this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. dozens of governments around the globe ban arrivals from the uk, after the country announced a climb in cases of a new more infectious strain of coronavirus. i $900 billion shot against coronavirus. republicans and democrats into months of wrangling to agree on a financial relief package for americans. sources close to the brexit trade talks say a decision on a deal is likely before christmas. i seen this drug on the battlefields, but i've never seen it in these quantities before. we're with italy's drugs squad as they burn a record haul ofan amphetamine from syria.

hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. a growing number of countries are imposing travel bans on britain, where a new, fast—spreading variant of coronavirus has been detected. flights have been cancelled by a number of countries while eurotunnel and ferry crossings from british ports to france are also being suspended. the prime minister, boris johnson, is to chair a meeting of the uk's emergency cobra committee on monday to discuss the situation. eu ambassadors are to meet for emergency talks, also on monday, to work out a common strategy. our berlin correspondent, damien mcguinness, has this report.

the netherlands was one of the first country to act. on sunday morning, passenger flights to and from the uk were banned. belgium came next, announcing borders would be closed to all travellers from the uk for 2h hours. this means notjust a ban on flights, but also on train and car travel. germany has followed suit, announcing a ban on uk flights until the end of the month. other countries including ireland, france and italy have also quickly announced their own individual uk travel restrictions. pressure is now growing for an eu wide response. on monday morning, european government representatives will meet to come up with a plan. the travel bans came after british health secretary, matt hancock, warned that the new strain of virus was out of control. in the uk, the uk has sparked a scramble among international in the uk, the move has sparked a scramble among international travellers wanting to get back home before the borders close.

coming for christmas, the most important thing is being with family. so i think ijustjumped the gun and went in. that was the idea. i paid about £250 for a flight last night, but i was meant to come on wednesday. the lockdown already meant that this will be a quiet christmas. travel bans mean that an even more people will be even more people will be spending it at home. damien mcguinness, bbc news, berlin. 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? 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 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. italy's health ministry has said a person arriving in rome from the uk in recent days has tested positive with the new, more infectious, covid strain. the patient and their partner

arrived at rome's fiumicino airport a few days ago and the couple are in isolation together with other family members and close contacts. the italian health ministry says all established procedures are being followed. after months of wrangling, republicans and democrats in the us congress have reached agreement on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package. the deal includes increased unemployment benefits and stimulus payments for millions of workers who lost their jobs because of the pandemic. announcing the agreement, the republican leader in the us senate, mitch mcconnell, said the american people should know they would not now be battling the crisis alone. we can finally report what our nation has needed to hearfor a very long time. more help is on the way. moments ago, in consultation with our

committees, the four leaders of the senate and the house finalised an agreement. there will be another major rescue package for the american people. peter bowes joins us live from washington. this could not have come any sooner this could not have come any sooner because things are so difficult in the us. it's been a long road to get here. it's incredibly difficult for so many americans. many would say it is almost too late. they've been waiting a very long time for this stimulus bill. the second largest stimulus bill in american history, second only to the first stimulus after the pandemic started. it was worth $1.8 trillion, so not quite as much money this time, but it means there will be additional unemployment payments to people, fixed sums to many, many americans, help for students. students have been struggling to pay their loans. assista nce struggling to pay their loans. assistance for farmers, small

businesses, schools. it really covers a wide range of areas from individuals and businesses that have been suffering to this pandemic and of course, for a very large number of people, there's still no end in sight. people are still losing theirjobs sight. people are still losing their jobs because of sight. people are still losing theirjobs because of this disease and going through an incredibly different time —— difficult time. major cities around the country, parts of southern california, there are no emergency beds, there are no inc. intensive care beds and people are really suffering whether it's their health or the economy. this will come as a relief, and peoplejust desperate to get their hands on that money. that should come quickly, probably in a week. all this a month before a new president is inaugurated. yes, and there had been a lot of political wrangling, a lot of lyrical stalemates leading up to this agreement. and there was a softening of attitudes —— lots of political stalemate. once the election was sorted in

the minds of most people, president trump is still disputing it, but there will be a new president, joe biden, from the middle ofjanuary. he is already promising that this isn't the end as far as stimulus packages are concerned. there will be extra money and he will be urging congress to reach a new deal in the months ahead. peter, thank you very much. here in the uk, the number of coronavirus cases has risen by almost 36,000 in 2a hours, an all—time high. the health secretary, matt hancock, has described the new mutant variant as "out of control" as new restrictions come into force for millions of people in parts of england and in wales. all previous tier 3 areas in the south east and east of england have moved into a new tier 4. our political correspondent nick eardley reports. 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 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's just really difficult to accept. and i feel like, myself, my resilience has sort of depleted through the year. i think this is just 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. 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 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 flippa ntly 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. nick eardley, bbc news. meanwhile, the brexit trade negotiations have been continuing in brussels. the end of the transition period and therefore the uk's current arrangements is now only 11 days away. our europe editor, katya adler, has been watching developments from brussels. well, it really is a case of so near and yet so far. we're told that more than 98% of this deal has been agreed. the negotiating teams continued all over the weekend, but it just seems that they're stuck. there are a number of open—ended discussions.

for example, the uk government said just tonight it thinks that the eu offer on government subsidies is unbalanced, but really, we're coming down to fish here. and you might be surprised at that because in purely economic terms, the fishing industry isn't worth much to the uk or to the eu, but one of the big brexit promises was to get back sovereignty over uk waters, and that's what the uk government is pushing for in these negotiations. but there are eight eu countries where the coastal communities are extremely important as well. politically, fishing is important to them. so, the eu says it wants to maintain some fishing rights in uk waters after brexit, otherwise it says there will be no trade deal at all, so forget that 98 and more percent of the deal that's already been agreed. a solution could be found, but the politics here are extremely difficult. so, it's thought that if an agreement can be found on fish, the rest of the deal will fall into place

extremely quickly. we could see a deal this week or not. the standstill transition period ends by the 31st of december, so it will be that no—deal situation with all the economic pain of that from the 1st of january. but if there's no deal in place then, of course, you can still have the two sides keeping on negotiating in 2021, but that really depends on them. the first minister of scotland, nicola sturgeon, has urged the british prime minister, boris johnson, to seek an extension to the post— brexit transition period in the light of the discovery of a new, fast—spreading variant of coronavirus. the scottish first minister tweeted:

stay with us on bbc news. still to come... no stranger to success, another win for lewis hamilton, named bbc sports personality of the year. saddam hussein is finished. because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes. they brought a formal into three and a half years of conflict, conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, presidents put their names to the peace agreement. the romanian border was sealed and silenced today. romania has cut itself off from

the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre from leaking out. a trial to his political life. the lewinsky affair guaranteed bill clinton's place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. this is bbc news. the latest headlines... dozens of governments around the globe ban arrivals from the uk after the country announced cases of a new, more infectious strain of coronavirus. in the us, republicans and democrats and months of wrangling to agree on a $900 billion financial relief package for those hit hardest by the pandemic. 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

to be run by the syrian regime and its allies. captagon is used recreationally across the middle east but is also taken by militants fighting on the frontlines. our 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—hour

journey to destruction. inside, an unprecedented haul — 85 million pills. syria's criminal regime, and its ally, hezbollah, are deep in the drugs trade. 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. 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, bbc news, naples. let's get some of the day's other news. us republican senator mitt romney has accused several rockets have been fired into the heavily fortified green zone in baghdad where several embassies and government buildings are located, causing minor damage to residential buildings at the us embassy. the iraqi military has blamed what it called an outlaw group for the attack and said that one iraqi soldier was injured. pope francis has complained that consumerism has "kidnapped" christmas. in his last sunday blessing before 25 december, he told a crowd in st peter's square that there was no consumerism in the manger in bethlehem, only reality, poverty and love. the sharply increased number of new cases in the uk is being linked to the new variant of covid being more infectious. concerns over this new variant

have led to the widespread travel restrictions now imposed. our health correspondent catherine burns reports now on what we know about the mutation and now 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.

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

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. formula one world champion

leiws hamilton has lewis hamilton has won the prestiguos bbc sports personality of the year. his win — the second of his career — was announced at the end of a ceremony at the bbc headquarters in salford. he beat liverpool captain jordan henderson to win the award. andy swiss was there. the 2020 bbc sports personality of the year is lewis hamilton. he's no stranger to winning and, after a 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. to all the kids, please never give up on 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 has battled covid, but also brought inspiration. captain sir tom moore both receiving an award and presenting one —

to nine—year—old tobias weller, who has cerebral palsy and 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. ijust had this thing that ate at me, saying, make sure you make a difference for the next generation. i think as 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 good night 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. andy swiss, bbc news. well done, lewis hamilton. that's it

from me. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @ bbcmaryam. thanks for watching, bye—bye. hello. for most of us, the chances of a white christmas look pretty slim, but it's probably not going to be a particularly wet christmas either. drier, colder weather on the way by the end of this week. there is some more rain to get out of the way first, and on the earlier satellite picture, you can see this big hook of cloud. this is really going to provide wet weather across southern areas, particularly through the first half of this week. this first frontal system bringing rain, particularly across england and wales, up into northern ireland as well. something a little bit clearer but still with some showers further north. chilly air across northern areas with a wedge of really mild air working in towards the south. a very, very mild start to wednesday in southern areas, but a cloudy, wet start with outbreaks of rain pushing northwards across england, wales. some heavy rain moving through northern ireland,

getting into southern scotland for a time as well. something a little bit drier following on behind, but probably still quite cloudy. some further rain into southern counties of england. northern scotland will see some sunny spells, yes, but some showers, too, and some of these will be turning wintry at times over high ground through the afternoon. a rather chilly day in northern areas, a very mild one in the south with highs perhaps 15 degrees. as we go through monday night, you can see further pulses of rain pushing across southern areas up into wales, the midlands. further north, clear spells, still a few showers into northwest scotland. pretty mild down towards the south, a much colder night for the north — there could even be a touch of frost here and there. then into tuesday, cloudy, damp weather will continue across southern counties of england, maybe into south wales at times. further north, we'll see more in the way of sunshine, but again, a scattering of showers, especially across the northwest of scotland, some of these showers wintry over the hills and the mountains. temperatures, again, six or 7 degrees in the north, 12, maybe 13 down towards the south. now, an area of low pressure

is set to bring more rain on wednesday, especially across southern areas, but as we head towards the end of the week, this area of high pressure is going to start to build its way in. so, through christmas eve and into christmas day, high pressure will take charge, but with that, some colder air working its way southwards. so, yes, temperatures dropping away by thursday and friday, christmas eve and christmas day, but by this stage, it should be mostly dry with just a few showers.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: dozens of countries are imposing travel bands to and from britain for a new fast spreading strainer coronavirus has led to the country's highs daily number of reported cases. after months of wrangling, republicans and democrats in the us congress have reached agreement on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package. the measure includes increased unemployment benefits and stimulus payments for millions of workers who lost their jobs because of the that pandemic. it will also provide funding for the mass vaccination campaign and help schools reopen. still caught up on fish co. uk and eu negotiators to agreed for terms of a free—trade deal between the two say they are still stuck on the issue of eu access to the uk fishing waters. sources close to the talks a decision on whether it is a deal or no deal can be expected christmas. now on bbc news come economics

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