this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. france re—opens its border to britain after a two—day closure leaves thousands of lorries stuck in south—east england. freight drivers and eu citizens will be allowed in but only if they can provide a negative coronavirus test. this will take two or three days for things to be cleared, and before that, callers should not move themselves to kent, it won't speed things up for you. you're better off waiting where you are and awaiting further instructions. as the us congress passes a coronavirus relief package, president—electjoe biden warns the worst is yet to come. our darkest days in the battle against covid are ahead of us, not behind us.

president trump issues more than a dozen pardons, including a former aide who pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. israel is heading for its fourth election in two years after parliament failed to meet a deadline to pass a budget. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. france has re—opened its borders to britain, allowing thousands of stranded drivers the chance to cross the english channel to the continent but conditions apply. only eu citizens or residents, freight drivers, fishing crews and some others will be allowed in. and drivers must produce a negative coronavirus certificate issued in the past 72—hours. that's led to angry scenes in dover, where drivers argued with police. france imposed a two—day ban after a new highly—infectious variant of coronavirus

was identified in britain. in addition, more than a0 countries worldwide have stopped flights coming in from the uk. from dover, caroline davies has more. parked nose to bumper, almost 3,000 lorries stranded in kent. this is 0peration brock in action, a way of keeping kent's roads moving by diverting lorries to an empty airstrip. this is manston airfield and as you can see, there's just been a steady stream of lorries coming past me since i've been standing here. it is looking like over there, it's already filling up. some in the industry worried that as many as 6,000—7,000 lorries were heading to dover today. along the route in, miles from the port, lorries tucked into lay—bys or parking lots. by the side of the road, we meet hameed from turkey. he showed us his bread, yoghurt, eggs and tea he carries with him to keep them going. with a few words of english,

he told us he's come from leeds and got stuck here on his way home. many of the drivers here now have empty lorries after dropping their food and goods off for christmas. everything was ok. .. these drivers arrived on sunday. they're trying to get home to bosnia and italy. we were hoping to go back to our homes for new year with our family, to celebrate, but now, it's not going to happen, not this year. we don't have a bathroom, we don't have anything, you know? we are stuck here, maybe for days. shouting. by this evening, frustrations were starting to show, with a spontaneous protest outside the port's entrance, and then a breakthrough. any passengers going to france, and at the moment, i'm afraid that's mostly french citizens returning and one or two other exceptions. they will need a lateral flow test or a pcr test, but a test within the 72—hour period before they go

to france. of course, anyone coming this way, and again, we are not encouraging anyone to travel right now, will need to follow our rules, which are self isolation for ten days or a test to release after five days. and further news on lorry drivers... from 6am tomorrow morning, the army and nhs staff will begin the process of testing hauliers at manston airport. they will be using the lateral flow test rather than the pcr test, which is much faster, around half—an—hour. if the driver tests negative, they will then be free to go across to france, regardless of their nationality. beeping and shouting. tonight in dover, there was still anger and confusion. this is not good. that is horrible things. and now they say they need a pcr test, how? is it possible? we have our test because we were thinking about this when we were thinking

about going to romania. we had our test already, but they didn't say anything about it. many in the industry were hoping for a deal but know this will be a logistical challenge. if it is the way it has to be done, they will have to find a way but it will be very slow, and it will have a long—term this evening, the government are asking hauliers not to travel to kent. many will spend a third night here in their vehicles. and they are still not certain if they will get back for christmas. caroline davies, bbc news. let's get more from our reporter mark lobel. what reporter mark lobel. is france saying first of there what is france saying first of there is also breaking news from the port? that is right, dover authorities confirming the port is now open. in terms of testing the lorry drivers, they say that will take place tomorrow morning and are likely tomorrow morning and are likely to see lorries boarding ferries early tomorrow morning. what is france saying more broadly? france saying more broadly? france now wants to allow some passengers to enter the country

if they have a negative covid test. they have essentially lifted the ban on flight, ferries and eurostar trains for french nationals, eu citizens and those with residency in france. now they have to have a test within three days of travelling. it has to be a test that picks up this new variant of covid that is a wonder so many people around the world. it could be the lateral flow test which is the quicker one, oi’ test which is the quicker one, or the pcr, the swab test which is longer. but it has to be the case before they allowed in and they need to show proof of that before they are allowed in. these rules apply to the sixth of january so many people, the races on to get back home in time for christmas or new year. more generally, the rest of your opinion is taking a position of this? all of the countries except for cyprus and greece in the eu have issued a travel ban for uk travellers. what the eu is trying to do is lift that blanket ban as soon as possible and they are recommending that there is this test, the negative covid test

thatis test, the negative covid test that is shown up to three days before travelling. they are saying essential travel is — should be back on. non—essential should be delayed until further notice but essential travel for medical staff and for people who are returning home who they then advise should quarantine when they get there. now the decision will ultimately be for member states to decide on just to give you an example, dutch media reporting, don't forget benevolence was the first country to put the ban in place, they are reporting that the ban has been lifted. and so, people can return to holland, benevolence, canfly between the two places, as long as they have a pcr test again within three days of travelling showing that they are testing negative for coronavirus. 0nly refocus a lot on the lorries and the lorry drivers and this bottleneck at the port but of course, this very sudden travel thanit course, this very sudden travel than it has taken place only in the last 3.5 days in very dramatic fashion has affected a lot of people's lives. it is best summed up by this clip we

are about to hear from a passenger who spoke at stansted airport. my mother has cancer and now i am trying to change my flights... i am very worried. i am very angry because this coronavirus, i wish, all the tourists can get over for christmas. not really surprising is it that people are getting emotional, it so exhausting and frustrating for so many people. the rest of the world of courses taking position, even though most medics and scientists are telling us that the variant is almost certainly in many other countries apart from the uk and south africa. that is right, in agony we had in that clip has probably been repeated many times over because up to 50 countries or times over because up to 50 countries oi’ even more times over because up to 50 countries or even more than 50 countries or even more than 50 countries are now banning travel from the uk, although that might change if those eu recommendations are taken seriously. 0ur a exception to this is america. their top

infectious disease expert says it would be an overreaction to ban travel from the uk but does insist on recommending testing. if you go the other way, switzerland has asked people who have arrived from the uk to the middle of december to actually quarantine. for some people, it is not worth staying and they have turned around and given up on their skiing holidays. but the ban is very much a worldwide thing after all of this concern because of the variance that was found to the variance that was found to the covid—i9 disease. the variance that was found to the covid-19 disease. mark, thank you very much. are people who may have just joined thank you very much. are people who may havejustjoined us. repeating that breaking news, the dover port press office now confirming that the dover report is now open. they say the truck drivers are likely to get tests and bought ferries in the morning. the dover port now open. let's get some of the day's other news. president trump has given out more pardons over the last three hours, including to a former aide who was guilty in lying to investigators during

the fbi organisation. he is expected to issue a flurry of pardons in the coming weeks as he concludes his term. the usjustice department has launched a lawsuit against the retail giant walmart, over the american opioid crisis. the government alleges the firm has made the crisis worse by unlawfully distributing controlled su bsta nces to its in—store pharmacies. 0pioid use and deaths in america have risen sharply over the last few decades. israel is heading to a new election. the current prime minister is likely to face gantz ina minister is likely to face gantz in a few months just 12 months after the last election. us president—electjoe biden has outlined plans to transform america's coronavirus response as soon as he takes office. he said his administration would reorganise vaccine distribution and ask congress to pass another relief bill. despite plans for more testing and higher production of protective equipment, the president—elect says americans need to step up and do their part to control the spread of the virus.

0ur darkest days in the battle against covid are ahead of us, not behind us. so we need to prepare ourselves, to steel our spines. as frustrating as it is to hear, it's going to take patience, persistence and determination to beat this virus. there'll be no time to waste in taking the steps we need to turn this crisis around. it comes as america's top infectious disease expert, dr anthony fauci, received a vaccine jab during a live—streamed event at the national institutes of health. he received the moderna vaccine which was the second vaccine to be authorised for emergency use in the us. here's what he had to say just before receiving his first dose. when dealing with a pandemic thatis when dealing with a pandemic that is involving the entire country, i believe it would have been better to have a more uniformity of response rather than have different states

doing different things in different ways, and you have surges in one part of the country surges in one part of the cou ntry followed surges in one part of the country followed by surges in another part of the country. we are very country, we have 230 plus million people in the country and i think it would have been better if we did things ina have been better if we did things in a more uniform, consistent way when we are talking about the implementation of public health practices. that is just one of the things that i think were a problem. the other thing was mixed messaging that we have had. it has been much politicised. there have been in this situation i think that anybody realises a great deal of divisiveness in this country. there are people that ta ke country. there are people that take sides as to what kind of implementation, of public health measures they should or should not do. the bottom line is rather inconsistent in our response. dr susan bailey is president of the american medical association. she's in fort worth, texas. thank you very much for your

time, good to talk to you. you have to wonder don't you for people who are doubtful or nervous of this vaccine for all kinds of reasons, is it really going to make much difference to see people they might suspect a part of the conspiracy getting the vaccine? well, thank you for having me andi well, thank you for having me and i think it is very important for everybody to see that the people that they respect, their physicians, their local leaders and yes their local leaders and yes their national leaders getting this vaccine to help instill confidence in the vaccine. even though mrtrump confidence in the vaccine. even though mr trump was probably still has some immunity, you would like to see him get it to? that will be between him and his doctor but folks who have had diagnosed coronavirus are not yet in the queue to receive shots in the united states. but hopefully he will get it at some point in time as well every other american that is able to. what do you make of the new variants of

coronavirus, around 23, most medics and scientists are telling us? it cannot, if it is so infectious, surely not only be in the uk and south africa, do you think it's in the us? we think it probably is what we haven't done the extensive testing that has been done in the uk but it probably is there. it seems to make it more contagious but we do believe testing is being done right now to confirm this, that the virus, the vaccine will still prevent this new strain of virus. but it brings home the point that regardless of the strain, regardless of your situation, we'll need to double down on hand washing, wearing masks, social distancing and trying to refrain from travel during the holidays. so given all that, would not make more sense for countries to be worrying less about their borders and more about dealing with the virus within their borders? it is everyone's responsibility to take care of themselves and take care of

each other by following these basic public health measures. which we are going to need to continue to do after we get the vaccines. that's for a while until we feel like we have really got the disease in hand. just very briefly if you don't mind, the president—elect is wanting things are going to get worse before they get any better, how much worse do you think? i worry that it is going to get worse because we are now seeing record numbers of cases in the united states, record numbers of hospitalisations and we know that chefs follow along behind that. the vaccine is not going to affect enough people quickly enough to make any impact on the people who are already ill now and have been exposed. so i am very concerned that it will be a dark couple of months. we have all got to do our part to fight the spread by wearing our masks, washing our hands on social distancing. doctor susan bailey, president of the american medical school association, thank you.

thanks to you for being with us. stay with us if you can. still to come: the world heavyweight champion, anthonyjoshua, warns the next generation of boxing stars could be lost because of the pandemic. 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. very glad to have you back on bbc news. 0ne main headline: the uk and france reach an agreement to resolve the border crisis amid concerns about the new variant of coronavirus but thousands of lorries are still stuck in south—east england. let's get more on the pandemic and head to australia. authorities there have made small changes to coronavirus restrictions in place in sydney, ahead of christmas following the recent northern beaches outbreak.

a five—day lockdown in the suburbs in the north of the city will be extended, with the region split into two zones and small exceptions made for christmas. greater sydney residents can have ten guests plus kids for three days only before reverting back to existing rules. professor mary—louise mclaws is an epidemiologist at the university of new south wales in sydney. she believes the rules the state has imposed are not strict enough to spread the outbreak. —— stop the outbreak. from an outbreak management perspective, no, sadly no. the northern beaches had had a number of cases that seemed to be declining, but from an outbreak management perspective, you would expect zero cases, or at least —— for at least twice and incubation period, as this is a large cluster, and you would suggest no—one visits you at home if you live in the northern beaches, even in the northern focused area, because what will happen is people will visit and

of course there may well be increases in clusters. and i know this is a difficult time, christmas is a difficult time, but we have had eid and chanukah and those celebrations have been disturbed. this is 2020, and this has been a terrible year. i understand that our premiere doesn't want to disappoint people, because in australia christmas is very important for everyone across our wide ethnic and cultural groups, but from an outbreak perspective, sadly, iwould be a little tougher. professor mary—louise mclaws at the university of new south wales there. the world heavyweight boxing champion anthonyjoshua has warned that the next generation of boxing stars could be lost to the sport if it fails to be supported financially during the pandemic. he's making a substantial donation, he says, to help amateur clubs, many of which were forced to close during lockdown.

it follows his recent successful world title defence which has paved the way for an all—british title fight against tyson fury next year. he's been speaking to our sports editor, dan roan. he may be on top of the boxing world, but anthonyjoshua is now fighting for those starting out in the sport. the heavyweight champion making what he has called a substantial donation to boxing's governing bodies to help amateur clubs survive the pandemic. today, in the finchley gym where it all began for him, he told me why such places needed help. so i am a professional now, but i am so close to, like, the grassroots sport. i believe in the next 10—15 years you will see the next, you know, leaders of tomorrow coming through. it's not going to be 10—15, it's going to end up being 20—30 years due to this period of a lost generation, and that is why it is important that we keep these gyms open. joshua stepped in after the government left boxing out of £300 million rescue package for cash—strapped sports hit by the pandemic, last month. we just want to raise the eyebrows of people in power to somehow think in the future, if there is ever an opportunity

to invest in sports again, to try and include boxing. because you know, £300 million is a substantial amount. even £3,000 to a boxing gym makes a massive difference. without grassroots, there is no tyson fury, there is no anthonyjoshua. the news was welcomed here at the sting like a bee initiative near salford, which tries to tackle anti—social behaviour through boxing, and, like many gyms, is in a deprived area. especially, like, now, because, like, everyone is inside, frightenedof coronavirus. lots of people are staying inside and just watching the tv and playing computer games. you need to stay healthy and keep active. boxing is a massive, massive part of the community and it is needed. what anthonyjoshua is doing there is amazing, to be fair. england boxing are on their knees. a lot of the money doesn't necessarily filter down to these gyms. joshua's next target is this man, fellow british heavyweight champion tyson fury, as long as a defining unification mega—fight can be agreed for next summer. me and him, competitor

to competitor, it's massive. but for the world, a boxing show that's going to be one of the biggest events in the uk since the world cup, it's going to boost the economy, boost the morale of the people. you know, let's get behind boxing. how confident are you it will happen next year? i'm certain, i'm keen, i'm ready. we can do it back here at finchley if we have to! i want to be the undisputed heavyweight champion, that's legacy. but whatever happens next year, joshua will hope he's already helped others to follow in his footsteps in a sport he's close to conquering. dan roan, bbc news. church services will be much quieter than usual this christmas — not just because of restrictions on movement, but also because worshippers of all religions have been asked not to sing, to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. now scientists from university college london are trying to find ways to make singing safer. 0ur health correspondent catherine burns has this. singing

a sign of the times. the words are more than a thousand years old, but with the 2020 twist — a face mask. but what does that have to do with this? # la. religion and science, two parts of professor lawrence lovett‘s life. he says that most of the evidence on face covering looks at coughing and sneezing. he wants to know what difference they make to singing. i think that singing in communal worship is incredibly important, it's an absolutely central part of worship. and if it's safe to do, then i will be the first person to do it. if it's not safe to do, i'm for certain not going to do it. this is where the choir stands in this synagogue. they are still allowed, but must be socially distanced. so they've limited the amount of music during services here. across england, government guidelines for churches, mosques and temples say that the rest of worshippers

cannotjoin in singing or chanting. i don't think any church leader ever thought they'd be in the position of standing in front of their congregation and saying, "don'tjoin in, please don't sing." sarah hunter is a church of england lay minister and choir director and one of the volunteers taking part in this study. coronavirus is mostly spread through droplets from coughs, sneezes and people talking. so, sarah has to breathe, speak and sing... # la. ..with and without a face mask. it's normally filmed in the dark with a high—speed camera and a laser to show up the droplets. hello. these pictures are slowed down 100 times less than reality. a volunteer singing a note without a mask. you can see lots of droplets swirling around. but the researchers say when someone wears a surgical—type face mask, either singing or speaking, there are almost no droplets at all and any that do get

through travel more slowly, and so can't spread as far. most of the volunteers so far have been christian and jewish, but the team wants other faiths to take part, too. i'm hoping that we can get as many people as possible to get involved in the trial. especially when i think there's been such an emphasis on physical health, but spiritual health has been largely ignored. the study hopes to influence government policy on worship and will also look at how volume effects droplets. so maybe worshippers will be able to sing together, but quietly. catherine burns, bbc news. briefly and finally... a giant iceberg drifting through the south atlantic looks to have experienced a major break—up. the latest satellite images reveal major fissures in the tabular berg known as a68a. it broke away originaly from anatartica in 2017. scientists have been watching to see if it might ground in shallow water.

were that to happen — and parts of the iceberg still could — it might cause problems for the british 0verseas territory‘s penguins and seals as they go about foraging for fish and krill. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbcmikeembley. much more news on our social media feeds. thank you for watching. hello there. it's going to settle down as we move into the christmas period with high—pressure dominating. we should see quite a bit of sunshine but also some frost. before we reach that point, we've got quite a bit of rain in the forecast for wednesday, particularly across the southern half of the country. all tied in with this area of low pressure. this is the high—pressure that's going to win out for the christmas period. we have to contend with this first. it's going to bring a lot of cloud across much of england and wales through the day today. some of it will be heavy, and particularly from wales through the midlands across into east anglia, there's a chance of flooding in places as the ground is saturated from other recent rain. rain everywhere, there will be drier, brighter spells around, very mild in the south, but it's scotland and northern

ireland that will see the best and the brightest, but it will be called with some wintry showers over the north. as that area of low pressure pulls away, we will start to see northerly gales develop across parts of wales, western england around the channel for a time, and then we will see further showers across the northern half of the country. these will be wintry over the high ground. much colder air starts to sink southwards as we move through wednesday night. you can see a widespread frost across central and northern areas. so this area of high pressure eventually topples in from the west for christmas eve. quite a few isobars in the charts across the eastern part of the country. —— from the west. so it will be windy here and that's going to drag in a few showers for christmas eve here. mainly rain and lower levels, we could see some wintriness over the high ground from a one or two dotted around western coasts, but for it's a cold start but a brighter day, plenty of sunshine across england and wales.

a bit of thought across the far north of scotland. those temperatures 4—7 degrees, and on the wind, it will feel pretty cold. then for christmas day itself, we continue with our area of high—pressure starts to see this weather front arriving later on in the day. there will be plenty of sparkling sunshine as well, especially for england and wales as we start to see more cloud across the north and west as that weather front i showed you begins to bring some wetter and windier weather certainly to western scotland. and cold day for christmas day, four to seven degrees. as we head on into boxing day, much more unsettled, very windy, widespread gales outbreaks of rain, that is also lasting into sunday with sunshine and showers.

this is bbc news, the headlines: france the headlines: has reopened its borders to france has reopened its borders to traffic from britain are day closure left thousands of trucks stranded in south—east england. the port of dover is officially open. free drivers officially open. free drivers of citizens will be allowed into france but only if they have a negative test. joe biden has warned the american people that the darkest days in the battle against covid—i9 still lie ahead. he has outlined plans to transform the response of the pandemic when he takes office next month. donald trump has issued a wave of pre—christmas pardons. those who'll benefit include george papadopoulos a former campaign aide, who pleaded guilty three years ago of lying to the fbi as part of the investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election. now on bbc news —

amanda ruggeri explores