this is bbc news, the headlines at eight... the former us president barack obama has told the bbc that the united states is more divided today than when he was elected twelve years ago. we area we are a very divided right now. more than we were when i first ran for office in 2007. more than we were when i first ran for office in 2007. the side effects of statins could be down to patient anxiety and have nothing to do with what's in them, according to a new study. scientists behind the first covid vaccine to be successful in early trials say its full impact will be felt next year, but warn of a hard winter ahead. the bigger impact will happen in summer.

the bigger impact will happen in summer. summer will help anyway because the infection rate will go down in the summer. farewell to one of our best known entertainers — des o'connor has died at the age of 88. lewis hamilton wins a record—equalling seventh world title after claiming victory at the turkish grand prix. good evening. the former us president, barack obama, has told the bbc that the united states is more divided today, than when he was elected 12 years ago. he said the divisions have been actively fanned by donald trump for political purposes and would outlast his presidency. mr obama was speaking to the bbc in an interview

with the historian david olusoga. our diplomatic correspondent james landale reports. congratulations, mr president. the election of the united states's first black president was seen many asa first black president was seen many as a watershed moment that was a step to ending divisions that had scarred the us. barack obama now believes those divisions have deepened, not just of believes those divisions have deepened, notjust of race but of inequality. we are very divided right now, certainly more than we we re right now, certainly more than we were when i first ran for office in 2007 and more divided than we were four years ago. when donald trump first won the presidency. some of thatis first won the presidency. some of that is attributable to our current president, who actively fund division —— than division because he felt it was good for his politics,

but it proceeded him and it will outlast him. in part, he says, that is because some americans feel they have lost the grip of the ladder of economic advancement and can be persuaded it is someone else's fault. it is fuelled by conspiracy fuelled social media. crazy conspiracy theories, and what some have called truth decay, where the fa cts have called truth decay, where the facts don't matter. that has contributed enormously to these divisions. and oh, yes, he believes the current president has played his part. what has been interesting, obviously, and said during the selection, is that that kind of lack of fidelity to the truth has consequences when it is being promoted by the most powerful elected official in the country. fixing that truth decade, he suggests, will take time and

potentially better radiation of the internet and the media. potentially better radiation of the internet and the medial potentially better radiation of the internet and the media. i think at some point it will require a combination of regulation and standards within the industry to get us standards within the industry to get us back to the point where we at least recognise a common set of fa cts least recognise a common set of facts before we start arguing about what we should do about those facts. isa what we should do about those facts. is a new president prepares for his first term, his predecessor is mulling legacy he left his country. mrobama mulling legacy he left his country. mr obama says the us was better off after his eight years in office, but he accepts the fault lines in american culture remain. andre perry is a fellow at the brookings institution and author of the book ‘know your price: valuing black lives and property in america's black cities. welcome thank you very much for joining us. we heard that barack

obama talking about how donald trump in his view actively fanned these divisions. can you pinpoint occasions where you believed that was the case? well, he certainly exploited the current racism that exist. the one challenge i would have 20 comma's assertion is that much of the hostility was a result of his presence in office. it was clearly a backlash. we talk about economic anxieties as the fuel for many of these divisions. but it's really racism. that really manifests itself right now in the economic recovery due to covid. and the unemployment rate for black people is 80% higher for black workers. black and brown folks are dying at two to three times the right of white counterparts. the relief

package for covid saw that black and brown, 90% did not receive subsidy. so it's not just brown, 90% did not receive subsidy. so it's notjust about trump or economic anxiety. they divide is really about racism that existed during 0bama his era. but his presence really uplifted folks that did not feel that a black president could ever represent them. joe biden will want to address these divisions. he said so in his campaign. how does his administration get to grips with that is? at such an enormous deeply entrenched problem. well, the first thing he can do is actually higher people of color. we should not coddle white anxiety or fear of the browning of the country for that we should not fear this nor should we

coddle these emotions. first thing we should do is hire people of cover but not color. higher america that represents the country. and then second, he needs to work on structural racism. many of the number, as i said earlier, a direct result of educational inequalities, employment discrimination, housing discrimination and he can put forth policies that really address those divisions. but to focus on trump is to lose sight of the actual goal. to deal with structural racism. apart from throwing money at it, how do you dismantle that structure? well, what we've been missing is a moral force in the country. you could argue that trump is a moral force of sorts. he is sort of on the immoral end. but we do need a pastor,

someone end. but we do need a pastor, someone who can bring the country together. i'm not sure if that's biden. in the past martin luther king biden. in the past martin luther kinng., an biden. in the past martin luther king jr., an outsider, biden. in the past martin luther kinng., an outsider, someone outside of dc provided that role. and there is been numerous others. i think that we do need someone to heal. i'm not sure if biden or someone heal. i'm not sure if biden or someone in the administration is that person. given that you've just said in your view, that person. given that you've just said in yourview, a that person. given that you've just said in your view, a backlash against barack obama being a black president. how helpful is it to have kamala harris as the ist, notjust woman vice president but vice president of colour in office? she was on the ticket to get elected. i don't think it's about being harmful or helpful. she's elected, she's an american elected official. and she will serve the country whether people like it or not. we should be

rallying behind whatever president until they failed to deliver. again, this goes back to my comment earlier. we can't coddle white anxieties. the more we do that, the more we delay the kinds of policymaking that will really remove the racial divisions, the structural racism that's really the cause of our divide racism that's really the cause of ourdivide in racism that's really the cause of our divide in this country. but seeing kamala harris in that role as vice president, it's surely going to make other americans women, people of colour think that if she's done it there is a chance that someone else in her image could do the same. let's remember that more than half, a significant number, more than half of americans voted for biden and

harris because they saw them as an alternative to trump. trump had in economy that was by his accounts, very high. they moved on from trump. most americans moved on from trump because they see hope in a harris. they see hope in america. as the first asian woman, the first black woman in that office, this isjust first asian woman, the first black woman in that office, this is just a step in the right direction. the more we see the representation from all americans in the highest office of the land, the more we are showing progress from the days of slavery and segregation. thank you very much. thank you very much. president 0bama's interview comes after an eventful us presidential election. today, donald trump has appeared to acknowledge for the first time that his democratic rivaljoe biden won the election —

but he's also reiterated unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud. 0n twitter — president trump said mr biden won ‘because the election was rigged.‘ mr trump has so far refused to concede well, us president—electjoe biden's incoming chief of staff, ron klain, has been speaking to nbc‘s meet the press. he says donald trump's tweets in which he seemed to acknowledge a win forjoe biden is the first step towards transition. accept it as a further confirmation of the reality that joe biden won the election, and not through any of the rest of that tweet, not through fraud or anything else the president is baselessly alledging — he won because he got more votes. he got more votes in the popular vote by a lot. he won the same number of electoral votes that president trump himself called a landslide four years ago. but look, if the president is prepared to begin to recognise that reality, that's positive. donald trump's twitter feed does not makejoe biden president or not, the american people did that. what we want to see this week is the general services administration issue that ascertainment,

so we can start to do the kind things like meet with vaccine officials, get the intelligence briefings for the president—elect and vice president—elect, that is really the measure of how this is moving forward this week. earlier i spoke to our correspondent, will grant, who is in washington — and asked him whether presidenttrump is coming under any pressure to fully concede tojoe biden. this wasn't fully not by any means, was a? just a few words that he quickly rode back on. if it indicates that he's leaning in that direction that's clearly what the democrats want. i think the pressure is building both because there is pressure building on individual key republicans in the senate, in the house and of course people inside donald trumps inner circle to who potentially want to leave in a slightly more dignified fashion than theirs. sort of, holding on till the bitter end. public health officials are playing their role to particular

anthony felty. the leading epidemiologist who has pointed out just how severe the current coronavirus pandemic is in the united states. and as a result, is creating real difficulties in combating that if the transition tea m combating that if the transition team forjoe biden can't get their hands on the information they need. where is the sign that senior republicans who we might be forced to listen to making the case forjoe biden as well? i'm not sure they aren't necessarily making the case for him. but i think they are beginning to do is acknowledge that he needs to get that sip security briefing. in a way that is making the case, is in a? look we need to deal with the reality in front of us. deal with the reality in front of us. we've seen that from lindsey graham, from chuck grassley and others. but i do think that is the sort of way that this will play out. 0n the other side of this are donald trumps own legal challenges to the results. those are currently coming to nothing. in the past 48 hours we've seen at least three places in

which those have fallen down. important places like pennsylvania and so on. the more and more of those go on and don't lead to a change not only in the individual states but in the result is a whole, one would assume that it will at least bring to a point where donald trump has to say look, i don't accept this result but i'm not to challenge it will at least bring to challenge it will at least bring toa to challenge it will at least bring to a point where donald trump has to say look, i don't accept this result but a market accounted any further. and we'll find out how this — and many other stories — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30 and 11:30 this evening in the papers — our guests joining me tonight are chief executive at the left—wing think tank the new economics foundation and a former labour adviser, miatta fahnbulleh and political commentator & former conservative party press chief, giles kenningham. most of the debilitating effects of statins are not caused by the drug, but by people believing it will make them sick, according to a study by imperial college london. the phenomenon is known as the "nocebo effect" and may account for 90% of the ill health associated with the drugs. nearly 8 million people in the uk take statins

to lower their cholesterol. researchers hope the findings will help more people stay on them. earlier i spoke to one of the co—authors of the sudy, dr howard jones — and asked him to explain a bit more about the so—called nocebo effect. people know the placebo effect is where you take a drug and you think it is going to help you, and even if it isjust a sugar tablet, you truly do feel a lot better. the nocebo effect is the opposite, and we wondered whether with statins if this could be a problem, because when people pick up their newspaper in the morning, they learn to expect that statins are going to give them aches and pains. and we wondered whether if we gave them sugar tablets, we could give them aches and pains. and what did you find? we actually ran a trial where, for a third of the year, people were taking nothing, but then, for two thirds of the year, people were taking statin or placebo and they did not know which was which. and we found that people felt much worse when they took statins, but they felt 90% as bad when they just took sugar tablets.

so what are the complaints that people have about statins and what is causing those symptoms, even though they're not caused by the drug? the most common thing we think of when we think of statins‘ side—effects are muscle aches and pains, and 60% of the people in our trial where with that. but we let anyone in whose side—effects were so bad that they had to stop the tablets. so we tried to be as representative as possible of the general population. with regards to where it comes from, it is a really good question. we don't really understand the placebo effect, and our understanding of the nocebo effect is even worse. but what is interesting is, why are statins so bad for causing people nocebo symptoms? because people tolerate lots of other drugs for heart problems so much better. and it probably is because people have been conditioned by the media to expect to feel worse on them. yeah, you do see some very contradictory headlines, don't you, at times, in the press particularly.

so what do do next with this research? because statins clearly can benefit a lot of people, but people are not going to want to take them if they are suffering this nocebo effect. what was interesting was our trial involved 60 patients, and all of them, when they came to us, weren't able to take statins any more. and we sat down with them at the end of the trial, after they had done a full year of taking the tablets, and we showed them the results, and half of them were able to restart these drugs. so actuallyjust spending time with patients and explain where their symptoms might become from and personalising things a little bit to then can make a big difference. but itjust shows, doesn't it, power of the psychosomatic effect of these drugs, whether they are real drugs or placebo? absolutely. what we don't want people thinking is that we think patients are making it up or that they shouldn't be believed. our patients were really suffering in the trial. 71 times in our trial, people had to stop their tablets because their symptoms were so bad.

they were not making it up. but what is interesting is the amount of times they had to stop the tablets was very similar between whether they were taking statins or just taking sugar tablets. one of the scientists behind the first covid vaccine to emerge from early clinical trials with high levels of success says it won't start to make a significant difference until next summer. professor ugur sahin — whose company biontech developed the vaccine with the pharmaceutical giant pfizer told the bbc today that normal life should be resuming this time next year if mass vaccination programmes had taken place by then. our health correspondent sophie hutchinson reports. tiny vials of the new biontec/pfizer vaccine, which hold the world's hope for an end to the pandemic. but today, one of its creators, from the husband—and—wife team, warned there are still many months to get through.

this winter will be hard. we will not have a big impact on the infection numbers with our vaccine this winter. the bigger impact will happen until summer. the summer will help us anyway, because the infection rate will go down in the summer, and what is absolutely essential is that we get a high vaccination rate before autumn and winter next year. there are still many unknowns about this new vaccine. how long does immunity from it last? its creators say you might need a jab every year, every two years or every five years — it is just too early to tell. and how effective is it in older people? up to 40% of those who took part in this trial, that has been deemed so successful, were older people, and we should get more data on them in the next few weeks. and will it stop transmission from one person to another? well, it's creators again say it

seems to have been so successful at reducing illness in people that they are very hopeful that it could have a big impact on transmission too. i am very confident that transmission between people will be reduced by such a highly effective vaccine, maybe not 90% but maybe 50%, but we should not forget that even that could result in a dramatic reduction in the pandemic‘s spread. but we will not know for sure until we see the data in a few months. others have sounded a note of caution about the possibility the virus could mutate, and that any successful vaccine needs to be able to adapt at speed. we mustn't take our eye off the ball. the virus is an rna virus and is highly likely to change and we need to keep a watchful eye out for that and be able to respond if necessary. but there is genuine excitement about the vaccine, which will be given to those

who live and work in care homes as a priority. 10 million doses should be here by the end of the year. let's take a look at the latest figures released on coronavirus. another 24,962 new infections were recorded in the latest 24—hour period, which means an average of 25,329 new cases per day in the last week. there were an average of 1,656 hospital admissions per day in the week to last wednesday. another 168 deaths were reported today , that's people who died within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test. it means an average of 413 deaths per day in the last week. the total number of uk deaths is now 51,934. the uk's chief brexit negotiator

lord frost has travelled to brussels today for more eu trade talks — warning that the process may not succeed. the aim has been for a trade deal to replace the brexit transition arrangements, which last until the end of the year which is why time is running out for any deal reached to be approved and implemented. 0ur political correspondent, nick eardley, reports. for weeks, brexit talks have continued in the background. this is europe's chief negotiator, michel barnier, in london last week. but there hasn't been as much progress as some hoped. reporter: are you optimistic, mr barnier? 0ne meeting was described as short and brutal. but both sides agree we have now reached a crunch point. i'm just getting on with myjob. this morning, this man, the uk's chief negotiator, lord frost, tweeted, "there has been some progress in a positive direction in recent days." he added, "but we may not succeed. people and businesses must prepare for the change that is coming on the 31st december."

and this was the message from the environment secretary this morning. 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, that can be resolved. we are not asking for anything miraculous. we are really asking for what other countries like norway and canada already have, so it should be possible to reach that agreement. it has been a dramatic few days in downing street but despite the departure of dominic cummings — the man who helped run the campaign to leave the eu — the government says its position on brexit hasn't changed and many in europe, like ireland's foreign minister, want a deal done. this is very difficult but it's also very doable. the consequence of not getting a future relationship agreement in place before the end of the year, i think, is very significant for britain and ireland in particular, but also for a number of other eu countries as well. so, there is a real reason to get this done. we have heard for a while now that

a deal is possible if the significant gaps can be bridged, but it comes down to this — the transition period which we are in at the moment, where very little has changed, expires at the end of the year. there's not much time left to agree a deal and get it ratified. for that to happen, there will have to be movement and it will have to come soon. time is running out... the government wants to make it clear, whatever happens in trade talks, there will be changes at the end of the year, but exactly what they will look like is still being figured out. the prince of wales and the duchess of cornwall have become the first members of the royal family to attend germany's annual commemoration of victims of war and dictatorship. the ceremony in berlin marks germany's national day of mourning. and in a speech at the german parliament, the prince said the bonds between the uk and germany would endure after brexit. 0ur correspondent damien

mcguinness reports. a day of remembering the victims of war. but also a reminder of the miracle of reconciliation between two countries who were 1's enemies. this is the first time a member of the royal family has come for this commemoration. the meaning of the national day of mourning has evolved over the years. for the nazis it was about glorifying war. but for modern germany, it's about pursuing peace. and remembering all victims of oppression. a message echoed by the wreath of poppies laid here by prince charles. today's visit comes ata prince charles. today's visit comes at a crucial time for the uk's relationship with its near neighbors. in a speech in the german parliament building at times speaking in german, prince charles said that although the uk has chosen a future outside of the european union britain and germany will remain close. we will always be

friends, partners and allies, he said. and called on the two countries to reaffirm their bonds for the years ahead. the parliament building was damaged by the allies in the second world war. but it was later redesigned by a british architect. a fitting place to talk about how war can be replaced by friendship. lewis hamilton has won the formula one world championship, following an impressive victory in istanbul this afternoon. the win means he equals michael schumacher‘s record of seven world titles. it cements hamilton as one of the all—time greats of the sport, hamilton, who does not yet have a contract for next year, said he wanted to stay in f1 and wanted to continue to campaign for change when it comes to human rights, diversity and environmentalism. tributes have been paid to one of the best known entertainers,

des o'connor, who has died at the age of 88. the comedian, singer and television star had a career spanning almost 70 years. today he was remembered as a consummate professional and one of the great old school entertainers. 0ur arts correspondent david sillito looks back at his life. i've kept a list of the insults against des 0'connor. des 0'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 good grace. number one — eric: i'vejust heard some good news. ernie: what good news? eric: des 0'connor‘s got a sore throat. nothing seemed to dent that clean—cut, deep—tanned optimism. number two — ernie: des 0'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. ..#.

he recorded more than 30 albums in a career that took him to las vegas to countdown. he was the ultimate professional. that's why he worked from his time as a red coat back in the 1950s until a year or two ago in his mid—80s. he was still touring with his one—man show, two man show for that age 85 he was still up there singing, dancing, telling jokes. music the son of a document from london's east end he made more than a thousand appearances at the palladium and on television. he could look back on more than 40 yea rs of could look back on more than 40 years of chat shows. at the success a lwa ys years of chat shows. at the success always came with a touch of self—deprecation. always came with a touch of self-deprecation. a little old lady came up to me when day and said mr 0'connor i've enjoyed your show. she said here is £5 could you send me your new lp? so i said well, you can get it for £3. will know because the

last time i went to the shop and ask for it does 0'connor lp the guy said you're kidding? as the decades rolled by he remained in almost ageless fixture in the schedules. heat was never really fashionable and so it never fell out of fashion. he was a career of 60 years of professional, unflappable good—natured professional, unflappable good—natu red charm. professional, unflappable good-natured charm. you have my word. that's good enough for me. and when thejoke word. that's good enough for me. and when the joke was on him, word. that's good enough for me. and when thejoke was on him, he word. that's good enough for me. and when the joke was on him, he was a lwa ys when the joke was on him, he was always the first to laugh. and when the joke was on him, he was always the first to laugh. des 0'connor who's died, aged 88. now it's time for a look at the weather with nick miller. hello. the strong, squally winds of today across parts of southern england, especially along the coast, will be gradually easing through the night.

still some rain out there, but a lot of that by the end of the night confined to northern and western parts of scotland, running down into northwest england. a fair amount of cloud around, clear spells and temperatures dipping lower than they have done on recent nights. a bit of rain around to start the day tomorrow, but a lot of that drifting away and by lunchtime, much of the uk will be dry. sunny spells around, but here comes the next system. for wales, western parts of england and northern ireland, thicker cloud in the afternoon and outbreaks of rain from that. not as windy as it has been over at the weekend, these are average speeds, with some gusts up to 40mph in some places. temperatures up to 13 degrees. through monday night, this rain here will spread north