eu ambassadors have unanimously backed the post—brexit trade deal that was agreed between the uk and the eu on christmas eve. the move means the changes can take effect from the 1st of january. president trump has signed a coronavirus relief and spending package, after previously threatening to block the bill — saying parts of it were ‘wasteful‘. democrats have urged the president to follow up the bill with more help for struggling workers. the daily number of coronavirus cases in the uk has passed 40,000 for the first time. there were 41,385 new cases — with 357 more deaths — as the new variant puts pressure on hospitals

a chinese journalist, zhang zhan, who reported on the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in the city of wuhan has been sentenced to four years injail. she was convicted of provoking trouble with her reports that criticised the authorities‘ initial response to the pandemic. tonight's premier league fixture between everton and manchester city has been cancelled for medical reasons — due to city's squad being hit by the coronavirus. let's take a look back now at how coronavirus impacted the world of sport in 2020 — patrick gearey reflects on the highs and lows of the year in sport. we've got so much to look forward to in 2020. europe's festival of football begins. welcome to euro 2020. of football begins. it's that time of year again, and there's a real buzz around this wimbledon. they call it the greatest show on earth. take your marks for tokyo 2020. that was the sporting year that wasn't. a calendar with a line through it.

2020 showed sport's irrelevance, but also strangely its importance. it all began fatefully in smoke. fumes from the bushfires which were ravaging australia injanuary choked the melbourne air ahead of the australian open. at one point, the city had the worst air quality in the world. the whole competition was in doubt. but the winds changed, and the crowds, which saw novak djokovic win his 17th grand slam and sofia kenin win her first, were the lucky ones. things wouldn't be so normalfor long. las vegas has never really been normal, and in february it would host a fighter who's anything but ordinary.

tyson fury. tyson fury! he was in town for a heavyweight title rematch. in the first fight, he and deontay wilder couldn't be separated. before the second, they had to be separated. this fight didn't need pushing, the world was already watching. i think this is the biggest fight in the last 50 years, since 1971. i got his number because he put me down but he couldn't keep me down. and that's been playing on his mind because everybody else he's knocked out apart from the gypsy king. so i'm coming for you, baby. he was carried to the ring as a king, he would leave as a champion, flooring wilder twice before the fight was stopped in the seventh round. fury, whose struggles with mental health took him to the very bottom, now stood on top of the world. before i was ever born, i was destined to do what i do. and i've had the highs and lows andeverybody knows about it, and tonight was the icing on the cake. and i've got another old fellow across the pond who might want a little tickle with a gypsy king, and then that's it then, completed, done.

that old fellow was anthonyjoshua, who defended his own titles this year. the world is still waiting for that fight because even as the desert dust settled in vegas, clouds were gathering around the planet. coronavirus continues to affect the sporting world. moved due to the coronavirus. april's chinese grand prix postponed as the coronavirus continues to spread. as the virus crept across the world and into british homes, the sporting impact was initially overseas. british sport lost handshakes, added hand gel and carried on. in early march, ministers insisted premier league football, england v wales rugby and the cheltenham festival could still go ahead with appropriate hygiene measures in place. at this stage, we are not in the territory of cancelling or postponing events.

that was the morning of monday the 9th of march. by the end of that week, everything had changed. events escalated from thursday. bit of breaking news regarding the coronavirus. yes, arsenal have just confirmed that head coach mikel arteta has tested positive for covid—19. the premier league will convene an emergency club meeting tomorrow. all english and scottish football matches are suspended because of the impact of coronavirus. england have cancelled their two test cricket matches... the f1 season suspended until may at the earliest. the marathon is the next sporting match to be postponed. a complete write—off. what you have seen over the last 48 hours or so in effect is the collapse of the global sporting calendar. within a fortnight, the country was locked down, and with much of the world also under restrictions, the final dominoes were bound to fall. wimbledon was cancelled for the first time in peacetime, while euro 2020 was shifted to 2021. the women's euros moved to 2022. and having cost at least £10 billion, the biggest event of all finally accepted the inevitable.

we came to the conclusion that we have to postpone the olympic and paralympic games tokyo 2020 to the year 2021. i feel relieved because we were getting more and more feedback from athletes and from sports saying they have to be postponed this year. it's all—consuming, an olympic campaign, so it really is a big deal to add another year to it, and including the question of will my body even hold up? i just don't think it's sensible to continue given the current circumstances the world is in. first of all, athletes can't train as normal. it is quite frustrating because right now i'm ready to go. and jordan wasn't alone. music. like all of us, athletes were told to stay at home, so expending energy and maintaining fitness required creativity. the enormity of what was happening drew some into the world outside sport, to the wards, to a cause. marcus rashford's campaigning on child hunger transcended the partisan world of football. football itself had a big question in front of it. with the stadium doors shut for the foreseeable future, should the season be stopped? in scotland, they called it a day. and celtic, 13 points clear, were crowned slightly lonely the enormity of what was happening

drew some into the world outside sport, to the wards, to a cause. marcus rashford's campaigning on child hunger transcended the partisan world of football. football itself had a big question in front of it. with the stadium doors shut for the foreseeable future, should the season be stopped? in scotland, they called it a day. and celtic, 13 points clear, were crowned slightly lonely champions, their ninth in a row. in england, the women's super league also packed up. chelsea bumped up to champions on points per game at the expense of manchester city, who had been leading. english lower league football clubs also voted to stop. with no fans in grounds, their very survival was at stake. but for those who wanted to play on, the last day of may brought hope. we won't be sitting in the stands for a while and things will be very

different to what we're used to, but live sports will be back on oui’ screens next week. the british sporting recovery has begun. when the premier league returned in england two and a half weeks later, it emerged into a weird, empty, sterile landscape, a place of twice—weekly covid tests and daily temperature checks. and it wasn't just the virus which had changed the world. the killing of george floyd in america saw the rise in the black lives matter movement. sportsmen and women across the planet took a knee in solidarity. meanwhile, liverpool, the world and european club champions, had a job to finish, a wait to end, a weight to lift. it's crazy to think that a club the size of liverpool will go 30 years about winning the league, without being english champions. one of the biggest problems liverpool had was just needed to get a title win over the line because it was starting to feel as though it was never going to happen. there's been plenty of times where we have said this is our year, it's our season and it's never quite come off. brilliant salah header, 2—0 liverpool! liverpool were phenomenal

at the start of last season. to get 97 points and only come second, and then your response to that, rather than feel sorry for yourself, is we just have to win every single game next season, which is how they started. i think manchester united at home was the moment where everyone was like, "this is it, this team is going to be champions." salah sticks it away and people burst into a rendition of we're going to win the league. we have been so cagey about that. we both have season tickets, but we started singing we're going to win the league, and we were quite superstitious when it comes to the margin. my dad said i'm not saying it until we have our hands in the trophy. liverpool 25 points clear at the top when football stopped. football is a game, again we all take very seriously, it's very central of all of our lives but it was a very small and insignificant sort of side act to what was happening around the world. you didn't know when it was going to return or whether there was going to be a void. no one had any idea what was going to happen. you follow football, it felt like the universe was finding another way to stop liverpool winning the league.

we waited 30 years and we just had another three months on top of that. having a day to come back was wonderful news. that was the light at the end of the tunnel, if you like, we knew they are going to do it. on thursday, june the 25th, their chance came. manchester city had to beat chelsea just to stay in the race. one of my friends set up a big projector in his garden and managed to get a screen from somewhere. and liverpool surely headed to the title! liverpool was already starting to celebrate as soon as the penalty went in, and that's when you started hearing the fireworks, you started hearing the cheers. stuart attwell blows his whistle. and for the first time since 1990, the champions of england are liverpool. that feeling... that absolute rush, i've never felt quite anything like that when i've not been in a football ground. we started hearing liverpool breaking into this spontaneous party and suddenly all around you, people beeing the horn and shouting out the car windows.

i'm just so happy that i was with my dad, and i know for a fact that it meant so much to him. people running into their gardens and running into the streetsjust screaming into the air. people were just going outside and laughing and smiling and being so happy. it was beautiful really. it was much more than i was expecting to get. the joy was not entirely contained. the club and local leaders condemned

some liverpool fans for ignoring social distancing rules and gathering in large numbers to celebrate. but for most, this was about being together apart. having a successful football team in a city always lifts the mood in a city, so it helps everything. it's good in this moment in time in the biggest crisis we've probably have ever had, our generation have ever had, so important you don't forget to have something we really look forward to and we are allowed to look forward to. this is a really special team, this is a really special time. you can move, but we are not quite ready to let go of it yet and we want that number 20. and it really was our year, let's just forget about everything else that's going on around the world and just give us that little bit ofjoy. not been the football that we knew and loved in quite the same way, we've not been able to engage with it in the same way. having in my opinion and currently technically the best team in the world to follow, it's been a god's blessing. scotland fans had also been on hold, but this year brought a chance to end the wait since ‘98 when the men's team last made a major tournament. it all came down to a playoff and to penalties.

if he can't convert, scotland go through. it is alexander, right—footed penalty, saved! saved! scotland are through! the torture, the pain, the anguish is over! scotland are through to euro 2020! music. restrictions meant the national celebration had to be expressed individually. 0nly small parties now but they have an invite to a big one. it was a long night. no sleeping after a game like that, no sleep with the emotions of the night. wake up to lots of messages on your phone and you begin

to realise the magnitude of what we did last night. northern ireland's men narrowly missed out on qualifying but the women might still make it. they have a playoff for 2021 to see if they can join hosts england in the finals in 2022, by which time the english will be under new management. serena wiegman is due to replace phil neville. the old football season was running so late it overlapped the new one. manchester city won the women's fa cup a few months earlier, arsenal lifted the men's version for a record 14th time. from gunners to a rider, and hollie doyle has always been a natural. this year she has gone galloping past milestones all over the place, the first royal ascot victory, the first woman to win five races on a british card. doyle also broke her own record for wins by a female jockey in a calendar year. i've been pretty blessed this year. i wasjust dreaming of riding a group winner and i've ridden a handful, so is it better than i ever expected. she's grafted to craft her body into a racing machine and there is talk of her becoming the first female champion jockey.

she may only be five feet tall, but for hollie doyle, nothing is out of reach. barriers are there to be smashed, as harper will show you. only recently her job involved spuds, not gloves. that's how i wake up monday morning and how crazy my life is changed. i worked in a chip shop. and now i'm in a gym, boxing full—time. this was the year she went from a chippy to a champ, doing a lot of battering along the way. back in february before the world changed, she conquered it, beating eva to become only the second british champion. her next fight was in eddie hearn's backyard in essex in august, and foughtjonas in battle, a landmark for women's boxing. it ended as a draw with her the champ. savannah marshall has since joined her on top of the world.

i've learned to go out hold on and i've learned i got harder and i learned that i still got a lot more. meanwhile those running cricket trying to save the test match summer. millions of pounds were on the line. they found the answer inside a bubble. ecb has confirmed that england will face the west indies in a three test series. we'll go ahead with the players remaining in a strict biobubble practising, playing and living inside two cricket grounds with on—site hotels. this was an experiment in sport. given the virus had meant locking everyone in for days and weeks on end. so what was the view like from the inside? a biosecure bubble, a wonderful thing it is. everybody had to buy into this because if there been a breach, if any of us had come down with covid—19 during the game, it could have been catastrophic. you get up in the morning, make sure that you walk from the right direction around to the media centre to get temperatures check.

it was very disorienting to start with. but you get the hang of it and you get this sense of extraordinary privilege. the west indies are coming from an environment which had really low rates of covid—19 and what they were doing was resurrecting broadcast deals which keep sports afloat, especially when you could not get fans in, what the westies have done for the english this summer is nothing short of heroic. all members of both the england and the west indies and the umpires and officials taking a knee. that very first fall, that very first test, i had goosebumps. it was an extraordinary thing to see and it was marvellous that the england players also took the knee. the amazing thing was actually the quality of the cricket was as good if not better than it has been for some years. that first test match, they ambushed england really. the west indies win a remarkable test match. whenever joe root has a problem, he seems to get

ben stokes who just arrives. this is incredible batting from ben stokes. stuart broad had an extraordinary summer. he was a man reborn really. and to take that 500th wicket, i remember it very distinctly because i was on commentary. he has given him! that is broad's 500 wicket in test cricket. that's when the strange things about being a bubble because you would witness a really historic event and there was no one there to see it. second and third test, england were just too good. the england test team return to face a new challenge, pakistan. theyjust give a different flavour. they gave a different thing. they should probably have won that series and probably should've won that first test and under impossible circumstances, woa kes fast and a departure of 139 that took england to the brink of victory and then they got there. and want to win that is for england!

they had this breakthrough innings and it was staggering. 257 he scored. well, that is glorious. we've got to mention forjames anderson. his longevity is extraordinary. 38 years old and still pumping out wickets and then he can get the holy grail of 600 on the last test match day of the summer. got it! the first ever seam bowler to get 600 test match wickets. to go out there and get the chance to get to 600 was really special and obviously sharing that moment with the guys that i play a lot of cricket with was making it even more special. and the way they got on the field was a lot less important than the fact that it happened and the fact that we could prove that it was possible to put a biosecure bubble together. this sport does not have to stop because a covid—19 and that we don't have to just surrender in the face of this calamity.

the march ended the world t20 hopes of england's women. they will have a year before they played again winning all five of their t20 matches against the west indies. bubbles took off and landed around the world. 0ne formed around part of new york to allow the us open to take place. djokovic's tournament went pot. after a shot hit a linejudge, so dominic thiem's time had finally arrived. naomi 0saka won her second us title. in paris, a rearranged french open saw the first a familiar harvest for nadal. the roland—garros title proving even in 2020 some things never change. and out of kilter year for the masters sprung from springtime. dustinjohnson dominated in autumnal agusta and earned himself a nice winter jacket. staying with green cloth, this is ronnie 0'sullivan's canvas. he won his sixth world snooker title. rugby union have been on a specially long pause.

it took until the last day of october for england to win the six nations and the 1st of november for them to lift the trophy in the hotel garden. they also won the autumn league of nations cup. the women's six nations was won by england too, this time in a grand slam. while in club rugby, exeter competed an incredible rise and an incredible decade from second division side to european champions. they one in the premiership too. the rugby league challenge cup final saluted a bigger battle. former leeds player rob burrow honoured for his fundraising work while dealing with motor neurone disease. and fittingly it was the number seven luke gale who won the cup. luke gale with a drop goal and he peels away in celebration! leeds winners for the 14th time and the season would get some finish. all square in the last seconds of the super league final, one last saint helen's boot to beat the hooter and it one last incredible twist. it is a try!

you will never see a finish to rugby league game like that. sometimes sporting glory can be found in a touch, and ancient sometimes it reveals itself over hundreds of miles. geoghena rt began cycling on the streets of hackney. he skipped school to go to the launch of king's sky. this year at that year giro d'italia, he found himself by chance is the lead rider of the same team. now named ineos grenadier. and on milan's roads, he power to sell to one of cycling's great prizes. they'll get your heart is going to win the jury to tell you. i don't know if it's going to sink in but it certainly has not now. ijust feel honoured to be here with this team and incredibly privileged to be in this position to race my bike for a dream country. so enjoy every moment of it. the blue peter garden 28 years ago, mmet a man with a very clear sense of direction. it's easy to do. this young man never really went for easy. soon he was in cars. i'm lewis hamilton. my brother is the better because he's fast. and one that he's going

to be at the track. not everyone shared nicholas‘s view. i rememberas a kid, adults, teachers, parents and other drivers and youngsters telling me that i would not make it and would never be it, you are not good enough, no way you're going to make it. as a youngster, you're saying i want to be a racing driver, how do you make this happen? i really improved. manifest your dreams and even the impossible ones. it's almost like he's made himself and can find a way to drive that car faster than he ever could before. the foot always been on the accelerator and this season as the best driver in the fastest car, there were records out there on the road ahead. the route was not always straight. lewis hamilton won the grand prix, the race delayed. somehow lewis hamilton has won the british grand prix.

a minute shy ofjust three reels after suffering a puncture. and incredibly nursed his car around the track. not just about the car and not about the win, it's about the decisions that he's making on the way that makes him great. and that greatness was about to be confirmed on the out car as hamilton passed michael schumacher‘s record, the ultimate overtaking. victory in portugal! 92nd grand prix win! it felt like i said '94 when the first time we 18 cart

championship, remembering the smile on his face and how excited he was. and here we are in late and the great michael schumacher and to have his son present lewis with a helmet was just a very humbling experience. you know, everyone asked me what it would be like. the man from stevenage comes across the line, wins the turkish grand prix and becomes the most successful formula 1 driver of all time! i definitely would havfe predicted that he would be here. but my whole racing career, my familyjust flashed before my eyes. it is nice to seek dominance, if you want by an individual who was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth but actually had to work for everything he has earned. my dad sacrificed so much, when i facetime with him and he's got a big smile on his face this is under you would do it. i love seeing him in the race car. i love seeing that machinery. i still feel young, i still feel energised and asked if the that's another side of that we have another big fight to win and that's for racial equality across the board. now it's our time and lewis is opportunity to try and change the way people perceive the sport. after us there is a concern that there will never be another black driver in formula 1. that should not be

in this day and age. watching george floyd, emotions i did not realise i even had expressed and challenged my racing, i feel like i've had a real drive to try and push for change. that's why you see me drive faster than ever. two weeks after hamilton won the title, romain grosjean smashed into the barrier at the bahrain grand prix. amazingly he escaped from the inferno with only minor injuries. his life saved by a protective bar on the car. that fire shone a blinding light on the importance of safety within sport, a relationship that's been examined ever closer this year. the possible link between dementia and heading in football or relentless collisions in rugby will surely come under still greater focus. meanwhile the pandemic continues to attack sport, infecting athletes, postponing fixtures, cancelling tours and restrictions needed cutting off the financial lifeblood, meaning sports rely on rescue packages. but there is hope in the trickling return to fans and the coming wave of vaccinations.

and if 2020 as a sporting year was partly postponed, then 2021 is to be confirmed. there is at least something to play for. hello. a little bit of winter sunshine out there for many at the moment but it's a balance between rain, sleet and snow for others. we could see some further wintry weather in the southern counties with some boston snow in the downs. showers to the west, gusty winds, slow for pembrokeshire and there are the higher ground of cornwall and more showers in the east. to the

evening, temperatures drop below freezing. showers on the hills, snow in uphill parts of sheffield, leeds, manchester, seeing snow through the night. though showers continue and given the fact temperatures are below freezing or at freezing in many parts, could be an icy start to the morning. rain, sleet and snow pushes through the middle and towards wales and eventually south—west during the day with heavy showers in the far west with a breeze a bit stronger but for most as we head into tuesday afternoon away from the coast, many dry, sunny and staying cold but that could be some more snow on the coast, many dry, sunny and staying cold but there could be some more snow anyway for wednesday.

today at six, right across the uk nhs staff are reporting intense pressure on hospitals, with a sharp rise in the number of covid cases. more than 40,000 new infections were reported in the past 2a hours — a record number — as doctors warn that in some areas services are stretched to the limit. it is always challenging in winter — nobody would say that it wasn't — but at the moment, the level of patient need is incredibly high. we'll be looking at the latest figures and at the biggest pressure points in the health service. also on the programme... ministers warn travellers and business people to expect bumpy moments in the months ahead as they get to grips with the uk's new relationship with the european union. the government's new immigration

rules will make it more difficult