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 vaccination 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. 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 for the british secret service. he escaped to russia from a london prison in 1966.

one of horse racing's most prestigious trophies, the king george vi chase, has been won by a woman jockey for the first time in its 83—year history. bryony frost's victory on froedon at kempton park, also saw her become the most successful female jump jockey of all time. joe wilson has more. boxing day sport, jockeys in facemasks, perfectly 2020. the horses have no idea what tier kempton may be in. as ever, they race. they are on their way. the king george is boxing day tradition but that does not mean every year is a repeat. look at frodon at the front, the blue and white silks of bryony frost. well, the favourites loomed but as the fences passed, it was still frodon. trainer paul nicholls virtually had the grandstand to himself, watching, willing. his horses have dominated this race but here was an outsider leading from start to finish.

but frodon has won the king george! bryony frost, the first woman to win this exalted race. she only realised that later in journalists told her. i have won at king george on frodon for paul and the team. yeah, that is the big thing for me, regardless of the girl stuff and the winners and the numbers. taking history in your stride. well, how else to end 2020? joe wilson, bbc news. now on bbc news, 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 away to your heart. i feel like crying. 0h, love. who nominated you 7

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 the heat. 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 i’ooiti. carmen, what about you? what has it been like there injapan? well, fortunately, japan is pretty big so i travelled 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 that allowed me to travel without quarantining and overnight, that was

rescinded and the trip was off. chris, you are a seasoned traveller. what's it been like? 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 little 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 is 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, has meant for me, 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 reckon? 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? are they going to 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 that we spend?

it's certainly a time to perhaps value the trip more. what i think about non—stop is in 2021, if we do choose to travel — and we can travel for however they'll make that happen, whether we have a vaccination or risk tolerance — there will be a once—in—a—lifetime opportunity to see machu picchu, mount fuji, 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 this coming year. 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! all chuckle as opposed to buying it yourself online. it's like we have gone back 30 years. and 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 absolutely 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? what 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 that we shouldn‘t take this 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 experiential trip, 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 yui. 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 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 things were getting uneasy and we could see there were no other 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 this year 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 once i got to 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 any of the other countries for 18 months, two years, and i decided after that that i would just leave. a lot of 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, this is what we want to do, 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 of 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 really 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 in the world was actually 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. it feels 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‘s not easy, i won‘t lie, it‘s not easy when you are 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 was like, "what are you doing? this is my own mental space!" everything makes more sense now to me and i find that 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 mike‘s mind—blowing journey through kazakhstan and lucy‘s 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. 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 in — 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 . 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 colder 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. so 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.

a very warm welcome if you‘re watching here in the uk or around the world. i‘m rich preston. our top stories: the new coronavirus variant 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. i am confident in the team that we have that would get to the bottom of this. we will find out the story of this individual, or individuals. 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