cannot continue showing

you this. it all points to a messy and rancorous transition period with less tha n and rancorous transition period with less than ten weeks to go before inauguration day. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. the uk‘s unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in the three months to september, up from 4.5% as coronavirus continued to hit the jobs market. redundancies rose by a record 181,000 in the quarter to reach a new high, the office for national statistics said. firms made more workers redundant in anticipation of the end of the furlough scheme, which was originally supposed to finish at the end of october. it will now last until 31st march. we can speak now to our business correspondent, ben thompson. running through the headline figures and some of those numbers will come as no surprise to anyone who has been looking for work lately, maybe

theirjob isn‘t so secure as it once was, maybe they are on furlough without any real clear indication when they came back to theirjob. such as thejobs when they came back to theirjob. such as the jobs market and the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on business and jobs, many a nalysts had on business and jobs, many analysts suggesting this picture will get much worse before it gets better. as you said, the number of people out of workjumping by 243,000 over the last three months. incidentally, the last time there was such an increase was in the depths of the recession in the 19805. it starts to tell you where we are and how bad things will get. it is young people again who are struggling, the unemployment rate amongst 18 to 24—year—olds, much higher. 14.6%, compared to the headline rate for all of us, which has risen to 4.8%. so a significant difference. let‘s delve into some of

these details and what all of this tells us. we can speak to a senior market analyst at city index. fiona, very good morning. let‘s start with the headline figure, we knew it was going to get worse, we knew the headline rate is creeping up, some suggesting it could get as high as 996 suggesting it could get as high as 9% by next year, where do you figure, what are you thinking right now? it has crept up and it is likely to keep going. the figures we have seen, there was actually a slight improvement just as have seen, there was actually a slight improvementjust as riva coming into autumn. slight improvement in job advertising numbers. the problem is, with the second lockdown now in place, that really means this is going to go downhill again. i do think we are going to see much higher unemployment figures as we head towards next year. let's also not forget that we do have the

chancellor's extended furlough scheme. while that did come too late for many who have been made redundant already, it might actually mask the true impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the labour market going forward. yes, the furlough, an interesting issue, as we have touched on, supposed to end at the end of october, but now the end of march, but many others saying it was too little too late, that extension. let‘s talk about redundancies, that gives us a sense of where we are. 314,000 redundancies, a record high. if we put it into a bit of context, even at the height of the financial crisis and the job losses caused in 2008, there were 311,000 redundancies. already we have surpassed that grim figure? exactly,

these are really, really difficult figures to digester. this really does show the impact we are seeing from the coronavirus crisis on the labour market. as we know, there are particular sectors which are really struggling, the hospitality sector, the retail sector are going to see a harder hit than other sectors as we go harder hit than other sectors as we go through the crisis. we have already said the government furlough scheme now extended until the end of march, so that might give some employers a bit of breathing space. two big factors that could change this and one is probably a good thing and the other is probably a more challenging thing. let‘s talk about the brexit and the no deal scenario that could potentially play out and also the vaccine. the vaccine, one would assume and given the hope we have seen over recent days, that could start to get things

back to normal, including thejobs market? yes, that is definitely a game changer. this has been a huge piece of news and as we saw, the market's reaction yesterday and it is still continuing today. the ftse 100 is still higher on the back of this euphoria surrounding the vaccine. what would happen obviously with the vaccine in place and people would be able to go back to their daily lives, go back out spending and the economy would pick up. however, let's not forget that the distribution of this is going to ta ke distribution of this is going to take some time. this is not an overnight solution to the problem. it does mean that we will still face a difficult winter as we continue to deal with lockdown, job losses for the vaccine to come into place probably in spring next year. brexit, it's going to be

problematic. imagine if we are in lockdown and to get extended and there is a no trade deal brexit, that would really knock businesses and it will be a lot for them to deal with as we go into 2021. yes, so deal with as we go into 2021. yes, so many factors for everyone to contend with. fiona, it is good to see. thank you so much. joanna, it is interesting because they are so many different facets of this that tells us who is bearing the brunt of this, as we said particularly young people. but there is one glimmer of hope, if you can call it that in all of this. the reason the unemployment figure has gone up is there are more people coming back to the jobs market. to be classed as unemployed you have to be looking for a job. what we saw in the depths of the pandemic has a lot of people just took themselves out of it entirely, maybe because their children were not at school and they thought they could not go out to look for work.

so some sign that things might be getting up a little bit closer to something like normal is that people are now coming back to the jobs market and saying, things are, at home, maybe now is the time to start looking for a job. whether they can find one is another issue, but nonetheless, some small signs that things might be creeping back to some sort of normality. thank you. let‘s talk more about those developments in the search for a possible covid—19 vaccine. the health secretary matt hancock has said the nhs will mount a colossal effort to make sure people receive the new pfizer vaccine once the government is convinced it is cynically safe. with me now is dr duncan robertson , policy and strategy analytics academic at loughborough university. your area of expertise which is prevalent right now is about the vaccine distribution and how it might work. what hurdles remain to effective distribution of this vaccine, assuming it gets the

go—ahead through the remaining testing processes? that is quite a big caveat in terms of making sure we know exactly who this vaccine is beneficial to. at the moment, we know there is a trial and we have preliminary evidence from that trial. but we don‘t know if it will be effective for elderly people. elderly people are the ones that are most vulnerable to the disease and they are the ones that are potentially going to be most benefited by this vaccine. as you say, the logistics of actually getting the vaccine to people is a huge task and we concentrate on the uk, but it is a global task. these ma nufa ctu res uk, but it is a global task. these manufactures are not just uk, but it is a global task. these manufactures are notjust providing us with the vaccine but the whole world. it was good the secretary of state talked about gps are distributing the vaccine, because we all want to be vaccinated and i think getting compliance will help

if yourgp is think getting compliance will help if your gp is vaccinating you. but it isa if your gp is vaccinating you. but it is a tricky, logistical operation, particularly if some of these vaccines have to be chilled, not just chilled but these vaccines have to be chilled, notjust chilled but —80 degrees and thatis notjust chilled but —80 degrees and that is not something of regular use in gp surgeries, so we may have to find groups of gps getting together with logistics in the background, perhaps matt hancock talked about the armed forces and they do logistics very well. just going back to what you are saying about it potentially not being effective in the elderly. why would the vaccine have a different impact on different age groups? the point is, we don't know. we have a press release from the vaccine company, but we haven‘t got the full results and that‘s what all the scientists are waiting for to wait to see who has been vaccinated and whether there are any

differential benefits for different groups. so i think this is more me talk about do we actually... has a preliminary list of priorities and it‘s quite important that it‘s not set in stone yet, because we don‘t really know whether these vaccines are effective across the adult age groups. so that‘s why, provisionally, we are talking about the people who are most likely to die from the vaccine, and they are the elderly people. but particularly people in care homes and we saw, certainly in wave one, care homes we re certainly in wave one, care homes were particularly badly affected so that‘s why they‘re the top priority. ca re that‘s why they‘re the top priority. care home residents and care home workers, and then nhs workers. then we go down the age groups and we also have high—risk individuals somewhere between very elderly people and 50—year—olds. so they are prioritised more than other people. but what we are doing, they have set

out their objectives clearly. they are trying to minimise mortality and protect the nhs, but also protect the social care system which was badly hit in the first round. how ha rd badly hit in the first round. how hard is it to test a vaccine when people are socially distancing? there was a lot of talk for a while about pieces being reduced dramatically and perhaps that would impinge on the ability of the development process to have an efficient testing programme but even once the cases had been rising, people are staying away, isolating when they‘ve got it in socially distancing otherwise anyway. when they‘ve got it in socially distancing otherwise anywaylj when they‘ve got it in socially distancing otherwise anyway. i don't know about the specifics of the pfizer trial, but certainly what some of these vaccine manufacturers have been doing is to look for places where there is a relatively high incidence. for example, the united states, south africa, they may have tested there because they

have high incidence and of course, you don‘t want people to catch the virus but it is good data if some people do. that‘s where some of these trials have been... it‘s a global effort, it‘s notjust vying to the uk. uk people aren‘t different to anybody else, we can all catch the virus, so the data comes from a global effort around the world. with every demographic be vaccinated ideally? would children be vaccinated? because we know that the virus has a different impact on younger versus older. for the jcb i have said is that they have concentrated on adults. they talk about adults and social care. so i think we have to find out whether it has been tested with the vaccine, we do have data for children but certainly at the moment, we are

looking at the adult population being vaccinated and further trials may have to take place to look at other sectors. what are your thoughts on when society may return to normal? well, i think wejust don‘t know. i think we are all fairly optimistic. we are looking to 2021, i think. fairly optimistic. we are looking to 2021, ithink. probably fairly optimistic. we are looking to 2021, i think. probably around the summer. 2021, i think. probably around the summer. but what is normal? i think one thing that could help is to realise that actually, this vaccine isn‘t a magic solution for the short term. we still have very high prevalence of the vaccine across the uk and we need to make sure we get that down. that‘s going to save lives in the short and medium—term and long—term solution is vaccines. we need to get tested, trace trace and isolate working and then we can get back to our normal lives. thank you very much.

let‘s catch up with the sport. the three most powerful men in english football are facing questions this morning from a parliamentary committee — in what‘s been described as "an attempt to break the deadlock" over a financial rescue package. they‘re being grilled on the state of negotiations and the "obstacles to reaching a deal" for lower league clubs. the premier league chief executive richard masters was asked about the support that‘s been made available.. he insisted promises have been kept. we have made good all of our solidarity commitments of £110 million, both last year and this year. we worked with the afl to forward that funding to keep clubs in funds forward that funding to keep clubs infunds and forward that funding to keep clubs in funds and the same goes for community and youth funding, development funding to efl clubs totalling £90 million both last year and this. masters was also forced to defend big spending by the premier league this summer — that‘s despite many clubs at the lower end of the english

football pyramid still in danger of going bust. committee chair, julian knight described the situation as a farce. they spent 1.2 billion in the tra nsfer they spent 1.2 billion in the transfer window, £9 billion deal at the top of the game. the idea of allowing you to come back early was that it would be able to help out the rest of the sport. other sports, frankly, were to sayjealous, vexed, whatever, when you are allowed to come back early, specifically in project restart and frankly, it feels as if the negotiations have taken far too long and that there is a degree of farce about them. meanwhile, efl chairman rick parry told the ommittee that they would prefer any money coming from premier league to be in grants not loans — but clubs "can now move forwards" with the proposed rescue package on offer.. we are having constructive dialogue. it was our league 1 and league 2 clu bs it was our league 1 and league 2 clubs last month who, in a gesture of solidarity, said they did not

wa nt to of solidarity, said they did not want to abandon the championship, they wanted a deal for the lead as a whole, which was commendable. the premier league has now said that it was prepared to consider the championship, so i think we can move forward on that basis. albania has emerged as the leading candidate to host england‘s nations league game against iceland on the 18th of november. the game is in doubt because non—uk visitors coming in from denmark are currently banned because of coronavirus restrictions. iceland are due to play denmark in copenhagen just three days before facing england at wembley. the fa is said to be ‘exploring all options. meanwhilejude bellingham has been added to the england squad following the withdrawal of james ward—prowse and trent alexander—arnold through injury. the borussia dortmund midfielder was originally included in the under 21 squad but will now link up with the seniors for the first time. the european qualification tournament for the 2021 women‘s rugby world cup has been postponed.

world rugby hope to rearrange the fixtures next year. meanwhile the six nations have confirmed they‘ve cancelled the outstanding three fixtures in the 2020 women‘s competition. england were the only country to complete all their games and won the grand slam. that‘s all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. that‘s bbc.co.uk/sport. "one hurdle cleared but several more to go". that‘s how the prime minister described yesterday‘s announcement about the development of a potential coronavirus vaccine. early results show the jab could prevent 90% of people getting covid—19. so how would it work? the vaccine uses a tiny part of the genetic sequence of the virus, rather than the actual virus itself. synthetic material, known as rna, is injected into muscle cells in the arm. this leads to the creation of antibodies — they bind

onto coronavirus and prevent future infections. killer t—cells are also produced. these should identify and destroy infected cells. so what does this news mean for people who have been shielding for months now? could the end be in sight? we can talk to samantha banton, who has been shielding on and off since february. also i‘m joined by melody powell, who has been shielding for seven months. i want to know first of all what you both think about the vaccine. melody, are you excited about the prospects? melody, we can‘t hear you at the moment, the sound isn‘t working. we will fix that. samantha, how are you feeling? hello there. nice to see you. i have been shielding, as you say, since the 28th of february, solidly for five

months until the 4th of august. and now i don‘t even go in supermarkets or anywhere. i mostly stay indoors most of the time. i‘m just going to say that i‘m allergic to the flu vaccine, so i‘m quite concerned that people like myself who are allergic to certain medications won‘t be able to certain medications won‘t be able to have the covid—19 vaccine because i don‘t know if i will be allergic to it or not, which could lead to life—threatening situation where i could go into anaphylactic shock. so for myself, i‘m not sure yet whether i will even be able to have the vaccine. so it‘s kind of concerning. but it‘s very good bet to vaccine his then trialled and developed. but

the other concerning issue is that maybe the government need to think more about prevention of people, of the spread of the virus, by providing more hand sanitiser, hand sew and face coverings. to low income and poor people who can‘t afford it. there are people, when you walk around the street, ec reusing disposable facemasks and they are quite grubby looking and it‘s just such a shame to see people not being able to afford the thing is to help them keep clean. it‘s very good that a vaccine has been produced but the government also need to realise that there is a lot of people who are on low incomes who are quite poor, just about scrape by to get food on the table, they have no money left to be able to provide face coverings for themselves and

sanitary products. this is a problem. it‘s very good that we have a vaccine, but we need to think about how to support people keep it clea n. about how to support people keep it clean. let's bring back melody. how do you feel about the thought of a vaccine? i think the thought of a vaccine? i think the thought of a vaccine is very helpful and it makes me feel like i won't feel so alone and isolated any more and canjoin my peers who haven't really been affected that much by lockdown. tells more about your have you been out at all? a handful of times in the past seven months. but that's just to drive through, because i just to drive through, because i just don't feel safe being around other people at the moment. just don't feel safe being around other people at the momentm just don't feel safe being around other people at the moment. it must be very lonely, very tough. it's incredibly lonely. watching friends on social media going out and about

and living life as normal, it takes its toll on your mental health. so, the vaccine obviously could be a huge change for you. would you take it? i would. but i'm huge change for you. would you take it? iwould. but i'm not huge change for you. would you take it? i would. but i'm not sure i would want to be the first. i would wa nt to would want to be the first. i would want to know how it affects people with muscular dystrophy, because some people can‘t have the flu vaccine like was said before, so i would like to see more information regarding that before taking it. and so regarding that before taking it. and so that may take some time, obviously, for those questions to be answered. what are your feelings about the prospect of having to shield for much longer, potentially? it's shield for much longer, potentially? it‘s something that, unfortunately, people in my positionjust it‘s something that, unfortunately, people in my position just have to accept because there isn‘t anything

we can do. but hopefully, if other more healthy people have the vaccine, that can help protect us so we can have a bit of normality back. what are you able to do you work, are you able to work? before, i was volunteering at primary schools while studying, but now i‘m studying from home. i haven‘t been able to volunteer or do any of my extracurricular things. samantha, you said obviously that you‘ve had a similar experience of having to shield solidly for a prolonged period of time. what impact has had on your life? it's very isolating. things that i used to do before that are no longer available, nhs hospital appointments, lots and lots of my appointments have been

postponed indefinitely, which i find absolutely frustrating completely. it's absolutely frustrating completely. it‘s so annoying. especially if you have chronic health conditions and your appointments up postponed. they say they will call me when they have got leica when, when, when it‘s all up got leica when, when, when it‘s all up and running again. clinics are cancelled at the moment. they are doing things by telephone but even you don‘t get telephone sometimes many, you don‘t get telephone sometimes any you don‘t get telephone sometimes many, many people are in the same position as myself with chronic health conditions. things have been put back and lots of appointments i just cancelled or postponed. it‘s really, really tough. if you live on your own and you are at home and you are isolated and your suffering and pain and it‘s just really tough some days. you find it hard. but you have

to get through it because you have to get through it because you have to push on and keep going. for your family and friends. i have the support of friends, i have really amazing friends who support me well and i‘m grateful for amazing friends who support me well and i‘m gratefulfor my family as well. so, i‘m lucky to have good family and friends to support me. that‘s what i was going to ask. what level of communication and contacts you can and do have. well, i live on the ground floor in a disabled apartment, so i have ground floor windows. so during hard lockdown the first time, when it was really bad, i had people come to the window, they can have a cup of tea outside, their standing they can have a cup of tea outside, theirstanding ina they can have a cup of tea outside, their standing in a garden and i‘m indoors and i put the cup of tea on

the windowsill and then they can ta ke the windowsill and then they can take it from there. so, i kind of soul people at the window from a distance, so it was nice to be able to be able to do that. but it‘s tough staying indoors, i literally didn‘t put shoes on for five months and didn‘t go out of the front door, so and didn‘t go out of the front door, soi and didn‘t go out of the front door, so i didn‘t actually breathe fresh airat all so i didn‘t actually breathe fresh air at all because i would have to go through the communal corridor to get out into the outdoor space that we have in the grounds of our apartment block. so it is really tough. the problem is in my apartment block as well, nobody wears face coverings indoors, so if face coverings work or don‘t work and there are differing opinions from different people, but if they do work, no one is using them in the block here. the housing association haven‘t put up any notices to say

face coverings, advising people that they should wear them in a corridor, no letters have been sent out. the cleaning regime is still only twice a week, so lots of door handles and things are not cleaned every day and there is no hand sanitiser pumps on there is no hand sanitiser pumps on the wall. i requested for the housing association to put hand sanitiser pumps on the wall. there is nothing and as you may know, where i live is a social housing apartment block so there are families on low incomes and poorer people living here, so theyjust can‘t afford, as i said before soap and hand sanitiser and the housing trust are not encouraging people by may be just having a pump on the wall, it would be fantastic, but they don‘t listen. wall, it would be fantastic, but they don't listen. melody, my heart is hurting listening to what you two have had to endure and i‘m sure it

is the same for many people at home watching and listening. very clearly coming through from what you‘re talking about is the vulnerability that you feel. can you imagine now, how do you feel about the prospect of getting back to the life that you knew before? because it must have knocked a bit of the stuffing out of you, being holed up in a house and not being able to have that level of human contact that you had. it's scary to think about going into the normal real world again. i've almost forgotten things, i know that sounds silly, but i've forgotten what my local shopping centre feels like and it all feels like a parallel universe really. but i'm definitely very excited to get back there one day. lets hope it soon. wishing you both the best. samantha and melody.

since trials began, 130,000 people who have recovered from covid—19 have donated their blood plasma to help those suffering from the virus. now, the woman who was the first person in the country to receive the treatment, has met the man whose donation since trials began, 130,000 people who have helped her get better. graham satchell reports. i was on 90% oxygen and it was touch—and—go whether i needed the ventilator, but there was a couple of times it was very, very close. ann was severely ill with covid—19 at the end of april, in intensive care, when she was asked if she wanted to take part in a trial. and they said "this is plasma, coming from someone that‘s already had it, that in this plasma there‘s antibodies. and we want to try to see will it can help people like you." staff at st thomas‘ hospital in london filmed the moment ann was given the plasma. she was the first person in the country to get it.

i can remember looking up and seeing this pouch. itjust looked like wlicd gold. to me, that‘s what it is, it‘s liquid gold. kugan is an a&e charge nurse who‘s pretty sure he got covid—19 at the hospital where he works. it was kugan‘s plasma that was given to ann. i knew that it's going to be a trial for very badly ill people in itu, after all, this gloomy time of the covid, i thought there was something, some change happen. it was good news. kugan and ann are about to meet for the first time. hello. hi. it is brilliant to see your face, it‘s amazing. i‘ve been looking so forward to it. me too. oh, my god. grateful, thankful —

there is no words on earth that can describe the feelings. it isjust a simple thing everyone can do, ann. you‘re my guardian angel. thank you. your face is imprinted now in my mind. no! it is. you‘ve made such a difference, and my family and my friends are so grateful for you, they really are. i do think that you helped save my life. more than 130,000 people who have had covid—19 have now donated their plasma, and just over 1,000 patients have been given a transfusion. it‘s part of a large trial in hospitals across the uk, co—ordinated by the nhs blood and transfusion service to see if convalenscent plasma can be an effective treatment. people who have had covid—19 are being encouraged

to take part in the trial, to donate their plasma to help the most seriously ill. it‘s one of the very special days in my life. absolutely amazing. i‘m just so grateful that you people have given me the chance to meet him, and thank him. thank you, ann, thank you. good luck. bye. wish you the best. and you, thank you. australian researchers say the discovery of a two—million —year—old skull in south africa has uncovered a new chapter in the story of human evolution. drimolen fossil caves are in the middle of the cradle of humankind, the world heritage site just north ofjohannesburg. gail maclellan reports. say hello to a two million—year—old man. quite a bit like us, but with bigger teeth and a smaller brain. he was found at the drimolen caves site, an area busy with fossil

remains of our ancient ancestors. often just a single tooth might be found, but this old chap is almost complete and well preserved. there‘s really two things that make this thing so significant. the first is that it is so complete and so beautifully preserved, which is just really uncommon in fossil records. the second is that it actually represents a cousin species. it is not in our lineage, it is a side branch, but it lived on the landscape at the same time as our direct ancestor homo erectus. putting the skull together is rather like working on a 3d jigsaw puzzle, with some pieces missing and no idea at all of what the eventual picture might be. but that‘s not the worst of it. when you get these fossils for the first time, they sometimes have the consistency of wet cardboard — they are really soft and they are really, really fragile. so it is myjob when they are removed from the ground to take that last bit of sediment off. and i actually use just

a normal plastic straw, and i have to suck the sediment up from that straw into my mouth. so it's really, really good for the preservation of the fossil, not so good for my dietary adaptation, which involves eating a lot of dirt. paranthropus robustus had to contend with sabertooth cats, leopards, hyenas and competition from species with smaller teeth but bigger brains, us. we eventually outlived him. gail maclellan, bbc news. that detail of sucking up the dirt is something we won‘t forget. now, the weather with carol. hello again. yesterday, temperatures in parts of wales got up to 18 degrees. today, we are looking at highs of round about 16 degrees somewhere in the south—east. still above average, but not as mild as it was yesterday. forecast is a fairly cloudy one and a damp one, but it should brighten up later. we‘ve got some showers courtesy of this weather front drifting towards the east,

and then later in the day this next area of low pressure, with these fronts bringing us some rain and gusty winds. now we‘ve had a lot of low cloud and fog this morning. that will break and lift, and we will see some sunny skies develop through the afternoon, with fewer showers than yesterday, but you could catch the odd sharp one somewhere in the south—east. temperatures ranging from 11 in the north to 15 or 16 as we sweep down towards the south. then, as we head on through the evening and overnight, what you will find is the cloud will build, the wind will strengthen and then we will see the arrival of some rain coming in across northern ireland and also western scotland. in lighter winds in the south—east, and clear skies, here we could see mist and fog patches reform. generally speaking, we are looking at a comparatively mild night. so, as we go through the course of tomorrow, we have got this low pressure with its weather front, and it is very slowly going to be moving south—east wards. you can see the isobars around it, that is telling you it is going to be windy, so after a bright start

in the south—east, cloud will build ahead of this weather front, the wind will strengthen ahead of it, very gusty winds through the irish sea and western areas, amongst this squally band of rain, and then behind that too, it will still be pretty windy. tomorrow‘s top temperatures, 10 to about 14 degrees. as we move from wednesday into thursday, eventually that band of rain moves away from the south—east. we have got a little transient ridge of high pressure, settling things down, but you can already see the next front waiting in the wings. so, first front clears, we see a lot of dry weather, a fair bit of sunshine, and then the next front comes in from the west, strengthening winds once again, thicker cloud and also some rain. temperatures nine to 13 or 14 degrees. that won‘t feel too bad if you are out of the wind and in the sunshine. as for friday and saturday, into the weekend, it will continue cloudy, windy and wet at times, but it looks like we will see something brighter on sunday.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the wales education minister says there will be no end of year exams for students taking gcses, as or a levels in 2021. the health secretary, matt hancock, says he‘s told the nhs to be ready to start vaccinating people against covid—19 from the beginning of december — with wider immunisation to follow. my central expectation is that the mass roll—out of this vaccine, will, if it comes good, will be in the first part of next year. the latest weekly coronavirus death figure for england and wales passes 1,000 for the first time sincejune. the education standards body for england, ofsted, warns that some children have regressed in basic skills and learning during the pandemic.

the unemployment rate rises to 4.8% in the three months to september — with redundancies reaching a record high. the chief palestinian negotiator saeb erekat has died at the age of 65, due to covid—19 complications. the us attorney—general takes the unusual step of authorising federal prosecutors to investigate allegations of voter fraud in last week‘s presidential election. we start with breaking news this hour, that the welsh government has cancelled end of year exams for gcse‘s, as levels and a levels. the welsh education minister kirsty williams says the government will work with schools and colleges to establish teacher—managed assessments.

assessements will be externally set and marked but delivered in the classroom under teacher supervision. the expectation from the welsh government is that this work will form the basis for centre—based grades that will be linked to an agreed national approach to provide consistency across wales. it follows the decision to already move all exams in england by three in northern ireland, all the exams will start one week later. in scotland, national five exams have been cancelled, higher and advanced higher exams will go ahead, but two weeks later than planned. let‘s speak now to professor sally holland, the children‘s commissionerfor wales. thank you very much forjoining us. wales has gone further than the other nations in saying there will be no gcse, aso a—level exams next year, what is your reaction to that?

i strongly well from this announcement, the minister has done the right thing for the well—being of our young people and most importantly, giving them the chance to spend this year learning, not just in some sort of exam or assessment factory where they are co nsta ntly assessment factory where they are constantly worrying about how their grades will be assessed or worrying about exams potentially being cancelled in the future. it gives clarity and reassurance, not only to our young people but also to teachers, so they can get on with doing theirjob of helping those young people gain the knowledge, learning and skills they need. how much of a difference is that when they will actually be sitting, it sounds like, tapers in the classroom, albeit under the supervision of teachers. there will be assessments externally set and marked, so what will the nature of those assessments be? that is a question for the government, this is a new announcement to me as well as

to everyone else. however, i do know there will be a delivery group making those plans over the next few weeks, which will be listening to teachers, leaders and learners themselves. but an important message from the government today that i really welcome is that learners and teachers should just get on with the job of teaching and learning at the moment. nothing will happen in terms of assessment until the end of the springtime. also important, is that young people‘s well—being, which has had many blows this year and they will be sitting with a lot of uncertainty term. and equity and equality, young people have had such varied experiences depending on how much they have had to self—isolate, whether they have had good access to online learning at home. year 13 and year 11 students were being assessed on two years work and most of them missed up to six months of learning in different ways they say. so we

need to make sure it is fair, make sure they can learn and make sure they are given an equal chance to be fairly assessed. this gives us the best chance to provide reassurance, but also to make sure they don‘t spend all their time worrying this year, either the learners or the teachers. when you talk about an equal chance to be assessed, they are going to be different things happening in the four different nations? yes. so there won't be an equality of outcome at the end of that year for the different students. there are a lot of questions now around what the nature of those papers that will be set externally and sat inside classrooms will be in wales, but there may be kids who think, if we are going to set something externally set, why not just have set something externally set, why notjust have the full exam so we can notjust have the full exam so we ca n prove notjust have the full exam so we can prove ourselves in that context? they need to remember education is devolved, we also have different

education systems in the four nations. already assessments are different. they may be called gcses and a—levels in england, wales and northern ireland but some of the content and methodology is different already. you know, the qualifications are needed for things like university entrants, employers and apprenticeships and they are used to assessing students from all sorts of places, including internationally. what they will be concerned about is the students have had the chance to learn, gain the skills they need to move on to the next step. i do think this gives us the best chance to do that. professor sally helen, thank you very much. reacting to the breaking news that the welsh government has announced there will be no end of year exams next summer for announced there will be no end of year exams next summer for students taking gcses, as levels or a—levels. there will be teacher assessments,

externally set but delivered within a classroom setting. the health secretary, matt hancock, says he‘s told the nhs to be ready to begin vaccinating people against covid—19 from the beginning of december. mr hancock said further mass vaccination would begin by the spring and he hoped by the summer, the bulk of the vaccine would have been deployed, but he stressed the jab would only be given if the government was confident it was clinically safe. doctors say they "stand ready" to start vaccinating, with proposals being drawn up for clinics to run for seven days a week. the british medical association said mass vaccination centres could be used "in a similar way to testing centres". john mcmanus reports. is it a game changer, or is it too early to be optimistic? the announcement by pfizer yesterday was greeted with almostjubilation. after a year in which 50 million people worldwide have been infected, and in which more than 1.2 million have died, it‘s easy to see why so many view this vaccine as an answer to their prayers. it‘s believed to be more than 90% effective, and the government has ordered 40 million doses,

enough to immunize 20 million people who‘ll need two jabs each. and this couple helped make it happen. ugur sahin and ozlem tureci are both children of turkish immigrants who now own biontech, the german firm which worked with pfizer on the vaccine. the government admits the roll—out will be a logistical challenge but says it is prepared. we will be working with the nhs and the support of the armed forces seven days a week, over weekends and bank holidays, to get this rolled out into people‘s arms as quickly as possible, and i can tell you that today i will be announcing £150 million of support for gps and the programme of roll—out which is very much led by the nhs will be absolutely critical. but new opportunities bring new challenges. the safety of the vaccine needs to be assured before it gets

regulatory approval. pfizer has indicated it will apply for this in the us later this month. it is still not known how long any immunity may last and decisions need to be made about who can have it first, with care home residents and workers likely to be at the top of the list. if it emerges that the vaccine needs to be taken annually than an information campaign similar to the one for seasonal flu jabs will need to be rolled out and it will need to tackle any misinformation. it is likely the vaccine will be targeted on those who are elderly or vulnerable for other reasons and it is not yet clear that we will want to vaccinate, for example, all the schoolchildren and teenagers. i think these things need to be worked out depending on the nature of the vaccines. a limited number of people might get the vaccine this year, but for everybody else,

the advice is still that facemasks, hand washing and social distancing are still the best protection. john mcmanus, bbc news. our political correspondent jonathan blake is in westminster. jonathan, the government trying to tread the line between the excitement that people are feeling, but also very clear reality that we are not there yet, there are many steps to still be done? that's right, in the last 24 hours we have seen right, in the last 24 hours we have seen the two different sides of that coin, if you like, from the government. yesterday, the prime minister was at pains to point out at the downing street news conference, although this was good news and a potential breakthrough in the fight against coronavirus, there we re the fight against coronavirus, there were many hurdles for this vaccine to still overcome. people shouldn‘t get carried away with the news it has been successful to this point in trials. and then this morning, the

health secretary matt hancock was contrasting to that and particularly upbeat with his assessment of it. although still applying the caveats heavily, that it is not been deemed safe for use yet and not been cleared by the regulators in this country or anywhere else. nevertheless, he did give details of what is clearly a large—scale government programme which is ready to go in terms of rolling out this vaccine, who will get it and when. he said his expectation was the mass roll—out would be in the first part of next year. there is a chance though that some people, if it is approved in time, could get the vaccine this year as the government has secured a certain amount of doses of it, 10 million doses to be delivered by the end of this year. in terms of how it will be given out, there will be centres set up for people to go along to, to get the vaccine. it will also be given out by gps, pharmacists, we are told will play a role and the armed

forces supporting the logistical effort. it is a huge logistical effort. it is a huge logistical effort. the health secretary matt hancock pointed out this morning the vaccine needs to be stored at —70 degrees for most of its time before leaving the factory and being administered. so that is one part of administered. so that is one part of a big challenge the government will have to meet and people may look back to testing, which at times has proved difficult for the government. it set targets which at times were not met, problems with availability and hope those problems will not be repeated when it comes to rolling up the vaccine. thank you very much. some breaking news to bring you. the independent enquiry into child sex abuse has just published independent enquiry into child sex abuse hasjust published its report on child sex abuse in the catholic church and has really got some very strong criticism. particularly for the most senior catholic leader in

england and wales. criticised for seemingly prioritising the church over victims of sexual abuse by priests. cardinal vincent nichols, the archbishop of westminster diocese says the enquiry demonstrated a lack of understanding of the impact of abuse on some victims and seemingly put the reputation of the church first. the report also found evidence of repeated failures within the church, including a lack of adequate safeguarding and missed opportunities to stop abuses within the church. referring to cardinal nichols, the report says as a senior leader and the figurehead for the roman catholic church in england and wales, catholics look to cardinal nicholls to lead by example. it is difficult to exercise good leadership if you lead with bad practice. there are a number of recommendations in the report, including mandatory reporting and

mandatory safeguarding training. we will have more reaction to that report coming up. right now, if you are watching on bbc two, goodbye for now and we will see you soon. back now to news of a possible coronavirus vaccine and its roll out in the uk. earlier i spoke to dr richard vautrey, the chair of the british medical association‘s gp committee for england. i asked him how seven day mass vaccination clinics might work. we are still working with nhs england on the arrangements but in all likelihood, practice is working together in their local communities will designate a site that is appropriate for vaccination and work together over the coming months, to ensure people do get vaccinated as quickly and practically as possible. this is going to be a mammoth challenge that practices will face and we need the patience of our patients and we need the local support from local nhs bodies to

help us do this. obviously, with it being rolled out in waves in terms of the most vulnerable and those working on the front first, people would need to wait to be invited to be able to go to the centres? yes, thatis be able to go to the centres? yes, that is absolutely right. we are almost certainly going to start with those who are most vulnerable, those in care homes and we will be immunising care workers, nhs workers on the front line, that sadly we have seen too many of our colleagues die from this deadly infection. we need to protect them. then we will probably be immunising those in the 805, than those in the 70s probably be immunising those in the 805, than those in the 705 so people will be invited gradually over the coming months. we will try to do this as quickly as possible at first we need the vaccine to come through and we needed to come through in sufficient quantities to be able to use. would it take away from regular gp services? there is a real challenge at the moment. general practice right across the country is

under huge pressure. we are already facing the needs of large numbers of people who are suffering from covid related symptoms, as well as the many people who have winter —related illnesses or chronic diseases they live with for many years. we are having to do all of that at the same time as running the biggest flu campaign we have ever done. so practices are daunted at the prospect but we are very successful at delivering mass vaccinations. we know with the right support we can do it, but we need everybody to be patient as we go about this important task for patients and the nation. he said you are daunted by the prospect ofjuggling everything, but is the reality going to be, that either people may stay away from gp practices because they feel they cannot go, or they literally cannot get there, because that has been happening to an extent already? we do understand over the last few months and patients have been worried about coming to the practice when it is necessary to do so. we have been offering telephone confrontations and digital

opportunities for our patients to engage with and now we are contacting and consulting with far more patience than far —— we would ever done before. so practices are open every day, providing services to their patients, but this is a really big task and we need to work together, not just with really big task and we need to work together, notjust with local practices but with other bodies as well to ensure we can prioritise our workload and a top priority will be protecting our vulnerable patients from covid—19. coming up at 3.30 we‘ll answer your questions on development, trials, delivery and impact of a covid—19 vaccine. i‘ll bejoined by dr elisabetta groppelli, from st george‘s university of london and dr bharat pankhania for the university of exeter medical school. you can get involved by sending your questions to ‘yourquestions@bbc.co. uk‘ or tweeting us using the hash tag bbc your questions.

sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here‘s holly. the three most powerful men in english football are facing questions this morning from a parliamentary committee — in what‘s been described as "an attempt to break the deadlock" over a financial rescue package. they‘re being grilled on the state of negotiations and the "obstacles to reaching a deal" for lower league clubs. we are going to write to both of you every seve n we are going to write to both of you every seven days and ask you what conversations and what meetings you have had via zoom and what engagement you are having with government ministers and their representatives. we will put those correspondence on our social media so correspondence on our social media so the world can see exactly the effo rts so the world can see exactly the efforts that you are making as organisations in order to come to a conclusion. albania has emerged as the leading candidate to hold

england‘s game against iceland on the 18th of november. uk visitors coming in from denmark are currently banned because of coronavirus restrictions. iceland are due to play denmark in copenhagen just three days before facing england at wembley. the fa is said to be exploring all options. the baresi the ba resi dortmund the baresi dortmund midfielder was originally included in the under 21 squad but will now link up for the seniors for the very first time. the european qualification tournament for the 2021 women‘s rugby world cup has been postponed. world rugby hope to rearrange the fixtures next year. meanwhile the six nations have confirmed they‘ve cancelled the outstanding three fixtures in the 2020 women‘s competition. england were the only country to complete all their games and won the grand slam. that‘s all the sport for now. you can find more on all those

stories on the bbc sport website. that‘s bbc.co.uk/sport. the number of people dying continues to be above normal levels for this time of year — new figures from national statistics agencies show the number of deaths across the uk were more than 11% higher than expected in the final week of october. deaths linked to covid—19 account for all of the extra deaths, and more. our health correspondent nick triggle explained that the figures look at all deaths as this chart demonstrates. they show, as you mentioned the number of deaths in the last week of october were 11% higher than is normal at this time of year. covid deaths are shaded in red. there were 12,500 deaths in total at nearly

1600 link to covid. that is up by 500 the week before. covid does account for all of these and access deaths and more. but we can seek the deaths and more. but we can seek the deaths are growing more slowly than they were in the spring when we saw that big peak in the first wave. the number of deaths than were twice what was expected. we are going into winter, which obviously brings different challenges for the nhs compared with what happened the first time around, what are the stats indicating? i think these figures are a bit of a reality check after yesterday‘s good news with the vaccine. in the press briefing last night, the deputy chief medical officer, professorjonathan night, the deputy chief medical officer, professor jonathan van night, the deputy chief medical officer, professorjonathan van tam, may clear the vaccine wouldn‘t help with the winter wave and the pressures we a re with the winter wave and the pressures we are seeing on the health service because of the amount of time it takes to roll out and we are waiting for regulatory approval for the vaccine. in hospital there

are over 13,000 patients at the peak. the nhs is trying to keep some of the routine work, the cancer treatments going. but we are starting to see some hospitals having to cancel some of the nonurgent work. the pressures are very acute and we are only in november. the spite yesterday‘s good news, we should be braced for a very difficult winter. there have been some claims the second wave have already peaked, what do the statistics show? it is interesting, before lockdown there were signs the levels of infection were stabilising. we know the government‘s official monitoring programme run by the office for national statistics, by the end of october infections were stabilising. we are seeing something similar in the official figures for the numbers coming forward and testing positive in the testing centres around the country. they are hovering around the 22,000 mark a day on average. it

suggests it may have peaked before lockdown. the regional tier system that had been introduced may have started slowing the spread of the virus. government advisers say what they are concerned about is it wasn‘t going to come down clicking. that is why they introduced lockdown. what we should see in the next week or two is the infection levels really coming down, rather than just plateauing, hopefully coming down during lockdown. some reaction to the breaking news from the welsh government that students who were due to sit gcse, a—level and as level exams. instead there will be a system which will be externally marred but delivered in a classroom environment. the education union for wales has welcomed the news that the end of year exams will not take place. the secretary of the union david evans said the minister has made an announcement on this and

it is critical we don‘t have a repeat of what happened the summer, which was exceptionally difficult for those who should have been taking exams. we must recognise young people have a consistent assessment process in place, but this must not mean extra work for everyone. but staff and students alike. the education system is already struggling. we only have a term and a half before grades are awarded. we need as much flexibility in the system now because this is not a normal year and there will be times when students are at home learning. there is a warning the pandemic has because most children in england to fall behind with their learning. to fall behind with their learning, and for some their social skills have also been impacted. the education watchdog ofsted found some young children have forgotten how to use a knife and fork or have regressed back to using nappies. our education correspondent dan johnson reports. when the pandemic closed schools, we knew learning had paused to some degree,

but now there‘s evidence many children went backwards, even losing basic skills like using a knife and fork. ofsted visited 900 schools, colleges, nurseries and social care providers over the last two months and found some older children have lost reading, writing and maths ability. and there were signs of greater mental distress, including eating disorders and self—harm. the report describes three broad groups. the hardest hit young children have gone backwards, losing words and numbers, as well as some basic skills like potty training. the majority have slipped back to some degree, having lost school time and learning during lockdown. but there are some who‘ve had a more positive experience, benefiting from more time with supportive families. the impact of the pandemic has combined with children‘s existing circumstances, and those with special educational needs have been especially badly affected. a third of schools have seen a rise in children being educated at home, which ofsted says raises concern about their progress and well—being. the report highlights the continued hard work of teachers,

and says it‘s good schools and nurseries are open during england‘s current lockdown. the department for education said getting all children back into full time learning was a priority, with £1 billion being spent helping them catch up. dan johnson, bbc news. the uk‘s unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in the three months to september, up from 4.5% as coronavirus continued to hit the jobs market. redundancies rose by a record 181,000 in the quarter to reach a new high, the office for national statistics said. firms made more workers redundant in anticipation of the end of the furlough scheme, which was originally supposed to finish at the end of october. it will now last until 31 march. here‘s the employment minister, mims davis. so we are seeing the impact this pandemic has had on ourjobs and labour market and it is a worrying

time forfamilies labour market and it is a worrying time for families who are concerned about employment and their livelihoods. we are seeing that in the numbers that we see today. i certainly think there is some glimmer of positivity around the va ca ncy glimmer of positivity around the vacancy numbers. glimmer of positivity around the vacancy numbers. certainly some light around there. we know there are sectors such light around there. we know there are sectors such as light around there. we know there are sectors such as the digital sector, the construction sector that are doing well, areas around logistics, but certainly for many families it is another month of seeing the impact of the pandemic. living under tough restrictions has had a huge impact on our lives, and so it is fitting that "lockdown" has been named word of the year by collins dictionary. and the pandemic is the dominating theme in the top ten — with phrases like "key worker", "self—isolate" and "social distancing". and "megxit", referring to the duke and duchess of sussex stepping down from royal duties, also made the list. now, the weather with carole. hello again.

once again, it has been a cloudy misty and foggy, murky start to the day, but as we go through the course of the rest of the morning into the afternoon, what you will find is a lot of that will break, will lift, and more of us will see some sunny skies, with just a few showers. could catch the odd sharp one, for example, later on in the south—east. temperatures ranging from 11 to 15 or 16, not quite the dizzy heights of 18 we saw in wales yesterday, but still above average for the time of year. we can see some mist and fog reforming in the south—east overnight tonight, but we‘ve got this band of rain and gusty winds coming our way across parts of scotland and northern ireland, and a relatively mild night for most of us. tomorrow, we start off with some brightness in the east, but the cloud will build ahead of this band of rain coming our way, squally rain, and ahead of it, around it and just behind it, once again some gusty winds with temperatures ranging from ten in the north to 14 in the south.

hello, this is bbc news

with joanna gosling. the headlines... a damning report has concluded leaders in the catholic church in england and wales "turned a blind eye" to sexual predators. the wales education minister says in 2021, there will be no end of year exams for students taking gcses, as or a levels. the health secretary, matt hancock, says he‘s told the nhs to be ready to start vaccinating people against covid—19 from the beginning of december — with wider immunisation to follow. the latest weekly coronavirus death figure for england and wales passes 1,000 — for the first time sincejune. the education standards body for england — ofsted — warns that some children have regressed in basic skills and learning during the pandemic. the unemployment rate rises to 4.8% in the three months to september — with redundancies reaching a record high. the chief palestinian negotiator saeb erekat has died at the age of 65,

due to covid—19 complications. the chief palestinian negotiator saeb erekat has died at the age of 65. he had suffered serious health problems for several years before contracting coronavirus last month. problems for several years before he was being treated in hospital in jerusalem. yolande knell looks back on his life. you might not have known his name, but you will have seen his face. for three decades, whenever palestinian and israeli leaders met, saeb erekat took a prominent place. fluent in english, he studied at the us and the uk before becoming a key figure in the secular fatah movement back in the occupied west bank. in 1991, he drew attention, wearing his palestinian kaffiyeh scarf at the madrid peace conference. he was close to the palestinian

leader, yasser arafat. and with the breakthrough oslo peace accords, he became a peace negotiator, sticking to the job after president mahmoud abbas took over through rounds of on and off talks. a viable two state solution is the only way... he was a strong advocate of the two state solution, the long—standing international formula for peace abandoned by the trump administration. he opposed arab gulf states normalising relations with israel, but remained a moderate voice. the only way to have peace in this region is to solve the palestinian question. is to solve the israeli—palestinian conflict. it is to end the israeli occupation. saeb erekat had a lung transplant in the us in 2017 and had earlier survived a heart attack. his health deteriorated soon after testing positive for covid—19. palestinians will feel his loss strongly, at a time when relations with israel are at a new low and prospects for the creation of an independent palestinian state,

the goal of his life‘s work, looking increasingly dim. a little earlier, we spoke to dr mustafa barghouti — a palestinian politician. he paid tribute to his friend, saeb erekat. he was a fighter for palestinian rights, he was a well—known diplomat. he ran lots of negotiations on behalf of palestinians. it is a big loss for everybody, but i must say that he did not stop working even when he knew he was risking his life, given the spread of the coronavirus. u nfortu nately, the spread of the coronavirus. unfortunately, he is now another victim of the spread of the virus. let‘s hope there will be a possibility of controlling this pandemic so we will not have more

losses. but he will be remembered, he has participated in the palestinian struggle since he was a student and then for many years as a teacher in universities, and also as a diplomat and as an activist. we really feel a big... that this is a big loss, that will be difficult to replace, but our struggle has to continue and our deep condolences are to his family, his colleagues and to all of the palestinian groups. 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—elect joe biden has started asembling his team to prepare for taking over the presidency at the end of january. david willis reports. joe biden is wasting little time preparing for his ascent to the white house, announcing the line—up of a task force to deal with an issue that could dominate the early days of his presidency, the coronavirus, and holding his first call as president—elect with a foreign leader, canada‘s justin trudeau. as the call was taking place, donald trump, who, since the election result was announced has only been seen on the golf course, was firing his defence secretary mark esper, terminating him, in the words of the president. it is thought other high—profile administration officials could soon follow mr esper out the door. the president has yet to concede the election and his team is mounting legal challenges in multiple states. the top republican in the us congress told lawmakers mr trump was fully entitled to contest the outcome. the core principle here is not complicated.

in the united states of america, all legal ballots must be counted, any illegal ballots must not be counted. the process should be transparent or observable by all sides and the courts are here to work through concerns. and after meeting with mitch mcconnell, the attorney general, bill barr, announced that the us justice department would be involving itself in investigations into voterfraud. that as the president set about attacking his former ally, fox news, and other media outlets, accusing them of tampering with the election by broadcasting polls that he said had been inaccurate. fox later cut off the white house press secretary as she sought to explain donald trump‘s refusal to concede. you don‘t take these positions because you want an honest election. you don‘t oppose an audit of the vote because you want an accurate count. you don‘t oppose our efforts at sunlight and transparency

because you have nothing to hide. you take these positions because you are welcoming fraud and you are welcoming illegal voting. studio: whoa, whoa, whoa. ijust think we have to be very clear, she is charging that the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. unless she has more details to back that up, i can't in good countenance continue showing you this. it all points to a messy and rancorous transition period with less than ten weeks to go before inauguration day. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. "one hurdle cleared but several more to go". that‘s how the prime minister described yesterday‘s announcement about the development of a potential coronavirus vaccine. early results show the jab could prevent 90% of people getting covid—19. so how would it work? the vaccine uses a tiny part of the genetic sequence of the virus, rather than the actual virus itself. synthetic material, known as rna, is injected into muscle cells in the arm. this leads to the creation

of antibodies — they bind onto coronavirus and prevent future infections. killer t—cells are also produced. these should identify and destroy infected cells. earlier i spoke to dr duncan robertson, policy and strategy analytics academic at loughborough university, who gave us his thoughts on the new vaccine. at the moment, we know there is a trial. we have got preliminary evidence, but we do not know whether it will be effective for elderly people. elderly people are the ones that are most vulnerable to the disease and they are the ones that are potentially going to be most benefited by this vaccine. the logistics of actually getting the vaccine to people is a huge task, and we concentrate on the uk, but it isa and we concentrate on the uk, but it is a global task and these vaccine manufacturers are notjust providing us with the vaccine but the whole world. i think it was good that the

secretary of state talked about gps actually distributing the vaccine because of course we all want to be vaccinated, and i think getting compliance will help if your gp is vaccinating you. it is a tricky and logistical operation, particularly if some of these vaccines have to be chilled, not just if some of these vaccines have to be chilled, notjust chilled but at —80 degrees. that is not something that is of regular use in gp surgeries. we may have to find groups of gps getting together with logistics in the background, perhaps matt hancock, and they do logistics very well. i want to go back to what you said about it not been clear whether the vaccine would be beneficial to the vaccine would be beneficial to the elderly. is that because it would not have been tested on the elderly and why would a vaccine have a different impact on different age groups anyway? the point is we don't

know. we have got a press release from the vaccine company, but we haven‘t got the full results. that is what are the scientists are waiting for, they are waiting to see who has been vaccinated and whether there is any differential benefits for different groups. do we actually get the vaccine, the joint omitted for vaccines and immunisations has a preliminary list of priorities and it is important it is not set in stone yet, because we do not really know whether these vaccines are effective across the adult age groups. that is why provisionally we are talking about the people who are most likely to die really from the vaccine, and they are elderly people, but particularly people in ca re people, but particularly people in care homes and we sought certainly in wave one, care homes where particular badly affected. that is why they are the top priority, care home residents and workers, and then nhs workers. then we go down the age

groups and we also have high—risk individuals somewhere between very elderly people and 50—year—olds, so they prioritise more than other people. what we are doing and what they are doing is they set out their objectives very clearly, they want to minimise deaths and protect the nhs, and the social care system which is badly hit in the first round. since trials began, 130,000 people who have recovered from covid—19 have donated their blood plasma to help those suffering from the virus. now, the woman who was the first person in the country to receive the treatment, has met the man whose donation helped her get better. graham satchell reports. i was on 90% oxygen and it was touch—and—go whether i needed the ventilator, but there was a couple of times it was very, very close. ann was severely ill with covid—19 at the end of april, in intensive care, when she was asked if she wanted

to take part in a trial. and they said "this is plasma, coming from someone that‘s already had it, that in this plasma there‘s antibodies. and we want to try to see will it can help people like you." staff at st thomas‘ hospital in london filmed the moment ann was given the plasma. she was the first person in the country to get it. i can remember looking up and seeing this pouch. itjust looked like liquid gold. to me, that‘s what it is, it‘s liquid gold. kugan is an a&e charge nurse who‘s pretty sure he got covid—19 at the hospital where he works. it was kugan‘s plasma that was given to ann. i knew that it's going to be a trial for very badly ill people in icu, after all, this gloomy time of the covid, i thought there was something, some change happen. it was good news. kugan and ann are about to meet

for the first time. hello. hi. it is brilliant to see your face, it‘s amazing. i‘ve been looking so forward to it. me too. oh, my god. grateful, thankful — there is no words on earth that can describe the feelings. it isjust a simple thing everyone can do, ann. you‘re my guardian angel. thank you. your face is imprinted now in my mind. no! it is. you‘ve made such a difference, and my family and my friends are so grateful for you, they really are. i do think that you helped save my life. more than 130,000 people who have

had covid—19 have now donated their plasma, and just over 1,000 patients have been given a transfusion. it‘s part of a large trial in hospitals across the uk, co—ordinated by the nhs blood and transfusion service to see if convalenscent plasma can be an effective treatment. people who have had covid—19 are being encouraged to take part in the trial, to donate their plasma to help the most seriously ill. it‘s one of the very special days in my life. absolutely amazing. i‘m just so grateful that you people have given me the chance to meet him, and thank him. thank you, ann, thank you. good luck. bye. wish you the best. and you, thank you.

let‘s return to news that wales is scrapping next year‘s exams for students sitting gcses, as levels and a levels. we can speak now to suzy davies, shadow minister for education, skills and welsh language for the welsh conservatives, welcome, thank you forjoining us. what do you think about this?” think it has been clear for a couple of weeks that exams were unlikely to ta ke of weeks that exams were unlikely to take place, we were getting information from teachers and young people as well as trade unions are saying that because the experience of learning at home had been so fitful for so many people, of learning at home had been so fitfulfor so many people, it of learning at home had been so fitful for so many people, it was going to be difficult to set proper exams this year. i was a little bit worried when he saw the independent review that came in, commissioned by the welsh government, that says exams should be scrapped completely and we would be looking to rely on teacher gradings, more or less internally or locally moderated. i thought it was pretty important that if you are going to move away from exams as we know them, that we have

something which is similar as possible, which externally set and marked assessments, even if they we re marked assessments, even if they were sat in schools themselves. that is what is going to happen.” were sat in schools themselves. that is what is going to happen. i want that confirmation today. when the story came out in the sunday times a few days ago, it is disappointing for us, we would expect to hear that on the floor of our national parliament, it wasn‘t clear what the minister meant by continuous assessment. let me tell you because ki rsty assessment. let me tell you because kirsty williams has said that in place of exams, the welsh government will work with schools and colleges to ta ke will work with schools and colleges to take forward teacher managed assessments and that should include assessments and that should include assessments that will be externally set and marked but delivered within a classroom environment and teacher supervision. yes, that is the confirmation we had today. in terms of the least worst option is, i am pleased to hear she has gone for that rather than the teachers only or centre only moderated grades. i ama

or centre only moderated grades. i am a little bit disappointed that a level students want to get the chance to sit an exam, they will be competing for university places with stu d e nts competing for university places with students from other parts of the uk who perhaps will have done that. i accept that universities look at stu d e nts accept that universities look at students from around the world. as long as there is public confidence that this is the best way forward, then i am glad that we have got the certainty, and that schoolteachers know what they are dealing with. do you think there can be public confidence when there is now a situation where there will be different systems in place in each of the four nations? yes, i mean what is important for me is competence in the system in wales, and what i want to avoid a situation that we had summer where it looked, on the face of it, as if we had probably the best of the solutions of the four countries within the uk, because we had as—level is to rely on here. it turned out it was

anything but. that is why i was looking this time to make sure that if there is at least some external assessment and moderation, it is going to be giving the welsh public, let alone the students sitting these assessments, more confidence in what they are actually going to be doing. so the algorithm is dead.” certainly hope so, yes. thank you very much forjoining us. 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 is not the biggest 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 army‘s biggest peacetime operation since the country became independent. translation: in this difficult situation, we didn‘t run from the fight. we didn‘t desert the sinking ship, we did everything in our power to save this country. slovakia sees mass testing as 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 are still there and that's why there were maybe some pessimistic comments from some representatives and from the public. i think that now, it is quite reasonable that it is possible to do that. but it is 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. 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: if it's necessary, then i guess we have to do it. otherwise, i wouldn‘t even be able to go inside the shop. that‘s just the way it is, but we have to do it. other countries as well are watching the slovak experiment closely. notjust here in the czech republic, but much further afield as well. nowhere else in the world, i think except slovakia recently... the uk of course has ten times slovakia‘s population. and for other countries as well, testing an entire nation would be extremely ambitious. but slovaks themselves have 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, prague. australian researchers say the discovery of a two—million year old skull in south africa has uncovered a new chapter in the story of human evolution. drimolen fossil caves are in the middle of the cradle of humankind, the world heritage site just north ofjohannesburg. gail maclellan reports. say hello to a two million—year—old man. quite a bit like us, but with bigger teeth and a smaller brain. he was found at the drimolen caves site, an area busy with fossil remains of our ancient ancestors. often just a single tooth might be found, but this old chap is almost complete and well preserved. there‘s really two things that make this thing so significant. the first is that it is so complete and so beautifully preserved, which is just really uncommon in fossil records.

the second is that it actually represents a cousin species. it is not in our lineage, it is a side branch, but it lived on the landscape at the same time as our direct ancestor homo erectus. putting the skull together is rather like working on a 3d jigsaw puzzle, with some pieces missing and no idea at all of what the eventual picture might be. but that‘s not the worst of it. when you get these fossils for the first time, they sometimes have the consistency of wet cardboard — they are really soft and they are really, really fragile. so it is myjob when they are removed from the ground to take that last bit of sediment off. and i actually use just a normal plastic straw, and i have to suck the sediment up from that straw into my mouth. so it's really, really good for the preservation of the fossil, not so good for my dietary adaptation, which involves eating a lot of dirt. paranthropus robustus had to contend with sabertooth cats, leopards, hyenas and competition from species with smaller teeth

but bigger brains, us. we eventually outlived him. gail maclellan, bbc news. the great outdoors proved to be a lockdown lifeline for so many people when restrictions were first introduced in march. with tougher measures once again in place in parts of the uk, people are returning to the hills, country trails and parks for a bit of a boost. country trails and parks john maguire reports. country trails and parks the sights, the sounds and the smells of a perfect autumn day. although the government advice in england is once again to stay at home if possible, unlike in the spring, now, when it comes to heading outdoors for leisure, people aren‘t limited to just one session of exercise. they can stop, sit and relax. this is attingham park in shropshire. along with all other national trust gardens and parks, it was closed in march for almost three months, but reopened in the summer and is

very popular today. it‘s lovelyjust to be able to get out of the house and enjoy the fresh air and get the children out and about, really. it tires them out and it makes it more manageable, doesn‘t it, being at home rest of the time. so it‘s really important for us. we're getting out and seeing the deer and exploring. fresh air and getting exercise is really important, i think, for health and mental wellbeing and things. we were just chatting the other day — it's really important to feel that you can get out and explore. attingham receives more than half a million visits a year. the majority of people live nearby and treat the estate like their local park. there‘s hundreds of people about, but you just don‘t see them. you just get lost on the estate and it‘s wonderful and free. it‘s great. i call these days... what do i say? gin and tonic without the gin. just a tonic to be out in the fresh air, feeling safe, feeling happy and comfortable. visitors need to book and social distancing measures are in place. but there‘s space to spread out —

hundreds of acres. and, for children like joshua, much to explore. we‘ve been climbing on the trees and finding spiders. and we found some mushrooms down there, didn‘t we? yeah. on the second lockdown, when they said that it was happening, i did look to see if they were still open in terms of the parks and stuff. and it was quite nice to be able to still be able to get out, because then it doesn‘t feel like you‘re confined to your back garden as much as as the first time. all national trust buildings in england and northern ireland are now closed in line with government guidance. some reopened in wales yesterday, with restrictions. 2020 continues to be a huge challenge for the charity. let‘s make sure that people can enjoy the outdoors. let‘s make sure they can enjoy our gardens and our parks. let‘s make sure that their mental and physical health is topped back up again, because these are tough times for everyone. but connecting with nature isn‘t restricted to the countryside. david lindo, known

as the urban birder, says the spaces don‘t have to be wide open, but your mind does. all you need to do is to step out of your house. sometimes not even to do that — just look out of the window and just to connect with nature. because it‘s all about getting onto nature‘s wavelength. it‘s not about necessarily trying to identify everything you see and here. it‘s all aboutjust being able to know that that‘s around, to blot out the sounds of the human hubbub around you. we know lockdown can be depressing, frustrating and isolating. but, if you can, there is solace to be had outside the four walls that confine us. john maguire, bbc news. simon mccoy will bring you the bbc news at one in a moment, first the weather with stav. hello, yesterday was a rather mild but cloudy day for most of us. there was little sunshine around. today we

summer was little sunshine around. today we summer sunshine around, especially in northern scotland, parts of england and wales but there has been some showers thrown in for good measure. the reason for the showers assessed by the front of that has been spreading northwards and eastwards a cross been spreading northwards and eastwards across the country. this area of the pressure is bringing stronger winds and wet weather to parts of northern ireland and western scotland as it moves through tonight and into tomorrow. for the best of the day, it stays mainly dry by the odd shower around. there will be some holes in the cloud to allow some sunshine, particularly across the north highlands. the cloud with increasing peace across the west. another pretty mild day as well with temperatures around 12 to 15 degrees. as we head over this evening and overnight, windy weather pushing into northern ireland and western scotland. it stays wet and windy through the night, rain fell mounting up. elsewhere, we should see clear spells, variable cloud and cherry as well, temperatures are 68 degrees but milder out west where we

have wind and rain. this is the picture for the middle part of the week, high pressure it was the east, and this area of the pressure is pretty wet and windy weather. it will push eastwards through the day. rainfall totals mounting up across the south—west and west of scotland, maybe minor flooding in the south—west and west of scotland, maybe minorflooding in places. whetwo northern ireland, that rain pushing into western wales and western england. further east, mainly dry, quite windy, the odd shower around, maybe the odd sunny spell. 13, 14 degrees here but generally a degree or so cooler across the board. the wet and windy weather it spreads across the country during wednesday night, clear through thursday morning, we see a ridge of high pressure before the next low pressure moves into the end of the week. the early rain clears for the east of england and then on thursday, with that ridge of high pressure, it could be the driest and brightest day of the week, so good spells of sunshine around but thickening cloud and strengthening winds were developed out west ahead of this new weather system. a cooler day to come, nine

to 12 degrees. wet and windy weather spreads from the west across the country on friday and it stays wet and windy as we head on into the start of the weekend. that is all from me, goodbye for now.

gps are told to get ready to roll out the new covid vaccine from next month. the health secretary matt hancock says that if regulators judge it to be effective and safe all nhs staff need to be prepared. this is going to be a colossal effort to roll this out, which the nhs is leading. we‘ve been working on it for months, in anticipation of this going right. we‘ll be getting the latest from our medical editor. also this lunchtime: unemployment rose to 4.8% in the three months to september — before the latest lockdowns, with redundancies reaching a record high. a damning report says leaders of the catholic church in england and wales "turned a blind eye" to sexual predators. no exam results in wales next year — instead a—levels, as—levels, and gcses will be replaced with a system based