this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. as france closes its border with the uk for 48 hours, borisjohnson will chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee. many other countries in europe and elsewhere have restricted travel to and from the uk due to the new, more infectious variant of coronavirus. india has announced it will suspend all flights to britain until the end of december. supermarket group sainsburys says gaps could appear on shelves in days if the ban extends beyond 48 hours. the transport secretary says he's in talks with his french counterpart. it's primarily french and european goods which are exported rather than british goods leaving the country. it's balanced in that direction, so of course it's in their interest

to get it resolved as quickly as possible as well. the easing of northern ireland's coronavirus rules over christmas the news dominated today by covid and the knock on effects of the virus. do send us your comments on how this is affecting you — on twitter i'm at annita—mcveigh — or you can get in touch at #bbcyourquestions. the easing of northern ireland's coronavirus rules over christmas will be reduced from five days to just christmas day when three households will be allowed to mix. as eu regulators are set to approve the pfizer—biontech vaccine, we look inside a mass vaccination centre in germany. brexit talks continue but are still said to be tangled on the topic of fishing rights — scotland's first minister calls for the transition to be extended. and coming up this hour... lewis hamilton is crowned bbc sports personality of the year for the second time.

hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world — and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. a growing number of countries have shut their borders to britain in response to the spread of the new variant of coronavirus. there are fears of lorry queues stretching for miles after the government said it expects severe disruption at ports in kent. the road haulage association warned of the devastating effect of the trvael ban on supply chains that are already under pressure from brexit and christmas stockpiling. the prime minister will discuss the growing crisis at an emergency cobra meeting later today. france has now suspended all travel links, including accompanied freight

lorries, with the uk for 48 hours. the move means means no driven freight lorries orferry passengers will be able to sail from the port of dover for the time being. nations including germany, italy, belgium, the irish republic, turkey and canada are suspending uk flights. the measures vary and are initially short—term. an eu meeting on monday morning will discuss a co—ordinated response. coronavirus cases in the uk rose by 35,928 yesterday, nearly double the number recorded the previous sunday, figures show. it comes as health secretary matt hancock warned that a new variant of the virus was getting out of control. the prime minister, borisjohnson, is now set to chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee, cobra, to address the mounting coronavirus crisis. we'll bring you the latest news from that meeting as soon as it happens, and we'll be live at the port of dover. but first this report from jon donnison. after queues of up to 20 miles

into dover last week amid brexit uncertainty, things could be about to get worse. the port is now shut to all outbound freight and passengers after france closed its border with the uk for 48 hours, amid fears about the spread of the new strain of coronavirus. this is an absolute hammer blow after all the queues we have 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. the transport secretary grant shapps has urged hauliers not to travel to kent. incoming freight is still permitted, but there are fears some lorry drivers won't want to come to the uk for risk of getting stuck. dover usually handles around 10,000 lorries a day, delivering nearly 20% of all goods bought and sold here. the food and drink federation has said it is worried about the supply of fresh products over christmas.

and it's notjust freight affected. this was heathrow last night, where passengers were left stranded amid travel bans from much of europe. eurostar and eurotunnel have also suspended all outbound traffic. we must, i'm afraid, look again at christmas... two days after the prime minister announced the new restrictions, he will chair a meeting of the government's emergency cobra committee this morning to discuss the coronavirus crisis. meanwhile, government sources have insisted the travel bans won't affect the delivery of covid vaccines. and all this as trade talks with the eu remain gridlocked as the december 31st brexit deadline edges closer. jon donnison, bbc news. 0ur correspondent simonjones is at dover and spoke to me earlier. i think the sign behind me

says it all, it says "french borders closed," and there are a number of officials in high vizjackets. we have also seen the police here, and if any lorry is turning up wanting to get across the channel, they are being turned away. it's the same with passenger vehicles too, because there will be no travel to france for the next two days after this travel ban was introduced by the french authorities. for lorry drivers, this is a hugely problematic issue. 10,000 pass through the port each day, perhaps even more at this time of year because of the christmas rush. now suddenly they are not able to go anywhere, and it is likely to cause huge problems on the roads around kent. on that note, kent police have put 0peration stack in place to manage this disruption. have you any sense if there is any build—up there yet? i think lorries are starting

to queue or stack up there, which is part of the contingency planning. i don't think we're talking huge numbers yet, but it is early on in the day. and for hauliers a very difficult situation — potentially facing the next two days sitting in their cabs on the motorway. i spoke to one lorry driver who last night was in a queue at the port of dover trying to get on one of the last ferries across to france. he couldn't get on it in time. he's locally based in canterbury so he decided simply to go home. he will now lose money for that, and the people he was delivering to will lose their goods. at least he had that option. but think of all of the foreign hauliers trying to get back across to the eu where they don't have the option of simply going home. they face potentially a long wait. as well as 0peration stack, there will also be possibly a disused airfield in kent which could take 4,000

lorries if needed. that gives you a sense of the scale of the issue we are talking about. and so really all eyes on france and the rest of the eu about how long this is going to go on for. france saying initially two days at least, so even if it is just those two days it will cause a huge backlog, potentially huge traffic problems in kent, and that will take time to shift too. we arejust we are just hearing about a statement from france's national road haulage federation about the situation, and they are saying the situation, and they are saying the situation regarding truck drivers currently stuck in the uk after the transport ties have been cut due to concerns about the new variant of covid, it is becoming catastrophic, said a spokeswoman. they are stuck in lorry parks with no toilets, she said it is becoming a catastrophe. no driver wants to deliver to the uk

now so no driver wants to deliver to the uk now so the uk will see its freight supplies dry up. that was a concern echoed by the road haulage association in the uk when i spoke to their representative earlier, who said they are concerned drivers wouldn't want to come to the uk from the continent if they thought they would get stuck here, which is why they are calling on government's to come to a solution really quickly. a little earlier our poltical correspondent iain watson explained why france's ban on accompanied freight was such a big issue. that's what seems to be uniquely different about the french situation, there are these travel bans, there have been travel bans of course, various countries imposing them at various times during the whole coronavirus crisis, but this ban on what is called unaccompanied freight is what is obviously concerning the government and they are saying they are going to put emergency contingency plans in place. so i imagine that will be one of the main topics of conversation at the emergency cobra meeting later on today.

and a little bit earlier grant shapps told the bbc that he would be in touch again with his french counterpart, the french transport minister, to try to see if they could, after this 48—hour imposition of a ban by france, start to lift that ban, put them in line with other countries which at least would allow hauliers if not general travellers or passengers into the country. the most important thing is to get it resolved as quickly as possible. i was on the phone to my opposite number in france last night, he is very keen to see this resolved as quickly as possible. particularly the hauliers aspect of it, because it's actually primarily french and european goods which are exported rather than british goods leaving the country, it is balanced in that direction. so of course it is in their interest to get it resolved as quickly as possible as well, and that is what they want to do.

i will be speaking to them again later this morning. so we will see what comes of that call. and then the emergency cobra meeting will be chaired by the prime minister i think subsequently to that. but it's not impossible that there will be more restrictions, because the eu want to have a united response, there's been some talk of potentially having lorry drivers, for example, tested as they leave britain or enter france, and that might be one way of unlocking this in the future. but there is also growing discontent on the conservative benches about the new tier restrictions, about the fact that we might well be in a tier 4 in large parts of the country, london, south—east england, eastern england, perhaps other parts of the country too for many months yet. and there have been calls from the former conservative leader, iain duncan smith, the former chief whip, mark harper, and others to have climate recalled at this time parliament recalled at this time to debate the current crisis, the restrictions and the change in those restrictions. there is one bit of good news on this gloomy day,

though, that grant shapps and other government ministers are insisting that at least the supply of the vaccine, the one vaccine that has at the moment been approved, the pfizer vaccine, supplies come from belgium, and apparently they are going to be unaffected by the freight ban. let's speak to our europe correspondent gavin lee who's in brussels. hello to you, gavin. we are hearing there will be a meeting at some point today to discuss a more coordinated response to this new variant that has emerged particularly in the south—east of england, and what impact it might have on the continent. given that scientists are among those scrambling to try to get the data together on this, what can we expect from that meeting? i think at the moment we are waiting because they are meeting right now. i think we can expect more and more countries, if not the europe—wide ban coordinated, because you have countries like the netherlands who have a travel ban for all passengers

from flights and ferries up until the new year, germany taking a similar approach, then the dutch saying they will allow cargo but the french saying it is all freight and cargo going into france that are now banned. freight can leave but the eurotunnel is closed for the first time in ten years since a fire in 2008. belgium saying they will have to assess the situation, there scientists are working with british scientists are working with british scientist to understand the size of this thread. this may have already spread in europe so it may too late anyway. for european nations, they have to work out how to get their nationals, 350 thousand french nationals, 350 thousand french nationals, how many want to return for christmas, so that may influence how long the french hold back four and continue this block. bear in mind we have more and more countries

in the last few hours confirm now, 15 european countries including czech republic, bulgaria, sweden, estonia, lithuania, latvia all saying they cannot take the risk right now as a precaution, and they are waiting for the outcome of this meeting. do you think the focus on the respective countries will be how to get their nationals home for the holiday period rather than specifically dealing with the issue of freight going from france to the uk and vice versa? and on that particular issue, do you think they will find a key through testing to unlocking this within a relatively short period? listening to the french minister this morning, he made it clear he would like to see a rapid mass testing, particularly for freight for those drivers after 48 hours to be able to go to and from the continent quite freely again. that is interesting what the haulage association is saying as well, that

is something they will be pressurising the government in this cabinet meeting room to consider. so there is pressure there. you have there is pressure there. you have the fact that nationally for each government they are aware of what it looks like to have their citizens are stranded for christmas, but at the same time those countries also rely on the quick supply of fresh food coming from the uk and back and forth supplies which have suddenly halted. 0n forth supplies which have suddenly halted. on both sides transport association is saying they could cope for 48 hours but it cannot be much longer than that. gavin, thank you for that. let me read out a couple of your comments. emanuel asks if it's likely foreign travellers coming into the uk will be affected. the answer to that is clearly yes. we have heard from canada and india about restrictions coming into force because of this new covid variant that has been

identified in the uk. mario in london says twitter users know everything, the last thing we need is more confusion. scientists are the only people who know and even then, not sure they know everything. soi then, not sure they know everything. so i think we are all trying to weave oui’ so i think we are all trying to weave our way through this together. as we have heard today on the programme, scientists are among those seeking lots of answers to the many questions that have arisen about this new variant. so thank you for sending the comments in. keep them coming in. i will try to read out more later on. now a recap of the headlines. numerous countries restrict travel to and from the uk due to the more infectious variant of coronavirus. india has announced it will suspend all flights from britain until the end of december. as france closes its border with the ukfor48 hours, as france closes its border with the uk for 48 hours, borisjohnson will chaira uk for 48 hours, borisjohnson will chair a cobra meeting.

and supermarket group sainsbury to say gaps could appear on shelves in days if the ban extends beyond 48 hours. the transport secretary says he is in talks with his french counterpart. christmas bubbles in northern ireland will be reduced from five days to one day. it's understood that the stormont executive agreed the change last night. there is expected to be some flexibility around which day people come together to accommodate those who have to work on christmas day. i'm joined now by ken marsh, chair of the metropolitan police federation. thanks for joining of the metropolitan police federation. thanks forjoining us.

if we take the number of police officers and the number of households that they have to police and do the maths, it is a tough ask, isn't it? it is not a tough ask for us isn't it? it is not a tough ask for us because it won't be happening. we will not be knocking on doors at all u nless will not be knocking on doors at all unless there is a large, large group of noise, a party or something like that, but normal day—to—day households, there is no way my collea g u es households, there is no way my colleagues will be dealing with that. so what is your reaction to the health secretary saying it was the health secretary saying it was thejob of the the health secretary saying it was the job of the police to police the law? it is always the job of my collea g u es law? it is always the job of my colleagues to police the law, that is stated correctly. that is what we are therefore, but it has to be something we can police and it has to be something we understand, and it has to give us time to digests what is being put in place. these laws are changing on a daily, weekly basis, making it very difficult, and some of them are not obtainable in

terms of what you are asking us to do. if you go to a household and they don't open their door, there is nothing we can do. there are no powers in place to enter or gain entry. when you are given a toothless tiger, you have to work within that credence. so it would have to be a big and raucous gathering either for officers on patrol to happen to stumble across it or indeed for a neighbour to report it, as the home secretary was suggesting they should do in a recent interview. yes, absolutely. if it is a big disorder, then of course my colleagues will be dealing with it, as they would anyway if a member of public called in. but we have got to use a bit of sense here. i think the majority of the public get what is going on. they understand. the small minority that don't, wouldn't anyway. we will face

that if it is something put in front of us. how many of your officers have been able to access the vaccine so have been able to access the vaccine so far? because they are dealing with all sorts of people on a daily basis that the job necessarily means they have to get close to people. yes, and that is a very good question, thank you for asking. absolutely none. we are not even on any form of list i have seen or any conversation i have seen around my collea g u es conversation i have seen around my colleagues being vaccinated. as you say, we have the ability as police officers to become super spreaders because we are notjust in the boroughs of london, 32 of them, we go out in the boroughs as well and i find it breathtaking that the government are not for one minute thinking we need to vaccinate our front line officers to protect themselves and the public. so it is entirely reasonable you believe that your officers should be getting that vaccination. 10096.

your officers should be getting that vaccination. 100%. i'm your officers should be getting that vaccination. 10096. i'm sure you believe that and most of the public do as well. i understand fully the elderly and the national health, quite right, but we should be very $0011 quite right, but we should be very soon after that that they are considering getting my colleagues vaccinated. because as i outlined, you are creating a potential risk by not doing that. one final question about the workload and the pressure that officers are under right now. we have obviously the situation with covid. we spoke earlier to lord ricketts, who was appealing for an extension to the transition phase because of what will happen to security cooperation. he said when it comes to security, speed is safety. how are the police factoring in these elements as we approach the end of the year? as i speak we have over 1000 officers in the met who are either with covid or isolating,

thatis are either with covid or isolating, that is over 1000. that is increasing rapidly on a daily basis. we have major issues coming up. new year's eve is a big problem we are planning for, and as you say in terms of security, the thin blue line is getting thinner daily. thank you very much for your time. after months of wrangling, republicans and democrats in the us congress have reached agreement on a 900 billion dollar coronavirus relief package. the measure includes increased unemployment benefits and stimulus payments for americans who lost their jobs because of the pandemic. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes reports. the corridors of power where a deal has finally been done. a stimulus bill that's long overdue. we can finally report what our nation has needed to hear for a very long time. more help is on the way.

it is much needed relief for millions of americans who've been suffering through the pandemic. as our citizens continue battling this coronavirus this holiday season, they will not be fighting alone. we have agreed to a package of nearly $900 billion. it is packed with targeted policies that help struggling americans who've already waited entirely too long. after protracted negotiations, often dogged by political infighting, democrats and republicans have put aside their differences at least for now. the agreement on this package could be summed up by the expression " better late than never", although i know many of my republican colleagues wished it was never. but after a long and arduous year, after a year full of bad news, finally, we have some good news to deliver to the american people. there'll be extra benefits for the unemployed and fixed payments to americans earning less than $75,000 a year.

farmers, schools and students who have been struggling to pay off loans will all benefit from the package. it's the second largest economic stimulus in us history. it follows the first coronavirus aid bill passed in march, which was worth more than $2 trillion. it comes at a time when the pandemic is worsening around the country with more than 3,000 americans dying every day. two vaccines are now being rolled out across the country and there are funds in the stimulus bill to pay for the mass vaccination programme. on monday, the president—electjoe biden and his wife will become the latest high—profile figures to receive a jab in public. officials say they expect 20 million americans to be inoculated against covid—19 by the end of the year. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. the introduction of the strict restrictions for million of people has been blamed on the rapid spread

of a new variant of coronavirus. but what do we know about this new strain? the government's advisers on new infections say they have moderate confidence that the variant has a higher rate of transmission. early studies show that the new strain could be up to 71% more transmissible, and that it could increase the r—number by between 0.39 and 0.94. by between 0.39 and 0.93. the r—number indicates if an epidemic is growing or shrinking. but all this work is at an early stage and contains huge uncertainties and a long list of unansnwered questions. chris hopson is the chief executive of nhs providers — a membership organisation for nhs services. chris, thank you for your time today. and at nhs providers, how are you dealing with the news about the variant and the knock—on effect it will have in terms of the rate of

transmission and so on? it certainly provides an explanation for what we have been seeing in some of our hospitals in the southern half of the country, where over the last couple of weeks we have seen very alarming increases in the number of hospital admissions. if you remember, go back as a nation, at the beginning of september we have 500 people in hospital with covid. we now have 16,000, just a few months later. that is an increase of 2000 over the last eight or nine days. what you have seen if you look at the graphs in terms of the hospital admission increases, if you look in kent, in london, in parts of the east of england, they are climbing very rapidly. i think our hospital leaders were very concerned and didn't quite understand what was going on. so at least we now know the reason for those very high increases. of course what that means

is the nhs in those is under extreme amounts of pressure and we are seeing the kind of for example ambulance hand over delays, and then also waits to get an accident and emergency treatments, and then crowding in a&e department you would normally see in the peak of winter which normally comes in four weeks' time. i think there is a degree of nervousness about what will happen over the next week to ten days, which is how long it normally takes four new restrictions to take effect and for those hospital admission rates to start dropping. a period of nervousness, you describe are really critical situation, so just to nervousness, you describe are really critical situation, sojust to be clear, are there more covid patients in hospital beds right now than there were at the peak earlier this year? not quite. it depends on where you look. if you took the national figures, they were about 21,000 at

their absolute peak, we are now at 16,000 but it will vary. i was talking to a number of trust chief executives in the north of england who were saying they were treating three times as many covid patients as they had in the peak. so it will depend on where you are in the country. just to make the observation that in the north of the country there is a strong feeling that the virus never really went away after the first peak, and therefore when the second one came you were adding extra patients on an already high base. if there is one small saving grace about the new variant in the south of england, what we saw if you remember at the end of the first phase was numbers of infections dropped right down, as did the number of people in hospitals. so although we are seeing rapidly increasing rates in london, the south—east of england, they are ona the south—east of england, they are on a lower base than you would have seen on a lower base than you would have seenin on a lower base than you would have seen in the north of england. but what is really striking to me is

wherever people are in the country, whoever you talk to, they are saying they are under real pressure at the moment. chris, we wish all the best of the front line health workers involved in looking after patients in hospitals around the country. thank you for your time. chris hobson from nhs providers. and a significant statement just breaking from the french government. it has said that in the next few hours it will establish a protocol to ensure that movement from the uk can resume. so as we have been reporting today, this 48 hour travel ban, if you want to call it that, stopping traffic leaving, freight traffic in particular is the big concern here, leaving the uk to get to france because of this new variant of covid that has emerged. but the french government has said in the next few hours it will establish a protocol to ensure movement from the uk can

resume. we don't know if that means within that 48 hours or after. as things stand the band sits at 48 hours but this will come as a huge relief to hauliers and all of those involved in the supply chain, to supermarkets who have been expressing concern about getting fresh produce on the shelves for customers. 0nly fresh produce on the shelves for customers. only one line on that news at the moment, but we will get more detail on that and bring it to you. the european union's medicine regulator, the ema, is expected to approve the use of the biontech/pfizer vaccine later. that means it can be rolled out across the eu — including germany, where it was developed. the country has been hit hard by the second wave, with daily infection rates at times over 30,000 and a daily death toll of more than 800. 0ur correspondent in berlin, damien mcguinness, reports. no christmas markets, no hustling shops. even the traditional mulled wine stores have all closed.

with germany back in lockdown, things are very different to how the country usually celebrates christmas. germany coped relatively well in the first wave of the pandemic, but over the last month, infection rates and the daily death toll have reached record levels. 0fficials warned that hospitals could become overwhelmed. which is why, according to one survey, almost 70% of germans say they support the tougher measures over christmas. 0nly14% say the lockdown is too severe. translation: it's a hard time, it's a period we are never happy for. so i think it's a good way to manage, so we that we have a lot of sick people and a lot of people who will die or who died, so i think it is ok. on one hand, i'm really sorry for the people who lose their existence because they can't go in their professions, they can't sell stuff — if they have small stores and stuff.

0n the other hand, i really understand why we're doing that and... i think it's, it's ok, it's fair. we're doing good progress with vaccination and one country's a little bit earlier, the others are a little bit behind, it's not the problem, i think. we are all at the beginning of something very big and this will be very helpful to get us out of this pandemic. the expected approval by eu regulators of the biontech pfizer vaccine is certainly giving hope in germany and vaccinations should start here on the 27th. most people in germany will get the jab in mass vaccination centres. 400 have been set up across the country, many of them in concert or sporting venues, like this one in berlin. they're standing empty anyway because of a lockdown. you'll get an appointment and be guided through a one—way system. officials say it's a bit like an ikea furniture store. the centres are ready, now we're just waiting for the vaccine. damien mcguinness, bbc news, berlin.

hello, this is bbc news with annita mcveigh. the headlines: as france closes its border with the uk for 48 hours, borisjohnson will chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee. numerous countries restrict travel to and from the uk due to the new, more infectious variant of coronavirus. india has just announced it will suspend all flights from britain until the end of december. supermarket group sainsburys says gaps could appear on shelves in days if the ban extends beyond 48 hours. the transport secretary says he's in talks with his french counterpart. we have just heard from the french government they hope to have a protocol in place to allow movement within the next few hours. that is the protocol, not the moment, hopefully that will come soon after. it is actually primarily french and

european goods which are exported rather than british goods leaving the country, it's balanced in that direction. of course, it is in their interest to get it resolved as quickly as possible as well. the easing of northern ireland's coronavirus rules over christmas will be reduced from five days to just christmas day when three households will be allowed to mix. brexit talks continue but are still said to be tangled on the topic of fishing rights —— scotland's first minister calls for the transition to be extended. a very important update from the government for people who are shielding. they are updating their advice for people who are extremely clinically vulnerable across london, the south—east, the east of england, basically anyone living in these new tier 4 areas, today receiving further guidance on keeping safe as they move into the new restrictions. the updated guidance is the same as

was in place during november. our health correspondent catherine burns is here. explain first, the same, updated, but the same as it was in november? basically, it takes people in the clinically extremely vulnerable group in tier board back to where we we re group in tier board back to where we were in the last lockdown, what does it mean? essentially, they are being told to stay at home at all times apart for exercise and medical appointments. they are told they cannot go to work, if they cannot work from home, they still should not be going to work, there may be some kind of support out there for them from that point of view. the people they live with, they can go to work if they need to come if they cannot work from home. in terms of going outside, they cannot go outside apart for exercise and medical appointments, they say no trouble unless it is absolutely essential. and obviously medical appointments come under that. do not go to shops or pharmacies, being strongly advised. the government says there will be support for people who need it, things like access to and medicines.

essentially, these people who are the people who would be most likely to get very sick if they did become infected with coronavirus, where they were a few months ago. the concern is, this variant of covid, so transmissible, there is that risk, that much greater risk of picking something up and that is the last thing anyone wants, the clinically vulnerable to be doing. exactly. the government has said they will send letters to people but they will send letters to people but they are aware christmas post, that might not be an easy process so they say if you had a letter in november, telling you you were in this group in your condition has not changed in any way, assume you are in that group at the minute. any way, assume you are in that group at the minutelj any way, assume you are in that group at the minute. i think it's worth remembering that hopefully, people will have someone they can call on whether it's a direct family member, neighbour or someone, if they need to get something urgently. but for people who are on their own and clinically vulnerable, you have organisations like nhs volunteer

responders who help? absolutely. i would assume by now because people have been in this position for quite a while, they would know that but there is the government website, a link to the kind of support out there. catherine, thank you that update. more than £33 billion has been wiped off the ftse 100 within minutes of opening, dropping more than 2% over fears of a no—deal brexit and new coronavirus restrictions. understandably, there are a lot of questions this morning about the financial repercussions of these new restrictions and the disruption to cross channel trade. let's try to clarify some of them with our business presenter ben thompson. briefly, if you would, please touch on what was going on with the ftse earlier and move on, we'vejust heard from france, they are hoping to work out a protocol to allow movement, especially movement of freight between france and the uk. that's very good news. and would serve hopefully to minimise any

disruption? yes, absolutely right. so many questions this morning about so many aspects of our life but first of all, let me start with the stock exchanges this morning. the ftse100, the index of the 100 leading companies, falling pretty sharply, it opens down about 2%, now about 2.8% lower and it's very easy to get caught up in the big falls and the amount of money that theoretically is wiped from the value of the firms and what we should remember is those traders are just taking an educated guess, a bit ofa just taking an educated guess, a bit of a punt on what could happen and we all know right now there are very few a nswers. we all know right now there are very few answers. so it's a bit of a perfect storm, the idea of the uk essentially, for trade purposes, is pretty isolated right now. the end of the transition period with no deal in place yet, as far as trading with our biggest trading partner, the eu, is concerned. and also, the tightening of restrictions that will change our daily lives were so many

people, for the foreseeable future. that is the perfect storm on the stock market. the uncertainty is what they do not like. you are right, ready this morning we are starting to get some insight into how trade they be able to resume between the uk and the continent. we know, for example, on a typical day about 10,000 lorries know, for example, on a typical day about 10 , 000 lorries passed know, for example, on a typical day about 10,000 lorries passed through dover on that really important trade route, calais to dover and many other cross—channel routes. at the moment, that isjust other cross—channel routes. at the moment, that is just not happening and we know trucks coming from the continent to the uk are fearful of not being able to get back and therefore will not come. as far as supplies are concerned, we know supermarkets have a pretty slick operation in place all year round. they learnt a lot at the start of lockdown in march, about maintaining supplies. they are telling us they have all they need for christmas is far as the christmas dinner is concerned. because the reason we eat that christmas dinner, the turkey, sprouts, potatoes, carrots, because they are seasonal in the uk, they

can't be grown in the uk at this time of year. the concern is for perishable goods. —— they can be grown. things we cannot produce here like lettuce leaves, lemons, limes, citrus fruits, cauliflower, broccoli, they have told us that that goes on for much longer, we could potentially start to seek shortages of those. remember, the supermarkets are pretty adept at this, they have huge stock reserves, there is no need in any way to go out and buy extra, to try and stock up out and buy extra, to try and stock up before any of this disruption plays through to the supermarkets. it will take quite a while to happen. also, as you've reported, france now trying to come up with a way to make sure that crucial trade route can reopen and the supplies we need to bring from the continent can get here. people who had travel plans disrupted take us through what their rights are, how they can get money back, etc. so many people will have had their travel plans ruined this christmas. if you had a train

ticket booked, maybe you booked onto one of the extra coaches that were being laid on to try and ease some of the congestion on the railways. the government has said this morning everybody who had booked to travel over the christmas period to obey the rules that were in place, remember, the five days we were previously allowed to mix four, the government has said it will offer cash refunds to make sure nobody is out of pocket after the rules were changed at the last minute. people will get a cash refund. they have said to be patient, it could take a little bit of time. but nobody should be out of pocket for having bought a ticket on a railwayjourney or on bought a ticket on a railwayjourney orona bought a ticket on a railwayjourney or on a bus trip, that they cannot now use. slightly different as far as the airlines are concerned because they are saying some of these flights will operate for key workers and those who are still allowed to travel. and so it is down to you to cancel that trip in advance. make sure you ask your airline or tell your airline you are not going to be on it. they will

then offer a voucher or the opportunity to rebook. we know all the big travel firms have said they had put methods in place to make sure people have flexibility, we know travel plans will change for various different reasons. but what they are not offering immediately is a full refund, that could take a lot longer and they are keeping a very close eye on what they are describing is a very movable situation. in the first instance you will be entitled to a voucher or the ability to change your flight to another date for free but understandably, very few people will wa nt to understandably, very few people will want to do that given we don't know when we are going to be able to travel so the airlines are slightly different in that respect and we know for example, a lot of people we re know for example, a lot of people were hiring a car to be able to travel over the festive period. check terms and conditions as always but many of those firms have put methods in place to make sure you can change or cancel free of charge because frankly, they are aware people would not book services if they did not have built—in flexibility. ben thompson, thank you for that.

nicola sturgeon has called on boris johnson to try and get an extension to the travel period. brexit trade negotiators are continuing in brussels later, despite a warning by the european parliament it would not vote on a deal this year if it had not been agreed by last night. the uk ‘s former national security chief lord rickets says he agrees a short extension would be sensible. it is a very exceptional crisis we are in at the moment. that's not really the circumstances in which governments can take cool—headed, rational decisions with long—term implications of the country. and we are implications of the country. and we a re clearly in implications of the country. and we are clearly in the very last throes of this negotiation about leaving the eu, they say 98% of it is done, still some hard issues to deal with but i don't think either side, certainly not the british government, has got the bandwidth to make those decisions now so i would be very much in favour of a short,

technical extension so we can cope with his immediate crisis and then come back and settle it early in the new year. their european parliament has already said there's not enough time now for them to ratify a deal, evenif time now for them to ratify a deal, even if it was done today or tomorrow. in time for the 31st of december so it would be some uncertainty anyway come into early next year. i think on the european side, there are always ways of freezing things, stopping the clock, giving a bit of extra time. but it would also need the british government to ask for it and so far, borisjohnson ‘s government to ask for it and so far, boris johnson ‘s government government to ask for it and so far, borisjohnson ‘s government have been adamantly against the idea of an extension stop i do think in changed circumstances, they could changed circumstances, they could change their mind on that. jonathan portis is a representative of king's couege portis is a representative of king's college london and says there's time to reach an agreement. there is and has been for some time, a deal that is on the table, potential deal, is exactly the same one that there was six months ago whereby the uk

accepts the principle of the european union ‘s position on the so—called level playing field, that is, it accepts the eu will have the right in future to withdraw trade privileges if the uk diverges from the eu in terms of regulation. and there is some compromise on fishing rights. that's always been the deal on the problem is as we know, prime minister borisjohnson on the problem is as we know, prime minister boris johnson does on the problem is as we know, prime minister borisjohnson does not make his mind up about these things until the very last minute and we are now at the very last moment. in some sense, we have wasted the last six months and it is rather unfortunate, it's bad luck, but it's also a product of a bad policy and lack of foresight. that this has happened at the same time as we have this mounting crisis over covid. the headlines on bbc news:

numerous countries restrict travel to and from the uk due to the new, more infectious variant of coronavirus. india has just announced it will suspend all flights from britain until the end of december. as france closes its border with the uk for 48 hours, borisjohnson will chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee. supermarket group sainsburys says gaps could appear on shelves in days if the ban extends beyond 48 hours. the transport secretary says he's in talks with his french counterpart. sky gazers are in for a treat tonight asjupiter and saturn align, creating what will look like a double—planet. it's a celestial event that last happened 400 years ago. and it's led to some theologians and astronomers to question whether a similar occurance created what became the star of bethlehem. i am joined now by dr megan argo who is a lecturer in astronomy at the university of central lancashire.

you are very welcome and thank you for joining you are very welcome and thank you forjoining us. i'm tempted to begin with this thought that in any other century, a celestial event like this would have been seen as important as something huge, whether good or calamitous, you know, maybe this year we've already had all of that, but you know, this is a very rare event, isn't it? it is. as you said, the last time it happened was almost 400 yea rs the last time it happened was almost 400 years ago and on that occasion it was in the daytime sky, the pla nts were it was in the daytime sky, the plants were closer to the sun so you wouldn't have been able to see it very easily so the last time it was visible easily was more like 800 yea rs visible easily was more like 800 years ago. ok. speaking of easily visible, where will we be able to see it, we are broadcasting right around the world right now so is there anywhere that will be in a position to see it? if are you above about 70 degrees north latitude or below about 70 degrees south latitude won't be able to see it because the sun will rise at all or it won't set respectively but anywhere in between those latitude

she will be able to see it after sunset tonight. look in the west, it will be the brightest thing in the west arising after the sun has gone down, you might need to wait until this sky darkened is before you see it but aside from the sun and the moon, jupiter is the brightest thing in the sky and saturn is just a little bit away from it, they will be close. as we were suggesting there were some suggestions this may have been what we know as the star of bethlehem. do you think that's distinct possibility? it's a possibility and it's something that's been talked about for a very long time. the astronomer kepler was the first to suggest he could calculate there would have been in close conjunction ofjupiter and saturn in the year seven bc so it's entirely possible but there is plenty of suggestions, that's one of the suggestions. best seen with the naked eye... loss of sound

you will see it without any optical aid at all. if you have binoculars go under, you will start to see jupiter ‘s moons, four moons, and if you have a small telescope, every unusually, they will both be visible in the same build the view which is an unusual occurrence and because they are so close at the moment. talking of gmt, what sort of time, the best window? well, after sunset, by 5pm gmt, the sun will have gone, jupiter and saturn will be 10 degrees above the horizon so you need a good western horizon, ideally no trees or buildings in the way, in the west. that is the best. if it's cloudy today, are there other opportunities? yes, over the next few weeks they will still be visible, just start to get further apart over that time. ok. thank you very much for that. let's get more now on the news that more countries have banned arrivals from the uk

because of concerns at the spread of a new variant of coronavirus. hong kong hasjoined the likes of switzerland, germany, and italy to suspend uk flights. earlier i spoke to richard burnett, the chief executive of the road haulage association who said the situation is constantly changing. it's an evolving situation, we haven't got absolute clarity. the port of dover was cleared last night and eurotunnel was clear so what we are seeing is a build up this morning of vehicles in the uk probably prior to the weekend, over the weekend that are actually beginning to make their way back to europe. this will be a building and evolving picture over the next 24, 48 hours. i think in terms of flow from europe, into the uk, we need to assess and understand what that looks like but the retailers are being very reassuring and saying we we re being very reassuring and saying we were transitioned building, we had significant levels of ambient stock, there might be challenges with

chilled and fresh but at this stage, there is no need to panic buy. that's a really important message to get across. panic buying as we saw earlier in the pandemic, only exacerbates the problem, it doesn't help the problem, people shopped in a normal way abnormal levels, it would be a easier situation for retailers and hauliers to handle? exactly. it's a very important message we try and get across today. there is no need for panic buying. there is no need for panic buying. the retailers are in strong control of what they are doing. like i said, we've done transitional building of stock to make sure stock was ready for the transition in january stock to make sure stock was ready for the transition injanuary so that's put us in a pretty good position at this point in time. we will get a clearer picture to see what the inbound freight looks like as the day goes on and probably further reassurance at that stage. you will be looking very closely to that meeting of eu officials later today to find out whether these

bands are more than temporary, 48 hours. in terms of your planning, she look ahead, quickly do you think could be pressure on supply chains, you've been speaking about this and what we the key pinch points be? you've been speaking about this and what we the key pinch points be ?|j think it's critical to understand whether this will go on beyond 48 hours. at this stage, i had the conversation with grant shapps last night and this morning, he's very confident of their ability to try and find a way through this, whether that's testing of drivers before they depart and go back to europe. i think if it goes beyond 48 hours, we will start to see some significant challenges because those inbound vehicles coming from europe, many hauliers from europe probably won't wa nt to hauliers from europe probably won't want to come into the uk if they are going to have stranded drivers here ahead of christmas and that's also going to impact the supply product at that time so it's an evolving, moving situation. we've got to stay

close to it and address whatever issueis close to it and address whatever issue is thrown at us over the next 48 hours. for the drivers caught up on this side, operation stack as we mentioned has swung into action with kent police operating that. what are the facilities there to help drivers who may be potentially caught up for quite a while, sitting in their cabs? at this stage we know government was beginning to roll out and test its contingency for january, they are going to have to bring that forward. we are concerned about facilities. but we are getting reassurance back from government they will be putting facilities in four drivers, food, if they use marston, as a large—scale parking area it's probably going to be easierfor them to put area it's probably going to be easier for them to put contingencies in place and medical support. that's the message we are getting at the moment and we need to make sure those facilities and support for drivers is absolutely there because it's going to be misery for them otherwise. richard burnett from the

road hauliers association. the economic consequences of the pandemic have been felt almost everywhere. restaurants remain closed, planes are grounded, people are staying home. the lack of movement means businesses that rely on casual labour are struggling more than most. that's particularly true for the olive farmers of greece — who are desperate for whatever help they can get. tim allman reports. some call it green gold. olive trees stretching far into the distance in this part of greece. the industry is worth nearly a billion dollars each year. the country, is the fourth biggest producer of olive oil in the world. but then came the pandemic, and all that entailed. translation: because the border is closed, the workers could not come in time. we tried to sort their paperwork, but they were blocked again at the borders. in previous years we had at least 100 to 120 foreign labourers. this year, no more than 15.

last month, greece closed its border with albania, the main source of its seasonal agricultural labour. a huge blow to these farmers, but some have fallen back on older traditions. translation: there are no workers to harvest the olives, we will do it on our own, we are four siblings, we will pick them by ourselves. but will that be enough? this is an industry very much in crisis, and after all, green gold is not much use when there is no—one left to harvest it. coming up after 11am, sir keir starmer is giving a speech at labour party hq in central london, talking

about the covid response, including the response to the development of a new variant, he will be talking also about his party ‘s policy on devolution. coming up after 11am. you're watching bbc news. we'll have more news in a few moments. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol. hello again. there's going to be quite a bit of rain for the start of the week, probably until the middle of the week, for england and wales in particular. as we head towards christmas eve and christmas day, for most of us, some showers, it's going to be dry and going to be chilly. we start christmas day with a frost. today, we have mild air across england and wales, very mild for the time of year, the blues represent the colder conditions across scotland and also northern ireland. a band of rain continuing to move northwards through the day bringing rain eventually into southern scotland and northern ireland. behind it, a lot of cloud, further showers coming

in across the south where its murky, here too it will be windy, particularly in the english channel. some showers across northern and western scotland, increasingly wintry through the day and you could catch the odd one across parts of northern ireland. through the evening and overnight we hang on to a lot of cloud across much of england and wales and also some rain coming and going. colder air across the rest of the uk means temperatures dip away and we could well see a touch of frost. the wind picking up across the far north of scotland, it will ease across the far south of england. tomorrow across much of england and wales, once again it's going to be cloudy with some outbreaks of rain. northern england, northern ireland, scotland, a lot more sunshine and also a few showers, more especially in the north and west, some of those on the hills and mountains could be wintry. the lower temperatures penetrating further south, hanging onto the milder conditions in the south. for wednesday, a new area of low pressure brings in further outbreaks of rain and a lot of cloud across england and wales. for northern ireland and scotland, the northerly wind, also a lot of dry weather,

fair bit of sunshine, a few showers skirting down the east coast, one or two of them could prove to be wintry. on wednesday, this is the low pressure dominating our weather, it tends to move away and then this large area of high pressure in the atlantic builds across the uk. it's going to be pulling in colder air, more of a northerly component to the weather, it will be cold across the board so where we've seen highs of 14 or 15, we will be back down once again. on christmas day, itself, which of course is friday, after a frosty start, it should be dry for most but fairly chilly.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. borisjohnson will chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee as numerous countries restrict travel to and from the uk due to the new, more infectious variant of coronavirus. no accompanied freight or ferry passengers can sail from the port of dover as france closes its border with the uk for 48 hours. supermarket group sainsburys says gaps could appear on shelves in days the french government says it is working on allowing movement from the uk as eu officials discuss a coordinated response to the new variant. the easing of northern ireland's coronavirus rules over christmas will be reduced from five days to just christmas day, when three households will be allowed to mix.

brexit talks continue but are still said to be tangled on the topic of fishing rights — scotland's first minister calls for the transition to be extended. and could it be the return of the star of bethlehem cosmicjupiter and saturn are set to cross paths in the night sky and will appear to shine together as if one bright star. good morning. a growing number of countries have shut their borders to britain in response to the spread of the new variant of coronavirus. there are fears of lorry queues stretching for miles after the government said it expects severe disruption at ports in kent. the road haulage association warned of the "devastating effect" of the travel ban on supply chains that are already under pressure from brexit

and christmas stockpiling. the prime minister will discuss the growing crisis at an emergency cobra meeting later today. france has now suspended all travel links, including accompanied freight lorries, with the uk for 48 hours. the move means means no driven freight lorries or ferry passengers will be able to sail from the port of dover for the time being. nations including germany, italy, belgium, the irish republic, the french government has said it will try to establish a protocol to allow movement in the uk to resume in the next few hours. nations including germany, italy, belgium, the irish republic, turkey and canada are suspending uk flights. the measures vary and are initially short—term. an eu meeting on monday morning will discuss a co—ordinated response. coronavirus cases in the uk rose by 35,928 yesterday — nearly double the number recorded the previous sunday, figures show. it comes as health secretary matt hancock warned that a new variant

of the virus was "getting out of control". the prime minister, borisjohnson, is now set to chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee, cobra, to address the mounting coronavirus crisis. we'll bring you the latest news from that meeting as soon as it happens and we'll be live at the port of dover in a few minutes but first this report from jon donnison. after queues of up to 20 miles into dover last week amid brexit uncertainty, things could be about to get worse. the port is now shut to all outbound freight and passengers after france closed its border with the uk for 48 hours, amid fears about the spread of the new strain of coronavirus. this is an absolute hammer blow after all the queues we have 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. the transport secretary grant shapps

has urged hauliers not to travel to kent. incoming freight is still permitted, but there are fears some lorry drivers won't want to come to the uk for risk of getting stuck. dover usually handles around 10,000 lorries a day, delivering nearly 20% of all goods bought and sold here. the food and drink federation has said it is worried about the supply of fresh products over christmas. and it's notjust freight affected. this was heathrow last night, where passengers were left stranded amid travel bans from much of europe. eurostar and eurotunnel have also suspended all outbound traffic. we must, i'm afraid, look again at christmas... two days after the prime minister announced the new restrictions, he will chair a meeting of the government's emergency cobra committee this morning to discuss the coronavirus crisis. meanwhile, government sources have insisted the travel bans

won't affect the delivery of covid vaccines. and all this as trade talks with the eu remain gridlocked as the december 31st brexit deadline edges closer. jon donnison, bbc news. let's go to dover now — our correspondent there this morning is simon jones. simon, what is the latest picture there? we see traffic still moving behind you. it's not looking good, pretty unprecedented scenes at the port of dover. the sign behind me says the french border is closed. the police are at the entrance, basically stopping any lorry that can't go in from going in. despite the warnings that this is going to be closed, the border with france, for the next 48 hours, a number of

lorries have been turning up, trying to get in, and they are being quickly turned away. we've also seen passenger vehicles, perhaps people who haven't heard about this latest development and who are desperate to get across the channel. for a lot of lorries, it simply means they can't go anywhere, because on an average day, probably 10,000 lorries will go into the port of dover. the only ones allowed in or those with containers, because container shipments are still being allowed to go across the channel. any lorry with a driver or a passenger vehicle, it is a no go. any idea how long before the supply chains actually start to affect people in terms of food supplies, medicines, essential goods? might be now at the moment there is a 48—hour window for people to try and establish some new protocols. we are being told by hauliers that this is potentially a

catastrophic situation. the big question people have is, what will it mean for christmas food? we are being told by the supermarkets in the uk that they already have the necessary food in store so people shouldn't worry about that, shouldn't worry about that, shouldn't go out panic buying. we are told if this continues, there could be a shortage of things like salad, citrus fruit, cauliflower and broccoli. if this goes on for two days, we will see thousands and thousands of lorries caught up in this. even if it is lifted after a couple of days, it will take quite a while to clear that backlog in the run—up to christmas. of course, some british hauliers caught up in this when they couldn't make the crossing have decided to abandon their journeys and return back to their base. if you are a foreign driver based in the eu, you simply can't do that. you have no other option but to wait. what they've done is, they've converted pa rt to wait. what they've done is, they've converted part of the m20 motorbike that leads up to the port

here into a giant lorry park. —— motorway that leads up to the port. it will be 48 hours before the port could potentially open to traffic across to france. if it does reopen, is mass testing the way forward? we have heard ministers talk about that potentially. we've heard from the french transport minister this morning that they are looking to establish some sort of protocol which would once again allow movement of traffic from the uk into france, and obviously then onto the rest of the eu, but they haven't spelt out exactly what that will mean. we have seen spelt out exactly what that will mean. we have seen over spelt out exactly what that will mean. we have seen over the past 24 hours that concern has been raised in the eu about this new strain of the virus. countries have been basically taking their own decisions. some, like france, introducing this 48—hour ban, others banning flights from the uk for

differing periods. we are now expecting the eu to try and adopt some sort of common approach, which could involve some sort of testing. that was certainly what the french government were looting yesterday. it depends how practical that is. if you have thousands and thousands of lorry drivers wanting to get across to france, how practical will it be for them to be able to get any sort of test to be able to get across to france if that is indeed the protocol? what is unusual is, in the past, when we've had restrictions on travel, in terms of hauliers, they have been allowed to carry on generally because they are considered so vital to the supply chain. in this case, hauliers have been stopped from going across to france. that's why it's causing so many problems here at the entrance to the port. simon jones in dover, many thanks. 0bviously to the port. simon jones in dover, many thanks. obviously a very difficult picture there of the port. we expect a speech from the labour leader this morning, just in the

next few minutes. he is due to be talking about devolution. we expect him to make a few comments on the emergency the country is facing, the travel ban is being implemented, and of course the brexit deadline looming at the end of the year. we still don't know whether there will bea still don't know whether there will be a deal or no deal, which will affect ports potentially. anneliese dodds, the shadow chancellor, is speaking. a key member of the labour tea m speaking. a key member of the labour team on the economic front. we expect keir starmer to talk about in pa rt expect keir starmer to talk about in part scotland, and promising more devolved powers for all the nations of the uk. sir keir starmer. thank you very much, anneliese, for everything you do for our party. good morning. iwant everything you do for our party. good morning. i want to start by addressing the emerging situation

relating to the pandemic. the news over the last 24 hours has been deeply, deeply disturbing. the number of coronavirus cases has may be doubled in the last week, and over 67,000 people have now tragically died, and hospital admissions are rising. we cannot be in any doubt, the virus is now out of control. international flights have been banned, international borders have been shot, and there is now severe disruption at british ports. make no mistake, this is now a real emergency. i have faith in the british people to once again step up to the challenges, as they've done at every stage of the pandemic, but they expect the government to do the same. we can have no more overpromising, no more confused messages and slow

decision—making. we need strong, clear and decisive leadership. the prime minister needs to be straight with people about precisely what's going on and precisely what he is going on and precisely what he is going to do about it. you must address the nation today, after this morning's cobra meeting and then hold daily press conferences until the disruption has eased. you must also get the brexit deal he promised, and get it done this week. this is not a game of brinkmanship. this is not a game of brinkmanship. this is not a game of brinkmanship. this is people's lives, people's jobs, and people's businesses. they need a deal. they expect a deal, and a deal is what must happen. i renew my pledge to act in the national interest to help us through these dark and difficult days. we will support further restrictions where they are necessary. we will work with the government to help businesses get through the winter

months, and we will offer constructive solutions to keep our nhs open and the vaccine distributed. as we struggle against the pandemic, and the profound health and economic consequences of it, making the case for our united kingdom could never be more important. we entered this pandemic together, we faced the enduring challenges of the pandemic together. we will come out of it together, and we must rebuild together. the duty to rebuild will be a shared duty. it's not a dutyjust in england, scotland, wales or northern ireland, it's a duty across all four nations together. believe you me, future generations will not forgive us if we shirk that responsibility. and thatis we shirk that responsibility. and that is why the case i want to make

todayis that is why the case i want to make today is the case for the united kingdom. now, of course, there is a case for the united kingdom that can be measured in power, prosperity, trade, and security. we are all stronger because we choose to pool our resources, to share the risks and rewards. we are all better off because we can live, work and trade across borders rather than behind them. as one united kingdom, we are better able to weather the storms of the global financial crash, a pandemic, or the climate emergency. but for me, the case for the united kingdom goes much deeper than that. the united kingdom is shaped not just by our shared institutions but by the people who made them, their history and the experience that shaped them, and the amazing things

that we've achieved together. together, we thought slavery, we fought poverty, we fought fascism, and we are fighting covid. the first baby born in the nhs was born in south wales and named after the great nye bevan. 0ur welfare state was born out of the struggles of early scottish activists who fought against the scottish poor laws. britain's great achievements in science, innovation and discovery are all the greater because they draw on all of our talents. the open university was founded by a scot. we area university was founded by a scot. we are a world leader in education, research and knowledge because of our great universities and our shared tradition of learning. the labour party was first led by keir

hardie, a scot who ended up representing a welsh constituency. and such was the influence of that boy from lanarkshire that many years later in a family in east surrey, they decided to call their son kier, also night. my point is this —— their son kier, also night. our shared history, values and identity, ourfamilies live shared history, values and identity, our families live across borders, our families live across borders, our businesses operate across borders. we are interconnected and we are interdependent, and that's not just a precious we are interdependent, and that's notjust a precious inheritance, a description of the past, it's what we are. it's what i want for our children, for the next generation. i don't believe in putting up borders across any part of our united kingdom, in dividing people,

communities and families who stood together for so long. it's communities and families who stood togetherfor so long. it's not england or scotland or wales or northern ireland. i've had enough of hearing that. it's england and scotla nd hearing that. it's england and scotland and wales and northern ireland, together. sir keir starmer. we're just ireland, together. sir keir starmer. we'rejust going to ireland, together. sir keir starmer. we're just going to pull from that speech, which is focused very much on devolving some powers but within a united kingdom. the status quo of course very a united kingdom. the status quo of course very important to the labour party as it is to the conservatives here ahead of more elections in scotla nd here ahead of more elections in scotland next year. sir keir starmer started his speech with a strong statement on the current state of play in the uk, saying this is a real emergency at the moment, the virus out of control, flight band, borders shot, delays, and he said the public will —— borders closed, and he said the public will step up

but we need clear and decisive leadership from the prime minister. he said the prime minister has to be straight about what is going on, has to address people today and give daily press conferences, and in fact also get a brexit deal this week, as of course he pledged around the election. he has also said that he was renewing his pledge, the main opposition party here, to act in the national interest in order to work with the government, not only on the covid front but on brexit as well, and then going into his belief in the uk sticking together as we face this torrent of challenges at the moment. the european union's medicine regulator, the ema, is expected to approve the use of the pfizer biontech vaccine later. this means it can be rolled out across the eu, including in germany, where it was actually developed. the country has been hit

hard by the second wave, with daily infection rates at times over 30,000 and a daily death toll of more than 800. 0ur correspondent anna holligan gave us this update from outside the european medicines agency in amsterdam. the rapidly increasing infection rates combined with the intense lockdown rules are applied across the continent has added to pressure on the ema to act fast. the roll—out, the deployment of a safe, effective vaccine is seen as the best hope of putting an end to this pandemic and of course it is already being used in the uk and us and there is some frustration here on the continent they are having to wait a little longer. and there is some frustration here on the continent the ema is the eu body which evaluates and authorises the use of medicines right across the continent and germany especially has expressed frustration that a vaccine developed in germany still isn't available to eu citizens. so the ema is expected to give its decision within hours

after which point it has to be rubber—stamped by the european commission. and if it all goes ahead, then the chances are the vaccine will start to be rolled out here on the continent within a matter of days. of course, the who has said that one person dies from covid—19 approximately every 17 seconds, so there really is a sense that this is a matter of life and death and people can't afford to wait any longer. the ema decision highly anticipated here in the netherlands and beyond. joining us now from chennai in india is dr soumya swaminathan. she's a chief scientist for world health organisation. thanks very much forjoining us. here in the uk, we are facing extra pressures as we speak because of this new variant. have you looked at the details of this new mutation of

covid? are you more concerned about its transmissibility? india is one of the countries that has stopped travel with the uk. yes, the who was informed by the scientists from the uk on the 14th of december, through our international health regulations mechanisms, about this new variant, and that the uk scientists were concerned. 0ne and that the uk scientists were concerned. one of the reasons this was discovered of course is that the uk is one of the countries that does a lot of genomic sequencing and has been tracking the viruses across different parts. we realised in the last several weeks that this new strain had become a dominant strain in the uk, particularly in the region around london and the south—east. this is not the first time this has happened to this virus, so we have been tracking the virus, so we have been tracking the virus because all viruses change. it is called mutations, they change and thatis is called mutations, they change and that is their nature, and most of

them don't really make a difference to how the virus transmits, or the severity of the illness, but some can, so it's important to track it. the who set up the virus evolution working group injune, and they have been meeting regularly, discussing these changes and what it means. this group, an international expert advisory group, is working closely with the uk scientists to really understand what significance this new variant has. are you worried that the vaccine programme that is being rolled out now, this vaccine is still going to be effective against this new mutation? are not very worried about that at the moment, because the vaccine targets are moment, because the vaccine targets a re pretty broad moment, because the vaccine targets are pretty broad immune response, so i think it's very unlikely that these mutations would cause the vaccine to not work, so i don't

think that's likely, however, it does need to be confirmed in lab experiments, and that's exactly what scientists are doing in different la ps scientists are doing in different laps around the world now. they are taking this strain, grabbing it in the lab, then looking to see whether it can be killed or neutralised by antibodies taken from people who either had the natural infection or who have had the vaccine. what's the latest information that you've got about whether the severity of illness caused by this new mutation is worse or even better, and also, our children more likely to be affected ? our children more likely to be affected? those analyses are still going. there is a large clinical analysis than is to be correlated with the laboratory strains. at the moment, i can say there is no indication that this is causing most of clinical illness, or that it is more prevalent in children or anything. what has come out so far of the analysis done, based on a lot

of the analysis done, based on a lot of modelling, is that it is likely to be more transmissible because it is the dominant strain just now. that is not only dependent on the virus but on people's behaviour, so we need to see whether it's the behaviour, whether that was spreading and that's accounting for all of these new infections now, or whether it is really the strain that is easier to transmit from person to person. would you expect the uk, for example, to be kept isolated from other countries in europe and around the world for quite some weeks, going forward? i think countries are being cautious. everybody is doing their own risk assessment and taking decisions, but i think in the next couple of days we will learn a lot more about this strain than we know today, then hopefully when we know much more about all of these questions that we just discussed, countries will again be able to determine decisions on travel and so on, soi determine decisions on travel and so on, so i hope that many of these things will be resolved in the

coming days. as far as you've seen, without going into domestic politics, do you think in the uk that scientists and the government have acted fast enough? we have been hearing that scientists have known about this for a few weeks. when you track these viruses, changes are co nsta ntly track these viruses, changes are constantly appearing. it's only recently that when they started seeing a large number of cases, particularly in this geographic part of the uk were belonging to this strain, and that there also seemed to be increased transmission happening, many more cases being reported, that i think they got along. you track changes regularly and you don't necessarily get alarmed every time you see a change in the virus, unless there is also a change in the epidemiological or clinical patterns. that is what happened. they have been tracking it since mid september, but i think the alarm was very recent because of the

increased number of cases we have seen increased number of cases we have seenin increased number of cases we have seen in the last couple of weeks. chief scientist for the world health 0rganization, thank you forjoining us. you are watching bbc news. let's catch up with the weather. hello again. there's going to be quite a bit of rain for the start of the week, probably until the middle of the week, for england and wales in particular. as we head towards christmas eve and christmas day, for most of us, bar some showers, it's going to be dry and going to be chilly. we start christmas day with a frost. today, we have mild air across england and wales, very mild for the time of year, the blues represent the colder conditions across scotland and also northern ireland. a band of rain continuing to move northwards through the day bringing rain eventually into southern scotland and northern ireland. behind it, a lot of cloud, further showers coming in across the the south where its murky, here too it will be windy,

particularly in the english channel. some showers across northern and western scotland, increasingly wintry through the day and you could catch the odd one across parts of northern ireland. through the evening and overnight we hang on to a lot of cloud across much of england and wales and also some rain coming and going. colder air across the rest of the uk means temperatures dip away and we could well see a touch of frost. the wind picking up across the far north of scotland, it will ease across the far south of england. tomorrow across much of england and wales, once again it's going to be cloudy with some outbreaks of rain. northern england, northern ireland, scotland, a lot more sunshine and also a few showers, more especially in the north and west, some of those on the hills and mountains could be wintry. the lower temperatures penetrating further south, hanging onto the milder conditions in the south. for wednesday, a new area of low pressure brings in further outbreaks of rain and a lot of cloud across england and wales. for northern ireland and scotland,

the northerly wind, also a lot of dry weather, fair bit of sunshine, a few showers skirting down the east coast, one or two of them could prove to be wintry. on wednesday, this is the low pressure dominating our weather, it tends to move away and then this large area of high pressure in the atlantic builds across the uk. it's going to be pulling in colder air, more of a northerly component to the weather, it will be cold across the board so where we've seen highs of 14 or 15, we will be back down up once again. on christmas day, itself, which of course is friday, after a frosty start, it should be dry for most but fairly chilly.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: borisjohnson will chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee as numerous

countries restrict travel to and from the uk due to the new, more infectious variant of coronavirus. no accompanied freight or ferry passengers can sail from the port of dover as france closes its border with the uk for 48 hours. the french government says it's working on allowing movement from the uk to resume as eu officials discuss a co—ordinated response to the new variant. the easing of northern ireland's coronavirus rules over christmas will be reduced from five days to just one. brexit talks continue but are still said to be tangled on the topic of fishing rights. scotland's first minister calls for the transition to be extended. sport, and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's chetan. hopefully some light relief. we will start with good news for lewis

hamilton. it's been a record breaking year in formula one for lewis hamilton after winning his seventh world title and he's now been named the bbc sports personality of the year for a second time. with more on that, and rounding up some of last night's other winners, here's our sports correspondent andy swiss. the 2020 sports personality of the year is lewis hamilton. he is no stranger to winning and after a season in which he became formula 1's most successful driver, he won another final victory. six years after lifting the famous trophy, he did it again. everyone out there go out and follow your dreams, all the kids, please never give up on yourself, never stop to believe in yourself, never stop to believe in yourself because you have what it takes to be very to migrate. inevitably it was a very different show, the only crowd it was a virtual one after a year in which sparta has battled covid and bride inspiration. so tom moore receiving an award and presenting one to

nine—year—old tobias weller who has cerebral palsy and walked to make the marathons for charity. 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 campaignfor of child food poverty after his campaign for free school meals. always had this thing, always make sure you make a difference for the next generation and i think as a country we should always protect them as much as we can and give them them as much as we can and give them the best chance at life and become whatever they want to become the sub it was a good night for liverpool as they won team of the year and jurgen klopp coach of the year. a celebratory end in sparta. to one of its most difficult years. well, marcus rashford was involved in the game of the day in the premier league on sunday — at old trafford where manchester united beat leeds 6—2. hugely entertaining, both sides intent on attacking. united's scott mctominay

making a bit of history, becoming the first player to score twice in the opening three minutes of a premier league game. it's a win that moves manchester united to third in the league, and into the race for the title. meanwhile leicester are just ahead of manchester united in the table and within four of the leaders liverpool after a 2—0 win at tottenham. jamie vardy scored a first half penalty and was involved in their second, when his header was turned into his own net by toby alderweireld. and sam allardyce has been beaten in his first match as west brom manager, as they lost 3—0 at home to aston villa, bertrand traore with the pick of the goals at the hawthorns. brighton drew 1—1 with sheffield united in sunday's other game. celtic have completed a historic quadruple treble — winning all 12 domestic trophies in scotland over the course of four seasons. they did it by beating hearts in the delayed scottish cup final. it was a thriller too, 3—3 after extra time so it went to penalties, and it was kristoffer ajer who kept his nerve to win it.

for me, i am so proud, it is that it might mean so much to me for my career and personality and it is the sum of all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. winning is not easy and that has been proven today. the players have covered themselves in glory and they will be talking about this in 30,40, in glory and they will be talking about this in 30, 40, 50 years time. and the legendry former south african cricketer jacques kallis isjoining england's coaching team for their upcoming tour of sri lanka. he's going to be working as a batting coaching consultant for the two match test series which begins on january the 14th in galle. kallis is the third highest run—scorer in test cricket and has coached the kolkata knight riders in the indian premier league as well as working with the south africa team. that's all the sport for now. we will have more later. back to you. more than £33 billion has been

wiped off the ftse100 within minutes of opening, dropping more than 2% over fears of a no—deal brexit and new coronavirus restrictions. understandably there are a lot of questions this morning about the financial repercussions of these new restrictions and the disruption to cross channel trade. let's try to clarify some of them with our business presenter ben thompson. first of all, on the market reaction, how would you sum it up? we should be quite careful when we talk about what markets are thinking as far as the future is concerned because what they are doing like all of us is trying to make an estimated guess, and informed idea on what could happen next. they are trading on what might happen rather than what has already happened and so we should take it with a bit of pinch of salt. nonetheless we have seen pretty severe falls and that is because they have reacted to what

has been described as a bit of a perfect storm, the idea of the end of the brexit transition period without a deal yet in place, the concerns about the coronavirus restrictions that are causing disruption to trade across the channel. and all of the restrictions that are being placed us as far as our daily lives are concerned as the virus spreads once again. so they are looking ahead to try to make sure what shape business will be on in the coming months and it is a bit ofa in the coming months and it is a bit of a confused picture. we have seen some of the big files on energy so maybe oil firms will see a lot less demand for travel, travel firms of big airlines, rail operators, some of the biggest of fathers today because we are not able to go where we wa nt because we are not able to go where we want to because borders have been closed. also things like retail and hospitality that are bearing the brunt of these restrictions, not able to open in what is there most

profitable and busiest time of year and so the prospect for the start of next year look a bit bleak and that is what the markets think of all of this and therefore we have seen the big seller. the ftse100 opened about 2% down. it is pretty volatile that davis cup and the pound down against the dollar and euro as the concerns over the three different elements all come together. concerns over the three different elements all come togetherlj concerns over the three different elements all come together. i don't know how you been able to look across the piece in business reaction to the trouble with the ports, the uk isolated from the eu and that key supply chain. how much stock is there in terms of key goods, foods, medicines before we all goods, foods, medicines before we a ll started goods, foods, medicines before we all started to notice and need to get worried about it? the message from the supermarkets is please do not worry, do not go out and buy more than usual and we should say

retailers particularly our big supermarkets are so good at this because they learned a lot of lessons at the start of this pandemic about panic buying and getting enough stock into the shops and in many cases it is not a shortage of stock, itjust and in many cases it is not a shortage of stock, it just we and in many cases it is not a shortage of stock, itjust we are being a bit massive so they are very nimble supply chains cannot cope when we change our patterns, they are so when we change our patterns, they are so good at getting the right stuff in the right shops at the right time. what they have said is they absolutely have enough of all of the things we would need for a traditional christmas dinner because the reason it is a christmas dinner as it is all the stuff we can source locally, it is in season, whether thatis locally, it is in season, whether that is turkeys, carrots or potatoes, it is available. nonperishable goods, wines, cheese, those with a longer shelf life, they have been planning for this year, as soon as have been planning for this year, as soon as christmas finishes, they start planning for the next one so stock of nonperishable stuff is absolutely fine. where we may see

problems if there any resolution in this impasse over the coming hours and days is fresh stuff and things we can't grow locally. that is things like salad leaves, lettuce, citrus fruits, limes and lemons that would come in on a regular basis from the continent, they will perhaps not to be able to get here. while trade is being restricted from the uk to the continent, of course a lot of hauliers who are bringing goods from the continent to the uk will be worried about being able to get back and that is why we might see a problem. as far as the supermarkets are concerned, they say we have everything you need, do not buy more, because then we create the problem. even if it isjust an buy more, because then we create the problem. even if it is just an extra tin of beans or the soup, it creates a problem in itself. they have enough nonperishable things but a bit further more down the loan but line, we may see shortages and

particularly things we cannot grow or source particularly things we cannot grow or source here in the uk. thank you very much. let's get more now on the news that more countries have banned arrivals from the uk because of concerns at the spread of a new variant of coronavirus. hong kong hasjoined the likes of switzerland, germany, and italy to suspend uk flights. lorenzo zaccheo is the chief executive of alcaline logistics group — a haulage group which operates routes between the uk, france and italy. thank you for your time today. how worried are you, how are you affected by these port closures? we have two thirds of our fleet, about 40 plus drivers on the continent and on their way back because some left early last week because obviously it is christmas week, they like to be a bit earlier than usual and basically

the... asi bit earlier than usual and basically the... as i understand, i don't feel there is an issue to come in because we have got through the three last drivers in calais, they are making their way back, so there is no issue for them to come back in, but the problem is to go out to because we also have some living in italy and theirfamilies there also have some living in italy and their families there and they cannot go back and that is the issue because we are moving unaccompanied vehicles as we speak, but the majority of the freak at a standstill basically. how many vehicles do you have and what sort of goods are they carrying? over 200 vehicles running in and out of europe. with some dependent of the year. so with car parts, though sort of items and then also we deal refrigerated vehicles as well, so we started about six months ago after

the pandemic, because the car industry went to a standstill so we had to work out plan b. that is what we are basically doing. now obviously we understand it doesn't make any difference whether you have refrigerated vehicles or any kind of equipment, you will still be stranded. basically, yes, that is what we are doing. all kind of commodities at the moment because the whole world has gone absolutely mad about stockpiling. the last two weeks it has gone absolutely insane. that is why the long queues and everything. it has been an absolute nightmare because you haven't got enough vehicles on the road to cope with the high volume. as you can understand, you hire more vehicles and then you get something like this with the whole world coming to a standstill and it is much worse than we anticipated because nobody would

expect it to stop vehicles across the channel. you can understand passengers on foot or cars, but to stop to get to that extent, it is absolutely mad. do you think this is solvable with mass testing of drivers? you can understand europeans worried coming to the uk, they want to secure their own populations, but is mass testing feasible? depends how long that will take. i do not think that is feasible because there is a large number. the lorries are building up as we speak now, hours and hours. probably will at some point but as they said before, will it be accurate? well europeans to trust that type of test? that is another

question. can i ask you quickly, sorry to interrupt, brexit, if there isa sorry to interrupt, brexit, if there is a new deal, what were about to we're seeing? —— no deal? is a new deal, what were about to we're seeing? -- no deal? we may as well just go to we're seeing? -- no deal? we may as welljust go to the wto. at least we know exactly how that works. no new rules, no new regulation so we know exactly where we are. if the worst comes to the worst, we will go to wto. that is what we expect to see a nyway wto. that is what we expect to see anyway because we are not going anywhere basically. the eu structure their decision as our uk ministers are as well. sorry to run it of time there. thank you for your time today. let's cross to central london where labour leader sir kier starmer it's taking questions. divisive

independence referendum just at the time when we are still in the middle of tackling all of the issues under the pandemic. thank you. hannah i think is next. hannah. it wasjust a question about your speech. you are talking about preserving and renewing united kingdom and surely the best way from your points if you would beta whilst specifically in scotland to increase the support the scottish labour. how do you plan to do this click delete my given we see people in the same positions, same leader, quite frankly you have the same infighting going on day after day, week after week. you are absolutely right. it is vital we rebuild trust in labour in scottish

labour in scotland and that is absolutely what we are committed to doing. every day, every week, every month into may of next year and then on from there. working with richard leonard, scottish labour, and it is absolutely clear in order to achieve that we need to unite as a party and iam that we need to unite as a party and i am absolutely committed to that as well. that is the challenge and i have to rise to that. i completely accept that. thank you, hannah. now we go to the daily record with paul. to my clients. you have said you are against a referendum on independence. would you be open to a referendum on more powers? that is whatever package of reforms labour comes up with for the scottish parliament and secondly just comes up with for the scottish parliament and secondlyjust on the scottish labour, what would you say has been richard leonard's main achievement over the last three years? on devolution, i absolutely

believe there should be more devolution and that is why the commission we are setting up would not rule anything out. i don't think that a referendum should be the next step. i don't think a referendum is necessary. i absolutely believe in the principle of power going is close to people as possible. holyrood feels as remote for many people as westminster does so it has to go beyond the formal allocation of power. richard leonard is a leading scottish labour, i have a strong working relationship with him and we are working together on a campaign plan into may of next year and we will be working on that together between now and may. thank you, pal. can igoto... igo to... sir i go to... sir keir starmer taking questions there on the question of devolution and the labour party is against independence for scotland but is in favour of potentially more

powers going to are the nations of the stops are keir starmer early in his speech today talking about the covid brexit front we are facing. this is a real emergency and he says the prime minister has to be straight with the public and address people today and get a brexit deal this week also. he pledged that labour would act in the national interest. he has said they have continued to do so throughout the crisis. the government have updated their advice on shielding for "clinically extremely vulnerable" people across london, the south east and east of england. anyone living in a tier 4 area have today received further guidance on keeping safe as they are moved into the new restrictions. the updated guidance is the same as was in place during november. a little earlier our health correspondent catherine burns explained the new guidance to my colleague annita mcveigh. basically, it takes people in the clinically extremely vulnerable group in tier 4 back to where we were in the last lockdown. so, what does that mean?

essentially, they are being told to stay at home at all times apart for exercise and medical appointments. they are told they cannot go to work, and if they cannot work from home, they still should not be going to work, and there may be some kind of support out there for them from that point of view. the people they live with, they can go to work if they need to, if they cannot work from home. in terms of going outside, they cannot go outside apart from for exercise or for medical appointments. they say no travel unless it is absolutely essential — and obviously medical appointments come under that. do not go to shops or pharmacies — that's being strongly advised. the government says there will be support for people who need it, for example, things like access to food and medicines. essentially, these people who are the people who would be most likely to get very sick if they did become infected with coronavirus, are back where they were a few months ago. christmas bubbles in northern ireland will be reduced from five days to one day. it's understood that

the stormont executive agreed the change last night. there is expected to be some flexibility around which day people come together to accommodate those who have to work on christmas day. the government says it will provide refunds for rail and coach journeys in england booked for previous christmas travel windows bought before the change in regulations and guidance that were announced by the prime minister on saturday. the transport secretary said the refunds will apply tojourneys in england booked on or after the 24th november, when the christmas travel window was announced. the government said travel operators will be able to issue refunds immediately and that passengers should check the website of their operator for how to claim. scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon, has called for borisjohnson to try to get an extension to the brexit transition period. she says the uk faces a "profoundly serious situation" because of the new variant of coronavirus. brexit trade talks are continuing in brussels

later despite a warning by the european parliament that it would not vote on a deal this year if it had not been agreed by last night. the uk's former national security chief lord ricketts says he agrees a short extension would be sensible. it is a very, very exceptional crisis we are in at the moment and that's not really the circumstances at which governments can take cool—headed, rational decisions with long—term implications for the country. we are clearly in the last throes of this negotiation about leaving the eu. they say 98% of it is done, still some hard issues to deal with, but i don't think either side, certainly not the british government, has the bandwidth to make those decisions now so i would be in favour of a short technical extension so we can cope with this immediate crisis, and then come back and settle it early in the new year. the european parliament already said there is not enough time now for them to ratify the deal even if it was done today or tomorrow in time for the 31st of december, so there would be some u ncerta i nty a nyway early into next year.

i think on the european side, there are always ways of freezing things, stopping the clock, giving a bit of extra time, but it would also need the british government to ask for it. so far boris johnson's government have been adamantly against the idea of an extension. i do think in changed circumstances, they could change their mind on that. jonathan portes, professor of economic and public policy at kings college, london says there is still time to reach an agreement. there is and there has been for some time. the deal that is on the table, the potential deal is the same one there was six months ago whereby the uk accepts the principle of the european union's position on the so—called level playing field of state aid, it accepts the eu will have the right in future to withdraw

trade privileges of the uk diverges from the eu in terms of regulation. and there are some compromise on fishing rights. that has always been the deal on the table. the problem is as we know the prime minister does not make his mind up about these things until the very last moment and we are now at the very last moment. in some sense we have wasted the last six months and it is rather unfortunate, bad luck, but also a product of bad policy and lack of foresight that this has happened at the same time as we have this mounting crisis over covid. the economic consequences of the pandemic have been felt almost everywhere. restaurants remain closed, planes are grounded, people are staying home. the lack of movement means businesses that rely on casual labour are struggling more than most. that's particularly true for the olive farmers of greece.

who are desperate for whatever help they can get. tim allman reports. some call it green gold. olive trees stretching far into the distance in this region of greece. an industry worth nearly a billion dollars each year. the country, is the fourth biggest producer of olive oil in the world. but then came the pandemic, and all that entailed. translation: because the border is closed, the workers could not come in time. we tried to sort their paperwork, but they were blocked again at the borders. in previous years we had at least 100 to 120 foreign labourers. this year, no more than 15. last month, greece closed its border with albania, the main source of its seasonal agricultural labour. a huge blow to these farmers, but some have fallen back on older traditions. translation: there are no workers to harvest the olives,

we will do it on our own, we are four siblings, we will pick them by ourselves. but will that be enough? this is an industry very much in crisis, and after all, green gold is not much use when there is no—one left to harvest it. sky gazes are in for a treat tonight asjupiter sky gazes are in for a treat tonight as jupiter and saturn align, creating what looks like a double planet. it is an event last happening 400 years ago. it has led to some theologians and astronomers to some theologians and astronomers to question whether a similar occurrence created what became the star of bethlehem. a doctor in astronomy says it is a very rare event. the last time it happened was almost 400 years ago and on that occasion it was in the daytime sky,

so occasion it was in the daytime sky, so you wouldn't have been able to see it very easily. the last time it was visible was more like 800 years ago. and speaking obviously visible, where will we be able to see it? we are broadcasting around the world so is there anywhere that won't be in a position to see it? if you are above about 70 degrees north latitude or below that, then you will not be able to see it because the sun will not rise or set respectively, but anywhere between those two latitudes you'll be able to it after sunset, in the west. you may need to wait until the sky darkened a bed. jupiter is the brightest thing in the sky and saturn will be .1 degrees away from it. they will be very close. if you have a pair of binoculars, do go and look because you will see once it goes doubt you will see jupiter's moons. if you will see once it goes doubt you will seejupiter‘s moons. if you

have a small telescope, a very unusually they will be in the same field of view which is an unusual occurrence. let's hope we all get a glimpse later today. just want to let you know the swiss government is saying all uk citizens who arrived in switzerland after december 14 must immediately quarantine. travel has been prohibited anyway from midnight last night. thousands of uk citizens have landed in switzerland over the last few days to go skiing and geneva airport registered 10,000 uk arrivals in the last weekend alone. this is bbc news. let's catch up alone. this is bbc news. let's catch up now with the weather. hello again. there's going to be quite a bit of rain for the start of the week, probably until the middle of the week, for england and wales in particular. as we head towards christmas eve and christmas day, for most of us, bar some showers, it's going to be dry and going to be chilly. we start christmas day with a frost. today, we have mild air

across england and wales, very mild for the time of year, the blues represent the colder conditions across scotland and also northern ireland. a band of rain continuing to move northwards through the day bringing rain eventually into southern scotland and northern ireland. behind it, a lot of cloud, further showers coming in across the the south where its murky, here too it will be windy, particularly in the english channel. some showers across northern and western scotland, increasingly wintry through the day and you could catch the odd one across parts of northern ireland. through the evening and overnight we hang on to a lot of cloud across much of england and wales and also some rain coming and going. colder air across the rest of the uk means temperatures dip away and we could well see a touch of frost. the wind picking up across the far north of scotland, it will ease across the far south of england. tomorrow across much of england and wales, once again it's going to be cloudy with some outbreaks of rain. northern england, northern ireland, scotland, a lot more sunshine and also a few showers, more especially in the north

and west, some of those on the hills and mountains could be wintry. the lower temperatures penetrating further south, hanging onto the milder conditions in the south. for wednesday, a new area of low pressure brings in further outbreaks of rain and a lot of cloud across england and wales. for northern ireland and scotland, the northerly wind, also a lot of dry weather, fair bit of sunshine, a few showers skirting down the east coast, one or two of them could prove to be wintry. on wednesday, this is the low pressure dominating our weather, it tends to move away and then this large area of high pressure in the atlantic builds across the uk. it's going to be pulling in colder air, more of a northerly component to the weather, it will be cold across the board so where we've seen highs of 14 or 15, we will be back down once again. on christmas day, itself, which of course is friday, after a frosty start, it should be dry for most but fairly chilly.

this is bbc news. the headlines: borisjohnson will chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee as numerous countries restrict travel to and from the uk due to the new, more infectious variant of coronavirus. no accompanied freight or ferry passengers can sail from the port of dover as france closes its border with the uk for 48 hours. the french government says it's working on allowing movement from the uk to resume as eu officials discuss a co—ordinated response to the new variant. the easing of northern ireland's coronavirus rules over christmas will be reduced from five days to just one. brexit talks continue but are still said to be tangled on the topic of fishing rights — scotland's first minister calls for the transition to be extended. and could it be the return of the star of bethlehem? jupiter and saturn are set to cross paths in the night sky

and will appear to shine together as if one bright star. a growing number of countries have shut their borders to britain in response to the spread of the new variant of coronavirus. there are fears of lorry queues stretching for miles after the government said it expects severe disruption at ports in kent. the road haulage association warned of the "devastating effect" of the travel ban on supply chains that are already under pressure from brexit and christmas stockpiling. france has suspended travel links, including accompanied freight lorries, with the uk for 48 hours. the move means means no driven freight lorries or ferry passengers will be able to sail from the port

of dover for the time being. this morning the french government said it will establish a protocol in the next few hours to allow movement in the uk to resume. nations including germany, italy, belgium, the irish republic, turkey, canada and india are suspending uk flights. the measures vary and are initially short—term. an eu meeting to discuss a co—ordinated response is under way. coronavirus cases in the uk rose by 35,928 yesterday — nearly double the number recorded the previous sunday, figures show. it comes as health secretary matt hancock warned that a new variant of the virus was "getting out of control". the prime minister, borisjohnson, is now set to chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee, cobra, to address the mounting coronavirus crisis. this report from jon donnison. after queues of up to 20 miles into dover last week amid brexit uncertainty, things could be about to get worse.

the port is now shut to all outbound freight and passengers after france closed its border with the uk for 48 hours, amid fears about the spread of the new strain of coronavirus. this is an absolute hammer blow after all the queues we have 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. the transport secretary grant shapps has urged hauliers not to travel to kent. incoming freight is still permitted, but there are fears some lorry drivers won't want to come to the uk for risk of getting stuck. dover usually handles around 10,000 lorries a day, delivering nearly 20% of all goods bought and sold here. the food and drink federation has said it is worried about the supply of fresh products over christmas. and it's notjust freight affected.

this was heathrow last night, where passengers were left stranded amid travel bans from much of europe. eurostar and eurotunnel have also suspended all outbound traffic. we must, i'm afraid, look again at christmas... two days after the prime minister announced the new restrictions, he will chair a meeting of the government's emergency cobra committee this morning to discuss the coronavirus crisis. meanwhile, government sources have insisted the travel bans won't affect the delivery of covid vaccines. and all this as trade talks with the eu remain gridlocked as the december 31st brexit deadline edges closer. john donnison, bbc news. let's get the latest now from dover — our correspondent simonjones is there. it's not looking good, pretty

unprecedented scenes here at the port of dover. there is a sign behind me saying, french border is closed, and that tells the story. you've got staff from the port and also we've had the police there at the entrance, basically stopping any lorry that can't gain delete might go in from going on. despite the warnings that this is going to be closed, the border with france, for the next 48 hours, a number of lorries have been turning up, trying to get in, and they are being quickly turned away. we've also seen passenger vehicles, perhaps people who haven't heard about this latest development and who are desperate to get across the channel. for a lot of lorries, it means they basically can't go anywhere, because on an average day, probably about 10,000 lorries will go into the port of dover. the only ones who will be allowed in or those with containers, because container shipments are still being allowed to go across the channel, but for any lorry with a lorry driver, or any passenger

vehicle, it is a no go. any idea how long before these supply chains actually start to affect people in terms of food supplies, medicines, essential goods? we know that at the moment there is this 48—hour sort of window for people to try and establish some new protocols. well, we are being told by hauliers that this is potentially a catastrophic situation. a big question people have is, what will it mean for christmas food? we are being told by the supermarkets in the uk that they already have the necessary food in store, so people shouldn't worry about that, shouldn't go out panic buying, but we are told if this does continue, there could be a shortage in the uk of things like salads, citrus fruits, cauliflower, broccoli. and if this goes on for two days, we are going to see thousands and thousands of lorries caught up in this, and even if it is lifted after a couple of days, it will take quite a while to clear

that backlog in the run—up to christmas. of course, some british hauliers caught up in this when they couldn't make the crossing have decided to abandon theirjourneys and return back to their base. but if you are a foreign lorry driver based in the eu, you simply can't do that, you have no other option but to wait. what they've done is, they've converted pa rt to wait. what they've done is, they've converted part of the m20 motorway which leads up to the port here into a giant lorry park, so spare a thought for those hauliers who potentially are going to be stuck in their cabs for the next 48 hours at least before the port potentially could reopen to traffic across to france. if it does reopen, is mass testing the way forward? we've heard government ministers talk about that potentially. we've heard from the french transport minister this morning that they are looking to establish some sort of protocol which would once again allow movement of traffic from the

uk into france, and obviously then onto the rest of the eu. but they haven't spelt out exactly what that will mean. 0ver haven't spelt out exactly what that will mean. over the past 24 hours we have seen will mean. over the past 24 hours we have seen concern will mean. over the past 24 hours we have seen concern has raised in the eu about this new strain of the virus. countries have basically been taking their own decisions. some, like france, introducing this 48—hour ban, other countries banning flights from the uk for differing periods. we now expect the eu to try and adopt some sort of common approach, and that could involve some sort of testing. that was certainly what the french government we re certainly what the french government were noting yesterday. it depends how practical that is, because if you've got thousands and thousands of lorry drivers wanting to get across to france, how practical is it going to be for them to be able to get any sort of test to be able to get any sort of test to be able to get any sort of test to be able to get across to france, if that is indeed the protocol? in the past, when we've had restrictions on travel, in terms of hauliers, they have been allowed to carry on

generally because they are considered so vital to the supply chain, but in this case, hauliers have been stopped from going across to france, and that's why it's causing so many problems here at the entrance to the port. ian baxter if the chairman of baxter freight. can you explain how you are affected at the moment? we have a number of trucks trying to get to europe. some of it is brexit stockpiling, some of it is about christmas, and they are tangled up in it. you can use other routes, but you need to plan them in advance, so once routes, but you need to plan them in advance, so once you are routes, but you need to plan them in advance, so once you are tangled up in it, you are committed, and at the moment we can't get out of that situation. what does that also mean for trucks that need to come into the uk? things that haven't already been booked, i think they are not available, basically. european hauliers are stopping coming to the uk, soi hauliers are stopping coming to the uk, so i think there is an impending

disaster on that front, and that obviously means exports will be affected in turn as well, so it's a right model. you say impending disaster — what do you mean? right model. you say impending disaster - what do you mean? the shops are not going to be stocked up with the things that they need, whether that is foodstuffs, flowers, things for the general urinary sales, i think there will be —— the january sales, i think there will be a deficit. there was another potential disaster coming round the corner with brexit in ten days, and we had plans. those are now in disarray. it will help in the very short term but not for brexit, because you don't want to use up your stockpile to do something you weren't intending it for. i think we are behind the curve, and we shouldn't be in this position. we shouldn't be in this position. we shouldn't be in this position. we

shouldn't be having the end of the transition period in the middle of a global pandemic. whoever thought that was a good idea is responsible for this mess. so you would delay it? that's absolutely what needs to have happened already, and i think it still could happen, and that's what we desperately need, absolutely. how long before we see the shortages on food and emergency supplies, medicines and so on? because the french and british governments, the europeans are obviously all looking at trying to unblock this, and mass testing has been talked about. i think if the routes were closed for 48 hours, you will start to see a big impact. if they can be reopened, that might make a big difference still, so we have to hope and pray that they will get reopened, but it is another headache on top of many other headaches that hauliers have had to deal with, i've got to say. can you switch the way that you transport stuff so that it doesn't need a

driver and you use containers? we are also doing that, using other ports on the east coast — felixstowe and harwich and so on — utilising them. we always have done and we are moving what freight we can to those ports right now, so yes, we are trying to find solutions for our customers and battling through this, but there is no doubt that it is a big issue, a big concern for our customers, ultimately, at this time. how big is your fleet and what do you transport mostly? baxter freight has 80 staff. we don't use our own trucks, we use subcontractors and partners. we are also the partner of dhl freight in the uk, so in terms of our volume, it is a 20 million turnover business, and we have a few hundred consignments going every

single day between the uk and europe, so you know, this is quite a big issue to us and to our industry, of course. you said a moment ago that even 48 hours of stoppage, of being sealed off, the uk from the rest of the world, effectively, that that will have an impact, and yet we've heard grant chaps this morning trying to sound very calm. well, he would do, wouldn't he? he is right too, in hisjob. i'mjust telling you that the reality on the ground is that this is a very difficult situation and have but will have a major impact on stores, and potentially on manufacturing as well. what is good, if you like, is that this is, in christmas week, from the point of view of manufacturing, because obviously a lot of that is on shutdown be soon, so lot of that is on shutdown be soon, so that saves an element of problem there, but i think the stores will start to struggle quite quickly. at the moment, they are saying they

weren't. but they also have to say that, to keep people calm. we obviously don't want to create panic buying, because that then creates its own problems, and the government is very much urging people not to go and do the extra shopping, there we re and do the extra shopping, there were inevitably people make their own decisions. what is your advice? what are you doing? we never panicked, and we've got used to a year where not panicking is a good strategy, i think. year where not panicking is a good strategy, ithink. we year where not panicking is a good strategy, i think. we have to keep calm and carry on. if you end up without brussels sprouts on your christmas dinner table, is it the end of the world? keep calm and carry on, but i can't say this is not a problem. of course, it is. carry on, but i can't say this is not a problem. of course, it is. who do you hold responsible?” not a problem. of course, it is. who do you hold responsible? i think the government has mismanaged the brexit transition period in terms of trying to do this during the coronavirus

pandemic. coronavirus itself is a very complex issue. could they have locked down sooner or managed it better? i think there will be an enquiry when all this is over that will determine those things. i don't wa nt to will determine those things. i don't want to blame them too much because i think it is incredibly complex, but ultimately, it is government's job to control these things, and they are out of control today, so who do you think we should look to? ian baxter of baxter freight, thanks for joining ian baxter of baxter freight, thanks forjoining us. nicola sturgeon is starting her daily briefing in edinburgh. thank you forjoining us. before i start, can i say, mainly for the benefit of the journalist on the line, that i will require to end this briefing by 1:30pm at the latest, even if we haven't got through all of the questions, which obviously i will try to do. i understand the cobra meeting planned for today is likely to take place anytime from 1:30pm onwards, so obviously i have to be free to

participate in that. i'm going to speak ina participate in that. i'm going to speak in a few moments about the announcements we made over the weekend, the announcement i set out here on saturday evening, and i will also reflect on the decisions that have been made and intimated over the by other countries in respect of closing borders with the uk. but first of all, let me begin with today's statistics. the total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 1504, representing 6% of the total number of tests carried out. at the overall number of confirmed cases is now 113,050. as you will have noticed, today's figure represents a significantly higher number of new cases than we have seen number of new cases than we have seenin number of new cases than we have seen in recent times. we think this may be in part down to a processing backlog last week within the uk lighthouse system, so please be aware that today's figures may be

affected by that backlog of cases now coming through the system and being reported on. however, we are doing further analysis of these case numbers today to confirm that. i can also confirm that 1078 people are currently in hospital, an increase of 17 from yesterday. 59 people are in intensive care, one more than yesterday. no additional deaths have been registered in the past 24 hours of patients who first tested positive in the past 28 days, but registration offices tend to be closed at the weekend, so the figures we report on sunday and monday can be boosted artificially because of that. the total number of deaths under the daily measurement is 4283. every single one of those deaths is obviously a source of heartbreak, and yet again, i want to send my thoughts and condolences to

eve ryo ne send my thoughts and condolences to everyone who has been bereaved as a result of this pandemic. joining us todayis result of this pandemic. joining us today is the chief medical officer and the chief constable. the chief co nsta ble and the chief constable. the chief constable will in a moment talk about scotland's approach to enforcing covid regulations as we head into the christmas period. for my part, let me stress again how much i and the scottish government values the hard work, professionalism and public service of scotland's police officers and the staff who support them. these qualities are always appreciated have been particularly important and valued in the past few difficult months. the main thing i want to do todayis months. the main thing i want to do today is to reflect a bit more on developments over the weekend, and i'll spend a little time on these, because i know and understand how upsetting saturday's announcement in particular work for so many of you. first thing i want to do is to reiterate the point that none of the actions i announced on saturday were taken actions i announced on saturday were ta ken lightly. the actions i announced on saturday were taken lightly. the analysis so far

of this new variant of covid that has been identified in the uk does give us real cause for concern, because the indications at this stage are that it is much more transmissible than previous strains of the virus. let me stress again that there is no evidence so far that there is no evidence so far that this strain causes more severe illness, and i think that is reassuring. further analysis is being carried out, so there is much we still have to learn about it. given what we have been advised so far, it is essential that we take the risk seriously, and that we act accordingly. the key lesson of the last ten months is that if we are complacent in the face of the virus, or if we act too slowly or wait for all possible information and data before making decisions, the virus can run away from us very before making decisions, the virus can run away from us very quickly, and if that happens, the consequences can be very serious indeed. so, that is the context for

the strong, precautionary and preventative action we'd announced on saturday. i want to turn to some of the detail and the consequences of the detail and the consequences of that. firstly, the announcement yesterday that several countries, including france, have instituted travel bans to prevent people from the uk entering their countries. our advice for individuals here is already that you should not travel to orfrom already that you should not travel to or from scotland unless it is absolutely essential. indeed, travel to and from other parts of the uk without any central reason is not permitted by law for now. that is a decision we certainly don't take lightly, but it is necessary to prevent more of the new strain of the virus coming into scotland. in terms of international travel, clearly, most of the attention of the night, understandably, has been on the decision by france to put in place a ban on unaccompanied freight traffic, essentially lorry traffic, entering france. france said this morning that they hope to establish

a protocol to enable movement to resume, something we very much welcome. however, we do not yet know exactly when that will take effect. we do hope the current situation will improve over the course of the day, but of course, for as long as it pertains, it has significant implications for many businesses in scotland. it affects the ability of exporters, including our important seafood sector, to deliver to overseas markets, and it affects our ability to import certain goods and supplies into the uk and into scotland. i will be chairing a scottish government resilience meeting on this later today, and before that, as i indicated, i will before that, as i indicated, i will be taking part in a cobra meeting chaired by the prime minister that will bring the uk government and the devolved governments together to discuss these issues, and we are working very closely with the uk government and will continue to do so government and will continue to do so to mitigate any impact. i have heard calls from our food sector for

the uk government to take a number of steps to enable them to continue to export, and i support these calls. in particular, the uk has planned for port disruption as part ofa planned for port disruption as part of a no—deal brexit, and these plans should now be activated. we have also urged again the uk government to seek to extend the current brexit transition period, or to secure a grace period before any deal is implemented, to prevent further disruption. everyone accept all about have enough on our plate right now without compounding these difficulties with the end of the brexit transition period. two key points. stockpiles of medicines that we re points. stockpiles of medicines that were being built up ahead of brexit are in place, so why while we monitor medicine supplies, we have no concern. we are also sure there is no risk to supplies of the covid vaccine. we have been assured by supermarkets that they are well stocked for christmas, so there is

absolutely no need for people to buy any more than you normally would. we would ask everybody to please support each other and shop responsibly. these are difficult times we are living through, but we have been served well by that spirit of solidarity, and it is important that it considers a —— continues over this next period. some have questioned, and indeed i anticipated this on saturday, the need for these actions, given the overall prevalence of covid in scotland is currently quite a bit lower than it is in some other parts of the uk. two points incredible feat important for me to make. first, scotland's case numbers have been volatile in recent days, and after some weeks of andi recent days, and after some weeks of and i indicated this last week, we think there may be rising again. today's numbers, even with the caveat i put around those earlier, showed that may be the case. because of that, our r number has risen, and

after a couple of weeks of it being slightly below one, we think it is now hovering around one again. even without this new strain, we would have no room for complacency as we head deeper into winter. however, it is concern about the new strain that necessitated the very stringent actions i set out on saturday. we know this strain already exists in scotland, that we think it is still at lower levels than in the south of england, for example. however, if it is the case, as early analysis suggests, that this strain is more than 70% more transmissible and could add up to 0.42 an r number already hovering around one, the risk of it rapidly spreading here is very real indeed. in london and the south—east of england, it is thought this new strain might already account for between 40 and 60% of all new cases, so that is what we have got to stop here in scotland, and that is the reason for the

actions i announced on saturday. as isaid actions i announced on saturday. as i said earlier, over the course of this pandemic, perhaps the most important thing we have learned, perhaps the most important thing i have learned, is that failing to act quickly is almost always a mistake in the face of covid. if we do nothing now, we are likely to see more new infections as a result of this variant placing an even greater strain on our health service and u nfortu nately strain on our health service and unfortunately leading to more deaths. but as things stand, with our lower prevalence relatively, we do still have a chance of keeping the situation under control while the situation under control while the vaccination programme continues and while we get case numbers back to very low levels again. that's why we announced action on saturday on two fronts. firstly, to try to stop more new cases of this new variant coming into scotland. and secondly, to try to stop it spreading further within the country. in relation to the first, as i said, we are

maintaining a strict travel ban on nonessential travel between scotland and the rest of the uk. it will not be relaxed at all over christmas, even on christmas day, u nfortu nately. even on christmas day, unfortunately. it is one of the issueis unfortunately. it is one of the issue is the chief constable will talk about in his remarks. however, since this variant has already established a foothold in scotland, we need to reduce the risk of it spreading further here. we have taken three key decisions to do that. firstly, we are now enabling indoor mixing between households only on christmas day itself, and only on christmas day itself, and only within scotland, rather than over a five—day period across the uk. fundamentally, my advice is not to meet indoors at all, even on christmas day, if you can possibly avoid it. if you can, see family from other households outdoors only. the second key decision we have taken is to impose tighter restrictions after christmas. we will apply level four measures to

all of mainland scotland from boxing day morning, a minute past midnight on boxing day, for a period of three weeks, although we will review these level four restrictions after two weeks. that means that on boxing day morning, nonessential shops, pubs, cafes a nd restau ra nts a pa rt morning, nonessential shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants apart from ta keaways cafes and restaurants apart from takeaways will close, and we will ask everyone to work hard to reduce any unnecessary interactions with other households. nonessential travel to and from different local authority areas will be prohibited from saturday. the exceptions will be 0rkney, shetland and the western isles, and other island communities where we have reduced restrictions in recent weeks. these areas will go to level three, but with no nonessential travel to and from them. the third decision on saturday was to delay the return of schools after the holidays. again, a decision we did not take lightly. everyone knows how hard everyone work to keep schools open from

august. with the exception of children of key workers and children are vulnerable people, schools will not return to learning until the 11th of january. until the 18th of january at least, schools will be online only. these are decisions i wish we didn't have to make, and i know they were horrible decisions for all of you to have to hear. i am well aware of the impact that level four restrictions will have on well—being and on businesses like retailers and those in the hospitality sector. when i went home from here on saturday night after doing the update, i spent a fair bit of time reading many of the e—mails i had received. ithink it of time reading many of the e—mails i had received. i think it is important for me to do that. and these were from people, many com pletely these were from people, many completely understanding of the need for these decisions, but who nevertheless wanted me to know the impact of them on them and their families, and it is heartbreaking for so many of you. i want you to know that i do understand that, and

ifi know that i do understand that, and if i thought there was an alternative to any of these decisions we are taking right now, i would take that alternative in a heartbeat. i know the consequences of not acting now to stop this virus could be catastrophic, so i am genuinely sorry to have to do these things, but believe me when i say they are necessary. we can't take they are necessary. we can't take the risk of allowing this new variant to spread as rapidly in scotla nd variant to spread as rapidly in scotland as it appears to be doing in some other parts of the uk. we know this virus like all viruses exists solely to spread to us many other people as possible. that is how it survives. what we u nfortu nately now how it survives. what we unfortunately now know is that it seems to have become much better at doing this through the new variant, so doing this through the new variant, so if we don't act now to curb spread, its we run the risk of cases running out of control in the early pa rt running out of control in the early part of the new year. the restrictions we have put in place and that will come into effect from the weekend give us a much better chance of preventing that happening

while allowing more of the population, especially those who are most vulnerable to the virus, to become vaccinated. and while i know it is very difficult to hear talk of light at the end of the tunnel right at this moment in time, we shouldn't forget that the vaccination does give us that hope for the future that we haven't had at any although it appears this new variant of the virus transmit more easily it can be stopped in its tracks and a way to stop it in its tracks are through the same measures that we have been emphasising and advising throughout the pandemic so far, physical distancing, two metres if and when possible, washing your hands, wearing facemasks, opening windows while you are indoors, staying outdoors with other households as much as possible, i'll still work in reducing the

transmission of the virus. this new variant makes it more important than ever before. after ten months of all of us becoming fed up of all of the measures it is more important now than ever that we really do try to remember them at all that time. we are asking you to avoid indoor meetings on christmas day as far as possible, difficult though i know thatis possible, difficult though i know that is because indoor meetings are the best possible environment for this virus to spread and it is why all of us should remember in everything we are doing, the facts advice, where face coverings, avoid crowded places, clean any services, keep a distance as far as you can and do not forget to self—isolate and do not forget to self—isolate and get tested if you have symptoms. i know how difficult all of this is, the last ten months have been unremittingly hard for everybody and i suspect is next two weeks are going to be even harder yet, time of year where we should be

looking forward to spending time with our loved ones i know how tough it is but it is necessary, we must do these things to get us through this next phase of the pandemic while the vaccination programme gathers pace as safely as possible. ican gathers pace as safely as possible. i can never thank you enough for continuing to bear these sacrifices and do all the things necessary to keep yourselves and your loved ones safe. thank you for all of that. i will hand over to the chief co nsta ble will hand over to the chief constable and then we will take questions. thank you. 2020 has been a relentless, difficult year. families across scotland have suffered illness and tragic bereavement and made significant sacrifices in a collective effort to control the spread of coronavirus. i have paid tribute to the people of scotla nd have paid tribute to the people of scotland who have demonstrated overwhelming personal responsibility to do the right thing for the public health imperative. police officers and police staff have been a key

pa rt and police staff have been a key part of that public health response explaining the rules, encouraging, enabling the high levels of cooperation that we have experienced so cooperation that we have experienced so far. as chief constable i will a lwa ys so far. as chief constable i will always be direct with our fellow citizens, the people of scotland to whom i feel personally accountable. soi whom i feel personally accountable. so i know and agree the measures have been highly restrictive and can be difficult to fully understand, andi be difficult to fully understand, and i know and agree by necessity the rules have changed often and sometimes quickly and this has had an enormous impact on the people right across scotland. 0f an enormous impact on the people right across scotland. of course it is also fair to say the enforcement of these restrictions is not without challenge. that is why i have kept our interaction with the public right across scotland under daily review and while i commissioned an additional independent and expert advice to understand the impact of the changing legislation on communities to help us apply the law

fairly, reasonably. 0ur approaches have not changed and will not change. 0fficers have not changed and will not change. officers will demonstrate compassion, empathy and exercise discretion to understand people and help them do the right thing. and equally as our communities expect, where there is wilful, persistent blatant breaches, we will continue to act decisively and enforce the law. this has already been evident in ourveryfirm law. this has already been evident in our very firm position on house gatherings, they can have a significant influence on spreading the virus. they are against the law and should not take place. similarly, following the announcements from the first minister on saturday, there can be no doubt that other than form essential journeys, no doubt that other than form essentialjourneys, should people should not be travelling between scotla nd should not be travelling between scotland and other parts of the uk. public health requires that. additionally travel restrictions between local authority areas continue to apply and from boxing day they will be increased to a

blanket travel ban right across the whole of mainland scotland. i remain clear, i do not consider it appropriate, nah proportionate for officers to establish checkpoints, roadblocks to simply enforce these travel restrictions. want to clearly outline nevertheless what people can expect. i announced yesterday a doubling of our presence on the roads in the border country and an increase in patrols across the whole of scotland. a single national force we are able to quickly move resources and provide the presence required. highly visible profiteroles, proactively deployed will deter people who may be considering beating restrictions. we underlined devastating consequences

drunk driving has had an these patrols to prevent people travelling will also continue to ensure road safety. from the time of the very first restrictions in march, the vast majority of people have done the right thing. i am hugely grateful for that support, hugely grateful for that support, hugely grateful for that cooperation. all of us must continue to follow the rules and a result of that, i do expect the roads to be quieter than usual over the coming days. but taking together, this will mean greater police presence and visibility and thus greater potential engagement for citizens with police officers over the festive period as we continue to support this public health emergency. i want to underline that these duties will be carried out by dedicated officers and staff who a lwa ys dedicated officers and staff who always at this time of year are working to keep people safe. i again

pay tribute to officers and staff and their families about their commitment to public service. i would make a personal plea to the public to continue to support them. 0ur relationship of trust with the public is a foundation of policing in scotland. finally, we all now that for some people the christmas and new year period can be particularly difficult, they can feel vulnerable, lonely and at risk of harm. protection a proactive bubbly scotland. —— for police scotla nd bubbly scotland. —— for police scotland was up if anyone knew know needs help, please contact our police service was that we are here 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we are here to help. please take ca re of we are here to help. please take care of yourselves and each other.

thank you. many thanks indeed. we will move straight to questions and the chief medical officer is here to a nswer the chief medical officer is here to answer questions about the new strain of the virus and other clinical issues involved. firstly, peter mcmahon from itv border. thank you first minister. i wonder if i can ask the chief constable following his statement there, the law didn't change on saturday, does he consider the level of fines are appropriate for what he describes as deterrence and for people in the south of scotland, when he says they are going to double the number of patrols, what does that actually mean from what would be a substantial number of patrols? and first minister in the chief medical officer, we have had a statement from nhs borders and nhs scottish borders council saying it is still possible the new variant of covid could be in the scottish borders. i wonder if you have any more

information on that. if it is the case, what can you do about it. if not, either more restrictions you could play some travel in scotland to stop it coming into scotland? i will move first to the chief constable. the first of my chiefs here i will hand over. in regard to the level, our experience is that has not been a major driver in terms of people is level of compliance. the first thing is people want to do the right thing because they know it is the right thing to do. in terms of the increase in presence that people will see right across scotla nd people will see right across scotland but particularly in the border country in terms of the local authority areas, the scottish borders and dumfries and galloway, there will be a significant increase in visible presence. as i said, i

also expect there to be a reduction in the public being on the roads and moving around and therefore my expectation, my hope and intent in terms of doubling the number of resources is actually you will see a really significant impact. and if anybody has any sense they will chance it, what i would say is do not do that. do not do that, not because you might get stabbed by the police, although you might and we will be very visible —— you might get stopped by the police. do not chanceit get stopped by the police. do not chance it because you are putting other people at risk. the reason we have increased our resources is because what we have heard from the chief medical officer and the first minister. it is in response to the imperatives and that underpins and underlines the approach of the

police. this is about public health, keeping people safe. before i move over to the cmo, the rules have not changed in terms of cross—border travel, but as the chief constable said, what has changed is that the public health reasons for this have gone from strong to even stronger. it has been important, people should obey the law anyway, it has been important to limit cross—border travel. it is even a more imparted now to limit further impartation of this new strain to scotland and i cannot stress that enough. i would agree with the chief constable, the biggest deterrent any of you should feel against travelling across the border right now is not fines, police enforcement, all of that is necessary and important but it should be the risk of getting the virus was up even if you think you

would be fine, the risk of passing it on to others and bringing in new strain into scotland, they should be the biggest deterrent of all i'm very grateful to the chief constable for his response over the weekend which helps us to underline the importance of this message. the chief medical officer will say a bit about the work being done to help us identify cases of this new strain, some of that takes some time, but there are other steps being looked at. we are particularly keen to understand whether it is circulating in hospitals and care homes and the bodies is the top of that is given when we are seeing with the infection in melrose in particular. the main way of mitigating against this is for people to obey travel restrictions and not travel across the border. if you have to do for essential purposes, then it is absolutely vital that you stringently follow all of the public

health advice encapsulated. i will hand over to the chief medical officer. as you would imagine there isa officer. as you would imagine there is a lot of work under way led by public health scotland looking to see if we can determine the extent of any cases of this new variant across scotland. that has been taking place of the last few days and will continue over the forthcoming days. there are two broader strands of work in play. the first is to step up the number of genomics sequencing to establish firmly any links to particular areas across scotland and we can do that by holding down particularly on some of the pcr tests we have in the system. one of the features of the new variant is when people undergo pcr testing on one particular platform is what is called a drop m, platform is what is called a drop in, the way that this test is reported and appears as it goes through the platform. some other

mutations do this as well but if we focus on this particular dropout, we may be able to get a much clearer and faster picture of the extent of any spread across scotland. but work is under way, we expect to hear more information from public health scotland over the forthcoming days. also we should receive further information from genomic sequencing and then we will be able to firmly establish any spread across scotland. my message is very clear, doesn't matter whether you are when all melrose or motherwell, same protections apply. we should take these simple steps we know can help to prevent infection. that is making sure you keep your distance to two metres whenever possible, make sure you are wearing face coverings and all circumstances and making sure you clean your hands and surfaces.

these are the steps we can all take to make sure we are limiting the spread of this variant. thank you. la oldman from stv. thank you. we know on boxing day that mainland scotland will be put into blue four restrictions, but given this is so crucial for businesses, can you give any guarantees when the restrictions might be lifted? and i would like to ask the chief medical officer if at the moment we have any concrete figures of exactly how many positive cases of covid in scotland are a result of the new strain?” cases of covid in scotland are a result of the new strain? i will hand over to the chief medical officer on the number of cases. i cannot give those guarantees right now and i hope people will understand why not. we are dealing with an unpredictable development in

this pandemic. i hope that a week or two from now we will have much greater clarity about the characteristics of this new variant. call me a hopeless optimist if you want, but i retain hope as the a nalyses want, but i retain hope as the analyses develop, some of the findings around that will suggest may be some of our concerns are not as, do not have to be as serious as they are right now, but who knows if that will prove to be the case. right now we know this new strain of sense a real risk of faster transmission so we have to act accordingly. these level four restrictions will be in place for three weeks, we will review them after two. we will set them out at that stage. we will keep people posted as much as we can. i have asked the finance secretary to review the levels of support we have in place for businesses. there is a pa rt in place for businesses. there is a part already in place will continue right through any duration of restrictions that she will see what

more we can do to help businesses with the resources we have. i will hand over to the cmo on what we can say right now about the prevalence of this new strain in scotland, we think it is at a lower levels than in the south—east of england, the number of identified cases is small but we also think that is likely to be an understatement of that because not everybody is tested and not everybody who is tested has that test put through genomic sequencing. one thingi test put through genomic sequencing. one thing i understand is the uk does more genomic sequencing than any other country in the world and therefore it may be that the greater sequencing has identified the strain in the uk earlier and it may be in other countries as well but we do not know. nicola sturgeon with the

daily briefing and the chief co nsta ble daily briefing and the chief constable there. she said earlier that infection levels in scotland may be raising again. it was significantly higher than we send daily figures. she said the total may be due to a processing backlog but she said that is the reason why overall there are tighter restrictions in scotland. also to let you know, mark drake said has also said in wales, the first minister that the new strain is moving quickly in wales and the mutated strain, speaking at his briefing, he said the bank changed gearin briefing, he said the bank changed gear in late november and we have a better understanding of why that has happened. it was imperative to take swift action, the first minister saying the pandemic has taken another deeply unpleasant term just as we were all preparing to celebrate christmas after following the rules are so many months.

the european union is also looking at vaccines. the european union's medicine regulator, the ema, is expected to approve the use of the pfizer biontech vaccine later. this means it can be rolled out across the eu, including in germany, where it was actually developed. the country has been hit hard by the second wave, with daily infection rates at times over 30,000 and a daily death toll of more than 800. we are very focused on the new mutation that has been found in the south—eastern blender. —— south—east and london. dr soumya swaminathan is a chief scientist for world health organisation. i began by asking her whether she was concerned about the new variant of coronavirus in the uk. the who was informed by the scientists from the uk on the 14th of december, through our international health regulations mechanisms, about this new variant, and that the uk scientists were concerned. one of the reasons this was discovered of course

is that the uk is one of the countries that does a lot of genomic sequencing and has been tracking the viruses across different parts. we realised in the last several weeks that this new strain had become a dominant strain in the uk, particularly in the region around london and the south—east. this is not the first time this has happened to this virus, so we have been tracking the virus because all viruses change. it is called mutations, they change and that is their nature, and most of them don't really make a difference to how the virus transmits, or the severity of the illness, but some can, so it's important to track it. the who set up the virus evolution working group injune, and they have been meeting regularly, discussing these changes and what it means. this group, an international expert advisory group, is working closely with the uk scientists to really

understand what significance this new variant has. are you worried that the vaccine programme that is being rolled out now, this vaccine is still going to be effective against this new mutation? i am not very worried about that at the moment, because the vaccine targets are pretty broad immune response, so i think it's very unlikely that these mutations would cause the vaccine to not work, so i don't think that's likely, however, it does need to be confirmed in lab experiments, and that's exactly what scientists are doing in different labs around the world now. they are taking this strain, growing it in the lab, then looking to see whether it can be killed or neutralised by antibodies taken from people who either had the natural infection or who have had the vaccine. what's the latest information that you've got about whether the severity of illness

caused by this new mutation is worse or even better, and also, are children more likely to be affected? those analyses are still going. there is a large clinical analysis than is to be correlated with the laboratory strains. at the moment, i can say there is no indication that this is causing most of clinical illness, or that it is more prevalent in children or anything. what has come out so far of the analysis done, based on a lot of modelling, is that it is likely to be more transmissible because it is the dominant strain just now. that is not only dependent on the virus but on people's behaviour, so we need to see whether it's the behaviour, whether that was spreading and that's accounting for all of these new infections now, or whether it is really the strain that is easier to transmit from person to person. would you expect the uk, for example, to be kept isolated

from other countries in europe and around the world for quite some weeks, going forward? i think countries are being cautious. everybody is doing their own risk assessment and taking decisions, but i think in the next couple of days we will learn a lot more about this strain than we know today, then hopefully when we know much more about all of these questions that we just discussed, countries will again be able to determine decisions on travel and so on, so i hope that many of these things will be resolved in the coming days. as far as you've seen, without going into domestic politics, do you think in the uk that scientists and the government have acted fast enough? we have been hearing that scientists have known about this for a few weeks. when you track these viruses, changes are constantly appearing. it's only recently that when they started seeing a large number of cases,

particularly in this geographic part of the uk were belonging to this strain, and that there also seemed to be increased transmission happening, many more cases being reported, that i think they got along. you track changes regularly and you don't necessarily get alarmed every time you see a change in the virus, unless there is also a change in the epidemiological or clinical patterns. that is what happened. they have been tracking it since mid september, but i think the alarm was very recent because of the increased number of cases we have seen in the last couple of weeks. chief scientist for the world health organization. sky gazers are in for a treat tonight asjupiter and saturn align, creating what will look like a double—planet. it's a celestial event that last happened almost 400 years ago. and it's led to some theologians

and astronomers to question whether a similar occurance created what became the star of bethlehem. dr megan argo who is a lecturer in astronomy at the university of central lancashire and says it's a very rare event. the last time it happened was almost 4oo the last time it happened was almost 400 yea rs the last time it happened was almost 400 years ago and on that occasion it was in the daytime, so you wouldn't have been able to see it very easily. the last time it was visible was more like 800 years ago. and speaking obviously visible, where will we be able to see it? we are broadcasting around the world, so are broadcasting around the world, so is there anywhere that won't be able to see it? if you are above 70 degrees and are for latitude or below 70 degrees south latitude then you will not be able to see it because the sun will not rise at all or not set, but anywhere in between those two latitudes you will see it after sunset. in the west it will be the brightest thing in the west. you need to wait until the sky darkens.

jupiter is the brightest thing in the sky and saturn will be .1 degrees away from it. they will be very close. if you have a pair of binoculars go and look because you will see jupiter's moons, four bright means. and if you have a small telescope, they will both be visible in the same field of view which is a very unusual occurrence. very exciting. now it's time for a lvery exciting. at the weather with louise lear. wet weather pushing steadily north and east. moving out of northern ireland and then moving to scotland where it will lingerfor ireland and then moving to scotland where it will linger for much of the day behind, real cluster of showers, but the real contrast with the story is the milder air pushing up across the south in comparison to cold air just merging into the far north of

scotland. the remainder of the afternoon sees the wet weather across the scottish borders into western scotland, behind it is overcast, drab and dreary with a scattering of sharp showers. look at the temperatures, 13 to 15 degrees across england and wales, by contrast, in scotland and northern ireland, a maximum of seven or 8 degrees. northerly winds will drag in colderair degrees. northerly winds will drag in colder air through the night and few showers will turn wintry to higher ground as we keep the clearest skies in scotland and northern ireland bed lots of cloud across england and wales so he a relatively mild night double figures. we will keep the day with sparkling sunshine, some scattered showers through the day but scotland, northern ireland and northern england should stay dry and relatively sunny. drawing a line from mid wales down into the middle and is further south, it stays rather cloudy, dreary, mild with

drab debts and pieces of rain. my significant rain in the south—west and that could unfortunately bring the potential for some localised flooding. we need to keep an eye on that and weather warnings have been issued by the met office across south—west england in particular was stu b south—west england in particular was stub it stays mild here but drier, brighter and cooler in the far north of scotland. that area of low pressure showed me the way first thing on thursday morning and then we will see the high pressure tending to build for christmas eve. christmas eve and christmas day we changed gear in terms of the feel of the weather and type of weather. things will quieten down and cool down for much of the country. i am not sure we will see a white christmas but we could have a hard frost going into christmas day.

britain isolated — as more countries around the world ban travel from the uk to stop the spread of the new strain of coronavirus. there's severe disruption to cross channel trade as france stops the arrival of passengers and freight — but there are hopes this lunchtime the french government may soon allow movement from the uk to resume. we don't know how long it will go on. we certainly are hearing some very good indications from both sides, we see it now that they are actively looking at what these new protocols can be so we are hoping that it can be resolved very quickly. the prime minister will chair a meeting of the government's cobra emergency this afternoon to discuss the crisis. the growing international travel ban on britain brings big falls on the markets, with tumbling share prices. we'll have all the latest on the coronavirus crisis. supermarkets say they have enough stocks for now but they are worried