this is bbc news. i'm sally bundock with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. crunch time for boris johnson: the british pm heads to brussels in a final attempt to unlock trade talks — could compromise be off the menu? joe biden promises a hundred million vaccinations against covid in his first 100 days as us president. i'm absolutely convinced that in the first 100 days we can change the course of the disease and change life in america for the better. a champions league match in paris is abandoned, with teams walking off the pitch following an alleged racist slur. scientists call on tourists to help map australia's vulnerable

great barrier reef, but is is all too late? song. and, turn up the volume: the mob0 awards are back — we look at the pressures faced by the music industry in 2020. hello and welcome to the programme. with time running out, borisjohnson is travelling to brussels to meet the president of the european commission, ursula von der leyen, in a last—ditch effort to reach a post—brexit, trade deal. the pair are under pressure to reach an agreement before the uk stops following eu trading rules at the end

of the month. major disagreements remain on fishing rights, business competition rules and how a deal will be policed. 0ur politics correspondent, jessica parker, looks at the prospects for a deal. borisjohnson is boris johnson is going borisjohnson is going to brussels, that is as negotiations have stalled and phone calls with european commission president, the ursula von der leyen have failed to find their way through, for tonight, dinner, face—to—face. with just over three weeks until the break transition period ends, and 11th hour enter give these trade talks at higher level political push. there is a deal to be done. if it is not done then that will be a failure on then that will be a failure on the part of the european union, a failure on the part of the united kingdom and a failure on the part of personalities we are negotiating. no—one wants that failure and it's in no 1's interests to have that value, so we interests to have that value, so we have to hope and believe

asi so we have to hope and believe as i say, albeit late in the day, a deal will be done. progress tonight, said a uk government sought, may allow negotiations to resume in the coming days but they added it's important to be realistic that an agreement may not be possible. sticking points remain, fishing rights, competition rules on how ideal would be enforced. i truly hope, of course, that we do not go for the worst case scenario but we cannot speculate. it is very important that we get clarification on whatever deal it is going to be because customers and citizens are waiting for answers. meanwhile, separate discussions on specific trade arrangements for northern ireland did reach agreement yesterday, further details are expected to be set out in the common later. —— in the commons. yesterday, the uk and the eu reached agreement in principle on arrangements for goods flowing in and out of northern ireland.

here's our ireland correspondent, emma vardy, so what does it mean for companies there? it has been cautiously welcomed in northern ireland as progress. it means many companies are now getting a nswe rs companies are now getting answers about the process that will have to go through to get goods from northern ireland into the biggest market great britain and to get things like supermarket shipments of food over the irish sea onto the sheu over the irish sea onto the shelf but the devil will be in the detail and it will all be revealed tomorrow. don't forget injanuary revealed tomorrow. don't forget in january those special arrangements will kick in for northern ireland where northern ireland had to continue sticking by eu rules because northern ireland is effectively becoming a new gout way into the eu. -- becoming a new gout way into the eu. —— a new gateway. people are fond of reminding borisjohnson people are fond of reminding boris johnson because companies having to get ready for the new checks and paperwork, he told them previously, looked don't worry when you get through all of this, you'll be able to chuck some of that paperwork into the bin. we are going to find out tomorrow if that is

really the case and how much the added burden on red tape on traders will be reduced and of course the reason why that's important is that any added bureaucracy has an implication for the cost of goods that we have on the shelves and the range of goods, particularly that consumers in northern ireland can purchase. for more on the talks between britain and the eu, head over to our website. you'll find all the latest — including this piece from our political editor. that's all at: let's get some of the day's other news. the us supreme court has rejected a lawsuit brought by allies of donald trump seeking to overturn the results of november's presidential election in pennsylvania. the court dismissed the request to discount more than 2.5 million postal votes. five people have been killed in a helicopter crash in the french alps. the pilot, who was able to eject, raised the alarm shortly after the aircraft went down in the savoie region. it's not clear what brought

down the helicopter, which belonged to a private search and rescue company. a prominent american cyber—security firm has revealed that it has been hacked. fireeye has blamed what it called a nation with top—tier offensive capabilities. in a blog, its chief executive kevin mandia said sensitive hacking tools had been stolen and the fbi had been informed. ceremonies are taking place in new zealand to mark the first anniversary of the deadly eruption of the white island volcano. 22 people died when the volcano spewed out ash, acidic sludge and poisonous gases. venice has flooded once again, after its $7 billion flood barrier system was not activated, as a result of mistaken forecasts. tides rose higher than expected, and by the time the city's 78 barriers

were called upon, it was too late and water had already entered the famous lagoon. us president—electjoe biden has set a goal of 100 million coronavirus vaccinations during his first 100 days in office. the country has recorded more than 15 million cases of the infection with 285,000 deaths. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes reports. the news that could not come soon enough, the us regulator, the food and drug administration, found no safety concerns to stop approval of the pfizer biotech vaccine. with millions of americans going through the most severe stay—at—home orders in the pandemic started, the vaccine could be available within days. ata could be available within days. at a white house covid—19 summit, donald trump and members of heat is administration's coronavirus task force celebrated the

speedy development of a vaccine but the vice president said there was still work to do. with cases rising and hospitalisations rising in virtually every jurisdiction around america, it is time once again to redouble our efforts to put the health of our families, our neighbours and our communities first. as he prepares to take over the governments response, the president—elect, joe biden, said his goal was 100 million inoculations in his first 100 daysin inoculations in his first 100 days in office, prioritising the most at risk. that includes healthcare professionals, people in long—term care and as soon as possible, will include educators. this will be the most efficient mass vaccination plan in us history. joe biden also intends to ask americans to wear face masks for 100 days after he is inaugurated, me supported by the country's top infectious disease expert. we

would prefer to use our power of persuasion to get people to realise the importance of doing something and to do it on their own will. if they do not do it, then you may have to resort to something that is a mandate. better times are on the horizon but america is still bracing for a long, dark wintel. —— winter. peter bowes, bbc news. a european champions league football match in france will have to be completed on wednesday, after both teams walked off the pitch, accusing a match official of racism. they stopped playing 1a minutes into the game, and refused to continue. the turkish president condemned the racist remarks and said he believed the governing body, uefa would take what he called the necessary measures.

i'm joined by our reporter paul hawkins. what happened ? what happened? 14th minute of this champions league group match, between psg and istanbul basakshir, in the 14th minute, the referee, there was an incident in the match and the assistant coach of the turkish side protests from the dugout and the referee comes over and gives a red card to the cameroon assistant coach of the turkish site, pierre webo, and pierre webo then turned to the fourth official, who is at the start line as well and i'm paraphrasing here, he is saying why are you referring to me by my skin colour effectively. the fourth official, you can hear him on the video because there are no fans at the stadium, you can hear quite clearly what is being for, the fourth official says he is using the romanian word for black and he said "i

am nota word for black and he said "i am not a racist". there is then more footage of demba ba, and he is on the side saying to the fourth official, why when you mention a black guy do you have to say this black guy, the implication being that you are referring to him by the colour of his skin. 0r referring to the coach as by his skin. you would not say the white coat over there. the players come over, all of them from both sides, and hear the psg player, the president saying is eseries? heading in, we are heading in it, and then they disappeared down the tunnel —— is he serious. uefa offer to swa p is he serious. uefa offer to swap the match official and the turkish team is having none of it and then the whole thing is being replayed on wednesday night. this is a first? absolutely, unprecedented, we've seen racism between fans

and players but neverfor we've seen racism between fans and players but never for match officials themselves and uefa says they are stamping out racism and normally introduce sanctions for players and penalties for clubs but no—one is ever heard of them introducing sanctions for their own officials but the matches being replayed tonight, with a totally different set of match officials, a dutch referee and a polish and dutch, those nationalities comprising the rest of the match official team. very interesting, thank you for filling team. very interesting, thank you forfilling up in.. we'll have a full round—up of sport later in the programme. as global heating makes coral bleaching a regular event, scientists are urgently seeking ways to help the world's biggest reef survive. for the first time, a massive survey of the great barrier reef is taking place, with ordinary people helping to create a map that could help rescue it. the bbc spoke to prof peter mumby, chief scientist at the great barrier reef foundation: 0ne one of the challenges of

dealing with the great barrier reef is as its name suggests, it's enormous, it is about the size of italy. scientists can only monitor the health of a small fraction of it. there are some things that we really need, such as simple reconnaissance information that you can get from a handful of photographs from the great barrier reef taken underwater, well within the capability of anybody in the camp so we're trying to mobilise the enthusiasts there to get out there to a number of reefs and

ta ke there to a number of reefs and take a series of photographs that can be analysed, both by them, by experts and from people around the world who wa nt to people around the world who want to get involved from the armchair. this is of course one of the great wonders of nature. all of these corals will spawn simultaneously and we know that some reefs are much more important than others at driving recovery. the most important reefs are those who are still in good shape now, so they had lots of adults and can produce lots of eggs but they are also in a position that

they sent the new corals to places in need. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: with the mobo awards taking place later today we hear from nominees about the challenges they've faced during the pandemic. john lennon was shot at the entrance to the dakota building in the centre of new york. there's been a crowd here standing in more or less silent vigil, and the flowers have been piling up. the 14th ceasefire of this war ended at the walls of the old city of dubrovnik. this morning, witnesses said shells were landing every 20 seconds. people are celebrating the passing of a man they hold responsible for hundreds of deaths and oppression. elsewhere, people have been gathering to mourn his passing. imelda marcos, the widow of the former president

of the philippines, has gone on trial in manila. she's facing seven charges of tax evasion, estimated at £120 million. she pleaded not guilty. the prince and princess of wales are to separate. a statement from buckingham palace said the decision had been reached amicably. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: borisjohnson heads to brussels later today in a last—ditch bid to secure a breakthrough in brexit negotiations. he's set to meet with the eu commission president, ursula von der leyen. and us president elect joe biden pledges 100 million vaccinations across the united states in his first 100 days in office. well, let's get more on that story.

we can now speak to dr rishi desai, who's an infectious disease physician and chief medical officer for healthcare education platform 0smosis. thank you so much forjoining us. so you can hear the president—elect, joe biden, is saying we on a mission to do all we can in the first 100 days, we must wear masks, we will vaccinate 100 million people. will he pull that off? i think you will. we are actually right now in the middle of a waiting —— awaiting pfizer's first vaccine being released here in the united states stop we are in december andi states stop we are in december and i expect in the next 6— eight weeks we will get the vaccine deployed out to a lot of healthcare workers, that is the first priority, and that is around 21 million people, and about 2— 3 million people are folks living in long—term care health facilities. then it will be deployed much more broadly to adults in the us and then it

is going to be 100 million people there. i do think you can pull that off in his first hundred days of his presidency, which will take us to mid april. the us has a very fragmented healthcare system, but this vaccine has to be stored at a certain temperature. there are quite a few logistical challenges, aren't there? exactly. for those that may not be familiar, each vaccine has its own sorts of picky requirements, and this vaccine we're talking about here in the us is going to need to be kept really cold in a freezer that most hospitals and clinics don't routinely carry. that means they're going to have two procure those deep freezers, and even at those settings, the vaccine typically is going to last, the order of five days or so. so we need to use those freezers and use the vaccines pretty quickly, so they don't lingerfor vaccines pretty quickly, so they don't linger for six, seven or eight days because at that point it wouldn't be good anymore. these are logistic

details that are really important and because of the fragmented healthcare system you have alluded to in the us, it's hard to even know which hospitals do and don't have what they need so we can implement a plan to get it out to them stop it is going to ta ke to them stop it is going to take a lot of co—ordination between state and federal government and local communities, etc are. in terms of encouraging americans to receive this vaccine, it would be mandatory. there needs to be an enormous pr exercise to counter the scepticism regarding the safety of the vaccine? you are right. keeping in mind we think we need roughly 60% for herd immunity, to be able to overcome this pandemic, and to get there, we have a vaccine rounding up to make it a nice number, that's say it's 90% effective in the real world , say it's 90% effective in the real world, that means two—thirds of the people need to ta ke two—thirds of the people need to take it, multiply that by 90%, that gets a steady 60% threshold. getting two—thirds of americans to take the vaccine is not an easy feat, we

will definitely need to have a big public health education campaign and make sure we all feel it is safe, that is the most important thing. if there is anything looking worrisome, to make sure everyone feels like that process is transparent, jumping on it, making sure we know exactly what happened in a particular case, so we can avoid that. all right. we will keep a close eye on that. now, thank you very much for your time. absolutely. scientists are using the netherlands‘ largest football stadium to model how a cheering football crowd might spread germs through the air. their hope is that by finding out more about the behaviour of aerosols or airborne particles, which could spread coronavirus within a crowd. aruna iyengar has this report. empty stadiums, cardboard cut—out fans, and now, strict limits on numbers. that's been the face

of football since march. now this experiment at this stadium in the netherlands might bring back full—throated singing on the terraces. aerosols like these spray saliva—like droplets which simulate a noisy crowd. what you see is actually a small generator that is generating droplets, presenting saliva, and the small droplets will actually evaporate and the residue will be floating around here, and the number of this remaining particles is actually measured by these kind of sensors, and they count the number and the size of each of these particles. if the concentration of particles is high, then air cleaners in these black towers can be deployed. tubes running below the seats can remove unclean air. even in a worst—case scenario, where concentrations could really ramp up, you can show that by air cleaning technologies that do exist that you can drastically reduce those concentrations and make these stadiums safer

in terms of aerosol transmission of the virus. data is being gathered during the weeks of testing to show the effects for a full capacity crowd of around 55,000. researchers are hoping to get permission to experiment with a real crowd of 730 football fans seated close together. it may be impossible to get back to full grounds, but by making mass testing, face masks and now ventilation and cleaner air, that goal may be a more realistic target. tonight, the uk's biggest celebration of black music and culture will be live—streamed online — as the mob0 awards get underway. music of black 0rigin comes in a year of momentous calls for change for black lives — with the pandemic also creating fresh challenges for artists. this report, by the former mob0 award winner colleen harris, contains flashing images. it's been going for nearly 25 years,

celebrating some of the biggest names in music of black origin. make some noise! # re—rewind, when the crowd say bo selecta...#. unlike previous years, tomorrow's event is a virtual ceremony. thank you from the bottom of my heart, again. thank you to everyone that voted for me, to all my brothers that support me. there's no live audience, but they're trialling new technology to bring an immersive experience. this is a year like no other, so we're producing a show like no other. and so, for us, it was about using the power of black culture to bring people together. its return after a two—year hiatus follows a year of highly—charged black lives matter protests, a movement that prompted the founder of the mob0 founder to pen an open letter to the culture secretary. we've seen a solidarity which is so powerful and impactful, so i would say to any creative, look to see how you can connect, how you can work together, how

you can find a support system. 20 years ago, i was here in a different capacity. i was lucky enough to win one of these, so i know first—hand how much it means to an up—and—coming artist, but so much has changed in the music industry, especially in the last year. # this time, this time i won't hold the line...#. singer—songwriter mahalia is nominated for three awards tomorrow, including best female and best album. it's an achievement she says has come at a time when musicians are relearning what it means to be an artist. i haven't done any live performances, which is strange, because i basically spent the whole of last year on the road, and — yeah, it's been a real, real roller—coaster, emotionally and just physically. it's been strange, but i'm trying to stay hopeful about it, because i'm sure i'll get back on stage next year. until then, the mob0 awards are showcasing all music

of black origin in a year when it needs the support now more than ever. colleen harris, bbc news. now, let's go to the louvre in paris next. it has a special offer. it is organising an auction to sell time up close with mona lisa. 0ther experiences going under the hammerarea experiences going under the hammer are a virtual tool with the museum's president and a walk along the rooftop with panoramic views of the eiffel tower and notre dame. flexing many museums around the world, it's suffering financially after lockdown restrictions had kept visitors away for months. christies is hoping to raise more than $10 million. now, we have all of our top business stories coming up in a moment, including real disruption at uk ports, and yet we're still in that transition so what could

happen in the new year? we will look at that and the other top business stories in a moment. stay with us, i'll see you soon. hello there. low pressure will continue to bring more unsettled weather to our shores for the rest of this week and very slowly, those temperatures will be creeping up as we reach the end of the week and into the weekend. now for wednesday, we'll have some showers across eastern areas. some sunshine will develop, though, behind it is this ridge of high pressure that builds in and then there will be rain pushing to western areas later on all courtesy of this new frontal system. so we'll start off rather grey, misty, murky conditions with some showery bursts of rain through this morning. they should eventually clear away, it's an improving picture with some sunshine developing though showers holding on across north—eastern scotland. later in the day for northern ireland, western fringes of england, wales and practically into the south—west we will see thicker cloud moving in here with outbreaks of rain.

temperatures slowly climbing but again it's going to be another chilly day for most, temperatures range from to 5—7 degrees quite typically. as we head through wednesday night, we will start to see that cloud thickening up across the east as well. it looks like most of the heaviest rain will start to push across wales, the south—west of england, to the channel islands. elsewhere, we will hold onto quite a bit of cloud, some light and patchy rain under clearing skies across the north—east it will be quite chilly, otherwise, less cold than it's been on other nights. on thursday, we are in between weather systems although we have this weather front affecting the northern half of the uk. we've got a slack airflow once again, so winds will be light, rather grey skies for many with some patchy, light rain or drizzle, a little bit heavier across scotland. we could see a touch of wintriness over the high grounds. the air is still quite cool with those highs ranging from 5—8 degrees. but slowly coming up across the south—west, 9—10 there for cardiff and for plymouth. as we head on into friday, a more substantial frontal system spreads its way eastwards across the country.

this one will bring a bit of a substantial change to the weather, some heavier rain at times will make its way towards the eastern side of the country, winds stronger for a time, and then skies will brighten up across western areas, perhaps one or two showers here. so, it's out west where we'll start to see temperatures lift by the end of friday, 10—11 here. a little bit less cold further east, too. still on the chilly side — with temperatures in single figures. into the weekend, we hold onto a lot of cloud, some rain in northern and western areas. by sunday, we'll see another area of low pressure, which will bring windier weather, some milder air, and also outbreaks of rain.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. major disturbances at uk ports halt production at one of its biggest car makers and this even before the brexit transition ends. getting ready for the new normal — businesses make plans for 2021 as the big vaccine rollout starts. and as this year's christmas party season will be like no other, how does the catering industry cope with a lack of bookings.