and backwards and side to side. 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. russian opposition figure alexei navalny says he tricked security agents into revealing details of his attempted assassination, including that the poison was in his underpants.

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.

in south africa, another variant of the virus has been found there. it was identified by economics team working in the eastern cape residence where there has been a surge in recent cases. even though the there is a difference between there is a difference between the variant found in the uk, what we know about it? 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. the rapid spread of a new variant of coronavirus has been blamed for the introduction of strict tierfor mixing blamed for the introduction of strict tier for mixing rules for millions. so why is it causing concern? firstly it is rapidly replacing other versions of the virus,

and now accounts for the majority of cases in london and south—east england. there have been changes to the spike protein — this is the key the virus uses to unlock the doorway to our body's cells. some of those mutations have already been shown in the lab to increase the ability of the virus to infect cells. all of these factors seem to have come together to allow the virus to spread more easily. however, the world health organisation says there's no evidence that the new variant is more dangerous than the previously known strains. i spoke earlier to the infectious disease expert in san francisco and asked him what he makes to the world's reaction to this latest news. i'm very surprised that the world has reacted with such vigor against the uk in preventing travel, when we know that this variant was probably around since at least september or october. so, what do you think governments should be doing? what would you advise? well, i'd advise that travel remain unrestricted,

and people just do old—fashioned wearing of masks, practising social distancing and washing your hands, because there is no evidence that this variant makes these preventative measures any less effective. in fact, we've had evidence throughout the pandemic of other strains or other variants per se that were more transmissible, as seen in the laboratory, but none of these translated into, you know, prevention methods being less effective. generally, we've been told by specialists in this field that viruses don't want to kill the host, they want to make themselves more transmissible, they want to spread more widely. so, what is the thinking on all of this from the people developing and distributing a vaccine? does the new variant mean that vaccines are now being rolled out are likely to cause more damage — soi’i’y, likely to be less effective? we think that the vaccines will still be highly effective, and that's because when you think of what the vaccine is doing, it's making the spike proteins — it's providing the message to make a spike protein. but our immune system is very

redundant and produces a repertoire of antibodies. so, almost like 1,000 guns pointing at this spike protein. so, if you take out one gun via a variant, you still have 999 left. so, we think that the vaccine will still be very effective. it will take actually years, if any meaningful strain difference will occur, if at all. that's an unnervingly cute model you have there. i have to ask you, just briefly if you can, are the new variant is it likely to be more dangerous, more aggressive, if you catch them? no, we do not think — we don't have evidence so far that these are going to be more dangerous variants. so: not more dangerous, no effect on the vaccine, and our prevention methods will still likely work against this variant. professor peter chin—hong. the us depatment ofjustice has

charged a man with making the bomb that blew up pan am flight 103 above the scottish town of lockerbie in 1989. it killed 270 people. adu ajjila masud is injail in libya. prosecutors there 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. 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. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: tracking and tracing the outbreak‘s origin, we speak to the scientist whose lab is suspected by some, of leaking the virus. 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.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines: 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 103. 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 then 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. daniel treisman is a political scientist at ucla and i asked

him whether the story was credible. i think it's absolutely credible. it's really a bombshell of a video. navalny, just to set the scene, calls up this fsb security service scientist, an expert on biological warfare, and biological weapons, at seven in the morning and manages to convince him that he's an aide to the head of the security council who's working on a kind of debriefing report and over the course of 45 minutes he gets the scientist to talk in detail about different aspects of the operation to kill mr navalny. it's really an incredible piece of video. the victim interviewing one of his would—be assassins. if it is all true, as you say, it's pretty incredible. it does seem extraordinary that mr navalny‘s voice was not recognised.

just to be clear, he did it by using an app, i think, that allows you to disguise the number you are calling from so it appeared to be a landline that the agents had been called from during the operation. that's right. that's what he says on the video, they had a special system which would conceal the number of the phone he was calling from and replace it with a number that would be familiar to the agent. but it is, to me, a sign of real sloppiness and poor preparation that this agent didn't recognise navalny‘s voice, because navalny has quite a distinctive voice. he was talking in a very authoritative tone and is clearly a good actor in addition to his other talents, but it is odd. the actions of the russian security services though, they seem to be a bizarre combination of technical skill and bravado and extraordinary sloppiness. yes, we've seen this.

we saw this in the skripal poisonings in salisbury. 0n the one hand, high—tech weapons, we see that side, in the recent hack of us government agencies, great technical sophistication, but at the same time inability to cover the traces, a sloppiness in the execution and so we see that here again. 0ne almost wonders if it's a deliberate strategy to let everybody know, to intimidate. but in this case it seems very much — very unlikely this was the explanation. this person was phoned up at seven in the morning. he sounds cautious, a little bit nervous, but he comes to believe it is a genuine, authentic call. let's get some of the day's other news two men have been found guilty of the manslaughter

of 39 vietnamese men, women and children who suffocated inside a lorry trailer as they were smuggled into the uk last october. a jury at the trial in london also found george neeka and eamonn harrison guilty of conspiracy to assist illegal immigration. the european union is calling on bosnia to find alternative accomodation for more than 3000 migrants, facing eviction from a refugee camp near bihac. the internationalorganisation for migration said at the weekend it may have to close the centre because authorities haven't provided water and electricity. it's now hoping the eu's last—minute intervention will persuade local officials to rehouse residents of the lipa camp. a leading chinese scientist at the centre of claims that the coronavirus leaked from her laboratory in the chinese city of wuhan, has told the bbc she is open to ‘any kind of visit‘ to rule out the theory. the statement from shi zhengli — a virologist who's spent years studying forms of coronavirus — came as a team from the world health 0rganization prepared to travel to the city next month to start its investigation into the origins of covid—19.

but as our china correspondent john sudworth reports, the chinese authorities appear to be far less keen on scrutiny. the origins of this pandemic may well lie in the jungle covered hills of china's yunnan province. but reporting here is not easy. we're constantly followed and turned back at makeshift barriers and roadblocks. the bat populations here are known to harbour hundreds of coronaviruses, some of which can pass to humans. but it's the years of scientific research collecting those viruses in yunnan‘s caves that is suddenly highly sensitive. because many of the samples were taken back to this laboratory, almost 1,000 miles away, in wuhan. suggestions the virus leaked from here have so far been met with angry denials.

but now the lead scientist, professor shi zhengli, when asked by the bbc whether she would welcome a formal investigation, replied by e—mail. she is correct, of course. with wuhan now back to normal, the government is busy promoting another theory, that the virus didn't come from china at all. it is unlikely to have much appetite for a lab investigation, but nor, it seems, do some members of the who team as they prepare to begin their mission. i've yet to see any evidence at all of a lab leak or a lab involvement in this outbreak. and i have seen substantial evidence that these are naturally occurring phenomena, driven by human encroachment into wildlife habitat, which is clearly on display across

south east asia. many scientists agree that a natural origin is the most likely, with the bat virus perhaps passing to humans via another animal in a wuhan wet market. but some are starting to wonder why, one year on, china has published so little about any studies that might help prove it. of course they've done them. they have the capability, they have the intelligence, they have the resources. 12, 13 months out since the first recognised case of covid—19, and we haven't found the animal source. so, to me, it's all the more reason to investigate alternative explanations. and i think it would be in china's interests as well, if only to, you know, rule that out. but ruling out a lab leak seems an unlikely prospect in a place where further roadblocks get in the way of even basic questions. it might seem odd that journalists find it

so difficult to report on the science that took place in a cave somewhere down there, some years ago. but all of this may be proof that china has now decided it needs to control anything that may relate in any way at all to the question of the origin of the virus. the who says its inquiry will be open—minded. but the research done here on bats is not on the agenda. and as our visit ends with us trapped in a field for over an hour, it's clear china wants to keep it that way. john sudworth, bbc news, yunnan province. president—electjoe biden has been given a coronavirus jab live on us television. he got the pfizer/bion—tech vaccine at a hospital in his home state of delaware along with his wife, jill. 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. 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 byjust one—tenth of a degree. some have suggested this may have been the source of a bright light in the sky 2000 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. residents on hawaii's big island have been warned to take

shelter from ash after the kilauea volcano erupted on sunday night following an earthquake swarm. the eruption was contained within the summit caldera with lava fountaining up to 25 metres high and flowing into the base of the crater, generating a growing lava lake. a magnitude 4.4 earthquake was recorded beneath the volcano's south flank around an hour after the eruption began. kilauea, which is one of the most active volcanos in the world, last erupted in 2018. finally, firefighters in california have been called out to rescue father christmas after he got stuck in power lines. the santa—suited paraglider hit a pole, while coming in to land with a sack full of candy canes. the fan—powered glider was left dangling from the electricity lines for several hours before mr claus could be rescued. firefighters tweeted that santa is safe and well and they'll make sure he uses his reindeer when he heads out later this year. and you can get in touch

with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbcmikeembley. 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: at least 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 co—ordinated, 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.