welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. the transition process is well our top stories: under way, whether the trump president—elect on the administration acknowledges his projected election victory or not. president — joe biden says mr biden told reporters donald trump's refusal that donald trump's to concede the election refusal to concede defeat is an embarrassment. was an "embarrassment" and would reflect poorly how can i say this tactfully? i think it will not help on the president's legacy. a long—awaited vatican report the president's legacy. has found that popesjohn paul ii and benedict the sixteenth ignored allegations of serial sex abuse against the now a long—awaited vatican disgraced us cardinal, report finds two popes, theodore mccarrick. and other officials, the report found that both ignored allegations pontiffs had been told of sex abuse against of mccarrick‘s assaults but chose to believe a former us cardinal. his denials. russian peacekeeping forces begin deploying in nagorno—karabakh, the peace deal has prompted russia has been deploying celebrations in azerbaijan troops in nagorno karabakh after armenia and azerbaijan and angry scenes in armenia. signed a deal to end the military conflict and tributes are paid in the disputed region. to the veteran palestinian peace negotiator, saeb erekat, fighting there since who has died after september has left several contracting coronavirus. thousand people dead. the peace deal has prompted celebrations in azerbaijan, and angry scenes in armenia.

hello and welcome to tuesday in parliament. coming up in the next half hour, the health secretary says he's asked the nhs to be ready to roll out the new coronavirus vaccine from next month. i know that they will rise to this challenge. of being ready when the science comes good to inject hope into millions of arms this winter. questions for ministers about the appointment of costly public relations consultants by the head of the vaccine task force, kate bingham. there something we are not being told and are there undisclosed relationships at play here ? and the head of the football association quits over outdated language he used at a commons committee.

would you want to withdraw that language, because it isn't that the sort of the exact language that means that inclusion is not a reality even though football is very diverse and has many people within it from ethnic minority backgrounds? if i said it i deeply apologise for it. but first, the health secretary says he's asked the nhs to be ready to deploy a covid—i9 vaccine from the start of december. on monday, early results from the world's first effective coronavirus vaccine showed it could prevent more than 90% of people from getting covid. and matt hancock also announced that nhs staff will now begin being tested twice a week. which will help keep people safe when they go into hospital and help keep my wonderful colleagues in the nhs safe to. turning to the vaccine, he said he'd ordered a0 million doses. but he sounded a note of caution. we do not have a vaccine yet.

but we are one step closer. there are many steps still to take. the full safety data is not yet available, and our strong and independent regulator, the nhra cover will not approve the vaccine until it is clinically safe. we do not yet know whether vaccine is approved, but i have tasked the nhs with being ready for any date from the ist of december. the logistics are complex. the uncertainties are real and the scale of the job is vast. but i know the nhs, brilliantly assisted by the armed services committee will be up to the task. i want to thank, in advance, manages colleagues for the work that this will entail. i know that they will rise to the challenge. of being ready when the science comes good to inject hope into millions of arms this winter. what is the government public current working assumption of the proportion of the population that needs to be vaccinated to establish herd immunity and bring that

and over what time does he envision that happening? and how many doses does he think we will need to? assumption of the proportion of the population that needs to be vaccinated to establish herd immunity and bring that and over what time does he envision that happening? and how many doses does he think we will need to? the vaccine is to be kept at —70 celsius. transport and storage is needed. he used to both the he was the country —positive biggest purchaser of fridges, so is he procuring the appropriate storage equipment now with health centres in charge of the purchases and care homes. he asked about the proportion of the population need in fact standing, the honest truth to that question is we don't know what proportion of the population vaccination needs to reach and might for this to stock the epidemic. the cold chain needs to be at —70 for the final hours

from the coaching requirements are significant and do add to the logistical publications, but we have known about that cold chain requirement for many months now so it has been part of our planning for some time. and so we have a good degree of confidence that that will be in place. i will come the progress made on the vaccine but it will take time before it's widely available. and as he said earlier we don't yet know if we will reduce transmission. very helpful to know how long the role of the vaccinations will take months the secretary of state gets the go—ahead, but a major government project doesn't stop at the vaccinations and mutations in denmark and elsewhere it can affect children in future. as part of the major project planning how is he going to make sure that we can logistically get this out through the entire population if that does sadly become necessary?

the critical question is, the critical answer for how long this takes is a depends of manufacture in the first instance. my goal is to be able to roll this out as quickly as it can be manufactured, and that manufacturing schedule is itself uncertain because this is really hard stuff to make. given that is being manufactured in belgium and has his he had noted it has to be kept at —70 degrees at all times until shortly before administration, what arrangement is he putting in place to ensure there is no delay of the supplies at the borders following the end of the brexit transition period, because any significant delay could result her precious supplies being damaged and rendered useless. i have confidence in our plans to be able to deliver the vaccine and whatever the outcomes of the negotiations over our future relationships with europe.

they secretary of state has spoke to the need for caution about the vaccine but my constituents would like to hear if he's able to say is wickedly safely start to consider family events and holidays and when will businesses be able to get back to something like business as usual? i understand the yearning for this certainty. all i can say to my honourable friend and honesty is i want us to get back to normal as quickly as possible and the news is a big step forward. but it's not the only step from there more steps that are needed. a dup mp said nurses would play a key role in vaccinations. with the secretary of state agree with me that they paid nurses receive fall short of what ought to be given the scale and responsible nature of the role. and what he agree with me that a pay raise is due for uk nurses? i understand the question

that the honourable lady is asking on behalf of her constituents. i pay tribute to my opposite number in northern ireland and because it's a devolved matter i hope that she will understand if i'm going to allow him the discretion to answer that question rather than answer on his behalf. meanwhile, opposition mps pressed a defence minister over the role of the military in a future vaccine rollout. answering an urgent question, jeremy quin said a winter support force of approximately 7,500 deployable personnel had been established. around 2,000 military personnel are already being used to help mass test people in liverpool, everyone living or working in the city is being offered a test whether or not they have symptoms. labour said the troops had been welcomed by the city.

mayorjoe anderson told me last night we are delighted to have them for the sheer numbers and their logistical expertise. he said they would set up 17 centres and done 23,170 tests in just 72 hours. is citywide testing is to find people with covid who are infectious but ace of dramatic and make sure they don't infect others. this requires regular, routine and continuing testing. how sustainable is this deployment, when will the 2000 troops start to be withdrawn? the government has raise the whole countries helps with the news of the pfizer vaccine but it's vaccinations, not vaccines that will protect people from the virus and getting this vaccine to the point of vaccination requires the storing and transporting it at —70 degrees. how was the military involved in planning for nationwide vaccination, will the military be involved in its delivery,

how soon will this start? the minister didn't answer that last point but turned to the role of troops in liverpool. if the pilot we need to see we can learn from this pilot and each test its effectiveness, it's been so far so good. it's scalable but part of the programme also talking to the agencies and council and the nhs about how others can step in as so often the armed forces lead the way but others may well come through if this becomes something that the department of health and others believe should be deployed more widely across the country. the snp returned to the role of the military in any vaccination programme. can he lay before the house perhaps not today but at some point with the country can expect to see in a future vaccination roll—out so that does not catch us by surprise and crucially so that it can be westernized against our fellow citizens.

i'm not going to speculate on what role there might be for the ministry of defence, we work with other government departments in terms of support and planning support. where there is help and provide assistance, but will be far too early. so the very early stages at the prime minister was clear yesterday on the vaccines, and it would be inappropriate, i think, to speculate at this stage. ministers have been defending the outgoing head of the vaccine task force, kate bingham, in the face of accusations of cronyism and conflicts of interest. kate bingham was put in charge of coordinating research and procurement of a vaccine for covid—i9. but she's been accused of divulging sensitive information to financiers at a conference and appointing outside public relations consultants at a cost of over half a million pounds. she has not only disclosed official sensitive documents to hedge fund managers in the united states but has spent £670,000 in taxpayers‘ money on private pr advisers instead of using civil servants and is set to benefit financially from investments by the state. miss bingham should be sacked.

if she's not sacked, who will be held to account for this gross conflict of interest and misuse of public funds? will it be the secretary of state or the prime minister? the vaccine task force, which does of course sit in my department and is led by kate bingham, has done an absolutely brilliant job over the last few months. we have managed to secure 350 million doses across six of the most promising vaccine candidates. you will have seen the statement that came through from pfizer/biontech yesterday. and, again, we were the first country in the world to secure access to that particular vaccine candidate. he talks about this spending. what i would say to him is that the senior responsible officer, in line with his delegated authority, approved this resourcing in accordance with public—sector practices and frameworks. allegations against kate bingham were raised in the lords, too, with one peer suggesting a link to the prime minister's top adviser, dominic cummings.

kate bingham asked for admiral associates to be brought in. angus collingwood cameron, a director of admiral associates, is also a director of dominic cummings‘ in—laws‘ country estate and runs a caviar company which he says he is happy to advise on indulgence. if this isn't gross indulgence to give a single source tender of £650,000 for pr work which his own department has over 100 people working in communications, what specific tasks and messaging has been provided by admiral associates that his own team of communication professionals don't have the skills or knowledge to deliver? the noble lord is making some baseless accusations there. the first thing to point out is that dominic cummings had no role whatsoever in any of these procurement processes or in any of these appointments.

the specialist communications support was contracted by the vaccine task force. details of all arrangements and all firms and contract labour used by the task force will be published in due course, with usual transparency arrangements. why did she give the contract to admiral? why them? there's something we're not being told. and are there undisclosed relationships at play here which are subsequently going to be revealed when the minister makes a statement he's twice promised us during this question time? but one peer was grateful for what kate bingham's task force had achieved. the whole world is delighted with the news of the pfizer/biontech vaccine announced yesterday. would the noble lord the minister agree that credit needs to go to kate bingham and the vaccine task force for operating at such speed to procure, at scale, a range of vaccines and development around the world, including the pfizer/biontech vaccine? the chair of nhs test and trace, dido harding, has told mps that finding covid cases and tracing the contacts of infected people is not "the silver bullet" to holding

back the tide of coronavirus. asked about a "catalogue of failures" at the service, she said it had met its commitments but needed to make improvements. she was speaking to a joint hearing of the health and science committees. you will know that one of the main reasons that we invested, from the summer on, in a 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've now gone into our second one. why do you think it is that we weren't able to stem the tide, even despite the expansion that we had? to answer your question directly, i'm 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 is that that's not the case. that, actually, the way we have to tackle the disease is through a variety of different interventions, and we are one of the ways, not the only way. one of the other tools that we have at our disposal is the test and protect app, which i understand your own husband has been informed over the last 24 hours of the need to self—isolate, but why were the settings of this app not at the correct level, the privacy settings not at the correct level, for the first six or seven weeks the app was in use? dido harding's husband is the conservative mpjohn penrose. yes, indeed, my husband has been asked to self—isolate by the app and duly is, so we as a family are living exactly what this means right now. she said there was nothing wrong with the privacy settings, but there'd been

improvements to the accuracy of contact tracing. the new version of the app is more accurate at assessing whether or not you have been at high risk of infection. nothing has changed in our focus on protecting people's privacy with the app. it was launched with privacy absolutely at the focal point. and actually, as my husband said to me yesterday, "but i don't know who i was close to." and i said, "yes, i know." that is exactly the point of the app, that it is privacy protecting. i had constituents who got in touch after being told that they should drive to inverness to get a test. and then there were cases of people having to wait for more than five days for results. and then in october, we saw the excel technical glitch that led to nearly 16,000 positive cases of covid—19 going unreported. so there have been calls for the test and trace system to be scrapped and the role to be handed to public health teams, most recently by sirjohn 0ldham from imperial college london, and there have been calls by the gmb union for you to step down too.

so given this catalogue of failures, should you be reconsidering your position? well, thank you for that report card. if we sit back and compare what we've delivered versus what we said we would at the end ofjuly, we have met the vast majority of our commitments. so, we committed to building testing capacity to half a million per day by the end of 0ctober. testing capacity today is over 500,000 a day. we committed to making it possible for people to access testing across the whole country by having at least 500 testing sites. we have over 600 testing sites, so today, people have to travel less than three miles to get access to a test. this is a service that didn't exist six months ago, and yet we've built a retail organisation, as i've said, larger than asda. and we've delivered on our commitments. that's not to say that we can't get better. clearly, we need to and can do. dido harding there. you're watching tuesday in parliament with me, alicia mccarthy. the education minister in wales has confirmed

there will be no gcse, as or a—level exams in the summer of 2021. grades will instead be based on classroom assessments. in a statement to the welsh parliament, kirsty williams said it was impossible to guarantee a level playing field for exams due to the continuing impact of the covid pandemic. i have seen concerns that we cannot predict the status of the virus in the summer, and therefore it could be difficult to physically hold exams. and it is true that there could be challenges. however, i must reiterate that the primary reason for my policy is down to fairness and the time learners will spend in school and colleges will have varied hugely. home learning, blended learning really is no equivalent of learning in a school. the inconsistency of the experience that our young people and, to be fair, our teachers as well, that time out of school, it's been effectively

pinpointed in your decision today as a prime reason for dropping exams as we know them and rather about the uncertainty about what the summer will look like. it's what we've already experienced seems to be a driving force in this. translation: no government should put its young people under significant pressures unnecessarily, as happened last summer. never again should we put qualifications before well— being. never again should we create so much anxiety to thousands of young people in wales. the policy of plaid cymru is to get rid of exams, and that's a perfectly legitimate policy to have. it's not a policy i share. i believe exams are an important part of our education system. and if i thought it was possible to run exams in a fair and equitable way, that's what i would have done this year. it's not an easy decision that we've made today to scrap them. the chair of the football association has resigned after a row over comments he made to a group of mps.

greg clarke quit over his use of language in reference to black players while giving evidence to the digital, media, culture and sports committee. we don't have an out and proud member in the men's game, at the elite level, of the lgbtq+ community, do we? why do you think that is? and the answer is i don't know, right? because i've spent a lot of time talking to people from the lgbt community. i've talked to lgbt athletes from other sports who come out, and the views i've heard is... if i look at what happens to high—profile female footballers, high—profile coloured footballers and the abuse they take on social media... not from the crowds, because you're getting this behaviour in crowds, but largely, people support decency here. they're going to behave because they will be banned for life if they give racist or homophobic abuse.

but social media is a free—for—all. and people can see if you're black, and if they don't like black people — because they're filthy racists, right — they will abuse you anonymously online. they can see if you're a woman. some of the high—profile black female footballers take terrible abuse. i've talked to them. absolutely vile abuse. this also needs to stop at your door, mr clarke, in terms of what's being done inside the stadiums and inside the culture that is, unfortunately, men's elite football, which is why these men unfortunately fear that they can't come out. i think absolutely more needs to be done there. what are you doing to override this culture that seemingly exists in men's elite football? he'd spoken to some top footballers privately. and they said, "greg, there is not a problem in the changing rooms." you know, a lot of the guys know who is gay and who isn't. it's not an issue.

it's their choice, not a big deal. the real issue is, once you run out in front of 60,000 people and you've decided on monday that you want to disclosure your sexuality... and i would never pressurise anybody to disclose their sexuality. what i would want to do is to know that anybody who runs out onto the pitch and said on monday, "i'm gay and i'm proud of it and i'm happy. and it's a life choice and i've made it and my life is a better place because i've disclosed it," if they've gone through that chain of events, that's great. he was also asked about the fa's efforts to improve diversity. he said it was trying to improve representation within minority communities. so we have to look because the bame communities aren't an amorphous mass. you know, if you look at top level football, the afro—caribbean communities are overrepresented versus the south asian communities. if you go to the it department of the fa, there's a lot more south asians than there are afro—caribbean. they have different career interests. so what we have to do is treat

each individual on their merits but make sure we are inclusive, with measure and have programmes which don't cross the line into discrimination but encourage people from all those communities to participate, from volunteering for your local football team all the way to sitting on the premier league board or the fa board. after those exchanges, a labour committee member challenged mr clarke on his language. when you said something earlier on, i think i heard you refer to "coloured people" earlier on. if that's the case, would you want to withdraw that language? because isn't that exactly the sort of language that means that inclusion is not a reality, even though football is very diverse and has many people within it from ethnic minority backgrounds and also people who are gay? let me say three things. firstly... but what about one thing? if you did say that, would you...? that only takes one thing. it doesn't require

three things, really. well, if you please allow me to respond. one, if i said it, i deeply apologise for it. secondly, i am a product of having worked overseas. i worked in the usa for many years, where i was required to use the term "people of colour", and sometimes... because that was the product of their diversity legislation and positive discrimination format. sometimes, i trip over my words... you've apologised, 0k, thank you. greg clarke. a couple of hours later, he resigned, issuing a statement saying, "my unacceptable words in front of parliament were a disservice to our game and to those who watch, play, referee and administer it." finally, mps have given initial backing to a call for the introduction of a licensing system forjet ski users. the idea was put forward by plaid cymru's mp hywel williams. he also called for the creation of an offence of driving a jet

ski without a licence. mr williams said there had been an increasing problem with antisocial use that had led to fatalities and injuries. many honourable members will have heard reports and seen pictures ofjet skis being driven at speed close to bathing beaches, sometimes even where children were swimming. these craft were being driven at high speed even where there were speed limits. accidental collisions with boats and near—misses, disturbance of people fishing from the shore — such as in my hometown of caernarfon, such as at dock victoria — and ofjet ski drivers intruding into nature reserves. well, hywel williams was given leave to introduce his legislation, but without government support, it won't become law. and that's it from me for now, but do join me at the same time tomorrow for the best of the day from westminster, including the highlights from prime minister's questions. but for now from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

hello. the mist and fog some of you've seen over the past few days, not as much of an issue over the next 2a hours or so. reason on wednesday behind that is that it'll be a little bit too windy at times, and that wind could bring in thicker cloud with rain in the north and west. these are the weather fronts responsible, they'll only slowly push their way through, so many eastern areas will be dry through the bulk of the day. but it is here across east anglia southeast that we start off with the coolest conditions and 1—2 mist and fog patches. they'll be fairly short—lived though, and will lift up and clear. as we said, much of wales, good part of england will stay dry. there could be some patchy drizzle in the west, but across ireland and into western scotland, rain will come and go all day. and you can just see this narrow band of bright colours —

an indication there will be some pretty intense rain particularly during the afternoon. overall a fairly mild day, tempered somewhat by the breeze, and that wind will be strongest particularly towards the west. these are the areas that will see winds over a0 mph, it may be touching 50 mph at times. most gusty though on that bright band you can see there, the heavy rain pushing its way through eastwards across scotland, particularly across england and wales as we go through wednesday night and into thursday morning, allowing clearing skies behind, thankfully temperatures not dropping too much. as we go into thursday morning, coolest conditions, unlike on wednesday morning, will be in the west. wet weather to begin with on the far east of scotland and across east anglia. quite windy here, but that wind will clear away with the rain. that little brief ridge of high pressure, a window of fine weather before more cloud and rain arrives. so for many of you, a dry day with some sunshine, as well. best of the sunshine and western areas through the morning make the most of it, clouding over into the afternoon. patchy rain or drizzle possible by the end of the day, heaviest of the rain and western scotland into the western northern ireland. a little bit cooler than recent days. as we go through thursday night and into friday, that rain will spread its way eastwards. it'll push through mainly during the night for many

of you, lingering across some eastern areas first thing. sunshine comes out, a few showers in the west, but by and large, the daytime at least will be a dry day for many. again, a little bit cool in the breeze compared to how we start the week. but as we go into the weekend, low pressure close by with sets of weather fronts pushing through. we'll have to watch just how deep this area of low pressure gets into the northwest on sunday. could be particularly wild and windy here. so while there still will be some rain at times this weekend, better chances of sunshine between 00:29:26,594 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 the downpours on sunday.