this is bbc news — these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world. queen elizabeth has been reflecting on the hardships of the pandemic in her christmas speech. here, she and prince philip break tradition by staying in windsor. they have been challenges of the year but i am proud and moved by this quiet spirit. eu ambassadors get details of the trade deal in a christmas meeting led by michel barnier. thousands of lorry drivers are spending christmas day in the near dover as 800 military personnel continue to test the stranded hauliers. and pope francis gives his

christmas day address urging people to share coronavirus vaccines. and i will be looking back on the year in cinema and back on films such as parasite and spike lee's film. hello and welcome if you are watching in the uk or around the world. in her christmas day message, queen elizabeth has praised the scientists and medical staff to whom she said we owe a debt of gratitude this year. she said this christmas was tinged with sadness because of the distance between people, many of whom just wanted a simple hug or squeeze of the hand.

without the customary coming together of families, a christmas broadcast where the queen reflected ina time broadcast where the queen reflected in a time of extreme uncertainty. folk christians, jesus is the light of the world, but we can't celebrate in the usual way today. the pandemic has disrupted so much for people of all faiths, but creed said it is also brought us closer. in the united kingdom and around the world, people have risen to the challenges of this year and i am so proud and moved of this quiet, indomitable spirit. i thank you for the part you have played. she thanked front line workers and the amazing achievements of modern science. she we owe them a

debt of gratitude, she said. this year was the centenary of the unknown soldier in westminster abbey, an unknown hero from an earlier generation who would become a symbol. he represented millions like him who throughout history but the lives of others above their own. that's what we're doing today. for me, this is a source of enduring hopein me, this is a source of enduring hope in difficult and unpredictable times. for many, the queen said, christmas would be a particularly difficult time. for many, this time of year will be tinged with sadness, some mourning the loss of those dear to them and others missing friends and family members, distance for safety, when all they really want for christmas is a simple hug or a squeeze of the hand. if you are among them, you are not alone. let me assure you of my thoughts and

prayers. the reference of a hug or a squeeze of the hand is a human touch, the kind of language the queen does not use often publicly, deployed today in a christmas message of hope and reassurance. after a historic brexit trade deal, the european union's chief negotiator, michel barnier, has been briefing the member states on the details. the document has 1200 pages. the prime minister, he was in downing street yesterday when the deal was confirmed, has also received a copy. here is our political correspondent.

i have a small present for anyone who may be looking for something to read in that sleepy post—christmas lunch moment. and here it is. tidings, glad tidings of greatjoy, because this is a deal. a deal to give certainty to business and travellers, and all investors in our country, from the 1st of january. a deal with our friends and partners in the eu. michel barnier briefed eu member states on how the eu in the uk will trade in the new year. to finally have something on paper is a success from both sides. the deal was done in the nick of time, with the uk already out of the eu and transition requirements expiring within days. mps will have time to digest the detail before being called back in parliament for debate. there are unlikely to be hold—ups in westminster. labour are set to back it. we will certainly be better off with this deal. we have to make it work. no deal would have terrible

consequences for our country and the labour party could not enable that to happen. what's like doing the long months of negotiations, both sides seemed determined to not give ground. what is now on the table is a compromise but those who campaigned for brexit have broadly given the deal a thumbs up. if the contents given the deal a thumbs up. if the co nte nts a re given the deal a thumbs up. if the contents a re not given the deal a thumbs up. if the contents are not as described by the prime minister, i think it is a very satisfactory outcome. it is actually an extraordinary good when given the rather bum hand he had been dealt when he took over from theresa may. britain's new relationship with brussels is now more defined. eu ambassadors are weighing up how the position with the uk looks with the uk on the other side. . thousands of lorry drivers are spending christmas day in their cabs near dover. an extra 800 military personnel are being deployed to help clear

the backlog of lorries waiting to cross the channel. 0ne one of the stipulations that france imposed was that they have to test negative before being allowed to ci’oss negative before being allowed to cross the channel. the last 10,000 tests carried out the last 2a hours, only 2a have come back positive. this is not the christmas thousands of drivers here were expecting. some have been stuck here for up to four days with no access to washing facilities. we have heard beeping protests as drivers get more and more frustrated. i've spoken to some who just want to be at home. some feel this is a political protest and they are caught in the middle. you

can see some local people behind me, rallying together, trying to provide hot food and drinks to give these drivers something on christmas day. every half an hour we are seeing lorries leave the site going into the port of dover. each have tested negative for coronavirus and they will be carrying a weather allowing them access to mainland europe. last night, we saw around 800 troops deployed to speed up this testing process. that does seem to have worked. a lot of roads in the area seem worked. a lot of roads in the area seem to have cleared and residents are able to travel. but this is not back to normal. there are still thousands of drivers stuck here. any begetting water, drinks and food, but this where they were hoping to be, especially on christmas day.

the uk's biggest testing lab has been hit by an outbreak of coronavirus. a number of scientists at the lighthouse laboratory in milton keynes, are believed to have been affected along with admin and warehouse staff. the lab, which is being asked to process about 70,000 tests a day, say it follows covid secure work procedures. for the millions of people celebrating at this time of year, 2020 is said to be a christmas like no other. we've been in touch with doctors, nurses and experts we have talked to since the pandemic took hold in march. we've asked them how they will be marking christmas in these extraordinary circumstances. florida has been one of the worst affected us states in the year. we have heard from a doctor at the jackson south medical centre in miami. we can nowjoin him to find out what christmas is like for him.

merry christmas to you! after the sort of year you have had and continue to have, what is christmas like for you? our christmas is obviously very different this year. we have a very large extended family with my mum, my dad, my all in florida with me, but we won't be seeing them this year. we are going to keep the christmas day to the immediate household, which is my is my wife my kids and my brother who has been with me since march. we are going to set up a plate and facetime family members while we eat. we will enjoy ourselves. we are frying a turkey, which is the first time i've done it, so hopefully the next news story will not be about a doctor in miami who burned himself to the ground. we are going to try to enjoy this layer is a family, small, keep it tight. we know this won't be the most fun christmas but with no the end is in sight and we will have

more christmases together so we will make sure this one is safe. back in july, we spoke to you and you said you felt like you are fighting a losing battle and then it was slightly better. when you have one day off on christmas day, how does someone day off on christmas day, how does someone with a job like yours actually enjoy themselves? how hard is it for you to switch off from the tragedy you are dealing with the rest of the time? there is never a switch off. in the back of my mind, i know that patients are not having a good christmas and all the family members are unfortunately only able to talk them over the phone. there is no way to just switch it off and live in the moment. it is nice to watch the kids, who have that ability don't really know what is going on, tear open the presents, get up on the shelf, screaming at the latter that we have the elf leave them. that, you can appreciate, one at the back of your

mind, you are wondering if any of the families are going to get the phone call telling them their family members have died. what is it like in work at the moment? i believe the intensive care unit is full. yes. we have moved into a third area. the second search felt unbearable just because of the number of patients. we didn't know we could remove people from isolation. now we know that after ten days we can. we has an everyday to get people out of the coronavirus isolation areas. the number of people coming in is overwhelming. in the past week it has doubled and we have had to spill over to a second emmy and a third area with patients waiting in the emergency room. we don't think the end is coming anytime soon. we think it will continue to get worse with the holidays. when i was saddened to see the deaths from thanksgiving search. work is getting to be very difficult, which is but we can

see the end. we are starting to vaccinate our nursing home residents and the front line workers. some of the elderly people in miami are going to get vaccinated. my dad is scheduled to get his vaccine at the 2nd of january. it scheduled to get his vaccine at the 2nd ofjanuary. it is scheduled to get his vaccine at the 2nd of january. it is exciting to see that the end is coming, but at the same time we not crossing the finish line at a sprint. we are limping in. because of lack of distancing, lack of masks. it is going to be a bad, bad few months while the vaccine is being administered, before this turns around. when we get towards the end of the year, 2021 is on the way. you think will still be a fair amount of time before things improve significantly where you are? you've got to get the vaccine out to a large number of people. in order to do that, that takes a lot of time.

if it takes three to six months, it will go well and if we stay safe. but if were not safe, it won't go well. in the next three months, while we get the vaccine out, we will still be struggling at the hospital to take care of sick people. i think it will be a pretty rough patch before it slowly gets better. lets go back to what you are doing today, being with your family and the kids. how much more do you appreciate with these little moments, based on what you and eve ryo ne moments, based on what you and everyone has been to in the past year? one thing about coronavirus that really hits you is when it is someone that really hits you is when it is someone who has a kid around the same age and who has sick or died and you have to explain that to the family member and you know... you think about your own kids finding out that dad is not coming home. it's the kind of thought you tried not to have very often because it

makes it overwhelming butjust to appreciate it and be there with them. it's really the only fuel we have right now to keep going in this fight. we hope to speak to again and hope that things will get better soon. thank you, merry christmas. may christmas to you too. emergency crews are at the scene of a big explosion in the city of nashville, in the us state of tennessee. the cause of the blast is not yet known, but reports say it could have come from a parked vehicle. a bomb squad has been sent to the area. smoke can be seen billowing from a building in the downtown area. metro police said they believe the explosion was an "intentional act," and were investigating the report of a suspicious vehicle when the explosion occurred. three people have been taken to the hospital, but officials say none of the injuries have been reported as critical.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines... queen elizabeth has been reflecting on the hardships of the pandemic in her christmas speech as she and prince philip break tradition by staying in windsor. european union ambassadors get details of a post—brexit trade deal in a christmas day briefing led by michel barnier india's prime minister, narendra modi, has announced around 2.4 billion dollars worth of benefits for farmers amid mounting pressure on his government to scrap controversial reforms. mr modi has today been addressing millions of farmers across the country virtually, accusing his political opposition for misleading them over contentious new laws that will loosen the rules around the sale, pricing and storage of farm items. 0ur south asia editor, anbarasan ethirajan is in delhi. the government here of prime minister modi has been trying to reach out to various sections

of the reformers highlighting points regarding the new agrarian reforms which were passed in september this year, one of them has been inviting more foreign investment, private investment in agriculture and second thing is they want to abolish antiquated procedures like people are using some of the agents to sell their produce, which means farmers they have to pay money so these agents will be removed from the system and then the farmers are allowed to sell their produce for example from different states, now they have certain restrictions like a farmer from southern india can now sell to the farmers or the merchants in northern india. these are the key points of the government's agrarian reforms and that is what the government has been trying to sell to the other farmers. 0n the other hand, what the farmers are saying is that india is predominantly an agricultural nation, more than 60% of the 1.4 billion population depend on agriculture. many of them are small landowners, so, the reforms will benefit only

big corporations and we don't have the power to take on these big corporations in setting the price, when did the market ever give an advantage to poor farmers and the rest of the world? this is a classic case of deregulation of markets and the poor farmers and they are up against it, whereas the typical case of globalisation versus developing countries problem. in his christmas message, pope francis has urged world leaders to share coronavirus vaccines, saying walls of nationalism could not be built to inhibit the fight against a pandemic that knows no borders. he called for generosity and support for victims of the pandemic. 0ur rome correspondent mark lowen has been following the story. this time last year, there were 50,000 people in st peter's square watching the pope's christmas urbi et 0rbi to the world from the balcony of st peter's basilica.

this year the square is completely cordoned off by police, we are in the middle of a christmas lockdown, and the pope spoke from inside the palace. the world has changed, and many people's faith has been shaken and coronavirus was very much at the heart of the pope's christmas message. he called on people to care for and to offer generosity to the victims of the pandemic. he also called on world leaders to co—operate, so that there should be access to vaccines, for all countries. he said "we cannot erect walls", perhaps a message to the outgoing donald trump administration there. interestingly, he singled out among the victims women who had suffered from domestic violence during months of lockdown. he talked about how his thoughts were for families who could not come together, and those forced to remain at home, so the pandemic very much

at the centre of this urbi et 0rbi message. he called for peace in the world's hotspots, but this is a year in which the world as a whole has been fighting a way, and the pope's message was to people, to arm themselves with compassion. some good news now, in this most difficult of years — the first concert to be held inside notre dame cathedral in paris since it was severely damaged by a fire last year. there was no audience and the socially—distanced singers wore hard hats and boiler suits because the cathedral is still a building site — as well as classical pieces they gave a heart warming rendition ofjingle bells. they sing jingle bells

families have been stranded due to flooding in northampton. there are more than 100 flood warnings in place across parts of england and wales. what a year it's been for captain sir tom moore, the former british army officer and centenarian, known for his achievements raising tens of millions of pounds for charity in the run—up to his 100th birthday during the covid—19 pandemic. john maguire has been to meet him and find out about his christmas plans. it's been a year like no otherfor all of us. but for captain sir tom moore, 2020 has seen him catapulted from his back garden to worldwide adoration, and to a specially convened ceremony where he was knighted by her majesty the queen.

december‘s always a time to look forward, but also back to boyhood christmases during the 1920s. you got up at six o'clock in the morning to see what father christmas had left overnight. when we were small boys, or small children, we didn't get a stocking, we got a pillowcase. you knew there'd be an orange at the bottom of it somewhere. but not a lump of coal? no! and later, as a young officer in the british army during the second world war. all the officers gave the all the other ranks their christmas lunch. we served them their christmas lunch. and that was a happy occasion, with a little a bit of relaxation and some drink, which hadn't been readily available for some time. but that was a very good day.

one of the main objectives of the captain tom foundation is to tackle loneliness, which can be especially cruel at christmas. for people who don't have a family who can come and knock on the door, it must be a very lonely time. and, of course, how are they going to have a christmas lunch if there's only one of you? so i do hope that everyone will have more than one person to have the christmas lunch. but you would, of course, expect some of his famous optimism. we've always had all the family around us, and we've all had a lovely christmas lunch with turkey and all the little bits that go with it. and that's always been

a joy for the parents, and for the children. this year, of course, with things as they are, things can't be quite the same for everyone, but things will get better and next year we'll be all right. he's spending the festive season not walking, but hopefully relaxing, having been invited to barbados. i had a bucket list, and one of the items on that list was barbados. and this is going to come through. barbados has very kindly taken barbados off my bucket list. and what's next on that — do we know? what's the next plan on your bucket list? the next one is on the route 66 across america with bentley. well, let's hope you get

that one soon as well. so as he works his way down the list, let's hope captain sir tom gets his kicks in the new year. john maguire, bbc news, bedfordshire. snow has fallen in parts of eastern england, with the met office declaring it officially a white christmas in the uk! mark in hessle, near hull, was up bright and early and sent us this picture. isa is a reminder of our top story, in her christmas day message, queen elizabeth has reminded those struggling due to coronavirus this year that they are not alone. she said that what many wanted for christmas this year was a simple hug ora christmas this year was a simple hug or a squeeze christmas this year was a simple hug or a squeeze of the hand and they could be assured of her thoughts and

prayers. she is spending the day apart from her family like many others.

hello there. fairly quiet weather around for the rest of the day. we have already had some sunshine, the best of it across england. this was the scene earlier towards the south coast with high cloud in the sky. for the northwest, the cloud has been gathering rain for western scotla nd been gathering rain for western scotland from this band of cloud and the cloud all associated with an area of low pressure near iceland that's already been named storm bella. that will cause problems across parts of the uk saturday night and on into sunday. more on that and a second, but through this coming nights, an early patch of frost in southeast england, otherwise, it will turn cloudy, mild, a little bit of rain pushing m, mild, a little bit of rain pushing in, rain at its heaviest in western scotland. by the end the night, temperatures around 4—8 c for most of us. tomorrow then, welcome it

will be a wet day for western scotland, heavy rain for most of the day, could cause localised flooding, gusty winds strengthened through the day as well. quite a bit of cloud further south, a few scattered showers for the south coast of england and wales. a mild day nationwide. temperatures reaching as high as 10—11 celsius. back to storm bella, then. now come as we go through boxing day night and into sunday, we get this band of heavy rain pushing south with strong gusts of wind as well. the winds will be at their strongest across the south coast of england and the south coast of wales where we could see gusts of around 70—80 mph. these are potentially damaging disruptive gusts of wind, potentially strong enough to bring down a tree or two. aside from the winds, there will also be a band of heavy rain that pushes its way southwards. that could cause localised flooding given that the ground is saturated and we have seen flooding over recent days. as the rain clears through, sunshine comes out, lots of showers in the northwest, they will turn to snow,

particularly over modest tales as colder air works in. temperatures and scott and 3—4 celsius, similar for northern ireland and the far north of england. storm bella that's the main focus from night into sunday, it's likely to cause problems, damaging winds on the way, but also some potential for flooding. southern rails looks particularly vulnerable. now, beyond that into monday, storm bella slowly eases away, but not before bringing a mixture of some rain, some sleet and maybe a bit of snow for some of us is welcome all the while staying windy in northern ireland. that's your latest weather. bye—bye. this is bbc news. the headlines....

queen elizabeth has been reflecting on the hardships of the pandemic in her christmas speech as she and prince philip break tradition by staying in windsor people imprisoned magnificently to the challenges of the year. and i'm quietly moved by the spirit. european union ambassadors get details of a post—brexit trade deal in a christmas day briefing led by michel barnier. pope francis gives his christmas day address — urging all nations to share covid—19 vaccines and calling for peace in war—torn regions. thousands of lorry drivers are spending christmas day in their cabs near dover as 800 military personnel continue to test stranded hauliers. the government says more than 10,000 tests have been done. next, from theatre screenings to sofa screenings, mark promoted takes a look back over the big releases on

the big and