4...3...2...1. big ben strikes the hour

music: let's dance by david bowie music: firework elements by on the sly in the year of 2020, a new virus came our way. we knew but must be done and so to help, we hid away. old habits became extinct and they made way for the new, and every single act of kindness was now given its due. the nightingale hospital, based at the excel exhibition centre in london, was constructed injust nine days. buildings were lit up in blue, the colour of the nhs. # i will leave the light on

# if you look into the distance, there's a house upon the hill # guiding like a lighthouse to a place where you'll be # safe to feel our grace # and if you've lost your way # if you've lost your way # i will leave the light on #. music: take care of you by ella henderson # 0h, i'll take care, take care of you # and i'll do the things that no one else will do...# thousands of people opened their windows and doors to applaud nhs staff who are working on the front line of this coronavirus crisis. in residential streets across the uk, people have come onto their doorsteps to clap for carers. # 0h, i'll take care, take care of you...#

thank you, nhs heroes! # take care of you # and i'll do the things that no one else will do # yeah, i'll do the things that no one else will do # 0h, i'll take care, take care of you...# captain tom moore set out to raise £1,000 for the nhs. he's raised just a little bit more than that. he's a 99—year—old war vet, he's a one—man fundraising machine. thanks, captain tom! # i'll be there, i'll be there for you # oh, i swear, i got enough love for two # you'll never be alone, i'll be there for you #. thank you all very much.

# hello... # is it me you're looking for?# we're living in a world now where working from home, that teleworking phenomenon, is something we all have to deal with. let's just join you into the meeting. yes, i can see you. hang on... no, you're on mute. music: love and hate by michael kiwanuka so many of the nurses, and doctors and consultants as well as cleaners, the helping hands guiding us through this storm, are black, asian, and minority ethnic. the future holds unexposed danger, but no stress. humankind is no stranger to progress. and as we've proven, when we collaborate, progress follows fast. this is one voice with one message — black lives matter.

# lord, i've been broken # although i'm not worthy # you fixed me, i'm blinded # by your grace # you came and saved me...# 2020, a year we'll never forget, but we can make the new year a year of hope. # gather the rainbow # make you wanna move your dancing feet now... # dancing in the moonlight # i'm a rainbow too, i'm a rainbow too #.

# and i said, ooh, i'm blinded by the lights # no, i can't sleep until i feel your touch # i said, ooh, i'm drowning in the night # oh, when i'm like this, you're the one i trust... # say my name # and every colour illuminates # we are shining # and we will never be afraid again # say my name # as every colour illuminates # we are shining...# # but my heart goes

# cos my heart goes # bum bum bum da bum bum, bum bum bum da bum # cos my heart goes bum, bum bum bum da bum # bum bum bum da bum bum, bum bum bum da bum # oh my god, oh my god bum, bum bum bum da bum # this feeling's just begun bum, bum bum bum da bum # i'm saying things i've never said bum, bum bum bum da bum # doing things i've never done bum, bum bum bum da bum # but my heart goes bum, bum bum bum da bum # oh my god, oh my god bum, bum bum bum da bum # when i see you i should run bum, bum bum bum da bum # but i'm frozen in motion bum, bum bum bum da bum # and my head tells me to stop bum, bum bum bum da bum # but my heart goes...# bum, bum bum bum da bum music: every teardrop is a waterfall by coldplay. # i turn the music up # is a waterfall # every tear, every tear

# is a waterfall...# music: chilled lang syne by jason creasey sir david attenborough: happy new year. 0ur planet is unique — a living world of diversity and wonder. it's also fragile. with a new year comes the opportunity for change, and if we act in 2021, we can make a world of difference. together, we can turn things around. together, we can restore our fragile home and make it a happy new year for all the inhabitants of planet earth.

well, that was how the uk has been welcoming in 2021. and said good riddance to 2020. let's take a look at the just some of the celebratations earlier around the world. in bangkok, 20,000 "eco—friendly" fireworks made of sticky rice lit the sky to mark the new year. and in wuhan, where crowds gathered on the banks of the yangtze. let's look at the fireworks show at taipei 101 skyscraper to mark the new year. in north korea, crowds attented while wearing masks. in australia, sydney's famous

fireworks display lit up the sky, but the harbour area was mostly deserted. there were bigger crowds in new zealand, with fireworks at the sky tower. happy new year. our other main story here on bbc news — the united kingdom has completed its transition from the european union's single market and customs union, bringing an end to a partnership that lasted almost 50 years. bell chimes. as big ben chimed 11pm at westminster, midnight in brussels, the transition period ended. for more on what it means for the uk, here's our political correspondent alex forsyth. it's almost five years since this moment — the date set for a referendum

that would change the country's course. one of the biggest decisions this country will face in our lifetimes. fast forward through what came next. there were campaigns, promises, heated protests. democracy! now! prolonged negotiations, high—profile resignations. the country i love. behave yourself! parliament paralysed as westminster wrangled. then another public verdict, and after this testing year, a last—minute trade deal, a political win for the prime minister. the central purpose of this bill is to accomplish something that the british people always knew in their hearts could be done. for businesses, it means change, as of tonight. this butterfly farm in stratford—upon—avon exports species across the eu. they've been preparing for new checks and paperwork, but even with a trade deal, they say, things are up in the air. this brexit malarkey should've been sorted out in the summer, then we could've asked the nitty—gritty questions to people that might know some answers.

my frustration is that nobody‘s known anything. the issue that's so divided here will no longer dominate, but it won't disappear entirely. there'll still be things to settle as the practicalities of brexit kick in. what was promised in 2006 by the leave campaign does not exist. for those who've campaigned on both sides, sometimes for decades, this is a moment to mark. ijust wish i was 21 again, frankly, because my goodness, what prospects lie ahead of us for young people now, to be out there buccaneering, trading, dominating the world again. i'll be feeling a sense of regret, as will many people in the country, and others will feel elated by what has happened and that's a reflection of the division, but we now have to move on and come back together as a country. the ports and borders may be the first to feel the impact in coming days and weeks, but whether time for rejoicing, regret or resignation, this is now the start of much

wider change in our long relationship with those across the channel. alex forsyth, bbc news. a little after the new era began, our europe editor, katya adler, gave us the latest from brussels. well, i would say as europe editor, from the eu point of view, there is a lot of relief that the brexit process is over. you know, those endless tense negotiations, that ever present threat of no—deal first of all, the no—deal brexit before the divorce deal, which was then finally signed last year, and then no—deal once again really right up until the last point now with the new trade and co—operation deal. but where there's relief at the end of the process, there's still a lot of regret about brexit itself. the eu believes that brexit leaves it, the european union, and the united kingdom a lot weaker, but it also sees these relations as ongoing

butjust in a different way. there are so many loose ends between the two sides, whether about the practicalities of the running of gibraltar, for example, or whether the uk financial services who are anxiously waiting brussels' unilateral decision about how much access they will get to the single market, whether it's about the co—operation between the two sides in the fight against climate change or the fact that this trade deal actually has a renewal clause every five years. that noise there is fireworks going on here because it has just gone past midnight here. but for those reasons and so many more, simon, the eu thinks this is not goodbye, it's au revoir, see you soon, and ongoing conversations for the foreseeable future and probably a lot longer than that. and, katya, what are the priorities going to be in the coming weeks and months in terms of taking us through these early stages? well, the eu says it feels very well—prepared, and definitely

whereas on the uk side, the government said it's just not ready for all these customs procedures that will begin now because we've left the customs union and we've left a single market. so for at least six months, the government is saying it's going to waive the checks, but not so on the eu side. if you look over at calais, for example, where some of our bbc colleagues are waiting to show you exactly what that's going to look like, france, the netherlands, as well, belgium, they've invested a lot of money in the last month preparing customs procedures and checks. and so those coming from the uk who have filled out all of their paperwork and who are seen to be in order, they can be waved through, and others, there'll be random spot checks or people who don't have their papers in order, there will be separate channels for them to be checked without holding up the rest of traffic. 0ur economics editor

faisal islam gave us his immediate reaction to the new era. i think it is worth trying to get a sense of the historic moment that we're at. we've been nearly 50 years inside the customs union, the common market as it was then, nearly 30 years back inside the single market. that ended ten minutes ago, and in technical sovereignty and legal terms, the direct effect of european union law, within great britain i should say rather than the uk, that has ended, too. that's what david frost was tweeting about with britain being free to do and make its own laws and do what it wants. now all of that body of eu law has been kind of copied and pasted into uk law. it's retained european law. but now we get the right to diverge from it. and that, for the government, is the great benefit of brexit, the freedom to do that, the freedom to strike trade deals. but the flip side of that is what you talk about, which was that single market and customs union membership,

underpinned seamless, frictionless free—trading with our biggest partner, the european union, and that was for everything from fish to a car to all the parts going into that car and everything in between. now with that coming to end, there will be... although there'll be no taxes or tariffs on imports and exports, there will be new barriers, and the government just four hours ago put out its new border operation model with a bunch of case studies about how it would apply to fish exports going from great britain to france, 26 key steps they say. car parts coming in, and there is a lot of new procedures. they hope to streamline them, they hope to be able to waive them in the first few months, but they will be required from customs, to exports, checks, export safety declarations, to rules of origin, the makeup of the parts. all these things which were erased under the single market and the customs union, they now become part

of life for our trade with the european union. so, you step back from this, these things have massive historic, political, diplomatic implications, the way in which we frame our trade. the great hope for the government is if you get the economy and the businesses match fit with these procedures in order to trade with europe, then they will also be similarly ready to trade with the rest of the world. i don't think that argument has gone down to well with many exporters who face the reality of having to enact all of that. but nonetheless, the government now faces a big strategic decision, it faces freedoms, but also strategising about how to use those new freedoms. the uk has recorded nearly 56,000 daily cases of coronavirus in the past 2a hours, the highest on record, and several nhs hospitals in london and the south east say they are under extreme pressure due to increasing numbers of people falling seriously ill. 0ne senior intensive care doctor has gone so far as to accuse anyone who ignores the rules on social

distancing as having "blood on their hands". in a sign of the strain on intensive care units in parts of england, seriously ill patients from the south east have been moved to hospitals in the south west. the latest covid—19 figures suggest the pressure is only set to grow. and a warning that this report from our health editor hugh pym contains some flashing images. a major london hospital today. this critical care unit for covid patients was set up last weekend in a ward formerly used for patients recovering after major operations. 12 to 14 to 18, it will be 20 by the end of today, so that's two a day. and then we're full. university college hospital is now caring for more than 200 covid patients. numbers are increasing by 5% every day. today, there was a plea to the public to follow social distancing rules over new year and the weeks ahead.

what we've really, really, i guess we're on our knees begging, is for people to do their part to take the pressure off. once again, we're being asked tojust dig a bit deeper, work a bit harder, which we're all desperately trying to do, but we are... ..shattered. finding enough beds, ventilators and other equipment is one thing, but ensuring there are enough staff to cope with the surge in covid patient numbers is a really big challenge. there are relatively high numbers absent because of sickness and the need to self—isolate. and hospital management say there are no easy or instant answers. we're at over full capacity, we're doing much more than what we usually do, so it's excessively busy. so you need staff that is actually educated and trained to care for very sick people. and we do not have endless amounts of that type of staff available. some hospitals in the south east of england are now so stretched that patients

arriving at a&e are being treated in ambulances, and it's emerged today that in some cases covid patients are having to be sent across england for treatment. because, in the south west, we have been less stretched, what we have done is activated systems and processes that we had set up some time ago to find intensive care beds further afield than would normally be the case, so patients have come both to plymouth and to bristol from kent. back at uch, they're converting another ward into an intensive care unit, but they know the 20 beds here will fill quickly, with few in any doubt that january will be even tougher. hugh pym, bbc news. the education secretary for england, gavin williamson, has said he wants secondary school closures to be as "short as possible" after delaying their reopening amid the surge in covid cases, stating he's "absolutely confident" there'll be no further delay. mr williamson also said there was "absolutely no reason" for schools not to be ready to mass test pupils

for covid—19, after strong criticism of the plans from teaching unions. here's our education correspondent dan johnson. charlie and louis are five years old and facing more time at home. how long before it's the walls they're climbing? they'd only just got used to the idea of the holidays ending. do you want to go back to school? yeah. what would it be like if you couldn't? it would be kind of boring! yeah, it would be strange and boring. it's strange and potentially tricky for parents in this part of hertfordshire. my other son is two and a half, so it's really difficult when you've just got one ipad and it is all on there and then the little one wants to see what's going on. problems keeping up with the e—mail, especially with having multiple number of kids. you know, you have to keep track of who's going to school and who isn't. these latest changes in england mean only secondary school

pupils taking exams will go back on the 11th of january. all other secondary pupils will be learning remotely until at least the 18th. most primary schools will open as normal on monday, except those in virus hotspots like london and the south east, which will stay closed to all but key worker and vulnerable children. in northern ireland, the return will be delayed by a week or more. 0nline learning is planned for pupils in wales until january 11 and in scotland, classrooms won't fill up until the middle of the month. the delay‘s partly to allow secondaries in england to get ready to test pupils for the virus. not only are we giving them that extra time in order to be able to fully roll this out across all secondary schools, we're giving them £78 million worth of additional funding. on monday of next week, all secondary schools are going to be getting a drop of tests, all the equipment they need. the government's priority throughout has been to keep as many schools open for as long as possible, but there are concerns about the reality of further

home learning, especially if these closures are extended. there is confusion about some of the details and practicalities. there is frustration about the timing of these decisions. it's unfortunately something we've become accustomed to, in terms of late announcements, delayed announcements and sometimes u—turns as well. 0urjob is really to make sure the pupils get as clear an education as possible. in south—east london, the brown family have more childcare tojuggle alongside other priorities. my husband who has cancer, i'm concerned about him, but he will now be at home, home—schooling the children, and i start a newjob next week in a secondary school. so i am concerned that kids are spreading it in schools. but at the same time, i think their education is so important. and it's that balance that's tough to get right,

for families and politicians. the virus is striking back with a force strong enough to bring more disruption, but there is determination to limit its impact. danjohnson, bbc news, watford. well, our eyes have been trained on the famous elizabeth tower at westminster over the past few hours. apart from the new year bongs, this was the scene as big ben chimed 11pm at westminster, midnight in brussels... bell chimes. ..and the brexit transition period ended, marking the point at which the united kingdom completed its departure from the european union's single market and customs union, bringing an end to a partnership that lasted almost 50 years. the uk's chief brexit negotiator lord frost has tweeted to say, "britain has become a fully independent country again — deciding our own affairs for ourselves."

and a quick look at a tweet from nigel farage with a photograph or he looks like a reindeer. 25 years ago, they all laughed at me. they are not laughing now. you're watching bbc news. the weather now with stav da naos. hello there, a very happy new year to you. what a cold start it is, as well, for the 1st of january 2021. we've got widespread frost this morning, some highs to watch out for. a bit of sunshine as well, but we'll also have a weather front bringing thicker cloud with wintry showers. now this is the weather front bringing cloudy skies to england and wales, northerly wind continuing to feed wintry showers particularly into northern scotland. but there'll be sunshine around. watch out for some icy stretches first thing this morning across the south west of england. some patches of freezing fog in the midlands as well and the south east — this may tend to lift but stay in low cloud. there will be some spots of low rain at time, some sleet and snow over

the high ground. probably the best of the dry and bright weather will be across scotland and northern ireland, that is away from northern coasts which are likely to see further snow showers. another cold day to come — maybe not as cold as it has been, but still, 4—7 celsius is below the seasonal average. through tonight, it looks like the cloud and showers push southwards. further showers will affect coastal areas, but many inland areas will see clear skies and lighter winds. a very cold night with widespread frost in places, also some icy stretches to watch out for. so, into the first part of the weekend, we hold on to high pressure to the west of us, lower pressure to the east, so we maintain this northerly airflow. that will continue to feed showers into coastal areas. wintry showers over any higher ground, but inland areas should tend to stay dry with good spells of sunshine. but it'll be another cold day on saturday, temperatures range from around freezing to 5—6 celsius closer to the coasts. 0nto part two of the weekend, we start to see a slight

shift in wind direction — higher pressure to the north, low pressure to the near continent. tthat‘ll start to feed in a north—easterly wind across the country, driving showers into north sea coasts, a few of them pushing inland as well. and they will be wintry, especially across the high ground. so probably the best of any dry and bright weather will be across southern, northern and western areas — again, a cold day to come when you factor in the strong north—easterly breeze, it could feel quite raw. and that breeze just picks up further as we head into next week, a stronger easterly which will feed in thicker cloud, outbreaks of rain at times particularly across southern and eastern parts of england. you'll notice it stays quite cold, particularly when you factor in the strong easterly wind.

this is bbc news. the headlines —

the uk has now officially left the european union, ending nearly 50 years of eu membership. the trade deal agreed by the two sides on christmas eve will avoid the need for import taxes or tariffs. but there will be new customs rules and checks for countries to adopt — and some disruption is expected whilst these bed in. french president emmanuel macron has used his new year's televised address to mention brexit, saying he hoped france and the uk would maintain their close ties. but he said the brexit referendum was won with lies and false promises, the world health organization has for the first time approved the emergency use of a coronavirus vaccine. it said the pfizer—biontech jab had satisfied its safety and efficacy requirements. several countries have already begun mass immunisation campaigns.