welcome to bbc news — i'm mike embley. our top stories: president trump retracts a $900 billion coronavirus relief package agreed to by congress after months of wrangling. the bill they are now planning to send back to my desk is much different than anticipated. it really is a disgrace. france re—opens its border to britain after a two—day closure leaves thousands of lorries stuck in south—east england. and israel heads for its fourth election in two years. parliament failed to meet a deadline to pass a budget. singing and how to sing safely this holiday season, with a little bit of help from scientists.

welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. president trump has threatened not to sign the covid relief bill that passed congress on monday night at a very torturous process. he urged congress to amend the $900 billion stimulus bill to increase payments to $2000 per american citizen. he called the bill a disgrace. but second lesson. i am asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2000 or $4000 for a couple. i'm also asking congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation. and to send me a suitable bill or else

the next administration will have to deliver a covid relief package and maybe that administration will be me, and we will get it done. thank you very much. president trump of course and a video message posted to twitter. we are getting a little bit more on that later from our north america correspondent peter bowes. gatherings are more than five people are going to be banned in south korea's capital region because of an explosive surge in brand virus infections. ski resort is a major tourist spots will shut down on new year's eve, the most serious stab the government has taken so far to reinstate social distancing. the measures will be in place until the third of january. the measures will be in place until the third ofjanuary. the port of dover has officially reopened. 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. 0nly 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 40 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 him 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? you can see,

the queue is too big. 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 impact on our ability to move our fresh and chilled food. 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. 0ur reporter told me the end may be inside for the stranded laurie drivers at least. in terms of testing the lorry drivers, they say that will take place tomorrow

morning and are likely to see lorries boarding ferries early tomorrow morning. what is 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 has alarmed so many people around the world. it could be the lateral flow test which is the quicker one, or the pcr, the swab test which is longer. but it has to be the case before they‘ re allowed in and they need to show proof of that before they are allowed in. these rules apply until the sixth of january so many people, the race is on to get back home in time for christmas or new year. more generally, the rest of the eu 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‘ re recommending that there's this 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 and just to give you an example, dutch media are reporting, and don't forget the netherlands 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, the netherlands, can fly 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. and the focus on a lot

on the lorries and the lorry drivers and this bottleneck at the port but of 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 home for christmas. not really surprising is it that people are getting emotional, it's so exhausting and frustrating for people. the rest of the world of course is taking a 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, the agony we heard in that clip has probably been repeated many times over because up to 50

countries oi’ even more than 50 countries are now banning travel from the uk, although that might change if those eu recommendations are taken seriously. one 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 this concern because of the variant that was found to the covid—i9 disease. mike lobel there. thejustice department in the us has launched a lawsuit over walmart because of the opioid crisis. they allege they have made it worse by unlawfully stripping controlled su bsta nces worse by unlawfully stripping controlled substances through its in—store pharmacies. 0pioid use and deaths in the country have risen sharply in the past few decades. thousands of anti—government protesters in armenia have demanded the prime

minister resigned over the peace deal he signed with azerbaijan. the deal promoted. there after the recent civil war, armenia had to concede significant amounts of territory to azerbaijan. joe biden has outlined plans to transform the coronavirus response as soon as he takes office. he says his administration will reorganise vaccine distribution and ask congress to pass another relief bill despite plans for more testing and production of protective equipment, he says americans need to step up to 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.

as mr biden did this week, doctor anthony fauci, america's top infectious disease expert received a lifestream to jab. he received the moderna vaccine, the second ones to be given emergency use authorisation in the united states. 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 followed by surges in another part of the country. we are a very large country, we have 330 plus million people in the country and i think it would 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 was a problem. the other thing was mixed

messaging that we've had. it's been much politicised. there has been in this situation, i think that everybody realises, a great deal of divisiveness in this 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. doctor anthony fauci of course. it's take you back to this breaking news the cell that president trump has threatened to sign the covid relief bill that passed the very torturous process through congress on monday night. he is urging congress to amend it to increase payments to $2000 per citizens. let's go to peter bowes. what is really happening here? i know there has been a lot of rubbings on capitol hill, the president has taken almost no part in the passing of the bill, he has been so engaged in trying to fight his election defeat. what is really happening, this is either a bluff on the part of the president or a major bombshell

just before christmas with those many millions of americans who have been hoping for those lump sum payments, also extra unemployment benefits and a great raft of other aid measures to help people through the coronavirus pandemic but especially on those payments, the president now saying that, as you say, without really taking part in the process, he wants those individual payments, which would go to most americans, people earning under $75,000 a year, he wants them increased from $600 to $2000. nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house situated in the last hour orso, house situated in the last hour or so, suggesting that the president, yes he wasn't part of the process, never actually said what figure he would agree on, she is a great, if it is $2,000, the democrats would agree to they would go back to the house, the floor of the house this week and pass it. whether that is going to happen isa whether that is going to happen is a huge question. on that huge question peter, what do you think, what are people telling you? you think, what are people telling you ? what you think, what are people telling you? what is likely to happen next? well, one thing

that could happen is that the president, he didn't actually use the word veto in the video he made and released in his twitter account. he is strongly suggested that the bill should be amended. 0ne suggested that the bill should be amended. one possibility is that he would simply change his mind in 24 hours time and it will be signed because republicans, lindsey graham, what of his closest friends has come out suggesting that the best way forward is for the bill to be signed. the ball is in the president's court. but if not, it really does leave everything hanging in the air. and the statement by the president suggesting that he perhaps doesn't understand the process because it hasn't been maybe widely reported of course but another bill, another much bigger spending bill was linked to this coronavirus aid and that bill includes many other issues relating to spending by the us government over the next few weeks. the government and the president is complaining about some aspects of that bill that had nothing to do with coronavirus aid. so he will be

leaving this very minute in washington a lot of aids to congressmen and women are scratching their heads as to what exactly the next movies. peter, i must ask you that of the news that has been breaking. the president has pardoned more people, people who have emitted some questionable actions? yes, clemency for 15 people, including two, including george papadopoulos, including two, including george pa padopoulos, perhaps the best—known, a fairly low ranking aid to the president, that he admitted lying to fbi investigators, to the muller enquiry, looking into alleged russian meddling in the 2016 election. he admitted his part in that, he went to jail for some 12 days. now he has a full pardon —— mueller. this was a lwa ys pardon —— mueller. this was always controversial. it's interesting the president should release a statement about the coronavirus bill at almost exactly the same time as this news is emerging, almost as if it was an attempt to

distract the media. almost as if. peter, thank you very much for that. stay with us if you can on bbc news. it is more to come, including this. singing with security in mind this festive season. 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: president trump has described a $900 billion coronavirus relief package, eventually, disagreeing with congress as a disgrace and demanding changes. the port of dover is officially open, that uk and france have reached agreement to resolve the border closures amid concerns about the new variant of coronavirus. well, as we have been hearing, the president—elect is saying americans need to stay up and do their bit to control the spread of the virus and things

are going to get worse before they get better. i spoke to doctor susan bailey, president of the american adequate association. leading figures taking the vaccine could make a difference, is what i asked her. i think it is very important for everybody to see that the people that they respect, their physicians, their local leaders and yes their national leaders getting this vaccine to help instill confidence in the vaccine. even though mr trump 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 will 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. 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 all need to double down on hand—washing, wearing masks, social distancing and trying to refrain from travel during the holidays. yes, 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. doctor susan bailey, president of the american medical association. israel will have its for the election in two yea rs. the spigot dissolved parliament. this is required by law. —— a speaker. the bill to allow more time was voted down against expectations. it means is really is returned to the polls in march, just one year after the last election. this was the line—up last time, a coalition between prime minister benjamin netanyahu, leader of the right likud, and his political rival, benny gantz, of the centrist blue and white party. mr ganz assumed the new deal of alternate prime

minister. he was supposed to trade places with mr netanyahu next november, now that won't happen. translation: we don't want elections, and we are therefore willing to vote today in the ca nasta willing to vote today in the canasta against elections stop but if elections are forced on us, we shall win —— can s it was that it will be tricky for misty neta nyahu, was that it will be tricky for misty netanyahu, commando turned by minister, seen here receiving the coronavirus vaccine on live tv. he is israel's longest serving prime minister but he will first have to clear his name in a corruption trial. mr ganz has even accused mr netanyahu of taking israel to elections to avoid going to court. is baileys are not impressed. there is anger over the government handling of the pandemic with weekly anti—government protests. backing for likud has dipped in recent polls, and so has support for the centre—left blue and white party, however,

there is a new challenge from there is a new challenge from the right. former likud mp, gideon sa'ar, has formed his own right wing party and stands to be loads from mr netanyahu's political base. arun a younger, bbc news. people are being told not to sing this christmas in order to reduce the spread of coronavirus. 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.

that is it for now. thank you so much 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. but 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, but 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 in its own, particularly from wales through the midlands across into east anglia, there's a chance of flooding in places as the ground is saturated from all the recent rain here. probably raining everywhere, there will be some 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 cold with some wintry showers over the north. now, as that area of low pressure pulls away, we'll start to see, er, northerly gales develop across parts of wales, western england, around the channel for a time, and then we'll see further showers across the northern half of the country. these will be wintry over the high ground. but much colder air starting 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, though, on the chart across the eastern half of the country. so it will be windy here, and that's going to drag

in a few showers for christmas eve here. it may leave rain here to lower levels, we could see some wintriness over the higher ground. there'll be one or two dotted around western coasts, but for most it's a cold start but a brighter day — plenty of sunshine across england and wales. a bit of cloud across the far north of scotland. and those temperatures 4—7 degrees, out on the wind across the east it's going to feel pretty raw. and then for christmas day itself, we continue with our area of high pressure. we start to see this weather front, though, arriving later on in the day. but we start christmas morning off on a cold note, under clear skies, we ll see a widespread frost to greet us for christmas morning. and 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. another cold day for christmas day, 4—7 degrees. as we head on into boxing day, it turns much more unsettled, very windy, widespread gales, outbreaks of rain, that also lasting into sunday, with sunshine and showers.

our top stories: president trump has precedence not to sign a 900 billion dollar coronavirus relief package agreed to by congress after months of wrangling. he said the bill was a disgrace with wasteful spending on foreign countries and special interest. he wants to increase the payment to families to $2,000 each. france re—opens its border to britain after a two—day closure leaves thousands of lorries stuck in south—east england. restrictions were imposed in response to a new strain of coronavirus. great drivers and citizens will be allowed in but only if they have a negative virus test. and israel heads to its fourth election in two years. the governing coalition failed to pass a budget by the midnight deadline. elections are due in march when the trial of the prime minister benjamin netanyahu on corruption charges is expected to have begun.