hello this is bbc news. the headlines. borisjohnson promises big changes following his brexit trade deal, as his chancellor rishi sunak says the deal brings reassurance to those who were worried about the impact on businesses. the rollout of the pfizer biontech covid vaccine begins for millions of people across the eu — starting with italy and the czech republic. the met office issues yellow warnings for snow and ice following storm bella with disruption likely for parts of wales, north—west england, scotland and the whole of northern ireland. now on bbc news, we join the travel show team on theirjourney of discovery as they explore new destinations around the globe and uncover hidden sides to some of the world's favourite holiday hotspots. 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 their 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?

a 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 programme 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 off first, 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. christa, 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 has 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, and that is really vital to them.

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 conscious 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. yes. 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 the angkor 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 chantal. 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 went 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. so, 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. but 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, storm bella has been battering a large swathe of the uk in the last 2a hours. we had wind gusts in excess of 80 mph across the south of england and north—west wales. 106 mph at the needles on the isle of wight, coupled with some torrential rain courtesy of this very active cold front. it‘s now cleared south and eastwards. we are all in this much colder air and we‘ve got plenty of showers feeding in from the west, many of them wintry. we‘ll come back to those in just a moment but let‘s talk about the wind. the amber wind warning from the met office has now expired.

the winds continue to ease through today. a number of flood warnings remain in place and we have snow and ice warnings in place as well. the best of the sunshine through the rest of sunday, in central and eastern parts of the uk. plenty of showers feeding in from the west. they will continue to be wintry, particularly across scotland and northern england but almost anywhere could see some sleet oi’ snow. certainly feeling very cold. still we are exposed to the brisk wind although the gusts easing down all the while. as we head through this evening and overnight, a more persistent spell of snow over parts of scotland, then sinking south. we may see some sleet and snow moving into the north of england, the midlands. mainly central and southern england by the time we get through the early hours. where we have clear skies, sharp frost and the potential for some fog or freezing fog across the southern part of the uk. temperatures for many close if not below freezing, —6 or —8 across the glens of scotland. certainly a messy picture tomorrow. we have this area of low pressure to deal with and that will continue generating rain, sleet or snow across central

and southern england into parts of north wales. significant snow for a time here across the chilterns. those wintry showers continuing to feed into scotland and later in the day across parts of north—east and eastern england so it‘s a day of sunshine and wintry showers. temperatures at best, six or seven celsius. for many they will struggle to get much above freezing. cold, frosty start on tuesday but for many, a good deal of sunshine around. showers mainly confined to eastern and western coasts. again temperatures not much higher than five or six celsius. heading towards the end of 2020, an area of low pressure to the east of the uk. high pressure trying to build in from the south—west. frontal systems just grazing the south—west and perhaps the far north of the uk. essentially as we end 2020 and move into the new year, cold and dry.

this is bbc news. these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world. borisjohnson promises big changes following his brexit trade deal, as chancellor rishi sunak says the deal brings reassurance to those worried about the impact on businesses. for those who were anxious about the economic implications of leaving, they should be enormously reassured by the comprehensive nature of this free—trade agreement. the rollout of the pfizer biontech covid vaccine begins for millions of people across the eu — starting with italy and the czech republic. millions of americans lose their unemployment benefits after president trump refuses to sign the covid economic relief bill into law. bangladeshi authorities are planning to move a second group of rohingya refugees to a remote, flood—prone island in