this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. from "america first" to a global view — joe biden announces his top foreign policy names in a sharp break with trump. a vaccine developed by scientists at oxford is set to transform the battle against coronavirus around the world. china launches a mission to the moon to try and bring back to earth the first lunar rocks in nearly half a century. and why one of australia's best—known animals is to be reclassified as a vulnerable species.

hello, welcome to the programme. just how different a face the united states will present to the world underjoe biden has been underscored by his choices for top roles in the new administration. long—time ally antony blinken, raised in france and a fluent french speaker, is to be the new secretary of state. and john kerry, who did thatjob under president obama, is to be the new climate tsar. their global outlook and intention to rebuild old alliances contrasts with the "america first" approach of donald trump — as our state department correspondent barbara plett usher reports. hi, i'm deputy secretary tony blinken, from the state department. wow, you have a long name! the us is presenting a new diplomatic face to the world — someone with a lighter touch, ready to reframe america's relationship with the international community. the un stands for united nations — a place where nations

or countries from all over the world come together... it's a great pleasure to welcome all of you here today. forjoe biden, tony blinken is the safest possible pair of hands as top diplomat. blinken has been advising biden for nearly 20 years. he's so close to the president—elect, he's been described as an "alter ego", a virtual mind—meld. this veteran foreign policy hand would be returning to familiar ground. he began his career at the white house during the clinton administration, and he was a key figure on barack obama's national security and diplomatic team. the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden. he was at the table for all of the important meetings. his appointment signals that the us is resuming its conventional international role, after four turbulent years of donald trump's "america first". what can the united states do to try to help put our world back on its axis? and i think for the vice president,

it really comes down to three big things — leadership, cooperation, democracy. which i think also sums up the profound differences between president trump and vice president biden. blinken‘s priority will be to reestablish the us as a trusted ally — to rejoin international agreements such as the paris climate accord, the iran nuclear deal, the world health organisation. blinken will be reunited with other seasoned members of the obama—biden administration. jake sullivan as national security adviser. he helped open the back channel with iran that led to the nuclear agreement. and the former secretary of state, john kerry, as special envoy for climate. he brings stature and vast experience to the new role, but may not excite young climate activists who voted for biden. there's also linda thomas—greenfield as un ambassador — a long—serving career diplomat who was sidelined by the trump administration. good afternoon, everyone, welcome...

with this team, international leaders know what they are getting — stability and familiarity. but both america and the world have changed in the last four years, and blinken has a lot of catching up to do. barbara plett usher, bbc news, washington. let's head to washington now and speak with our correspondent nomia iqbal. as we were just hearing, barbara putting out a lot of obama and even clinton veterans, as well. will they all get through the senate hearings, though? big question. some of them don't need senate approval, sojohn kerry's role won't need that. but the best of majority of them will do. we're still waiting to see how the senate races come through, because we're still waiting for the senate race, which will come back in

january. joe biden was actually asked this question today about republicans potentially blocking his nominations, and he kind of answered with a bit of indignation, saying, "are you kidding me?" i thinkjoe biden will think, "i've certainly been on the political stage for nearly half a century, i know these quys nearly half a century, i know these guys suck" and joe biden has always positioned himself as the politician that can unite people. —— i know these guys. tony blinken took a more hard—line approach than president obama when it came to syria, and supported military action against bashar al—assad. to be expect a different approach on international conflict, as well? this is the thing it, joe biden‘s appointee, if it goes through, is a real sign of returning politics to the way it was. he wants to return this

familiarity, as we heard and barbara's report, to the west wing, picking seasoned veterans who he is co mforta ble picking seasoned veterans who he is comfortable working with. whether or not that results in more conflict, we will see. but i think this was one of the things that did make donald trump stand out to his supporters — when i went out and about speaking to many of them, they pointed out the fact that donald trump hasn't intervened in any foreign wars, he's not dragged america into any protracted conflict. and that was something they liked about him. so it remains to be seen what the world will look like underjoe biden. but i do think with a lot of these important to appointees, he sang to the world, "america's back and we're ready to start leading again." and where are we with donald trump conceding? who knows? he's not going to concede, i don't think, but michigan has in the last few hours certified the win for

joe biden, delivering the 16 electoral college votes to him. donald trump is my team has put out a statement saying that certification is just a a statement saying that certification isjust a procedural step and he will continue fighting it. i'm not sure where he has to go with this, to be honest, because 30 of his lawsuits have already been chucked out of courts in some key swing states in the us, withjudges citing lack of evidence. thank you very much indeed. a third coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be effective. britain's oxford university and their pharmaceutical partners, astra zeneca, have published the preliminary results from their large—scale trails which show that their vaccine is 70% effective at preventing the disease. that's better than the average flu vaccine. and in a subgroup of volunteers who received a half dose followed by a full dose, the effectiveness rose to 90%. in the last few weeks, pfizer and biontech and moderna

published their results, which showed that their two—dose vaccines were 95% effective. however, the oxford vaccine is cheaper and easier to store than the other two vaccines, since it can be stored at fridge temperature. more from our medical editor fergus walsh. for the first time since this wretched virus took hold, we can see a route out of the pandemic. we are just delighted here at oxford. huge, huge congratulations to you all and your teams. it's the third goal in the back of the net now. oxford has created a vaccine not just for britain, but for the world. the scientists involved say it brings us closer to a return to normal life. i can definitely see a future beyond the pandemic. i think that we will be able to roll out vaccines in the first half of next year and have a big impact here in the uk. but, for humanity, we have to be able to distribute all around the world, and that's going to take a bit longer. in less than a year,

scientists here have created a brand—new vaccine and run large—scale trials. now, at last, they know it works. there were more than 20,000 volunteers on the trial in the uk and brazil. overall, two doses of the vaccine were around 70% effective in preventing covid—19. but, among volunteers who got a half dose followed by a full one, effectiveness rose to 90%. importantly, there were no cases of serious covid disease among those who got the vaccine. the uk has pre—ordered enough doses to immunise 50 million people in the uk. the elderly in care homes would be first in line, then the over—80s and front—line health workers. along with pfizer and moderna, it means there are now three covid vaccines which could be approved next month. like the pfizer and moderna vaccines, the key to the oxford jab

is the spike protein which sits on the surface of coronavirus. scientists have taken the gene for this protein and put it into a virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees. the virus has been modified and disabled so it can't cause disease in humans. once in the body, the vaccine instructs cells to make the coronavirus spike protein. this prompts the immune system to create y—shaped antibodies. in event of future exposure, these should latch onto coronavirus and prevent infection. and it stimulates t cells, another part of the immune system. these should destroy cells that have become infected. this is a really important day for scientists here in oxford and for the fight against coronavirus. the data is still being analysed but their vaccine appears to prevent serious illness with covid and most infections. now, that could have a major

impact on the pandemic here in the uk and worldwide. although the vaccine was created in record time, oxford says no shortcuts have been taken with safety, and side effects have been mostly mild. edward was one of the very first volunteers. it's pretty amazing how fast everything is, but really how careful and considered everything has been done. everything is there — we can trust it, so it's really exciting to see the results. astrazeneca, oxford's commercial partner, has pledged never to make a profit from the vaccine in poorer countries, and theirjab is far cheaper, easier to store and transport around the world than others. the supply chain in place for next year would give a capacity of up to three billion doses, which would include notjust the developed world but many regions of the developing world as well. because this vaccine is just

refrigerated it makes it much easier to distribute and administer. but don't underestimate the hurdles ahead. immunising the uk, let alone the world, will be a huge undertaking. drive—through centres like this one in greater manchester, currently providing flu jabs, are likely to be used for covid vaccines. and, even if a million adults a week are immunised, it will be months before these vials help clear a path through the pandemic. fergus walsh, bbc news. lets get some more news now on the pandemic. the uk prime minister has set out details of england's return to a new, stricter "three—tier system", when the nationwide lockdown ends on 2 december. borisjohnson said that while the previous "tier system" did help cut the infection rates, the restrictions clearly were not tough enough. a formal announcement of what will happen over christmas is likely to be made later in the week.

a proposal by authorities in germany has recommended a three—week extension of its lockdown, as cases continue to trend upwards. mass demonstrations for and against coronavirus restrictions took place at the weekend. it's suggested private gatherings need to be limited to five people from two households, instead of ten. if state leaders back the proposal, the lockdown will be extended to 20 december. and bars and restaurants in catalonia in north—east spain are reopening after a month—long lockdown. but the regional government warns they could be closed again if there's a fresh virus surge. the night curfew from 10pm remains in place. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: what's it like for an asian actor in hollywood ? as part of the bbc‘s 100 women series, we talk to michelle yeoh about what's changed, and what hasn't.

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 civilisation. 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.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines... from "america first" to a global view — joe biden announces his top foreign policy names in a sharp break with trump. a vaccine developed by scientists at oxford is set to transform the battle against coronavirus around the world. china has launched a robotic spacecraft it hopes will bring back rocks from the moon. this is the moment where the chang'e—5 spacecraft took off, in the first attempt by any country to retrieve samples from the lunar surface since the 1970's. i'm not sure if you can hear any of them demographic countdown in

mandarin. it's hoped the mission will add to our understanding of the moon's origin and formation. joining me now is our science correspondent, jonathan amos. jonathan, it surprised me that we haven't had any rock samples in nearly 50 years, although nasa brought a lot back. wire the chinese wanting to them back now? well, it's pa rt wanting to them back now? well, it's part of their plan to improve their capability and competency in doing space exploration. they've done several missions now on the moon, and on each succeeding mission, it's gotten a little bit more difficult and ambitious. and we saw at the end of last year, they put a lander on a small wheeled vehicle on the far side of the moon — nobody‘s done that. not the americans, not the soviets and their heyday. they couldn't do that, they couldn't manage it. but the chinese have done

it, and they've gone to this really challenging task of landing a spacecraft on the moon, scooping up some soil and rock, and then putting it back into orbit around the moon, transferring it into a shepherding vehicle to bring it back towards the earth. it'll go in a little capsule, and that will land in mongolia around the middle of december if everything goes well. that's a really complex operation. if they can pull it off, they'll be well pleased with themselves. and they're getting brought from a different area, are they? so is the moon a bit like the earth where, wherever you land, you'll get different samples? yes, ifan land, you'll get different samples? yes, if an alien where to land on the earth and go to nine places we've so far picked rocks off the surface of the moon— if an alien we re surface of the moon— if an alien were to land on the earth and pick up were to land on the earth and pick up rocks from nine places, they would have no idea of the full history of planet earth. and we need

these extra samples to tell us more about the formation of the moon. we also use the moon as a chronometer, really, to kind of age events in the solar system through time. so we count craters — the more craters there are, the older we think the surface is. the younger that surface, the fewer craters there are. and we can extrapolate out when we look at venus or mercury, and look at mars. but you need very hard data points, and that's what these rock samples do. because we look at the craters that are around and say that's 3 billion years old, and then we can use that as this chronometer to go and look at some of the other planets. which brings us into the space race, which china is actively engaged in. jonathan, we're out of time, but thank you very much indeed for talking through that one.

soon to star in marvel‘s first asian superhero film, michelle yeoh says it has taken time for hollywood to offer more diverse roles to asian actors. named on this year's bbc 100 women list, michelle yeoh talked to us about her work with the un as a goodwill ambassador, and how she wants to inspire girls to grow up thinking they can do anything they set their minds to. was i welcomed to america as an asian actor? at that time, it was a little bit of a shock to the system when you go from asia, and you go into america, and suddenly you're known as a minority. and that word, to be honest, was something new to me. if you looked at, even on the tv or any of the movies from hollywood, there were very, very little asian

faces on screen. and when there are, a lot of the times, they were very stereotypical. at the beginning when you read the scripts, it always has to explain why there is — where this chinese, asian, or asian—looking person came from. "oh, it's from the laundromat or from chinatown." and you go, seriously? what has happened is, it has changed over the last two years, because i think all these different movements, all these voices are being heard. and also, when there is a box office success — like, for example, in crazy rich asians — then you cannot deny that's what the audience wants. and that is a giant step for us. we see ourselves as sometimes viewed funny, or whatever it is, but we should laugh together. and i think that is what happened with crazy rich asians. it's like we alljust embraced each

other and said, "high five, that was pretty cool." michelle, here, please! michelle, look to the right, please! now that more matured actresses have taken on the roles as producers — notjust allowing themselves to be sidelined, those who have been very successful actresses have stepped forward and stepped up. they have successfully created many, many more roles for strong women. and they're stories that need to be told. if i can do it, then i want those little girls to say, "i can do that, too." and i think that is the most important message. michelle yeoh. and you can find much more from the bbc‘s 100 women season online. just go to bbc.com/100women. there is a wonderful variety of stories on there — and remember to keep returning to the website as more and more stories will appear

in the days to come. scientists are calling for one of australia's best—known animals, the duck—billed platypus, to be reclassified as a vulnerable species. researchers at the university of new south wales say the platypus's habitat has shrank by almost a quarter over the past three decades, due to droughts and dams. if you're unfamiliar with the platypus — it has the bill and webbed feet of a duck, the body of an otter, is one of the only two mammals to lay eggs. charles darwin studied the platypus in his revolutionary book on the origin of species. his great—great—grandson says the creature was one of the factors that led to darwin questioning creationism. that foundational text on evolution was published 161 years ago, on 2a november. to celebrate the anniversary — also known as evolution day — two handwritten pages, along with rare notes and letters are being published online.

i'm joined now by drjohn van whye from the national university of singapore — who's been given permission to publish those original handwritten pages online. which sounds wonderfully interesting because they're very rare, aren't they, these handwritten pages? how did you get them and what do they show? well, the vast majority of the original handwritten manuscript is com pletely lost. original handwritten manuscript is completely lost. so we only have a few fragments left. in a collector in america graciously provided us with these. are they consecutive pages, 01’ are with these. are they consecutive pages, or are they from different parts of the draft? no, they're just little pieces, because of course the

entirety is lost. and the family did not regard them at the time as anything worth preserving. so they we re anything worth preserving. so they were just scrap paper. use a scrap paper, i wanted to push you on that — in other words, children and cousins, nieces and nephews were scribbling on it, where they? yes, that was their destiny. obviously people only recognise the significance or the importance, or the value of these things in retrospect. is there anything that these notes shed light on with what's happening now, i wonder, just in terms of coronavirus, how it spread around the world? survival of the fittest, how some people say, and others don't? are there any conclusions or observations that could be drawn which would have been

observed by darwin? well, of course darwin was the first to appreciate that all life on earth changes, it evolves. and there isjust that all life on earth changes, it evolves. and there is just no stasis in the natural world. so the coronavirus, everything is evolving, it changes. and darwin was the first one to establish this. 0k, doctor, i'm afraid we are out of time, but fascinating to hear about this on evolution day. thank you very much. let's bring you some breaking news now: the us general servicesadministration has told president—electjoe biden that his transition can formally begin. that releases funds for the president—elect. and in the last few minutes, donald trump has tweeted, "we'll keep up the good fight, and i believe we will prevail!

nevertheless, in the best interest of our country, i am recommending that emily murphy, that's the gsa administrator, and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same." hello there. monday was really quite a chilly day, particularly so across central and eastern england, where temperatures quite widely only got to around 7—8 celsius — just six there in north yorkshire. but one of the things that brings us the biggest temperature rises this time of year are warm fronts. and we've had one of those across the country, south—westerly winds have been following, and hour by hour we've seen those temperatures rise recently — such that by the time we get to tuesday, 6am, those temperatures will be far higher than the highest temperatures we had all day yesterday, at around 10—11 celsius quite widely. so milder air is on the way, south—westerly winds to thank for that. but we'll also have this weather front which will be one of these slow—moving weather fronts — it's bringing rain at the moment in northern ireland and scotland, and it will continue to rain

for these areas through much of the day on tuesday, as well. now further southwards and eastward across england and wales, it'll be a mild start to the day, with temperatures 10—12 celsius in places. quite a brisk south—westerly wind, some low cloud over the high grounds, some mist and fog patches higher up, a bit of drizzle around as well. but as we go through tuesday morning, i think the cloud may well break up at times across england. the best chance of that probably in the morning, really, across east anglia and south east england. otherwise, probably keeping the cloud through most of the day for most areas. and the rain continues to come down for northern ireland and scotland. whether you see sun or cloud, temperatures around 11—13 celsius — a little bit cooler in the far northwest of the uk. that colder air is behind this cold front sinking southwards over the next few days. as it pulls away, we will get that colder air lingering around the uk for much of the rest of the week. so here's the chart for wednesday — here's our cold front, bringing clouds, still a bit of rain moving southwards and eastwards into east anglia, southeast england,

a few showers for scotland and northern ireland, it may be 1—2 sneaking down the irish sea, as well. you notice those temperatures cooling off — highs more typically around 8—9 celsius for northern areas, still around 11—12 celsius in the far southeast. the pressure then rises, giving us clear skies there wednesday night. there'll be a frost with high pressure around towards the end of the week. lots of dry weather with mist and fog patches in the morning, a few patches of frost, but it's a mostly dry picture, perhaps generally turning a bit more cloudy as we head into the weekend. that's your weather.

this is bbc world news,

the headlines. in the last few minutes the us general services administration has told president—electjoe biden that his transition can formally begin — a move that apparently has the backing of president trump. us president—electjoe biden has begun naming his picks for key government roles. antony blinkin is nominated for secretary of state, while john kerry will act as a special envoy on climate, four years after he signed the paris climate agreement. overall results from oxford university and astrazeneca's vaccine trial — show it protects 70% of people from covid—19. that increased to 90 % when the dose was adjusted.