this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. trials of a second vaccine for coronavirus bring promising results. the us firm moderna revealed the outcome of phase three trials showed it's almost 95% effective. i broke into an ear—to—ear grin when i heard the numbers. it really exceeded our best hopes and it is an incredibly exciting moment for us. the news comes as coronavirus cases in the us top 11 million — with hospital admissions at record levels. the president—elect says political paralysis could hurt any medical efforts. what do you see is the biggest threat to your transition right now, given president trump's

unprecedented attempt to obstruct and delay a smooth transfer of power? more people may die if we don't co—ordinate. "light at the end of the tunnel" — the postponed tokyo olympics and paralympics will go ahead, according to the ioc. and in another bitterly contested election, new zealand crowns a chubby parrot bird of the year. hello, welcome to bbc news. we start with more good news in the search for a covid vaccine. after clinical trials in the united states, the firm moderna says its vaccine is almost 95% effective. it's one of around 50 vaccines now being tested

on people worldwide, and its success, along with pfizer's announced last week, raises hopes that others could also be effective. however, the world health organization has warned that with cases surging in europe and the us, now is not the time to be complacent. our medical editor fergus walsh reports. another dose of hope — and further evidence that vaccines will provide a way out of this pandemic. thank you. stunning early results from this trial, from us firm moderna, have eclipsed the strong results just a week ago from pfizer biontech. i broke into an ear—to—ear grin when i heard the numbers. it really exceeded our best hopes, and it is an incredibly exciting moment for us as a company, and as a world, as we start to develop tools to fight the virus. 30,000 volunteers in the us took part in the trials. half had two doses of the vaccine a month apart, the rest dummy injections.

early analysis shows there were 90 covid cases in those given the dummy treatment and only five in the vaccinated group. moderna says this shows the vaccine is over 94% effective at preventing covid. what's more, there were 11 cases of severe disease, but none among those who got the vaccine. moderna, like pfizer, have used a completely new method for creating vaccines which doesn't need the virus itself. it uses the genes for the coronavirus spike protein. this synthetic code, known as rna, is created in the laboratory and forms the vaccine. this teaches the body to recognise and build an immune response to coronavirus.

before we can all throw away our facemasks and ditch social distancing, we're going to need to protect the world from covid. that will require billions of doses of coronavirus vaccine, and it's why clinical trials must continue. like this one, which began today in southampton and other sites across the uk. the jab from the belgian firm janssen is one of six covid vaccines pre—ordered by the government. over time, we will learn which of those works better in different ages and different people with different conditions, and also how to use the vaccines in combinations to give people the best and longest—lasting immunity. caution is needed — we still need full safety and effectiveness data for the moderna and pfizerjabs. but there is a real sense that some of the most vulnerable to covid could be immunised before christmas. fergus walsh, bbc news. fergus walsh reporting. as we heard, the world health 0rganization has cautiously welcomed

the moderna results, but has also been urging caution. it is really exciting, all this news about vaccines, a new testing capacity being introduced and all the other great technologies that are coming on board, but we've got still some time to go, everybody, before the vaccine really will make a dent on the nature of the pandemic. we are still in much of europe, ina pandemic. we are still in much of europe, in a bit of a lockdown right now, and there is nervousness, understandably, then when the lockdown is released, then there will be another spike and people will be another spike and people will once again be in difficulty, so please keep up the precautions, please keep up the precautions, please continue to maintain physical distancing, masking, keeping yourself isolated when you're sick, doing lots of good hygiene and looking after the people who are particularly at risk. you're watching bbc news.

us president—electjoe biden has warned that donald trump's refusal to begin the transition following his election defeat earlier this month could cost lives. he said president trump needs to work with the incoming team to co—ordinate vaccination programmes. mrtrump is continuing to insist, without evidence, that the presidential poll was rigged and has yet to concede. joe biden expressed his frustration at the politicisation of measures to deal with the covid—19 crisis, such as mask—wearing. does anybody understand why a governor would turn this into a political statement? it's about patriotism. it's about being patriotic. it's about saving life. for real. this is not hyperbole. it's about being patriotic. and i think you're seeing more and more, as this god—awful virus continues to spread, almost unabated, that governors are stepping up.

lebo disekojoins me from washington. real frustration there from joe biden, and that stark warning that it will cost lives unless this transition period starts pretty quickly. yeah. he was asked about what the consequence of all this relu cta nce what the consequence of all this reluctance or refusal, really, on the part of the republic and to co—operate and share information with the incoming team is, and he said, how do you get these millions of americans vaccinated ? said, how do you get these millions of americans vaccinated? what is the plan? what have you done? what are you planning to do? if we don't have a plan, how do we do it, and if we don't do that, many americans could die. it was really a stark warning there. this is not something that only affects plans to roll the vaccine. it also affects national security as well. a lot of those briefings are classified and he is just not getting them stuck kamala harris gets some of that information because she is on certain senate

committees, but joe because she is on certain senate committees, butjoe biden isjust not getting that information at all, and there was that contested election back in 2000, those 37 days that delayed the transition, and when the 9/11 report came out, it said that that impacted on george w bush's administration's ability to respond to that and even george w bush's own former chief of staff saying there may not have been a 9/11 attack if they had not had that delay in getting information and getting these security briefings. yeah, i mean, the economic consulate as of this pandemic are so not really known. joe biden talking about what his plans were for that. he wants to work across the aisle, doesn't he said that, what was the phrase he used, we can deliver immediate relief. how? he says he really wa nts immediate relief. how? he says he really wants to push for a new

stimulus package, essentially full psa he thinks that something along the lines of that three chilean dollar one we saw earlier on this year is what needs to happen to stop the also spoke about his own plans. he says that he wants to have more unionjobs, more he says that he wants to have more union jobs, more clean he says that he wants to have more unionjobs, more clean energyjobs in the future. he wants to reboard work rather than just wealth, but none of this, none of this is going to be easy to do if you cannot talk to be easy to do if you cannot talk to the administration now and when they're so much uncertainty as well. and i wasjust they're so much uncertainty as well. and i was just really struck by the fa ct and i was just really struck by the fact that he had called this address, this press conference, to give his plans but some of the first questions were about the transition, what is happening, how is this hampering your plans and what are you going to do about it. ok, lebo with the latest in washington, think you very much. —— thank you very much. in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, tokyo 2020 was delayed by a year. now, the head of the international olympic committee has said he's

confident the olympics and paralympics will take place in front of spectators next year. more than 11,000 athletes from around 200 countries were due to take part in the games, now due to begin injuly 2021. tokyo organisers now say it could go ahead with a "limited" audience, fewer staff and delegates from each country. and there are now hopes that an effective vaccine against covid—19 could be available within the next year. rupert wingfield—hayes sent this report from tokyo. this is a hugely important trip for the international olympic committee chief. thomas bach is here to sell the rescheduled tokyo 0lympics — not to the japanese prime minister, but to the japanese people. he immediately sought to address widespread doubt here that the olympics can be held safely if the covid pandemic is not yet over. in order to protect the japanese people, and out of respect

for the japanese people, the ioc will undertake a great effort so that as many as possible of the olympic participants and visitors will arrive here vaccinated, if by then a vaccine is available. this makes us also very, very confident that we can have spectators then in the olympic stadium next year, and that also the spectators will enjoy a safe environment. news from america that a covid—19 vaccine developed by pfizer appears to work is very good news and has significantly boosted hopes that tens of millions of people can be vaccinated before next july. but the japanese public remains deeply sceptical. this country has not been hit hard by covid—19 — fewer than 2,000 people have died so far — and many here put that down

to japanese culture, universal mask wearing and closed borders. almost all foreigners have been barred from entering japan since april. last week, japan hosted its first international sports competition since the pandemic began — 30 gymnasts from japan, the us, russia and china, competing in front of 2,000 spectators. that is a far cry from the 15,000 athletes and tens of thousands of support staff, media and international spectators who would need to be granted entry to japan for the olympics to happen. forjapan's prime minister, it is a hobson's choice — go ahead with the olympics and risk creating a so—called "super—spreader event", or cancel having already spent 25 billion us dollars of public money. a lot is riding on the success of that vaccine. rupert wingfield hayes,

bbc news, in tokyo. officials in the united states says a huge storm heading for central america has become a category five hurricane. iota has been gaining strength as it approaches the eastern coasts of nicaragua and honduras. it's expected to make landfall on monday night. the us national hurricane centre has warned of catastrophic winds, a life—threatening storm surge and flash floods. much of central america is still recovering from hurricane eta, which caused devastation two weeks ago, killing about 200 people. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: we discuss whether some ethnic minorities — who have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus — should be amongst the first in line for a vaccine.

benazir bhutto has claimed victory in pakistan's general election. and she's asked pakistan's president to name her as prime minister. jackson's been released on bail of $3 million after turning himself into police in santa barbara. it was the biggest demonstration so far of the fast—growing european antinuclear movement. the south african government has announced that it's opening the country's remaining whites—only beaches to people of all races. this will lead to a black majority government in this country and the destruction of the white civilizations. part of the centuries—old windsor castle, one of the queen's residences, has been consumed by fire for much of the day. 150 firemen have been battling the blaze, which has caused millions of pounds' worth of damage.

you are watching bbc news with me, tim willcox. 0ur you are watching bbc news with me, tim willcox. our main story... trials of a second vaccine for coronavirus bring promising results. the us firm moderna revealed the outcome of phase three trials showed its almost 95% effective. let's stay with that story. as we mentioned earlier, president—elect biden and vice president—elect harris have been speaking about their plans to tackle the impact of the pandemic on the economy. kamala harris spoke about the disproportionate effect on minority communities. we all know that this pandemic and this recession have hit communities of colour particularly hard. black americans and latinos are three times as likely to contract covid as others and more likely to die. native americans are more than four times as likely to be hospitalized as others.

and last month, the unemployment rate for black americans was almost twice the rate of others. kamala harris. joining me now is helene gayle, president and ceo of the chicago community trust and committee co—chair of the national academies framework for an equitable allocation of a covid—19 vaccine. thank you forjoining us on bbc news. it is interesting, because i think melinda gates supports this call as well. yeah, i think everybody recognises that communities of colour have been personally impacted by this pandemic and want to take about ways in which to address that and to mitigate the inequities, the economic inequities,

the health inequities, and one of those ways is to make sure the vaccine is available to the populations most ha rd—hit. vaccine is available to the populations most hard-hit. this is not a biological distinction, this is predominantly an economic distinction. yeah, ithink is predominantly an economic distinction. yeah, i think it is important to recognise, and the way that we looked at this was not based on race and biology but really based on race and biology but really based on what are the reasons that people are more at risk for getting this virus or more at risk for having serious consequences, if the infection, if they do in fact acquire the infection, and those risk are really more socioeconomic. they are the jobs people hold, risk are really more socioeconomic. they are thejobs people hold, the homes people live in, the ability to work from home, pre—existing health conditions that are also determined by one's life options and life choices, so we really worked at our next infirmary in the way of what

things put people at this portion at risk and how we can make sure that those were taken into consideration when we thought about her from her —— put people at disproportionate risk. counterintuitively, could some members of the community there believe that they were the sort of guinea pigs for a vaccine roll—out and might actually not want to take pa rt and might actually not want to take part in this? that's exactly why, one of the reasons why we did not make it race specific, because it is not the biology. and if we had said, black people, brown people, go to the head of the line, i think they would have been a lot of resistance about, we are going to put you out there as guinea pigs. we are saying, there as guinea pigs. we are saying, the reasons why you are at greatest risk are socioeconomic, are based on systemic racism and what it has done to people's life choices, and that's

how we thought about our allocation framework, not in terms of a biologic risk. and how much traction is this getting within the states was yellow i think people appreciate that logic. i think there's been a lot of agreement and recognition that allocating vaccines based on people's risk is the way to really go about doing this, and it also puts in place in equity framework, so so far, we have got a lot of support and people feeling like this framework that we developed in fact does look at equity, does look at mitigating health inequities and does it in a way that recognises what the underlying issues are and really speaks to that. 0k, dr helene gayle, thank you very much indeed for joining gayle, thank you very much indeed forjoining us on bbc news. good to speak to you.

the ethiopian government says it has captured the strategic town of alamata in the northern tigray region after nearly two weeks of fighting, in a conflict which is feared could destabilise the wider horn of africa region. this comes after the tigray people's liberation front carried out rocket strikes on the eritrean capital asmara over the weekend. hundreds of people are reported to have been killed so far in the conflict, while at least 20,000 refugees are said to have fled to neighbouring sudan. kalkidan yibeltal has the latest. it's been almost two weeks and the conflict is still going on. that means more casualties, more displacement and an increasing number of refugees crossing the border to neighbouring sudan. but due to communications blackout, we don't have a clear picture of the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis. there have been fears that this conflict might cross borders and become a regional affair. we have seen signs of that over the weekend, when authorities in tigray confirmed that they have launched rockets towards

the eritrean capital, asmara. they have long accused the eritrean government of working with its ethiopian counterpart in trying to attack them. these accusations have been denied by both governments. we have also seen efforts scaling up to bring both parties to a negotiation table. but authorities in addis ababa have been firm in their position that they are not going to sit for mediation without bringing what they call criminals to justice. kalkidan yibeltal, bbc news, addis ababa. now, just before we go... while the world was busy watching election drama unfold in the united states, another highly anticipated vote was also taking place in new zealand. but the bird of the year vote was also hit by allegations of an attempt to rig the election, when 1,500 votes for the little spotted kiwi were traced to a single ip address. the official results are in, and we can reveal that the country's

2020 bird of the year is the flightless kakapo, the world's largest parrot. new zealand's most famous kakapo, sirocco, gained the world's attention for this unfortunate encounter with a zoologist in a 2009 bbc nature documentary with stephen fry. oh, wow. 0w! look, he's so happy! one of the funniest things i've ever seen! you are being shagged by a rare parrot! he's really going for it. wow, you've chosen him. you are in pain, aren't you? he's fine, but it's

really sharp claws. i think we all remember that one. i'm joined by laura keown, a spokesperson for the new zealand conservation group forest and bird, which runs the competition. the world's fattest parent — i must admit, i had never heard of this bird before, does not fly. to me, it looks like the dodo of the 21st century. that is one way of putting it. the kakapo is an incredible unique parent. is the only nocturnal the heaviest —— the only nocturnal parrot. it makes a big booming call to attract females to mate. it is an incredibly special bird, incredibly rare. maybe that is what you would never heard of it. they're only 200 individuals left, so there really special and we really need to take ca re of special and we really need to take care of them. i am not sure if you are any good at bird noises, but can you give any idea? what kind of

noise does the bird make?m you give any idea? what kind of noise does the bird make? it is described as a booming call, and it kind of echoes across the landscape, but it is kind of like... that is my best ka kapo boomlet. but it is kind of like... that is my best kakapo boomlet. that is perfect! i also read that it smells like the inside of a clarinet case. i seem term or what a clear —— seem term and bought a clarinet case smells like, but what is that? some of it is smelly. it is quite a nice smell, a clarinet case. wood and resin is kind of the smell, but like perfume, almost, is how it is sometimes described, and a lot of new zealand's birds are quite smelly. it is a consequent of evolving without having memos predate on them. they are really good at camouflaging but really

easily found by introduced predators, which is why they are in such trouble. is the second time the kakapo such trouble. is the second time the ka kapo has such trouble. is the second time the kakapo has won, but fierce resista nce kakapo has won, but fierce resistance from irregular voting. yes, there was a bit of a voting scandal, when we had 1500 votes sort of flooding in the middle of the night off the little spotted qe, but we have a volunteer election screwed near who kind of keeps an eye on the voting behaviour to makes sure looks normal and he was able to pick up on that... is the little spotted key we endanger as well quit —— endanger as well? -- endanger as well? it is another bird that needs attention. it used to be found all over, but again introduced predators minted only lives in sanctuaries and on offshore islands. 0k, laura keown, fantastic news — the kakapo has done it again. second year bird of the year for the

people of new zealand. that is it from me for this addition. hello. we're all going to be sitting under a fairly hefty whack of cloud in the next few days. that cloud is being pulled in from the atlantic and it comes along with some very mild air. if it does thin and break in a few spots, which it may do with a little bit of help from the hills, we could see our temperatures and eastern regions shooting up today. but as we continue to pull in the south—westerly air into western scotland, there's going to be a lot of moisture around. here, some fairly relentless rain and across the hills, the totals keep adding up. i think we'll see perhaps some rain setting in from western wales and parts of northern ireland with the higher ground, especially through the day as well. a lot of cloud around, as i said, but some sheltered eastern spots will see the sun coming out and the temperatures could shoot up to 16,

even 17 degrees, but widely, we're in the mid—teens on tuesday despite the grey skies. through tuesday evening over into wednesday, still lots of cloud around, still that rain across western scotland. it will be a mild start to wednesday in many areas, temperatures down no lower than the low teens. what will actually happen through wednesday is during the daytime, our temperatures will come down, as this weather front advances from the west. yes, it will bring rain, it'll be another windy story on wednesday too. the east starts with some sunshine. we mayjust cling onto the mild air here into the afternoon with a little bit of brightness across east anglia, temperatures could get up to 16 degrees. behind the front, it's clearer, it's brighter but it's consequently colder. temperatures just 10—11, so chillier than the figures to start the day. this perhaps shows the transition best, though. wednesday into thursday, we sweep away the mild atlantic air and we're plunged into arctic air,

a northerly blast setting up as our area of low pressure that's been with us for quite some time now gets replaced by a brief ridge of high pressure. very clear air coming down from the arctic. there'll be some beautiful sunshine around on thursday, some showers, though, for scotland, cold enough to be wintry. gales down the north sea coasts. it will be particularly cold when we factor in the wind, and a few showers possible for wales and eastern england on that wind as well. the biggest change for thursday is how it will feel. for the likes of scotland, temperatures will feel closer to freezing when you factor in the wind.

this is bbc world news. the headlines...

a new vaccine that protects against the coronavirus is almost 95% effective, according to early data from us company moderna. the world health organisation has welcomed the announcement but has warned against complacency. the american president—elect joe biden has said more people will die if he is not given access to the government's vaccine distribution plans. so far, the trump administration is not cooperating with the transition to a new leadership. sweden has announced it is to ban public events of more than eight people after a surge of new coronavirus cases. the country has so far imposed relatively minor restrictions to deal with the pandemic. a huge storm approaching nicaragua and honduras in central america has become a category five hurricane. iota is expected to make landfall on monday night. coastal areas have been evacuated.