this is bbc news — these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world. us lawmakers vote for a big increase in government pay—outs to people suffering in the covid pandemic, but will the senate back it? here in the uk, scientists warn of the risk of a coronavirus "catastrophe" in the new year if restrictions are not tightened. croatia is hit by its strongest earthquake for decades, a local major says half his town has been destroyed. french fashion designer pierre cardin — who was hailed for his visionary creations — has died aged 98.

hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world. the us senate will begin debating later whether to increase payments to americans — reeling from the covid—19 pandemic. it's the latest stage in a bitter political battle that's dominating in the final weeks of donald trump's presidency. congress has already passed a 900 billion coronavirus relief package — reluctantly signed into law by president trump. he was reluctant because the bill only gave lower paid americans $600 each. mr trump says he wants the hand—out to be $2000. this put him into rare alliance with the democrats. and the us house voted to raise the pay—out figure on monday. now we'll see if the us senate decides to vote the same way.

it'll need a big change of mind from republicans, their leader will speak shortly. michelle fleury joins us now from new york. why might republicans not support this in the senate? i think if you look back over the last few months, i think one of the sticking points has been about the size of the checks that would be sent to americans who have suffered disproportionately during the pandemic. there was concentric expressed by the republicans about what they withdrew to the deficit, what they withdrew to the deficit, what incentives they would send out, whether people will be discouraged from looking forjobs. although obviously it is hard to imagine there aren't that manyjobs out there, with so many restrictions in place control coronavirus. that is been the source of contention during these negotiations which led to this $900 billion coronavirus package that landed on the president's —— to be signed and he held up basically calling for lawmakers to rethink this uncut bigger checks. what we

have based on a houseboat is that many republicans are opposed —— based on a house vote. it took most of the democrats to get it across the line. it is hard to see what chances it has in the senate. i think that is where you are seeing this huge focus. it really boxes republicans into a corner because they do not necessarily want to do this but on the other hand you had the georgia senate race that is seen her so crucial about the future control of congress, what pressure, what signal does it send to the american people voting against helping them during a time of need, oi’ helping them during a time of need, or some will see it as giving away too much. it could hinder the government going forward in terms of the size of the deficit. what will happen if it does not get through the senate? i think it is hard to see beyond that. the symbolic thing is what does it tell you about

republicans, what picture does it paint, what does it tell you about the relationship between senate and republicans and the outgoing president donald trump. that is the significant of it, the outcome, people are not entirely sure but giving the noise that republicans have made in the past, we not be surprising if they voted against it, because of the pressure on them, we could all be surprised. thank you very much. in the past half an hour, the american vice—president—elect kamala harris has recieved a vaccination for covid—i9 on live tv. ms harris and her husband, douglas emhoff, recieved the vaccine after high profile figures in the us such as presient—elect, joe biden and dr antony fauci also recieved the jab, to boost public confidence in the vaccine. the number of covid—i9 cases is soaring across europe

and the united states. sunday was the busiest day at airports in the us since the pandemic began to take hold in the country in march, underscoring concerns that christmas travel may contribute to a further spike in coronavirus. total infections in the us have now surged past 19 million — which means one in 17 people in america are known to have had the virus. in spain, the government says it will set up a registry of people who refuse a vaccine against coronavirus. vacciniation isn't mandatory — but the government says it will share the register with other eu countries. we'll bring you more on that story in a few minutes. meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, india and pakistan have become the latest countries to detect the new, more transmissible coronavirus variant. and the national health service in england says that more than 20,000 people are in hospital with covid, that's higher than the peak in april. health officials in wales and scotland have also said they are at risk of becoming overwhelmed. the uk government is set to decide whether to strengthen tiered restrictions in england in the coming hours with an announcement on wednesday.

here's our health correspondent, catherine burns. every christmas, the nhs chief executive puts out a message thanking staff. today, an acknowledgement that it's been the toughest year most of us can remember and it's not over yet. we are back in the eye of the storm. with this second wave of coronavirus, sweeping europe and indeed this country. the number of covid patients in england peaked in the first wave in april at nearly 19,000. over the summer, things got much better but since september, it's been climbing. now at more than 20,000, its higher than that first peak. welsh hospitals are treating their highest level of covid patients now. in northern ireland, there is a warning the next few days could be critical and in scotland, doctors say there is a danger services will be overwhelmed. in the first wave, the nhs cancelled most other work so it could focus on covid.

this time around, its been trying to keep other things going but now, more staff are being redeployed and routine operations being put back. we are desperate, our members are desperate to keep that disruption as low as possible. but, unfortunately, some of our elective and planned services will be disrupted, both in hospitals and in other settings as well. some hospitals are asking staff to cancel their annual leave. mid and south essex nhs foundation trust says it hasn't made this request lightly. staff in london and the south—east say they are under intense pressure. we are doing all that we can and will continue to do all we can to keep everyone safe and make sure everyone is cared for, but i do think that if we continue with the current rate of admissions, we are very, very close to becoming overwhelmed. winter is always the hardest time of the year for the nhs and that's never been truer than now, but vaccines mean there is hope ahead. by late spring, we think that with vaccine supplies

coming on stream we will have been able to offer all vulnerable people across this country this covid vaccination. catherine burns, bbc news. in the uk — margaret keenan, the first person in the world to receive the pfizer biontechvaccine, has received her second jab. there is some flash photography coming up in these next pictures. the 90—year—old grandmother received her first injection on december 8th — as we're seeing here. today, 21 days later, she had her boosterjab at coventry‘s university hospital. 0fficialfigures say more than 520,000 people in the uk have now received their first dose of the vaccine. meanwhile eu countries are in line for another 100 million doses of the pfizer vaccine. eu commission president ursula von der leyen tweeted, "we decided to take an additional 100 million doses

of the biontech/pfizer vaccine, which is already being used to vaccinate people across the eu. we will therefore have 300 million doses. more vaccines will follow!" in germany, there's been progress on a new rapid test for coronavirus. the health authorities have approved a new testing machine that can give results within a0 minutes. the company behind it says it's based on highly reliable pcr technology — as damian mcguinness has been explaining from berlin. the test itself is exactly the same as traditional pcr test, its called, which is the standard test that's mostly used and that's the most reliable test. now, that usually takes a very long time because what it does, it analyses the genetic material in the virus, it has to get sent to a lab, which can take a day or two, it also, in the lab, can take a couple of hours to usually analyse this test to get the test results because the temperatures have to soar right up, then it has to go right down and that has to happen again and again and again. it's quite a complicated technology. then the test results have to get

sent back to the people and it is generally done in large batches. now, all of that can take a couple of days, that's the traditional test we know. what this new technology does, which has just now, as you say, been approved here in germany, is it's essentially the process of getting those results from exactly the same technology is much quicker. so, it's a small box which is portable and what you can do is you essentially put in the samples which have been taken from people who are being tested, eight at a time, and within a0 minutes, they have a new technology which means you can... this high and low temperature cycle, which is usually done in the lab, can be done there in this special machine. now, so far over the past couple of months, they've been testing this at munich airport. they say it seems almost as reliable as when you get the results from the lab. they say it's, so far, about 90% reliable as that, but they're going to keep using it now to see if it can be as reliable as the pcr test. if indeed it is as reliable

as the usual lab results that we get sent back then that is indeed good news, because it means you can really turn round the tests, the reliable tests incredibly quickly. we do already have fast tests, they're called antigen tests, but they're not as reliable, so that is the issue there. so this is really, the speed is there but it's also the reliability that is crucial, so it could be a game changer. let's get more now on the latest in spain — where the government has announced plans for a register of people who have refused a coronavirus vaccine. it says the register won't be made public, but will be shared with other european countries. james badcock is a journalist from madrid. the health minister, salvador illa, yesterday mentioned this registry, and i think it has taken people somewhat by surprise because he was quick to point out that it doesn't mean that the vaccine is mandatory, people are free to choose. but still, the idea that central government is talking about keeping a registry, especially when health is a regional, you know, competence in spain, has surprised many people

in a country which is riven by political controversy over the handling of the crisis, where the second and third—largest parties day in, day out say the government is lying and misleading people about its handling of the coronavirus crisis, about the number of deaths, about the number of infected. i mean, this will... you know, i have looked at social media, this is already playing into those kind of divisions that we have seen throughout the crisis. other major politicians have not yet reacted to the idea. it is not really clear what the registry is for. the minister talked about it, so that we know why someone has not had it but one thing would be the health authority noting down, ok, this person said no, but another thing seems to be keeping a separate registry of names. he also said that this information, perhaps not the names, but this information of people

who are rejecting the vaccine would be shared with other european countries. an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 has struck central croatia, causing several buildings to collapse. these pictures are from the town of petrinja. the mayor says half the town has been destroyed and that a 12—year—old girl has died. he's called for immediate emergency aid. the tremors could be felt 50 kilometres north of the epicentre in the capital zagreb, where people raced onto the streets. in neighbouring slovenia a nuclear power plant was shut down as a precaution. the latest headlines on bbc news: the us house of representatives has approved a big increase in government pay—outs to people suffering in the pandemic, now it's up to the senate to decide whether to back the change of plan. here in the uk, scientists are warning of a possible coronavirus "catastrophe" in the new year if restrictions are not tightened.

argentina is on the verge of making history as the first major latin american country to legalise abortion. the argentine senate is due to begin a debate on legalisation after the lower house voted in favour of the proposed law by 131—117 earlier this month. the vote has polarised the country and, if it does pass, its expected only to do so by a slim majority. activists on both sides of the debate are holding rallies today. two years ago a similar bill was approved by the lower house but was narrowly rejected by the more conservative senate. constanza fosch is a spokesperson for the national campaign for the tight to a legal, safe and free abortion in argentina and joins me now. thank you forjoining us. do you think this will be approved by the senate this time? hello, hello, everyone. yes, this time i think the

senate is going to approve the bill. why do you think... what has changed? i think the senate has changed? i think the senate has changed and that we had elections, mid—term elections, we have another president of the chamber and this president, she was our president for four years, and she was against this project of law. in 2018, she was in favour and now she is doing politics to change some of the votes of some

senators to vote in favour of this law. this has changed the things for us. law. this has changed the things for us. also, the society has changed and this is for all the work that the campaign has made in all of our history, 15 years of history we have, fighting for these human rights. so, that. you say that society has changed, there are strong views on both sides, obviously you want this to go ahead. do you recognise the face of those who do not want this to happen? —— the fears of those who do not want

this to happen. i think it is a minority, it's against the kind of rights, like divorce, equality marriage, all these rights and their arguments are a lwa ys these rights and their arguments are always the same. i am not afraid of these people because their arguments are always the same. i don't know, the family is going to disappear, i don't know, things like this. there are no arguments. . . don't know, things like this. there are no arguments... there are no strong arguments. we have strong arguments, scientific arguments, human rights arguments and this has

had a lot of impact in society and we have the support. you can see this in all of our activities in the streets. in december, we were a lot of people of lebanon, of adolescent, i have child, of man as well in the country, and the countries all over the world in support of us. —— we have a lot of people on the street, adolescents and children unmanned. thank you very much forjoining us. thank you very much forjoining us. thank you. ahead of the uk parliament debating and voting on the post—brexit trade deal with the european union, the influential european research group of conservative mps have given it's backing to borisjohnson's deal saying it ‘preserves the uk's sovereignty. the group's legal team have been scrutinising the 1,200 page document

since it was agreed on christmas eve. mps are expected to back the deal when it is voted on in the house of commons on wednesday. it won't receive unanimous support, as northern ireland's democratic union party has said its nine mps will vote against the deal. its brexit spokesman is sammy wilson. thank you forjoining us. why are you voting against? first of all, we welcome that we are finally leaving the european union on the 1st of january. but of course, northern ireland will not be leaving on the same terms of the rest of the united kingdom. that is a huge disappointment for a party that campaigned very vigorously to leave the eu and have a successful outcome at the referendum. we feel that given the fact that the agreement which has now been reached with the eu reinforces the government's commitment to implement a withdrawal agreement and all of the

implications that it has for northern ireland. by the way, for the rest of the united kingdom, the european court of justice the rest of the united kingdom, the european court ofjustice and brussels a foot in the door and overall british policy. given that, we feel we have got to make it quite clear that we do not agree with the terms of the agreement in relation to northern ireland. sorry to interrupt, this is the deal that decides the relationship going forward , decides the relationship going forward, this is how the future is going to like. if you do not like it, why do you think brexit is still the right thing? exit is the right thing, brexit was the right thing for the whole of the united kingdom, not part of it. northern ireland has been given a different style of brexit and the different position than the rest of the united kingdom. 0ur message to the government is that you promised that in these

negotiations he would try to undo the damage which was done in the withdrawal agreement this time last year to stop you have not succeeded in doing that, you have mediated some of the impact, we will accept that and that is good, but we still do not believe that this is the deal which you promised to the people of the whole of the united kingdom, including northern ireland, and therefore we cannot support it. i suspect there is a lot of conservative mps who represent fishing constituencies who must be feeling exactly the same as we do in northern ireland, their constituents have not got from this deal what the government promised during the referendum campaign. sorry, we are tight for time, i want to touch on future relations within the uk because there are some who believe that brexit may hasten the break—up of the united kingdom. do you have concerns about what might happen with northern ireland? as far as

northern ireland is concerned, northern ireland is concerned, northern ireland is concerned, northern ireland will only leave the rest united kingdom, not on the basis of any agreement which has made it with the eu but when the people of northern ireland make the decision that they no longer wish to remain part of united i have no doubt that when, its the referendum was ever held the people of northern ireland would recognise that they better off being part of the faith gets economy in the world, and uncommonly which i believe will prosper greatly now that we have left the eu and will be even stronger now that we have left the eu. ithink stronger now that we have left the eu. i think when faced with a choice, the people of northern ireland will know there is no real choice should be made... sammy wilson, thank you very much. thank you very much forjoining us. legendary french fashion designer pierre cardin has died at the age of 98. he transformed the fashion industry in the 1960s and ‘70s by successfully licensing his brand name, and introducing futuristic styles. his family says he died

in a hospital near paris. 0ur correspondent daniela relph looks back at his life. newsreel: another leader of the fashion world in paris, pierre cardin, takes the town by storm and reveals to breathlessly excited womanhood what they simply must be wearing by easter. pierre cardin, the fashion world supreme innovator. for decades, his designs ripped up convention and shocked the establishment. his thirst for the new and surprising was never satisfied. born in 1922, he left school at 1a to train in making cloth. a fortune teller told him he'd be famous. he asked if she knew anyone who worked in fashion. she did. he moved to paris, clutching an address. he designed costumes forjean cocteau's film beauty and the beast in 19116 and was soon unnerving the fashion industry itself. his 1950's bubble dress took liberties with the female silhouette.

he moved young men out of boxyjackets, creating a new look for the 1960s. the beatles, in their collarless cardin suits, said he was one step ahead of tomorrow. he irritated his fellow high—fashion designers, launching ready—to—wear collections for the middle classes. and indulged in futuristic fantasies, inspired by the space age. some of it, impractical to wear. this was his proposed uniform for nurses. he was a savvy businessman, showing this 1970s collection in china, where fashion was set by chairman mao. but he spotted potential. i expect in the future, not for tomorrow but i'm sure in ten years, china will become the most important country in the world. cardin established licensing agreements, putting his name on everything, from glasses to fancy carpets. it changed the way the industry worked.

he bought a castle once owned by the marquis de sade, putting on shows there into his tenth decade. still experimenting, still innovating. pierre cardin, capturing the future before it exists. fashion designer pierre cardin, who's died at the age of 98. now here's something not for the faint—hearted, look away now if you don't like snakes. a spa in cairo has introduced a massage using live snakes. masseurs start as normal by rubbing oil on their clients' backs, followed by the use of a combination of pythons or 28 other non—venomous snake species. the massage is claimed to relieve muscle pain and improve people's self—confidence by increasing blood circulation and releasing endorphins. oh, my gosh!

i think it increases your self—confidence to brag that she got through that! —— you got through that! hello there. 0ne things for certain this week, it's going to stay very cold for all of us with overnight frost and also some ice to watch out for. what's a bit more uncertain is where we're going to see some rain, sleet and snow over the next few days. but wherever it does occur, it's likely to cause some disruption. of course, ice will be an issue on untreated surfaces, so just take care if you have to head out. so the cold pool of air pretty much right across the uk for today and indeed for the foreseeable future. this is the early morning sleet and snow which we had across northern, western parts of england and north wales, pushing on into the south west. further wintry showers likely to affect coastal areas, some accumulations over the scottish isles, but there'll be quite a bit of dry weather around too, some sunshine to end the day. it'll stay rather grey and cold across the southeast. as we head through tonight,

many areas will stay dry through central parts that is, but around coasts, further showers are likely. we could see some wintry showers affecting north west england, north wales with a great risk of ice pretty much anywhere, but especially where we have these showers and a cold night to come. subzero values for most of us, maybe as low as minus seven, maybe minus eight across northern england into parts of scotland in some of the glens. for wednesday, we start off with some sunshine around. watch out for some ice first thing, particularly where we have lying snow. further showers affecting coastal areas. you could see this feature, though, running across the south—west, which could bring a mixture of rain, sleet and snow. again, uncertainty to this so you have to stay tuned to the forecast. another cold day to come and at least some areas will have the sunshine to compensate. it looks like this feature then runs across the south of the country, further showers during wednesday night around coastal areas. now, we'll have this area of low pressure as well sitting over the north sea. that's going to introduce an area of rain, sleet and snow to the north of the uk as we head

on into thursday. now, this could cause some disruption, again, the details of this a bit uncertain at the moment. it looks like we could see some settling snow across parts of central southern scotland, perhaps northern and western england and in towards wales. it could be disruptive, so you have to stay tuned to the forecast. many places, though, away from this will stay dry. a bit of sunshine, but another very cold day for us all. as we end the week, it looks like many places will see the sunshine into the weekend, winds turn a bit more northeasterly, so most of the wintry showers will affect north sea coasts.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

the us senate is to decide whether to back a big increase in government relief payments for victims of the coronavirus pandemic. the increase was passed by the democrat—controlled house of representatives — but there's a narrow republican majority in the senate. scientists say the uk risks a coronavirus "catastrophe" in the new year unless tighter restrictions are brought in. hospitals in england are treating more covid patients now than at the peak of the first wave in april. spain says it will set up a register of people who refuse to get the covid vaccine — and share it with other eu nations. the list will not be accessible to the public. the legendary french fashion designer pierre cardin has died at the age of 98. he transformed the fashion industry in the 1960s and ‘70s you are watching bbc news. now on bbc news, as part of our 100 women series.