welcome to bbc news, my name's mike embley. our top stories: britain is to roll out a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus from next week, after regulators approved a vaccine in record quick time. when you consider the damage that i was saying earlier, the damage that this virus has done, it is a fantastic moment. it has to stop. an exasperated election official in the us state of georgia pleads with president trump to dial down the rhetoric levelled against his colleagues over the election result. the french president who oversaw sweeping social reforms, valery giscard d'estaing, has died at the age of 94. and one of britain's most celebrated artists, tracey emin, says her

painting has kept her alive after being diagnosed with bladder cancer. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around just how britain plans to roll out a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus in the next few weeks is becoming clearer, just hours after uk regulators announced they had approved one in record time. the prime minister has acknowledged it will be a massive logistical exercise that has never been attempted before. it will take months to get the jab to everyone who wants it. this is an historic moment. at last, there is a clear path out of this pandemic, thanks to vaccination. the uk is the first country in the world to approve the pfizer/biontech vaccine,

seen here on the production line in belgium. the prime minister made clear the vaccine won't change life for now, but hope is on the horizon. prime minister, now we have a vaccine, how important is this moment? when you consider the damage that, as i was saying earlier, the damage that this virus has done to human life across the planet, the economic damage, the social damage, to say nothing of the cost in life and suffering, it is a fantastic moment. more than 20,000 volunteers got two doses of the vaccine as part of the trials. it proved 95% effective at preventing covid, even among those in their 70s and 80s. side—effects were mostly mild. a small minority suffered headaches and fatigue. the independent medicines regulator, the mhra, began work on covid vaccines injune, and for the past two

months has been reviewing more than 1,000 pages of data on pfizer's trials. no corners have been cut. our expert scientists and clinicians have worked round—the—clock, carefully, methodically, poring over tables and analyses and graphs on every single piece of data. creating a completely new vaccine usually takes at least ten years, from design and development through trials to regulatory review and production. this has been compressed to less than a year. many stages were done in parallel, and pfizer began vaccine production at their own risk, even before they knew it worked. 800,000 doses of the vaccine should arrive in the uk within days. a0 million have been ordered in total, enough to immunise 20 million adults. but the vials have to be transported from belgium in special containers

at an ultralow temperature. it's like a pizza box. they then get put into a thermal shipper, packed with dry ice, that then maintains the temperature at —70, if unopened, for ten days. the committee which advises the government on immunisation says the elderly and front—line health and care workers should be first in line. we are suggesting that vaccines are offered in order to protect people who are most at risk of dying from covid—i9, as well as to protect health and social care services, because by doing so, we also protect lives. age is by far the single most important factor in terms of risk from covid—i9. getting rid of social distancing and other restrictions next year will depend on tens of millions of us being vaccinated.

we need people to take it. this vaccine isn't going to help you if you don't take it. and you will need two doses of this vaccine, and most of the others, to have full protection. more covid vaccines could be approved within weeks. the goal then, to immunise not just the uk, but the world. fergus walsh, bbc news. later in the programme we will hear from later in the programme we will hearfrom a later in the programme we will hear from a professor of medicine who has been involved in several of these vaccines are. for three weeks president trump has made unfounded claims about the election result but has focused particularly on georgia, where a secound recount has made no change tojoe biden‘s victory there. mrtrump is angry, and has taken it out on state officials, who have faced death threats from supporters of the president. barbara plett usher has the story. georgia has become a focus of president trump's battles reverses loss tojoe biden.

a last stand for his supporters. it's a republican stronghold that he and they refused to give up. that means gabriel sterling is getting more camera time than he ever wanted. the seasoned election official has been overseeing the recount of votes. but it has turned nasty and he is blaming the president. yes, fight for every legal vote, go through due process, we encourage it. use your first amendment, that is fine. death threats, physical threats, intimidation, that is too much. stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence, someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. in classic style, trump has weaponized his tweets, alleging massive voter fraud and attacking the state's republican officials. the second recount of votes

is winding up, almost certainly without changing the result. georgia's republican secretary of state has stood up to the president's pressure and become one of the targets of trump supporters. he is urging calm. i want to extend grace to those that seem to have hate in their heart, we have all been through alot. i encourage all of you to stay engaged, advocate for your values, beliefs, and go as you believe, but do so peacefully. after sterling's outburst, two republican candidates for congress have condemned any threats or violence as did the trump campaign, but their runoff races are stoking the political heat in georgia because whoever wins will determine which party has control. president trump is heading to the state for a rally to support them later this week. gabriel sterling, the election official in georgia who you saw there, spoke out after one of his staff received death threats over a viral video showing him

transferring a report to a computer. he spoke to the bbc‘s katty kay and christian fraser about why his anger boiled over. we i put myself out there to explain things to the media, i have had witness protection outside my house for a couple of weeks now, but this is a kid with a family who just had a job, and it was wrong. the president needs to realise his words have consequences, they can be good, damaging, and instead of taking a step back and taking responsibility, he is doubling down stuff byjust talking about the president? words, the president has tweeted out a video statement of himself addressing your concerns. let's take a quick listen. as president i have no higher duty than to defend the laws of the constitution of the united states. that is why i am determined to protect our election system which is now

under co—ordinated assault and sees. under co—ordinated assault and sees. is that the kind of row back that you would like to see from the president? the assault and sees is not coming from outside actors, it is coming from former members of his legal team, people here in georgia today, and it is just wrong, and he needs to understand that words have consequences in continuing to stoke this idea that there is some path to victory through some path to victory through some giant vast conspiracy, it is to put it mildly, unhelpful. i have been speaking to our washington correspondent asking if it is possible that the tide in republicans is turning against the president. to a certain extent, and i don't think it is surprising that mr stirling said what he said, there has been a sustained assault by the

president george's collection pi’ocess president george's collection process because donald trump cannot accept that he lost. he had enough time to prove all the fraud that he cleaned has happened during the election, he has provided no proof, all of his court cases have been thrown out of court left right and centre. he has lashed out at republican officials as we saw in that report, the secretary of state and the governor, who are stored republicans, they are big drum supporters but they have said mr president you need to accept that you lost a. but he still does have some support amongst republicans, particularly the two senators in georgia david perdue and kelly leffler, who are big supporters of his, they have been to his rallies, they had not entirely come out and condemn the divisive rhetoric, and why would they, because they really want to win their senate seats, their senate seats are up for grabs, and donald trump is still hugely popular in america, in georgia,

even though he did not win the state, and they are hoping to use the popularity to try and window seats when those important senate run—offs happen in january. important senate run—offs happen in january. in the course of doing all that, the president is encouraging millions of people to distrust the democratic process. georgia now crucial to control of the senate? that's right, the senate? that's right, the senate will ultimately determine just how powerfuljoe biden's presidency will be when he takes office onjanuary the 20th, at the moment, the senate is split, there are 48 democrats and 50 republicans, and if democrats when the two seats then it will be easier for them to pass through a lot of bills on a vast range of issues such as climate change and the covid—i9 response and gun—control, obviously republicans when, that will make life much harderforjoe biden, certainly in his first two years and it's interesting because you mentioned

thereabout trump constantly undermining the process of the election, there is some concern among republicans that his rhetoric could backfire, and that a lot of his supporters might not turn out and vote, particularly in georgia which means it could inadvertently, the victory could be handed to the victory could be handed to the democrats comejanuary. let's get some of the day's other news a british charity is warning the thousands of unaccompanied migrant children may have suffered damage to the mental health, making the dangerous sea crossing from africa to the ca nary islands are. sea crossing from africa to the canary islands are. at least 2000 miners made long crosses from senegal and gambia in the past two months. police in peru have confiscated nearly six million dollars in counterfeit currency during an operation in lima that also resulted in the arrest of one person. according to local police, the fake money was due to be smuggled to bolivia and ecuador. the european union's brexit negotiator has said differences in uk

trade talks persist. the transition period when the country stands alone with a block and in a few weeks but there is a big difference over fair competition, fishing and how to resolve disputes. the boeing 737 max has returned to the skies after being grounded for more than a year following fatal crashes. wednesday's flight from dallas, texas to tulsa, oklahoma comes weeks before the first commercial passenger flight. one of the most influential european politicians of the past half—century, the former president of france, valery giscard d'estaing, has died at the age of 94. his family say he died of complications linked to covid i9. giscard d'estaing was president from 1974 to 1981, and his time in office included periods of economic crisis and industrial unrest. his greatest passion was building a greater european union. in 2013, he gave an interview to bbc‘s newsnight warning the of the problems the european union would face if it did not reform.

we have something that was going well for us. until 1990. we were 12, including britain, germany, france, they were in the 12, we knew each other, we we re the 12, we knew each other, we were in rather similar positions, more or less identical, and then we had a wave of new entries who pushed us wave of new entries who pushed us from 12 to 28. and we didn't change anything. the organisation, the way of making decisions, so this is an adapted to its present dimension. stay with us on bbc

news, still to come: an unusual sequence of letters and numbers in south africa's lottery has created suspicions of fraud. it's quite clear that the worst victims of this disaster and the poor people living in the slums that which have sprung up around the factory. i am feeling so helpless that the children are dying in front of me andi children are dying in front of me and i can't do anything. charles manson is a leader of the hippie cult accused of killing people in california. at 11 o'clock this morning, just half a metre of rock

separated britain from continental europe, it took the drills just continental europe, it took the drillsjust a continental europe, it took the drills just a few moments to cut through the final obstacle and then a minorfrom calais was shaking hands and exchanging thanks with his opposite number from england. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: britain is to roll out a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus from next week, after regulators approved a vaccine in record quick time. the latest figures from the united states, 100,000 patients ina united states, 100,000 patients in a hospitalfor the united states, 100,000 patients in a hospital for the first time and the daily death just passed 2700, the highest figure since april. i asked a doctor

from pennsylvania if the approval of this vaccine from the uk will put pressure on american regulators to act more quickly. i don't think so, the us has a different procedure for a vaccine. 0ur fda looks at data similar to your mha to make their decision. they then sent it through to an outside group of experts in that group of experts give their opinion which then returns it to the fda for approval. that adds a few days in this case but also adds an extra layer of protection. without protection in mind and all your experience in developing vaccines, is there any concern either from you or among your colleagues that the uk is rushing this process ? that the uk is rushing this process? not at all. as everybody has been saying, no corners have been cut in the production of this vaccine.

everything was compressed but every safety measure, every observation was taking care of. no corners are cut. i believe it isa no corners are cut. i believe it is a very safe vaccine. professor, what preparations it the us making for a mass vaccine rollout and are you happy with the preparations? my understanding is that the us army is in charge of distributing the vaccine and thatis distributing the vaccine and that is half of it. once the vaccines get to the state, the state has to distribute it to all of the hospitals that have the capacity to store the vaccine, and then they have to set up distribution programmes. the big problem in the us is that we are at an incredible increase in the number of cases, limiting the medical faculty that is able to give the vaccine, so it is going to bea the vaccine, so it is going to be a difficult procedure. for

us be a difficult procedure. for us to give the vaccine. even in a developed country such as the us. as you look around the world as more vaccines try to be administered, and different methods of transport, storage, administration, what problems do you see? the big thing is we are hoping to immunise 7 billion people in the world. something like that has never been done before. you are talking about close to 200 countries, each of has to set up countries, each of has to set up their own infrastructure to give the vaccine. all of that isa give the vaccine. all of that is a lot to ask in a short amount of time. people are prepared for this, governments are prepared for this and know it is coming so i am sure they have been establishing all of their procedures in order to vaccinate their population quickly and safely. professor drew wiseman.

a lottery in africa has sent accusation of fraud, alleging results were fixed and 20 when it's shared a jackpot, each receiving almost $400,000. a spokesperson for the south african lotteries commission is investigating the draw. let us prosecutor and i know you have been involved in actual rigged lottery cases, what do you this one? in truth, no particular sequence one? in truth, no particular sequence of numbers is any more likely or less likely than any other, is it? this sequence, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and the powerball was the number 10 nine and the powerball was the number10 and nine and the powerball was the number 10 and then 20 winners. if it was so predictable, you would think that more than 20 would think that more than 20 would have predicted at and a p pa re ntly would have predicted at and apparently there was 70 he

predicted the sequence of numbers but did not have the powerball number 10 but only 70 of them so i don't think that on the face of it, people should be that suspicious about the numbers. in a criminal the one i had during the reagan administration in the 1980s, there was an indictment because there was an indictment because there was an indictment because there was someone there was an indictment because there was someone who went to there was someone who went to the well too many times, that's one of the things you are looking for. looking for someone looking for. looking for someone who has won twice or three times. that will certainly be a question. you are the 20 that won? was there are the 20 that won? was there a relationship among them or more importantly any relationship between them and the people who prepared the numbers who could have some pale control the numbers, controlled the sequence, somehow gotten in there and done something with the code. we had a famous case in the united states, not my case, but one more recently in iowa and wisconsin where it was an insider who had fixed the codes

and was able to make sure his brother and some other people we re brother and some other people were winners in multiple states and that was how the whole thing finally came to light, someone thing finally came to light, someone who won in a couple of states and they eventually turned him or found states and they eventually turned him orfound evidence that his brother was an insider in the group that actually prepared the computer sequence. it also depends on what kind of a powerball you have. they have these numbers or balls that come down like in powerball and supposed to be vacuum sealed and all sorts of security. i'm sure those systems can be tampered with human ingenuity as such but normally it is a computer code ones that are more troubling or in my case, where you actually have insiders who allegedly made sure by promoting the competition that a relative or friend of theirs won more than once. david, i know you're not involved in the south african case but it sounds like from your experience you do not sense fraud here. how common is

fraud in the lottery industry? it is certainly a concern and the smaller lotteries more so. when you're talking about powerball, the united states, the winnings of gotten up to tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. of course the grand prize winner or the group, the bowling lead that buys a ticket, ten of them and win, there is intense publicity and eve ryo ne there is intense publicity and everyone gets to the bottom of who they are so if they had a relative or friend you have the ability to control the lottery or who is inside some government office controlling the government lottery, it would come to light, mike, so you are dealing with an awful lot of security — scrutiny and when you are certainly talking about the supermarket chain, you can win groceries for the rest of your life, there is normally a private company and of course you have to scrutinise that because anything like that is subject to fraud and the weight normally works is that you have the grand prize winner and they

will kick back most of the price of the person who can control who wins the prize. that is what prosecutors and investigators look for. it happens quite a bit. sometimes not taken seriously but my feeling was about my case was that you are stealing peoples dreams. it's one thing when are an upper—middle—class being and person but when you are not and it's important to you, you are having a dream stolen. you are stealing a person streams. you may only have one chance in a million of winning but you should have a real chance of one and a million and not have that one winner golden, rigged, given to a friend or promoters of the contest. absolutely, i ta ke of the contest. absolutely, i take your point. briefly if you can it's not that in usual that people do choose a sequence like five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten? they say with people who are trying to get past locks and alarms and passwords, that most people put in one,

two, three, four, five or something very obvious and it may sound very strange to you or me that people do pick numbers. they normally pick their birthday or the birthday of the cat or something like that that a lot of people pick one, two, three, four, five, so i don't find this quite on the face of it but there was a prior incidents in south africa where 33 about 15 years ago shared the grand prize for the fa ct shared the grand prize for the fact there are 20 winners, as i say, if it were that obvious, you would think there would be hundreds and hundreds of people who bet four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. it has been a pleasure and very interesting to talk to you. my pleasure. there is more on the bbc website. thank you so much for

watching. hello. we've a much colder snap of weather on the way for the next couple of days, so there's a much greater risk of some ice and some snow. snow from these showers in the north through the course of today, and even perhaps in this band of more persistent rain in the south just on the hills because we got that cold airjust nudging further southwards, hanging around through today, hanging around through tomorrow as well. and look at this strengthening wind that will accentuate the chill. so, yes, we do have warnings out at the moment, especially across the northern half of the country, and the snow mainly on the hills and you can get the details on those warnings from the website. the showers are falling as snow on the hills in the north, but across scotland,

even to lower levels with a slight covering. and here, with a widespread frost, northern england, northwards, a risk of ice. some treacherous conditions potentially further south, there could be some patchy frost and a little bit of snow in this system as well across the welsh mountains, perhaps the moors of the southwest. as it edges its way northwards and eastwards, perhaps bringing some snow into the midlands as well, the showers further north still falling as snow over the hills. this, as you can see, slowly migrates eastwards through the day, giving way to showery weather further west, some hail and thunder here. whilst for scotland and northern ireland, the showers perhaps becoming fewer, more confined to the coasts with more sunshine, but it's cold for all of us, accentuated by the strengthening wind around that area of low pressure. and then those weatherfronts spiral their way around the low pressure overnight, so an increased risk as we go through into the coming night of snow potentially across northern and eastern areas, and a more widespread frost with the surfaces damp even in the south. there's a risk of some ice as well. so, quite a difficult one on friday in terms of the details

because we've got these weather systems spiralling around that area of low pressure. certainly, it's going to be cold. it'll be windier as well with a risk of gales for the west coast of scotland and also through the irish sea, and these bands of rain pushing their way gradually westwards with some snow potentially. the lower levels on the western flank, and look at the temperatures, they are quite low. in the heavier bursts, that snow level comes down as well, could even be a smattering further south as well. certainly lots to keep our eye on at the moment for our first widespread taste of winter. the weekend sees things drying a little bit, but it stays pretty chilly, as you can see. the warnings, as i say, are on the website.

this is bbc news, the headlines: britain is to roll out a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus from next week, after regulators approved a vaccine in record quick time. prime minister boris johnson has acknowledged it will be a massive logistical exercise that has never been attempted before. millions of doses of the pfizer—biontech vaccine will arrive in the next few days an election official in the us state of georgia is pleading with president trump to dial down the rhetoric levelled against his colleagues over the election result. mr trump is angry that a second recount has made no change tojoe biden's victory there. one of the most influential european politicians of the past half—century, the former president of france, valery giscard d'estaing has died at the age of 94. his family say he died of complications linked to covid—19.