a very warm welcome bbc news. my name's mike embley. our top stories: britain is to roll out a massive vaccination after it being approved in record 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 the globe. just how britain plans to roll out a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus in the next few weeks is becoming clearer, just hours after regulators in the uk announced they had approved one, in record time. the prime minister has acknowledged it will be a massive logistical exercise — it's never been attempted before. it will take months to get the jab to everyone who wants it, and restrictions will have to stay in place in the meantime. our medical editor fergus walsh reports. 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 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—19, 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—19. 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. more on that later in the programme. 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, many of whom are republicans, 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. 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 you. 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.

the 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 the 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. i put myself out there to explain things in the media. i expect security outside my house but this was a kid with a family whojust house but this was a kid with a family who just had a job. house but this was a kid with a family whojust had a job. it is wrong and ijust... the president needs to realise his words have consequences. they can be good, they can be damaging. consider taking a step back and taking responsibility, he is doubling back. in the last few minutes the president has tweeted out a video statement addressing your concerns. as a president i have i'io concerns. as a president i have no higher duty than to defend the laws of the constitution of the laws of the constitution of the united states. that is why lam determined the united states. that is why i am determined to protect our election system which is now under co—ordinated assault and a siege. is that the kind of)

you would like to see from the president? —— rollback. you would like to see from the president? -- rollback. it is essentially coming from former members of his legal team, people in georgia today and it is just wrong and he needs to understand words have consequences and continuing to stoke this idea that there is some part to victory with some giant conspiracy is, to put it mildly, unhelpful. let's get some of the day's other news. a british charity has warned that thousands of unaccompanied migrant children may have suffered damage to their mental health making the perilous sea crossing from africa to the canary islands. save the children estimates at least two—thousand minors made long crossings from places such as senegal and gambia in the past two months. police in peru have confiscated nearly $6 million in counterfeit currency in lima, and arrested one person. according to local officers,

the fake money was due to be smuggled to bolivia and ecuador. 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 to tulsa comes weeks before the first commercial passenger flight. the former french president, valery giscard d'estaing has died at the age of 94 after a short illness. his seven years in office were marked by the liberalisation of laws on abortion and contraception, as well as investment in nuclear power and high—speed trains. paul hawkins looks back at his life. undeniably intelligent, cultured and accomplished but to his critics, is not, arrogant and aloof. valery giscard d'estaing, a descendant of louis xv first entered government when he was 33 years old with two stent. it was

after the second sent in 1974 that he started to run from president and on the second of may the french gave him their backing. —— runfor may the french gave him their backing. —— run for president. translation: i know that today marks a new era for french policies. that of rejuvenation and change for france. change indeed. he relaxed abortion laws, of equal opportunities to women. . . laws, of equal opportunities to women... and as a fan of technology, gave the go—ahead to build the high—speed train network and expanded the trade industry. together with germany, he pushed for integration, laying the foundation for the single currency in europe, europe. the self—styled emperor of the

central african republic? coronation cost more than the countries entire economic output that year. in 1979, valery giscard d'estaing was accused of accepting diamonds from him as a gift when he was finance minister. the president said he sold the diamonds and gave the process to a number of charities but one, the french red cross, said they never received any money from him. in 1981, the french people voted him out. valery giscard d'estaing turned his attention to continental politics. in the early 90s he was a member of the european parliament. in 2002 was chosen to help write a constitution for the european union which was rubberstamped by leaders in 2004. only for the french people to say, no, when asked to vote for a year later stop valery giscard d'estaing is something of an enigma. intellectual gifted, he was never a man of the people even though he was president

for seven years. he lives behind a legacy of legal abortion laws for french, fast french trains and a closer european union. paul hawkins valery giscard d'estaing who has died at the age of 94. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: by bya by a sequence of numbers receives accusations of fraud. it's quite clear that the worst victims of this disaster are the poor people living in the slums which have sprung up around the factory. i am feeling so helpless that 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 sharon tate and at least six other people

in los angeles. at 11am this morning, just half a metre of rock separated britain from continental europe. it took the drills just a few moments to cut through the final obstacle. then philippe cozette, a minerfrom calais, was shaking hands and exchanging flags with robert fagg, his opposite number from dover. 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 in the united states is showing

100,000 covid occasions in the hospitalfor 100,000 covid occasions in the hospital for the first time in the daily death toll at its highest since april. i have been speaking to the brown university of public health. is there a danger that with a vaccine on the horizon people will be less likely to follow safety guidelines. things in the united states have been awful over the last two or three months, a federal government, president trump has largely given up on the pandemic and has stopped talking about it and stopped directing the federal government's efforts in it, and anything beyond vaccines, and a lot of american people have also taken their eye off the ball in the vaccine makes it that much more tempting to just think it is almost all over, but i would like to remind people with the vaccine so close, particularly important not to have infections and deaths right now. everybody was getting infected now could be vaccinated with a couple of months and those lives could be saved. there is a strong possibility that a lot of people will not trust it, and

won't take it. what kind of pickup do you need for it to be effective? even at 30 or 4096 it will help, but it is absolutely true we need to get to 70 or 80% take up to really bring this pandemic under control. that will take a lot of effort, very good communication, it will take addressing people's concerns and hesitance, and it is doable, but it will not be an easy task. "our planet is broken. humanity is waging war on nature and nature is striking back with growing force and fury." that's the warning from the un secretary general antonio guterras in a special bbc broadcast. his words come as we learn that this year is one of the warmest on record, despite pandemic lockdowns. our environment correspondent justin rowlatt reports. as if suffering a pandemic wasn't enough, now we learn that 2020 is on track to be one of the three hottest years ever recorded,

and that is not all. the past decade, obviously, is the warmest on record, and the last six years are the warmest years on record. the bad news is even the covid—19 lockdowns haven't made a difference. the coronavirus restrictions imposed around the world may have shut down our cities and lead to a small reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but the world meteorological organisation is saying today it hasn't been enough to stop the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from continuing to increase. the un chief, antonio guterres, told the bbc today global action is needed now. let's face facts, the state of our planet is broken. humanity is waging war on nature. this is suicidal. the science is clear. for example, unless the world cuts fossil fuel production by 6% every year between now and 2030, things will

get worse, much worse. i've been talking about this for a long, long time... sir david attenborough joined him to warn time is running out. young people are very impatient, and quite rightly so. for nothing to come out, except words, is very dispiriting. we need action. the un chief says the world now faces a moment of truth. he says the choice is very simple. start cutting carbon emissions now — or face disaster. justin rowlatt, bbc news. an unprecedented combination of numbers drawn by south africa's national lottery has sparked accusations of fraud. the winning sequence of five, six, seven, eight, nine and a "powerball" numbered ten, sent social media users into a frenzy, alleging the results had been fixed. the 20 winners shared the jackpot each receiving nearly $400,000. a spokesman for south africa's national lotteries commission, which regulates the game, says

it's investigating the draw. david a katz is a former us federal prosecutor who has been involved in litigation of rigged lottery cases. he gave us his assessment. i don't think that on the face of it people should be that suspicious about the numbers. ina criminal case suspicious about the numbers. in a criminal case like the one that i had during the reagan administration back in the late 80s, there was an indictment because there was someone who went to the well too many times, that is one of the things you are looking for, looking in these cases were someone looking in these cases were someone who has won twice or three times, and so that will certainly be a question, who are the 20 people who want? was the relationship between and among them or more importantly was there relationship between them and the people who prepared the numbers, who could have somehow controlled the numbers, could have controlled the sequence, could have 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 kos and was able to make sure that his brother and other people we re his brother and other people were winners in multiple states and how to make that was the whole thing came to light, they eventually found other evidence that his brother was an insider in the group that actually prepared the computer sequence. it also depends what kind of a powerball you have. they had these numbers of balls come down like an powerball and they are supposed to be vacuum sealed in all kinds of security, those systems can be tampered with, human ingenuity is such that it can be done but normally it is a computer code, those of the more troubling ones, or in my old case where you actually had insiders who allegedly made sure by promoting the competition that a relative or friend promoting the competition that a relative orfriend of promoting the competition that a relative or friend of theirs one more than once. i know you are not involved in the south

african case, but it sounds like from your experience you don't sense abroad here. how common is fraud within the lottery industry? it certainly isa lottery industry? it certainly is a concern and the smaller arteries more so. when you talk about powerball, here in the united states, i think the winnings have gotten up to tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars, and of course, the grand prize winner or the group, the bowling league that all buys a ticket, ten of them, there is intense publicity, and everybody gets to the bottom of who they are, so if they had a relative or a friend who had the ability to control the lottery was inside some sort of government office that was controlling the government lottery, it would come to light, and so, you are dealing with a lot of scrutiny in this huge government lobbies like the ones theyjust had down in south africa, but suddenly when you are 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 in the way it normally works is you have the grand prize winner and they will kick back most of the prize to the person who can control who wins the prize, so that's what prosecutors and investigators look for. it happens quite a bit, sometimes it is not taken seriously, but my feeling about my case was you are stealing people ‘s‘ dreams. is one thing when you an upper—class person, and it's another when you are relying on the lottery and it is important to you, and you think this is rigged. it is stealing a person's dreams. you may only have one chance in a million of winning but you should have a real chance, but even have that one winner stolen, regs, real chance, but even have that one winnerstolen, regs, given to the friend or the promoters of the contest. tracey emin,one of britain's most celebrated artists, says her art has kept her alive after being diagnosed with bladder cancer this summer. the 57 year old,who's

had major surgery, said planning her new exhibition helped her to carry on. in a conversation with our arts editor will gompertz she talked about her passion for painting and her love of life. edvard munch‘s work is about his emotions, and identifying them. 1870, 1890, it wasn't really cool to be a man, and go around saying, "i'm filled with rage and jealousy." and with your paintings, are you a body through which these works are created? the work comes from an energy, and it's an energy that i can't hold within myself, that has to come out. and i think if it doesn't come out, ifeel like i'm going to spontaneously combust. these paintings are like, bang, totally direct. they're hiding nothing. she's not interested in beauty. she's interested the truth. and she's never shied away from that. you don't have to make art that makes people happy. you have to make art that makes people feel. it's like being a conductor.

it's like "boomph!" you know, you really, really go for it. i think that painting is about unrequited love. a lot of people know what that feels like. at the moment, like, i want you to see my face. but you're not going to see it because we're stuck in these covid times, you know? i haven't had a hug, i can't remember last time anybody hugged me. everyone's rushing out to buy puppies and kittens, because they need love and affection. what would you do, tracey, if you couldn't express yourself through art? i would have been dead a long time ago. were you making any of these works when you knew you were poorly? no, because... share it with the group — because i had something wrong with my bladder, it was just always presumed that's what the problem was. but the reason why

i have them is is because i had full—blown cancer. and it was picked up injune. less than four weeks later, i was having major surgery and having everything removed. even the things that i need, removed. to know that i could have possibly been dead by christmas, that could have so easily have been the outcome. and then people would have been coming to the show and i would have been dead. it would have been so tracey. when you've had a near death experience like that, when you have to really plan for your death, because that looks like it's probably going to be the outcome, you are so grateful for every day. if i could maintain this attitude of feeling positive and having this kind of energy, all that i've lost, all the cancer, everything, would be worth it, because i feel so much more enlightened. how are you now? how are you feeling now? yeah, i'm good. yeah, every day i'm getting better. the artist tracey emin sharing her thoughts with the bbc‘s will gompertz. her latest show is at the royal academy of arts in london

and you can get in touch with me and most of the team 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.

the latest headlines for you from bbc news. 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. now on bbc news in an interview

recorded in february 2020,