this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a u—turn by the british government as it confirms all primary schools in london are to remain closed for the start of term. research confirms the the new coronavirus variant discovered in the uk has a much quicker rate of transmission. if the new variant is now present, with this increase in the r number, all of a sudden instead of this decrease of 30%, we get a massive increase, the number of cases over the same period could triple. so this is more or less the most serious change in the virus that we've seen. as the us struggles to roll out the covid vaccine, we look at which countries have responded best to the challenge. a new era begins, as the brexit transition period ends and the uk completes its formal

separation from the european union. # last christmas, i gave you my heart. and 36 years after its first release, whami's ‘last christmas‘ finally tops the uk music charts all primary schools in london are to remain closed for the start of the new term, after the uk government bowed to pressure from councils. schools in ten areas were due to open on monday after the christmas break, despite having higher rates of infection than other areas where learning would be remote. the education secretary, gavin williamson, said the move was a "last resort". the health secretary matt hancock has said: our education correspondent dan

johnson is here with more details. what's been announced 7 what's been announced? this announcement dates back to last year. only two days when the government said that from monday, primary schools and most of london and some of the surrounding areas, essex and kent, i needed to close for two weeks. children would not be able to go in on monday. but not all the london boroughs. ten were left out and it wasn't even consistent in terms of which one. a bit of a patchwork of the painted. there was no sense between which areas had high virus rates, so quickly, people we re high virus rates, so quickly, people were questioning how these decisions have been reached. why is there not consistency? the government has been challenged by a council leaders, and this evening, it announced another u—turn. from monday, all primary schools across monday will be dashed across london will be closed for at least two weeks. because the rates are high in these areas. all primary schools in london... it's more

pa rents schools in london... it's more parents who have to find childcare from monday morning for a fortnight and the opposition party, some of the teaching unions are saying this another example of government decision—making. another example of government decision-making. it's confusing given a couple weeks ago, they were threatening legal action against one of the councils if they refused to close ? of the councils if they refused to close? that's right. before christmas, some of these burros were saying let us close schools, we think there is a problem in our area. the government were then saying, i know you cannot and if you try, we'll take you to court. they fought these burros over the same thing. it was some of the same burros that were being told although case numbers were high, they should let children back in schools. those have pushed back and it seems like they've won. the government says it's reduced —— reviewed the data. if not just a it's reduced —— reviewed the data. if notjust a transmission rate in that area because we're notjust talking about school, we're talking about the community. it means looking at the dynamics, the

demographics in that area. it also means looking at the pressure on the nhs. the government says it needed a bit of time for us to go back over that to reach the right decision, and infairness, that to reach the right decision, and in fairness, they said their priority throughout has been if at all possible to try to keep the schools open. they say that's what's happened. they were just trying not to close the school that they didn't have to because they knew remote learning is difficult and causes problems for parents. others would say the inconsistency causes us problems anyway. the government apparently, most people would agree would get —— has got to the right place. but the confusion in getting here is not earning gavin williamson any stars. doctor mary bousted is joint general secretary of the national education union. the government will say it's a pragmatic decision and we been put in this because of covid? they will

say that, but it is nonetheless completely unacceptable. we keep having these u—turns, these last—minute decisions, where parents don't know where they are or where teachers and schools don't know where they are. the other thing i would have to say is we don't see this happening in wales or northern ireland and scotland. we don't see these u—turns, these serious reversals and policy, and that makes for much cormorant environment. the government says it priority is to keep schools open. where does the buck stops? it stops with gavin williamson himself. i would have more confidence if we could see the advice that the government has given, and frankly, the decision that was made in london to keep some burros across the road, which were going to have to remain open. it

made no sense for the beginning. it didn't make sense in terms of the case numbers, in terms of children moving across burros to go to schools, it just didn't moving across burros to go to schools, itjust didn't make any sense. i would very much like to know how these decisions are made and what advice we can get, because it seems to be incomprehensible. call for clarity? clarity and consistency and firmness, and telling people important things. on a friday evening, those had teachers and teachers in the boroughs closed have to switch from remote learning over the weekend. as i said before, you don't get this and scotland or northern ireland or wales. why is that we repeatedly get it in england? there's no need for it. do you think, there are some people saying it's time to rethink of recalling parliament. how serious is

this? i think the issue of a new variant of covid, the questions that have been raised about people under 20 catching it more easily, the fact that the viral transmission is about 0.7 more transmissions than the original covid, and the implications that has for hospital admissions for people catching the virus. i think all those are really serious questions. i do think they do deserve proper democratic debate. thank you very much forjoining us this evening. there are growing concerns about a new variant of the coronavirus after more analysis confirmed it has a much quicker rate of transmission than the original strain. the variant has now been identified in at least 18 countries around the world after it was originally found here in the uk. our health correspondent dominic hughes reports.

it might be a new year, but there's no letup in the pressure on hospitals in london and the south—east. a surge in seriously ill covid patients mean staff are being pushed to the limit. intensive care beds are a real pinch point. some patients are being moved from kent to bristol and plymouth where there is spare capacity. that in itself is not unheard of, but doctors say it shows the pressures they are working under. if the number of cases don't begin to reduce fairly soon, and indeed reduce sharply, we would be in a situation where the health care infrastructure, notjust in london but across the entire country, is overwhelmed. and 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 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 the way you want to, and you feel helpless when you know there is a sick patient in an ambulance that you just can't get into a department because there isn't space. in order to provide some relief, 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 have seen in the media today, basically saying they are under real pressure, they are at more than double the normal rate of icu admissions, then we see they are turning whole floors into additional icu space, that's when we know we are in a very, very challenging place. this surge in patient numbers is being driven by the new variant of the coronavirus. it is more contagious and is affecting more younger people. it's having an impact notjust on hospitals in london and the south—east, but right across the country. new research highlights the impact

the new variant of the virus is having on the r number — the rate at which it spreads. under the lockdown, maybe over the course of two to three weeks the cases would have decreased by something like 30%. but if the new variant is now present, with this increase in the r number, all of a sudden instead of this decrease of 30%, we get a massive increase, the number of cases over the same period could triple. so this is more or less the most serious change in the virus we have seen since the epidemic began. the best defence against the virus remains maintaining social distance, good hand hygiene and wearing face coverings, but the big concern is as this new variant spreads the extreme pressures now evident, in london and the south—east will soon be seen across the country. dominic hughes, bbc news. the united states has passed a grim milestone in the coronavirus pandemic, recording more than 20 million cases. that's more than any other country in the world. according to the latest figures from johns hopkins university, there are now 20,007,119 cases

of coronavirus in the us. 346,408 people have lost their lives during the pandemic. on wednesday alone, more than 3,900 people died of covid—i9 in the us, a new daily record. earlier, i spoke to drjames mcdeavitt, senior vice president and dean of clinical affairs at baylor college of medicine in houston, texas. he said the situation was grim. this year's feeling a whole lot like last year, unfortunately, but 20 million is a big number. almost 4000 dead two days ago, that is as many people as died from heart disease and cancer in a single day, so we're still very much in the thick of this pandemic. is anything going in the right direction? we of course are all focusing on the vaccine, but that light at the end of the tunnel is still some way off. well, there's some positives and negatives. let's start with the positives. the vaccine clearly is a positive, but to be honest, the vaccine is going to do very little to help with this current surge.

it may help protect our health care providers to a degree in the hospitals, but it's not going to prevent our hospitals from filling up, it's not going to prevent our icus from filling up. we'll get to that point when we have herd immunity, that will be summertime at the earliest. so, good we have a vaccine, but it's not going to get us out of the surge. i think we're starting to see perhaps a little bit of moderation in the hospitalisation rate, so maybe this curve is starting to bend a little bit. too early to say, but let us hope because i think this'll probably go on for another month to six weeks before we really see that curve start to bend. on the negative, the strain you just referenced started in great britain. now we found it in california and florida in the us. if it's become more contagious, that could be fuel that keeps this surge going even longer. your peak in houston i think was injuly. are you worried that you're going to surpass that in the next few weeks? yeah, interestingly, we took a little bit of comfort two or three weeks ago because we looked at ourjuly numbers and during that

peak, we were only about half of the hospitalisations this time around that we were last time for whatever reason. younger patients, perhaps. but it was half a couple weeks ago, now what we're up to about 75% of that peak. i think we're going to surpass ourjuly levels. at that point, we have auxiliary icus opened, death is stretched, the icu system starts to feel the strain. so, hopefully we're going to see this level off pretty soon, but i don't think anybody can predict when this is going to level off. i guess we have to emphasise masks, distance, avoiding our family gatherings, assume everyone has coronavirus because chances are in this high prevalence environment, they do. we really have to buckle down and keep up our good viral practices. i was reading a letter you wrote the other day where you speak of it not taking, but severely testing the emotional and physical resilience of your front—line colleagues. how tough is this? well, extremely tough.

i just cannot say enough nice things about our front line providers. we called them heroes, and again, i don't think that it's easy for those words to roll off the tongue. these are people that are physically suffering, they're emotionally suffering, they‘ re neglecting their families to take care of people at our hospitals. so, we owe them a debt that it's going to be very difficult to pay. stay with us on bbc news. still to come... the latest from the channel crossing on the first day of a new era for the uk after completing a separation from the european union. the most ambitious financial and political change ever attempted has got under way with the introduction of the euro. tomorrow in holland, we will use money we picked up in belgium today. it's just got to be the way to go. george harrison, the

former beatle, is recovering after being stabbed. a 33—year—old man is being stabbed. a 33—year—old man is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder. being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murderlj think it was good. just good? no, fantastic. that's better! this is bbc news. the latest headlines... a u—turn by the british government as it confirms all primary schools in london are to remain closed for the start of term. research confirms the the new coronavirus variant discovered in the uk has a much quicker rate of transmission.

a new era begins, as the brexit transition period ends and the uk completes its formal separation from the european union. covid—i9 vaccines are being rolled out around the world. almost ten million people have already received their first shot, but it's not being distributed evenly across the globe. some vaccine programmes are racing ahead. at the top of the list is israel, which expects to have vaccinated over 10% of its citizens by the end of this week. china has been able to vaccinate around four and a half million people. meanwhile, many vaccination programmes in africa are will not even start until the middle of the year. and the covax scheme, a who vaccine initiative, aims to protect 20% of the populations from 92 low and middle and income countries by the end of 2021. in the us, health authorities have missed their goal to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of 2020. the vaccine roll—out plan has been criticised for being ‘slow and disorganised'. i've been speaking with drew armstrong, senior editor

for healthcare at bloomberg news, who is compiling a vaccine tracker for the whole of the united states, and he explained what has gone wrong. after the warp speed development of these vaccines, which i think the united states deserve quite a bit of credit for helping push forward, we are now seeing certainly not a warp speed delivery of the vaccines into people's arms. the goal was stated around 20 million by the end of last year at this point — and that was already revised downward — and it appears that the country will have only achieved a tiny, tiny fraction of that, 3 million out of those 20. and it's only really giving about 200,000 or 300,000 inoculations a day at present. these vaccines have a shelf life, so are we going to get to the point where they're useless by the time they get to people's arms? well, they have a shelf life once they've been defrosted and brought closer to usable temperature. that shelf life is not necessarily endangered while they're in deep freeze,

at least not on the timeline we're talking about. but it certainly does raise a lot of questions about what is happening with all these vaccines that have been distributed and are they being used efficiently. even though that number of distributed vaccines is certainly not as high as the united states would like, they're even of no use at all when they're sitting on a freezer shelf somewhere. so, i think it's raised significant questions in this country about what is happening with this, why has this been so slow and will it pick up in the coming weeks. in the us, the republican—controlled senate has overturned donald trump's veto of a $740 billion defence bill, handing the republican president the first veto defeat of his presidency weeks before he leaves office. two thirds of the senators voting present having voted in the affirmative, the bill and read consideration is passed. the objection of the president to the

contrary notwithstanding. mr trump had criticised a clause that would lead to the removal of the names of confederate generals from us military bases. the move is seen as a humiliating rebuke of the president. 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 business. on the first day of the separation, there's been no reported disruption to freight across the channel between england and france. our correspondent mark easton reports from the dover port. the dawn of the new year, and at the uk border in dover, the start of a new chapter for cross—channel relations. bonjour, monsieur! merci, my love brexit is now a reality. these lorries needing to navigate a tangle of red tape, customs checks and regulatory inspections, plus, of course, covid tests, before being permitted to cross the border. 25 miles outside the port, hgvs reach a police checkpoint on the m20. they need to have a kent access

permit, nicknamed a kermit, to demonstrate their paperwork is in order. european truck drivers heading to the continent seemed sanguine about all the extra hassle. i have the permission to go, yes. was that difficult or was it an extra? no, no. has it been difficult for you today? no. it's ok. ilike england! good for you! traffic is usually light on new year's day but with details of the trading deal with the eu published less than a week ago, many import—export companies are delaying journeys, with fears of widespread disruption to freight in the next weeks and months. many shipments that we had booked for next week have been cancelled and they‘ re choosing to get their supplies from europe rather than coming from the united kingdom. so i do see that there is going to be some problems, obviously, with suppliers. 1651 days since the uk voted to leave the european union,

and finally brexit has become a reality. now we shall see what that choice means for our relationship with our nearest neighbours, and for britain's standing around the globe. today is the first day of our complete independence from the european union. technically, we were independent on the 31st of january last year, but of course we have just gone through the transitional period and now that is completed, so we can say absolutely clearly that britain is a sovereign, independent state. taking control of our borders has meant new infrastructure, new it systems to speed up customs processing, but they remain largely untested. new inland borderfacilities — but the largest is still not ready to open. fingers are being firmly crossed. what the government is trying to do is essentially buy itself more time in a few more areas. they will be waiving import controls on goods coming into the uk to allow them to get the necessary systems and infrastructure in place to be

able to manage that. the government accepts there will be bumpy moments as people adapt to the new post—brexit environment but insists that today marks the moment when the united kingdom takes back control of its destiny. mark easton, bbc news, dover. our political correspondent iain watson is here. the uk is out, but there is a bumpy road ahead. yes, it's not entirely smooth. i think most people, including borisjohnson smooth. i think most people, including boris johnson and smooth. i think most people, including borisjohnson and keir starmer would like to think brexit is done and we can all move on. in terms of the news agenda, because of the covid crisis, it will move consistently further down. but it won't disappear entirely. this was important because as we heard from david jones, for long—standing brexiteers like him, this is like independence days. the uk regains its sovereignty from the eu, but there are many loose ends to be tied

up. that new trade deal that comes into effect, today, that trading corporation agreements has relatively little about financial services. they deploy 1 relatively little about financial services. they deploy1 million people in the uk and there still has to be further discussions about what the eu will except in terms of market access. that's huge. elsewhere, if britain decided to exercise its new—found freedom, we could see more arguments and at a political level. if you live in scotland, this will be the last you hear of brexit. support for independence, core themes in their campaigns. some arguments will appear to campaigns. some arguments will appearto run on campaigns. some arguments will appear to run on for the next few months, but there are also practical difficulties over time. as far as the next few years, the state of the union is going to be massive. the next few years, the state of the union is going to be massivem the next few years, the state of the union is going to be massive. it is going to be absolutely huge because they are campaigning very strongly.

effectively for retiring to the european union, but via independence. if they get more than 50% vote, that put shoes pressure on borisjohnson to try to rethink a referendum. —— it puts huge pressure. should keir starmer require and majority down the consequences. . . require and majority down the consequences... thank you very much. it's about time. wham!'s last christmas has topped the uk singles chart for the first time, 36 years after it was first released. the festive classic was streamed 9.2 million times over the last week, knocking ladbaby‘s don't stop me eating off the top spot. let's have a listen. # last christmas you gave me my

heart but the very next day you gave it away. first released in december 1984, george michael and andrew ridgeley‘s song was famously held off the top spot by band aid's do they know it's christmas? it has subsequently returned to the top 10 a further six times. millions around the world have been seeing out 2020 and marking the start of 2021 with lockdowns or other and restrictions in place. many would be new year partygoers, that they were told to have a quiet night in. thousands of spectators watch fireworks in taiwan to mark the beginning of 2021. in new york city, just a handful of people were allowed into times square to watch confetti rained down on the traditional crystal ball drop. scotla nd traditional crystal ball drop. scotland celebrated behind closed doors and they stage a drone show with a series of videos, titled

farewell. symbols of animals and have more stunning. you're watching bbc news. hello, good evening. there is no real sign of things warming up anytime soon. this cold weather certainly with us for the next few days but probably for the next week or more. there will be some wintry showers at times. on the earlier satellite picture, you can see speckled shower clouds being brought down on the northerly wind. some slightly more widespread cloudy weather that's been affecting parts of england and wales today, bringing some spots of rain, some bits and pieces of sleet and snow as well. that will tend to clear away southwards, although it will stay quite misty and murky, i think across parts of the south—east. and some showers still in that northerly wind, northern ireland, northern and eastern scotland. down the east coast of england, some of those showers will be wintry. where you see clear skies for much of the night, it's going to be very cold indeed, —7, maybe —8 in one or two sheltered spots.

so into tomorrow, a bit cloudy and murky to start off across east anglia and the south—east. then, it is a sunshine and showers day. the showers again being blown in on that northerly wind. so, through northern ireland, west wales, devon and cornwall, parts of northeast scotland, the eastern side of england, but even if you keep sunshine through the day, it will feel chilly. those are the top temperatures through the afternoon, 2—5 celsius. these showers in eastern england are likely to drift further inland through parts of the midlands and into wales. could even get a brief covering of snow in places through saturday night. as we get into sunday, a subtle change. because this area of high pressure to the west shifts up to the north. as the high changes shape, the wind direction changes as well. instead of the northerly winds we are going to have a north—easterly wind. a subtle shift but it will focus the showers into eastern areas and provide a bit of shelter out west. so northern ireland, wales, the south—west should see drier weather with some sunshine on sunday. but that the north—easterly

wind will be quite wet. it is to feel quite raw i think with temperatures on the thermometer 4—6 celsius. it could feel colder than that. into the start of next week, still high pressure to the north. quite a few white lines you'll see here on the chart. quite a few isobars that shows that we will keep that brisk north—easterly wind. the blue colours on the chart, the air is still coming from a fairly cold place. so, low temperatures to take us right through the coming week. and there is the chance of some rain, sleet and snow at times.

this is bbc world news, the headlines. a u—turn by the british government — as it confirms all primary schools in london are to remain closed for the start of term. the city's mayor said the government had ‘finally seen sense' research confirms the new coronavirus variant discovered in the uk has a much quicker rate of transmission — the variant has now been identified in at least 18 countries around the world. a new era begins, as the brexit transition period ends and the uk completes its formal separation from the european union. # last christmas, i gave you my heart, # but the very next day, you gave it away and 36 years after its first release, wham!'s ‘last christmas' finally tops the uk music charts.