this is bbc news, our top stories: the uk and european union hammer out the final details of a christmas eve post—brexit trade deal. but with one week to go until the end of the transition period, the talks are still reported to be snagged on the eu's right to fish in british waters. another six million people in england are told to stay at home from boxing day as the toughest level of covid restrictions are widened. the uk transport secretary urges thousands of lorry drivers waiting to cross the channel to be patient, but on the ground, that is in short supply. president trump has issued another round of pardons — among them, two key allies who were convicted over the russia inquiry.

hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world, and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. the uk and the european union are on the brink of an historic post—brexit trade and security deal, ending nearly a year of bitter wrangling. an announcement that the two sides have secured an agreement on their future relationship, which will avoid import taxes on each other‘s goods, is expected in the coming hours. but, yet again, fishing is the issue they're stuck on, and a news conference which was initially expected first thing this morning has been delayed. negotiators from both sides talked through the night in brussels and are continuing to hammer out the details. i'm joined now by our europe correspondent. gavin lee is at the

european commission in brussels and our political correspondent iain watson is in downing street for us. i ,to , to you first. what is the word on the ground there? any muttering about a possible breakthrough? the ground there? any muttering about a possible breakthrough7m the ground there? any muttering about a possible breakthrough? if it is not to come, the readiness is the message i am getting, it could come at any point today, but not in the next few hours. we are expecting a good few hours yet, and one official who was privy to the talks has told me they are aiming, in every way they can, to leave before midnight tonight with an agreement signed and sealed, at least, you know, with a press c0 nfe re nce sealed, at least, you know, with a press conference by both sides, borisjohnson on press conference by both sides, boris johnson on one press conference by both sides, borisjohnson on one side and as von der leyen from the other. —— ursula von der leyen. i don't think we are going to get all the details of the 2000 pages of the document of the post—brexit new trade agreement that is imminent, but at least we should

throw away the idea of timing. i have got a bit of news about 15 minutes or so ago, the only news we have had all day, which is that the negotiators have had sandwiches for lunch, brought in by the residency of the british embassy, so that is where we are, that is the level of insight we are getting. just to step back a second, this matters, there is so much massive detail here, going through the quotas and species of fish for the next few years that the eu has access to, there was eight coastal member states, and that amount will dwindle over those yea rs that amount will dwindle over those years up until about five or six yea rs, years up until about five or six years, when the uk started to redefine its own waters. that is what is at play at the moment, and we are looking at no tariffs, quota free trade deal in which there still will be bureaucracy, one week and one day's time, but a big relief for hundreds if not thousands of businesses in the uk, that there will be something coming up. 0k, gavin, i want to bring

will be something coming up. 0k, gavin, iwant to bring in will be something coming up. 0k, gavin, i want to bring in iain watson, who is in downing street. of course, a deal is important to the eu, but arguably even more important to the uk, given how much is at sta ke to the uk, given how much is at stake and all the issues on which they need to cooperate in future. absolutely, that is the case, and as farasl absolutely, that is the case, and as faras i am absolutely, that is the case, and as far as i am aware, despite these delays, obviously, again, overthe details of what had been agreed on fishing rights, nonetheless the sense from downing street is of no big strategic difference now between the eu and the uk, and the big picture is that both sides want to get a trade deal over the line, they wa nt get a trade deal over the line, they want to get that deal done obviously before christmas day, and it is pretty close to being achieved. and certainly that would avoid, in most cases, it would avoid tariffs or indeed quotas being applied to uk goods being exported to the eu. now, the uk had a trade deficit, of course, with the eu, so it is hugely advantageous to the eu to have a

tariff free agreement, but from the uk point of view, fishing is responsible for 0.12% of the uk economy, so responsible for 0.12% of the uk economy, so the trade in goods is worth far more, and from the uk point of view, there will be no additional burdens placed on business. but of course in a week's time, eu rules and regulations are left behind, the end of the brexit transition period, there will be huge changes in any case. outside of the single market, outside of the customs union, there will be bureaucracy on business, new customs arrangements are being phased in over six months. sol arrangements are being phased in over six months. so i think notjust from an economic point of view, but from an economic point of view, but from an economic point of view, but from a political point of view it is important for boris johnson to be able to say to people who perhaps voted for his party for the first time on the slogan get brexit done one year ago, that he has been able to achieve a deal which will protect some of the ukjobs. from his point of view too, in terms of britain's standing in the world, the fact that

he can get this agreement with a major trading partner, the he can get this agreement with a majortrading partner, the uk's majortrading partner, the uk's major trading partner, will stand him in good stead with the new administration in the us who have been watching the brexit process closely, and of course the uk once a trade deal with the usa too. and in terms of the current held up, it does look as though very much it is down to discussions of a specific quotas for fishing, but the big picture is that the compromises have already been done, phone calls between borisjohnson already been done, phone calls between boris johnson and the already been done, phone calls between borisjohnson and the eu commission president yesterday, so there has been a compromise on phasing in the new fishing arrangements, for example. interesting, though, that the call between borisjohnson interesting, though, that the call between boris johnson and interesting, though, that the call between borisjohnson and ursula von der leyen, the final call that would be necessarily to verbally sign off the deal, still hasn't happened, and that will unlock the rest of the process, which would be a recall of parliament, and a retrospective endorsement from the european parliament next year. iain watson

keeping watch in westminster, gavin lee in brussels, thank you both very much. we can speak now to the conservative mp and prominent brexiteer andrew bridgen. andrew, when out at some point emerge with this 2000 page draft deal, what will you be looking for in particular before you give it your backing? well, i will be looking to ensure that the prime minister hasn't crossed any of our brexit red lines, that we are taking back full control of our laws, borders, money. that is what we promised the people at the general election only just promised the people at the general election onlyjust over a year ago, and that is what people voted for at the referendum, and that is what our democracy demands. it is all very encouraging at the moment, and if boris has managed to pull off this deal in record time with the european union, people had said it would take seven years, but we will have done it in nine months. that

will be a great christmas present for all of the uk, but of course the devil may be in the detail, and i can't commit my support for a deal until we have read all the detail. 0f until we have read all the detail. of course, if we get to the 31st of december and there is no deal, or it is not agreed by that point, the disruption could potentially be huge, couldn't it? it could, but there are ways around that. if negotiations were ongoing and serious, we could use wto rules, gat 24, to serious, we could use wto rules, gat 2a, to suspend tariffs until trade negotiations were completed. that is within the remit of the european union to agree that with the uk. what i am rather hoping happens is that both sides can agree to implement the new deal and then have scrutiny of it afterwards so that we are not rushed into agreeing terms on 2000 plus pages document, because

people need to realise that a treaty of this sort is notjust for christmas. that aside, andrew, is there not a danger that in the focus on this one key issue of fishing rights, that they are getting so occupied with a symbolic and political matter that, in economic terms, is such a small part of the uk economy, that it takes attention from the bigger picture things like, you know, financial services, to the extent that it is like arguing over brussel sprouts at christmas dinner while you are leaving the turkey to go cold. it is totemic for both sides, the argument works for the european union as much as it works for the uk. ultimately, we don't wa nt to for the uk. ultimately, we don't want to be the only nation in the world that doesn't have control of its own fishing waters. that would bea its own fishing waters. that would be a ludicrous situation. we were a sovereign nation with control of our own fishing grounds when we went

into the european union. as we leave, we should take back control of those as well. i am willing to accept a transition period to soften the adjustment for eu fishermen, and also we need time for our own domestic fishing industry to expand to ta ke domestic fishing industry to expand to take up that capacity that is going to become available after the ist of january. going to become available after the 1st ofjanuary. 0k, andrew bridgen, thanks very much, really appreciate you speaking to us. now to coronavirus, and new figures show infections continue to rise across most of the uk, driven by a faster—spreading strain. six million people in the uk are preparing to face tougher restrictions from boxing day, with much of the south and east of england moving to the highest tier 4 level. with the details, here's our health correspondent laura foster. her report contains flash photography. not all people with covid—i9 will need hospital treatment, but if the virus keeps spreading, the nhs will be put under even more pressure. a new, more contagious variant is driving cases

in the south east of england, but now there are fresh concerns about another variant from south africa. we only have evidence of a couple of cases that have been detected. like the new variant of circulating in the south east, it appears to be more infectious. again, it is not clear we are getting more severe symptoms and a higher risk of hospitalisation, but it is something we need to keep monitoring. the figures suggest one in 85 people in homes in england had the virus, in wales one in 60, in northern ireland one in 180, but in scotland one in mo, slightly down on last week. everyone is being asked to stick to social distancing rules. what we need to see is greater compliance with the advice, and to try to remember to carry your mask at all times, wear it whenever you are in a crowded place. wear it more often than you might have thought you needed to.

it's been two weeks since margaret keenan became the first person to receive the covid vaccine. since then, nearly half a million people in the uk have had it, 70% of them over the age of 80, and they're due back for their second jabs after christmas. laura foster, bbc news. the uk transport secretary, grant shapps, has urged lorry drivers stranded in kent in southern england to be patient as they wait to cross the channel following the re—opening of the french border. more than 6000 lorries are being held in the county, with drivers tested for covid—i9 before they are allowed into france. the french government has sent a team of firefighters and 10,000 tests to help speed up the process. andy moore is in doverfor us. what is the picture like where you are? well, the picture is that traffic is beginning to move, but very slowly. as you say, something

like 6000 lorries stuck in kent, and at manston, the airfield base on the motorway, and i'd lay byes across the county. but drivers are being tested and allowed to come down here to the ferry port, and you can probably see some vehicles are beginning to get on board ferries. but it is a slow process. we heard overnight that about 100 vehicles got on board the ferry then. we haven't had an update on those figures yet. we know they will be continuing to operate tomorrow and the day after that, that is unusual, so the day after that, that is unusual, so that will help to catch up on the backlog, but it is a slow process. as you say, the french firefighters are here, i have seen them at work below the cliff, going to individual drivers, asking them to tilt back their heads so they can do this lateral flow test. what we don't know yet is whether any of these

drivers have tested positive and been turned back, and of course the whole point of restricting freight traffic is to stop the import of these new variant to france. so how successful that will actually be, we still don't know. colette andy, we can actually see pictures of drivers being tested, i think we can look at some of those now. just a moment ago there was a driver who was being swabbed, there in the hand of the official in the high vizjacket. i mean, there is a logistical question of how long it takes, because as you may believe they have to wait for the result and they have to hang about until they are given the nod to cross the channel. yes, it is a logistical nightmare. at manston, the drivers can do the test, white, and only then are they allowed to come down to the port. but there are

two main arteries come in here, there is the m2, and there are hundreds or thousands of lorries parked up on the m20, and that is a more difficult logistical task. some are being tested at the port, so they will be tested, then they have to wait 30—110 minutes before they are allowed to go on board the ferry. there will have to be in operation for some of them to be turned around, because drivers have failed the test. so it is a logistical nightmare, and you get the sense that the authorities here arejust doing their the sense that the authorities here are just doing their best to try to sort this out. we saw a little while earlier on, some nhs testers arriving in their vans, escorted by police, and even just arriving in their vans, escorted by police, and evenjust to get arriving in their vans, escorted by police, and even just to get the testis police, and even just to get the test is to report, of course, is very difficult. they have to have a police escort. there is gridlock of the town, for two or three miles around, you cannot move, we have had to walk that distance to get here.

local traffic cannot move around the port of dover at all, it is chaos, gradually reducing chaos, but chaos nonetheless. come out 0k, andy, thank you very much, and a the port of dover in southern england. in other news, at least 20 people are feared to have drowned after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of tunisia. a security official says five survivors have been rescued and that a search for others is continuing. the migrants had set out on thursday, hoping to reach the italian island of lampedusa. donald trump has issued another round of highly controversial pardons as his term in office draws to a close. mr trump's former campaign manager paul manafort and his long—time adviser roger stone are among the latest 26 people to benefit. both were jailed as a result of the mueller inquiry into russian interference in the 2016 election. i spoke to cbs correspondent debra alfarone earlier. i asked her how president trump's

pardons compare with those of past presidents. the president had given lot less power than other presidents at this point in their term. however, as you said before, he is definitely ramping up at this point. it's not unusual for presidents to give so many pardons at this point in their presidential career, with just 20 plus days left. however, what is a little bit different is that so many people that he is granting the pardons to, 90% is one estimate, are people that he has a direct tie to. loyalty may be one of the things that is driving him to give these types of pardons to people. you mentioned roger stone and paul manafort. they had some connection with the president, and they have the biggest audience with this president.

why are they so significant? we're talking about paul manafort and roger stone. they had the legal issues, because they were tied to the russian interference in the 2016 election. the president has been on their side for the whole time. he doesn't believe that this whole russian investigation should have even happened. so he has been giving pardons. they were two of five people connected to investigation who he has given pardons to. in addition, he granted a pardon to the father of his son—in—law. he was convicted in the early 2000s of tax evasion. there is also an interesting issue of witness intimidation in his own family. it is people who are connected

to the president in some way. there are other people he has been giving pardons to as well. once that pardon has been given, is that absolutely it, the end of the matter, or could they face further punishment in the future? it is unique in that it is a federal crimes only. however, some of these people may have crimes that they may face in the future in new york, for example. it looks like paul manafort, there was an investigation into him in new york, but because he was tried for these federal crimes, it was double jeopardy but now that that has been taken care of, you may see that investigation ramp up again. there are investigations into the president's children, and president himself and his tax situation in new york. it will be interesting to keep our eyes open for that. now business and ramzan, who has more on the latest developments with brexit.

yes, we are still waiting, and since june 2016, many of the big business groups in the uk have been urging the government to thrash out a deal with the european union, and it looks like we're finally getting there. one of the things they were warning about is that no—deal could be the worst thing for business, and it seems the markets are responding positively to the fact that a deal is imminent, and we can get more on this with jane foley, of rabobank. they markets do seem to be reacting positively, are you surprised they are not even more positive? perhaps so, if we look at the value of the pound against the dollar, it didn't push below the levels it made on the 17th of december. i think perhaps a little bit of a courtly reaction. of course, we don't have all of the details yet of the plan, we know there are issues around fisheries,

but first of all, we know that this plan is not for the services sector. the services sector, 79% of the uk economy, that is not really covered by this plan at all. there is the anticipation that the door will be left open for future discussions, there is still hope on this front, but this is the 17th of december, we saw sterling against the dollar yet to higher levels, and we have seen bad news about the economy, particularly the announcement about t4, and so the headwinds for the economy, not only will they be very firm, they are going to drag over to the new year too, and that is a problem for the economy and for sterling. we have only got eight days to go, so maybe the markets are thinking, even we get an announcement, getting it ratified and squared up, it is not feasible in time.

we have been told the uk parliament could vote on it next wednesday, and we missed the deadline for sunday, but the european parliament will not vote on it before the end of day, but we have been told there will be a fudge to allow the processes of the deal to come into action on the ist of january and then for the parliament to ratify afterwards. i don't think the markets are necessarily worried about that. but they are worried about the fact that this is only a skinny deal. yes, a massive breakthrough for many people working in manufacturing, but we have to remember that production, manufacturing is just a subsector of that, it is worth less than i4% of the whole economy. fisheries around 0.2%. so we're looking at a relatively small part of the economy, and for those working in financial services, which is a huge export, there is no agreement.

0ne one of the things the uk government has been trying to do in organising this trade deal is to come up with deals with other countries, and our biggest trading partner, of course, outside of the european union, is the us. we can get more on that from samira hussain in new york. how soon can we expect to deal with the us? one of the big proponents for brexit, what they were arguing is that you can get a much more competitive trade deal with the united states if it is just the uk and the united states, and under the trump administration, that was certainly the case. we know that he prefers trade agreements with individual countries, he has never been a fan of the overarching european union. that said, we do

have a new administration that is coming into office injust a have a new administration that is coming into office in just a few weeks, and president—elect biden has already said they do not expect a trade deal between the united states and the uk anytime soon, saying that the priority for him right now is very much focused on the domestic. but we heard from the us government in an exclusive interview with the bbc last week that they are looking to try to negotiate some sort of mini trade deal between the united states and the uk, something to sort of get them the initial few months, while the biden administration or the incoming biden administration, rather, sought out other things. regardless of what kind of deal that does come about, whether it is a big overarching one or some skinny little package, all trade agreements must be ratified by congress, so it may be that the united states and the uk want to get something sorted out real quickly, but the challenges that exist in the uk also exist here

in the united states and it requires congressional approval. we will be watching that very closely indeed. that is the business news, back to you, ben. just a reminder of our top story this hour, the uk and european union are on the brink, so we hear, or very post—brexit trade deal. they are thrashing out the final details. we were expecting an announcement in past few hours, press conferences that we were given warning of have been repeatedly delayed. it is thought to have been last—minute snags, we have correspondence in westminster and in brussels keeping an eye on developments, and as soon as we get word of anything significant, we will of course bring that to you here on bbc news. in the meantime, thanks for watching, i'll see you soon.

fine weather out there for most of us today, and the clear skies this evening and overnight are going to lead to a widespread frost right across the country. so that means that christmas day is going to start crisp and cold for most of us. here's the gap in the clouds. this is the weather front that brought the rain yesterday. we're in a window of quiet weather, cold air also streaming in temporarily from the northern climes, but stormy weather out in the atlantic is coming our way come boxing day. this is what it looks like in the short term. still a few showers, maybe wintry ones there close to the north sea coast. but the large majority of us have the clear skies and that widespread frost. look how cold it is, down to around minus six across parts

of northern england on christmas morning. and a frost right down to the south coast of england as well. but lots of crisp, sunny weather on christmas day. however, clouds are increasing in the north—west of the country, and that heralds a big change which is coming our way the following day. so fine on christmas day, but boxing day looks like this. this is a big atlantic storm, a powerful one by then, called storm bella, named by the met office, and it will be approaching first the north—west of the uk early on saturday. the rain you can see spreading into northern ireland, scotland, western areas of the uk. milder, around ten celsius. but at the same time, the winds really will be freshening, so very stormy weather by the time we get to saturday night into sunday.

and a warning from the met office, gusts of wind 70—80 mph in the south of the country, and widely across england and wales, 50—60 mph. so that day, take care. so this is saturday night. look at that squeeze in the isobars there, and those strong winds following these isobars, and the heavy rain. it really will be a punch, i think, for many of us across the south. and then, by the time we get to sunday, the day after boxing day, we're right in the centre of the storm, where the winds are much lighter, and it's going to turn a little bit colder as well.

this is bbc world news. the headlines...

the uk and the european union are still trying to finalise a post—brexit trade deal which was scheduled to be announced hours ago. the agreement will affect britain's relationship with brussels for generations. but with one week to go until the end of the transition period, the talks are still reported to be "snagged" on the eu's right to fish in british waters. the uk transport secretary has urged thousands of lorry drivers waiting to cross the channel to be patient — but on the ground, that is in short supply. drivers have been warned they may have to spend christmas in their cabs. the increase in coronavirus cases is being put to an new strain of the virus. those are the headlines.