this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm lukwesa burak. the new coronavirus strain that first emerged in england is spreading across many european countries and has now been confirmed in canada and japan. us federal agents search a house on the outskirts of nashville as part of their investigation into the christmas day explosion in the city. president putin pays tribute to the former mi6 officer and soviet spy george blake, who has died aged 98 in moscow. and a fast food joint, roman style — archaeologists unearth an ancient takeaway restaurant in pompeii.

hello. the new variant of coronavirus first detected in the uk has been found in canada. health authorities in the province of ontario said that two cases have been identified in a couple with no known travel history or high—risk contacts. the variant strain has also been found injapan and several european countries. it comes as the roll—out of the coronavirus vaccine begins to pick up momentum. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. time is of the essence of sub in the fight against covid—19. here at this nursing home in northeast germany, the vaccination programme has begun, a day early. health workers said they were not prepared to wait for the european union's coordinated roll—out, which was due to begin on sunday. clearly, for

governments all around the world, it could be a real game changer. translation: this really is a happy christmas message. at this moment, lorries with the first vaccine are on the roads all over europe, all over germany. this vaccine is key to ending the pandemic, to getting back our lives. but as the vaccine springs, in vans and lorries across the continent, so lorries across the continent, so too it seems does the new variant strain of the virus. it was first identified here in the uk, nearly two weeks ago, leading to tough new restrictions and millions of people. despite some countries effectively closing their borders to travellers from britain, the virus has been found in parts of western europe and further afield. japan and o canada have confirmed positive tests. the new form of the viruses far more infectious, but it is

stage, it does not seem to be any more severe or crucially anymore deadly. the question is, will the new vaccines be effective in combating it? it happens every year, for example, with influenza virus. we change the vaccine for influenza every year because of the evolution of influence from year—to—year. the concern would bea similar year—to—year. the concern would be a similar type thing might happen, then, with this coronavirus. mass vaccinations are due to begin across europe on sunday. in some additional positive news coming out of britain — reports the so—called oxford vaccine may be approved within a matter of days. little hope and optimism as the new year approaches. tim allman, bbc news. as we heard in tim's report, much of the uk has spent the day getting used to tougher coronavirus restrictions. millions of people are now in the highest english tier —

tier 4 — and there are, in effect, lockdowns in wales, mainland scotland and northern ireland. here's daniela relph. harsher restrictions have returned, and it shows. with christmas day done, the centre of southampton is empty, as new areas of southern and eastern england now find their lives restricted by even tighter rules. it's very, very quiet. it is unusual at this time of the year. it'd be nice if it could all come to an end and we could all be back to normal. but elsewhere, there is a familiar look to boxing day. the prime minister had warned people to think carefully and avoid sales crowds. in leeds, though, still in tier 3, the prospect of a bargain drew some people out. i always go to the sales on boxing day for bargains. and i don't like doing online and i wanted to support the shops as well. enjoying it so far, just a shame we can't go and sit and have a coffee somewhere or perhaps a glass of wine. i think it's a lot quieter than we were expecting.

it is all a bit eerie but we have got what we needed and it was nice. the staff all looked a little bit, not as festive, as well, so, yeah, definitely a different feeling. there is one activity the hardiest can still do, despite restrictions. open water swimming, here in somerset, has been a lockdown comfort for many. it isjust addictive, it is just something that, for your mental health, to keep you sort of balance and a reset from, like, a busyjob, it is just perfect. across the uk, harsher rules are now in force. mainland scotland has moved into its toughest level of restrictions, and northern ireland, along with wales, is now in full lockdown. daniela relph, bbc news. that was daniela relph. so, in northern ireland a six—week lockdown has begun

with nonessential shops forced to close. hair salons must also shut while pubs, cafes and restaurants are restricted to takeaway and delivery services. the measures will be reviewed in four weeks' time. here's our ireland correspondent, chris page. as soon as christmas day ended, the lockdown began. there are no seasonal sporting events in northern ireland on this 26th of december. racecourses and stadiums are silent. shoppers and sales are absent too. instead, belfast city centre is shuttered down. one festive tradition that is allowed, though, is a brisk and breezy boxing day walk. people said tighter restrictions were for the best. oh, i think it's very necessary. it's a good thing and anything to keep us safe. i think it'sjust best everybody stays safe. had to happen, unfortunately. but we just have to do it. i think it's ok. the lockdown's in place from today until early february. and for the first week, the rules will be more strict. shops which sell essential items, like supermarkets, will have to shut at 8pm. between that time and 6am, members of different households can't meet up anywhere for social reasons,

inside or outside. police have been given extra powers to enforce the stay—at—home message. pubs and restaurants have been hit particularly hard at what is usually a popular time of year to eat out. i that know the health of people is just paramount and it protects the nhs, but we were given very, very short notice on some of the lockdowns and a lot of stock had been bought in, staff had to be organised, and it has a very big financial impact on all of the hospitality trade. the devolved government has said it had no option but to take strong action because infections, hospitalisations and deaths have been rising throughout this month. everyone in this part of the uk is hoping this lockdown will be the last. chris page, bbc news, belfast. mainland scotland has moved into its highest level of coronavirus restrictions. and in wales, tough measures

have been reimposed after a brief relaxation for christmas day, when two households were allowed to mix. all but essential shops are closed, and people have been told to "stay at home to save lives". let's turn to the united states. officers investigating after a parked rv exploded in downtown nashville on friday say they are following hundreds of leads. the motorhome broadcast a warning minutes before it blew up, injuring three people. no deaths have been confirmed but authorities are examining tissue found at the blast site, which they believe could be human remains. tanya dendrinos has the details. this is the scene that has left nashville reeling, an explosion early on christmas morning leaving widespread destruction and so many unanswered questions. the most pressing, of course, who is responsible and why? i am confident in the

tea m and why? i am confident in the team we have. we will get to the bottom of this. we will find of the story of this individual, or individuals, we don't know right now, but this ultimate scrooge who, on christmas morning, instead of spreading cheer, spread devastation and destruction. the multi—agency response is being led by the fbi, investigators working around—the—clock to piece together exactly what unfolded. we have over 500 investor get of leads and we are following up of leads and we are following up on everyone of those, so there are number we are looking at, so at this point, we are not prepared to identify any individual. officers did scour this home for the hunt for clues on saturday. there's also a message reassurance for residents, left on edge after the shocking incident. nashville is safe. we feel and know that we have no known

threats at this time against out threats at this time against our city. we have been in communication and feel pretty good about that. still, it is clear no one in this city will rest until whoever is responsible is brought to justice. tanya dendrinos, bbc news. to iran, where at least eight climbers have died in mountains to the north of tehran following a blizzard. heavy snow and strong winds in the past few days have forced many roads to close in several parts of iran. the red crescent in the province of tehran has had 20 search and rescue teams out on the mountains looking for other climbers who are still missing. the us president—elect joe biden has warned that there will be devastating consequences if president trump continues to delay signing a covid—i9 economic relief bill into law. if the bill is not signed by the end of saturday, millions of americans will go without unemployment benefits. the bill, which was overwhelmingly passed

by congress, was the product of months of difficult negotiations and compromises. one compromise was the payment of $600 to americans earning less than $75,000 a year. mr trump says he wants americans to receive $2,000. but republicans in congress have refused to agree to the change. the uk's new trade deal with the eu marks "a moment of national renewal", according to boris johnson's chief brexit negotiator. lord frost says it's "one of the biggest and broadest agreements ever". parliament is being recalled on wednesday to debate and vote on the document, which runs to more than 1,000 pages. pro—brexit lawyers will be scrutinising its contents over the next few days. georgina wright is an associate at the institute for government. she explained some of the main points of the agreement.

clearly, there is the ability now for the uk to diverge when it wants, but it will come at a price and we've seen that through the agreement. there's a lot of things that businesses in great britain will have to do if they wish to continue exporting to the eu. they will have to fill in a lot of paperwork to prove, for example, that the product they are trying to export meets eu rules and has been produced and manufactured according to those rules. they will have to fill in custom decorations which will be checked along the borders and there may be some health and safety checks as well. all of those delays and extra paperwork will be costly and it might be something we see producers passing on in terms of cost to the consumer. but you're right, the uk, if it decides to do things differently, it now has the ability to do that because it's no longer forced to follow eu rules strictly. but like many measures in the deal, how do you resolve the dispute, how do you manage that divergence, which was a key concern for the eu.

that was georgina wright. storm bella has brought heavy rain and winds of more than 80 miles an hour to large parts of the uk. official forecasters have issued warnings for england, wales, northern ireland and southern scotland, with coastal areas expected to be worst hit. the bbc‘s anisa kadri reports. a rise in the river levels here caused rising anxiety. 1,300 households were told to evacuate. police said the flooding situation overrides the requirement to stay in your own home, according to tier 4 coronavirus restrictions. we've ended up doing what we've kind of done in the past few years anyway, so oddly enough, it has ended up being a more sociable christmas than we were planning on. debbie ward had police turn up at the door late on christmas eve telling her she should evacuate, but she chose not to. you worry, you panic, you know, it was rising quite fast and has come up but luckily, it has not reached the top of our step

and coming in the house. bedford international athletics stadium was one of the emergency assistance centres set up for people who had nowhere else to go. we have had all of the measures in place to protect people from the spread of the virus. it was christmas day yesterday, boxing day today, obviously. and our hearts just go out to people that have now, with all that going on, have now had some of the highest level floods for over 20 years thrown at them. here in bedford town centre, the levels of the river great ouse peaked in the early hours of this morning. it is now, the authorities say, receding. more rain is expected, as different parts of the country prepare for storm bella. anisa kadri, bbc news. you are watching bbc news. our main headline: the new coronavirus strain that first emerged in england is spreading across many european countries and has now been confirmed in canada and japan.

let's stay with that now — and i've been speaking to jason kindrachuk, assistant professor of emerging viruses at the university of manitoba in canada. i asked him how he felt about the new strain. i live in a perpetual state of worry because of the work we do, but if we look at the way we have produced the two vaccines, they use the higher spike protein itself so the hope is if you have a few mutations that show up, you still have the antibodies for the entire protein. i think you are seeing a lot of people stepping back and saying we think there will still be a benefit. we can certainly see the data to validate that. one other factor people discuss is the impact on severity of disease. could this have something to do with the age groups it has been detected in —

and that is the under—60s? yes, when we certainly see the transmission rates, it gives us a question as to whether or not the transmission of those age groups is because we see those age groups avoiding physical distancing much more frequently. we don't have data to suggest that, and until we have that at hand, we just need to really focus on the things that are most important and try to limit the amount of spread we initiate. individually and in our communities. quickly and finally, professor, i was looking for the european cdc document, and one of the discussion points was the origins of the new variant. as a general question, i am not talking about this particular variant, when we talk about mutations, there has been concerns raised about the virus going back to an animal host. now, it has happened in the mink population in denmark and the netherlands, where the new variant was re—detected back in humans. how concerning is this?

it is always concerning when we deal with these viruses. the spread of movement back into the wildlife from the standpoint of conservation should always have is concerned, it is notjust about us, it is us living in the community and of animals and we need to look at that and look back at the data and understand what we can about transmission before it is too late. professor kindrachuk. at least two security personnel have been killed in a series of explosions in the afghan capital, kabul. officials said there were four blasts within the space of three hours. they damaged houses, shops and vehicles nearby. kabul has witnessed several bomb and rocket attacks in recent weeks targeting security forces, politicians, journalists and activists. the chair of the afghanistan indepedent human rights commission, shaharzad akbar, gave us a sense of life under daily violence in kabul. kabul has been really violent recently.

and not only kabul, across afghanistan, there has been a wave of targeted killings. and these targeted killings usually target journalists, activists, human rights defenders — so, names, places people are familiar with, people who are not very powerful or have a lot of security and protection but people are familiar to afghans because they stand up for rights and freedoms — and they're being targeted mercilessly. last week, we lost a prominent civil activist who had worked on elections for a long time. we lost an woman activist and her brother. both of them were killed as they were leaving their house. and in kabul, almost every morning starts with news of explosions and attacks on vehicles. the impact is just widespread fear. civil activists, journalists are either leaving their provinces and/or, if they can, trying to leave afghanistan. the impact is widespread because these people speak for the society.

and when they decide to leave or they decide to self censor, then you have less of a debate about the peace process and also about the future of afghanistan. so the impact is really... we can feel the impact on the civic space as a whole, notjust on the individual activists and their families. that was shaharzad akbar speaking to me earlier. the former mi6 officer george blake — who became one of the cold war‘s most infamous double agents — has died according to russian media reports. he was 98. as a soviet spy, blake handed over information that betrayed at least a0 british agents in eastern europe. our moscow correspondent steve rosenberg reports. he had a russian home, a russian wife, even a russian name — georgy ivanovich — but george blake was a british intelligence officer, who became one of the most notorious double agents of the cold war. he spied for the soviets for nearly a decade.

blake had spent three years in captivity in north korea. by the time he returned to britain in 1953, he was a committed communist. posted to berlin by mi6, he became a kgb mole. he would take the train to the soviet sector, hand over data on western intelligence operations and western agents, and then drink champagne with his kgb handler. i don't know, but maybe 500, 600. agents? yes. you betrayed 500, 600 agents? maybe. blake convinced himself that what he was doing was morally right. i looked upon it like a sort of voluntaryjob. you know, like people... oxfam? yes, something like that, yes. he was eventuallyjailed in britain for 42 years. he then was able to escape and was smuggled to east germany, and then spent the rest of his life in moscow, cocking a snook at the brits who had succeeded in catching him,

but failed to keep him. in 2012, he told a russian tv channel that he hadn't changed sides because of blackmail or torture, he'd offered his services voluntarily. in a message of condolence, president putin described george blake as "courageous, an outstanding professional", adding that his memory would remain in russian hearts forever. russia gave him medals and much praise but, to britain, he is the cold war traitor who escaped justice. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. roger hermiston is an author and journalist and wrote a book about george blake called the greatest traitor: the secret lives of agent george blake. he had this assessment. well, he's clearly one of the greatest traitors of the cold war. he had quite a lot of competition, when you think about the cambridge spy ring of philby, burgess, blunt and mcclane in the 1950s.

but between about 1953, when he came back from korea, to 1960, when he was eventually unmasked, basically, in his own words, he would photograph with his little camera virtually every document that came across his desk both in london and in berlin, where he was based. so, the quantity of material he gave to the soviets was extraordinary. but the quality is encapsulated in one of the biggest spy operations of the cold war called the berlin tunnel — a big eavesdropping operation conducted by the british and americans to dig a tunnel under the soviet sector in berlin and to eavesdrop on all the telephone conversations of the soviet high command. and blake was on the committee that organised this in london when he was with mi6, and then a few days after the first paper was drawn up, he went and sat on a bus with his soviet control

and handed over the plans. so, this multi—million pound technical operation was betrayed even really before the first soil had been dug. roger hermiston there. we tend to think of the fast food restaurant as a 20th—century invention, but it seems the ancient romans were fond of a takeaway too. archaeologists in pompeii have made the extraordinary discovery of a hot food and drinks shop from around 2,000 years ago. it's due to open to the modern public next year, though don't expect to be served any food! rachel stanton reports. at first glance, this may look like a building site, but it is so much more than that. archaeologists have been hard at work in pompeii. the discovery of an l—shaped

thermopolium — a sort of ancient fast—food counter from thousands of years ago — is welcome news. partially unearthed in 2019, work was extended to preserve the site. translation: the possibilities are now extraordinary because it's the first time we're excavating an entire thermopolium, and we can carry out different types of analysis, thanks to new technologies. the containers are being analysed and cleaned by an interdisciplinary team. brightly—coloured paintings of animals are still intact after all these years, with upside—down ducks, a chicken and a dog on display. and terracotta jars also led to a surprise. fragments of duck bone and remains of pork, goat, fish and snails were recovered. the discovery could lead to information on cooking and eating habits from the time of the eruption of vesuvius in 79ad. translation: now we can start the analysis of the material inside the containers to know their content. what type of food was sold and what passers—by in pompeii could buy.

truly extraordinary evidence of the mediterranean diet. human bones were also found, belonging to those caught up in the volcanic eruption. translation: there was someone inside the room. a victim, whose bones were found in the excavation. unfortunately, the skeleton is not intact, because the thermopolium had already been partially looted in the past. the site is set to open to the public from easter 2021. with this year having been like no other due to the coronavirus pandemic, the unearthing of this site offers some light relief, as well as vital clues to the past. rachel stanton, bbc news. isn't that a wonderful find? a quick reminder of our top story. the new variant of coronavirus first detected in the uk has been found in canada. two cases were identified.

don't forget you can get in touch with me. i'm @lukwesaburak. do stay with us. hello. after a night of wind and rain, sunday won't be as windy. there will be showers around but also sunshine, too. but right now, it's still very wet and very windy out there for some of us. from this area of low pressure, storm bella as named by the met office to raise awareness of the impacts from the wind and rain but not just that. in areas that have seen the back of the rain and the strongest winds overnight, the colder air moving — and for some of us in scotland and northern ireland, icy and a few wintry showers around to start the day. damaging winds from storm bella could cause some disruption, particularly into parts of england and wales and there will be more heavy rain in areas already seeing some flooding. so, that's not going to help. the greatest chance of disruption from the wind will be in the areas where the met office has an amber warning in force, the potential of some gusts up to 80 mph or so, slowly easing as we go

on through sunday morning. once this overnight rain will have cleared away, clearing around mid—morning from the east of kent. you can see it's a colder start the day, particularly across scotland and northern ireland, where it will icy in places, potentially parts of northern england. we have these wintry showers moving in. some snow, mainly on hills, but perhaps not exclusively on hills. it's the west that sees most of sunday's showers. it is sunnier and drier the further east you are. it is still windy. these are wind gusts, but we're talking around 30—110 mph, just a little higher around some coasts in the west. and it is going to be a cold day, temperatures in scotland just hovering close to freezing during the day, and a longer spell of snow pushing across parts of scotland, northern ireland, northern england, north wales overnight sunday into monday —

notjust on hills, that snow. a few centimetres to lower levels in some spots, too. and even where you don't get that, it could be icy, frosty as monday starts. so, a cold start to monday. the area of low pressure right across us. if you are close to that, you can expect some cloud. and around that, there will be some bands of rain, sleet, and snow around on monday morning. so, there could be some problems from that. it could well be the further away you are from that low pressure system in scotland and northern ireland by the afternoon, the greater chance for you to see a bit of sunshine. but it's cold, and it's a cold week to come. but a reminderfrom storm bella — damaging winds potential and also further flooding. there are weather and flood warnings. keep up—to—date online.

this is bbc news. the headlines. cases of the more contagious variant of covid—19 first identified in the uk have been confirmed in several european countries — including spain, sweden and france. the variant strain has also been found injapan and canada. some eu nations are now rolling out their mass vaccine programme 2a hours early. us federal agents have searched a house on the outskirts of nashville as part of their investigation into the christmas day explosion in the city. local police say they have identified at least "one person "of interest" connected to the motor home vehicle that exploded in the city centre. and the russian president vladimir putin has paid tribute to the cold war spy george blake who has died in moscow, aged 98. blake was a soviet double agent who worked in the british secret service. he escaped to russia from a london prison in 1966.