this is bbc news with the latest headlines. the entertainer des o'connor, known for his prime—time tv shows, has died at the age of 88. big hopes for the new coronavirus vaccine from the company behind it — but warnings of a hard winter ahead. we will not have a big impact on the infection numbers with our vaccine in this winter. labour calls for the government to force social media companies to remove anti—vaccine content from their platforms. the uk's chief brexit negotiator insists he won't be changing course ahead of a crucial week in trade talks with the eu. and lewis hamilton wins a record—equalling seventh world title after claiming victory

at the turkish grand prix. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. one of britain's best known entertainers, des o'connor, has died at the age of 88. the comedian, singer and television star died yesterday in hospital, following a fall at his home in buckinghamshire. he found fame as the host of smash hit prime time shows, in a career spanning nearly seven decades. he'll be remembered for his warmth and versatility as a performer, along with his readiness to laugh at himself. our arts correspondent david sillito looks back at his life. i've kept a list of the insults against des o'connor.

des o'connor was in the ‘70s famous, a star, and, on morecambe and wise, the butt of hundreds of gags. but the singer and comedian took it all with grace. number one. eric — i'vejust heard some good news. ernie — what good news? eric — des o'connor has got a sore throat. nothing seemed to dent that clean—cut, deep—tanned optimism. number two. ernie — des o'connor is a self—made man. eric — i think it's very nice of him to take the blame. # be sure it's true when you say i love you, love you, love you.# his interest in show business had started in the raf and he had been a butlin‘s red coat and learned his craft struggling to get laughs in theatres such as the windmill with an audience that had come for the naked flesh more than the comedy. this fellow was always in every day in the front row and on about the third house of the fourth day iforgot, i dried, just couldn't

remember what was next. he said, "you tell the one about the parrot next. "oh, thank you very much." # loneliness # alone you'll always find me.# by the ‘60s he had star billing. he made more than 1,000 appearances at the palladium and recorded 36 albums. the son of a dustman from the east end of london he had gone from a childhood blighted by rickets to tv stardom but he was never going to be one of the cool gang. an old lady came up to me one day to the stage door and said, "mr o'connor, i have enjoyed your show. "here is £5. could you send me your new lp?" i said, "you can get it for £3 in the shop, "you don't have to give me five." she said, "no, the last time i went into the shop "and asked for a des 0'connor lp the guy said, "you're kidding." laughter. as the decades rolled by he remained an almost ageless fixture in the schedules. he married four times, his fifth

child arrived when he was 80. he was never really fashionable and so never fell out of fashion. it was a career of 60 yea rs of professional, unflappable, good—natu red charm. you have my word. well, that's good enough for me. and when the joke was on him he was always the first to laugh. laughter and applause. des 0'connor, who's died aged 88. the founder of biontech — which has developed a coronavirus vaccine — says its impact will not be felt significantly until the summer. professor ugur sahin stressed that this winter would still be tough, but with a high vaccination rate —

life could be back to normal in a year's time. this winter will be hard. so, we will not have a big impact on the infection numbers with our vaccine in the winter. the bigger impact will happen until summer. summer will help us anyway, because the infection rate will go down in summer, and what is absolutely essential is that we get a high vaccination rate before autumn, winter next year. our health correspondent richard galpin has been giving us more details on what the scientists are saying. some very big claims. basically, the one we have just been talking about, the fact they believe life could get back to normal for everybody next winter, and i think that's probably a lot quicker than many people had ever imagined, and there is a lot of questioning about that. they are saying that it's going to be, they'll have this vaccine rolled out, the vaccine which they have

developed, he and his wife in recent weeks, it's obviously a huge development in that, absolutely a very big, big moment, a brilliant moment in many respects, and they are saying that the vaccine does stop symptoms in infected people and potentially could cut the spread of the virus by 50%. now, i think that claim is one of those which you think, well, that's a really big thing to say, particularly as they don't have all the data at the moment, so maybe he has kind ofjumped ahead of himself a bit too much in that sense. so, the next few months, we will learn more, they will learn more about how this vaccine is working. in terms of long—term immunisation, do we have any idea about that? no, but going back to this, what the caveats are, there are many to what they have been saying about this, in particular, things, basic things like obviously the vaccine needs safety approval first, we don't didn't know how long

that's going to happen, and we don't know if the vaccine will work in elderly patients, and obviously that is very significant given the numbers of people who have been affected by coronavirus in the elderly populations around the world, and we don't know if it actually stops infected people spreading it, which is this idea of transmission, which again is a really, really big issue, and that needs to be dealt with. so, there are huge things. he's put this out there, but there are huge questions about it which need to be answered. having said that, i think there is some hope, for example, if there is mass immunisation in the coming months and into the summer, then possibly it is just possible that by next winter things could be a lot, lot better. meanwhile, labour has called on the government to bring forward legislation that would impose financial and criminal penalties

for social media companies that fail to remove anti—vaccination content. under the plan, social media platforms would have to create filters to prevent disinformation from being published, and to remove anti—vaccine messages if they do appear. katherine da costa has more. with hopes rising of an effective coronavirus vaccine being rolled out by the end of the year, labour is calling for the government to fast—track emergency legislation to stamp out what it calls "dangerous anti—vax content online". the party claims dedicated groups with hundreds of thousands of online followers are still spreading disinformation, which it says poses a real threat to the take—up of the vaccine. labour says it would back legislation which includes financial and criminal penalties for social media giants that failed to act. it's urgent because we have the vaccine on the horizon, thank goodness. and we cannot have anything that is going to prevent or undermine the roll—out

of the vaccine programme and create dangers for public health which is what this anti—vaccination content does. the government insists it takes the issue extremely seriously. in a statement it said it had: but labour has warned the measures do not go far enough and has questioned why anti—vaccine groups are not being closed down. katherine da costa, bbc news. the environment secretary, george eustice, says he believes a trade agreement with the eu is still possible, as talks resume in brussels this week. mr eustice insisted the departure of borisjohnson‘s senior adviser, dominic cummings, would have no impact on the negotiations. ireland's foreign minister, simon coveney, has warned there will be no deal if the british government presses ahead with legislation that would breach international law. 0ur political correspondent,

jonathan blake, reports. day after day this week the eu's chief negotiator michel barnier has arrived for talks on a trade deal with the uk, but at this late stage there has been little sign of progress. both sides maintained they want to do a deal in time for the deadline of december the 31st, and as far as the uk is concerned, it should be straightforward. the prime minister last week said that we needed to reenergise and the eu really needed to focus and refresh their mandate in these final weeks, because, yes, on many areas, progress has been made and agreements exist, and a lot of text has been drafted. there are these sticking points around, for instance, fisheries, around state aid rules. they can be resolved. we are not asking for anything miraculous. we are really asking for what other countries like norway and canada already have. arriving in brussels today for more talks in the coming week, the uk's chief negotiator, lord frost, said there had been some

progress in a positive direction in recent days, but added the two sides might not reach agreement, and that either way, people and businesses must prepare for the change that is coming on the 31st of december. the departure of dominic cummings as the prime minister's senior adviser makes no difference to the government's position, it claims. 0ne eu country is clear, a breakthrough is needed for a deal to be done. this is very difficult, but it is also very doable, and i think the consequences of not getting a trade deal and a future relationship deal, of course, which goes beyond trade, because there is a whole range of other things that the eu and the uk need to facilitate each other on, as well. the consequences of not getting a future relationship agreement in place before the end of the year, i think, is very, very significant for britain and ireland in particular, but also for a number of other eu countries, as well. time is running out.

the government is trying to ram home the point that deal or no deal, change is coming. exactly what rests on the outcome of negotiations. jonathan blake, bbc news. lawyers acting for 200 women in england — who claim they have been severely harmed by a sterilisation device have begun legal action against the manufacturer. the small coil, called essure, was implanted to prevent pregnancy. similar lawsuits are already under way in the united states. sophie hutchinson reports. i'd say it's destroyed my life and my children's life. aches and pains all over. no one will listen, because it's just women's things. tracey, laura, di and kim are among tens of thousands of women across the world who say they've been severely harmed by the medical sterilisation device essure.

ijust started heavy periods, migraines, which i'd only ever had when i was pregnant, so they were hormonal. my back was so painful i'd wake up in the middle of night with pains in my hips and my back and it was just... i'd wake up crying. this is essure, a tiny metal coil. it's now been withdrawn from the market but in 2002, it was promoted as an easy, non—surgical procedure, a new era in sterilisation. it was inserted into the fallopian tube where it was meant to cause scarring, blocking the tube and preventing pregnancy. but far from the promise of no surgery, these women have now had, or are waiting to have, hysterectomies in order to remove the device. it's easy to get it done. it's easy to say, you know, "have this, it's wonderful". but then the fallout, there's nobody there. there's no support apart from, you know, people that we found ourselves. there's. ..

no—one will listen, because it's just women's things. essure‘s manufacturer bayer has just set aside £1.2 billion to settle claims from 39,000 american women who say they've been harmed by the device. that's prompted a legal case here. this solicitor has started court action on behalf of 200 women in england who say essure has caused them severe suffering. the reports that have come out from the american proceedings, are that conceptus and bayer were failing to report adverse events, so that's when they become aware that there's a problem with the device and that's something that we're going to look at very, very carefully indeed. bayer strongly refutes those allegations and stressed it has never violated regulations around complaints. it said, "we take all adverse events seriously and the company stands behind the safety and efficacy of essure following two decades of research".

but some doctors who fitted essure remain sceptical and say the monitoring of new medical devices is inadequate. we learned from the mesh problems, we have learned from the breast implants, we have learned from essure device that if you put materials in the body for a long time, we need more information with long follow—ups on what it does to the body, and to be honest, we don't know. and for those who've suffered, more information could have changed everything. it's been really hard. notjust physically, but mentally. ifeel my children have missed out on a lot and it makes me feel guilty because if i hadn't had essure, then i wouldn't be where i am now. life would be very different

for me and my children. donald trump has appeared to acknowledge for the first time that his democratic rivaljoe biden won the us presidential election — but he's also reiterated unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud. writing on twitter in the past hour or so — president trump said biden won ‘because the election was rigged.‘ despite losing the election earlier this month mr trump has so far refused to concede — and his legal efforts have so far been unsucessful. 15 asia—pacific countries have formed the world's largest free trade grouping in a deal which is seen as an extension of china's influence in the region. it includes ten south—east asian countries, along with china, japan, south korea,

new zealand and australia. vietnam — which hosted the signing ceremony — said the group would account for 30% of the world economy, reaching more than two billion consumers. prince charles has joined the german president, frank walter steinmeier, to lay a wreath in berlin for germany's national day of mourning. he's the first member of the british royal family to take part in the ceremony, for victims of war and dictatorship. mr steinmeier said germany was deeply grateful to prince charles for what he called an extraordinary gesture of reconciliation and solidarity. the headlines on bbc news. the entertainer des 0'connor, known for his prime—time tv shows, has died at the age of 88. big hopes for the new coronavirus vaccine from the company behind it —

but warnings of a hard winter ahead. labour calls for the government to force social media companies to remove anti—vaccine content from their platforms. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's gavin. lewis hamilton has won a record equalling 7th world title in formula one, after a sensational drive at the turkish grand prix. his victory sees him share the all—time title record with michael schumacher on a treacherous day at istanbul park. 0ur sports correspondent joe wilson has more. when formula i meets a slippery track, suddenly it's like ice. like that. one of the early spinners, the black mercedes of valtteri bottas, theoretically lewis hamilton's rival for the world title.

all hamilton really had to do was keep going, and trust his car. brakes aren't working... the track was drying, but not dry. there is a big difference. ask max verstappen. but, for hamilton, everything was working. he didn't need to win this race. lewis hamilton takes the lead. but he always needs to win. hamilton's 94th grand prix victory was its own triumph. lewis hamilton wins the turkish grand prix. he's won more races than anyone. now a seven time world champion, same as michael schumacher. that's the journey. that's for all the kids out there who dream the impossible. statistically, put simply, number one. joe wilson, bbc news. dustinjohnson is the man to catch at the us masters, with the final day at augusta under way. he was four shots ahead of the field — on 16 under. as he searches for

a first green jacket. perhaps a bit much for rory mcilroy today, he's 7 behind the leader. with tommy fleetwood. 0ne futher back. plenty of nations league action today. scotland, fresh from qualifying for next year's european championship are in action. they're taking on slovakia, who got the better of northern ireland midweek in their euros playoff and are 1—0 down in the second half. scotland will still be top of their group, even with a loss. later on, england are away in belgium. england reached the inaugural finals of the competition in portugal last year, but trail belgium by two points in their group. there's been more history for britain's adam peaty today. the olympic champion has broken the 100 meters breaststroke world record, for the first time in his career. peaty — who's in the black cap near the top of the screen — set a time of 55.49

in the semi—finals of the international swimming league. he does hold the longcourse world record in both the 50m and 100m breastroke, but hasn't held a short course record until now. ireland's katie taylor underlined her status as the world's best as she defended all four of her belts at wembley arena last night and then promised her best is yet to come taylor beat the spaniard miriam gutierrez, who was previously unbeaten, on a points decision — but in truth that never looked in doubt with the champion in control throughout, and sending gutierrez to the floor in round four. promoter eddie hearn called her the greatest ever in women's boxing. hard to disagree. not such a good night for britain's kell brook though. he lost in four rounds to terence crawford in las vegas. crawford retained his wbo world welterweight title. it was in the fourth where former ibf welterweight champion brook, was caught by a right hand from the american, who then landed a flurry of shots before the referee stepped in, and stopped the fight. the win means 33—year—old crawford

is unbeaten in 37 fights. the atp finals are under way — the end of season tournament featuring the world's best eight players is being played at the o2 arena for the final time before moving to turin. dominic thiem and stefanos tsitsipas are playing now in the first match in what is a repeat of last year's final. they're still in the first set and it's going with serve so far — with tsitsipas leading 5 games to four. some sad news to end on and it's been announced in the last few minutes that former england goalkeeper ray clemence has died. one of the greatest goalkeepers ever to grace the game, rayjoined tottenham from liverpool as a five—time league champion and three—time european cup winner in 1981, having also lifted the fa cup, league cup and two uefa cups during his time at anfield. that is all the sport from us for

110w. see you in an hour, thank you. austria is facing a second national lockdown from tuesday. current measures have proved ineffective with the number of coronavirus infections continuing to soar and authorities pleading with residents to follow the rules. sylvia lennan—spence has this report. another european country, another national lockdown. austrian officials admitting the spread of coronavirus infections is once again beyond their control. translation: the truth is that the authorities can no longer trace 77% of the new infections, so they don't even know where the infections happen. a night curfew and partial shutdown were already in place, but from tuesday that will escalate. nonessential shops and services will close, while schools will switch to distance learning except where care is needed. residents will only be able to leave home for work, to meet basic needs or care for others or for physical activity.

the announcement coming with a plea. translation: my urgent request for the next few weeks is, don't meet anyone. every social contact is one too many. a record 9,586 cases were registered in austria on friday. more than seven times higher than at the peak of the first wave. it takes the country's total number of infections to more than 198,000. translation: it seems that it is necessary, unfortunately. instead of more people dying or becoming ill, it is better to accept a second lockdown. the measures will remain in place until at least december the 6th, with the hope of reopening ahead of christmas. that is, of course, dependent on whether or not this lockdown will effectively flatten the curve. a charity that works to combat poverty is urging the government to offer renters more protection

over the winter. thejoseph rowntree foundation says that in a survey of nearly three thousand tenants, about three in ten were worried about whether they will be able to pay their rent over the next three months, because of the pandemic. the government says it's supporting tenants in need — whilst also ensuring landlords have access to justice in the most serious cases. the british government has announced a0 million pounds of extra funding for green projects, which it says will enhance england's natural environment and create or support thousands of jobs. some of the money will be invested in the creation of new national parks. the funding is part of a plan for a green recovery from the pandemic. here's our environment analyst, roger harrabin. the lake district, one of britain's favourite landscapes. it looks wild but that is an illusion. the diversity of habitat and species

on these naked hills has been depleted over centuries by overgrazing sheep. the government wants to bring back the wildlife here to its previous state. it also wants to restore peat bogs and woodlands which capture the carbon emissions that are overheating the planet. £40 million is being provided for charities to put thousands of boots on the ground to bring back the nature. green campaigners welcomed the cash but they say that last chunk of £40 million was oversubscribed seven times. every little helps but, let's be clear, £40 million is a drop in the ocean compared to the £1 billion investment that's needed every year, year—on—year, to rebuild our natural infrastructure in this country. unless we do that, unless we turn around the declines of our species and habitats in this country, we are going to see the foundation for our food security, our water security, our health and our economy eroding away.

meanwhile, next year the government will designate new national parks, like the yorkshire dales, and ten long—term landscape recovery projects will be initiated to restore wilder landscapes. the prime minister is said to be turning towards green initiatives like this to signal a move to kinder policies. roger harrabin, bbc news. jk rowling delighted fans during lockdown with the surprise announcement that she was releasing a brand new book. when she gave children across the world the chance to help illustrate it — the author received more than 18,000 competition entries. joanna prior has been to meet one of the lucky winners. lockdown in spring, rainbows and clapping for carrots. dozens of children's swap school for home learning and to help lift spirits

and uncertain times,jk learning and to help lift spirits and uncertain times, jk rowling began releasing instalments of her new book. it was really happy, because in lockdown is a really hard time, because we couldn't really see oui’ time, because we couldn't really see our grandparents, as the chapters came out, it was a really good book, and it may be feel better. rolling wa nted and it may be feel better. rolling wanted her young audience to be involved, so she invited them to be involved, so she invited them to be involved in a competition to illustrate the book. this is one selected for inclusion. aged eight yea rs old selected for inclusion. aged eight years old at the time, she is one of the youngest excess lattice involved. there were more than 18,000 entries around the world. my mind went boom, and i was so excited, i really wanted to see the book. i really wanted to see the book. i really wanted to see the book when it arrived, and i really wa nted book when it arrived, and i really

wanted to just see my picture in the book. it's right there! rowling initially wrote the book a decade ago as a bedtime story for her own children. her manuscripts came out of the attic to entertain a generation in lockdown. as we return to more restrictions on how we live, jk rowling says that she is donating all the royalties of the book to groups who have been particularly affected by the covid pandemic. what affected by the covid pandemic. what a star! it's a stormy picture along the south coast, these are the waves breaking along the beach. high tides and strong winds combined for coastal flooding along the south coastal flooding along the south coast next few hours. heavy rain, to boot. the waves being stirred up by gusty winds accompanying the showers, bright white blobs on the

satellite picture behind me. this is the main band of rain pulling up into the north sea, curled back into the centre of an area of low pressure, and will see more for scotla nd pressure, and will see more for scotland and northern england as you go through the evening. the winds will ease down, the more persistent rain pushing into the north sea. showers pushing into scotland and northern england, showers here, quieter elsewhere, and mild enough. for the week ahead, we will stay on a pretty mild footing. almost warmth of the time of year in the mid—part of the time of year in the mid—part of the time of year in the mid—part of the week, but was the end of the week, prepare things to turn noticeably colder. monday, a bit of a breather after this weekend's wet and windy weather, this ridge of high pressure with us, but this little lot has to move through the middle part of the week, so you get the picture. more wet and windy weather possible. here is monday, with the ridge of high pressure, you can see a lot of dry weather, the majority of the higher uk