this is bbc news, these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world. a new era begins, as the brexit transition period ends and the uk completes its formal separation from the european union. doctors warn that hospital staff in the uk are at battlestations as the number of patients with coronavirus continues to rise. they are turning whole floors into additional icu space. that's when we know we are in a very challenging place. asjoe biden prepares to take office in less than three weeks‘ time, we look ahead to a dramatic shift in us politics. and bringing in the new year, from london to new york, fireworks mark the start of 2021 but celebrations are dampened by the pandemic.

hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world. a new era has begun for the united kingdom, after completing its formal separation from the european union. there will be changes to many aspects of life, from travel to security, migration and, perhaps of most concern to business, bureaucracy. as london's big ben chimed 11 o'clock last night, midnight in most of europe, great britain left the single market and customs union. as the sun dawned over the new arrangements, under which there will be no taxes on goods, but there will be more checks and paperwork, the first ferry left dover and arrived in calais. the government has warned there will be some disruption

in the coming weeks as new rules bed in for travel, trade, immigration and security co—operation. for today though, few lorries attempted the crossing, leaving freight moving smoothly across the channel. prime minister borisjohnson said the uk had "freedom in our hands" and the ability to do things "differently and better". france's president macron however said britain would remain a friend and ally, but he described brexit as the child of "many lies and false promises". our political correspondent nick eardley has more. all quiet as a new era begins. lorries travelling from dover to france face new paperwork from today, but it might be a few days before we know what impact that will have. traffic is traditionally quiet on the 1st of january. 11 o'clock last night, the moment when the brexit transition ended. the uk officially left the eu 11 months ago, but it's now that the rules will change and the impact

of brexit will become clear. i'm optimistic, i'm looking forward to hopefully being able to back british farming. not excited, not from a personal perspective. from a business perspective, we have to deal with it. excited is maybe not the right word, but definitely ready and looking forward to how it's all going to unfold. here it is, folks, this is it. for the prime minister, one of the most influential politicians in making this happen, it's a moment of opportunity. a chance, he says, to make the most of new—found freedom. he writes in today's daily telegraph... we need the brexit—given chance to turbo—charge those sectors in which we excel, to do things differently and to do them better. as well as practical changes, there are political ones today, too. for many, a moment at which the uk takes back control. today is the first day of our complete independence from the european union and we can say, absolutely clearly, that britain is a sovereign,

independent state. for others, a moment to mourn. nicola sturgeon saying if scotland became independent, it would seek to rejoin. but this feels like a long time ago now, when brexit paralysed parliament and led to daily protests outside. it's now about the reality and what brexit means for people and businesses. nick eardley, bbc news. vivienne nunis is in doverfor us. what are they experiencing and expecting in dover? well, it's been a pretty quiet day here so far. i think those hauliers who could avoid shifting their goods across the channel today have done so. just in case there is significant disruption. they wanted to wait and see. for the lorry drivers who are here, you might hear them rolling past behind me, they really are at the forefront of this brave new world. a very new trading

relationship between the uk and the eu. what's new from today is those lorry drivers who arrive will have a bar code that they bring with them. security checks at the port of dover will mean that bar code is scanned, they will then carry on to the ferry and while they are on the ferry, crossing the channel, the french authorities will then match up that bar code with documents online and check they have paperwork in order all their customs declarations and the like. once they arrive in calais, they will be able to roll off and continue on into the european union. if they don't have the necessary documentation, they could be asked to turn back and the eu has warned lorry drivers if they don't have documentation in order not to come to kent as it could cause disruption and in the governments worst case scenario, they say that if only 30% of uk businesses have their paperwork in order, that could cause huge delays of lorries stepping back, but they say that's a worst—case scenario, they don't expect to see that, but

we won't really know until perhaps monday when trade picks up and this new system will really be put to the test. is lorries want to go west, if they want to go to the island of ireland, they will have to have more paperwork, especially for food products? absolutely. we are seeing a very new system here in place as well. you will remember during the brexit negotiations, one of the major sticking points was what happens on the island of ireland? many people wanted to avoid a hard border between the republic of ireland and northern ireland. the way they have resolved that is to use that... great britain and northern ireland, so that a move to the irish sea. so that means that the irish sea. so that means that the companies exporting food products, particularly agricultural products, particularly agricultural products, eggs and milk and the like, they will have to meet eu standards. however, that the regime won't come in straightaway. there is a three month grace period so businesses can get used to this new

system. thanks, we are seeing some evidence that cross—channel traffic behind you. bernd lange is a german member of the european parliament and chairman of the trade committee. he gave me his reaction to the agreement. by the way, this is not the british government. britain is economically much more far than switzerland norway. this is a pity. it has just demonstrated now we need customs bureaucracy, we need demonstrated rules of origin and from our elements which are more familiar with trade agreements with canada and japan... we had the system working in the internal market. so it's really a pity but nevertheless, of course britain is a partner and we will manage the eu as a set. britain is a partner and you are going to have to have a lot more discussions, a lot more negotiations

from now onwards. they don't stop. indeed. there are a lot of questions still open. for example, the question of data flow and the question of protection of personal data in an equivalent agreement are things regarding the interests of the united kingdom and financial services. of course,... financial services lost their passports so there is no access to the internal market any more and of course, we have to discuss some sectors where perhaps equivalency measures are possible and of course fish will come back. you are a member, a leading member of the socialist and democratic group in the european parliament. what do you think this brexit deal means for workers' rights in the uk? i hope that the achievement due

to the eu legislation, for example, the question of workers councils, the question of workers representation, the question of working time and so on will continue. if there are really different answers to the uk , that if there are really differences to the european system, then of course we will come back and discuss these as an impact on trade and you know the long—standing discussion about the level playing field and it is possible to set some measures to give the united kingdom know competition advantages due to the lowering of rights. emergency health care staff here in the uk are at "battle stations" amid the rising number of coronavirus patients being treated in hospital, especially in london and the south east of england. adrian boyle, from the royal college of emergency medicine, told the bbc that staff were "tired,

frustrated and fed—up". the warnings of pressure in the nhs come as a study confirmed the new variant of coronavirus has a much quicker rate of transmission, than the original strain. our health correspondent dominic hughes reports. it might be a new year, but there is no letup in the pressure on hospitals in london and the south—east. a surge in seriously ill covid patients means staff are being pushed to the limit. what we're having to now do is stretch those ratios, so one intensive care nurse is finding themselves looking after two, three. in some cases at the peak, they were looking after four or five patients at a time and that puts a phenomenal amount of stress on the team. it's not just rising patient numbers. staff themselves are falling ill, meaning resources are getting stretched. everybody's reporting a lot of pressure, everybody is saying that it's really difficult to off—load ambulances,

because our departments are full, because, in turn, our hospitals are full. it's very frustrating because you can't look after patients in the way that you want to and you feel helpless when you know there is a sick patient in an ambulance which you just can't get into a department, because there isn't space. intensive care beds are a real pinch point. already, some patients have been moved from kent to bristol and plymouth, where there is spare capacity. the nightingale hospital in london is being made ready for non—covid patients. but still, hospitals report the situation remains very difficult. when we are seeing major london trusts, as we're seeing in the media today, basically saying that they are under real pressure, they are at more than double the normal rate of icu admissions than they would see, they are turning whole floors into additional icu space, that is when we know we are in a very, very challenging place. the light at the end of the tunnel is the vaccine. the doctors' union the bma has

criticised the decision to give the two jabs 12 weeks apart instead of 21 days, but the uk's chief medical officers argue more people will get protection from falling seriously ill. this surge in patient numbers is being driven by the new variant of the coronavirus. it's more contagious and it's affecting more younger people. and it's having an impact not just in hospitals in london and the south—east, but right across the country. in the short term, our best protection from the virus remains social distancing, wearing a face covering and good hand hygiene, but, in the long term, it is the vaccine that is going to get us out of this crisis. dominic hughes, bbc news. let's find out more about that new study released by imperial college london, which has found that the average number of people that someone with the covid—i9 variant can infect is far higher than the original strain, and is affecting more people under 20.

professor emma thomson is working on the sequencing of this covid mutation. she told us what we still don't know about the virus. there are some key questions about the variant. the first thing that we fully understand now is that this new variant is transmitting more rapidly across the uk. the percentage of cases now being caused by this new variant are starting to dominate all the other variants that are in circulation. it's problematic because it transmitting more. there are two other questions that we are in the process of trying to answer at the moment, one is whether not the new variant causes more severe illness and also where there are not its compromises immunity in any way, particularly immunity from vaccines. but there is no sign of any problem at the moment with the efficacy of vaccination. there is no sign at the moment of any more serious illness. talking about compromise, what you

think about the decision to get more people a single dose of the vaccine rather than complete the jabs quickly? i think this has been a decision made at a time of national urgency. what we know is that we have a certain limited amount of resources in terms of people to deliver the vaccine and also a limitation on the number of vaccines we have, although the government has ordered more than 300 million doses of the vaccine, they are arriving in batches from outside the country. we have to think about how to roll those vaccines out. we do know that if you have had one dose of the pfizer vaccine then you are likely to have more than 80% protection against symptomatic infection. so the question really is, should we be giving the first dose to as many people as we can to reduce the pressure on the national health service and i think that is the reason that this decision has been made by the licensing authorities.

the other consideration though, and this is the thing that is a concern, is that if you have partial protection in the population, there isa protection in the population, there is a greater chance of resistance to vaccines developing, although it's a very short period to worry about and i suspect that the right decision is to make sure that as many people get the first dose as possible. there are other countries, i'm thinking about the united states, where resista nce about the united states, where resistance to vaccination is perhaps higher. what you make of the patchy nature of the global uptake vaccines? well, i think that this is to do with people's perception of risk. at the moment, the risk to all of catching this virus is quite high and if you are older, it's very high. and you carry a substantial risk of developing bilateral

pneumonia. the risk from the vaccine, in terms of side effects, there are side effects, but those are likely to be very minimal, slightly sore arm for a couple of days, may be a bit of fever, possibly a headache. there are of course very rare side effects, like allergies and so on, which occurs very rarely, so the balance of risk is, let's vaccinate as many people as possible and try to get control of the infection because at the moment, lock down on its own, i'm sure it's helping, but on its own it's not controlling infection. its not controlling infection. we have heard government ministers say that as well. as a scientist, do you feel that perhaps even stricter restrictions are necessary?” that perhaps even stricter restrictions are necessary? i think that's possibly necessary, yes. i would hope that, at least we come into the new year armed with two vaccines, which are highly effective at preventing severe disease. people who have been vaccinated are very

unlikely to be hospitalised even after one vaccine dose. we have that, we need to roll it out now to add to the public health measures. fines were issued across the uk last night, to those who breached covid rules for new year's eve. in london, fixed penalty fines were given to more than 200 people, while five others could be fined £10,000 for organising large gatherings. essex police issued more than £18,000 in notices, and greater manchester police handed out more than 100 fines for breaching covid rules. a new era has begun for the united kingdom after it completed its formal separation from the european union. the uk has stopped following eu rules, as replacement arrangements for travel, trade, immigration and security co—operation came into force. there have been concerns that medicines could be one area particularly impacted by brexit and joining me now from leeds to discuss this is robbie turner, director of pharmacy at the royal pharmaceutical society.

thanks for being with us. i know some people are worried about this. let's talk about supply chains, getting medicine in from europe. what are your concerns? well, we we re what are your concerns? well, we were really concerned when the idea ofa were really concerned when the idea of a no—deal brexit was still on the table and so all of the planning so far has been done with that as a working assumption. since then, we have obviously had the agreement that was signed earlier this week and that has made the situation far better than it could possibly have been. at the moment, there is a small chance of disruption at the borders, but with the plans and the mitigations people are put in place to ensure supplies of medicines continue across borders, in the risk ofa no continue across borders, in the risk of a no deal, then we are assured that as much as possible is in place for the short term, and we shouldn't see any shortages of medicines in pharmacies for the next couple of

months. are there any extraordinary arrangements for medicines that have arrangements for medicines that have a short shelf life? yes, so medicines are classed as tier1 alongside other health care products. products with shelf life, such as the radioisotopes used in imaging for x—rays and the like, are being treated specifically, so will being treated specifically, so will be coming in, so we won't be using the straits of dover where we would see perhaps most delays. again, the planning that is going to the operations around this has been excellent and has enabled those supplies to continue. sometimes when there is a worry about supplies, prices go up. do you think that's a concern here? definitely, we will see a couple of things that could cause increases in prices. worries about supplies is obviously one of those. we will possibly see some prices in the changes of medicine because of that. but also some of the bureaucracy that may well come into force because of the

arrangements we have at the moment. we will obviously increase the burden is on manufacturers and wholesalers and that will be u nfortu nately wholesalers and that will be unfortunately passed through to us, possibly increased prices as well for the nhs. i think you raise concerns about a possible influx of counterfeit medicines. why's that? well, in the eu, we were part of the falsified medicines directive and this was an it system that was designed to ensure that medicines we re designed to ensure that medicines were legitimate, that they weren't frauds of fraudulent medicines coming into the uk supply chain. the changes around the fmd regulations mean that there is a small increased risk that the uk becomes more attractive for falsified medicines, so fraudulent medicines. we are doing everything we can alongside governments and our members to ensure that the uk remains as safe as it always has been to take medicines and we have not seen any

evidence that that is an issue at the moment, but it's something we will continue monitoring. just very quickly, thought about your members, is there a concern about the number of available skilled pharmacists in the uk, whether a lot of european workers in this sector? we do have a lot of european pharmacists working ina lot of european pharmacists working in a sector and we are delighted that the majority of those seem to have wa nted that the majority of those seem to have wanted to stay working on the nhs in the uk, providing services for patients here. we haven't seen a massive movement of people back to the european union and we hope that the european union and we hope that the nhs and private health care providers remain a really attractive place for pharmacists, wherever they come from, to continue coming here to continue practising and supporting our communities. robbie turner, it has been very good for us to get some of your time, thank you very much. in less than three weeks, donald trump will be leaving the white house,

and joe biden will take office marking a dramatic shift in us politics. in the last of our series of lookaheads to 2021, our senior north america reporter, anthony zurcher, takes us through his predictions for the year ahead. of course, the biggest topic in us politics in 2021 is that there is going to be a new president leading the country. donald trump's time in the oval office is coming to an end and onjanuary the 20th, joe biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the united states. normally in the first 100 days of a presidency, the president focuses on his agenda and his priorities at a time when his political capital is at its highest, butjoe biden pretty much has his agenda already set for him. 100 million shots in the first 100 days. his administration is going to be responsible for rolling out a coronavirus vaccine in an efficient and equitable manner. after that, joe biden

is going to have to focus on the societal and economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. millions of american households are facing financial ruin. large swaths of the us economy are all facing financial devastation. state and local government budgets are facing massive deficits because of declining tax revenue. joe biden has already said he wants to pass a new coronavirus aid package in the first days of his administration and only after that will he focus on other parts of his political agenda. does he want to expand on health care reforms passed by barack obama? does he want to tackle the growing cost of college education and student debt?