welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: more than a0 countries put restrictions on uk travel, as the country concedes it can't contain a more infectious variant of coronavirus. 32 years after the lockerbie disaster, america charges a libyan man with making the bomb which blew up pan am flight 103. a shot made for the cameras — us president—electjoe biden becomes the latest leading figure to get a virus vaccine on live tv. doing vaccine on live tv. this to demonstrate that people doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it is available to take the vaccine. does nothing worry about. —— there is nothing to worry about.

welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. the uk is increasingly isolated after admitting a new strain of covid 19 is out of control. almost all of europe has banned flights from the uk. but the european union is set to announce a unified plan on tuesday that could exempt lorries and freight to ensure trade routes can resume safely as soon as possible. in africa and the middle east, turkey, israel, morocco and saudi arabia are among those to ban all flights from the uk. in asia, india and hong kong, which is a key travel hub, have suspended flights too. in south central america, argentina and columbia have also taken swift action. and so has canada, though so far the us has not. the french ban on some freight lorries is due to last 48 hours, leading to long queues on the roads to the port of dover. the uk government points out that most freight is getting through, and talks to find

a solution are continuing, as our political editor laura kuenssberg reports. you shall not pass. travel is blocked. instead of trucks flowing, stuffed with christmas parcels and supplies, the motorway‘s a car park with truckers stuck. this is my home, my bed. gordon's cab will be his bedroom, living room and kitchen for the next couple of days. what do we do? we just have to sit it out. hopefully, they will get their act together and let us go home. colin got stuck at dover but has now made it back to the depot. so i will be able to get home for christmas, but a lot of these people sitting on the m20 are not going to get home for christmas. the french border closed late last night. dozens of other countries are telling brits to stay at home. mr gove, should parliament be recalled? and ministers here are grappling with a new variant

of the coronavirus that is hitting our health, our businesses and trade with the outside world. the emergency meetings have been taking place all day. we in the uk fully understand the anxieties of our friends about covid, their anxieties about the new variant, but it's also true that we believe the risks of transmission by a solitary driver sitting alone in the cab a re really, very low. how confident can you be tonight that you can get the delays and disruption under control? and you said you just spoke to emmanuel macron. did he give you any commitment on when he would open the border? yes, it was an excellent conversation with the french president. he stressed he was keen, i would say, to sort it out in the next few hours if we can, and our teams will be working on it flat—out. but the high risk at home is increasingly clear. i think it is likely that this will grow in numbers of the variant across the country, and i think it's likely, therefore,

that measures are going to need to be increased in some places in due course, not reduced. france, spain, denmark, the czech republic and dozens of others have banned uk travellers, but a decision for president macron about opening the border for freight may not come until lunchtime, although late—night conversations have been taking place. president macron, himself in isolation, told his cabinet: "a problematic mutation of the virus in the uk meant exceptional measures were needed to control the border." the longer the ban goes on, the more damage and disruption it does. the government's spent months rehearsing for this kind of emergency, but not because of the pandemic, but because of what might happen with brexit. the location of that... a border control centre had already been set up to manage the possible chaos, because in ten days‘ time, how we trade with the rest of the continent will change dramatically anyway. butjust because officials have practised in theory,

doesn't make the practise any less painful. this is now a real emergency. we can have no more overpromising and false hope, no more confused messages and slow decision—making. we need strong, clear and decisive leadership. the disease is accelerating aggressively and even though it only affects a small proportion of freight, other countries‘ reaction to that is creating disruption, and before too long, more of the country could be under even tighter restrictions. even despite the turbulent times we have all become accustomed to, tonight, the government is grappling with a crisis on many fronts. finding a way around is not straightforward. as the disease tightens its grip and the very end of the year approaches, political and practical problems now collide. laura kuenssberg, bbc news.

meanwhile in south africa another new strain of the coronavirus has been discovered. scientists there say they are working with the world health organisation to investigate the new variant. it was identified by a genomics team working in the country's eastern cape province where there have been a surge in recent cases. the bbc‘s pumza fihlani is injohannesburg and says even though the new variant of the virus in south africa is different to the one found in the uk, they do share one thing in common. so what do we know about south africa's new variant of covid—i9? well, for starters, it was discovered earlier this month by local scientists during routine surveillance of the virus. we also know that it appears to be unrelated to the new variant currently being seen in the uk. but both these variants are one thing in common: one mutation that has to do with how the virus attaches itself to human cells. experts believe this is the reason behind the spike of cases that we are seeing in the uk and here in south africa. while researchers in the uk say the new variant there is 70% more transmissible, here in south africa, though, experts say there are also gathering data,

but expect that this might be the case, too. so, where did it come from? the first cases were discovered in the eastern cape province, but the virus has since spread to the western cape and kwazulu—natal. scientists say it is not clear at this stage if these new variants are more deadly. they see more research is needed on this, as well as determining if these variants will make vaccines any less effective. so what's the medical advice in the meantime? well, there is saying to continue to wash hands, practice social distancing, and keep wearing masks. at this stage there are saying that prevention is still proving to be the best method. pumza fihlani, bbc news, johannesburg. doctor syra madad is an epidemiologist from new york. she was featured in the netflix series pandemic. many people of course will know you from a tv series pandemic, but i know you have had a particularly busy day, you are about to roll off the pfizer

biontech vaccine, so they could for staying with us. there is a difference between a screen and a variant, briefly if you can, and as clearly as possible, could you tell us the difference? these are two very different terms and they all go back to the nomenclature, so basically screens are genetically distinct lineages, and we talk about a variant, a variant is a set of mutations that can occur within a stream, so that can occur within a stream, so if you talk about a com pletely so if you talk about a completely different screen, this sets us back in terms of what we are seeing over the past 11 months, and that is not the case, we are seeing a variant, based on 23 mutations, this time, that has been accumulated, but it is really important to understand that there is a lot of speculation, that does not mean the same thing as evidence, a lot of correlation, and so, causation, and we know we need to get more information and more data based on lavatory analysis before we can make any more definitive a nswe i’s can make any more definitive answers in terms of —— lavatory

analysis. what we do know about this variant is that it seems to be transmissible, you have a higher viral load, but does that translate into more biological significance? these are some of the key questions that everybody still has a. you just said 23 mutations, that phrase is bound to cause speculation and alarm, so as you understand it, are any of these variants are likely to be more dangerous, more aggressive, if you catch them? viruses go through mutations all the time, so this is not something new, but doesn't result in biological significance, it is very different in terms of the way that it will transmit, the way it may act, the way that basically, when we talk about therapeutic, and right now there is no indication currently, other things may change as we get more data, but

when we do correlation and causation, it requires good science and time, and that is something we are waiting on so right now we are hearing a lot of speculation and a lot of theory based on the current data what this may be, but we don't have definitive answers. what advice could you give to governments? what do you think about the way they are dealing with it? surely if there are mutations in the uk and south africa, they will be elsewhere already, aren't they? certainly, this is a highly transmissible virus to begin with and when we put restrictions on lockdowns, the question is are they effective, andi question is are they effective, and i think we have seen them play out earlier in the answer is no, they are not effective, they may buy a country some but this variant has been going on since september, it's likely it has spread through many corners of the world, so i think it is important to understand that our prevention and mitigation measures have not changed, it still the same thing in terms

of making sure that we are wearing a mask, physically distancing, good ventilation, avoiding crowds, and when we talk about vaccines, that's another big question, knowing that a lot of vaccines, we have some really promising vaccines out on the market, but right now there has not been any indication that they will influence a significant change in the vaccine. briefly if you don't mind, but there is still a bit of time built and before vaccines are widely rolled out. we have to be careful for quite a long time yet. that's absolutely correct. right now we have limited supply, initial doses are going through the priority groups, and right now, all around the world and even here in the united states, we are ina here in the united states, we are in a very dark chapter when we talk about the covid—i9 surge we are seeing so vaccines will have a significant dent, but in the current phase we are in we will likely see at a more long—term way of looking at the trajectory, also having more an

impact but right now it is not going to have any impact so we have to look at short—term around the world and what works, and we know what works, we have learned from this virus, we know the transition base dynamics, we can reduce the spread and curb its. thank you so much for giving us your time on such a busy day. the eu's medical regulator has approved the use of the pfizer—biontech vaccine, the first coronavirus vaccine it has cleared. the european medicines agency said it had demonstrated an efficacy of 95%, and could be used in people aged 16 and over. with me is our news reporter mark lobel. tell us more on this. there is some difference in the timings are. quite a bit, despite the fa ct are. quite a bit, despite the fact that britain and america and canada had approved the pfizer biontech vaccine earlier this month, the european medicines agency, which is instructed by the eu to look at proving their vaccines for them, took a much more careful approach, looking at more evidence, putting in more checks as they thought it was

more appropriate for a max vaccination campaign for its 446 million people, so they did not go down the emergency route that america and pretended but down the similar routes to switzerland with more checks, but the tipping point came when eu leaders told them to hurry up, they saw 300,000 europeans dying and saw what was going on elsewhere and so, this resulted in the ema coming out a day sooner with their decision, they say was after 40,000 clinical trials, and i quote, the benefits are greater than the benefits are greater than the risks for people aged 16 and over. 16 years of age and over, and it took them 11 weeks to improve which they described as historic. here is the executive director ian mcharg. we know a lot more about this disease now than when you ten months ago, even more than we knew three months ago, but we are still, there are still new information coming in, and this needs to be fully assessed. such as the recent reports on

the new variants, and these are issues that need to be fully scientifically assessed. at the moment we can see there is no evidence to suggest that the vaccine will not work against the new variant of the coronavirus. there were warnings therefore pregnant women and people who have severe allergic reactions to consider whether to take the vaccine but there was an even more upbeat assessment from the eu council president, he tweeted this is a defining moment in the fight against covid—19, let's roll it out safely, efficiently and fairly, vaccines are out to get out of the pandemic to get our lives and economies buzzing again. and i think you have somebody else talking coming up? that's right to stop in terms of what happened next, who wejust heard from there said we are not a turning —— not at a turning point yet, we need to keep all the other social distancing, facemask on lockdowns in place. the eu itself has bought 200 million

doses of this with extra 100 million, slightly less than they were offered of the pfizer biontech vaccine. what they have agreed as it will be distributed not on wealth but population and that each country will pay the same, and for the next stage of the plan, let's hear from this clip from the eu commission president. vaccination can start at the same time during the european union vaccination days on december27, 28, and 29th. this isa very december27, 28, and 29th. this is a very good way to end this difficult year, and to finally start turning the page on covid—19. so the launch, the various launches, that will be the responsibility of member states ? responsibility of member states? absolutely. they have to procure altar called freezes for this vaccine and designate which groups get it first. for example, on sunday you might see germany and france with jabs going into people in

nursing homes, also austria, italy, and spain, whereas the health minister has pencilled injanuary aid for health minister has pencilled in january aid for the health minister has pencilled injanuary aid for the first day there. very clearly put. thank you very much —— 8 january. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a vaccine boost of a different kind, as the us president elect gets his first dose against coronavirus on live tv. music and chanting saddam hussein is finished because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes but they brought a formal end to 3.5 years of conflict — conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement.

the romanian border was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. from sex at the white house to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteed bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. welcome back. good to have you with us on bbc news. my main headline for you this hour. more than 40 countries have restricted travel to and from the uk as the government here says it can't contain the new more infectious variant of coronavirus. the us department ofjustice has charged a man with making the bomb which blew up pan am flight 103

above the scottish town of lockerbie in 1989. it killed 270 people. abu agila masud is injail in libya, where prosecutors claim he has confessed to his role in the bombing. they are hopeful libya will allow his extradition to face trial. from washington, our correspondent aleem maqbool reports. the images will be seared on the minds of those who saw news of the atrocity unfolding. the massive scar on the earth where homes had been. 11 people on the ground and all 259 on board pan am 103, flying from london to new york, were killed. the worst terrorist attack in british history, though one that was seen as libyan revenge against the united states. though two men were originally charged in connection, only an alleged libyan intelligence officer, abdelbaset al—megrahi, was ever convicted, in 2001. though eight years later, he was released by scottish officials on compassionate grounds because of the cancer

that ultimately killed him in 2012. but now the us says it's charging this man, abu agila masud, for making the bomb that was detonated over lockerbie, alleging he confessed in an interview in libya after the fall of the regime of colonel gaddafi. the affidavit also alleges that the operation had been ordered by the leadership of libyan intelligence, and that after the downing of the aircraft, gaddafi had personally thanked masud. relatives of some of the 189 american victims welcomed the news. we feel very vindicated, a sense ofjustice that there is another co—conspirator that has been named and will be hopefully brought to prosecution. in honour of those we remember... there was a socially—distanced memorial held here to mark the 32nd anniversary of the tragedy. but across the atlantic, some relatives of those who died talked of being upset and sceptical about the us announcement about new charges.

very thoughtless, very ill—conceived. we have become extremely cynical and suspicious of those in authority, suspicious of their integrity. these people are not to be trusted. and that's been the frustration that's led many to feel they can't fully move on — the lack of real answers about what might have been done to avert this horrific attack. something that won't be resolved with a new trial. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in washington. president—electjoe biden has been given a coronavirus jab live on us television. he got the pfizer—biontech vaccine at a hospital in his home state of delaware, along with his wifejill. the 78—year—old is considered to be in a high risk group. mr biden urged americans to get the jab as soon as possible. he even had some praise for president trump.

the administration deserves some credit getting this off the ground, 0peration warp speed. i also think that it is worth saying that this is great hope of doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it is available to take the vaccine. president—elect biden, of course. jessica malaty rivera is an infectious disease epidemiologist and science communications lead with the covid tracking project. she's in los angeles. thank you very much for your time. why would you say it is important that president—elect joe biden, the vice president, mike pence, and even alexandria khazir quarters get the vaccine, what message does it send? i think right now in a time is divided as we are when it comes to misinformation and vaccines and even back then hesitancy that is so prevalent in the united states i think having bipartisan acceptance of

this vaccine and even demonstrating by example that the vaccine is safe and effective was a long way with ensuring confidence in the process. there have been a lot of studies about what the general public‘s perceptions of the vaccines and their likelihood of taking it has been ani likelihood of taking it has been an i think these are really big steps in ensuring that the public trusts the process. and yet you know in the united states, particularly people of colour have particular reasons of being wa ry particular reasons of being wary of some ice medical programmes, historically, don't they, do you think seeing white fairly well all editions getting it really makes a difference? i think that is why we need a lot of diversity when it comes to what we're seeing publicly the vaccines. a native of person photograph taking the vaccine was an african—american nurse in new york when the pfizer vaccine became publicly available to those healthcare professionals last week stop and that was a major visual, meaningful milestone, because we had a black provider providing a vaccine for a

blackness and i think we need more of that. we have a long history of trauma among the black community and other communities of colour with issues that have resulted in legitimate mistrust in the system so i think to restore the trustworthiness of the medical community we need more exa m ples medical community we need more examples like that. you have a lot of signs to do in your day—to—day work, i know you have to spend a lot of time debunking conspiracy theories. how much of your time, proportionally, and why is it worth it? you know, there is a significant amount of misinformation when it comes to, really, any infectious disease outbreak and many of us any signs communication space have been preparing for this since day one. unfortunately, misinformation and disinformation travels faster and further than actual data and further than actual data and signs. i was a good 50% of my time is trying to either correctly display the data while also making sure that it is not misinterpreted and misrepresented, while also debunking the more kind of

outlandish conspiracy theories that seem to become quite viral and social media. you do here quite a brutal argument that people who deliberately refuse the vaccine are only hurting themselves, but i suppose that is not really true. there will be people such as pregnant women or those prone to allergic reactions to simply won't be able to take a vaccine. correct. vaccination is one of the most altruistic things we can do. it is a choice together ourselves and our communities. everybody has wa nted our communities. everybody has wanted to reach herd immunity. the only way we can do that is by people accepting the vaccine and taking the and getting a cross that line of having the majority of people that needed stop in the usa read estimates of needing 200 million people vaccinated, that is 400 million doses in the next several months, it will require a lot of cooperation and adherence so we are protecting not only ourselves but our communities around us. thank you so much for your time. thanks for having me. the russian secret service has described as a provocation

a taped telephone call in which the opposition leader alexei navalny tricks a russian federal security service agent into disclosing details about his poisoning in siberia earlier this year. mr navalny posted a recording of the telephone conversation on his youtube channel. the agent reveals that the toxin was planted in a pair of navalny‘s underpants. he also acknowledges that the swift action of mr navalny‘s pilot and emergency services may have foiled the operation. astronomers have their eyes fixed on the sky forjupiter and saturn's so—called great conjunction. for the first time in nearly 400 years the solar system's two biggest planets are crossing paths in the night sky — coming so close to the extent that they will be separated by just one—tenth of a degree. some have suggested this may have been the source of a bright light in the sky 2,000 years ago that became known as the star of bethlehem. the two planets will, in fact, still be more than 400 million miles apart from each other.

that's it for now. thanks so much for watching. hello there. the next couple of days, we are going to hold onto this north—south divide with northern areas seeing the colder, drier, brighter weather with some sunshine, a few showers, wintry on the hills. further south, it will continue to be fairly mild, but rather cloudy and wet thanks to low pressure nearby. this is the pressure chart as we head on into tuesday. we still have this weather front straddling southern areas, further north, though, we have got higher pressure. so, here, plenty of sunshine for northern ireland, scotland, much of northern england, midlands and into north wales. more cloud, though, across the south of the country, some spots of rain at times, and here it will be milder. further north, it's going to be another chilly one with temperatures into single digits, some of these showers could be wintry on the hills because of the temperatures being quite low. but, again, double figures in the south. as we head through tuesday night, we see a new area of low—pressure push—up from the south—west. that's going to increase the cloud, outbreaks of rain

across the southern half of the country. further north, it will tend to be clear again, there will be a few showers, which will be wintry, as temperatures will fall to around freezing for many — a touch of frost here. further south, though, you can see 4—10 degrees. so into wednesday, we've got this area of low—pressure, quite a vigorous system. more isobars on the charts, so through the day, it start to get windier. but, there is still some milder air with this area of low pressure. so, the southern half of the country stays cloudy, wet and mild, further north, it will be colder. but the cold air will win out as we move on into the christmas period. so, this is the chart for wednesday. much of england and wales, perhaps even southern scotland will be cloudy with outbreaks of rain, some of it heavy in the south, and there is a chance of further flooding, as the rain is falling on saturated ground. another mild day here, 6—11 or 12 degrees in the south, but for scotland and northern ireland, a bright one with sunshine, one or two showers, wintry on the hills and low single digits. 0ur area of low—pressure begins to slide away into the near continent, it allows this high—pressure to topple in and bring us

colder northerly winds. it pushes the rain away from the south—east. we could see showers in northern areas, particularly around the coast, and these will be wintry because it will be cold. but for many, it will be dry with more sunshine around, noticeably colder, particularly in the south 4—7 degrees. so that's for christmas eve. christmas day, a cold start, could see some frost around, and with high—pressure around, it should be dry with variable amounts of cloud and some sunshine. but then it starts to become more unsettled again into boxing day.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: more than 40 countries have now put restrictions on travel to and from the uk, after the government here admitted the new, more infectious coronavirus variant is out of control. european union officials are trying to agree coordinated, strengthened, health protocols — for people travelling from britain. 32 years after the pan am disaster over lockerbie in scotland, the us has announced that terrorism charges have been brought against a libyan man accused of making the explosives that brought down the aircraft. 270 people lost their lives. us president—electjoe biden has appeared before the media to receive the covid—19 vaccine. mr biden and his wifejill were given their first doses publically in an effort to boost confidence in its safety and encourage others to take up the vaccine ahead of its widespread distribution next year.