the mayor of the us city of nashville has said he's amazed that there weren't more casualties after a huge explosion tore through a historic part of the city. three people are known to have been injured and possible human remains have been found in the debris. eu ambassadors have been given a briefing about the post—brexit trade deal reached with the uk by the bloc‘s chief negotiator michel barnier. in the uk, mps will vote on the deal in parliament before the existing trade rules expire at the end of the month. the united states covid stimulus bill has been flown to florida, where donald trump is spending his christmas vacation. senators are hoping the president will sign it into law, after previously attacking the legislation. millions of americans currently face losing their pandemic—related unemployment benefits from boxing day. this christmas is, of course, one like no other, with many families unable

to be together because of the global pandemic. so how have we adapted our plans? judith moritz has been finding out. for so many, covid means christmas behind closed doors. bowie gladwell was born during the pandemic. he has a heart condition and his grandparents are vulnerable. merry christmas! so even though rules mean the family could get together today, they have chosen to keep it virtual and open their presents via video call. there was a point where we were thinking about having parents up on christmas day, but following the recent raise, you know, raising cases, and just the general uncertainty, we have decided to avoid it this year. how are you, raymond and olwen? 0k. happy christmas. coronavirus has changed christmas for church—goers too.

the congregation of st james evangelical church in ca rlisle met on zoom instead of in person, though the sense of community was no less heartfelt. at st mary's near congleton, in cheshire, the church is big and draughty enough for everyone to space out. congregants had to book a pew, one per household bubble, to ensure social distancing. well, i think it is wonderful. i think the old place has been going for 1,000 years now, so we couldn't let it down and miss a christmas. we had to find a way. ijust think it's amazing this can be so safe to come and allow the older generation and younger generation to be part of each other. only the choir was allowed to sing. people have had to make special arrangements to come and make the church look beautiful. just... everything's happened, but in a different way. last christmas, no—one could have imagined the way this year's festival would look, or they would be

praying for next year's celebrations to be back to normal. judith moritz, bbc news, cheshire. now on bbc news, it's time for the travel show. let's be honest, it hasn't been the best year for travel. but amid the gloom, we've still found moments of inspiration and seen parts of the world, albeit sometimes virtually, that would take your breath away. laughs. i can't do it! welcome to our look back at 2020.

what a year it's been and it all started so well. wow! lucy took a trip to a simulated martian outpost in the caves of northern spain. in argentina, mike went to the world's second—biggest wetland and took a dunking. oh and we're away! laughs. and i went underwater to swim with sharks in the maldives. they're just so close! but then, disaster struck. lockdowns, border closures and holiday cancellations for the foreseeable future, leaving some of us still out of pocket. but back in those early days in march, simplyjust finding a way back home was the main problem facing many. my situation is, i'm, i'm stranded. virgin cancelled my flight

yesterday due to leave at 6:25pm from miami and i was told the day before that of the cancellation. the advice we've been given has been quite confusing. i mean, i'm obviously not a fluent italian speaker so that's partly my fault, but in general, the advice given has changed every few days and it varies by region quite a lot. now it's not possible to travel to the neighbouring islands or into the city unless you have a reason to do so. we also have curfew in place here between 10pm and 5am. we just want to get back to friends and family. i have got a new grandson who's going to be six months old tomorrow. i haven't seen him six weeks now. i am being told i can book an alternative flight but i don't know if that is with the same provider. can i go with a different airline like ba, will i be reimbursed for doing that?

it is unsettling, there is so much happening everywhere. it is really easy to get caught up in the panic when you speak to people. i would love to get home, yeah. well thankfully, the vast majority of people did manage to find their way home. but as the health crisis deepened, most of us forgot all about travel and went into some form of lockdown. key workers around the world though stayed on the frontline in the battle against the virus, and in april, we heard about an inspirational international push to recognise the amazing efforts and give them something back. in recent weeks, there's been an outpouring of support for them, notjust in weekly claps like these... applause. but with the tantalising offer of free holidays once bans are lifted.

here in the uk, a campaign under the #treat our nhs, now has hundreds of giveaways on social media. we have a holiday let in devon and i put it out there on instagram for a giveaway, two nights to an nhs member of staff, and very quickly i had lots of nominations coming in. and ijust thought, only one person's going to win this. so she decided to spearhead the campaign and made this video to help spread the word on social media. some people with larger accounts shared it and very quickly that message got across and the rest of us followed basically. we have over 700 people with giveaways on board now which is amazing. we have got such a breadth of accommodation on offer. we have got — it ranges from a shepherd's hut in dorset to an amazing chateau in the south of france.

it is just amazing acts of generosity all across the board. sarah decided to open the offer up again on her own property and was sent 2,000 nominations. the winner was picked at random. is it a two night stay? two nights‘ stay and when you get down here, then a close walk to a lovely cafe down the road where you'll get a free meal. you can get breakfast. spend a way to your heart. i feel like crying. 0h, love. who nominated you ? one of the girls who i worked with the other day, she nominated me. that was really sweet. i can't believe it. 0h, bless. oh, you're making me cry. it's so nice to win something. let's hope once the lockdown eases here in the uk, it won't be too long before nurse rachel gets that

much deserved break. but this idea is notjust limited to health workers here in the uk. the international campaign under the #mytravelpledge has been gaining serious traction abroad, with properties and hotel rooms on offer to health workers and also to low income key workers such as hospital cleaners. avery and tiffany nominated each other. they're both nurses at saint pauls hospital in vancouver, canada. we just made a plan to nominate each other but her nomination for me was selected, and within a couple of days, she texted me and was like, ‘oh my god, your nomination was selected.‘ of course my first thing was, i'm going to take you and she was like, ‘no, no, it is for you and your husband.‘ it's because avery was supposed

to go to spain this year for her 10 year anniversary and of course that got cancelled, that got cancelled, so hopefully this can be her 10 year anniversary vacation. avery has got a free stay here in the dominican republic when travel restrictions finally ease for a well earned rest. working in the healthcare sector right now is really scary. we are both psychiatric nurses so we serve really the most marginalised and vulnerable population. with covid, we‘re really afraid it‘s going to spread within that population so every time we going to work, we feel uncertain, we are scared, we are scared to bring it back to ourfamilies. so it is difficult, it is uncertain, it is definitely a really challenging time to be working in health. ian and andrew set up the campaign to recognise

and reward key workers, but for them an important side effect has been to help out the tourism industry in spain where they run a b&b. the pair have had quite a response. they received more than 3,000 nominations in the past month from around the world with a fast growing portfolio of international properties on offer. the key word for me is hope and support. they are just working full on, if they are not working, they're sleeping. so this isjust something they can actuallyjust nominate, act on and they know that somebody out there is actually looking out for them and there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and a free stay would make their lives so much more bearable at the moment. and to be honest, this situation we are in, it‘s the very least we can do.

what a truly inspirational idea. hats off to all of those hotel and b&b owners around the world that signed up to those schemes. 0k, make sure you stay with us because still to come: my people! my travel show people! we‘ll catch up with our travel show family and find out how they‘ve navigated this difficult year on the road. as well as meeting again the people who got caught up by closing borders and grounded flights during their once—in—a—lifetime round the world adventure. now, as you can imagine, trying to make a weekly travel program in this year has been extremely tricky. but one of the things that has made it a lot easier is having an amazing travel show family spread quite literally across the globe. so we decided to catch up with the team and find out how

2020 has been for them. my people! my travel show people! let‘s have a chat about this year because it‘s been an odd year for travel hasn‘t it, for travel show presenters,. so each of you, why don‘t you start of first ride rajan? tell us what your year has been like, the highs and lows. i think it‘s been really weird. i have travelled less than i‘ve ever travelled since childhood and that is weird. so i have missed it. i think we have all missed it haven‘t we. it‘s almost like we‘ve had our wings clipped. in the beginning, it was a little bit 0k, well i'll take a break but after a few months when you realise that travel is so much more thanjust seeing places, it is how i found happiness in my life at least. that is how i felt alive so that was taken away. i was allowed to travel to the eu in the beginning ofjuly and i went and have been travelling since. travel is really different and one of the big things i realised was i always thought i loved animals and mountains and waterfalls but when you take away faces,

you realise that people and faces are really important to travel. i tell you what i found really strange, i don‘t know whether you guys have done it, the few times i have managed to travel overseas, is how empty the airports are. christie and lucy, what do you think, it‘s so weird isn‘t it? i'm in dubai at the moment and ijust filmed the latest episode of the travel show. this is the first international trip we have done, i have done for eight months. just being in the airport, i don't know what i was expecting but i definitely wasn't expecting that. just eerie silence, couldn't sit in a lot of places and obviously i know, we're all used to experiencing lockdown, that kind of thing, but it was really surreal, the entire experience. just the fact i got on a plane and was able to step off and get into any country. like mike said, meeting people, the smells, the food and the buzz, i really thrive off that kind of thing and this has reignited my passion for travelling and made me realise how much i hate my makeshift desk in my

living room. carmen, what about you? what has it been like there injapan? well, fortunately, japan is pretty big so i travel quite a lot injapan this year, more so than any other year. so it has been great from that perspective. i've spent time with my family. but i have missed my family overseas, right? and i've had so many trips cancelled and i've had my trip to chile cancelled three times. i was meant to go to singapore a couple of weeks go. and then they cancelled — and i had a green zone pass and —— that allowed me to travel without quarantining and overnight, that was rescinded and the trip was off. chris, you are a seasoned traveller, have you found any highs or pluses in this crazy year?

i was lucky enough, i think it was august, when i went to germany and not only got to track down some wild boar in berlin, but we went down and got a taste of the oktoberfest that wasn‘t! which was great because it was — it gave us an opportunity to see really what a beer festival was like just for locals because the millions of international visitors didn‘t come from overseas because it wasn‘t on for 2020. but for me, this year, for the first time in my life, i have not been able to go home to australia. and for people who — carmine, i know you live injapan but grew up in australia but the distance have never seemed wider for me. i miss my family and want to go home so the moment australia opens orders, i will be booking the ticket, i promise you that. and talking about booking your plane ticket once the borders open, what do you guys reckoin? what are your hopes for the future? what will happen in 2021 in regards to travel? ithink numberone,

for all the people who work in the travel industry around the world, especially countries where they're dependent on tourism, it's gonna be a massive relief. i mean, they can get some work, for god's sake, so that is really important. but numbertwo, i have been moderating some conferences and there is a notion that are people going to reset? think differently about travel? will there be more conscience travel and sustainability — thinking about that not just about the environment but what we do with the time we spend? it's certainly a time to value a trip more. what i think about non—stop is in 2021, if we do choose to travel — and we can travel for howevrr they'll make that happen, whether we have a vaccination or risk tolerance — there will be a once—in—a—lifetime opportunity to seek mount fuji, machu picchu, the angkor wat temples in cambodia

without any tourists. when will that happen again? i think there is an opportunity if people do choose to travel. i think people will have one big holiday next year. if anything, they will plan just one big holiday. they‘re not gonna nip over to paris for the weekend, you know? there‘s going to be a lot of effort and time put into it, and you may even have to consult with a travel agent! as opposed to buying it online. it‘s like we have gone back 30 years. rajan, the grand master of travel, come on, tell us, what does the future hold? i would say savour that every second, value every second because i think we do just rush through stuff and don't appreciate everything. do not undervalue how much the travel experience can change everyone. that was amazing... it is not often... hang on a minute, ade, because we have been talking

about our experiences this year and hopes for the next year but we have not asked you! what do you think is coming up, ade? it is a bit of hope we can take from you? do you know what? you guys have summed up a lot of this but i think for me, i have learnt we should not take it for granted. i think for years, travel has been so easy for everybody. and i like the idea of next year being that one, rather than going for lots of small trips and weekends, we look for that one big life—changing experience because you don‘t know when this can happen again you know, we don‘t know when it can happen again and as someone who, travel has changed my life so much, yeah, i want to hold onto every second so i think, for me next year, it is all about that big life—changing trip. bring on 2021 and the travel show will be bigger,

stronger and better! lovely chatting to you all! take care. merry christmas, everyone. merry christmas. right. for some, 2020 was going to be the year that they embarked on an adventure of a lifetime and there are not many who can say they are part of that exclusive club of people that have set foot in all of the countries in the world. but there are attempts at it all the time. this is what happens to people who are trying when travel came to a halt. hi, i‘m uwe. i have been to every country in the world, it took me 17 years and five passports to do so! it was a huge personal challenge and a very long process. lots of focus and time and effort, but it makes me really happy and proud

every single day. of the people that have done it, women only make up about 10—15%, so we are quite the minority. i don‘t think having this goal is completely impossible place —— i don‘t think having this goal is completely impossible post—coronavirus. just that you have to understand it may take a little bit more time and effort and patience. i'mjulia. i'm chantelle. i‘m chloe. and i‘m angelique. we did a mad dash to get here. we were in cambodia and we could see borders were starting to close and we all things are getting an easy tourists except us and we were like, what is going on? so we did the mad dash to new zealand and got here literally before they got into their lockdown. we wanted to achieve our goal in the next two years of visiting every country so we were moving pretty fast until covid hit but the big question is if it lasts for another year,

what will we do? where will we go? but i'm sure things will start to progress and eventually the world has to open up again. i am sam and i been to 183 countries. covid was starting to be talked about more and more people got worried and i had been seeing people on planes wearing more masks and i figured well, i only have 20 countries left and i was meant to finish in april and i flew to fiji to tonga and then tonga, two days later, they closed all the borders and that no—one can leave and we were stuck there and i waited for five months and then i was hearing from government from other pacific islands that i would not be able to visit the other countries for 18 months, two years, and i decided after that that i would just leave. many people say can i do it? just do it and make it work. so we always reverse engineer what we want to do. we say this is our goal and how can i make it happen? i did it because it was my

dream since i was really young and my dream was to see as much of the world as possible, to travel, see loads of different countries and i did a pretty good job with that, so i'm definitely not disappointed! you have to understand your reasons for doing this. for some people, it is escapism — they want to get out of a rut and they think travel is like a holiday, an escape, but your why will colour the kind of experience you do have. i‘m in the mountains of afghanistan and it is super beautiful, so nice. one of my favourite countries was afghanistan. it was a country everyone was scared of and i was scared of it before i went, and then i went there and then i loved it. i love super traditional. it feels like you‘re going back in time, people wear traditional clothes, all the buildings are old and only the real signs of modernity

are people have cellphones and cars. it is not easy, i won‘t lie, it‘s not easy when you were always together, you still have to keep a structure and still have your own mental space to get away. there are times when we are travelling, i said to the whole family "you guys are on that side of the street and do not come to my side of the street!" i would just walk by myself and within two minutes, they were over here and i said "what are you doing? this is my own mental space!" everything makes more sense now to me and i find i understand peoples' behaviour, especially when they come from different cultures, a lot more. and fingers crossed, they will be back on the road again very soon. that is it for this week. over the new year, you will get the chance to see some great trips from recent times, including a mind—blowing journey through kazakhstan and a magical visit to rwanda. in the meantime, don‘t forget

you can follow us on social media in all the usual places — twitter, facebook and instagram. but until next time, have a happy, healthy and safe next couple of weeks and we will see you in the new year when, hopefully, we can get back on the road doing what we love the most. but for now, from all of the travel show family, all over the world, it‘s goodbye. hello. the weather is giving us a calm and mostly dry interlude for christmas day. very chilly start with a touch of frost in

places. but a fine day for the most pa rt places. but a fine day for the most part with some of sunshine. we have had some showers, particularly across eastern scotland and eastern england, there is the potential for some ice on untreated surfaces through the first part of the morning, certainly a chilly start with temperatures well below freezing so a frost in many places. but it means a fine and a sunny start foremost. still some of these showers dragged across the eastern side of england, a fairly brisk wind here, one or two showers because of and the west of connell but most of england and wales, spells of sunshine through the day, cloud into the north—west later but certainly northern ireland and scotla nd certainly northern ireland and scotland things will be clouding over and some rain into western scotland. windsor strengthening here but that is where we will the highest temperatures, a pretty chilly day. as we have three christmas day night into the early hours of boxing day you can see generally more in the way of cloud, outbreaks of rain, more ofa cloud, outbreaks of rain, more of a breeze so not such a cold start of the day on boxing day, most start of the day on boxing day, m ost pla ces

start of the day on boxing day, most places well above freezing. but boxing day will generally be a cloudier day. some bits and pieces of rain around and some quite heavy and persistent rain getting across western scotland into northern ireland later as well. the winds really starting to pick up winds really starting to pick up here. it is going to be a milder day for most but this will be taking us into actually quite a rough spell of weather through saturday night. it comes courtesy of this area of low pressure. it has been named by the met office as storm bella. it will bring some very heavy rain which could cause flooding but also some really strong winds. the met office amber warning is strong winds. the met office amberwarning is in strong winds. the met office amber warning is in place already for parts of southern england and south wales, gusts of 70 or 80 miles an hour but more generally across england and wales in the south —— far south of scotland, 60 miles an hourin south of scotland, 60 miles an hour in many spots. a lot of rain through saturday night into the early part of sunday morning and that could cause some flooding. most of the rain will clear during sunday morning so the brighter skies

behind. showers too and with some cold air digging in, some of the showers will turn wintry. top temperatures between two and seven degrees. that‘s all from me. happy christmas!

good morning. welcome to breakfast, with rogerjohnson. 0ur headlines today: 6 million more people in england are now under the toughest covid restrictions as much of the south and east enters tier 4. all of mainland scotland is put under its tightest rules and northern ireland starts a six—week lockdown. more than 1,000 people are told to leave their homes in bedfordshire as a third severe flood warning is issued overnight. arsenal are hoping to unwrap a rare thing on boxing day — a premier league win. they haven‘t had one in nearly two months, but manager mikel arteta says they could be heading for a relegation battle.