tv BBC News BBC News December 20, 2020 10:00pm-10:31pm GMT
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a race to curb the mutant strain of coronavirus — millions of people are now living under tougher restrictions. england's new tier 4 sees shops close, streets empty and christmas bubbles abandoned — ministers say it could last for months. the new variant is out of control and we need to bring it under control. and this news about the new variant has been an incredibly difficult end to, frankly, an awful year. tonight, the ports of dover and folkestone are closing to outgoing traffic, as france — and other countries — suspend travel from the uk because of the spread of the virus. we'll be looking at how the government can respond, with an emergency meeting to take place tomorrow.
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i have seen this drug on the battlefields of syria, libya, but neverin battlefields of syria, libya, but never in these quantities before. how a record haul of the amphetamine captagon has been destroyed in italy. also tonight: history makers, the quadruple, treble winners. a clean sweep for celtic, as they reach their 40th scottish cup win. good evening. 18 million people in england — and all 3 million who live in wales — have seen extra covid restrictions come into force today, as ministers said a new variant of coronavirus is out of control. in england, areas within the new tier 4 include london, kent and most of essex.
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people should stay home, non—essential shops, as well as gyms and hairdressers have closed. christmas bubble mixing is no longer permitted. the festive rules have changed in the rest of england too. bubbles will now be allowed to meet only on christmas day. wales‘ new lockdown restrictions will ease just for christmas day. scotland will also allow bubbles only on the 25th. and the mainland will then go into the highest level of restrictions from boxing day. that is also when northern ireland begins its previously announced new lockdown. well, tonight, several countries are responding to new variant of the virus by suspending travel from the uk, including freight heading to france. ourfirst report is from our political correspondent, nick eardley. what a difference a day can make. london's oxford street, normally one of the busiest for shopping in europe, deserted today as parts of england
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entered a new lockdown and millions more faced up to a significantly scaled back christmas. i was pinning all of my hopes on this moment now to get home for christmas. people like michaela mccann, who works as an occupational therapist in surrey and now can't get home to northern ireland. everybody had made their plans, itjust seems like it's just a bit too late. it'sjust really difficult to accept. and i feel like, myself, my resilience has sort of depleted through the year. i think this isjust one, like, final kick. the government said it was forced to act because of a new variant of the virus that's thought to spread much quicker. the new variant is out of control and we need to bring it under control. and this news about the new variant has been an incredibly difficult end to, frankly, an awful year. wales entered lockdown again at midnight. in scotland and northern ireland, new restrictions are coming just after christmas.
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and new tier 4 restrictions mean in london, the south east and the east of england, people are being urged to stay at home. we don't know how long these measures are going to be in place. it may be for some time, until we can get the vaccine going. that isn't an easy thing to say. it all feels very different to wednesday, when the four nations agreed that there would still be a relaxation of the law over christmas. but ministers here say they were given new evidence on friday about how the new variant of the virus spreads, and that they had to act quickly. others think they were too slow. how could the government allow people to go on as they were? labour's leader this morning said that the prime minister had waited until the 11th hour because he was reluctant to make an unpopular decision. england, scotland and labour—run wales all took pretty drastic action yesterday, after being briefed by the experts. so what makes you think, in terms of this new variant, that the government should have acted sooner? to put all of this
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on the new variant is wrong. the infection was out of control and that's why the government, the prime minister, should have grasped this, instead of flippantly on wednesday simply saying, have a merry little christmas. it was obvious that the indicators were all in the wrong direction. the government says that's wrong, that when the data changed, their approach had to as well. but for many, the last couple of days mean a heartbreaking end to what's already been a uniquely difficult year. there has been another sharp increase in the number of positive cases reported today. nearly 36,000, almost double the level reported last week. it is exactly figures like that that ministers will point to to say that is why they had to make this decision. ultimately, borisjohnson has make this decision. ultimately, boris johnson has decided make this decision. ultimately, borisjohnson has decided that for all the political flak you borisjohnson has decided that for all the politicalflak you may borisjohnson has decided that for all the political flak you may take from labour, who say he acted too slow and from some in his own party who say he has gone too far, that is
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worth it because of the scale of the emergency. nick eardley, at westminster, thank you very much. the latest developments have sparked bans on travel from the uk into several countries — including france, which is barring arrivals by air, sea, rail or road, including freight. germany, italy, the netherlands and ireland are also restricting travel. here's our transport correspondent, caroline davies. this weekend has already seen queues of lorries waiting at dover. today's news that france has banned all forms of transport from the uk for 48 hours from midnight, including goods being transported as freight, has many worried this will get much worse. this is an absolute hammer blow after all the queues we've had at ports in the last week caused by brexit stockpiling and, of course, the christmas rush. so, there's real confusion, real uncertainty in the industry tonight. obviously, the ban is into france, other routes that these goods could be taken into in a different part of europe instead?
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there are other routes, other sea routes, other ports to other parts of europe that can be used. but they are a very long way round compared to the short straits of dover — calais. and really, it's not a great alternative from where we are now, with just a few days to christmas. the prime minister will chair a cobra meeting tomorrow to discuss the situation. the eurotunnel closed its folkestone terminal at 10pm this evening. the port of dover has closed to all traffic leaving the uk. while france is currently the only country to have imposed restrictions on freight, many other european countries have placed bans on british passengers coming into the uk — including italy, ireland, the netherlands and belgium — concerned about spreading the new strain of the virus. in the uk, some passengers were still boarding trains from london to manchester this afternoon. despite the fact that rules against leaving tier 4 came in last night, other
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than for legally permitted reasons. the british transport police have said that there will be more officers at major transport hubs and the officers will only use enforcement if absolutely necessary. in scotland, the police have said they will double their presence in the border areas, but that it wasn't appropriate for officers to establish checkpoints or roadblocks. yesterday's announcement has resulted in christmas plans being upended across the country, not least those of businesses thrown into doubt at the uk's border in the final few days before christmas. caroline davies, bbc news. the french action has caused the port of dover and folkestone to close to outgoing traffic from now for the next 48 hours. our business editor, simonjack, is with me now. how much of an impact is this going to have? a potentially very serious, there was already disruption at the ports. the government are taking it seriously and there will be meetings with the department for transport, the foreign office and home office tonight and tomorrow morning, the prime minister will chair a meeting of the cobra group to assess the
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situation. as for business, a lot of different reaction. holly is telling me although inbound traffic, inbound freight can still come in, if they can't get out again for 48 hours, many will think twice about coming in. the food and drink federation says this has the potential to cause serious disruption to uk fresh food supplies for christmas. however, the british retail consortium which represents the supermarket has a more measured tone, they say retailers have stocked up on goods ahead of christmas which should prevent immediate problems, where houses are bulging with food at this particular time. i was in dover myself on thursday and there were tailbacks ten to 20 miles long at some point because you had this disruption of stuff coming out of china, a bit of pre—brexit stockpiling and that busy christmas period. one chief hauliers said to mejust when you period. one chief hauliers said to me just when you thought it couldn't get worse, it does get worse. so serious disruption in prospect here. and this is ten days before the uk
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goes into this rather on —— unknown period where we don't know what we are preparing for, so very testing times ahead. thank you, we will get an update on the brexit talks in brussels in a few moments. the latest government figures show( there were 35,928 new coronavirus infections recorded in the latest 24—hour period, which means an average number of 27,249 new cases per day in the last week. there were 1,821 people admitted to hospital, on average, each day in the week to last wednesday. 326 deaths have been reported for the last 24 hours — that's people who died within 28 days of a positive covid—i9 test. it means an average of 462 deaths per day in the past week. the total number of uk deaths is now 67,401. the sharply increased number of new cases is being linked to the new variant of covid
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being more infectious. concerns over this have led to the widespread travel restrictions announced this evening. 0ur health correspondent, catherine burns, reports now on what we know about the mutation and how it happened. since the pandemic started, we've learnt a lot about coronavirus, but it's been learning about us too. it's had practice at dealing with our immune systems and has developed an extra way of fighting us — this new variant. it's changed 23 times. many differences are linked to the all—important spike protein — the part of the virus that lets it bind onto human cells. so, the worry is that this mutation could make it easier for the virus to infect us. doctors think this new variant could spread up to 70% faster, although that figure is just an estimate. scientists advising the government also say it could increase the r number, which shows how the virus can spread, by between 0.4 and 0.9.
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when we find the virus, we're finding the virus in the nose and throat. the higher amount of virus means that people are likely to be more infectious than they would otherwise be, and this means that we need to reiterate the social—distancing measures, keep your distance, reduce your contacts. one key question is, will vaccines still work against this? well, the vaccine trains our immune systems to recognise and react to the spike protein in the virus, and it has changed. but we're talking about tweaks, rather than huge differences. it's early days, but scientists think the vaccines are now, more than ever, the key to getting this under control. another question is, are people more likely to become very sick, or even die, if they get infected with this? well, so far, there is no evidence to show that this variant causes more severe illness in any one single person, but it's thought that somewhere between one in 100 and one in 150 people who get coronavirus will die from it. and if this variant is more
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infectious, it could cause more cases, and so more deaths. we've already seen ambulances queueing outside of hospitals and some trusts cancelling routine surgery, as they struggle to cope with the pandemic and winter pressures. now, this too. we're 11,000 beds fewer than we were last year because of infection control. and of the remaining beds, 16,000 of them are occupied by covid patients. that's 2,000 more than eight days ago. so, what chief executives are saying to us is, it's going to be a nail—biting week to ten days for them whilst they see whether these new measures will have the desired impact. until enough of us have been vaccinated, the best way to stop this virus spreading is to stick to social distancing, wear our masks, wash our hands, and to cut contact with other people. catherine burns, bbc news. meanwhile, the brexit trade negotiations have been continuing in brussels. the end of the transition period — and, therefore, our
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current arrangements — is now only 11 days away. 0ur europe editor, katya adler, joins us from brussels. how is it going? well, what we can say is that it really is a case of so near say is that it really is a case of so near and yet so far. we are told more than 98% of this deal has been agreed, negotiations continued here in brussels all over the weekend, but it just seems in brussels all over the weekend, but itjust seems both sides are stuck. there are a number of loose ends. for example, tonight, the government pointed to the eu offer of eu subsidies and described it as unbalanced, but this essentially comes down to fish. in economic terms, the fishing industry is not worth much to the uk or the eu, but with brexit came the province of sovereignty over uk waters and that is what the government is pushing for in these negotiations. but the eu is insisting on maintaining some fishing rights in uk waters otherwise, it says, there will be no
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trade deal at all. can a solution be found? trade deal at all. can a solution be found ? well, trade deal at all. can a solution be found? well, yes, in theory. but in practice, the politics are extremely difficult. if an agreement can be found here, it is said by both sides a deal could fall into place extremely quickly and the government says it wants to make a decision either way with these talks before christmas. we could see a deal this week, but don't forget the transition period ends on the 31st of december and if there is no agreement by then we are in a no—deal situation as of the beginning of the year. there is nothing stopping the two sides continuing to negotiating in 2021 if they so choose. but we just don't know yet. katya adler, thank you very much. the italian authorities have destroyed hundreds of millions of pounds‘ worth of the amphetamine captagon — seized when shipments from syria were intercepted. it was part of a coordinated effort against a trade in lucrative narcotics likely run by the syrian regime and its allies. captagon is used recreationally across the middle east, but is also taken by militants
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fighting on the frontlines. 0ur correspondent, quentin sommerville, gained exclusive access to the operation in naples. syria's war can seem a million miles away from europe but, tonight, in naples, it intrudes once again. italy's financial crimes police are on a night—time mission that has been months in the making. earlier this summer, they seized 1 billion euros of amphetamines. initially, they thought they came from the islamic state group. well, they weren't right about that. but tonight, they're taking those drugs to be incinerated. the drugs, which came from the syrian port of latakia, are under heavy guard, on a nine—hourjourney to destruction. inside, an unprecedented haul — 85 million pills. syria's criminal regime, and its ally, hezbollah,
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are deep in the drugs trade. little by little, we try to win the war. but these drugs weren't meant for european streets. italy was only a stopover on the pills‘ long journey to libya. captagon, the amphetamine, is wildly popular in the arab world. it‘s used recreationally and by fighters too. colonel danilo tommo tells me, "this is the biggest haul we‘ve ever found. the biggest in the world of captagon. looking at the amount, we think it would have flooded the entire market." i‘ve seen this drug on the battlefields of iraq, syria, libya, but i‘ve never seen it in these quantities before.
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captagon is produced in syrian regime and here, in rebel—held areas. abu abdu, a fighter—turned—smuggler, explains the drug‘s effects. translation: fighters use it. if you have doubts, it brings courage and helps detach you from reality. the pills give you power, make you feel like a hero, so you can enter battle and fight, and not be scared. it‘s been a bad year for syria‘s drug smugglers. there‘s been a succession of seizures of their cargo. millions of pills in the last month alone. these pictures are from egypt. there, they were hidden in waterfilters. captagon fuels conflict, but it also fills the coffers of bashar al—assad‘s heavily sanctioned state. the growing number of seizures from the narcos of the middle east is another front in an effort to stop the flow of illegal riches reaching the syrian regime. quentin somerville,
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bbc news, naples. with all the sport now, here‘s olly foster at the bbc sport centre. good evening. seven months later than scheduled, last season‘s scottish cup final took place at hampden park today. celtic beat hearts on penalties to complete another treble of domestic trophies. chris mclaughlin was at the match. on glasgow‘s southside, the festive cup final had flames, but no fans. initially, there was familiarity, though, in the strangest of times. celtic dominating when it mattered. the first was sensational — take a bow, ryan christie. it was two before the half hour. a helping hand from christophe berra... penalty! ..was followed by the cheekiest of chips from odsonne edouard. but wait, liam boyce gave hearts hope minutes after the break. stephen kingsley gave them the equaliser. oh, they‘re claiming it‘s over the line. it‘s a hearts goal! they‘re level. game on.
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it was to go all the way to penalties. both teams scored in extra time, and kristoffer ajer won it from the spot. for the cup... and he‘s done it! they did it the hard way, but it‘s the quadruple treble for celtic. the history—makers are celtic football club! chris mclaughlin, bbc news, hampden park. we‘ve had four games in the premier league, all the goals are coming up on match of the day 2 after the news, but i‘ve got the results if you want them. manchester united are up to third in the table after thrashing leeds 6—2. scott mctominay scored twice inside the first three minutes. that‘s a premier league record. leicester city have moved up to second in the table, after winning 2—0 at tottenham. jamie vardy scored one of the goals. elsewhere, aston villa beat west bromwich albion 3—0. brighton drew 1—11 against sheffield united. there were two matches
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in rugby union‘s champions cup, and bristol bears have given themselves a chance of reaching the quarter—finals, with a bonus—point win over connacht. ioan lloyd with their fourth try in the 27—18 win. harlequins lost to racing in the other game today. at the end of a record—breaking year in formula 1, lewis hamilton has been named the bbc sports personality of the year for a second time. our sports correspondent, andy swiss, was at the awards show. the 2020 bbc sports personality of the year is lewis hamilton. he is no stranger to winning and after a season stranger to winning and after a season in which he became formula 1's season in which he became formula 1‘s most successful driver, for lewis hamilton, one final victory. six years after he first lifted that famous trophy, he had done it again. please everyone out there, go out and follow your dreams. two other kids, please never give up on yourself. continue to believe in yourself. continue to believe in yourself. because you have what it takes to be great. inevitably, it was a very different show to normal. the only crowd in the studio was virtual after a year in which sport
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has battled covid, but also brought inspiration. captain sir tom moore both receiving an award and presenting one to nine—year—olds tobias weller who has cerebral palsy and he walked two marathons for charity. another of the winners tonight is the man behind me. in this challenging year, few have made such a difference as marcus rashford. the manchester united striker received a special award for raising awareness of child food poverty after his campaign for free school meals. i just poverty after his campaign for free school meals. ijust had this thing that it set me saying, make sure you make a difference for the next generation. i think is a country, we should always protect them as much as we can and give them the best chance at life and becoming whatever it is they want to become. it was a goodnight for liverpool as they won tea m goodnight for liverpool as they won team of the year and jurgen klopp coach of the year. for sport, a celebratory end. lewis hamilton! to one of its most difficult years.
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hello and welcome to your questions answered. with me in the studio, our health correspondent jim reed, and we arejoined by nicola stonehouse, professor of molecular virology at the university of leeds. jim, can i start with you? we have had lots coming into us. let‘s look at this one on twitter from peter, who says that the prime minister has just announced that tier 3 households can meet in dorset on christmas day. can another day be substituted? i‘ve had this a lot today.
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i‘m afraid the answer is no. the rules are pretty clear. this christmas break in england has been cut from five days in most places down to just a single day, which is the 25th of december, unless you are in a new tier 4 area, in which case the rules are that you cannot mix at all. in wales and scotland, cut down to that single day of christmas day. in northern ireland, slightly broader, retaining the five days there with extra time for travel. peter also mentioned grandchildren. i don‘t want to second—guess peter‘s age. the advice is pretty strong, that if you‘re over 70 or clinically vulnerable you are asked to think carefully about whether or not to meet up at all. the safest advice if you are in that group may be not to form a christmas bubble, maybe not even on christmas day.
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so you designate your christmas day outside the 25th. afraid not. ok, nicola. this is via e—mailfrom lynn: how will the new rules for london and the south—east affect care home visiting? should we go ahead with lateral flow testing and allowing visits or review things in light of the new rules and the higher risks? testing is very important, although lateral flow testing isn't perfect. i would suggest, if you want to visit people, self—isolate before you do. self isolating for ten days means you are very unlikely to be able to spread infection. i realise not everybody can do that, but that would reduce the risks down. andjim, worth pointing out that even in the tier 4 guidelines, there are exceptions. there are, and nicola made good points. there is one change under tier 4. in tier 3, you can meet someone face—to—face if you have one
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of these fast turnaround lateral flow tests that proved negative. in tier 4, you can‘t actually do that. you can still meet but it has to be through a window, glass, one of those pods, so face—to—face meeting in a care home in tier 4 is not allowed. this one is from angela yeoman. i am a single person living in england and my bubble is family in wales. can i go? this is where you get rules clashing. i had a word with the welsh government before i came on air. good news for angela, she would be allowed to cross that border because she uses what is called the support bubble, but only for christmas day itself, no more than that. she can‘t stay overnight? no. if she is in herefordshire, she could cross to monmouth to meet someone. where it gets more difficult or impossible is if she is on a tier 4 area, because then the rules would kick in and you couldn‘t leave that tier 4 area.
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another viewer asks, how is the virus still spreading if we are still wearing our masks and washing our hands endlessly? would being made to wear a mask outside stop it? the spread is by people, people getting together in groups, and the more people, the more risk, and the larger the group, again, the larger the risk. if you're walking past somebody in the street, the chances of spread is going to be very low. the more time you spend with people, the more crowds that you are in, even if that outside, then the risks get higher. being outdoors is really important, and basically keeping away from people as much as possible. i'm afraid, yes, keeping on your own is the most important thing. wearing masks in large gatherings outside could be important, and for sure, if you feel more comfortable wearing a mask when you are walking
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out and about, do so. some media today has been suggesting the new variant may even be getting through ppe. is there any evidence to suggest that? i don't think there is any evidence to suggest that. i think what we must remember is that viruses change, new variants come and go, and less so with this virus than for some other viruses, but this seems to have become very embedded in the population very quickly, and that's what's extremely worrying. why exactly that is, we just don't know yet. there have been lots of different mutations, haven‘t there, of this original virus? yes, indeed. it is being able to look at these mutations, both in the uk and elsewhere in the world,
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over the last year has been really quite important. what's happened here is that these mutations seem to have really become fixed in the population very quickly. i think, unfortunately, the fact that london and the south—east was in a tier 2 restrictions rather than higher restrictions over the last month but hasn't helped that situation. but we are where we are, and we absolutely must all do as much as we possibly can to stop any further spread. what might we are out of time, i‘m afraid. jim reed and professor nicholas stonehouse, thank you very much indeed for answering some of those questions. hello, good evening.
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