this is bbc news. i'm tim willcox with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. americans could start receiving vaccinations before christmas as drug giant moderna seeks emergency use approval. the us health secretary strikes an optimistic note. we'll ship within 2a hours of fda authorisation, so we could be seeing both of these vaccines out and getting into people's arms before christmas. england's tough lockdown measures appear to be paying off as new covid cases drop by a third since the beginning of the month. and he's been called the world's loneliest elephant, but at last, an uplifting experience as he's transported to a new life among friends.

hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. the first two vaccines against coronavirus could be given to americans before christmas, that's according to the us health secretary alex ayzar. it comes, as a second us company, moderna, applied for emergency use approval for its coronavirus vaccine in the united states and eu. mr ayzar said that the latest vaccine breakthroughs offered cause for optimism. pfizer submitted their application for emergency authorisation and then moderna today is going to be submitting with pfizer. we at the fda announced an advisory committee for december the 10th, and if everything is on track, everything proves out what it appears to be, we could be looking at approval within days after that.

moderna is basically one week behind that, and general perna has said from operation warp speed that we'll ship within 2a hours of fda authorisation. so, we could be seeing both these vaccines out and getting into people's arms before christmas. meanwhile, the most populous county in the united states, los angeles county, which has over 10 million people living there, has now entered what's being called a ‘safer at home‘ lockdown which will last for three weeks. earlier, the tv personality sharon osborne told bbc world news what the city of los angeles is like now. you know, la is... you wouldn't recognise it if you came here. all the shops are boarded up, there's more homeless than ever. it's not very fun here at all. it's quite depressing to see what has happened to the city. honestly, you wouldn't

recognise it. let's head to la now and speak with our north america correspondent peter bowes. is sharon osbourne's description right? our shops and things like that still open or closed? it's certainly a vivid description and he is a absolutely right —— she is right. it's a depression in los angeles. there is a huge homeless problem here at normal times and surely hasn't been normal times for many, many months now. and the coronavirus has only made the situation worse and of course, many of the boarding up buildings we see are a result of small businesses going out —— boarded up businesses going out —— boarded up buildings. so, it's a pretty depressing outlook and if you look at the number of covid—19 cases, they've been soaring in the last few weeks, quadrupling in numbers. a number of people in hospital and a number of

people dying on a daily basis has tripled, about 75% of california, not just los angeles county, but california's intensive care beds are occupied. not all with covid—19 cases, but it's close to maximum occupancy and that's why governor newsom has said the next two weeks have been crucial and he may well implement more severe restrictions. that hasn't factored in the last thing stephen weekend? -- last thanksgiving weekend. lots of people of been returning home, really visiting loved ones around the country against the advice of health officials who would have preferred everyone to stay—at—home over the last few days. the numbers have been dramatically lowered and than usual, but nevertheless, people have been going out of their homes and health efforts are saying you should just assume you've been in contact with

someone you've been in contact with someone with the coronavirus and self—isolate when you get home. it's difficult to exaggerate the seriousness with which officials here are taking the current situation as we move toward just another holiday and just a few weeks' time. thank you very much indeed. a second vaccine is looking for regular to yearly approval in the us and the eu. —— regulatory approval. i've been speaking to paul duprex, virologist and director for the center for vaccine research at university of pittsburgh. he says despite the moderna vaccine being developed quickly, it has gone through the same types of checks that other vaccines in the past have had to go through. what's really important is to separate the word efficacy from safety. efficacy basically is, does it work? but before in the

phase three trials that have been taking place, before he asked does it work, in earlier studies, we ask personally, is it safe? then we go on and ask is it safe and does it create an immune response, whenever the person is vaccinated? the third stage, is it safe? does it create an immune response and doesn't work? these are the a nalyses and doesn't work? these are the analyses that we're getting at the moment, these efficacy studies. that's why you're hearing percentages like 90% and 9a.1% and 95% and all of these different percentages based on efficacy. let's separate efficacy from safety. safety is different. safety is checked out everything else that age during the process and the two things are different. and if these vaccines, as we heard, some could be ready to be put in use before christmas. that is something that the

public, the world can trust, obviously? yes, even though this has happened fast, it has gone through the same types of safety checks, immunogenicity checks and advocacy checks that a standard vaccine would undergo. remember that the fda are reviewing thousands of pages of documents and that's not just pages of documents and that's notjust in america, there's other agencies in the united kingdom, canada, switzerland, throughout the rest of the world. there are lots of trawling through these data to actually be certain that these trials are conducted rigorously, carefully, and the data says is it safe, immunogenic and effective. pfizer and majora are using a new technology —— and moderna. astrazeneca is not. but does that new technology offer hope for other diseases that you don't even know about in the future, the mrna? absolutely, the mrna approach is really

brand—new. we haven't got enough mrna vaccine licenses as of yet. looks as if the mrna vaccines will be licensed. so, what does this teach us? we really have a renaissance and vaccine development, and what we're learning at the moment because of all of these creative ways to develop new vaccines will be useful in the future because what you must remember is infectious diseases are always our adversary. it's been stars in the past, mers in the middle east and now it's ours too. what we know in the future is these viruses will continue to emerge, i will continue to emerge, i will continue to emerge, i will continue to come and we will continue to come and we will continue to come and we will continue to need to be ready to defeat them with good vaccines —— stars in the past. here in the uk, a major study has found the number of cases in england has fallen by about a third during the current national lockdown. some of the worst—affected areas, such as the north—west, have seen the biggest improvements, but cases

remain relatively high. the government's former chief medical officer, dame sally davies, said poor public health and obesity have led to a "much increased" covid death rate in the uk. our health editor hugh pym has more details. swab the back of your throat, your tonsil region, about three times. a massive programme of rapid result testing for students is under way at many uk universities, part of the plan to get them safely home for the festive break. two negative results and they're urged to head straight home. if positive, there's still time to self—isolate for ten days and then get back for the holiday period. i think it was a really important thing for a lot of students in uni to kind of lobby for the fact that students need a breakaway from university overwinter break, and i'm really glad that they're getting it. i think the take—up shows that students are such active parts of our communities. testing for students is voluntary and is not available to every student at every university, so how effective can

that programme be? i think it will make a good difference, a good positive difference, but as i say, we haven't made it mandatory because that brings in all sorts of other considerations and we think that it is therefore best done on a voluntary basis. with more than a million students in england likely to be on the move, there have been concerns about the potential spread of the virus, though there was news today that infections were receding. the latest survey of virus case rates in england by imperial college london suggests there has been a decline of 30% since the end of october, just before the lockdown. the biggest falls were seen in the north—east of england, down 62%, and the north—west, down 57%. there was a fall of 35% in the yorkshire and humber region and other parts of england also saw a decline, apart from the east and west midlands, where there was little change. everyone wants to know what further progress can be

made, but questions are also being asked about how we got to where we are in this pandemic. we need to put health at the top of our agenda. the uk's covid death rate remains higher than many others, and dame sally davies, former government chief medical adviser, told me that underlying health problems left people here more vulnerable to the virus. i think our poor public health, whether it's deprivation, overweight or other chronic illnesses, alongside crowding in urban areas, have led to a much increased death rate over what we could have had if we had a healthier basic population and less deprivation. ministers say community testing with rapid results offers a way forward, but there are continuing questions about how realistic this might be given the resources and staffing required to deliver it.

hugh pym, bbc news. some call it the newspaper with the smallest circulation in the world. the us president—electjoe biden will be receiving his first presidential daily brief today, a highly classified, detailed look at national security issues, carefully selected across the us intelligence community. the outgoing president donald trump approved the briefings for mr biden last week as part of the formal transition process. the president's daily brief is a tradition that goes back decades. we can now speak to david priess, who's author of the book "the president's book of secrets, the history of the president's daily brief". david is also a former intelligence officer at the cia and is currently the chief operating officer at the lawfare institute in washington dc. you've done this, david. does joe biden, the president elect, get exa ctly joe biden, the president elect, get exactly the same briefing as the president and in what

format? by tradition, the president—elect gets the same copy of the president's daily brief as the president, but it isa brief as the president, but it is a presidential prerogative. if president trump order to do —— were to decide to limit that, he could. it is not a statute that the president—elect receive it, it is merely a custom, a tradition. we have no indication as of now that biden is receiving anything other than the president's daily brief that trump himself is getting. is this raw data, which is complicated? in mid history as well, or will teams have been working on this is a narrative so that the context is there and indeed, the sourcing and the numbers? the president's daily brief can include anything, any top—secret intelligence and the most sensitive material. but generally, it is assessment of

different situations around the world. it can include raw intelligence data, but normally it is finished intelligence or corroborated, coordinated information that presents the president with the best description of what's going on ina description of what's going on in a situation with incomplete information. anything from the north korean nuclear programme to russian political intentions to russian political intentions to chinese military developments. and it's the best picture they can give the president on any given day on theissues president on any given day on the issues that are likely to hit the president's agenda that day. for example, the recent assassination of the iranian in charge of the nuclear programme, that is likely to be in the briefing today. indeed, the potential for it. it in the briefing today. indeed, the potentialfor it. it would be surprising if it were not. at least in terms of the iranian reaction to the event and the potential second and third order of facts of that action. president trump of course is the commander—in—chief and he is responsible for managing that

reaction, whatever may happen untiljanuary 20, reaction, whatever may happen until january 20, but reaction, whatever may happen untiljanuary 20, but the idea is to get the president—elect up is to get the president—elect up to speed as well because after taking the oath of office onjanuary after taking the oath of office on january 20, those after taking the oath of office onjanuary 20, those problems become his to manage and it's a goodidea become his to manage and it's a good idea to get him involved in the intelligence flow so he knows what the united states knows what the united states knows and what the united states and does not know about the situation before he has to make an important decision. and can his president—elect raise questions to specific officers and departments? indeed. as pa rt and departments? indeed. as part of the process, the intelligence community in the united states will orally brief the president—elect to bring out the highlights of this president's daily brief. but they also realise that for four yea rs, they also realise that for four years, he has not been seeing it every day, so some of the stories that are developing don't have all the back story for the current president, but the president—elect certainly will lead that. so, the referrers will supplement it

with other information to get the president—elect up to speed and they are there to answer his questions —— the brifers. thanks very much forjoining us on bbc news. we will tell you how the superstar share step and to help an elephant at the pakistani zoo —— cher. it's quite clear that the worst victims of this disaster of the poor people of the slums are on the factory. the children are dying in front of me and i can't do anything. charles manson is the mystical leader of the hippie cult suspected of killing at least six other

people. at 11 o'clock this morning, just half a metre of rock separated britain from continental europe. it took the drills a few minutes to cut through the final obstacle. a minor from calais was shaking hands with his opposite. you're watching bbc news. the latest headlines... the us health secretary has said americans could start receiving vaccinations before christmas as drug giant moderna seeks emergency use approval. england's tough lockdown measures appear to be paying off as new covid cases drop by a third since the beginning of the month.

more than 13,000 jobs are at risk after the british retail group arcadia went into administration. the group, led by sir philip green, includes high street names like topshop, burton and dorothy perkins. it had been seeking a new injection of cash following lost sales because of the pandemic. our business editor simonjack has the latest. in his palm, a fashion emperor who dominated the high street and didn't mind flaunting the vast wealth it brought him. parties attended by the rich and famous, a description he felt comfortable with himself. the empire was full of household names that customers of all ages would recognise it. the woman who built the topshop brand explains what went wrong. philip's overriding concern was to buy something as cheaply as he possibly could and sell it for as much as he could get for

it. the online players such as... don't have the cost base of the stores. they don't have to pay for staff in their stores. all they have is their online presence. they're much better at it. they've had a much better connection with their customer. the there are 444 stores and hundred more concessions within other stores. there are 13,000 workers whose jobs are at risk and an estimated £350 million hole in the pension scheme. this is or was the jewel in the ground and in truth shipped to many years ago. 0nce ground and in truth shipped to many years ago. once a powerhouse of hash and retail led by the king of the high street —— fashion retail. now in ruins led by a street —— fashion retail. now in ruins led bya man considered the unacceptable face of capitalism. this is about the 13,000 people who are facing a very uncertain christmas and thousands more in a very troubled high street retail sector. thanks so much

for talking to us today. i spoke to one arcadian worker who didn't want to be identified who said the uncertainty had came a at the worst possible time —— had come. a lot of us are anxious because they don't know the full extent about what's happening ourselves. for us, it's about money around christmas time. bill has to go out, we can afford some for christmas. worried about what will happen to our pension scheme. will he still be paid? tonight, sir philip is here on his £100 million yacht in monaco, where his wife is resident and he received a £1.2 billion tax—free dividends in 2005. there is another twist, devon adams makes money by renting sports to base, arcadia's collapse could scupper over rescue of the store. the pandemic has been brutal to businesses with underlying health issues. . suddenly, cho voted left us with a perfect storm. that's

what's happening to arcadia. —— covid left us. they're not alone. stores are open in scotla nd alone. stores are open in scotland and will open and england on wednesday as administrators tried to sell christmas stock and may be some bits of the business. let's get some of the day's other news. an iranian security chief has said that the country's intelligence services knew about a plot to assassinate a top nuclear scientist, but that they were still unable to thwart it. the secretary of iran's supreme national security council, ali shamkhani said that even the location of the planned attack on mohsen fakhrizadeh was known. deforestation in brazil's amazon region has increased by more than 9% in a year. satellite data shows that more rainforest was destroyed than at any time in past decade. president bolsonaro has encouraged the expansion of agricultural and mining activities in the amazon. a ransomware attack on a school district in the us

state of maryland has halted classes for more than 115,000 pupils. the cyber attack meant all pupils learning remotely because of the pandemic could suddenly no longer access lessons. the district was hit last wednesday, before thanksgiving day, but schools will remain shut until wednesday. french members of parliament are rewriting a controversial clause in a security bill that would have made it an offence to maliciously share pictures of the police online. president macron's govering party acknowledged what they called a misunderstanding about the draft of article, which sparked protests across france. critics say it could have stopped people exposing police brutality. earlier, a french court opened a formal investigation into four policemen caught on security camera footage beating a black music producer.

the president is unhappy but it's not about emotion, it's about right. it's exploding one of the big issues in france, which is how the state and people relate to systemic discrimination, related to police. the singer, rita 0ra, has apologised for holding a 30th birthday party at the weekend. police confirmed they were called to a london restaurant to investigate a potential breach of covid regulations. 0n instagram, the singer admitted having a "small gathering", and said it was an inexcusable error ofjudgement. south korea has criticised china after false reports that it had won global certification for its production of kimchi. the hallowed dish made with fermented vegetables, with fermented vegetables is highly popular across south korea. last week, a global industry standards body posted new regulations for making a chinese blend of salted and fermented vegetables called

pao cai, prompting parts of beijing's media to boast that their product was now more popular than kimchi. the episode has triggered anger on south korean social media, with accusations that china is trying to steal its culture. the world's loneliest elephant is lonely no more. 36—year—old kavaan has been airlifted from his small enclosure in a pakistan zoo to a new life in cambodia after a campaign by the pop star cher. adelle kala kouti reports. lonely no more. this is kavaan, once dubbed the world's loneliest elephant. he's being welcomed with bowls of banana and watermelon at his new country of residence. a global superstar holds up a sign with his name. cher travelled to welcome

kavaan after seeing him often in islamobad, where the elephant spent 35 years in a small enclosure at the city zoo. i'm so proud that he's here. after his partner passed away in 2012, kavaan became the only asian elephant in the whole of pakistan. his case sparked a global outcry after animal—rights groups accused the zoo of poor conditions. years of campaigning led to the decision to have him moved to cambodia. after the seminar of life, kavaan is being blessed at the airport before being transported to the wildlife sanctuary in cambodia's remote northwest. adelle kalakouti, bbc news. a happy ending for him. that is it from me and the team. see you soon.

hello there. we've started this week on a relatively quiet note. quite a lot of grey, gloomy weather around. although scotland didn't fare too badly with some sunshine. for the rest of this week, things are set to turn much colder and a lot more u nsettled. as low pressure takes over we'll see some rain, sleet and snow in some places. we've got this ridge of high pressure building in early on tuesday. fairly strong winds down the east coast. a cold front which spreads southward across the country during the overnight. a chilly start but bright with some very welcome sunshine across many parts of central southern, eastern parts of england. but cloud will be thickening up again. this time against northern and western areas into the afternoon. it's going to be a chilly day

pretty much wherever you are. in the warmest spots out west and also in the sunny spots in the east could make nine or 10 degrees. as we head through tuesday night it looks like another front will start to push into northern into northern and western areas. this is a cold front, on it there will be outbreaks of rain. quite a lot of cloud and other clear, chilly and another clear, chilly night in the southeast. the northwest will turn cooler with some blustery showers. as we head through wednesday, this cold front will slowly migrate southwards and introduce much colder air or north and west of the uk. very windy as well with gales in the northwest of scotland. it will be bright here with sunshine, blustery showers, heavy across scotland and increasing wintry over the hills. but for england and wales, will see quite a bout of cloud with outbreaks of rain. confined to the southeast skies behind it will brighten up here. that cold front clears through as we head on into thursday. low—pressure takes over. it's going to be windy, outbreaks of rain some of which could be quite heavy through thursday, especially through parts of england and wales.

southern england and wales will see the heavy strength of the day for that, could see some gales through the channel as well. further north a bit brighter spells of sunshine, a few showers there will be wintry. even down to lower levels across scotland as temperatures range from three to around 7 degrees without feeling cold. degrees so feeling cold. friday, big area of low pressure spirals across the country. bringing further spells of strong winds and heavy rain. we could see the threat of some sleet and snow across the northern hills without perhaps even down to lower levels at times. there will be a bit of sunshine here and there too. another cold day on the cards for all.

this is bbc news, the headlines.

the us health secretary has said americans could start receiving vaccinations before christmas. a second drug giant, moderna, has applied for emergency use approval for its coronavirus vaccine in both the united states and the eu. alex ayzar said the latest vaccine breakthroughs offer cause for optimism. england's tough lockdown measures appear to be paying off as new covid cases have dropped by a third since the beginning of the month. some of the worst—affected areas, such as the north—west, have seen the biggest improvements but cases remain relatively high. joe biden is to receive his first detailed briefing on national security issues, as the transition from president trump takes another step. the briefing is a highly classified detailed look at national security issues.