this is bbc news, the headlines: mitch mcconnell — the most powerful us republican, after the president — has finally broken ranks with donald trump — and congratulated joe biden this is bbc news. on winning the presidential election. our top stories: mr mcconnell also urged fellow a senior republican republicans not to object finally break ranks to the result when congress with donald trump. meets to ratify it. mitch mcconnell — the most a second coronavirus powerful us republican, vaccine looks about to be after the president — approved for emergency use in the us. congratulatesjoe biden the food and drug administration says the moderna jab is safe and ninety—four on his election win. per cent effective — and can be stored at higher safe and 94% effective — temperatures than the vaccine developed by pfizer medical tests open up and biontech. if approved shipments a path for the approval of a second us vaccine. days before covid restrictions are relaxed in england over christmas, two leading medicaljournals could begin within 2a hours. say that would be a mistake and could cost countless lives. us president—electjoe pressure is increasing biden picks his former on the uk government rival pete buttigieg to revise its relaxation as secretary of transportation. of covid restrictions in england over christmas. if confirmed he'll be days before the changes are due to take effect, two leading medicaljournals the first openly gay member are saying they would be a mistake — and could of an american cabinet. and a royal deal with spotify — cost countless lives. the duke and duchess of sussex agree to produce and host

now on bbc news — there will be further talks tomorrow amid concern there will be a significant rise in cases. two leading medical journalists of joined cases. two leading medical journalists ofjoined forces to say that easing the rules for five days is rash and will cost many lives. christmas mixing will be a big mistake, that's the bleak message from two publications representing health and medical leaders. if the rules agreed by the uk's administrations which allow some household mixing aren't changed, they argue that virus cases will escalate and the nhs will be overrun. the real striking, stark truth of the matter is that our health system is not going to manage if we allow the current trend to continue on top of the super spread

event that will be these five days of christmas with three or more households meeting. people will find it hard to stick to those rules. but ministers were sticking to the line that people should make their own decisions within the rules set out. we have to trust the british people to act responsibly and do the minimum necessary for them within their family situation. but we should recognise it has been a very difficult year for many families. many families will want to come together. but the government at westminster is facing calls to look again at the planned easing of restrictions over christmas. i say to everybody, look at the evidence as it is, the last two or three days have seen a spike in infections going up, notwithstanding the tiered system. we can't stand back and ignore that, this needs to be reviewed and this needs to be done pretty urgently now. and scotland's first minister suggested there might need to be a rethink. it's important we have that discussion across the four nations, given family patterns across the uk, but i do think there is a case for us looking at whether we tighten the flexibilities we are giving any further both in terms

of duration and numbers of people meeting. the politicians will have to gauge public opinion. spending time together was not going to be the best thing... joe has already cancelled a christmas trip to see his sister. i think people just have to be sensible this year. and really think deeply about what really matters to them. but others have made plans they say will be hard to change. the turkey‘s on order. £15 turkey. if there's onlyjill and i for christmas dinner that's a hell of a lot of turkey to eat. you're happy to have your injection today? yes. vaccination centres are now up and running including this one at barnet football club where they're hoping to get through 350 jabs each day, starting with the over 80s and the first appointments today. vaccination centres like this may have got under way but it will take at least four weeks and two jabs to build up protection and the process

of getting through the most vulnerable patients will take time. and doctors in this north london area are very concerned about the rising case numbers they're seeing now. it is a phenomenal threat, it is very, very worrying. the number of cases and results coming in with patients being covid positive and actually unwell, especially at this time of year when we have the easing of the lockdown, people are mixing with each other, mixing with families, it's rising. some european countries are tightening up in response to higher infections but allowing a little leeway over christmas. the uk's governments will continue talks tomorrow on how to strike the balance. hugh pym, bbc news. now on bbc news — in the 1990s, vienna placed female architects at the heart of a big revamp of their city. now barcelona is trying to replicate this via their mayor, architects and organisations. cities are supposed to be

built for all of us, but they aren't built by all of us — because most cities, if not all of them, are designed and built by men. but what would a city look like if it was built by women? in 2019, we came to barcelona to meet a group of influential feminist leaders to hear their plans to redesign the city. but a year ago, we never could have imagined just how much the world would change.

so we've come back to barcelona to find out how a city that was trying to work better for women has weathered the biggest crisis of our lifetime. barcelona is a city that has a long history of reinventing itself with brave and adventurous urban design. over 6,000 years, generation after generation of men have put their mark on this city. but when we came here in 2019, it was in the midst of a feminist takeover. in 2015, the city had elected its first female mayor, ada colau. and it wasn'tjust the mayor.

barcelona's feminist revolution involves everyone from writers to urban planners, architects and economists, and all those who make up the fabric of this evolving city. playgrounds were being reimagined, streets were being named for women, public transport was changing so women didn't have to walk alone at night. and the city was saying no to sleaze. but then the pandemic hit. and just like so many other places, barcelona is reeling.

so how are these feminist ideals withstanding a pandemic? and did it teach us anything about how the legacy of this virus will impact women? someone who could explain this better than most... masquaretes. ..is judit vall castello. as a health economist and a mum, she's had a very busy few months. my husband is an essential worker, so i was alone at home. and working full—time?

and working full—time, so, yeah, we had difficult situations where i posted some postits in the door in the dining room — "it's forbidden to enter now!" brilliant. did it work? no major incidents. judit‘s been studying the economic impact of the pandemic, particularly on women, and she's found something interesting. so, basically, the previous crisis that we had in 2008, it affected very much certain sectors that we know have a higher incidence of men working there. the situation is completely different now because the biggest sectors that have been affected are the service sectors. and we know that in those sectors, there's a higher proportion of women working there. so this is a pretty short—term effect. so in the short—term, it's very clear and we can already see the stats for several countries. the situation might be different in the long term.

why is that? well, there are mainly two reasons. the first one is that some of the firms have been forced to flexibilise the employment situation, to make employment more flexible, to allow working from home, and in the long—term, this is going to beneficial for women. then the second thing is that women working in the health care service, women working in the cleaning service, these women had to keep working during the lockdown situation, and so their partners, the fathers, had to stay at home, and so this has been proven to change the gender roles for the children at home. do you have an idea of how many families this is affecting, how many families are changing their gender roles as a result of this pandemic? in 10% of the families, the fathers were in charge of the children during the lockdown situation. 0k. and some fathers who weren't before, so this is a new pattern emerging? exactly.

for lots of people, it's been a difficult year. for some, it's been life—changing. we met conchi braojos in 2019 because she had been working with the feminist collective to find a solution to the problem of getting to work. she's a cleaner in a hospital and she had to walk alone in the middle of the night because of the lack of bus connections. she's a cleaner in a hospital and she had to walk alone in the middle of the night because of the lack of bus connections. none of us could have imagined the year that was in store for her, as the hospital she worked in became one of those at the centre of the pandemic.

and after all of this, conchi still has to walk to work in the middle of the night. during the peak of the lockdown, she also found she was ferrying things like phone chargers to and from the hospital, because spain had one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. people were only allowed to leave their homes if they absolutely had to.

children had to stay inside for months. that rule came from central government, and it's something that mayor ada colau said she disagreed with from the start.

when we met the first time, colau spoke about her vision of feminist politics, that it was built around consensus. and that was important, because her left—wing party didn't win a clear majority in the last election and she's in power with a party on the right.

before she became a politician, ada colau was an activist, fighting against evictions, but she has been criticised for failing to stop a rise in evictions in the last few months. there's a project that mayor ada colau was keen for us to visit, aimed directly at women.

this pilot project aims to help 1,200 children, and that will help women, because, despite all the progress made in recent years, the pandemic showed us that women still do the overwhelming bulk of childcare. in families where the two partners were staying at home, were teleworking from home, and had children's responsibilities, women were interrupted 50% more of the time than men.

and also they were dedicating... in these two—parent families, they were dedicating four more hours per day to the caring of the children than their husbands. and there's a simple reason why women here could be affected more than most. barcelona is a city that relies on tourism, and tourism is a part of the economy that, more than a lot of others, employs a majority of women. a year ago, this was a very different city. this square would have been full of people. and now... from a city that used to be overwhelmed with tourists... ..the streets in some parts of town are now eerily quiet.

this is a place that entertained up to 8.9 million tourists a year. and it was an invisible army of women who kept the hospitality industry going — cleaners. vania rana came to barcelona from peru 28 years ago. now, she's at the centre of a collective of women who advocate on behalf of cleaners. and when we first met her, she was campaigning to have cleaners treated more fairly. but now their industry has been decimated.

wow. the collective of women just try to support each other where they can.

it might be years before tourists can come back to enjoy barcelona like they did before the coronavirus stopped us in our tracks. but the city still vibrates with the rhythms of ordinary life. and some people see the pandemic as an opportunity for change. how are you, fine? yeah, good. very strange, this situation. so strange! yes. what a year. that's ba rcelona's councillor of urbanism, janet sanz, when we first met janet, we watched one of barcelona's oldest traditions — the castellers — something that seems almost impossible now. this year, the atmosphere

is a little less festive. but the pandemic‘s not stopping janet sanz and her plans to transform this city. to reclaim the streets from cars. the project is called the superille, or superblock. in almost every city, cars take up more space than any other road user. the idea of the superblocks is to reclaim the streets for pedestrians, for cyclists or even just for hanging out. the plan takes nine blocks and forms one big superblock, which are closed off from through traffic.

0nly cars that need access are allowed in, and the speed limit is reduced to 10 km/h. parked cars go underground. so instead of busyjunctions, you have parks, picnic benches and play areas.

do you think there'll be a resistance? scaling up means creating 21 more of these squares and turning the streets between them into green hubs, filled with plants and trees. like most of europe, the city's dealing with a second wave of the virus, and bars and restaurants are closed. the superille is busier than ever, but not everyone is thrilled about that.

building a consensus to change a city is hard work, so barcelona has brought people on board who are studying the city from a deeply feminist perspective. the last time we came here, we met blanca at her studio in the city. then, her collective, punt 6, were doing deep research into how men and women use the city differently. now, they're working with the town hall on a very specific project — making the bicycle network work betterfor women.

there's a huge increase in the number of people using bicycles since the pandemic, especially women, but there's also been a few issues. this is a city that was hit hard by the pandemic,

and its long—term legacy is onlyjust beginning. like no other recession, it seems women are bearing the brunt of this one. but a city that's trying to work betterfor women could teach us how we can all weather this crisis... ..to build up cities that work better for everyone.

hello there. a deep area of low pressure spreading northwards across western parts of the country overnight. it's brought a swathe of rain and gales. and it's going to stay pretty windy throughout the day today with further heavy rain at times, which will continue to move northwards and eastwards. so, a wet, windy start across much of the west, that heavy rain pushing across much of scotland, followed by blustery showers for northern ireland, western scotland. a band of rain will spread eastwards across england as well, though not reaching the far southeast until later on. it's going to be a windy day for all but not as windy in the afternoon as how the morning will start, as the winds will slowly ease down. anotherfairly mild day on the face of it, nine to 11 degrees, but factor in the wind, it might not feel quite mild. now, wednesday's low pushes to the north of the uk. we're between weather systems for thursday, so it's going to be another fairly breezy day but dry for many, with some good spells of sunshine, particularly across eastern scotland, eastern england. and there will be some showers around, particularly

in the west, and then later in the day, we'll start to see some rain piling in. it's going to be another mild one for most. did well but he ginger